The White Tiger Clan's kitchen was not a place of culinary art; it was a crime scene.
I stood in the mouth of a massive stone cavern that served as the communal "pantry," though "morgue" felt more appropriate. Massive, unidentifiable haunches of meat were skewered on iron spikes, dripping blood into the ash of a central fire pit.
There were no cutting boards, no aromatic herbs, and certainly no food safety standards. A beastman cook, a mountain of muscle with stripes that looked like war paint was currently beating a slab of meat against a flat rock as if he were trying to interrogate it.
"Is that... for consumption?" I asked, my voice echoing in the hollow space.
The cook didn't look up.
"Meat is meat, human. It is charred on the outside and warm on the inside. What more does a stomach need?"
In my old life in Korea, I had died of overwork while surviving on convenience store triangle kimbap. I had dreamed of a second life filled with gourmet delicacies, not a slow death by a stomach ulcer caused by "charred rock" cuisine.
My brain instantly pulled up the tribe's future lore: The Year of the Iron Frost. The famine was coming.
If this tribe continued to waste 40% of their animal fats and organs because they only knew how to burn muscles on a rock, they were doomed to become the Veltrium Kingdom's puny mercenaries just to survive.
"Let me cook this meal for once," I announced, rolling up the sleeves of my oversized ceremonial silk.
It was a ridiculous statement from a ninety-pound human girl, but I was currently the only person in this canyon who could touch the Chieftain without turning into a cinder. I needed to weaponize that status.
"You?" a sharp, melodic voice barked from the shadows.
A girl with tiger, specially, golden tiger stripes stepped into the light. She was a head taller than me, her bronze skin marked with the scars of a high-ranking hunter.
She leaned against a stone pillar, a serrated bone dagger spinning between her fingers.
'Wow, one of the side bosses…Vara is chracter obsessed on Kaelum.'
However, until the end Kaelum doesn't get any romantic feelings for her, even when the original heroine comes to save Kaelum form his curse, Vara doesn't permit anyone near him.
So, original heroine has 2 choices either kill Vara or escape to where Kaelum is then curry his favour and kill Vara.
'She is domed either way…'
I felt a pang of sympathy for the majestic women in my heart, but without stopping she continued with her ranting.
"The Chieftain's little ice pack thinks she can handle a fire?" Vara laughed, a sound like grinding glass. "Go back to the nest, human. These stones are hotter than your delicate skin can handle. You'll burn your fingers before the meat is even grey."
I didn't flinch. I had dealt with toxic project managers; a beastman hunter was just a change of scenery.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[Objective: The Path to the Stomach]
[New Skill unlocked: 'Analytical Tongue' (Level 1) – Identifies ingredients and potential properties.]
I scanned the room. A bowl of dark, crushed seeds sat on a ledge.
[WARNING: 'Volcano Pepper' detected. Consumption by humans leads to internal combustion. Beastmen use it to simulate the feeling of a hunt.]
Vara noticed my gaze and smirked. She grabbed a handful of the peppers and tossed them toward me. "If you want to cook, use these. They provide the 'kick' a real warrior craves. Or are you too weak for that, too?"
She was trying to humiliate me publicly, 'Her character is as annoying as I remember…' I caught one of the peppers, my Analytical Tongue skill confirming it was essentially a biohazard for my human digestive tract. I smiled sweetly.
"Oh, I'll use them. But first, I need assistants."
I looked toward the firewood pile. Three pairs of glowing eyes were peering out from the darkness. Slowly, three wolf cubs emerged. They were orphans of the pack, their fur messy and their bellies lean. These were the "Pudding Squad."
Mochi, the greediest, took a tentative sniff toward my hand. Fang, the suspicious one, growled softly, while Pip, the smallest, just wagged his tail. They were the tribe's "ears," and I knew if I won them over, I won the common warriors.
"Hey, little ones," I whispered, reaching for a scrap of discarded fat. "Want to see a miracle?"
I didn't win immediately. My first attempt at a "Tribal Stew" was a disaster. I underestimated the heat of the magical stones; the pot hissed and erupted into a cloud of grey, foul-smelling sludge that tasted like wet cardboard dipped in soot.
"Look at that," Vara jeered, pointing at the mess. "The human is making poison. Shall we call the Chieftain to see his 'medical equipment' failing at basic cooking haaha!"
"It's an experiment, Vara," I snapped, my face with a teasing expression. "Failures are just way to success~"
After many attempts and some random mixture of ingredients. The aroma changed. It went from the smell of a burning hair to something rich, savory, and undeniably meat.
The Pudding Squad moved closer, their whimpers of hunger turning into frantic tail-wagging. Even the massive cook paused his meat-beating to sniff the air.
"What is that scent?" a deep, gravelly voice rumbled from the entrance.
The temperature in the kitchen spiked instantly. Kaelum stood in the doorway, his broad, bronze chest bare, the red veins on his neck pulsing faintly with the curse's heat. He looked at Vara, who straightened up instantly, and then his gaze locked onto me.
He walked toward me, his heavy boots thudding on the stone. He didn't look at the cubs or the pot. He looked only at me, his eyes glowing with a feral, luminescent gold.
He reached out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me flush against his side. The contact was like hugging a furnace, and I let out a contented sigh as my HP ticked up.
"You are not in the nest," he growled. It was a "Gentle Predator" warning—possessive and protective.
"I was busy saving your tribe from a heart attack," I muttered, leaning my head against his shoulder. "Taste this."
I held up a wooden ladle filled with the broth. The kitchen went dead silent. A human offering food to the Chieftain was unheard of.
Vara looked like she was about to protest, but Kaelum's golden eyes flicked to her, silencing her instantly.
Kaelum took the ladle. He swallowed the broth in one go. For a long second, he didn't move. Then, his tail—the long, white tiger tail that usually whipped in irritation—gave a tiny, involuntary twitch of pleasure.
"It is... acceptable," he said, though his grip on my waist tightened. He looked at the cook. "From now on, the human prepares my meals. Anyone who touches her tools or interferes with her work will answer to my claws."
"Kaelum, the cubs are hungry," I whispered, gesturing to the Pudding Squad who were practically vibrating with anticipation.
Kaelum looked down at the three tiny wolves. He let out a low, huffing sound—the beastman equivalent of a sigh. "Fine. Feed the runts. But you," he turned back to me, his face inches from mine, "are coming with me. I am... overheating."
"You're always overheating," I teased.
"And you are always cold," he retorted, lifting me off the ground and tucking me under his arm like a precious trophy.
As we left the kitchen, I glanced back. Vara was staring at the pot of broth with a mixture of confusion and grudging curiosity. The Pudding Squad had already dived into the bowl I left for them, their little tails a blur of motion.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[Reputation with Kaelum: +2]
[Reputation with 'The Pudding Squad': 15/100 (Status: The Meat Goddess)]
'This is just the start, Kaelum,' I thought as the "Gentle Predator" carried me back to his sacred nest. 'Wait until I show you what I can do with a Wyvern.'