Taming the Fox
“The most effective way to train animals is to use food.”
…That’s it!
Watching the video, Journey—Daeun—sprang up from the sofa with such force that it practically bucked beneath her.
If her mother, who doted on her to a ridiculous degree, had seen her, she would have laughed and smacked her on the back as a greeting.
But, by a stroke of immense luck, her mother—who occasionally visited her one-room apartment—didn’t come by today, and she managed to protect her back from the usual treatment.
“People are animals too, anyway!”
It was a leap of logic so wild it bordered on derangement.
If her viewers had heard that, the chat would’ve filled with question marks, but Daeun had no idea.
“From ancient times, serving a meal has always meant more than just putting food in someone’s stomach.”
When an honored guest arrived, one offered them a lavish meal.
Even when money was tight, there were countless stories of people refusing to let a visitor go hungry and treating them with utmost hospitality.
And hadn’t even awkward relationships tended to warm up once people sat down to eat together?
In other words, sharing food had the effect of deepening affection with the person at the table and closing the distance between them.
And, lurking underneath all that, there was also a little dark intention: once someone had been treated well, it became harder for them to refuse the host’s request.
“If I bring her something delicious, we’ll definitely get closer in no time.”
Wasn’t it always like that—when you were little, the adults who gave you snacks somehow seemed extra cool?
Maybe the gravekeeper would be the same.
There probably isn’t anyone who hates good food.
The beginning of the idea had been bizarre, but the conclusion she reached was surprisingly plausible.
Shin Daeun was action; action was Shin Daeun.
Having reached her conclusion, she immediately climbed into her VR capsule and started her broadcast.
Almost instantly, the woman who had been Daeun became Journey, and she explained her plan to her viewers.
“-So, recommend me some tasty food. Nothing too hard to get or absurdly expensive.”
Food names exploded across the chat like weeds after rain.
The chat room was a torrent of dishes each viewer personally considered delicious.
Journey carefully wrote down anything that wasn’t repeated and crossed off anything she couldn’t reach because it was too far away or couldn’t buy under the circumstances.
Even if she put it in her inventory, that didn’t mean the food would stay fresh.
Being an extra-dimensional storage space, it could preserve things a little longer, but only by that much.
There were preservation bags made by magitech engineers, but they were far too expensive for ordinary people to buy.
Because of that, players who weren’t good at cooking often had to make do with hard dried jerky or flavorless soup if they stayed outside a village for long.
“For a first try, meat dishes are probably best, right? I mean, she did share some with me.”
The cockatrice meat the gravekeeper had given her had been incredibly delicious.
But it was also true that she’d been left wanting more.
It was already that good just grilled over a fire… so if I actually cook it properly…?
How delicious would it be, then?
Just imagining it made her mouth water.
No, wait.
Journey wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
“When I looked a little closer last time, it didn’t seem like she even had any proper cooking tools.”
-When did you even see that?
-Were you casing the place for something to steal?
-Hmm… sounds plausible.
“What do you mean, plausible? Anyway, she lives in the mountains, so complicated dishes would be hard, right? So if I bring her a meat dish that takes a lot of work, wouldn’t she like it?”
-“The meat you gave me is better than this.”
-That’s how you establish the hierarchy, huh damn.
-Such a rotten personality… simply joat
-We won’t be seeing you off. Goodbye.
“That’s not it!”
Luckily, there was apparently a restaurant not too far away that made delicious meat dishes.
It was some kind of dish made by scoring the meat, marinating it in all sorts of spices and wine, then doing this and that… or so she’d heard.
She couldn’t even remember the explanation properly, which only made it more fitting as a dish that took a lot of effort.
With the ever-criticizing viewers in tow, Journey bought the food and headed back up the mountain where the gravekeeper lived.
Whenever a monster appeared, she crouched down and held her breath until it passed, and once, while riding and studying Granic, she bit her tongue.
Fortunately, she reached the gravekeeper’s home safely this time without running into another cockatrice, and she wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Hi!”
“…”
As expected, there was no greeting in return.
At least she didn’t kick me out.
