Travel and Cooking

There was no polite preamble. It was as though asking whether he needed help was the most natural thing in the world to her.

"Helping someone and then asking for payment—that's something Himmel taught me."

Seeing that Lorenzo seemed stunned, Frieren explained further.

"I'm very interested in your Celestial True Magic."

She really was direct. Who went up to someone and offered to help, only to demand their True Magic as payment? It was practically a forced transaction. Anyone unfamiliar with her personality would probably have thought she was extorting them. But coming from Frieren, it was normal enough.

Lorenzo recalled what he had seen in the anime in the life before his last. Come to think of it, if he died in this world, would he transmigrate again? In that case, wouldn't his very first life become the life before the life before his last...?

Forget it. It was better not to think about death if he could help it.

"Celestial True Magic? Has someone used that kind before?"

Lorenzo gathered his thoughts and asked.

"Yes." Frieren thought for a moment. "But that was a long time ago."

A long time ago.

If a mage like her, who had lived for a thousand years, said something had happened "not long ago," she absolutely couldn't be trusted. But if she said "a long time ago," it probably really had been a long time—at least a century, he guessed.

"Then have you seen this so-called 'Celestial True Magic' before?"

Frieren shook her head.

She had never even seen it, so how had she immediately decided that the "True Magic" he used had something to do with celestial bodies?

"I only heard my teacher talk about it. Using the power of celestial bodies to fight sounded a lot like what you just did."

"Your teacher?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Flamme."

Why did Flamme know about Celestial Magecraft?

Lorenzo knew very little about that legendary great mage, though that seemed understandable. After all, in both the anime and the manga in his previous life, Flamme had only ever existed in Frieren and Serie's memories. There had never been much information about her. Could her magic have already been capable of drawing on the power of celestial bodies?

Surely another member of the Animusphere Family hadn't transmigrated into the past and taught Flamme? Besides, he seemed to be the only person in the family who could use Celestial Magecraft this way.

Frieren thought for a moment, then added more.

"That feeling of resonance was exactly as my teacher described it. The moon, the stars, the power of celestial bodies... The way you channel them is very different from the ordinary use of mana."

Lorenzo fell silent for a moment.

As expected, it was more likely that Flamme had figured it out herself.

But was something like Celestial Magecraft already so widespread in another world? Those mages had always gone on about how noble and unique Celestial Magecraft was, calling it the culmination of thousands of years of human effort at every opportunity. In the end, Flamme had managed it on her own. That kind of talent really was a little enviable.

"Is there anything you need my help with?"

Frieren repeated her initial question, without a trace of impatience in her voice, as though she had already decided she could perfectly fulfill any request he made, no matter how troublesome or time-consuming.

"Then let me travel with you."

Lorenzo thought for a moment before answering Frieren.

"Huh?"

This time, it was her turn to look puzzled.

"This is the only kind of magic I know, and I want to learn some others. So naturally, you'd be the best person to teach me, right?"

After his magecraft education in his previous life, Lorenzo didn't believe the Celestial Magecraft he currently used could be called "True Magic." But if he insisted on arguing with people in this world that he used "magecraft" rather than "magic," they would definitely take him for a weirdo.

Frieren nodded without any change in expression. She silently studied Lorenzo for a moment, then picked up her small suitcase and walked deeper into the forest.

"Then come along."

"That's it?"

"That's it," she said without looking back. "First, let's find somewhere to shelter from the rain. The dark clouds will be back before long."

That had gone a little too smoothly. He had thought that to travel with Frieren, he would first have to pass some strange test, like smashing a distant boulder or killing a monster and bringing back its head as proof of his intent to join...

He hadn't expected it to be so simple.

"But if we're looking for shelter, there's no need to keep going. There's a house I built over there."

Lorenzo called out to Frieren, who was walking deeper into the forest without looking back, and pointed off to the side.

Frieren stopped and looked in the direction he was pointing.

Sure enough, a small wooden cabin could just barely be seen, built between two large trees.

Only when they drew closer could they see the whole thing. It was far from elegant, even a little crude, but its structure was solid, its doors and windows fitted snugly, and the slope of the roof was just right. Rainwater ran down the boards to either side, with no sign of any leaking through.

Lorenzo stepped forward and pushed open the wooden door, then moved aside and gestured for her to enter.

Frieren carried her suitcase inside.

The cabin was small but tidy. There was a little fireplace in the corner with some unused firewood stacked nearby, and a simple table, a few chairs, and a bed by the window.

She looked down and surveyed the room, then set down her suitcase and turned around.

"Is there a campfire?"

"The fireplace." Lorenzo had already crouched down and begun putting wood into it. "Same thing."

Frieren thought about it and decided it really was the same, so she sat down at the table and quietly waited for the fire to catch.

