Chapter 50
When the meat at home was almost gone, Yomi could not help starting to think about hunting.
The breeding industry here was underdeveloped, while wild beasts were everywhere. Much of the meat sold in the market had also been hunted by locals. Meat was expensive, and there were many mouths in their household to feed. Other than little Yomi, not one of them had a small appetite. If they wanted the freedom to eat meat whenever they wished, hunting was a step they would sooner or later have to take.
And it was not only Yomi. Lynn, Meikai, Harvey, and Arlo, those young fellows, had also been gazing toward the distant mountain forests every day, itching to make a move.
But Yexi told them to wait a little longer—wait until Anxius’s body could handle vigorous movement again, and wait until he had learned more concrete details from nearby hunters before taking action.
The wild beasts of Junk Star were ferocious beyond compare. Although most of the time they were prey for the Junk Star people, there were still cases where they turned the tables and killed people instead. Yexi might seem like a reckless madman in his professional field, but when it came to hunting—something outside his expertise—he was actually extremely conservative. So long as he felt things were not secure, he would never allow everyone to set out rashly.
A few days later, Yexi finally got hold of a map of the mountains and forests, and brought back several sets of hunting tools from the market, chosen according to their body sizes. Then he formally announced to the group of young men, “Tomorrow, we go hunting!”
Lynn and the others cheered excitedly several times, as if they were not going hunting at all but heading out to play…
Yomi too was full of interest as he went to collect his own tools.
Everyone else received cold weapons like spears, bows and arrows, and knives. Only Yomi was handed a gun.
Suppressing the shock in his heart, Yomi rubbed the black pistol in his hands, unable to stop himself from feeling excited. He felt like he was about to go on a killing spree!
When the others noticed he had a gun, they were all visibly stunned. Clearly, they had not expected Yomi to be given such a dangerous weapon. That was until the little man gave the gun a shake, and a sloshing sound came out…
?
Yomi thought he must have misheard. Over there, Yexi hurriedly explained with a laugh, “That’s not a hunting weapon. It’s just a toy water gun. I saw it happened to be just the right size for Yomi to hold, so I bought it for him… Yomi, this slingshot is your actual weapon.”
“…”
It was basically being toyed with. Huffing in indignation, Yomi took the slingshot, while using the other hand to fire the water gun at the ground a few times. The water stream was actually pretty strong. Just like that, he stopped being angry and started grinning happily instead. “You can fill it with chili water and shoot wild beasts in the eyes!”
“…”
What a terrifyingly powerful hunting method that sounded like. The young men humored him indulgently. “Yes, yes, of course. When Mimi shoots chili water into a beast’s eyes, won’t the beast be completely at his mercy?”
Yomi did not hear the forced praise in his friends’ voices at all. As a human who had successfully survived for a full week on Leia Continent, Yomi considered himself very knowledgeable about hunting! The moment he came up with the idea of a chili gun, he ran off with the water gun to study it…
That very day, Anxius even helped him dismantle the water gun and modify it a little, making it easier for Yomi to reload his chili-water “bullets” more quickly.
The next day, once the number of hunters was decided, the entire group set out.
Karl and Anxius had both been well for some time already, and there was no problem at all with them joining the hunt.
Anxius mainly wanted to hunt fresh meat for Yomi to eat. Winter was not suitable for carrying out the symbiosis surgery, and right now all he wanted was to make sure Yomi was raised healthy and strong before the operation.
After breakfast, the whole group set out together, nine people in total. So that the team would not become chaotic, their roles were clearly divided from the start. Linda, in her peacock form, flew into the sky from time to time to observe the movements of prey and give the hunters guidance. Ferocious in their original forms, Anxius, Harvey, and Meikai were the main force of the hunt. Yexi and his son, whose original forms were fierce birds of prey, were responsible for crucial support at key moments. Lynn, whose original form was agile, was in charge of promptly collecting the prey, tying them up, and keeping count. And Yomi, whose original form was a little mountain goat and who still could not transform back at will, was responsible for boosting morale… ah no! He was responsible for running up to prey that were already exhausted or completely dead and marking them one by one with his water gun.
With the way he held the gun, and that cold expression on his face, anyone who did not know better would think the entire pile of prey had died by his hand.
This marking was not pointless at all. Once something was stained with the smell of chili water, it became their prey. If they happened to run into other hunters nearby, those people would not be able to muddy the waters and claim the prey as their own.