Silence was much better than a savage attack the moment she set foot inside.
Thinking positively, Journey strode forward with purpose.
“Food, thanks!”
“…?”
Her command of the language was still rough, so instead of full sentences she strung together short words. Then she took the food out of her inventory.
It wasn’t still steaming the way it had when she first bought it, but it still held some warmth.
“Me, give food.”
“…Haa?”
Ah, she thought she understood that one.
Even while hearing something that sounded more like a sigh than a word, Journey kept pushing the food toward the gravekeeper without flinching.
The gravekeeper stared at it just as Journey had done the day before, and at last took the offered meal from her hands.
It was such a heartwarming sight, like a cat with its fur all puffed up finally approaching you, that she murmured without thinking.
“Doesn’t she kind of seem like a wary wild animal?”
“…?”
“Ah, no, no.”
The gravekeeper tilted her head at Journey’s not-quite-solo muttering.
“What is this supposed to be now….”
With a long sigh, the gravekeeper speared a piece of meat with the fork she’d brought from the cabin and put it into her mouth.
The moment stretched tight.
Chew, chew.
Munch, munch.
“…Oh.”
No reaction at all…?
Journey had expected at least a little response from someone eating something tasty, but the gravekeeper only moved her fork with dull indifference.
She speared the meat, brought it to her mouth, and chewed.
Even dried jerky would’ve shown more expression than this.
“Wait, was it not good?”
Munch.
“...It’s good.”
Journey tried a piece of her own and grew even more puzzled.
It would have tasted better while it was hotter, but even now, slightly cooled, it was still delicious enough.
-Looks like her pride got hurt lol;
-“I made a big deal out of sharing my meat, and the next day you brought me a meat dish. Are you trying to start a fight?”
-Yep, that’s exactly right~
-Did she think you were trying to diss her?
“Was it really something like that…?”
While Journey was still lost in confusion, the gravekeeper’s bowl was already empty.
“She finished it, so I guess it wasn’t bad.”
She wasn’t made of stone, so how could she have no reaction at all?
At the very least, shouldn’t her shoulders have twitched?
…Is she really some kind of biological golem?
Clack.
The gravekeeper set down the bowl and rose from her seat.
Then, without a word either way, she turned her attention back to tending the flower bed.
…
Her plan, which she’d thought would work, had gone sideways from the very start.
As Journey watched the gravekeeper with a dazed expression, her eyes suddenly lit up.
“Heh… hehheh, hehhehheh…! Right, it wouldn’t be fun if she gave in that easily.”
I wasn’t expecting that from the beginning anyway.
There was no reason to be disappointed now.
Journey clenched her fists.
“Just you wait. I’ll bring every delicacy in the world and see whether she can keep reacting the same way!”
-You’re scaring me;
-I’m seeing you for the first time today. Why is she suddenly like this?
-First time? (A chat member who’s been following for over a week)
From that day on, Journey’s routine never changed.
She woke up in the morning, turned on her broadcast, and went out on expeditions to buy food.
In between, she checked her fan café for new posts and studied with the Granic dictionary she’d worked so hard to get her hands on.
Finally, she climbed the mountain, offered food to the gravekeeper, and was disappointed by the reaction—or lack of one.
It was the same wheel-turning repetition day after day.
She worked so hard that she even ended up relying on viewers who usually never bothered to help, but the gravekeeper’s response remained hopelessly flat, and Journey’s spirit was gradually worn down.
“Eheheh… eheheheheh… She hates tasty food that much? Then maybe I should try feeding her weird food instead…? Was there Hawaiian pizza in Silia…?”
-Hey, get a grip;
-Where can I find a painless way to die?
-It’s painless, right?
-Haha, I’m fine with no pain~
-??? Why is Hawaiian pizza weird?
For anyone else, this would have been a perfectly reasonable point to give up.
She’d come every single day for a week without fail and offered food, yet not only had she not heard a single word of praise, she hadn’t even gotten a reaction. How could she not be exhausted?
And yet, whether that was unfortunate or lucky, Journey was unusually good at enduring things.
