Chapter 8

Since the strange incident in which Feru the Fenrir joined us on our journey, we have continued travelling towards Veenen and are nearly reaching it. The formation was like this: I am right in the centre, Rita is at the front, on the left is Vincent, on the right is Ramon-san, right-back is Franca, left-back is Werner-san, and finally, Feru was at the back of the formation, following clumsily. Werner-san seemed to be in deep thought and sighed. “What’s wrong? Werner-san.” “No, we are about to reach the borders, but I still have no idea what can be done in our current plight.” Hm? What plight? “Nonono, Makooda-san, we will stop this.” Vincent glanced back before saying. Ah—it’s because Feru is here. “All the border guards would be very curious, I suppose. However, I think they will realise we have no ill intentions and let us go.” “Werner, before they even do that, there would be a confrontation with the imperial army even if Fenrir has no intention to fight.” “What Ramon said makes sense.” “Eh, that Fenrirs once destroyed an entire country is not just a nursery tale?” “Rita, that is treated as a historical fact, you know?” Wait, was I hearing things? About destroying an entire country, is that not a joke? “Even if they recognise Fenrir as a familiar and let us in the country, this time, I’m sure, the whole country will be after us.” Werner-san said that as he looked at me. Wait, me? This time, what? “They would think that Makooda-san, who has contracted with the Fenrir, would be unlikely to leave the country alone. If Makooda-san wanted to take control of the country, the Fenrir would help out.” Eh, Ra-Ramon-san, is that true? It would be extremely troublesome if the country spread such rumours. [No worries. If they plan to inflict harm on me or this fella, we will just take on their challenge.] “Nonono, T-That’s too excessive. Fenrir-sama……” [It’s Feru.] “… If Feru-sama went all out, the country would be wiped out.” [If we are going to get our hands dirty, isn’t destroying a good thing?] F-Feru-san, isn’t that a little too much enthusiasm? [If you don’t like it, then I won’t make any moves. It’s easy.] Hearing what Feru had said, everyone’s mouth opened wide. [Speaking of that, isn’t the time to have our meals?] Thus, it became break time. Ah- disaster. The amount of red boar meat that everyone in Iron Will hunted earlier is reaching crisis levels. Even if you tell me to use everything without reserve, there is still a limited amount of food. I used up quite a lot because of yesterday’s stir-fried pork with ginger and also because of this morning, when Feru kept insisting [Meat! Meat! Meat. [Oi, I am hungry for more meat.] “As expected, afternoon is going to be meat too. The red boar meat is not mine. If you want to eat meat, please go catch some on your own.” [Mu, is that it? I’ll be right back, wait for me.] After saying that, Feru dashed to the closest forest by the path. “M-Makooda-san, it is okay to just use the red boar meaty.” “Nah, I wouldn’t let that happen. Everyone put in so much effort to hunt that, and Feru would just be finishing everything by himself. Furthermore, I don’t want to pamper Feru too much. If Feru intends to continue following me, he has to at least provide for his portion, right? I can’t hunt, nor do I have enough money to buy so much food all the time. I will become broke in no time. Hahaha.” If this is the legendary beast we are talking about, it should be capable of returning with food. “Makooda-san is incredible …” (Werner-san) “Awesome, really awesome, Makooda-san” (Rita) “Makooda-san is so remarkable. To be able to give commands to that Fenrir, I respect you.” (Vincent) “You must be a hero to be able to give orders to a Fenrir that is known for crushing whole countries.” (Franca) “So there are people who can make Fenrir listen to instructions, huh…” (Ramon) Ehh– even if you guys say that. While he might be some legendary beast, let’s not forget that Feru was lured by food and therefore formed a contract with me. To be lured by food so easily, Feru must be an idiot without a doubt. Since I’m scared, I won’t say that out loud, though. While doing this and that, Feru came back with a big bird stuck between his teeth. “Feru, that thing you brought back, is it a Rockbird?” “Ahh, it’s considered a B-rank demon. Even if we went all out on it in battle, I’m not sure if we can win against it.” Oi, so that’s what you caught? So I have brought food back. Make food quickly. . Urm, how am I going to cook with this giant bird? I can’t dissect this bird. That, I would leave it to you. “Feru, I can’t dissect this bird. I have no choice but to leave it to you, and also, in return for all the red boar meat you ate last time, can you pass the other raw materials from the bird that is worth money to Iron Will?” [As long as there is meat, I have no complaints.] “So will you do the dissection?” As I was saying that, everyone in Iron Will seemed to have their heads trembling, as if they were saying “no, please no”. “Just the dissection alone is more than enough, it is too much to accept the raw materials too.” Even if you say that, I can’t stand how much money this guy is making me spend on his meals. “It’s alright, the red boar meat has depleted quite a fair bit thanks to Feru; Feru has agreed too, so please accept it.” They were saying “It’s too much” to the end, but finally agreed. C’mon, in the first place, hunting is pretty simple for Feruanyways. In addition, it seems that there will be some issues when we enter the country, so letting them be indebted to me would be beneficial later on. By the way, the dissection of the bird was splendid, according to Iron Will. Next, since it is a bird we are talking about, I decided to make teriyaki and bought some teriyaki tare sauce from the Online Supermarket. Firstly, using the frying pan, the Rockbird was grilled until it was brown on both sides. From here, I would like to wipe off the extra oil using paper towels, but I can’t be doing that while being outdoors in another world, so I had to make do by tipping the frying pan to one side to discard the extra oil. Then there is the addition of teriyaki tare sauce. After boiling the tare sauce, the rockbird meat was mixed into it. Right, the rockbird teriyaki is done! This time, for the soup, I tried using freeze-dried onion soup. It looks like there are a lot of ingredients in the soup. Also, I don’t feel like having the instant consommé soup we always have. The completed food was first distributed to everyone in Iron Will. [Oi, what about me?] “Feru is such a big eater, so I have to give everyone their portion first. It’s gonna be done in a while, just wait a bit longer.” [Mu, okay] I started making a whole lot of teriyaki just for Feru. Feru was especially pleased with the rockbird teriyaki, and apart from the teriyaki that we ate, everything else went into Feru’s stomach. The rockbird teriyaki was delicious, and I enjoyed it, but I want to be able to savour my food peacefully the next time.