I staggered on the floor in exhaustion. I won! It felt meaningless and unnecessary since I was planning to leave regardless, but I still did it! On one hand, I can use my wool cuffs infinitely more effectively this time which may come incredibly handy. On the other, I’m going to be crushed to death by this girl on top of me.

 

“Rio…”

 

I uttered out. After I survived this far, being killed by ‘hug from a cute girl’ would be too embarrassing.  The crowd, excited from the results did return to eating instead of spectating me fortunately…

 

“Hehe, sorry!”

 

After my weak cry, she got off me, completely giddy by the results achieved meanwhile I was still starving over here. The few things that I did consume today were just grilled cooworms. Not something I’d return to the forest to ‘snack’ on. Standing up, half-tired half-sleepy, I try to locate my plate and just I as I was going there, the demon who I just had a duel with, Takuya was there bowing in front of me.

 

“I’m deeply sorry for disrespecting your strength madam. It is not a surprise to see how you were able to escape from your captors.”

 

Huh.

Madam?

Apologise more! At least for the fight. Sure, I won and came out unscathed, but the guy didn’t show any signs of care or concern on whether I’d die. We’ll just ignore the fact that I burnt down their farms. Anyways, right now all I wanted to try out was the food and not waste my time with Takuya for another second.

 

“Uhm, it’s fine, just treat strangers more kindly next time.”

 

My stomach yelled at me. I have more pressing matters then conversing with you, Takuya, just leave! With my eyes on the plate, I just tried to walk past him –

 

*grab*

 

“All I wanted to do was make sure there were no risk of humans coming to destroy our clan, please do not think too badly of us.”

 

My arm was locked firmly. Just let me go past you, insistent brat! There was never a risk of humans coming to attack your village anyway! It was me! Why did this lie go so out of hand? I just wanted to get back on this poison worm infested forest.

 

“Is that so? Let bygones be bygones, right?”

 

My arm wouldn’t budge. Just let go!

 

“If possible, could you please teach me how to do that leg technique from earlier? It looked extremely useful and in my pursuit of – “

 

“Alright!”

 

“Lil’ Alice, me too me too!”

 

“Okay! I will!”

 

Finally, the grip loosened.

 

“Very well, please sh- “

 

*munch*

 

I really couldn’t hold back any longer. My mana exhaustion from cheating in the fight meant that I needed something to sustain myself. Ignoring the joint attack by Takuya and Rio in order for me to teach them a move I did on a whim by pure luck, I had leapt to my plate and begun snacking on the grilled mushrooms. It had an orangey-white sauce over it, but it tasted a bit like mayonnaise and the taste of char-grilled barbeque was high quality. In comparison to just grass, this was much more flavourful. The fried balls had something slightly chewy inside them, but I couldn’t make out what they were. That one was frighteningly hot though. If it weren’t for the heat immunity buff, I would have had to immediately drink water or create water inside my mouth. Now for the meat skewer. The most important part. Was this sheep meat?

 

“So, teacher, when do we start?”

 

The two had reapproached me while I was stuck staring at the skewer. They were plenty strong anyway and I even had to cheat in the duel to win. Why did I need to teach them this?

 

“Later.”

 

“But Alice, how much later?”

 

Rio exclaimed. Why did she have to get corrupted by this aggressor turned ‘student’?

Pretending I didn’t hear the question, I bit the skewer and began eating it.

 

“Let’s do it today!”

 

She sat on her knees and began to toy with my cheeks as I just tried to eat. Where’s mother Haise to say “you don’t need things from a demi-human” when you need her. Continuing to ignore her, I finished the rest of the skewers. Before I could completely decline her offer, my stomach rumbled again. The food I just ate got instantly converted into energy, so I guess I won’t be able to store any food for the future.

 

“I’ll talk to the guy to get you more food if you want! All you have to do- “

 

“Fine.”

 

Reluctantly, I agreed to her offer. She may have been a princess like beauty, who did ‘help’ me in a way, but I don’t think it would be wise to be taught how to fight someone who knows only a handful of martial art moves from his past life. She looked too cute when happy though. Maybe this was, okay? I sighed and loitered while waiting for more food to come. I really did use too much mana this day. With today’s consumption, it made me feel the inefficiency of just eating food. Or anything that wasn’t rich in magic. Is that why monsters would often target humans instead of other wildlife? Since they were richer in magic?

Throwing all past experiences aside, should I ‘experiment’ with eating them as well?