“…” Yuri stood there blankly, her small body almost swallowed by the shadow cast by the huge Arzuros corpse.
She was covered in dark red bloodstains, some of which had already dried and hardened, sticking to her delicate cheeks and worn-out hunter’s outfit, emitting a heavy smell of rust.
She seemed not to have fully recovered from the shock or fatigue.
Her originally clear and bright eyes now appeared somewhat hollow and confused, yet she unconsciously exuded a sharp and uneasy aura.
This aura, mixed with the smell of blood and her own faint, not-yet-fully-controlled ‘Ki’, made the experienced Minoto and Hinoa instantly feel a sense of oppression akin to facing a ‘fierce beast’.
After a while, Yuri’s long eyelashes fluttered, as if she had just broken free from a nightmare.
She raised her small, blood-stained hand, rubbed her temples, and muttered ambiguously, “…Who knows?”
Her true meaning was simple to the point of being pale—she really didn’t know who, or what, had taken care of this terrifying giant beast before or after she lost consciousness.
Yuri’s little head was a mess, and she couldn’t sort out her thoughts at all.
However, her vague, slightly dazed, and uncertain tone, combined with the ‘precisely’ dismembered Arzuros corpse before them, sounded completely different to Minoto and Hinoa.
In the eyes of the sisters, these four light words were full of the indifference and modesty of a master, even carrying a trace of mockery toward the prey.
“Ara~” Hinoa broke the silence first.
Her eyes, which always held a smile, were astonishingly bright at this moment.
Completely ignoring Yuri’s blood-stained body, she pulled the little girl into her arms with excitement and surprise.
“It seems our Kamura Village is really about to welcome an incredible genius hunter!”
Hinoa’s voice carried irrepressible excitement.
She vigorously rubbed Yuri’s messy hair, “Ten years old!
Hunting an Arzuros alone!
When I was your age, I was still being chased all over the mountains by Bullfango!”
The warm, soft touch and the faint fragrance on Hinoa surrounded Yuri, making her somewhat at a loss.
She tilted her head in a daze, a big question mark popping up in her mind, while Minoto also calmly walked forward.
This cool-tempered sister deftly took out a clean handkerchief from the pocket at her waist, first carefully wiping the bloodstains off Hinoa’s arm and chest, and then turned to Yuri, speaking in her unique, calm voice:
“Although it was anticipated that the task of collecting honey had a probability of encountering an Arzuros guarding the honey source, Miss Hyakuryu Yexing, you really tried too hard.”
Minoto’s movements were gentle and meticulous, but her eyes held obvious approval and a hint of imperceptible worry.
“Please be extremely careful next time; dealing with such a dangerous monster alone is too risky.
But…
congratulations,” she paused, her tone becoming more solemn, “at your age, to have such strength and courage is truly awe-inspiring; the future of Kamura Village is something to look forward to.”
“?” Yuri was held by Hinoa and wiped by Minoto, and could only tilt her head in confusion once again, her big eyes filled with pure bewilderment.
What were the two sisters talking about?
Genius hunter?
Hunting alone?
She clearly hadn’t done anything; she had just been chased by the bear and then fell unconscious…
She completely couldn’t understand the situation before her, her little head filled with question marks.
Thus, in this well-intentioned misunderstanding, this ten-year-old girl, who was still dazed herself, was inexplicably crowned with the name of “Genius who hunted an Arzuros alone”.
As for why Minoto and Hinoa didn’t attribute the cause of Arzuros’s death to territorial disputes with other monsters, it was partly because there were indeed many “man-made” traces at the scene, such as those cut wounds that looked like they were caused by sharp weapons.
On the other hand, this matter was also very strange; if a monster of a higher ecological niche had attacked, given its ferocity, how could it have spared Yuri, who was close at hand and had no ability to resist, after slaughtering the Arzuros?
This did not fit the habits of monsters.
Furthermore, although Arzuros’s corpse was dismembered, upon closer observation, the separated parts, although the cuts were rough, had a peculiar regularity.
Although a large chunk of meat was missing from Arzuros’s butt, Minoto and Hinoa just assumed it was stolen by small scavengers like Jagras or wild dogs that came upon smelling it while Yuri was unconscious.
Therefore, they did not delve deeper into it, after all, the wounds on the main torso were more consistent with those caused by sharp weapons.
But they could never have imagined that these seemingly reasonable inferences made perfect sense when applied to Lore, a transmigrator.
Because Lore’s soul was once human, he possessed an innate goodwill toward humans and would not actively attack them.
Furthermore, because he was still a young dragon with limited physical strength, he could not drag the entire Arzuros back to his nest.
He could only use his increasingly sharp claws and fangs, inherited from the Zinogre, to perform a “butcher-like” dissection, taking away only the choice parts.
Coincidentally, the obvious claw and bite marks he left behind were either taken away or eaten by him, while the remaining cut surfaces actually appeared somewhat neat because they were separated in his relatively “civilized” manner.
Combined with the tears caused by the Zinogre’s sharp claws, it miraculously simulated the effect of being sawed by a dull blade.
And the greatest coincidence of all was that the weapon Yuri used was a brand-new Kamura Long Sword with an imperfect edge!
Indeed, how could a hunter from Kamura Village not use a Long Sword?
All these coincidences combined led Yuri, Minoto, and Hinoa, along with Lore who was heading back to his nest, to co-create a misunderstanding that temporarily no one could untangle.
…
Back to Lore.
Dragging that chunk of Arzuros rump meat, which was almost as big as his body, he moved nimbly through the dense forest.
Behind a concealed bush some distance from the nest, he stopped, alertly pricking up his ears and turning his head to carefully sense any movement around him.
Only after confirming it was safe did he carefully set the chunk of meat down.
Then, twisting his body, he skillfully scratched at the thick fur on the back of his neck with his hind claws, pulling out a few herbs he had gathered along the way, and summoned the system’s own Leftovers into his mouth.
Then, lowering his head, he began to carefully chew the mixture with his molars.
The bitterness of the herbs, the strange texture of the Leftovers, and the cloying sweetness of the honey blended together into a taste that was far from wonderful, but Lore didn’t care.
He patiently chewed them into a thick paste and then smeared it evenly over the surface of the Arzuros meat.
“Hmm, and thus a portion of ‘Mega Potion Cured Meat’ is complete!”