“Tell me honestly… is this your absolute first time ever cooking meat in a pot?” Elizabeth asked with deep gravity, nursing a terrible premonition about the girl's culinary skills.
“Well, yeah. In our tent, my mother always handled the cooking whenever she got back from a hunt,” Valeria answered with disarming sincerity.
“…” The corner of Elizabeth's mouth twitched nervously into a helpless grimace.
It’s literally her first time, yet she acts as confident as a master chef!
In a world plagued by starvation, shouldn't meat be treated with far more care to avoid ruining it?!
“This is exactly how my mother cooks it! She throws it in the water, waits, and takes it out! I can't possibly be wrong!” Valeria huffed indignantly, puffing out her cheeks.
“Listen to me, let it sit in the water for a while longer. The meat in the center, right near the bone, is definitely still raw and tough,” Elizabeth explained patiently, albeit with a touch of despair.
It’s absurdly difficult to get one normal, properly cooked meal in this world!
No salt, no pepper, no vegetables - I don't even know where to begin to make this palatable enough to keep down!
Sitting together by the crackling fire, they spent over half an hour chatting casually and laughing about daily life in the camp. During that time, Elizabeth had to physically stop the impatient horned girl no fewer than five times from prematurely fishing half-raw meat out of the boiling water.
“Alright, it’s finally fully cooked and ready to eat,” Elizabeth announced with a sigh of relief as she poked the carcasses with the sharp stone knife, feeling the blade sink into the tender fibers without the slightest resistance.
“You are our esteemed Successor, so you should take the best piece first,” Valeria unexpectedly pulled her hand back, demonstrating a genuine, tribal courtesy.
“Alright, thank you. I am literally starving to death,” Elizabeth wasn't about to feign modesty any longer. With a swift, practiced cut, she sliced off an entire, steaming pheasant leg and skewered it on a sharpened wooden stick she had prepared earlier.
She handed the stone knife back to the horned girl, shifting comfortably onto her heels as she prepared to take her very first bite of food in this new world.
Hoo, hoo…
She blew carefully on the steaming meat, cooling it with a steady stream of air, before eagerly sinking her teeth in and tearing off a solid chunk.
The distinct, slightly gamey taste of wild fowl instantly hit her longing taste buds. However, it was paired with the natural aroma, tenderness, and surprising sweetness of fresh meat. Despite the total lack of seasoning, it proved to be incredibly rich, satisfying, and pleasant.
“So, how does it taste? Is it good?” Valeria squatted nervously right beside her, fixing her large, blood-red eyes intently on the leg in Elizabeth's hand. She swallowed hard, waiting with a childlike apprehension for the final verdict.
“The taste is… well…” Elizabeth began. But in the split second she was about to bluntly criticize the utterly bland, saltless meal, she caught sight of Valeria's large, ruby eyes practically glowing with a naive, almost defenseless expectation of praise.
Elizabeth wasn't a heartless block of wood devoid of human empathy. Years spent observing relationships and writing complex characters had granted her enough social tact to bite her tongue just in time. She smoothly shifted her tone, selecting entirely different words:
“It is exceptionally delicious, truly. The meat is cooked so perfectly it retained a very pleasant, subtle natural sweetness. Though, of course, it would be even better if we could forage some wild herbs in the future to cut through the heavy gamey aftertaste.”
“I knew it! I just knew I cooked it perfectly on my first try!” Valeria cheered triumphantly.
Receiving such a satisfying answer, she instantly straightened her back with pride, puffing her small chest forward. She felt a profound certainty in her heart that this whole 'cooking' business wasn't nearly as difficult an art as her mother always claimed it was.
“Well then, hurry up and eat before it gets cold,” Elizabeth said with a wry, amused smile, watching the girl's proud display.
Even though this horned girl acts like a deadly, ice-cold warrior day in and day out, and carries herself quite maturely, deep down she still has the temperament of an ordinary, stubborn brat who just gets a little too proud over the smallest things.
“So I can really eat my share?” Valeria asked quietly.
Before even reaching for the food, she cast a cautious, sidelong glance across the entire camp. Seeing that none of the passing warriors were paying them any mind, she swiftly squatted by the stone pot and expertly carved off a massive slab of meat with her stone knife.
Finishing her small leg in just a few bites, Elizabeth watched the horned girl's stealthy, overly cautious maneuvers with undisguised amusement.
“Are you genuinely that terrified of the other tribe members catching you eating by the fire?” she asked with genuine curiosity.
By this time, Valeria had already hurriedly shoved a massive chunk of steaming meat into her mouth, her cheeks bulging comically. She looked up at Elizabeth with her red eyes and mumbled around her full mouth:
“I'm not scared of anyone! It's just… you're the one who clearly ordered me to eat, so it's your decision.”
