You Call Yourself an Excellent Hunter with That Much Belly Fat? (Laughs)
You Call Yourself an Excellent Hunter with That Much Belly Fat? (Laughs)
Veronia, of the Wolf Clan, liked a great many foods.
True to her kind, she loved meat, but she didn't turn her nose up at vegetables or fruit, either.
Small wonder.
"To fight well, you must eat a balanced diet!"
She believed that building a healthy body was the most efficient path to victory.
Even a human whelp knew that eating a variety of foods was good for your health.
So she never went out of her way to be picky.
She had her likes and dislikes, of course.
But even though Veronia wasn't finicky, there was one menu she prized above all others.
Sweet desserts.
On days she had a hard fight ahead, she always put something sweet in her mouth first.
That was a trick a senior fighter at the arena had shared with her back when she was trembling with fear before her first bout.
-Eat this, and you'll find your courage.
The moment that sugary dessert touched her tongue, the fear and anxiety she always felt before a fight melted away entirely.
Her fear forgotten, she won her debut match, and eating a sweet dessert became a ritual for her.
That was when it started.
The reason she grew so uncommonly fond of sweets.
At first, she ate them to win fights. Now, she ate them often simply because desserts were delicious in their own right.
"My mouth is bored! Bring me sweet snacks!"
By now, she ate desserts even on days with no fight at all.
And until now, she'd never had any trouble getting them.
She was Lilyan's top fighter, after all — the gladiator who earned the most coin and enjoyed the finest treatment.
Her taste for desserts didn't vanish just because she left home on a journey.
Veronia's sensitive nose never missed a sweet scent.
Wasn't that exactly why she'd raided a Pumpkin-Bee hive?
At the very least, she could confidently claim to have eaten more varieties of dessert than any other Wolf Clan warrior.
And among all the desserts she'd ever tried, this thing called yakgwa sitting before her now ranked among the very, very best.
It was hard to call it the single most delicious, but it easily made her top five.
That was only natural.
It was made with high-grade Pumpkin-Bee honey, plus Lucas's special seasoning ingredient: mana.
What truly captured her heart wasn't just the sweetness — it was the sheer quantity of yakgwa filling the bowl.
'The most delicious dessert I ever had was the size of a finger. It was so stingy....'
This was different.
This yakgwa — rich and sticky-sweet, dense yet crisp — still filled the bowl in front of her eyes.
'Delicious. Delicious. Delicious!'
She wanted to keep eating.
It felt like energy was flooding her whole body.
Of course, she'd already topped off her essential sugars when she raided the Pumpkin-Bee hive, but that was beside the point.
How could nature's snacks possibly compare to treats prepared by a top-class chef?
Her tail began to wag on its own.
Every time she popped a piece of yakgwa into her mouth, her navy-blue tail swayed side to side.
Veronia herself, lost in savoring the flavor, didn't even notice.
Maybe that was why.
'This will be good too, right?'
Her gaze landed on the cup of ginger tea, still trailing wisps of steam.
Beneath the sharp, spicy aroma, she caught a sweet scent.
A bouquet of fragrances that both pricked her sensitive nose and wrapped around it tenderly — all in a single cup.
-It'll be good for your hangover.
She recalled the words Lucas had spoken when he first set this before her.
Apparently, this human had no idea why she'd actually passed out.
'That's a relief.'
It didn't seem like she'd made some special blunder.
She had no way of knowing, of course.
To Lucas, a veteran of modern Korean company-dinner culture, Veronia's drunken antics — no, her drunken heat — were absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
"I will eat this well, too!"
Veronia carefully took a sip of the still-steaming ginger tea.
Slurrrp!
"Gaaaah!!!!"
Spicy!
Sharp!
Her face scrunched up at the pungent heat, and she stuck out her tongue before she could stop herself.
But strangely, she didn't hate it!
The sharp, spicy kick of the ginger was the first to arrive, thoroughly rinsing her palate clean of all the cloying sweetness that had coated it until now.
As the ginger tea slid down her throat, it washed away the heavy sugary residue left behind by the yakgwa.
