While walking through the town, Lulu and I catch quite a few stares. Humans, dwarves, and even a few elves all look at us with surprise. I can tell Lulu’s feeling a bit uncomfortable, though. I take her hand and lead her over to what looks like a clothing store.

When we get inside, I’m immediately surprised by how modern a lot of the clothing looks. There’s t-shirts, tank tops, jeans, and even hoodies. Those clothes are much more expensive, though.

The typical fantasy clothes are on the cheap side, actually. I go ahead and buy us each a hoodie. I chose a pink one, while Lulu chose a blue one. The one I chose is about three sizes too big for me. Just the way I like it! I totally didn’t buy it that big so I can go outside wearing nothing but the hoodie! Totally! Lulu actually bought the same size as me. Fuck it’s adorable on her.

In total, the hoodies cost us two hundred twenty gold. Which is enough to have bought about five or six of the regular fantasy shirts. When we walk out of the store wearing our new hoodies over our dresses with the hoods up, I feel Lilu tug at my arm. I look down at her and see a dark smile appearing on her face. She looks up at me and says,

“Dear sister, you must not have any idea how much money you just spent, do you?”

I look at her and shake my head no. Honestly, I don’t. The only references I have for how much a gold coin is is the clothes we just saw. One shirt cost fifteen gold, so it can’t be that much, right?

Lulu looks at me and lets out an exasperated sigh,

“Haaaah… When we got into town, I checked how much a loaf of bread, an apple, and a whole chicken costs. Did you know that gold coins aren’t the only currency? A loaf of bread costs two silver. Ten silver equals a single gold coin.”

Oh shit. I forgot. Even if we’re in a fantasy world, I’m sure clothes are still handmade right now. We basically just bought the fantasy equivalent of a luxury brand, huh?

“Well… At least they’re comfortable?”

Lulu lets out another sigh and then says,

“From now on, I’m dealing with our money situation. If you wanna buy something, ask me.”

I pout for a second and then reply,

“Why didn’t you stop me from buying those hoodies then?”

She gets an embarrassed look on her face and looks down, away from me,

“You just… looked really excited when you were looking at them… It was cute…”

Looking down at her, I can’t help but wonder which one of us is the cute one. I turn around and take her hand, walking forwards with her before saying,

“Well, let’s go get some food. I wanna try some fantasy street food like a real isekai protagonist! There’s gotta be some giant, muscular dude selling kebabs, an old lady selling bread, and a fat dude selling desserts! It’ll be our first date!”

I see Lulu looking at me with a slight smile as I bring her along with me. The first place we stop by is your typical isekai food stall. A small group of people, with someone working behind the counter and an amazing smell of cooking meat covered with herbs. The stall itself is made of a dark, stained wood and has a sign hanging above it written in english reading, “Delilah’s Monster Meals!”

Lulu and I look at each other, I can see a slight bit of saliva starting to drip from her mouth as she sniffs the air hungrily. I can also feel my stomach starting to growl a little bit, despite it never having done that since coming to this world. I almost feel myself being drawn to the scent like a cartoon character smelling a freshly baked pie. 

As Lulu and I get closer, we see the person cooking the food. It’s a girl. Not the muscular dude I was expecting. She’s got feathery black hair, a light complexion, and a motherly aura. Despite this aura, she has a contradictory scar across her lower lip that just misses her nose and heads up her cheek. As we approach, she gives us a warm smile,

“Hello, care for a skewer of Shadowbeak meat? It’s two silver per skewer!”

Lulu looks down at the sizzling meat sitting atop a grill with lightly burning coals between the rungs. The smell and sound together with the almost caramel coloring of the meat comes together to make an irresistible combination. I take out a gold coin and hand it to the woman before saying,

“I’ll take five, please!”

Suddenly, the woman’s eyes go wide. She looks almost shocked that I’d buy any at all, much less five. She quickly composed herself and clears her throat before saying,

“Ah! Th-thank you very much!”

I hear murmurs from the people around us as she puts the final touches on our skewers,

“Is she serious?”

“Eating monster meat?”

“Tho we’ve gotta taste atrocious.”

What? How the hell could anyone think this delicious smell could be tied to something that tastes anything but divine?! The almost sweet smell of the cooking meat along with the spices that almost tickle your nose… This stuff has to be delicious!

