Jonas let the cold air around him brush past his face. Its cooling touch slowing down the outrage and need for outcry. He could take it no more! The sheer amount he had to endure was beyond what he could handle. The thought of more of it made him queasy and lightheaded. 

 

Yet, there it was, sitting merrily without a single care in the world. Then again, what did the cooked sea monster possibly have to contend with?

 

It's been almost a year, and still there was still more sea monster meat to be had. And from what Frezar had said just moments ago, there was still lots left for him to ‘never need to worry about high quality meats for an entire year longer’. 

 

Jonas covered his mouth, almost puking as he imagined a room stock full of nothing but the meat. Or the thought of someone cooking it with a satisfied smile all the while praising their Lord. 

 

“Young Master, is it not to your liking?” an overly jubilant voice said from his right. 

 

The pure desire to see Jonas enjoy his meal made him all the more guilty of not being able to stomach it. Jonas looked up into the eyes of his head chef. They were filled with unwavering and straight forward emotions. The chubby, no, the massive man, had no thoughts other than serving him to his best of ability. 

 

It was a quality that came with most of his retainers of common birth. 

 

That characteristic alone made him wonder for days on end why anyone wouldn’t want to have the lowborn serve them. To them they were shaping the future by cooking, holding a sword, cleaning, cleaning horses, or a hundred other menial tasks. Nothing could possibly stop them from putting a hundred and ten percent to their tasks. 

 

“O-of course! It's just wonderful! The...err…” Jonas looked at the plates to find anything he could compliment the dishes with, but his brain froze. “...the color is quite vibrant?”

 

Joans groaned as he saw the chefs' beaming smile become even larger. He felt like the worst criminal especially because of what he was about to do the second the massive cook left. 

 

“Good, very good. I will be sure to use the more exotic and highest quality spices and flowers to make every meal bright and beautiful for you! You will only ever get the best from me, that you will, Young Master. You can be sure of that!” 

 

Jonas cringed. Thankfully, he timed it just right with the Chefs bow. 

 

“With your grace.” With that the chef skipped away happily in a world of his own. 

 

He never noticed Joans quickly flicking most of the sea monster meat, of the very highest quality even the emperor would have a hard time getting, to the twenty or so dogs he had adopted in the past few days. They fought over every scrap with a burning hunger in their eyes only found in deranged men. 

 

“Good boys and girls! Eat to your fill. Don’t leave a single mark. Good job Fluffs! Lick the area clean!” Jonas whispered as he kept shoveling the meat onto the floor. One of the fluffiest dogs resembling a tibetian mastiff, whatever that was, had a habit of not leaving even the grease after finishing the meat. 

 

Ash had done a marvelous job getting the biggest, smartest, and most capable dogs she could get her hands on in the tiny village and surroundings. She grumbled at how it was a useless endeavor to raise so many creatures notoriously known for not reaching the pinnacle of monsters or beasts. 

 

Even a mosquito had a higher potential to reach that level. Something about how the dogs bloodlines had been bred out of the higher realms or something. 

 

As he kept pushing the meat plate after plate, he suddenly paused as he noticed a few missing of his new pets. Two to be exact. 

 

As he looked up, he found them sleeping father out. That only had him worried. Those two, Ranch and Ketchup, because of the color of their fur, were always in the thick of things fighting the hardest and longest. It was clear they felt little pain as dove head first into the ball of teeth and fur to get the largest chunks before escaping. 

 

So much so, all the other dogs kept a good distance from them, even though they were only middling in size and speed. 

 

Some part in Jonas’s mind justified their sheer willpower, something about bulls and dogs being monsters or something like that, but it made no sense when he thought about it. What would a bull have to do with a dog?

 

Bulls were beasts of power and fortitude that are born onto a path, rather than these measly creatures that could live their entire lives without the scent of one. 

 

Someone cleared their throat from the side. 

 

Joans jumped in his seat, quickly putting down the plate and trying to look regal. Only to find Ash staring at him with a displeased frown on he face. 

 

“You're throwing buckets of gold into an endless ocean, My lord. I cannot fathom why you would waste such precious ingredients on...dogs?”

 

“I-its an experiment. No harm done. Oh!” Jonas made sure to changed the subject before she could get to asking him how much he had given the dogs and how much he had eaten. “Is there news of our forward soldiers? Has the tactic brought any fruit?”

 

He hoped beyond all hope she would fall for the obvious change. 

 

Ash’s eyes flashed. That was a good sign. “Yes,” she breathed out in an almost moan. “We’ve lost barely three hundred men all together-”

 

“How much?” That wasn’t good news. Right?

 

“-in exchange for over twenty thousand of their numbers. I would not have thought such an exchange possible until the reports started coming in.”

 

Jonas scoffed. “Twenty thousand? What did the orcs do, jump off a cliff for us?”

 

“Nope. Instead, other than hitting their food source quite hard the first strike, we hadn’t been making an large steps forward. We harried them every single day and night, and even in their tired forms, they were just too numerous to out position or sneak any closer to cause more damage. 

 

But, something changed. The orcs suddenly split their camps into ten groups. I think they were trying to get us to commit in taking out a tenth of their army while they watched each position with hawk eyes. A common tactic if Raneria is to be believed. One I was sure Lank was going to take full advantage of, but instead they devised an incredible plan.”

 

“What they do? Divert the enemies attention then hit on the opposite side?” Jonas threw a wild guess, all the while trying to think what the amazing tactic that killed thousands of orcs at once was. 

 

Did they unleash a dam full of water on them? Or maybe an avalanche to destroy their camp with massive boulders as large as a house? Or one of the roaming herds of massive numbers to trample over them?

 

“Err…” Ash’s left eye began to twitch.

 

Did he say something wrong?

 

She closed her eyes than seemed to have come to a decision. “Yes, My Lord.” She nodded her head. “That was what they actually did. The orcs fell for it without a hitch. Their commander tried to pull off a maneuver he was not talented in, so it backfired. Do you have any suggestions they could implement, I am sure even someone as dense as Yurgul the Fist would learn after that big of a disaster.”

 

Oh. “Avalanches. Floods. Set up large traps that cover a large amount of space. Those could cause lots of damage. Even leading one of those massive herds of Buffalos towards their camp would deal quite a bit of damage. Then again, we wouldn’t want to mess with thousands of beats that large with high paths.”

 

Her hands trembled for some reason. “Sir, yes sir!” 

 

She saluted him, gave a curious look at Ketchup and Ranch then hurried her way out of the room leaving him alone with the still battling dogs. 

 

“Weird.” He thought to himself, but that train of thought was cut short. 

 

His stomach crumbled and cried in hunger. He looked back at the sea monster meat in disgust, but that was the only thing he had. Sea monster meat sauteed, grilled, smoked, fried, and a twenty other ways. Each on their own plate waiting for him to devour. 

 

A tear slowly escaped his eyes as he gave in to the hunger and began to eat. 

 

Though he still gave most of it to his fluffy pets.