“Are you doing this because of my special identity as the future Sharu?” Elizabeth probed further, adjusting her tight sports top, which rather prominently accentuated her full cleavage as she leaned forward.
“…”
Valeria went silent for a long moment, thoroughly chewing the hot morsel. She lowered her gaze briefly and said with a touch of hesitation: “The hunters and foragers surrendered all this prime meat to you so you could build your strength for tomorrow's ritual… As a mere recruit, I absolutely shouldn't be allowed to eat such precious rations meant for the Sharu.”
“Oh, let it go. Everything is perfectly fine. I told you myself to go ahead and eat as much as you want,” Elizabeth waved her hand dismissively.
She glanced back at the massive pot, where two whole, plump pheasants and a sizable rabbit were still bobbing in the broth, wondering how on earth one person was supposed to devour all of that alone.
“If you're putting it that way and confirming it yourself, I won't ask twice!” Valeria replied with immense relief.
Casting off the last of her restraints, she threw herself into the meal, tearing off huge portions with her bare fingers and devouring them in massive, ravenous bites. Even as the scalding meat burned her tongue and the roof of her mouth, she refused to spit it out, instead slurping loudly, sucking in cold air, and swallowing chunks whole, humming in delight:
“This is just unbelievably delicious! It tastes a hundred times better than those charred, dry scraps my mother always rushes to burn over the fire when we get back from the woods!”
Barely four minutes passed, during which Valeria inhaled the meat from the pot at a terrifying velocity…
“…” Elizabeth was literally struck speechless.
She froze in place, staring at the horned girl in utter stupefaction, before slowly averting her gaze to the bottom of the stone pot. Out of the entire massive feast, nothing remained but a single, heavily picked-over pheasant carcass.
“Huh? Why aren't you eating anything? Why are you looking at me so weirdly?” Valeria asked around her stuffed cheeks, holding a gnawed rabbit skeleton in her small, grease-smeared hands as if she hadn't had a proper meal in at least three days.
“I'm… I'm getting some now!” Elizabeth instantly discarded every last shred of earthly etiquette.
She sprang up from the ground, grabbed her sharpened wooden stick, and frantically fished out the very last scraps of meat from the bottom of the pot, ravenously tearing them straight from the bone.
She finally grasped the ruthless truth: all her civilized restraint, elegant politeness, and courteous concessions brought over from modern Earth were completely useless habits in this savage, chronically starving society - habits that would lead her straight to starvation.
Any polite, false refusal of an offer here was immediately taken at one hundred percent face value by these straightforward tribespeople. Not because they were malicious or rude, but simply because their entire existence revolved around a desperate, raw, and direct struggle for every single bite of food.
Ten minutes later, the two of them sat sprawled out on the grass by the dying embers.
Burp!
Elizabeth let out a loud belch without a care in the world for manners, feeling a blissful, heavy lethargy slowly spreading through her slack muscles. With a full, properly stuffed stomach, she finally felt her lost vitality returning to her exhausted body.
Meanwhile, Valeria lazily picked at her teeth with a small splinter, remarking with a hint of mock disdain:
“You eat meat incredibly slowly and so weirdly careful, like you're terrified it's going to jump up and run away.”
“…”
Elizabeth just rolled her eyes helplessly at the darkening sky, lacking both the strength and the desire to deny such an obvious fact.
“Do you really hail from some massive, powerful tribe in distant lands?” Valeria asked suddenly, resting her chin on her knees and fixing Elizabeth with a serious, scrutinizing stare.
“Huh?” Elizabeth was thrown off by the question for a split second, but she quickly composed her face and shook her head.
“No, it's just… I come from a very, very faraway place you've never heard of.”
“If you don't want to talk about it openly in front of outsiders, you really don't have to explain yourself,” Valeria stated unexpectedly.
She rose slowly from the ground and lazily stretched her supple body. The leisurely movement caused her short leather skirt to ride up just a fraction higher, exposing a glimpse of shapely, pale thighs, while her tone turned surprisingly gentle:
“Head back to my tent and go to sleep. I have to go join the night watch right now.”
“Alright, thanks.” Elizabeth nodded with relief, casting a slightly surprised glance at the horned girl.
Why do I suddenly get the distinct impression she's nowhere near as suspicious or guarded around me as she was just an hour ago?
Does sharing a pot of food really break the ice that thoroughly around here?
She bent down and carefully pulled a thick, half-burned branch with a glowing ember tip from the fire pit. She intended to carry it inside to start a small, controlled fire for warmth and light; otherwise, she'd end up tripping over her own feet in the pitch-black tent and wouldn't even be able to find her straw bed.
“I'm heading inside. Be careful out there on your night patrol,” Elizabeth called over her shoulder in farewell.