"You did it, Penny," I praised.
I was currently high above the spectator seats with my arms crossed. Next to me, Penny was silently peering through the scope of a sniper rifle.
The first thing I'd done after having gotten wind that a dinosaur had appeared was to grab Penny and order her to snipe it. I knew that Wendy wouldn't lose against a dinosaur, or anything of that level, but she still lacked experience in battle. I'd wanted to be sure. So just in case she didn't manage to kill it, I'd been in the air on standby to help follow through, as always.
Then, Penny had magnificently sniped the dinosaur, just like I'd wanted.
Yeah, she's really reliable, isn't she?
"…"
"Penny?"
"It wasn't me…"
Penny denied my praise, expressionless. Well, she's always expressionless.
Apparently Penny wasn't the one who'd dealt the finishing blow. There weren't very many others who could've pulled something like this off, though. I looked over at her, waiting for an explanation.
"An instant before my bullet reached the target, someone else's arrow pierced through its head. All my bullet did was hit a corpse."
"Who was it?"
Penny put away her rifle.
"I do not know. But in this day and age, there are a very limited number of people capable of this," she replied, looking off into the distance. "I believe there is a more than fifty percent possibility that Robyn of the Sagittarius Constellation is nearby."
"Robyn…?"
"Yes."
Apparently we'd be met with an incident in this country, too, though we only came for a change of pace. Whether this was good or bad luck… Well, at least I could say that trouble loved me.
The hunting festival ended safely, and Wendy returned triumphantly as the winner. It was only natural given her level, but it should have at least helped her gain some confidence. I felt kind of bad for the other contestants, but without Wendy, some people would definitely have fallen to the dinosaur, so I considered that to have made things even. At any rate, we would be celebrating her victory tonight. Let's have a small party with food made by Penny, Haruka, and Jaune.
This doesn't really matter, but I didn't cook. It wasn't like I was completely incapable, but what I always did was pretty much just chuck in a bunch of random ingredients to make fried rice. Honestly, every single dish I'd made looked way too terrible to be presented at a party. In that respect, the food that Haruka and the others made passed the mark in both looks and taste. The only thing that had me confused was that I saw Penny doing something like a taste test every once in a while. Can golems even taste?
"I cannot taste, per se, but my tongue has sensors in it. By touching the food to my mouth, I can analyze the composition of the food and its nutrients. Based off of this as well as past data, I am able to select the flavors that would most please you, master."
Just what the hell are golems even…? Jenny, you did way too good of a job. I had the feeling that she'd brought golem technology forward a hundred years by herself.
Strange. Shouldn't golems be more like autonomous lumps of iron or rock or something? Why is this one pretty much just an android?
"Okay, the casserole's done!" Haruka grinned wide as she placed a pot down in front of us with a heavy thud. The fact that she served it to us still in the pot was kind of exciting.
Wait, isn't this just that western dish? A casserole? I remembered it was a dish where you sliced up meat and vegetables and mixed that along with other ingredients like cheese into some soup and baked it in an oven in a heat-resistant container.
But this was a different world, after all. Common ingredients were probably missing, and other ingredients that hadn't existed in the previous world were mixed in. She'd most likely used an old-fashioned oven made of brick instead of the high-tech ones that were common on the other side too. As a result, it resembled a casserole but was surely something different.
Still… It's creepy how similar these are. It's like skills and knowledge were directly copied over to this world… Or am I just reading into things too much? Guess I should at least ask.
"What's this, Haruka?"
"Casserole. It's a staple in Draupnir home cooking. Only, the definition is kind of vague. Pretty much anything with meat and vegetables that you stew in a big pot until it goes soft and gooey can be called a casserole."
"How broad."
"Well, it did originate from the country of beastmen."
I see. So basically, anything that's cooked in a pot is a casserole, which means the actual recipe and ingredients don't mean much? And that would mean it doesn't matter whether it's Eastern or Western in style either. It's almost like a lesser copy of that world… Like, if you just told someone who had no previous knowledge of casseroles the concept, had them make one, and the inferior copy they made spread anyway…
No, wait. Now that I think about it, that setting did exist.
