Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: A Feast with Luna's Family
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“Luna's guests... and three men at that...”
“Grahaha, eat up, everyone. Here, have some booze too.”
Luna's father looked faintly sad, while her mother seemed in high spirits.
“Haha... thank you.”
I took a sip of the booze made from fermented sheep's milk, which had a slightly tangy aroma.
It hit my brain with sharp sourness and a hint of sweetness. Unlike regular alcohol, its yogurt-like thickness made my stomach feel full just from that sip. I gazed at the whole baby lamb roasting on a spit, spinning round and round over the fire.
“Quite the hearty method. That coarse salt you're sprinkling—is it rock salt? And the herbs mixed in seem to cut the gaminess. I've never smelled anything like it.”
“Are you... interested in cooking? This herb isn't common on the continent. It's native to Chabid...”
Luna's father, who had seemed downcast, was now chatting with Zero, while her mother alternated glances between me and Kane with a strangely pleased expression.
I'd introduced Hulla as just a guide rather than the chieftain of the top tribe, worried it might burden them, but she was heartily slapping his back and tearing off chunks of meat for him.
*This is fun.*
A calm and gentle-looking rabbit-kin father, and a bold, sturdy leopard-kin mother.
I had no idea how their genes worked. Well, doppelgangers existed in this world, so offspring from a rabbit and a leopard weren't out of the question. Sure.
“The drinks have made the rounds. We skimped on introductions in the excitement of meeting, so let's do it properly. I'm Lepina, Luna's mother.”
The leopard-kin Lepina extended a hand with long black claws, and I gripped it firmly and shook.
“I'm Adelian, Luna's friend.”
“Oh, the notorious delinquent?”
She grinned playfully as she shook my hand, scanning me up and down. Sitting Luna jumped in surprise.
“N-No, that's not true! The young master is a good person.”
“Looks that way to me. Rumors are just rumors, huh?”
I laughed heartily along with the hand slapping my shoulder.
“This is my husband and Luna's father, Yald. Our eldest is Luna, second is Shalom. Those twins are Zephi and Kephi. We have one more, but she doesn't like outsiders...”
The slender, skinny rabbit-kin girl was Shalom, and the twin boys were Zephi and Kephi.
What stood out was that Shalom and Luna looked almost human except for their ears, while Zephi and Kephi resembled walking rabbits.
Even among siblings, their appearances varied quite a bit.
“I'm Adelian, Luna's friend. This is Kane, her junior, and Zero.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Hello.”
Kane gave a polite greeting in front of the adults, while Zero, who had been watching the lamb roast sizzling as fat dripped into the fire, offered a gentle smile.
After simple greetings with them, I began pulling out some preserved food, daily necessities, clothes, and various tools I'd prepared in advance.
“Couldn't visit Luna's home empty-handed, so I brought a few gifts.”
You don't show up to someone's house bare-handed. And I knew most of Luna's pay went to support her family.
Luna looked a bit flustered but gave me a grateful glance, and I shrugged with a smile.
And so the eating and drinking began.
The lamb fat dripping and sizzling over the fire had a subtle smoky flavor from the firewood on the outside. Sprinkled with salt and brushed with seed oil before direct-flame roasting, the skin was crisp without any chewiness, while the inside, sliced thick with a knife, stayed juicy.
The sheep's inherent gaminess was transformed by the roasted herbs and smoke into a rich meaty aroma that whetted the appetite.
“This is delicious.”
One bite, and the juicy meat with a touch of fat spread through my mouth, filling it with flavor after just a few chews before sliding down my throat.
The rough side salad that came with it started with grassy and bitter notes but soon revealed a strange nuttiness. It cut through the richness of the fat and any off-flavors from the lamb, while also boosting the appetite. Taking another bite of meat brought back that umami from the first.
I grabbed the front leg Lepina had sliced and tore into it wildly, thumbs up nonstop.
Kane ate anything put in front of him well, but even Zero seemed to like it. After a while, his belly full and struggling, he glanced around slyly before his stomach visibly deflated, as if absorbed by his doppelganger ability.
We finished with the tangy sheep's milk booze as a palate cleanser. Luna wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and asked Lepina.
“By the way... where are the uncles?”
Lepina paused while charring the remaining bones over the fire and gave an awkward chuckle at Luna's question.
“They're... out on patrol.”
“Patrol? What's around here?”
“Well...”
A subtle tension hung in the air. Hulla, slapping his belly while drinking the sheep's milk booze, asked in a suspicious tone.
“Hunters?”
“Not hunters... Three days' walk at Mei's pace, there's a fog that doesn't lift even when the sun rises.”
Fog?
At Lepina's words, I instinctively glanced at Kane.
Truth be told, one reason we came to Chabid was to find the event dungeon called the Dwarf's Lair. But was it coming this easily?
Considering Chabid's size, it wasn't simple—I'd expected a month or two of hardship.
The doppelganger floor we'd dropped into, the test subject dungeon...
Maybe because Kane was the protagonist, things were falling into place oddly smoothly.
A chill of unease and anticipation tugged at my lips as Hulla pondered, then gasped.
“Don't tell me it's that ruin where everything gets stripped bare.”