After successfully hunting two mountain boars, they entered deeper into the forest. As they moved, Yexi continued telling them about the local situation.
In the wilderness of Junk Star, mountain boars and wild oxen were the main targets of hunters. Larger prey, such as mountain bears and mountain tigers—carnivorous beasts of that sort—were usually more dangerous, and comparatively fewer hunters chose them as prey.
This time, Yexi’s targets were only mountain boars and wild oxen. As he described the appearances of the other beasts, he led the way in front.
The group was full of tall, broad men, and Anxius hunted in his original form, which was over four meters tall. The only tiny figure in the entire group was Yomi, and he followed closely behind everyone, afraid of falling behind.
Of course, falling behind was impossible. One of Anxius’s eyes was watching the surroundings, while the other remained fixed on him the entire time. Each time he noticed Yomi’s breathing grow slightly labored, he would immediately scoop him up and place him on his shoulder.
“Thank you.” Yomi held his water gun as he thanked Anxius for the help, then began observing the surroundings. With his field of vision raised, it did not take long before he spotted a small mountain ahead… moving. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. It was still moving! Terrified, he hurriedly whispered, “Something’s wrong ahead! Th-that mountain can…”
“Oh, that’s not a mountain.” Yexi followed his line of sight and looked over. “In certain mountain wildlands of Junk Star, there exist giant beasts, something like the whales of the sea, so the locals named them mountain whales. When they rest, they lie prone, and their huge bodies look just like small mountains… Don’t be afraid. Mountain whales don’t eat people. In fact, they barely eat animals at all. Their staple food is all kinds of garbage and toxic waste. It’s precisely because they exist that Junk Star—used as a dumping ground by other planets—has managed to remain full of life. But mountain whale meat can’t be eaten. It’s poisonous.”
Yomi listened in a daze. He could not believe there was such a creature in the world. They were basically nature’s unpaid cleaning staff. Not giving them some kind of Award for Most Touching Planetary Lifeforms would simply be unreasonable.
Over on Linda’s side, traces of wild oxen had been found, and the whole group rushed over to begin the hunt. One wild ox did not require that many people. Anxius, meanwhile, had set his sights on prey on another hillside. He handed Yomi over to Karl, then beat his wings and shot off toward the other side at high speed.
Once Yomi was back on the ground, his field of vision dropped again, and he could not see the massive creature on the other hillside at all. He concentrated wholeheartedly on using his water gun to spray and mark the prey that had already died.
By now, the number of animals they had hunted was more than enough for the day. In winter, this meat could be preserved very well and would last them for a long time. Yexi told everyone to rest where they were, while he and Karl went over to the other hillside to look for Anxius.
During the break, Yomi kept sneaking glances toward the mountain whale.
Ahhh, he was far too curious.
Other than Arlo, who had already seen mountain whales before, the rest of the young men were also deeply curious about the strange lifeforms of this planet. After noticing what Yomi was thinking, Lynn immediately whispered a suggestion: “How about we go take a look? Mountain whales don’t eat people anyway…”
Yomi’s eyes lit up, and he nodded hard. He wanted to take a photo with the mountain whale!
Meikai and Harvey also joined in for the fun. After calling out to Linda, the few of them ran over excitedly toward the mountain whale’s back and began sneakily studying it.
A few minutes later, Anxius returned carrying an enormous leopard, more than three meters tall!
Linda had not expected him to hunt such a dangerous local beast and covered her mouth in shock. Only after seeing her husband and Karl behind him safe and sound did she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Anxius set down the prey and immediately looked toward the smallest figure in the distance—Yomi was “visiting” the mountain whale together with Lynn and the others. Because the whale’s outer shell looked so much like stone, Yomi had absolutely no idea he was standing on the creature’s foot. He thought he was maintaining a perfectly normal social distance from the mountain whale, and was busily taking photo after photo with his optical brain. Whenever Lynn made too much noise, he would even raise one finger to his lips, signaling everyone to keep quiet and not wake the giant up.
Anxius: “…”
He strode over and carefully lifted Yomi high into his arms. At the same time, Yomi, looking down, suddenly saw the place he had been standing on just moments ago begin to move—or rather, to lift. It was clearly the shape of a beast’s paw…
Good heavens, he had actually stood on somebody’s foot to take photos!
Apparently he had stepped on it enough to make it itchy, because another foot started moving too, scratching at itself.
Yomi: “…”
Sorry, Mountain Whale. I really didn’t mean it.
