Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Lilia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 27 – For the Sake of Cooking for Them②
Regarding the eggs of the wire condor, we fortunately managed to collect them all before they crashed to the ground.
I took just one in my arms, returned the rest to the nest, and retreated.
“That bird won’t chase us, will it…?”
“It suddenly sensed a magical reaction and the tree used as its nest collapsed, so it panicked and won’t be coming back for a while. I’ve concealed the rest of the eggs with leaves so wild animals won’t find them. I can leave them alone for now, the eggs are sturdy and the bird will come to rebuild the nest.”
“Eh… that bird can actually sense magic power…?”
There were animals like that.
“That sounds scary~… Well, I should be okay since invincible sensei is by my side♡”
Kuyumi laughed and clung to my arm.
“Please protect me when the situation calls for it, okay♡”
“I’ll still protect you regardless, though…?”
“…………I see♡”
Rather, was there any time a teacher wouldn’t protect their student?
There was no such thing.
“Now that we have secured the eggs, the next ingredient should be meat. Yes, meat.”
“……”
“After being told that my dishes felt like a simple meal, it made me reconsider what I should change if I want the three of you to eat a lot. So then I decided, I should definitely reconsider the seasoning. And the seasoning, of course, depends on the type of meat I’m using. This line of thinking is correct, right? …Kuyumi?”
“Fueh?! Ah, yes, you’re right♡”
Kuyumi, who had looked away in silence, suddenly looked a little panicked as she nodded.
Before I reincarnated to this world, I used to like strongly seasoned food as well.
I often stopped by Mc’s on the way home from cram school.
“Err, you said the next one is meat, right? That means…?”
“Aah, it’s time to hunt.”
As Kuyumi asked timidly, I answered straightforwardly.
As expected, Kuyumi seemed to hate the idea.
“Eeh~… does that mean Kuyumi-chan is going to be taught the harshness of the world of nature~?”
You coming along wasn’t part of the plan to begin with, though.
But well, I guess it was a good opportunity.
“Since you’re aiming for the [Thief] Job progression, I think it will be a good experience.”
◇
By the time we reached our next destination, the sun had already risen for a while.
We were currently in an open wilderness where the golden rabbit we were targeting this time lived.
There, Kuyumi and I activated camouflage magic, laid down on the ground, and slowed our breathing while staying as still as possible.
“Is this the good experience you were talking about~?”
Kuyumi deftly whispered.
She was better at hiding than I am.
Even though she was next to me, I couldn’t feel her presence at all.
“Aah. Just wait patiently until the target comes. A shiny rabbit will definitely come.”
“I just don’t see the point of camouflaging at all, though♡”
The golden rabbit was said to be so delicious that its whole body shone.
The luminescence phenomenon that occurred was explained to be due to the tastiness of the meat, which was so concentrated that it glowed.
Hunters ran through the wilderness day and night in search of shiny beasts, which could be traded for extremely high prices.
“Basically~ it’s just practicing hiding and finishing off the target at once, right~?”
Kuyumi stood up with a listless expression.
She dispelled the camouflage magic. I didn’t even have time to scold her.
“I already have enough of those experiences~”
After muttering that in a bored voice, Kuyumi glanced to the side.
As I looked in that direction, I could see a golden rabbit that shone brilliantly even in the sunlight staring intently at us.
“Geh.”
“Things will be concluded if we kill that thing, right?”
Her bouncy voice echoing in the open space, Kuyumi disappeared.
She started moving at top speed, kicking off the ground, and positioned herself diagonally above her prey.
“I want to go home soon, so please die♡”
Kuyumi’s arms turned into blurs as she called out with a cute voice.
She threw daggers from multiple directions and launch wires to restrain the golden rabbit.
──By that time, the golden rabbit was no longer there.
“…………Haeh?”
Kuyumi realized all her attempts had been evaded as she landed.
Only the most skilled adventurers with good speed could have countered her attack.
It wasn’t something that could be avoided normally. Most people would have to do something while they were already caught by her wires.
“Eh, wai, where? Where did it go?!”
“It’s just a guess, but my neck feels heavier, so I guess it’s above my head?”
“Hah? ……Wai, it really is above sensei! How?!”
Golden rabbits have extremely high agility and refined senses.
It’s almost impossible to win the initiative against them.
And just like their agility, their luck was also unusually high.
Basically:
Since it moves at an extremely high speed, could leap very high and change directions on a whim, one could only hope to succeed by luck.
But since it also had a very lucky constitution, one could almost never catch it by chance.
And above all── according to what we learned when the magician used animal-language understanding magic to converse with it —
This was the only golden rabbit.