Hulla grimaced as he spoke, and Shalom hurriedly covered Zephi and Kephi's ears—but with two sets of ears and only two hands, only Zephi's right and Kephi's left got covered.
Did that even do anything?
“Y-Yeah, it seems like that ruin where you lose everything.”
“What's that? A ruin that strips you bare? Sir Adelian, could I take some of these spice jars... and a bit of the herbs?”
Zero asked curiously, reaching toward me. I pulled a spice jar from my subspace and opened my mouth.
“Is it dangerous?”
“Well... young master. From what I know, once you enter the fog, you can't just walk out normally. You have to gamble with an old man you meet inside.”
Luna paused while scooping spices with Zero, and Lepina sighed before explaining.
“Some call it the gambling addict ruin. People go in thinking 'one more time,' and in bad cases, they bet their memories against the ruin's master and come out without a stitch of clothing.”
“But sometimes folks come out with stuff like horns that scare off monsters no matter how many times you use them, endless tinder that never runs out, or axes that stay sharp as new without honing.”
Hulla followed up Lepina's words, and I slowly curled my lips.
“So that's our destination this time.”
“...Gonna swipe the table and chairs again?”
Kane and Zero chimed in after seeing my face.
What the hell? That's unfair. What do you take me for? I'm a good person. What's with those looks, huh?
“Intriguing, though.”
“What are you saying? Places like that are dangerous.”
“Yeah, no one knows the details, but some come out idiots after betting their memories.”
Hulla and Lepina tried to dissuade me, but even Luna sighed and shook her head after looking at my face.
“We'll have to head out tomorrow...”
Luna, who knew my personality well, seemed to give up already as she shook her head. I just laughed haha.
* * *
That said, I'm no cold-blooded bastard. It'd be rude to crash just one night after they reunited with family after so long.
I stopped Luna from preparing to leave tomorrow and sent her to sleep in her parents' tent. We entered the magic tent I'd set up.
“Your tribesmen are following us, so they'll probably arrive here tomorrow?”
At my question, Hulla tilted his head in thought before nodding.
“Likely. They're probably asking the oracle about you before coming. This time with our tribe's great warrior.”
He joked that if I didn't want a fight, I should treat him well... but looking at Kane's eyes, it seemed I'd have to fight even if I did.
“No temple here, Kane.”
A great warrior would naturally use aura, and two aura users going at it would wreck the area.
No matter who got hurt, it wouldn't be minor, and Kane didn't seem the type for a friendly spar.
I held him back for now and, after some thought, brought up the matter with Hulla.
“I was going to ask Luna's parents first... but a tribe with some power is better. Hulla, let's make a deal.”
“W-What? What kind of deal?”
Why was he so guarded, pressing against the wall like that?
“Chabid lacks food. I'll share some. Not a ton, but enough for dozens of small tribes.”
Hulla, stuck to the wall and wary, perked up a bit at the mention of food.
“...A deal means I give something too, right?”
As you go deeper into Chabid, it stops being grassland and desert nations and just becomes desert.
Even tough Mei plants they don't eat get uprooted and swallowed, or they bake and eat the finer soil.
There are reasons, but the desertification accelerated by experiments seems beyond us now.
The Evil God Cult sowing discord between humans and beastkin by using slave hunters, while other caravans coming to Chabid get raided by beastkin with slave collars...
*I can solve some of that.*
I couldn't tell Hulla his kin were being used that way, so I held back, but the cult was stirring trouble on the human side using beastkin too.
“Of course you have to do something. How long are you going to leave Chabid like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why is Chabid backed into a corner? First, no proper nation. Second, everyone fending for themselves.”
I counted on my fingers as I spoke.
“Third, no education.”
Chabid has no real schools—mostly oral traditions or tribe-specific knowledge.
*Even the game NPCs and enemies had unique abilities.*
Similar powers had different names, often labeled as tribe-exclusive skills.
“So I'll supply some food to put out the fires for now, and you start thinking about forming a caravan.”
[Hulla Patina—Patina Tribe Chieftain]
Representative Traits: [Herbalism (A)] [Leg Strength (B+)]
Hidden Traits: [Pattern Sorcery (D)] [Longing (E)]
Hulla had lost suspicion around me and gained longing instead.
Probably desire for what I had or from our talks—likely Chabid's prosperity and his tribe's safety.
Kane had Longing too, which gave XP bonuses as far as I knew.
Meaning, the more I pushed Hulla now, the more likely he'd gain a new trait or upgrade one.
Lure him right, connect to Alkai, plant him in a nearby caravan, and roast him—he'd gain something.
I smiled slowly.
“Why rely on caravans that come here? Chabid just waits for them.”
“...The continent doesn't accept us properly.”
“No, wrong. The answer is you know nothing.”
I continued as Hulla's slit pupils shook.
“Bargaining, opening trade routes, keeping ledgers, understanding distribution flows. If you could do that, you'd have at least one caravan of your own.”
Being naive and innocent isn't a crime, ignorance isn't a sin.
*But it means you just get taken advantage of.*
Not a crime, but a weakness.
And hyenas bite weaknesses.
“How would you help with that?”
Charrr—
As Hulla furrowed his brow at my words, I rolled Kruger's ring once, then raised my ringed hand to my chest and grinned brightly.
“With money and food.”