Little Red Riding Hood Had to Meet the Big Bad Wolf

The next day, when Kas woke up and saw Miss Aowu curled into a ball of fur, he found himself thinking about many things.

He knew nothing about Miss Aowu. What if she owed a witch a debt she could not repay and had been cursed because of it?

What was that debt, and which witch had cursed her? Could a shaman lift it?

He worried that he had brought a monster out of the Forgotten Grassland. After all, werewolves did not have the best reputation.

But when he recalled Miss Aowu baring her teeth and sticking out her tongue so adorably yesterday, his guard lowered somewhat.

Forget it. No point overthinking it.

Winter was coming soon, and I do not plan to join the raids south. I should gather more supplies and make it through this year first.

[Plan: Long Road Home]

[Status: In Progress]

[Inspiration: Head south. The Rishiman People mostly live in warmer mountain valleys and basins. Going toward lower latitudes cannot be wrong.]

With the plan underway, Kas began to busy himself.

First, he snapped off tinder fungus growing on the oak tree's surface like tongues, then used a shard of stone to chisel a small hole into a palm-sized piece.

He poured embers from the still-burning campfire into it, cupped it in both hands, and carefully blew inside.

It was a primitive but effective way to preserve fire. The embers would smolder inside the tinder fungus, and a palm-sized piece could last around five hours.

He found some damp moss, wrung out most of the water, and covered the embers with it. This would prevent the smoldering fungus from setting his backpack ablaze and free up one hand for moving around.

The previous night, he had used a similar method, setting several long sticks over the campfire, spreading sliced wild boar meat across them, and covering it all with lichen and moss to smoke the pork and extend its shelf life.

Smoked meat had to use lean cuts. Fat and connective tissue spoiled easily.

The process had made Miss Aowu miserable. Under Kas's motions, all ten of her fingers had been busy picking away fat and membrane, leaving her claws and fur coated in grease and meat scraps.

Kas had woken several times during the night, storing the dried meat in the boar hide and replacing it with fresh meat to continue smoking.

But even after working late into the night, he had only managed to process the better cuts from beneath the spine and one hind leg.

Miss Aowu's nimble ears kept twitching. She had long noticed Kas fiddling with the fragrant smoked meat, and when he lifted the moss, a slightly bitter aroma rushed into her nose.

"Grr~"

She curled herself even tighter, burying her head beneath her arms and pretending the sound had not come from her stomach.

While Kas turned to organize the smoked meat stored in the boar hide, she secretly stretched out a hand, gripped the boar's front leg lying on the moss, and slowly dragged it toward her mouth.

"Do not eat raw meat!"

A straight wooden stick smacked Miss Aowu's naughty arm. Startled and frightened, she yanked it back like lightning.

Like a wrongly accused puppy, she tucked her little hands close and looked pitifully at Kas, who had suddenly appeared.

"Woo~"

Though Miss Aowu was becoming more adorable by the day, Kas still held to his principles. If she was a person, she at least had to follow some basic standards of behavior.

If he saw her drinking blood and eating raw flesh, burying her head in a boar's belly and gnawing on its organs, Kas would only think Ancestor had found him an obedient beast, not regard her as a human who merely looked like a werewolf.

Unmoved, the Barbarian took away the front leg the werewolf had wanted to sneak a bite from and began preparing breakfast.

Conditions were limited, but to make up for the grievance Werewolf Lady had suffered, he still went to the trouble of finding a long, thin stone slab. After cleaning it and setting it over the campfire, he made a delicious stone-grilled meat meal.

As he watched Miss Aowu chew through more than half a boar's front leg, her stomach still showing no change beneath her leather coat, Kas's eyelid kept twitching.

This one boar would have been enough for me to eat freely for two weeks... Who could afford to raise a girl with such an appetite?

After eating their fill and resting a little, they used twigs dipped in plant ash to clean their mouths by the stream. Such was the rich life of a Barbarian—no matter what it was, one had to learn to fend for oneself.

Carrying the smoked jerky, the three of them followed the sun's path southward beneath Miss Aowu's reluctant gaze at the food...

By the time they stopped, dusk was near. The glow of the sunset shrouded the entire forest, staining their view with blood-red afterlight and making everything seem strangely enchanting.

The old man was still lecturing Kas about the Rishiman People's mysterious history. He had switched to a new throne, his skull bouncing atop Miss Aowu's shoulder.

"Do not worry, stupid boy. Your father was a man who respected tradition. He definitely placed your umbilical cord in the clan shrine. Take it south, and you will surely find your mother."

"How many times do I have to say it? I have no interest in that woman I have never met." Kas rolled his eyes helplessly. He had merely asked one question out of curiosity last night, and the old man had been harping on it all day.

"Oh, do not be like that. I know you are actually envious of the little brats in the tribe, who had their parents with them while growing up." Morse spoke helplessly.

"Unfortunately, I returned too late. I could not take your father's place when you needed an elder by your side the most. Sigh."

"Shut up, you nagging old bastard. Even after dying, your mouth is still the only hard thing about you."

"You still hold resentment toward us. Once you grow up a little more, you will understand our difficulties..."

"Getting stuck with useless ancestors like you has really ruined my whole life."

"Useless? When I was alive, I could have slapped the top of your skull clean off! Of course, I still can now!"

Their argument grew increasingly heated. Caught in the middle, Miss Aowu could only try to persuade them softly.

"Woo~"

"Miss Aowu, please do not speak for now. I need this old fool to understand that dead is dead. He should not meddle so much in the affairs of the living."

"Little one, he may be your husband, but tell me this—what Rishiman would call his ancestors useless?"

Miss Aowu struggled to point ahead. Clearly, she was not trying to stop their argument; she was merely warning them of something unusual in the forest.

A girl in a red velvet hood stood there, a vine basket filled with mushrooms and matsutake hanging from her arm. A soft, unstarched linen dress wrapped around her slender body.

Her brilliant golden hair, covered by the red velvet, looked like sunlight beneath the evening glow, with a few mischievous strands hanging over her forehead.

They made her pale yellow eyes, like flowing amber, seem exceptionally lively. Her thin, moist lips softly sang an ethereal song, and her cheerful steps through the woods made her seem like a carefree elf.

Kas swallowed with difficulty. What was this?

Just wandering through the woods, and he had run into a little Beauty?

Morse was somewhat wary. An experienced dead man naturally knew the Sorrow Mountains better than a young man, and he said quietly,

"Boy, stop staring. You are practically drooling. Be careful, or Aowu will gouge out your eyes."

"Woo~"