Chapter 63: The Extermination of Hydra

「That fucking bastard. He took a chance to invade my country right when I’m busy trying to restore peace.」

Amines, what a foul mouth you have. However, I understood her feelings. Amines was focused on the cooking battle against the Demon King’s party. Both were in the midst of a ceasefire. However, that Emperor took this opportunity to invade her kingdom. It was certainly very frustrating. It seemed that the other heroes felt the same way.

「It’s something that a man with a strong temperament is likely to do.」

「I haven’t met him, but as far as I can tell, he seems to be quite an ambitious person. He probably wanted to take advantage of the ceasefire with the Demon King’s army.」

Every single one of them made a tough evaluation about the Emperor. It was unusual for Fitis to speak with such a poisonous tongue.

「Well, if he is going to do an act of aggression toward my kingdom, then I will pay back in the same coin.」

With that said, the angry-looking Amines immediately tried to command her army to attack. Eh, heyyyyy! Wait a moment! Lily stopped Amine’s actions quicker than I did.

「Wait right there. You don’t have time to command your army right now. Instead, you should go hunting the Hydra for the next cooking battle and improve your cooking skills during the remaining time.」

「Ugh, I know that, but…」

Amines looked indecisive upon hearing Lily’s remarks. Lily took a deep breath, as if she had no choice whatsoever.

「Instead of you, I will command your army and intercept the Alburs Imperial Army. So you should focus on the cooking battle until the end of your match.」

Amines opened her eyes wide upon hearing Lily’s unexpected suggestion, and she responded with a trembling but exhilarating voice.

「My sweet Lily, you’re willing to do that for my sake…Ahh! How adorable!」

「C’mon, really! I told you not to touch me! 」

Well, Amines’ reaction was the usual toward Lily.

「That’s why I’m going to stop the invasion of the Alburs Empire, so I’ll leave the cooking battle with the Demon King up to you. To be honest, this is the only thing I can do to help you all.」

「Yeah, you saved us today. You always protect us in a way that we can always concentrate on other matters. Thank you.」

Lily probably thought of herself as useless since she never helped us in cooking battles. But, even during the Grand Cooking Tournament, she did things that I couldn’t do, such as killing the Leviathan and looking for Mina-chan. I didn’t reach this far without her help when I first came to this world. She looked after me when I started cultivating monsters and her companionship during my quest in finding the seeds of the World Tree have been supportive. In the first place, I began to cultivate monsters with peace of mind because Lily was there for me, so I was extremely grateful for Lily and her motivating strength.

「The…There’s no need to be grateful for this…Don’t thank me again…I’m just doing this because I want to do it myself…」

However, in response to my words of gratitude, Lily turned away for some reason and distorted her mouth. Mina-chan looked at Lily with a smiling face. Lily was probably embarrassed. After a short moment, Lily finally looked back at us and sent us a strong look.

「Well then, leave this to me! You guys should do your best to win the cooking battle against the Demon King!」

—

「Hmm. People say this thing is an S-rank monster. But, it’s just a regular monster to me. What a disappointment.」

Hydra, who was brilliantly overthrown, laid at the feet of Amines, who looked at the fallen monster with unsatisfactory eyes. I knew it before, but this person was insanely strong. I heard that the strength of the Seven Great Heroes was comparable to the S-rank monsters. I saw Lily actually invoking her full power when she easily defeated one of the Four Heavenly Kings. And it seemed that Amines actually had more ability in combat. I was wondering, why was this person so underrated and underestimated?

Amines had the ability to instantly create a weapon she imagined. Because of this awesome skill, Amines created innumerable weapons from the ground just by touching the soil, and she shot them one after another at Hydra. I wondered if the “Unlimited Blade Works” had infinite weapons. Lily was probably better at fighting as an individual, but when the opponent was such a huge target or a large number of people, a single weapon wouldn’t do that much. However, Amines’ power made her release an inexhaustible number of weapons without stopping. I thought that the ability of the War Hero was rather specialized in warfare, and that’s why she had that title.

「Okay, I’ll bring back the meat as much as I can.」

With that said, Amines used her proud crystal knife to cut the Hydra meat. I gazed sideways, and I noticed that something was placed right next to the fallen Hydra.

「Hmm, what’s that?」

That “something” was a huge egg. It was the size of a human child. The egg was solidified and left there on the ground.

「Eh, isn’t this egg the Hydra’s egg? How unusual. They’re rare to find.」

「Ohh, so this is a Hydra’s egg, huh.」

Certainly big. It was about the same size as the Rock’s eggs. Or perhaps, a little smaller. But still, they were almost the same size.

「Hey, father. Shouldn’t we bring this home?」

「Hmm, well, I don’t see anything wrong with that. But are you willing to grow a Hydra?」

「Ah, well, maybe. I found it, so I thought it would be better for me to raise it rather than leave it abandoned.」

My father smiled upon hearing my words. But, Fitis, who accompanied me, looked a little worried.

「But, Lord Kyou. Are you really sure? Hydra is a dangerous monster with a deadly poison. This monster also has the habit of attacking mercilessly those who enter their territory. If it were to hurt Lord Kyou…」

「Well, I’ll do something about it. Besides, all the monsters I raised so far seem to grow up quiet and peaceful, so I’ll give it a try this time too. If it doesn’t work, then…I’ll ask the War Hero to help me.」

「Yeah! Leave it to me! I’ll hunt Hydra as much as you want!」

Amines spoke with a confident tone as she wielded the crystal knife in her hand. Please stop, that’s dangerous.

—

「Well then, three days have passed. Today is the match. It will be a sashimi cooking battle. Both of you, are you ready?」

「I’m Amines, the War Hero. I’m always ready. 」

「I am Spin, the Sacred Lion. I am fine with it. 」

The next round of the cooking battle. Amines practiced her knife skill by slicing the Hydra meat every single day, and after that, she received some advice from Miss Katherina and my father. According to what I heard, Hydra’s flesh had a number of light purple stains, which were poisonous. No one could use Hydra for a dish unless all of these purple stains were cut off. As far as I could see, more than half of the Hydra’s meat had the purple stains, and it seemed quite difficult to cut them off. However, Amines seemed confident. I could not argue with her confidence. I had no choice but to believe in her until the end of this cooking match.

「All right. The next round of the Cooking Battle…Starts now!」

At the same time as the Gourmet Master declared the start of the match, Amines’ splendid crystal knife sparkled incredibly.

Previous | Next

EN: Just had a shower thought… Monsters are cooking monsters… isn’t that cannibalism with extra steps?