The Goddess gifted pretty much all of the food culture and technology that existed in this world, and that was apparently why humanity never really invented anything nor felt a need to experiment with trial and error. That was the pretty meta excuse the devs gave when the players would ask, "Doesn't this game world overlap way too much with Earth?" But that actually might have been the truth here.
Technology and knowledge from Earth, huh? I guess it's not impossible, since it's already been proven by the fact that you can use Xgate to bring someone over to this world.
"You know, this is pretty elaborate for a beastmen dish."
"Are they really that sloppy?"
"Yes. Beastmen all have very strong stomachs, so they can easily eat meat or vegetables that have only been lightly cooked. If they have to, they can even eat raw food."
Raw too? I guess that part really does make them beasts.
I ate the fake casserole—I mean casserole—as I listened to Haruka's speech. Hmm… It tastes somewhat like a gratin. It's pretty good. Well, I'm willing to bet it was altered to fit our tastes better. It probably tastes worse normally.
"So what's our plan for tomorrow onward?" Jaune asked as he placed a cup with squeezed fruit juice in front of Wendy.
Tayuya and I were having wine. Since I still underage back on Earth I can't drink alcohol due the legal drinking age law, but I don't need to follow that law anymore with my current body. I took a sip to wet my throat and answered the question.
"Originally, we would have left Draupnir, but things have changed. Now that it has been revealed that Robyn the Saggitarius Guardian could be nearby, we will be staying behind to conduct a search."
"I see."
"Hmph. How could that fool dare cause Lady Naru so much trouble? She should be showing her loyalty by rushing to her side."
It seemed like Jaune didn't care much about Robyn, but Tayuya was unhappy, chugging her alcohol while muttering complaints about what loyalty is.
Is she drunk? She's still on her first glass.
"Hmm. For the moment, the plan is to split up into pairs tomorrow. As for the pairs… Hmm… They will be Haruka and us, Penny and Jaune, Fiona and Wendy, and lastly Tayuya and Anko."
"No?!"
After hearing the pairs I'd suggested, Anko, who had never left my side, made a face like the world was ending. Then, she glared at Haruka, enraged, audibly grinding her teeth. On the other hand, Haruka's face paled, and she broke into a cold sweat.
"U-Umm, Big Sis? Please change the pairings. I don't want to be assassinated by the crazy yandere."
"Ah… Hmm, okay then. Haruka will be with Tayuya, and We will pair with Anko."
What should I do? Anko's affection is super heavy and troublesome.
Ignoring Anko, who was once again happily nuzzling my arm, I decided to end the meeting for today. All that was left was to take baths and sleep. This was just a small detail, but every time this happened Anko would offer to wash my back, and I would refuse. I had the feeling that letting her in would result in something unfortunate happening. After all, she'd been caught by Penny sneaking into the changing room while I was in the bath before. She always tried to come in after me, so I had Penny change the bathwater and clean the bath just in case. Whenever I happened to wake up at night, I could see Anko strung up on the ceiling thanks to Penny, who'd caught her trying to do something.
Like, at this point, Penny was so reliable I didn't know what I'd do without her. If only she weren't so broken in other respects… I looked over at Penny. That was when she seemed to have noticed something, as she turned to face the door.
"Master, there is someone outside Honda. Judging from their body temperature and breathing, they are nervous but do not harbor any hostility. Should I finish them off?" Penny asked as she readied her machine gun.
Seriously, why does she always just default to deleting people like that? She'd literally just said that she hadn't sensed any hostility, so just how did that translate to finishing the person off?
"No, don't. First, let us hear what they have to say."
It was common sense to talk first if the other party wasn't hostile. I hid my wings within my cloak and had Haruka go to greet them. In these cases, Haruka was more appropriate for a first impression rather than someone suspicious like me.
