Dine on thy enemy

"I'm hungry. Where's the food?" Lupa cheerfully stood up and asked Ester for food.

Since she prepared food once, Lupa thought she had more.

*Whoosh

"That is our food!" Ester threw the knife at the great gray wolf. Then she ran outside to calm down.

She didn't want to show her emotions since she didn't understand her racing heart.

Vincent gulped, as a shiver ran down his spine.

That could have been him on the day they met. Good thing he went the peaceful route.

"Are we eating the Leader?" Lupa approached the great gray wolf and pulled the knife out.

"Yes, but do you mind eating your own kind?" Vincent felt a little distressed for letting Lupa become a cannibal.

"Its food, right? The others ate my friends, but I never wanted to do that. But for this bastard, that toyed and killed my family. Then yes!" Lupa had a fearsome glint in her eyes.

She was happy to butcher and eat her nemesis.

Some say revenge was to be savored. Now she was about to do that in the literary sense.

Vincent never butchered an animal, but he read about it in stories.

Areas far from the intestines were the safest parts to eat. If cut open wrong, then the meat could become contaminated.

Soon, the two worked as one. Lupa cut with the knife while Vincent instructed with his knowledge.

She cut the pieces of meat and skinning the fur like it was nothing. Unlike Vincent, she lived a life in the wilds as a wolf eating raw animals.

Although the cuts were that of a beginner and messy, at least there was a lot of meat to spare from the thigh and shoulder parts.

Later, the two brought the meat with little blood on their hands. The wound inflicted by Lupa drained most of its blood.

Lupa had a calm face, unfazed by what she did. On the other hand, Vincent was ready to puke.

Reading and watching were two different things. The inexperienced Vincent was new to a live butchering show.

"Drop the meat slowly. The water is boiling." Ester had already prepared the stock. The vegetables and a few spices were already raising an enticing aroma.

"Do you have a lot of salt? There is so much meat that it will spoil if left alone. With salt, we can preserve it." Vincent had read a few survival guides and tips to keep the food from spoiling. It was the occasion to try it out.

"I have but not a lot. Can we keep the meat from spoiling?" Ester had never heard of such a thing. She was curious about his next answer.

"With enough salt, we can make the meat spoil slower, giving us the chance to eat the whole wolf without spoiling." Vincent wasn't sure it would work since he only read it on the web.

Ester rushed inside. A few minutes later, she returned with a small bag of salt and a face full of curiosity.

Was he about to perform another surprising feat? This was the only thing in her mind.

"Just to confirm. How much does that small bag of salt cost?" Vincent felt like in her hands was a treasure as she carefully held it in her hands.

"The sea is far from this village, so it's imported. This bag costs two silver." Ester opened the bag and showed him the salt.

Vincent didn't know what to say. On Earth, it was dirt cheap. In this world, you need to kill two vicious wolves for a small bag of salt.

"Forget it. It's better to sell the salt to buy food instead of using it to preserve the meat." Vincent felt conflicted. It wasn't time to experiment on whether he would be successful or not.

Vincent then gazed at his two hands. Both were covered by blood. He wanted to clean them, so he asked, "Where can I wash my hands?"

Ester saw his and Lupa's bloody hands.

Drinking water from the village was precious, but they needed to clean their hands.

Then she remembered there should be a few river water barrels remaining near the outhouse since the one inside broke from the fight.

"Go to the other side. Near the outhouse should be a few barrels with river water. Drinkable water from the village costs money to buy." Ester said while she swirled the wolf soup and the bag of precious salt dangling from her waist.

Vincent and Lupa headed to that direction.

Soon a patch of blood and human bones entered their sight. Not a piece of meat remained from Trek's bones.

Vincent flinched, but at least it wasn't as gory as he thought.

'They are plastic bones for movies... ye, no need to be afraid.'

Vincent tried to imagine they were fake. He didn't want to puke the second time because of Trek's gory death.

"You scared of bones? hehe. " Lupa raised a sly a grin. It felt like she wanted to tease him.

"Ahem... Let's wash our hands." Vincent cleared his throat and quickly paced away.

He could hear Lupa giggle behind his back, but he didn't want to know what passed through her mind.

The outhouse came to view. It had a simplistic design, cheaply made but enough for total privacy.

Beside the outhouse were a few barrels.

The two checked multiple barrels, but only one was full and another half full.

Soon their hands were washed clean.

Vincent thought it would be beneficial to have a water barrel inside the cabin. There was a lot of dust and blood to clean.

He also wanted to remove the heirloom short sword and the mysterious Air Core.

With this plan in mind, he asked for assistance. Later, the two brought the barrel half full of water inside the cabin.

Lupa raised her ear's full attention while her tail swayed.

