In the wild mountainside, EeDechi squatted on the ground, silently gnawing on a roasted leg bone.
Judging by the bone's size, it was rare drake dragon thigh meat—dense and tender in texture, smooth and chewy. Sprinkled with dark red rosemary and carefully roasted, it gleamed with an enticing golden sheen.
EeDechi swallowed a mouthful of the roasted meat with difficulty, then hurled the thigh bone to the ground and shouted, "I want vegetables!"
Barrett squatted on the other side of the campfire. He gave EeDechi a helpless glance and kept gnawing on the chunk of drake dragon meat in his hand.
Over the past month and a half, thanks to EeDechi's top-notch taunting skills against wild monsters, they'd hiked through the desolate mountain range without ever running short on food.
Winter wolves, snowbirds, ice crows, frostbreath arachnids, bigfoot yetis... Wherever EeDechi went, the monsters swarmed like they'd spotted their sworn enemy, charging straight at her the moment they caught wind of her presence.
The only issue was that no edible plant-based monsters got drawn in, and with deep winter in full swing, there were no wild greens or fruits around except for a few frozen fruit trees.
The two adventurers had no choice but to eat nothing but meat for that entire month and a half—from four-legged beasts that crawled to birds that flew, from burying it in the ground to roast to searing steaks on stone slabs. Barrett had tried every wilderness cooking trick in the book.
But meat was always just meat. No matter how you cooked it, it could never turn into crisp, refreshing vegetables or juicy fruit.
Barrett didn't mind; over this long month and a half, his menu had expanded to include things like frostbreath arachnid, and he'd also scored a ton of valuable monster pelts and magic-infused organs. But EeDechi had finally hit her breaking point.
"I want vegetables! I want bread!" EeDechi scratched her head with both hands, turning her lovely black short hair into a total mess.
Barrett watched her in this frenzied state and sighed, "If you want veggies or grains right now, we've got to head to a village or town where people live. How's your Favorability Level coming along? Will folks still want to punch you?"
"I don't know. It's not like I have a system or a character stat panel or anything." EeDechi hugged her head with both hands.
Barrett thought for a bit and suggested, "Let's go down the mountain to a small village and see what happens."
He remembered that at the beginning of their wilderness trek, they'd get ambushed by monsters about five times a day on average, but now, in a single day, the beasts only showed up once to drop off some meat. That had to mean EeDechi's taunting pull on wild monsters... wait, no—her Favorability Level—had recovered a good chunk.
You had to admit, the aftermath of using the Great Banishment was brutal; no wonder EeDechi had always been hesitant to cast it.
The two got to their feet and stared down at the mountain's base. There lay a village blanketed in white snow, with a few faint trails of cooking smoke curling lazily upward...
...
The wind howled, snowflakes whipped through the air. The fickle winter had kicked up a heavy snowfall once more, and it was building toward a full-on blizzard. EeDechi and Barrett wrapped cloth strips around their faces, slogging through knee-deep drifts of packed snow as they pushed deeper into the village.
They'd dressed like this because right at the village entrance, on the notice board, there was a wanted poster for EeDechi.
The Sorcerer Kingdom's reach had extended to this remote little mountain village, but all they'd managed was slapping up a wanted poster. The simple villagers probably just treated it as an amusing rumor, chatted about it for a bit, then forgot all about it.
Before they knew it, dusk had fallen. In the endless heavy snow, night came even quicker, and the surrounding light dimmed. Amid the wind and snow, the tattered parchment wanted poster flapped in the breeze like a ragged cloth.
EeDechi stepped forward, yanked down the poster, tore it to shreds, and casually scattered the pieces into the swirling snowflakes.
Barrett wrapped cloth around his chin, while EeDechi bundled her head up tight, leaving only her pair of black eyes exposed—not a single strand of her black hair showing.
In the midst of a heavy winter snowfall, this getup was understandable, but homeless wanderers in a remote mountain village were pretty suspicious. Still, Barrett trusted his silver tongue (or his conning skills) to bluff their way through.
With two heavy winter wolf pelts draped over his shoulders, he gently knocked on the wooden door of a house. After a moment, the door opened, and warm air mixed with the aroma of food rushed out. EeDechi sniffed, even catching the scent of pickled cabbage.
The homeowner behind the door was a sturdy man. He eyed Barrett and EeDechi suspiciously, his face showing wariness.
"You two don't look like you're from our village. What do you want?"
"We're travelers and winter huntsmen sent by Count Charles, in charge of surveying the terrain in this mountain range and mapping out the distribution points of winter monsters. But in this awful blizzard, we got lost and trudged all the way here. We'd like to stay at your home for the night."
Count Charles was the big lord in the nearby area; dropping his name carried some clout, and the villagers had no way to check if it was legit.
After spinning this airtight string of lies, Barrett grabbed one of the thick winter wolf pelts from his shoulder and handed it to the homeowner, saying earnestly, "We can give you these two recently hunted winter wolf pelts, plus a decent amount of gold coins as payment."
Seeing the soft, dense gray fur on the winter wolf pelt, and hearing the words "gold coins," the homeowner's eyes lit up with sudden interest.
Just as he was about to agree, a childish voice rang out from inside the house. "Daddy, who's outside?"
The homeowner's expression hardened right away. He shook his head at the two adventurers and refused, "No can do. The village has been on edge lately with rumors of night hags eating children. Several kids have vanished without a trace. I can't just let strangers into my home. Please try someone else. The manor owner's family on the south side of the village is always generous; maybe they'll let you stay the night."
The two adventurers had no choice but to leave. They kept weaving through the village. Long footprints trailed behind them in the snow, quickly buried by the swirling snowflakes.
They knocked on other doors around the village, but to their surprise, the villagers' answers were all the same: worried about night hags preying on kids, they couldn't let strange visitors inside.
A few villagers kindly suggested that the two "lost travelers" try their luck at manor owner James Wright's place.
...
"What night hags? That's just a bedtime story adults tell to get kids to sleep. These villagers actually buy into it." Barrett was a bit ticked off. "Worried about kids getting snatched by night hags—they can't keep an eye on their own children, so they pin it on monsters."
In the endless heavy snow, the distant sun dipped slantwise into the forest; dusk had passed, and night was falling. They needed to find shelter fast, or in this nasty blizzard, they'd be stuck camping out in the wild.
EeDechi and Barrett trudged one deep step, one shallow through the snow, finally reaching the manor owner's front door. The iron gate in the front yard was rusty and spotted, not locked, half-open, and creaking in the wind.