-Haven’t you done enough already?
-I think you should find another way.
-Ugh, damn, this is driving me insane.
Judging by the viewers watching her broadcast, though, it seemed to be unfortunate for them.
Clack.
The gravekeeper quietly set down her bowl.
She’d been turned away again today, if not exactly turned away.
At this point, Journey was beginning to suspect the woman might not even be tasting anything at all.
“Sigh….”
Journey put the empty bowl into her inventory and let out a deep breath.
“Was I really wrong?”
-You’re asking now???
-Honestly, the plan was pretty hopeless from the start.
“Was it…?”
Even Journey, who was usually so confident, couldn’t hide how deflated she felt.
Her viewers showered her with donations to comfort her pitiful state, but her shoulders still hung low.
“I guess I was too full of myself.”
The excitement of discovering something no one else had known, the superiority of being a pioneer.
Once those blindfolding emotions fell away, she finally began to think that maybe she had been wrong.
“Still, didn’t her favor level go up even a little? She doesn’t look at me like I’m an idiot anymore, at least.”
-Since when did Silia Online become a dating sim?
-Wow, a god-tier game where you can even date NPCs.
-Just how much money did you spend trying to raise affection by a little?
-You have to spend money on dates anyway, yeah.
-This isn’t a date, it’s just a wallet.
“Let’s not talk about money, okay?”
Journey gave a gloomy little voice as she thought of her wallet, which had been reduced to a pitiful state by the sudden diet.
She was the one who’d gone and bought all this on her own, without being asked, calling it a gift in return, but somehow she still felt wronged.
What was the point of blaming anyone else? It had been her own doing.
Swish.
Journey watched the gravekeeper cleaning her sword with melancholy eyes, then shook her head back and forth.
Her short hair, which brushed lightly against her shoulders, swayed with the motion and tickled her neck.
“I came early today, so I’ve got time to spare. Should I hang around a little longer before I go?”
-Oh, nice.
-Let’s gooo
-Q&A, let’s go
But what was she supposed to do?
As you could tell even from the chat now, people had plenty of questions for the gravekeeper.
Journey was no different, and even though she kept trying to speak to her, no answer ever came back.
She thought her Granic had improved quite a lot—not quite enough to say she was making leaps and bounds, but enough that she’d studied diligently. Yet with the other woman refusing to speak, there was no way to tell whether she was learning correctly.
They always said talking with a native speaker was the best way to learn a language, but what were you supposed to do if the native speaker didn’t talk?
Answer: switch to someone else.
If I could do that, I would’ve.
Even knowing the answer, she couldn’t act on it, and that only made things more frustrating.
“The sword…”
Oil-soaked cloth slowly ran over the blade.
Journey watched the path the cloth left behind catch the sunlight and glimmer, then suddenly drew out her own sword.
“Maybe I should practice swordsmanship a bit? I can’t keep asking for protection every time.”
Since she had nothing else to do anyway, there was no reason not to practice.
That was what she thought as she stood up, but once it came time to start, her mind went blank.
“…So what do I do now?”
-Start with a downward strike. That’s the standard.
“A downward strike? Like this?”
Yap, yap.
Journey lifted her sword high above her head.
If she’d been in reality, her arms would’ve been trembling, but the stat bonuses let her hold it steady without trouble.
Downward strikes, middle thrusts, low slashes….
Swish, whirr!
The quiet clearing echoed with the sound of the sword cleaving the air.
Journey herself didn’t even know whether she was doing it right.
She just hoped that doing something might help, even a little.
...Pfft!
It’s exactly like trying to crack the gravekeeper.
Not even knowing whether you’re doing it right, but trying anyway.
Yeah. Since when had my travels ever gone according to plan?
Sometimes things just didn’t work out, that was all.
If you were lucky, you got results.
And then, at that moment—
Hoo….
At some point, the sword in her hand had begun to feel strangely light.
By the time sweat had beaded across her bare forehead, Journey let out a light breath and lowered her arm.
“I’ll just rest a little and—”
“...That’s not how you do it.”
“...?!“
An unexpected voice struck her ears.