Her nose twitched as an enticing aroma tickled her sensitive nose. Then she rushed outside to Ester drooling for food.

On the other hand, Vincent decided to try writing. He was quite interested in writing with a quill.

He sat on a chair, in front of him was an empty barrel with a bottle of ink, a quill, and a few pieces of wood with chicken scratch writing.

Vincent didn't judge as he thought his level of writing with a quill would be the same.

The first time he covered the tip with too much ink. The piece of wood became like an ink splash art piece. It might sell well on Earth.

The second time, the quill barely hand enough ink to write. At least he managed to write one letter.

Failure after failure, his progress was rapidly improving. Soon, his writing was almost as good as when he would write with a pen.

However, he could only write around ten letters before the ink gets used; this wasn't a competition of speed but elegance.

"That's like noble handwriting!" Ester approached from behind, but Vincent was too focused to notice her approach.

Vincent flustered as he could feel her breath while she evaluated the few words he wrote. She had seen her father write and also read a few of Barron's letters.

Vincent showed her the piece of wood. He felt a bit weird as this was the first time he received praise from how he wrote.

Vincent felt proud that after around an hour of practice, he managed to write a few words as if written by a regular quill user.

"Do all people from your world write this good?" Ester asked with a hint of curiosity.

"Yes. The trick is not how to write but how you hold the quill. In my world, we have what's called a ball pen. In a hundred people, only a few would hold the pen the same way." Vincent suggested to help her write better.

Ester excitedly nodded as she stared at his hand and quill. It was obvious what she wanted to see.

Vincent raised a smile. Then he wrote a few more words while the pair of crimsons eyes followed his every move.

Soon, he felt a little embarrassed as he noticed a breeze of wind and a pair of golden eyes next to him. Vincent was currently like an attraction.

A few minutes ago, Lupa was outside. She thought Ester had left to bring Vincent but didn't return.

'Ester isn't going to steal my mate, is she? I'm the first!' Lupa thought while pouting.

If they were doing something exciting, then she wanted to join and be the best.

As Lupa entered, she saw Vincent writing and Ester leaning to watch. Lupa hid her presence and silently approached. Soon she saw Vincent writing something.

Even if Lupa didn't understand, could she see that it was much better than Ester's chicken scratch.

She felt proud and happy about her mate. With these happy thoughts, her tail wagged, creating a gentle breeze surprising the two from her sudden appearance.

*Growl???

A few minutes passed, and the hunger alarm growled.

The three were so engrossed in writing that they almost forgot to eat. However, their stomachs made them remember the great gray wolf soup.

Ester and Lupa went outside to prepare the bowls with food.

On the other hand, Vincent decided to loot the great gray wolf while his stomach is still empty.

He removed his shirt, picked the knife, and started opening the beast.

"Good thing I have nothing in my stomach. Vincent, eyes on the prize. There should be an Air Core and the heirloom short sword inside." Vincent had seen too much gore that he managed to cut without his hand trembling.

Good thing or not, Vincent was becoming numb to this kind of thing.

A few minutes of playing guess what you are touching, Vincent took out a silver crystal looking object.

It was of the size of his fist while on his other hand, was Ester's sword.

It was a good idea to bring the water barrel inside since he cleaned them and himself.

Lupa "You better hurry! I'm going to eat everything!"

Vincent heard Lupa shout from outside. He quickly cleaned himself, wore his shirt, and went to eat.

As he went outside, a pleasant joyous scene was before him.

The two girls were eating and smiling. Only Lupa drooled while eating, but her mouth could stop eating.

"Aww... Hot. Hot. So good." Lupa ate the food as if she stayed hungry for a long time. The fish she had yesterday was nothing compared to this feast.

"Don't eat like an animal. Here do like me." Ester showed Lupa how to blow air to cool the food as it was piping hot.

Lupa became conflicted.

She was hungry and didn't wish to waste time on this lengthy air blowing action. But, she wanted to eat without pain as well.

"Haha, my little wolf. The more time passes, the more the food will get colder. So the more you wait, the less you need to blow cool air." Vincent laughed at her behavior and made a slip of the tongue.

He called her my little wolf.

Even though Lupa had food in front of her, her gaze was stuck on Vincent.

She seemed to like this nickname as she wore a more delighted smile than what the delicious food gave her.

"Continue eating, or I won't call you that anymore." As if Vincent said a trigger word, Lupa stopped staring and continued eating.

'Looks like if I threaten to remove rewards, she listens to me. What a bothersome cute first retainer, heh.' Vincent thought while picking the bowl of food with a smile.

"Lupa, revenge is served hot." Vincent laughed at this lousy joke, but surprisingly both laughed with him.