Then, as if to soothe the sweetness so abruptly chased off by the invading heat, honey gently cradled the finish.
The ginger's pungent heat swept away the thick, heavy sweetness and replaced it with a new kind of sweetness altogether.
Though a trace of the ginger's sharpness lingered alongside it.
"Yum-yum."
Veronia licked her lips without thinking.
Her appetite surged.
Her belly was stuffed full with dessert just moments ago, and yet now she wanted to eat again.
But what satisfied her even more was something else.
'Warm.'
Her insides felt soothed.
The ginger tea warmed her body, still languid from her heat.
The heat of the drink spread through her stomach, filling her with warmth, and the sensation was strangely wonderful.
Unlike the sharp, stimulating effect she got from desserts, this coaxed her body and spirit into a drowsy, contented ease.
How to describe it? As if her body had gone slack and was floating weightlessly atop the water?
"What is this?"
When Veronia asked after taking a sip, Lucas answered with a smile.
"It's ginger tea, simmered with ginger and pear. If you mix it with honey and drink it, it's a good hangover cure."
"How curious! The ginger I know has a much stronger fragrance than this."
Slurrrp.
She fell into a rhythm: sip the tea, eat a piece of yakgwa, repeat.
Sweet-spicy-sweet-spicy.
The flavor was oddly addictive.
The way the peppery, sharp heat fused with the sweetness — it felt, strangely, as though the stress was just melting away.
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
Her tail wagged on its own.
The motion had nothing whatsoever to do with her volition.
A thought crossed her mind: if only she could eat this magnificent dessert every day.
Every day, huh.
The distance between Lilyan and this village was about four days by her own running pace.
Going by horse, it would take about a week.
If she was active as a fighter in Lilyan, eating here every day might prove impossible.
'Tricky.'
But then again.
Desserts had the advantage of keeping for a long time, so couldn't she just buy a huge quantity and take it back with her? No need to come every day.
"I don't really like this, personally."
The tactless forest dweller, Andrea, grumbled and stuck out her tongue, scrunching up her face.
Ungrateful elf.
Lucas must have worked hard to make this, and here she was complaining about the food.
Soft. Utterly soft!
"If you don't want it, don't drink it! I'll finish the whole thing!"
"Wha-what? Who made you the boss of that?"
As Veronia moved to snatch the ginger tea, Andrea clamped her own cup tightly.
"Didn't you say it was gross so you weren't drinking it?"
"Wh-who said it was gross?"
"Then why did you say you weren't going to drink it?"
"Th-that's...."
Andrea's eyes flicked toward Lucas.
It looked like she was gauging the human chef's reaction.
"I-I can't say! Why should I have to tell the likes of you, anyway?"
Her stance was unyielding.
It carried the clear implication that any further pressing would mean an immediate fight.
Veronia felt her fighter's spirit stir in response.
The killing intent Andrea was giving off made her skin prickle and her fur stand on end.
She wanted nothing more than to throw down with this elf right here and now, but she judged that would be an insult to the benefactor who had served her this meal.
She couldn't wreck her benefactor's business.
"If you don't want to say, then don't."
Veronia, suppressing her combative instincts with sheer patience, licked her lips and withdrew her hand from the cup.
Andrea said she'd drink it, so she'd damn well better finish it off properly.
"Ahem! That was a delicious meal! It's been a long time since I've had a dessert this good!"
Even as she spoke, her hand was already reaching for more yakgwa.
Watching her, Lucas grinned.
"If you ate well, you know what comes next, right?"
Lucas spoke while eyeing the yakgwa crumbs clinging to the corner of her mouth.
Both Veronia and Andrea seemed satisfied by the taste of the yakgwa.
No way they wouldn't be.
This was, after all, K-tanghulu.
This was the dessert that had conquered Korea long before tanghulu ever became a fad.
In other words, a treat that had enjoyed nationwide adoration for ages.
With Andrea, it didn't matter — she was already paying for her meals with physical labor. But Veronia was a different story.
Her help with finding the honey had already been repaid by the bulgogi lunchbox earlier.
She had to pay for the yakgwa separately.
