79: Tail

The Drake steaks were taking a long while to cook, and with fifteen people here, I was about to make something large for everyone when Liane stopped me.

“Just prepare for our group. You have no obligation to prepare for everyone—they’ll all have their own food. If you’re feeling especially kind, you can prepare a bunch of extra stuff and sell it to them. But see Milo regarding selling it,” she said.

I was a little taken aback. I had always just prepared for everyone—could I really charge people?

My plans were thrown off a little by this, as I had intended to just do a giant roast big enough for everyone. And honestly, I was still going to stick to the roast with the giant oven. I pulled the Baelvryn out of storage. I had used it several times already, so it wasn’t whole, but my goal today was to remove an entire back leg for roasting.

It wasn’t too difficult, but I did need to get Jen’s assistance in separating it from the body of the creature, and I certainly gained a lot of attention while doing so. But if the dragon tail and drake hadn’t already had them asking questions… what would a bear do?

Once the leg was free, I was happy with the size—it was far more food than I’d need to feed the six of us, or even everyone here if they paid. But I got to work on some sides. I pulled out several onions, tubers, and carrots, dicing them up and placing them in a bowl with some Buvul tallow, which quickly melted as I took it closer to the oven.

Coating them with the fat, using a combination of the dried herbs I had, along with salt and pepper. I knew that if I gave Crisplet Thornroot right now, we’d get the Sanguine Ascendance effect, so I was careful not to do that—just in case the others did eat it.

Once the veg was coated with the seasoning mix and oil, I took them out of the bowl and placed them on a stone plate, ready to be baked. I then took the remaining fat and seasoning mixture and coated the outside of the Baelvryn leg.

Milo had to custom-make a baking tray large enough to hold it, but he was happy to do so.

Lastly, I portioned out twenty rolls. I added the dried herbs to ten of them, leaving the other ten plain without any extra ingredients.

Looking over at the giant oven, by this stage it was glowing brightly—Crisplet had really turned the whole thing into a fiery domain. I took another couple of bites of my roll to get fire immunity again, before starting to take everything in.

I placed all three items near the drake steaks, which were now getting a deep dark brown colour on the outside—and honestly, they smelled amazing. If Lily wasn’t attracted here with all the food smells… I didn’t know what would.

It took only twenty minutes for Crisplet to signal that the rolls were ready. Taking them out first filled the room with the fresh scent of baked bread. At this stage, I didn’t infuse any of them—I just let them cool.

After only an hour more, Crisplet had me move the vegetables to a cooler part, and also signalled that the drake steaks were ready, leaving just the roast leg in the middle of the oven.

Rather than trying to carry both of the giant steaks, I stored them straight from the oven. Coming outside, I asked Milo for a large stone platter to hold them. I quickly had both in front of me—the smell was amazing—and multiple people in the room had their eyes on it.

“Don’t sneak a bite of this one. It might burn out your mana channels,” I said with a chuckle, before using Infuse on both of them. Once that was done, I pulled out the sickly green orb that was the essence of the leaf-bladed spider.

I promptly used it on one of the steaks, causing a few raised eyebrows—and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about showing off my skills like this in front of so many unknowns, especially after all the warnings.

I’d managed a short chat with Hari while the food was cooking, and he said it was a gamble—but at the end of the day, if I could essentially summon the Shadow Cat at will, that should act as an incredible deterrent for pretty much everyone. The more witnesses to that, the better.

I left the steaks out, hoping they’d be noticed by Lily. Did she need to be inside to sense them?

After another hour had passed, Crisplet gave me the signal that the leg was ready as well. Heading into the oven—and nearly getting burned again before I redid my fire immunity—I stored the leg and brought it out to the main area.

Once outside, I brought it out of storage and placed the vegetables—which were a perfect golden brown—next to the roast, along with the rolls. I then proceeded to use Infuse on each item.

Liane was first in line to help herself, but I noticed that even once she had her food, she sat close.

Sarah was the first to approach, but she didn’t try to just take the food. Instead, she came over and asked if she could buy some. I looked helplessly at Milo, who took over and quickly reached an agreement: one silver per meal.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I’m sure he could have gotten far more if he had leaned into the buffs, but instead he simply asked that their party keep quiet about what buffs they received—and they easily agreed.

Sarah paid five silver, and her party each grabbed some meat, veg, and a roll.

Several members of Greg’s group were eyeing us as we ate, but Greg himself was gnawing on a hard piece of jerky. Despite pretending not to look at the roast, I definitely caught him glancing over several times.

It didn’t take long—after some whispered encouragement from his party—before he broke. Rising to his feet, he started heading over… but was immediately stopped in his tracks by a familiar pressure.

“It worked!” I said excitedly, rushing over to the butchery room and pulling the tail back out of storage.

Lily hadn’t shown herself yet, but her presence was unmistakable—and everyone felt it. Greg hadn’t taken another step. In fact, the entire room had frozen.

“Lily! I have food for you!” I called out, looking around in hopes of spotting her.

She finally appeared—right behind me—emerging from my own shadow. I barely had time to react before Crisplet came charging out of the oven in a volatile red colour… only to stop short when he saw Lily, releasing a bright burst of sparks in recognition.

Lily had clearly noticed the little elemental too, but her attention immediately shifted back to the two steaks.