As the woman hands us our skewers, I can barely control myself. I bite into one of the pieces of meat, and feel a burst of juices and herbs. The meat tastes like the best cut of meat money can buy. It doesn’t quite melt in your mouth, but honestly that only adds to it. Chewing it up seems to infuse the meat with the flavor of the herbs even more, giving a slight tingle to my tongue like a mild hot sauce, but with far more flavor. I almost feel sad as I swallow it, sending it away forever.

I look over at Lulu and see that she’s already on her second skewer. The juices and slight amount of sauce added at the end coats a little bit of her cheek. I reach over with my thumb and wipe it off before licking it off. The sauce is absolutely amazing. It tastes like a ginger sauce, but a bit more tangy. Almost like a bit of lime was added into it.

Needless to say, I manage to put down two of the skewers while Lulu finishes three. I still feel a bit hungry, so I go to ask for another five skewers when suddenly, Lulu turns to her and slams down ten gold coins. I pause for a second, a bit stunned, as Lulu voices loudly,

“I’ll take all of them!”

Both the woman and I look at Lulu, eyes wide, mouths agape. Hehe…

Lulu finally comes down from the high the food gave her and starts to grow embarrassed, grabbing onto my arm and hiding her face under her hood and into my arm. She let’s put a barely audible squeak,

“P-please…”

I wrap my arm around her and hold her close, letting her hide herself away for a bit while saying,

“Your cooking’s great, honestly. The meat was perfectly caramelized, and the sauce and herbs you added to it really packed a punch of flavor. I’ve honestly never heard of a Shadowbeak before, but eating that makes me wanna hunt some more down and beg you to cook them! Ah, also, I’m of the same opinion as her. I’d like all the skewers you could cook!”

The woman blinks a little bit before tears start to appear at the corners of her eyes. She starts to cry a little, and sniffles while trying to rub the tears out of her eyes,

“Th-thank you so much! Hic! This is the third time I set up a shop here, but all these people keep avoiding me and saying mean things thinking I can’t hear them! It means so much to hear someone say they like my cooking! I’ll make as many skewers as you want!”

I can’t help but feel bad for the woman. She seems like she really wants to cook for people, and for them to enjoy her food. And yet, the people behind us still seem unconvinced,

“There’s no way those two are human, right?”

“Gotta be a monster race.”

“How the hell could they eat that stuff?”

“Ugh… Just imagining the taste makes me wanna puke…”

Does monster meat just taste disgusting to humans or something? If that’s the case, this woman really set up in the wrong city. I’ve very rarely seen another race than human here. Even then, they usually seem to be adventurers or merchants. Not permanent residents. I mean, even Lulu and I are just passing through.

The woman goes ahead and wipes her tears away before taking out what looks like a skinnier version of a fully plucked chicken. She cuts the meat off of it into semi-square shapes, and stabs a sharp wooden stick into them. 

While she’s cooking the skewers, I decide to go ahead and check her status,

[Appraising.]

[Appraisal Complete!]

}~~~~{Appraised Status}~~~~{

[Name:] Gramina Sayre

[Race:] Harpy (2x - Stat Gain | 1.5x - XP required per level)

[Tag:] Monstrous

[Class: C-RANK BOSS MONSTER

|

[Titles:]

[ B | Monster Chef: Allows monster meat to be cooked and used exactly how normal meat can. Lesser races will still find the taste revolting, due to the mana still in the meat.]

[ TABOO | Cannibalism: You have eaten members of your own race. You can gain experience by eating members of your race.]

|

[Level: 114]

|

[Stats:]

[STR: 6100]

[DEF: 4800]

[DEX: 7200]

[INT: 3000]

[WIS: 2200]

|

[Skills:] 

[Active Skills: U Harpy’s Song / U Sprout Wings / B Descending Kick / C Uncanny Dodge / C Fireball / C Enflavor / E Finishing Blow]

[Passive Skills: U Harpy’s Allure / C Regeneration / D Monstrous Growth]

}~~~~~{Status End}~~~~~{

Oh… A harpy, huh?

Altdegen

I’m posting this right before I go into work, so let me know if there’s any errors!