To Eltadra (2)

The road to Eltadra was halfway paved, and the rest of it was rocky. Emersyn was sitting on top of the luxurious carriage her people designed for her, and she had a few attendants inside that would tend to her needs.

The journey was a bit bumpy by Emersyn's standards, but it was perfectly still for those that were inside the carriage. After all, most of them were from the underground cities that only had carriages that were pulled by humans, and those that didn't experience carriages at all. From those that lived in the Central Marsh, they only used their feet or flew through the sky. Even though they had the resources to make carriages, Central Marsh really wasn't that spacious enough to have paved roads. Besides, there were beasts rummaging through their sheds—if they ever made one—looking for prey. So, even if they stored anything there, it would be destroyed tomorrow morning.

"My Lord, we will be there shortly. Please enter the carriage," Huoyu, the coachman, said as he led the carriage to a paved road leading towards Eltadra.

"Okay," Emersyn responded and the door of the carriage immediately opened. She grabbed on the side of the roof then jumped into the carriage. She was greeted by five attendants with garments and a few makeup kits in their hands. Emersyn nodded and the attendants immediately took action and dressed her up.

Once they arrived near the gate that was being guarded, they were immediately met with a rowdy bunch of citizens to greet their Emperor. The Royal Crest on the carriage was the second one to arrive in the city. The people didn't dare flock near it since the oppressing aura of the Emperor was dense the nearer they were to her. So, they were only trying to take a look at their Lord. When it stopped before the city's destroyed docks, the door opened and Emersyn stepped down. Her silvery-white hair was braided so well and there was a small golden crown sitting on top of her head. Her clothes were made of the finest silk and colors of gold, black, silver and red thread covered her body. Those became the colors of their Emperor. The gold for the rarity of it in this world; black because of her full authority over the Dark Energy; then silver and red from her eyes and hair. Seeing those colors made the citizens more aware of her power.

Emersyn waved and smiled at them. They responded in kind. However, when they were in their festive moods, the harbor shook and they were thrown off balance. Emersyn was the only one who stood upright and sent probing waves through the hard base of the harbor. There were fifteen of them.

"My Lord!" Draven called. "There's fifteen of them!"

"It's fine, I'll handle this."

Emersyn waved her hand as the harbor shook violently once again. Fortunately, Emersyn already lifted the people up and put them to safety. The earth continued to shake as Emersyn made a thick rope and sent it towards the closest of the bunch. She used her strength and pulled the monster out of the water. Its huge body emerged and its pitch-black eyes stared down at Emersyn. It was shocked at first, but when it saw only a small creature take it out from the water, it dived down as it fell and opened its wide jaws. Emersyn retrieved a katana from her storage and covered it with energy. Once the monster neared her, she breathed in and exhaled. In that process, the monster's strong head got cut in half until its gills. Its humongous body collided behind Emersyn.

It was unbelievable. A monster that was strong enough to leave the base of their docks in shambles that was created with impure mithril–which was strong enough–was rendered useless by their Lord who only held a knife that she commissioned for a hobby. It wasn't that tempered, and she could use it to kill this gigantic monster like any other of her blades.

"My- my Lord!"

"Just make way for more bodies, Draven," Emersyn said as she hooked another one despite the tremors of the earth.

Before they knew it, the tremors stopped and the waves of the sea became violent instead. Huge waves took over the harbor. The blood-soaked floor of the harbor washed away to the sea and it attracted more monsters. Emersyn was dealing with this all by herself. Her appearance didn't mess up even after fighting for so long. Her hair stayed in place and her clothes didn't have a crease that would be out of place. The monsters of the sea continued to flock and a few of them crashed against other predators. It became chaotic, but it seemed that the rest of the monsters of the sea could only watch from far away. After probing and memorizing the mysterious small monster of the land, they retreated and left their brethren. The dead monsters piled up and all of them were washed by the salty sea. Those had also been bled.

"My Lord…," Draven called as he gave Emersyn a cold lemonade and a few biscuits.

".... did Aren tell you to give me sweets after a hard day of work?"

"... yes."

"... I understand," she nodded, then took a sip of the cold lemonade as she also ate the familiar cookies that seemed to be baked by Elodiaren.

"By the way, my Lord, do you know all these monsters? You seemed to be so adept at killing them."

"I have cooked sharks in the past. Also, in the ancient times when it was in the early Miocene of the world I once lived in, there was a species of a shark that was called a Megalodon. They went extinct a long time ago, so they weren't the main concern of the people in the present. I studied a bit of it since it was interesting. Anyway, we have an influx of mackerel sharks now. We need to hurry up and bleed these guys up and leave it to this city."

"I… see…. May I know which world it is?"

"Hmm… It's a planet called Earth. I don't have any access to travel to it, but I may try to find the access someday if I have the time," Emersyn said as she flicked her braided hair back and walked towards the huge pile of Megalodons. "Come on, I'll help you store this for now. I'll also need to get to the research area and submit a complete body of this species. The tooth and bones might be filled with the most abundance of mana that could be used as better weapons...."

"My Lord…."

When Emersyn stored the carcasses of the Megalodons, she saw the citizens looking at her with heavy respect. She flinched, but she composed herself and smiled at them.

"Tonight, there will be a feast! I will cook, so you just have to bring plates, bowls, and utensils. Don't forget yourself! Also, if you want to eat rice with it, bring it!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

***

Emersyn was led towards the community kitchen. It was quite large and there were a lot of housewives that went with her to help. Also, there were butchers that joined just to learn how to dismantle this new marine monster from Emersyn. She instructed the housewives to pour gallons of milk in tubs for the shark meat that the butchers and she would dismantle. After all, they had to remove the smell of ammonia and the gamey flavor of the Megalodon. Once they cut up the monster into pieces, they soaked the shark meat in milk for more than four hours. Also, the blacksmiths came over and retrieved the bones and teeth of the Megalodon they just dismantled. There were also alchemists that came and took the innards of the shark.

After the first batch of the shark meat was soaked, Emersyn took one out and started patting it with a dry kitchen towel. She skillfully cut off the dark meat from the shark meat with a paring knife. The rest of the housewives also did this carefully as they watched Emersyn.

"Don't cut the shark meat too thin or too thick. One to two inches should be fine," she announced.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Emersyn took out huge bottles after bottles of spices and herbs, and she settled them on the huge table before her. She cut fresh lemons and oranges that were bigger than her fist and squeezed a lot of them into a big bowl. She poured soy sauce and rice wine vinegar; then sprinkled paprika, grated ginger, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder. She mixed them and marinated the shark meat for at least two hours.

They repeated these processes until early night came. They finished the last batch of marinating shark meat and then started grilling. Their grill was also huge, so they cooked the first batch fine. The people were salivating as they smelled the aroma of the cooked Megalodon. It was served on a table and they immediately took their portion.

"Don't hold back! We still have a lot," Emersyn announced.

"Yes!"