Grilled Meat Burns Your Mouth

In the forest shrouded by night, Kas was wrestling with stones in the hastily built camp.

As a mature Rishiman, he was utterly unfamiliar with making stone tools.

He could only rely on experience and Ancestor's nagging instructions to manually make a stone knife capable of cutting through a wild boar's thick hide.

"First, place the stone on a hard stone base, then use another stone to strike its edge..."

Holding a cone-shaped piece of quartzite, Kas followed Ancestor's instructions and smashed it against the edge of another piece of quartzite resting on the base.

Perhaps he used too much force, or perhaps the quartzite was too brittle. The two stones collided under the Barbarian's strength with a clang that echoed through the entire forest, shattering into tiny fragments.

"Looks like I'm not suited for delicate work." Kas raised a brow, unsurprised by the result.

Even among the Rishiman People, who were famed for their powerful physiques, he was considered exceptionally fierce—a natural-born warrior hailed as worthy of inheriting the clan's honor.

Having only crossed over a few days ago, he still had not fully adapted to this formidable body. He could not accurately judge his strength when doing fine work.

"I..." Ancestor sighed speechlessly, growing ever more helpless toward this foolish boy.

"Aowu~" Miss Aowu was urging him to start dinner. Hunger had tinged her pink eyes with a red glow. If Kas had not stopped her from eating raw meat, she would already have torn open the wild boar's chest and feasted.

"Fine, this is the only way..." Kas waved Miss Aowu over. He had already roughly figured it out.

Before becoming a werewolf, Miss Aowu had most likely been the daughter of some clan chief and had never done physical labor.

Otherwise, she would not have been so unfamiliar with skinning an animal that her sharp claws had punched several bloody holes into the boar's head.

Miss Aowu obediently sat before Kas. After a day together, she no longer lowered her head whenever their gazes met.

Yet when she looked into those icy blue eyes, her pink ones occasionally still shied away.

"Give me your hand."

"Aowu~"

She obediently held out her hand, but as that rough palm drew closer and was about to touch her arm covered in silvery-white fur, she abruptly pulled it back.

Kas keenly caught the flash of fear in Miss Aowu's eyes. He could guess that a werewolf burdened by a curse did not actually want contact with people.

He comforted her, saying, "I'm your... damn it, I really don't want to say this. I'm your husband in name. If one day we have to accept such a fate, do we not even have the courage to touch each other?"

Miss Aowu's hand, tucked against her chest, hesitantly reached out several times. She seemed to accept his words, yet she still had concerns.

Having run out of patience, Kas grabbed Miss Aowu's wrist. Like teaching a child to use chopsticks, he used her sharp claws to cut open the wild boar's thick hide.

Boar hide was a versatile material. Its tough, abrasion-resistant properties made it suitable for leather armor, while after tanning, it could also be made into warm coats or boots.

He did not want to waste such a precious hide. Using Miss Aowu's claws as a knife, he focused entirely on separating skin from flesh.

A werewolf's claws were extremely sharp. Holding Miss Aowu by the wrist, he first cut an incision at the knee of the boar's hind leg and snapped off the troublesome lower leg.

He followed the cut at the knee up toward the abdomen, carved a circle around the anus, then sliced toward the other leg.

With the first step complete, he planted a foot on the boar's back and carefully gripped the edge of the hide with both hands, tugging it downward bit by bit.

Whenever he came across fascia or fat, he instinctively held Miss Aowu's fingers and lightly cut through it as if gripping a small knife. Before long, he had dealt with the troublesome legs and belly.

After cutting off the pig's head, he pulled hard with both hands. With a dull ripping sound, the fascia and hide peeled apart, leaving a complete boar pelt in his hands.

With Miss Aowu's help, the remaining butchering naturally became much simpler.

Kas skillfully cut one hind leg into palm-length slices, threaded them onto gathered branches, and set them into the gaps between the stones surrounding the campfire, waiting for time to turn raw ingredients into delicious food.

Anyone who tried to roast an entire pig leg over a campfire was simply foolish. The result would only be a charred exterior and raw meat within.

The scent of food drifted out alongside the sizzle of fat turning to oil and dripping onto the stones. The browned pork skewers made Miss Aowu's drool form a waterfall down her chest.

She reached for the meat several times, only for Kas to slap her hand away. "Pork has parasites. You have to cook it thoroughly before eating it."

She did not know what parasites were, but she clearly remembered the grayish-white crystals Kas took from his tool bag.

Salt! A marvelous substance that made food more delicious.

Miss Aowu's tail swayed behind her like an electric fan. She could not wait to taste the delicacy she had gone so long without.

After sprinkling on a handful of coarse salt, the vital necessity became even more precious in the Sorrow Mountains. Clans that possessed even a salt well were often extremely wealthy, while the primary way common Rishiman People replenished salt was through animal blood.

Kas handed a cooked skewer to the drooling Miss Aowu.

Her excited tail was practically about to hold up a parasol over her head. She stretched out her head, bit into the grilled meat, and rather boldly stuffed the sizzling, oil-dripping food into her mouth.

The moment she chewed, the scorching meat touched her tongue. Her eyes flew wide from the pain in her mouth, and her throat panted rapidly.

After swallowing the grilled meat with difficulty, she stuck out her pink tongue halfway. Sweat soaked the roots of the fur on her forehead as she looked tearfully at Kas, who intended to feed her again, all while panting heavily.

"Aowu~"

What's going on... why do I think she's a little cute?

Kas muttered inwardly and handed her a water skin full of water. Considering that a werewolf's hands would tear the skin apart, he could only personally shove the mouth of the flask into Miss Aowu's open mouth.

"Aowu~"

Perhaps it was thanks, or perhaps dissatisfaction with Kas's rough movements.

After being force-fed several mouthfuls of water, Miss Aowu seemed a little angry. She refused another feeding, patiently pinched a piece of meat between two fingers, and blew on it to cool it before eating.

However, judging by the way she gritted her teeth every time she ate meat, perhaps blowing on it was merely psychological comfort.

Kas tossed the grilled meat beside the old thing as if throwing away garbage.

"Eat up. I hope you can show me how a skull is supposed to happily eat meat and drink wine."

"You sharp-tongued brat." Morse gritted his teeth and bit off a piece of pork. Grease stuck to his teeth as the delicious food slipped uselessly through the empty skull.

Like all the things one yearned for, they vanished one by one after death. No matter how lively Ancestor appeared, he had long since died and could no longer enjoy the things he once loved.

"What exactly did I come back for?"

Morse stared in confusion at Kas, who was giving Miss Aowu water, then roared angrily:

"Without good food, without good wine, not even a way to make stones gush with spring water!"