Delicious Sacrifice - Chapter 8

Delicious Sacrifice - Chapter 8

“This is too much.” 

Miela grumbled, throwing down the boar leg she had been chewing on. 

She had found a tablecloth while searching every corner of the castle, and even a silver plate that seemed to shine when the dust was wiped off was brought in, but the menu was always grilled meat. The only improvement was that it was cooked just right, not burnt or charred. 

However, grilled meat for breakfast, grilled meat for lunch, grilled meat for dinner. Miela got tired of the endless repetition of meals. 

When she lived in the village, she would have felt grateful just by putting a piece of meat in her mouth, but now, even if she only chose the best parts, her mouth would refuse it, saying it was too much. She was really privileged. 

“Then do you want some buffalo?” 

“No……. I am just tired of meat.” 

“Then fruit?” 

“I’m also tired of fruit…….” 

“Herbs?” 

“That’s not tasty.” 

Miela just shook her head lifelessly. 

The monster patiently continued to suggest other foods, but none of them were good. 

“There’s nothing else.” 

When the monster finally failed to think of anything, Miela answered for him herself. 

“I want to eat something cooked, not just something that’s been roasted or torn apart.” 

“Cooked? Like something that’s grilled?” 

There was a big difference between hearing about it and actually seeing it. The monster, whose imagination was at its limit, had difficulty understanding Miela’s words. 

“No, not that. Something like fried eggs, bread, or soup.” 

“Where do you get those?” 

The food that had been offered as sacrifices had long since been eaten. To the monster, those foods were like fruits from trees or animals that fell from somewhere. 

“You don’t get them, you make them.” 

Miela grumbled as she threw the plump bird hind leg that she had tried to lift onto her plate on the platter again.

The monster said he would eat Miela when she got fat, but in reality, he only tasted her. It was not long before Miela realized that the monster had no intention of eating her. She knew since she could sense intent from how she grew up. The monster’s words were straight, just like its actions. Miela could clearly see even the sides he didn’t realize he had. 

The monster, who had started to focus on ‘eating’ in another sense, was as easy to handle as a newborn puppy. That’s why she was now able to confidently act out her complaints. 

The monster innocently responded seriously to the prey’s grumbling. He was serious, as if something big would happen if he didn’t feed Miela properly. 

“How do you make it?” 

“That’s. Ah…….” 

Miela, who had confidently opened her mouth as if she knew everything, couldn’t continue speaking and closed her mouth again sullenly. 

She had forgotten. She used to get in trouble for making something that would basically kill people if they ate it, no matter what ingredients she used.

“There’s someone else who can make it…….” 

Since she had admitted to herself that she had absolutely no talent for cooking, and since everyone in the village had acknowledged it, no one had asked Miela to cook. If you don’t practice, you become worse at it. There was no way that her cooking skills, which she had never had before, would suddenly develop over time. 

Miela, who had been feeling discouraged, looked back at the monster staring at her blankly and changed her mind. Still, she knew what cooking looked like, so she was a little better than the monster. Hunger even brought about useless expectations. 

“Should I try it anyway? You never know.” 

However, useless expectations only served to confirm the obvious. 

“…… Is this tasty?” 

It ended with a garbage recreation that even in the monster’s mouth, felt like poison. 

Miela took a bite to see if the monster’s taste might be different from hers, but instead to spit it into the stove and not out the window. An animal passing by might eat it and die if she spit it outside and an animal ate it.

A mouthful of pumpkin porridge dropped on the fire of the stove crackled and gave off a strange smell and smoke. How could even the smell be like this? 

The ingredients were clearly pumpkin, salt, and grains gathered by birds. She had only added a little spice to enhance the flavor, but it was incomprehensible that even the original pumpkin flavor had disappeared. 

“Did I get cursed…?” 

Miela looked down at her hands in despair. She was good at sewing, but not at cooking. How could this be possible when they were both made by hand? 

“Should I try?” 

The monster stepped forward. Since he had seen her make it from the side, he should be able to imitate it. But Miela shook her head. 

“No……. I think the method is the problem. It’s been so long.” 

“Can’t I just do it the way you did it?” 

“It’ll taste the same.” 

The monster tilted its head and ate the remaining soft raw pumpkin flesh with its fingers, probably not understanding cooking. 

“Why does something bad come out when you make it out of something delicious?”

“…….” 

He was also a cruel monster, casually saying heartbreaking things. 

“Oh! Since this is a castle, do you have any books?” 

“Books?” 

The monster didn’t know what a book was. 

“Uh, a square bundle of paper with lots of writing on it.” 

“Oh, that’s a book. We have it, but…….” 

“Wow, then let’s look for it! There might be a book about cooking, too! Maybe it'll work out if we look at it and try to copy it.“

The monster nodded, as if Miela’s words sounded plausible. 

The monster said that the book was on the outskirts, on the farthest side of the castle, and walked down the hallway holding Miela’s hand for a long time. 

The Duke Village where Miela lived was a really small village. So there weren’t any stores that sold things, and they would buy things they needed whenever a traveling general store stopped by.

