Fairy Tales

Time flew, flowing onward like a river that never stopped.

A month had passed since Renee completed the Pilgrimage in Longeryasi City.

Inside a crumbling stone building, a bright, blazing campfire crackled. A wire rack rested above it, and marbled cuts of meat sizzled, their crisp, golden-brown surfaces giving off the tempting aroma of rendered fat.

Outside, darkness still reigned like Eternal Night. But since the Longeryasi City Pilgrimage, that viscous darkness seemed to have thinned. Even the vast sky had shed a little of its depth, revealing a rich purple like the skin of grapes.

Humming an off-key tune, Renee kept turning the meat with an Oak Fork. After a while, she trotted over to an iron pot and stirred the simmering Moss Mushroom Soup. Then she picked up a piece of cheese, rubbed off a little Parsley, and gently dropped it into the bubbling broth. After their long journey through the apocalypse, Renee, who had once known nothing about cooking, had become a capable cook. Her Cooking had grown steadily more refined. In the past, preparing several dishes at once would have left her flustered; now she handled it with ease.

At the edge of the firelight, Delis the Warhorse was devouring oatcakes. When she was especially content, she even gave a pleased snort.

In the darkness beyond the firelight, Xia Lun silently set up alarm devices.

His Sleight of Hand Specialization had originally been only at the "Novice 90%" level provided by Morod. But perhaps practice had made perfect: after setting traps and rigging tripwires every day, he had eventually raised it to "Basic 15%."

He was still a long way from White Line's Mastery-level Sleight of Hand, but Xia Lun believed that once he returned to reality and received some training from White Line, his skill