As soon as Aeloria entered the house, her sharp nose immediately picked up the sweet scent of potato coming from the kitchen.
She rushed there and found Yoru in a plain cream-coloured apron, stirring something on the burner. It was the first time she had seen Yoru enter the kitchen.
The kitchen was redolent with the scent of boiling potatoes, a smell that felt out of place in a house owned by a Cannibal.
Yoru was standing by a simple metallic table with space underneath, creating something like a hearth. Except this one is used for cooking. Dry wood are inserted in the bottom and lit. The heat then rises through the small space created at the top making it the perfect burner.
"You're cooking?" She had never cooked in their two years of living together.
"Can I not?" Yoru asked, sounding offended.
"Of course you can, but, being a noble and all, do you know how to cook?" No noble cooked for themselves, as such, she was worried Yoru might burn her only kitchen.
"I may not know how to clean but I do know how to cook. I learnt it from my personal caretaker," Yoru defended herself with a frown.
"Oh," Aeloria stretched her neck over, trying to figure out what she was cooking.
"What are you making then? I smelled potatoes on my way here." She looked at the two metalic pans on the burner, wondering which one had the potatoes.
"It's rabbit soup and potato."
"Really, mind if I watched?" Aeloria asked but Yoru just continued stirring.
"By the way, you really do not remember Migard?" She asked instead.
"Migard? The Commander also asked the same thing. Am I supposed to know him?" Aeloria responded in a curious tone.
"You had a duel with him with your position on the line three days ago," Yoru peeked inside the pan with the potato before proceeding to cut some vegetables.
"No way, I definitely would remember something this important," Aeloria watched the way she moved her hands and the ingredients she used as if memorizing them.
"It's definitely strange that you don't remember. Either way, you're bound to meet him again."
"I hope he won't be mad that I don't remember him." 'According to Yoru, I sounded like a child when I spoke, and I had my eyes closed the entire time. Does it have anything to do with Lira? And why didn't the Commander mention anything about it to me?'
"Wait here for a bit, Yoru, I'll go change quickly," Aeloria announced, shifting uncomfortably in her military wear.
"Take your time, I don't need you here anyway."
...
As the two maidens prepared to enjoy their afternoon, the king of Namesh was experiencing the heat of it in three different ways.
In the throne room of Namesh, all members of the court were present. This time, there were some influential figures of the commoners among the nobles. The matter to be discussed concerned the entire kingdom after all.
Nomen, the strategist of Namesh knelt before Jones Third and the entire court.
"Two years ago, you assured me that you intended to make no mistakes. I trusted and gave you command over the army. Tell me, Nomen, why does it feel like we're at the wrong side of a massacre? I'm not putting the blame on you, after all, the war was a decision made by me. I want to know, did you misjudged Runevale?"Jones spoke, drawing whispers from the gathered nobles and commoners.
"Earlier, he spoke as if victory was guaranteed, but we have yet to win a single battle against Runevale," one of the nobles who had been present two years ago spoke.
"I don't know; that might have been his inflated ego speaking that day. Young people tend to make mistakes when given grand titles such as the wisest in the land," and older man with a missing front tooth spoke from the commoners side, looking at Nomen in disappointment.
With his head still bowed, Nomen spoke.
"I do not know if that was a misjudgment, however, one thing is certain: I did not look down on them, and prepared accordingly. There was just no way of knowing that the Cannibal would be this troublesome to counter." He finally lifted his head to look at the king.
"Stand and elaborate," with Jones' permission, he stood.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." He bowed and looked at the gathered nobles on the right, then at the commoners on the left.
He then cleared his throat and began.
"Every single encounter should've ended in our victory. However, I did not expect them to use the Cannibal with such invidious intent. It is easier to fight one's own kind than it is to face the tenebrous hunger of a beast. A path that leads to an unknown destination is a path less treaded, even if it's painted in gold. Thus it all comes down to fear of the unknown," some of the young people in the room stared at him in confusion, they could not understand the meaning behind his words.
Seeing the confusion on their faces, Nomen spoke again, but this time, with lighter words.
"I would like to ask you all a question. Which would you choose, to fight a hundred men or to fight one hungry death-mower." He gave them a few moments to think about the question.
"Death-mower? What kind of ominous name is that? I'd rather fight another two hundred men than face such a creature," a noble nudged his friend who had his hand on his chin.
"Can't say I've ever heard of that name before. Nonetheless, fighting a hundred men is impossible if not foolish, however, that looks to be the only logical answer," A commoner holding the hand of his son spoke.
Seeing them argue, he continued.
"I'm sure many of you would rather fight a hundred men because you are of the same kind. You know what a man is capable of. However, you've made a wrong choice. A fully grown death-mower is a herbivore smaller than a sheep. They alway travel in groups of at least ten members. They are very cautious so it rare to encounter them even though they move in large numbers. It's call death-mower because it has some properties in its saliva that takes away the fertility of the land it grazes, thus leaving it a dead land. It's mostly harmless, even if you attacked it, it would only run away."
"Really? You mean it's that vulnerable? But why are you telling us this?" A noble who could no longer contain his curiousity asked.
"You mean the Cannibal is the death-mower in your question?" Jones asked drawing every attention to himself.
'As expected of the king, he's very knowledgeable,' Nomen looked at Jones with admiration before continuing.
"Yes, our soldiers' morale drops before they even face her. Not because they fear they'll die. Every soldier goes to war considering the outcome of death. What they do not consider is being eaten alive."
"This sounds like a very loud excuse to me. Forgive my rudeness but you already knew about the Cannibal's existence before the war even began. I can't accept this explanation," a high ranking noble spoke, interrupting Nomen.
"He speaks true, it's not like the Cannibal was an unexpected variable," another added.
"You speak truly. However, the reason I'm saying this isn't because I hadn't prepared for the Cannibal, but because we might not be able to take her down," Nomen turned to the noble and spoke.
"Is she stronger than the Tyrant?" Jones was the one to ask the question now.
"That is not the case. Four hundred and eighty-five sword wounds, poison gas, venomous arrows. All these were ineffective. We even went as far as to poison our own men, this way, if she were to take a bite of them, she would die, but they were all in vain."
"What, that shouldn't be possible. Then, how are we going to win this war if we can't even deal with a single monster?" A commoner asked, looking around the room in frustration.
"I don't suppose you've said all these without a solution in mind," Jones said with a frown.
"Our only chance is to seek the help of thornsleepers. They are a group of monsters themselves, they might know a way."
"You mean those despicable fiends? How can you even bring yourself to say their name? To seek aid from Thornsleepers is to invite an inimical force into our very heartwood ." A commoner with a severed wrist, a wound received from a thornsleeper, spoke.
"Continue," silence replaced the whispers when the king permitted him to proceed.
"I suppose Runevale has spies in our ranks just as we have spies in theirs. As such, they must know of our coming surprise attack. But we'll use it against them. They will send the Cannibal with a few soldiers towards the Southern Lonorith River. They expect us to attack Jorm instead, and that is where they'll fall. We will put in the work to get rid of the Cannibal once and for all."
"I see, I will trust you, one more time, Nomen," Jones spoke, but everyone understood the meaning of those words.