There was no other golden rabbit, but because this golden rabbit liked to run all over the continent in her spare time, rumors of her appearance spread and eventually it was believed that there was a whole race of golden rabbits. 1
She was such a mysterious being that, as a player, I questioned why the development team designed her as an edible monster.
This was the golden rabbit, one of the seven highest-ranking ingredients.
……Well, every player also wondered why they would receive an [Escaped!] notification when they defeated her, instead of the usual [Defeated!] notification. Turns out, she didn’t die at all, and really just ran away! And what’s more, she was the only member of her species!!
“It’s been a while, Rabbit-san.” 2
When I greeted her, she jumped off my head.
She let out a deliberate sigh as if to say, “it’s you again,” while staring at me.
“Kuyumi, come here for a second.”
“Eh? Ah, eh…?”
“My apologies. This is the girl I’m taking care of at the moment. Her name is Kuyumi. Please remember her face at least.”
“Ah, yes. Hello, I’m Kuyumi…?”3
I took out a carrot from my bag and let Kuyumi hold it.
“Eh? Eh? Eh?”
“Give it to her. It’s a bribe.”
“Eh? Wait, sorry, sensei. Kuyumi can’t catch up with what is happening right now.”
Kuyumi completely broke.
Since it couldn’t be helped, I pulled her hand and offered the carrot to Rabbit-san’s mouth.
The two were brought in close proximity to each other.
After checking out the aroma of the carrot that was offered to her, Rabbit-san devoured it with incredible speed. As expected of the vice principal’s plant: it was a first class product.
To an ordinary person’s vision, it would appear that all but the leaf of the carrot was blown away in an instant.
“It seems she liked it.”
“Haah… um, sensei?”
After Kuyumi handed me the carrot, she timidly pointed at Rabbit-san.
Rabbit-san had already started moving left and right at high speed.
“We are supposed to catch this rabbit-san, aren’t we…?”
“No, that’s not it. Rabbit-san, who received the offering, will jump away sideways repeatedly at high speed, making it impossible to specify the position coordinate in time, and as a result, create a clone of Rabbit-san, just without her consciousness.”
After hearing my explanation Kuyumi turned towards me and looked at me as if I was a madman.
Her gaze was even tinged with fear.
“……I really don’t understand what you’re saying at all?!”
Ah, no good. I guess the game explanation was hard to understand, huh.
I was sure people would understand just by seeing it, but maybe that’s only because I played the game for so long. I felt too sorry for her to not give her an explanation.
“Basically, Rabbit-san can make a copy of her body without her consciousness. I have been acquainted with Rabbit-san before, and she would share her body like this sometimes. It’s how we can technically eat a golden rabbit.”
“Eeh……?”
As I explained, lying next to Rabbit-san whose glowing face seemed to say, “I got a good workout,” was another Rabbit-san’s body, but unconscious with the whites of her eyes showing.
No matter how many times I saw it, I never got used to it. It felt like an out of body experience. 4
“Rabbit-san, thank you very much.”
I quickly stuffed the soul-less body into my bag.
Rabbit-san nodded, winked at me and Kuyumi, and disappeared.
She must have gone somewhere else at high speed.
“……Sensei, Kuyumi-chan might have fallen asleep without noticing♡”
“No, this is reality.”
Kuyumi’s smile disappeared and she looked extremely disgusted.
It might be an existence originally made out of rumors, but if Rabbit-san’s specs actually could change reality, then that was just what happened.
Even the Magician said that to catch something with that speed, it would be impossible without wide-range annihilation magic and ridiculous amounts of sacrifice.
……But strangely, even though Rabbit-san was so fast, it wouldn’t hurt even if one crashed into her.
I guess the most likely theory was that she had no attack stat.
Therefore, there was no reason to actively subdue her.
One could even get a copy of her body if one talked to her politely and got her in a good mood. It was a much easier method that actually worked.
“Err, sensei, what was the good experience you wanted me to have…?”
After confirming that Rabbit-san was gone, Kuyumi turned toward me.
“No matter how hard you try, there are some beings in this world that the concept of ambush fundamentally won’t work against. People in the [Thief] Job will always run into that wall.”
I spoke solemnly.
There were certainly people who were so specialized that it was reckless to attempt head-on combat with them, and ambush was the only option.
But that was a designation based on hindsight.
It wasn’t recommended to try and become someone who could only fight using the element of surprise.
“So while it is painful to accept, I thought I’d let you actually hit the wall like this. I’d like to hear your thoughts.”
“……”
Kuyumi opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked completely astonished.
What? I thought it was a pretty good field trip, though? Exciting and educational.
Seeing me confused, she leaned closer to me and pouted.
“I’m already running into a wall that’s too big for me, though~? It’s called sensei~”
“Ah……”
Aah……
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