Given that Yomi’s line of sight was so low, Anxius was honestly afraid that if he let him stay on the ground, he might accidentally wander right into the mountain whale’s mouth without realizing it. So on the way back, he simply carried Yomi the whole time and absolutely refused to let him walk on his own.
This hunt had been a huge success. Even though the young men were nearly bent double beneath the weight of their prey on the way home, not one of them felt tired. At the thought of getting to eat fragrant fresh meat, they all felt like they could carry one more animal if needed!
In winter, the outdoors on Junk Star functioned as a giant natural freezer. First, they processed all the prey properly. Some of the meat was sealed into enormous vats outside to freeze. As for the large remaining quantity of beast meat—how to deal with it? Yomi had a plan!
He taught everyone to marinate part of it and hang it up to make cured meat. The rest, they would dry into jerky and meat slices. These were not just ordinary jerky and dried meat, though—the final flavor, and whether it tasted good or not, all depended on the seasoning used in the first marinade.
Jerky was relatively simple to make. The meat was cut into long thick strips, marinated for a period of time with scallions, ginger, and simple seasonings, then hung outside to dry in the wind. Once properly dried, it was steamed for a while, then hung up again for another day or two, and delicious jerky was born.
It had a particularly chewy bite, and because the jerky had been marinated in different batches with different seasonings, there were both spicy and mild flavors~
As for the dried meat slices, they were a little more complicated than jerky. First, the mountain boar meat had to be chopped into mince. Naturally, this physical labor was all taken care of by Anxius. Then the meat was marinated with seasonings, spread flat onto a clean stone slab, brushed with a layer of honey they had bought from the market along with sesame seeds, put into the oven, baked dry while controlling the temperature and turning it over, and brushed with a little more honey from time to time. Once it came out of the oven, it could be cut into small pieces and eaten immediately!
The meat slices were obviously much quicker to make than jerky. As soon as the first batch came out of the oven, everyone was stunned by the smell.
People on Junk Star also made dried meat slices, and Yexi and the others had bought them before, but the taste was always very average. Most people here only made jerky because it was easier to carry around. The version Yomi had taught them to make, however, could be treated as a snack… No, it was far, far tastier than ordinary snacks!
Snar, their former home, also had meat slices. Tasty as those were, they tasted completely different from the ones Yomi made.
That was perfectly normal. Never mind another world—even back on Earth, Yomi’s former home, the same dish could have completely different methods depending on the country or even just the city.
Wearing an apron, Yomi packed the little dried meat slices into different jars one by one. “For today, let’s do one jar per person. Once we have more, everyone can just take some from the kitchen whenever they want.”
“Wuwuwu, Mimi, you really are an amazing little chef!” Lynn, eating the dried meat one slice at a time, was so overcome by the taste he almost cried. Sweet, spicy dried meat—how could something be this delicious?
Meikai and Harvey looked at each other and suddenly no longer felt as though they had fled to Junk Star… How was this any different from going into seclusion for a master-chef training camp? They had secretly learned yet another new food recipe. For the next few days, they wanted to think of nothing except making more dried meat!
Linda was full of admiration for Yomi’s cooking skills. “Yomi, just where did you learn so many unusual food preparations?”
At her question, Yomi, who was chewing on a meat slice, had his thoughts slip back to the past for an instant.
Compared to these aliens, humans clearly loved studying food the most—especially in his homeland. The same ingredient could be turned into hundreds upon hundreds of delicious dishes.
The reason Yomi knew how to make these things was not because of racial talent. No one was born knowing how to cook.
After his parents passed away, Yomi had lived under someone else’s roof for a period of time and had been deeply anxious. At that time, let alone rebelling, he had not even dared show any sign of his spiritual confusion or depression. He was afraid his uncle and aunt would not want him.
Yomi did not want his father and mother’s spirits to worry about him, even though he did not actually know whether spirits still existed after death.
Yomi had had an extremely good pair of parents. Even if he only did a single thing a tiny bit well, his mom and dad would praise him as though it were a perfect hundred points, telling him he was amazing.
His parents loved him. Of that, Yomi understood more clearly than anyone.
When they were caught in the disaster, even with only a final trace of consciousness left, the only thing they had been able to leave behind in a voice message on the phone was a weak and exhausted sentence:
“Mimi, thank you for staying with Mommy and Daddy all these years… Baby, live well.”
By the time Yomi answered “Okay” to those words, his parents’ funeral was already over.
He had gone with his uncle to a completely new home.