"Ahem! I, too, am a Wolf Clan warrior with a sense of honor! How could I simply move on after eating such delicious food? Besides, I caused trouble earlier with my heat... I mean, my drunken antics, so tell me what you desire! I, Veronia, top fighter of Lilyan, shall assist you in any way!"
"Assist in any way. Can you take responsibility for that statement?"
"Absolutely! The Wolf Clan does not irresponsibly disregard a debt owed!"
"It's going to be a real handful, this task."
I rose from my seat and took a step closer.
"What if it's something even a top fighter can't solve?"
"To take on a challenge — that is the very virtue of our Wolf Clan!"
"As expected. Naturally, you'll sweat, you'll be gasping for breath, and it might even feel so good you'll lose your head. It'll hurt at first, but as you keep at it, the mood will improve so much you'll forget the pain."
"...That sounds like no ordinary task."
I placed a hand on Veronia's shoulder and continued.
"Of course, if you have money, paying with coin is fine too."
"That won't be necessary! Physical work is my specialty!"
Andrea, who'd been watching this exchange, wedged herself between Veronia and me.
"No! L-lewd stuff isn't okay!"
Andrea blocked my path.
"...What are you talking about, Andrea?"
"Huh?"
"Why would I make her do something like that."
"...Eh?"
"Are all elves secretly that lecherous on the inside?"
"B-but you said it's a task where you sweat, and your breath gets ragged, and it feels good...."
Hearing that, Veronia let out a sigh.
"Huu, wouldn't he obviously be talking about a hunt?"
"A... hunt?"
"Yes. Finding a mighty quarry, shedding sweat and blood, forgetting the body's pain, and seizing the moment you achieve your goal! Is that not the very virtue of the hunt!"
"Who describes a hunt like that?!"
While Andrea was shrieking at me, Veronia reached over and pinched her lower belly.
"An elf like you wouldn't know, would you! Idling away in peacetime until your gut goes all soft and flabby like this...."
"KYAAAAAA!!!!!"
Her soft underbelly seized, Andrea screamed and drew her sword.
Shiing!
Veronia reflexively whipped out the twin daggers at her hips and blocked the blow.
Sharpened steel clashed in midair, spraying sparks.
"Wh-where do you think you're touching?! A-and I haven't put on that much weight! I, too, was hunting and enjoying the Art of the Hunt until recently...."
At those words, Veronia's eyes flicked between Andrea's face and her belly.
"Hah!"
A scoff.
Undisguised mockery.
A face that screamed "don't you lie to me."
Her pride in tatters, Andrea looked at me.
"Boss, you tell her. Tell her the path I've walked."
"...."
I met Andrea's eyes, which were practically begging me to vindicate her.
'Hmm....'
An elf warrior who loved the hunt and took pleasure in the Art of the Hunt.
Sure, she'd told me that herself.
'But I've never actually seen Andrea hunt.'
When we first met, her body was so absurdly well-honed it defied belief.
But what had she done since coming to work at the restaurant?
Clock in, eat the breakfast I'd prepared, prep ingredients, force a smile while serving, then eat lunch, serve, deal with customers....
'Eat dinner.'
....
A silence settled over the restaurant.
The longer it went on, the redder Andrea's face grew.
"Gyahahahaha!!! Look at that! Even your own boss can't vouch for you! An elf, gone soft from peacetime, rolling in flab!"
"It's not rolling in flab! It's just a teeensy bit of extra padding."
Andrea, after snapping back at Veronia, glared at me with teary eyes.
"You're so mean, Boss. After all the hard work I've put in here... I used to be a pretty famous hunter, you know!"
I mean, you never showed me any hunting.
I couldn't bring myself to say the words out loud.
Saying that much would probably make her cry on the spot.
Andrea, jaw clenched, spoke up.
"Then let's settle this."
"Settle it?"
"Whoever brings down the worthier quarry."
"Now that's not a bad proposal! But who will be our judge?"
Andrea's eyes turned to me.
Following her gaze, Veronia looked at me as well.
"We have our perfect judge right here!"
"...You're actually going to do this?"
Andrea, you have work tomorrow.