The traveling general store’s sack was almost completely emptied in Duke Village. His luggage contained all sorts of things, but she wondered how it contained only what each person needed. 

From needles, thread, thimble, and sewing box that Miela needed, to the lace that the most stylish person in the village, Rumi, could not live without, yeast and various seasonings needed for each house to make bread, to weapons that men needed when hunting. Among them was a 'book' that only a few people in the village could use. 

When she asked the price out of curiosity, she was shocked and put it down because it was enough to buy a hundred of Miela's needles. That was the last memory she had of the book. 

"You can learn anything if you read a book. So there must be a way to cook in them." 

"Really?" 

Maybe a book contained a way to overcome her terrible cooking skills. Miela felt excited and held the monster's hand and shook it back and forth. 

The monster's mood also got excited by the meaningless action. The increasingly violent back-and-forth shaking stopped just before the monster almost pulled off of Miela’s arm. It was fortunate that they had reached the room with the books just before that. If the books had been just one building farther away, the monster might have thrown Miela to the ceiling. 

“There are many here.” 

The room at the end of the hallway had a door that was much larger and thicker than the others. It was a door like a castle wall that couldn’t be opened with one hand, so Miela would have to push it open with her whole body. 

The monster simply stretched out both hands and opened both doors wide. 

The interior could be seen through the thin light coming in through the doors, but it was dark enough that it was hard to see anything because of the thick curtains drawn on all sides. 

Miela first pulled back the curtains and opened the window. The musty dust was flying everywhere, making it hard to open her eyes. 

“Cough, cough! Wow, what the heck is this dust……. Wow.”

It was like that everywhere in the monster’s castle, but it was especially bad here. Dust rose up every time she moved. Still, after opening the window for a while and ventilating the space, the scenery inside the room gradually began to come into view. 

The last sound of “Wow,” which she had let out initially in shock at the dust, was now pure admiration. 

The ceiling was more than twice as high as the other rooms, and the gorgeous paintings filled the ceiling. Below that, a bookshelf with a ladder that seemed to reach the sky was densely packed with all kinds of books. 

Books weren’t something you could treasure one or two books at a time, but something you could collect and store like this. This place was an incredible treasure trove. 

Miela opened her mouth wide and circled the room. She picked out a random book and held it in her hands. 

The book with the red velvet cover with gold leaf was so heavy that it was difficult to lift with one arm. 

Paper was expensive. To think that such expensive paper could be put in such a heavy book. She couldn’t even imagine how expensive it would be. 

“Is that it? The book about cooking?” 

The monster didn’t seem particularly impressed by the scenery and went straight to the main point. 

“Huh? No, I was just touching it because it was pretty… maybe it is this book?” 

Miela belatedly flipped through the book. The monster suddenly poked its head in and examined the book with her. 

“Hmm.” 

Flick, flick, the pages that had been slowly turning suddenly flipped quickly. The writing continued endlessly. There was not a single picture. 

“I don’t think this is the book.” 

“Yeah.” 

Miela returned the book to its original position without any regrets and chose a book that looked interesting again. It was a ‘feeling’ that she had chosen purely based on the color and thickness of the book. 

The writing on the book she chose this time was a little bigger. Flick. 

“…… this one doesn’t seem like it either?” 

“…… Okay.” 

That didn’t make much of a difference. 

Miela closed the book with a slam and hesitated for a moment before looking back at the monster. 

“Excuse me, by any chance. Can you not read?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Huh?! Why?” 

“This is the first time I’m seeing it.”

“Ah…….” 

Miela slumped her shoulders. Yes, living in the forest, eating animals and people, he probably didn’t have to look through books. 

“You learned language just by hearing it from afar, but you can’t do that with writing?” 

“I guess I can just keep looking at it?” 

“Oh, really? How long do you have to look at it?” 

“Um……. From now until it gets hot?” 

It was fall right now. It was just about the beginning of winter, so it would take at least half a year for it to get hot. It would be faster to just raid the village during that time. 

“Then we won’t be able to cook…….” 

The monster grabbed Miela’s shoulder as she tried to turn around with her slumped shoulders. 

“If I just know how to start, I can figure it out right away!” 

“Start……?” 

“Yes. From the moment I realized that words are meant to communicate meaning, my speed of understanding increased. So letters should be the same.” 

He meant that if there was just a clue, he could start from there and discover the rules on his own and learn. Letters were everywhere here. If there was just one small clue……. 

“I can’t read books, but I know letters.” 

Miela hurriedly looked around for something to write on. There was charcoal and paper on the desk on one side of the room. 

She drew each letter carefully under the monster’s hot, persistent gaze. 

Jack was one of the few people in the village who could read books. One day, he taught her letters when she was watching because she was curious. However, just knowing letters did not mean that she would be enlightened. She had to constantly read books and learn new words, but there were no books in the village that Miela could read. 

“These are letters. Ge, na, se, ta, re, mu.” 

So she just memorized the shapes of the letters and learned how to write them. She could read each letter, but she didn’t know how to put them together to make meaning. The only word she could read was her own name. 

Miela wrote her name on the corner of the paper. It was crooked because she wasn’t used to writing it, but she felt proud when she saw it written.

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