She walked over to the door and opened it. Standing there was a bipedal fox… No, wait, a fox beastmen. Beastmen heads and faces were literally that of the animal they took after, so depending on the type they were really cute. It was troubling.
Huh. What happens with echinococcus in a fox beastmen? I'd like to think there's no reason to worry about it, since they live with us freely.
"Kooon."
The fox beastkin made a really cute cry, but Haruka's reaction was as cool, solid, and as excited as cement. "Please speak using Midgar Common."
After her retort, he spoke normally. "Ah, okay."
That'd probably been his best attempt at a joke. Thanks to the awful reception, his ears were drooping. Wait. Actually, is he a 'he'? It's hard to tell genders with beastmen.
"Um, excuse me, but is the person here on this list present?"
"May I see the list?"
"Yes, here."
Haruka took the list and returned to us, leaving the fox at the door. Probably because an RV was so rare, the fox was restlessly looking this way and that around the inside.
I took the list from Haruka and started scanning the names. Among those listed were unknown names like Bikini Muscle, Shadow, Bunny Dandy, and Namikaze Haruto, but I did see Wendy at the top of the list. Are these the names of the top rankers in the hunting festival?
"This is…?"
"Ah'm not really sure on the details, but right now, we're under orders from the emperor to reach out to all the top rankers. If it doesn't trouble you too much, please come to the southern warrior's yurt tomorrow at ten in the morning."
"And the reason for this gathering?"
"Mah apologies. Ah'm at the bottom of the ladder, so they don't tell me much. But they aren't forcing you to do anything. It's just if you're okay with it… So please?"
Apparently this fox was just an errand boy. He couldn't answer pretty much any of my questions, and the fact that Penny had stayed silent meant that he wasn't lying either.
Hmm, if we feel like it?
He said that they were under the emperor's orders, which meant that the emperor was the one calling this meeting. No matter how much countries differed, ignoring such a summons would make things very hard for an adventurer or a traveler. It would probably be correct to assume that not showing up would mean they'd be left pretty much unable to work in that country.
This is basically an order disguised as a request, isn't it? Well, I can still ignore it if I want, though.
Now, then. What should I do about this? If the one being summoned were me or Penny—or anybody other than Wendy, actually—I'd probably just choose to walk into the potential trap.
Even if it turned out to be a trap, any of us would have been able to brute force our way out of it. But Wendy was different. While her level of 300 was amazing for this era, she wasn't invincible. There were others who could match or even exceed Wendy's strength, such as the Seven Grimms of Destruction. Take that weakling grimmfolk that I'd once punched out. If Wendy fought her, there'd be a chance that she'd lose. It wasn't guaranteed that this invitation wasn't laced with malice, but there was no downside to being cautious.
After some thought, I decided to respect Wendy's will. If she wanted to go, I would support her. If she didn't, then we would just blow them off, and I would deal with the emperor or whatever if they made any complaints. Luckily, political power or influence didn't mean much to us.
"Wendy, what do you think?"
"Um, I'm thinking I might go. An invitation like this doesn't come every day, and if there's something I can do to help, I'd like to."
So Wendy's in, then. That just means we'll have to support her.
I'd just changed plans, but it was time to do so again. Instead of having Fiona search for Sagittarius Guardian, I had her on supporting Wendy duty. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have an ear in on the conversation until I knew there wouldn't be any danger posed to Haruka and me.
"Understood. There you have it, Messenger. Tell them that Wendy will participate in your little gathering tomorrow."
"Yes, I will." Having heard my reply, the messenger fox happily ran off. I couldn't take my eyes off of his tail, which swayed with every step. He was probably off to search for the other participants. How energetic.
"Then for now, we should sleep in preparation for tomorrow. Since that's the case, make sure not to stay too long in the bath. We will be shortening our time as much as possible as well."
"Then, Lady Naru, today I will—"
"No."
All I can do is pray that the emperor or whatever didn't invite Wendy out of malice. I don't want to have to make an enemy out of an entire country, after all.