Orange firelight sprang up, driving back the shadows in the cabin bit by bit as warmth slowly spread. Lorenzo had just finished using magecraft and was about to turn around when he found that Frieren had moved to his side without his noticing.

She held both hands close to the fireplace, her eyes half-closed and her face full of contentment, looking just like a cat warming itself by a fire. It seemed that, if circumstances allowed, she would have wanted to crawl right inside. Though, since it was Frieren, she probably wouldn't singe her fur by getting too close to the fireplace the way a cat would.

It was a very rude thought on Lorenzo's part.

Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time he had had a visitor at home since coming to this world. As the host, he ought to bring something out for his guest.

So he turned and opened the small cupboard against the wall, taking out some cooking utensils, seasonings, and ingredients.

"What's that?"

Frieren looked at Lorenzo.

"Cooking," he answered naturally, setting a pan beside the fireplace. "Have you eaten dinner?"

Frieren thought for a moment.

"No."

"Perfect, then." Lorenzo clapped his hands. "Let me give you a taste of my cooking. I call this dish Demon Wolf Steak."

In all the time since he had come to this world, he hadn't seen a living person in this forest, but living monsters were everywhere. Although many disappeared outright when killed, some did leave corpses behind.

Take Demon Wolves, for instance. They had been showing up a little too often lately. Before, there had only been four or five every month or two, but three had appeared in the past week. He was honestly getting rather tired of eating them. On the other hand, because of that, he had become very skilled at cooking every cut of Demon Wolf.

The shoulder was suited to slow stewing, the ribs were good roasted, and the leg meat had coarse fibers, but if marinated long enough, it became the most tender cut of all.

Lorenzo briefly ran through what he had learned.

With a plan in mind, a good idea quickly followed.

He then began expertly preparing the steak he had previously preserved with magecraft. Picking up a knife, he cut the meat along the grain into steaks two fingers thick.

The cut surface was dark red, bearing traces of the marinade that had soaked into it. The marbling was uneven, but Demon Wolves were wild creatures to begin with, so expecting their meat to be as fine as livestock's wasn't very realistic. Still, if he had the means to raise Demon Wolves in the future, would they taste different?

He heated the pan and added oil.

The moment the oil came up to temperature, Lorenzo laid the steaks flat in the pan. They sizzled, oil crackling and popping, and the aroma burst out at once, rich and direct. The smell of searing meat filled the entire cabin.

He didn't rush to turn them over.

Heat couldn't be rushed, especially with Demon Wolf meat. Its fibers were coarser than those of ordinary game, and too much heat would easily burn the outside while leaving the inside raw. It had to be cooked slowly over medium heat, letting the warmth penetrate bit by bit.

Frieren watched from the side for a while.

"Are there a lot of Demon Wolves in this forest?"

"There weren't many before, but lately it feels like there are more."

Lorenzo didn't look up, continuing to focus on cooking the meal.

"Didn't you run into any on your way in?"

"I ran into two."

"Then what happened to their corpses?"

"Hmm... Magic turned them all into pieces."

"That's a bit of a shame. Demon Wolf meat is actually pretty tasty, and their hides keep you warm, too."

After about two minutes, the undersides of the steaks had developed a lovely seared crust, an even golden brown with edges that curled up slightly. The juices were locked inside and hadn't seeped out yet.

Lorenzo flipped them over.

The other sides hit the bottom of the pan with another sizzle, louder than the first, and the aroma surged up again.

He casually tossed in some crushed garlic, followed by a small piece of herb butter he carried with him. The butter melted quickly in the heat, spreading across the bottom of the pan with the garlic's fragrance and turning into a golden liquid. He picked up a long spoon and poured the juices over the steaks again and again.

As for where the garlic, butter, and the like had come from, the people in the Clock Tower's Department of Modern Magecraft simply loved tinkering with all sorts of strange magecraft. Although he had been somewhat prejudiced against them in his previous life, only after coming to this world had he discovered that some of their research was genuinely useful.

If he ever had the chance to go back, he would have to set the record straight for them.

After basting them a few more times, Lorenzo turned off the heat. He took out the steaks, set them on plates he had washed beforehand, and sprinkled one last handful of chopped herbs over them. Then he squeezed a little sour berry juice beside each one. The dark red juice slowly ran along the edges of the steaks, making their golden-brown surfaces look even better.

Lorenzo carried the two plates of Demon Wolf Steak to the table. Frieren looked down, stared at her steak for two seconds, then picked up her knife and fork and cut into it.

The cut surface was a lovely pink, and the meat juices slowly seeped out, mingling with the scent of butter and herbs and spreading through the steam.

She speared a piece with her fork and put it in her mouth. After two seconds of silence, she spoke.

"Delicious."