Katima has been here for a week, and we’re making good progress clearing the forest.
“How’s that? Isn’t Katima great?”
“Yes… You really are.”
“Mufu.”
Despite her face still not really showing emotion, she laughs happily when Reina agrees.
“Really great.”
It’s like a huge typhoon passed through here.
I don’t know where she got it, but Katima used a big stone axe to sweep away one tree after the other.
It was incredible watching her small body blow everything away like a hurricane.
“Katima can hunt an emperor boar alone!”
“People of this island really are…”
Reina looks up at the sky, sounding exasperated. I look where she’s looking too.
Maybe it’s because trees around here are pretty tall, but it’s normally hard for sunlight to reach here. But thanks to Katima, not anymore.
I’ve been taking the trees down and collecting them, but doing both is kind of annoying. But now that Katima’s here, it feels like we’ve accelerated.
“I’ll pick up the fallen trees, so can you clean up the path?”
“Sure.”
“What about Katima?”
“Well… I guess we’ll keep advancing.”
“Got it!”
Katima starts swinging her stone axe like a baseball bat with more power than you’d expect from that small body. I guess it’s too late to be surprised by this sort of thing, considering everyone on this island is incredibly strong.
“Tell me if you’re feeling tired, Reina.”
“Yes, but I’m still fine. And I would dishonor the seven great mages if I was the only one complaining.”
“Well, the other two already tapped out.”
“…Those two… Have all sorts of things going on.”
Xellos and Merlin have been helping, but they specialize in fire and water magic.
They’re not good with the earth magic we need this time, so they quit pretty quickly.
“Hey! You’re gonna be left behind!”
“Let’s just try not to let Katima get too far ahead.”
“…I’m pretty sure I will have to stop before this is done, so good luck with the rest.”
“Sure.”
It’s incredible that a regular human like Reina has managed to stick with it this long. I think about that as I chase Katima, who keeps on going and clearing the way.
◇ ◇ ◇
After we work, we eat. But…
“What do we do, Arata… There’s no food.”
“Yes…”
Katima has a look of despair on her face, and I meekly nod.
Of course, it’s not like we don’t have ingredients. After all, my storage magic is packed with way more stuff than Reina had when she washed up here.
But ingredients don’t just cook themselves. Yes, we need someone with an incredible skill. Someone who can cook.
“If only… I was stronger…”
“It’s not your fault, Reina. Don’t exert yourself, just stay inside and rest.”
“Uu… Sorry.”
I let Reina rest on a bed, and walk outside, where Katima is waiting.
“Well then. As you know, Reina is down due to lack of magic energy.”
“Yes.”
“Which just leaves us.”
Besides Reina, the only people around here are me, Katima, Xellos, and Merlin. But Xellos and Merlin are also down due to using too much magic energy.
Reina usually has a good grasp on the limits of her magic energy, but Katima was so fired up today that it threw off her pacing.
“It’s all right. The elders always say Katima is a girl that can do anything she puts her mind to.”
“Yes.”
I think they say that to get her to do things she doesn’t normally do, but she’s fired up, and I’m not going to put a damper on that.
“I’ve seen Reina cook a lot of times too.”
“Then it’s perfect.”
Katima is looking at me with her eyes sparkling with hope. I want to live up to that hope, but unfortunately, Reina doesn’t usually trust me with the important stuff when she cooks.
That means watching really is everything I have in terms of experience. That also means I probably can’t cook properly.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like my copy cheat works on cooking.
“We have two options.”
“Yes.”
“First, boil.”
“Got it.”
“Second, stew.”
“…What’s the difference?”
It’s actually kind of hard to put it into words. I mean, I can picture it in my head, but I’m not confident that I can explain it well.
“Anyway, those are the two options. You pick one.”
“Well…”
Katima looks bewildered, but it can’t be helped. Reina’s been cooking all this time, so I have no cooking experience to speak of.
I wished to be reincarnated on an island with no people, but now that I think about it, I might’ve been biting more than I could chew. I really should thank Reina. And god.
“It’s settled Arata! Let’s boil!”
“All right, boiling it is.”
I take meat out of my storage magic. We should be running out of emperor boar meat pretty soon.
“Hey Arata, Katima wants bird meat.”
“That’s Luna’s, so we can’t just use it. Ah, I know.”
I forgot to ask something.
“Katima, is dragon meat tasty?”
“Dragon? The best. Strong dragons are really strong. But Katima and the others don’t get to eat their steaks a lot though.”
“I see… What a waste.”
I should’ve brought that calamity dragon or whatever. I could’ve asked Tiltue nonchalantly, and if she had a problem with it, we could’ve eaten it in secret.
“Now to you mention it, there’s the presence of a strong dragon here.”
“Oh? You can tell?”
“Katima’s brilliant. And alfar don’t usually go against strong things, so we can sniff them out.”
“I see.”
“Ah, but we’d fight strong things for the great spirit!”
Katima rushes to add, and I smile awkwardly.
That’s right, Elga said that divine beast people and alfar don’t get along, and they’ve fought before.
“I was thinking about eating a strong dragon before, but ended up not doing it. Now I’m thinking it was a waste.”
“Hm… Then what about that dragon? That dragon’s strong.”
“Hn?”
I look to where Katima is pointing, and see Tiltue in her humanoid form looking this way with tears welling up in her eyes.
“Ah…”
“D-darling? Eat me? I-is that how you see me?”
I guess she heard us.
And she’s completely misunderstanding. How do I respond…”
“N-no…”
“Darling you’re a jeeeeeerk!”
She yells while running into the forest.
“Ah, Tiltue!”
“Katima knows. They call this a lovers’ tiff.”
I ignore what Katima just said, and run after Tiltue in the forest.
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