"How is this, Tak.u.mi?"

Reia"s first peeled potato ended up in marble-sized fragments.

Little bits of the potato skin were scattered about everywhere on the cave floor.

"Completely hopeless. You gotta be faster and without using too much power at the same time."

I expertly peeled a potato in record time.

"Oooohhh, I would expect nothing less of the great Tak.u.mi."

After seeing the potato not being cut into a thousand pieces, Reia continued with her extolment.

"How amazing. This can only be described as a divine miracle. One could not even recognize that the potato even had skin on it to begin with."

What is with this flattery.

Well, I"ve been peeling potatoes daily for ten years. Just from that, I have the confidence to not lose to any amateur chef.

"Well, start off slowly. We can move to the next stage once you"ve actually peeled a decent-looking potato."

"Yes, Tak.u.mi."

Reia replied with enthusiasm.

Wait, sh*t. I should"ve just said "you"re done when you can peel a decent-looking potato." Now I had to move to a next stage.

No, this girl was p.r.o.ne to harakiri. It was indeed hard to find a middle point between our stances.

"I think I"ll make lavi stew tonight. Are you fine with that?"

"Yes, I have no particular preferences."

Reia nodded while furiously engaging in a 1v1 with a potato.

The second potato also ended up miserably tiny.

"By the way, Tak.u.mi, why is there only meat from small game like lavi and lys? Do you not hunt larger animals like boars and bears?"

I couldn"t tell her that it would be hard to kill boars and bears with my meager strength.

"Rei, do you think you could eat an entire bear?"

"Oh."

Reia came to a realization.

"There should be no senseless killing. To take a life means to have it live on within you as your flesh and blood. I understand now."

"Good that you get it. That"s exactly right."

Well, if I really tried to challenge a bear or a boar, it"d likely be me having to live on in the animal"s flesh and blood. I choose to stay quiet on that small fact.

I started a fire and put a pot over it.

First were the vegetables, and after came the splendidly cut lavi meat.

"There could be nothing less from the ultimate strongest Tak.u.mi."

"Ah, Rei, the ultimate strongest thing was just made up by Alice, okay? I"m just a normal person."

"Your modesty never changes."

No, no, I wasn"t being modest.

That was undoubtedly the truth.

"I heard everything from Alice. Your father is the omniscient and omnipotent G.o.d who created the world, and your mother is the High Dryad, protecting the realm of nature."

My father is just your run-of-the-mill innkeeper and my mother helps him out.

I didn"t think Alice"s ramblings could get any worse, but reality has proven me wrong. I really didn"t know what she wanted from me.

I really wanted to tell her the truth, but seeing that she was talking about me so happily, I just kept quiet.

I mean, knowing this girl"s penchant for murder (of herself), wouldn"t I be killed if she realized everything was a lie? Looking at the horribly destroyed remnants of the potato she so desecrately decimated sent shivers down my spine.

In the end, I couldn"t reverse the path of misunderstanding.

While watching the pot simmer, I had a silent wish in my heart for everything to go back to normal. Yet, as if that very wish was silently sneering at my face, it suddenly happened.

"Tak.u.mi!"

Reia abruptly drew her katana off her back and let out an aura that was visible to even my eyes. I could tell that the level of ferocity was greater than anything I had seen from her before. She had been trying her best at concealing her strength until now.

She was glaring at me with the most demonic expression I could imagine.

Strangely, I didn"t feel fear.

I didn"t really understand why, but it seemed that the fact that I was small fry was exposed. No matter how I struggled, I had no chance of winning.

I silently closed my eyes, knowing very well of my incoming doom.

"…I expected no less. Even this level of killing intent isn"t worth responding to in your eyes."

Hm? What the f*ck is she saying?

I slowly opened my eyes.

Reia"s gaze was fixed not at me but behind me, at the cave entrance.

Cautiously, I turned around.

Something was there.

Standing at the cave"s opening was a dark skinned girl, her sharp eyes shining with a red light.

Her white hair was done in a short bob, and she was about as tall as me, though she looked many years younger. I guessed that she was in her early twenties. Perhaps at first glance, one would think that she was a human. Well, any person who"d think that this girl was a human would be an idiot; what human has a pair of horns on their head and long, beastly claws on her hands? And to top it off, she sported a huge set of black wings on her back. Though her voluptuous chest was certainly not inferior to any human; the swimsuit-like material her clothes were made of seemed to be about to burst.

"What are you? You aren"t human, are you."

Ignoring my presence, Reia spoke to the strange winged girl.

"Of course not. Do I look like someone from such an inferior race?"

The not-human lady began letting out a similar aura to Reia"s. Stuck in the middle of the two, I couldn"t even stand; I was just too scared.

"I am Noiria, Princess of the Black Dragons. I have come to meet the slayer of the Ancient Dragon. So you are Tak.u.mi."

I"ve heard of the Ancient Dragon. Even among dragons, it was highly regarded for its ferocity and strength; many claimed that it was the strongest black dragon. This princess fellow probably didn"t come here in peace. Though somehow she misunderstood Reia as me.

Well, of course she would. How could the slayer of the Ancient Dragon be me, someone who was at the verge of sh*tting his pants at the first sight of a black dragon?

I had a small wish in my heart.

Reia the Almighty, please, just let the misunderstanding slide.

"I am not he, for my power is a mere speck of dust in Tak.u.mi"s wake."

My wish was not granted.

"Interesting, this is truly amusing."

Noiria laughed an evil laugh. Fear in my eyes, I turned to look at the pot. Sc.u.m had formed at the surface of the stew.

I give up. I couldn"t do anything anyways.

"So, where is Tak.u.mi?"

"You still don"t understand? He is sitting right in front of you, is he not?"

"Huh?"

Noiria"s "Huh?" was rather cute.

She took a look at me and quickly looked away, darting her eyes around the area. After confirming that the only people around was her, Reia, and me, she once again took a look at me and pointed.

"Wait, it"s this loser?"

Noiria, frozen in place, had a dumbfounded look in her eyes.

Without giving even half a whit, I continued frantically skimming the sc.u.m off stew"s surface. All my concentration was given to that single action.

I just wanted to have my last dinner in peace.

With that in mind, I could only give it my all.