His uncle and aunt also had children, and Yomi’s arrival made the already small home feel even more cramped.
In order to remain well in that household, Yomi had often diligently gone over to help whenever the adults were cooking.
His uncle and aunt were good people. Actually, their relationship had not been that close. They were not blood uncle and nephew. But when that couple heard about a child who had lost all his family, they gathered up their courage and took him in. Yomi did not want to become a burden, so he tried his best to reduce the strain on the family in whatever ways he could.
Whenever the season came, his aunt would fuss over all kinds of food—making pickles, sausages, cured meat, jerky, dried meat slices, even various desserts…
Bit by bit, simply by being around her, Yomi learned many methods of preparing food. He had always thought that once he became an adult and lived on his own, he would be perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
Only, not long after reaching adulthood, the apocalypse had arrived… But he was fortunate. He was still alive and well now.
“Mimi.” Seeing that he had gone absent-minded, Anxius lowered his head to look at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Ah, nothing…” Yomi gave a little jolt, then looked up at all the curious gazes around the room. He quickly used an answer that was not really a lie to reply to Linda. “My parents passed away pretty early, and I was still little then, so I went to live with my only relatives. My aunt was very good at cooking. Everything I know now, I learned from her.”
“…I’m sorry, Yomi.” Linda immediately felt she had spoken out of turn. As someone with children of her own, she could not even begin to imagine what it must have felt like for a child who had lost both parents to live under someone else’s roof. She was afraid her question had brought back painful memories. “I didn’t know…”
“It’s all right,” Yomi said calmly. “My uncle and aunt were both very kind. There’s nothing about it that can’t be talked about.”
By the time he was in high school, the students around him already had some emotional intelligence. Every time they learned in conversation that his parents had passed away, they would become flustered and apologetically say sorry.
But Yomi had never felt that was something bad.
In truth, he liked talking to people about his mom and dad. He did not mind at all when people brought up those who had passed away. He hoped there would always be people interested in his parents, because he had the very best parents in the world.
Sometimes, while talking about them, he would still feel sad. But he would quickly pull himself together again. As long as he lived long enough, there would always be people who remembered them.
Back then, Yomi had never really thought deeply about the truths of life and death. He would only, from time to time, walk alone in the slow ache of sudden grief, drifting for a while, then continue on with the life in front of him. He remembered how, when he was little, his mother had once told him that when people died, they became stars, which was why there were so many stars in the sky. As for why stars also sometimes fell… that was because some people lived long lives and would also be long-lived stars, while those who died quickly would become stars that burned out quickly too.
The most beautiful lie had accompanied Yomi through his long life.
Every single day before he transmigrated, he always felt as if stars tens of thousands of light-years away were watching him. On nights when the sky was full of stars, Yomi would occasionally lift his head to look at them. He would forget his temporary sadness and begin to feel full of expectation for the future. He wanted to live a very, very long time, and then, in old age, become a young star and live next door to his mom and dad.
That night, Yomi ate dried meat while watching a movie. It was a comedy. He laughed so hard several times that he let out low goose-like chuckles, and after the movie ended he was still dwelling on the funny parts. His shoulders shook from laughing as he excitedly told Anxius about the plot.
Anxius had no impression at all of the movie’s plot. He had been watching Yomi the whole time. But whenever Yomi asked if a certain part was especially funny, he would nod too.
After climbing into bed, Yomi had barely said goodnight when the person beside him suddenly pulled him into an extremely tight embrace.
This was different from the warm, practical cuddling they had done before. Anxius was almost wrapping around him with all four limbs entwined, and that made Yomi a little surprised, and also somewhat unaccustomed to it.
“What’s wrong?” Yomi asked. Then he remembered that, after the topic of his parents had come up earlier that day, Anxius had seemed a little off… Yomi assumed Anxius was empathizing with him, feeling that they shared the same fate. After all, a person like Anxius, whose own biological father had tried to assassinate him, was not really much different from an orphan… Immediately he wriggled closer and rubbed soothingly against Anxius’s face, nearly brushing against one of his horns. “Anxius, go to sleep. Don’t think about those people. We’re on the same side.”
“…”
Within the warm blankets, the pounding of a heart grew even more intense, and the breath so near at hand turned scorching hot. In the next second, Yomi’s cheek was suddenly bitten hard.
Huh?!
With half his face being nibbled, even Yomi’s shocked expression was thrown off. He stared blankly. “An-Anxius… have you gone berserk? I’m Yomi! Don’t eat me!”
