Nagare: "No edible meat…for the last three days…"
Shoyo: "Yeah, Naga-kun, it seems like all the large animals ran away from us, I wonder why…"
With the presence of a monster capable of defeating and roasting a Naga, the dominant beast of the forest, the other beasts did not take their chances.
Nagare: "Eating ants and roasted slugs…this truly was a nightmare"
Shoyo: 'I am glad he is a little dense, otherwise I would have to confess that this was partially my fault'
Shoyo: "It's better than starving, right?"
Nagare: "Only by a little"
As they kept walking, Nagare was growing more and more impatient.
Nagare: "Please tell me we are getting close to the location of Golden Dragon Branch"
Since Nagare had no sense of direction, he relied entirely on Shoyo to get them to their destination.
Shoyo: "We should be getting to the Lotus region soon"
Nagare: "I can see it, the sign!"
There was a marker attached to a tree, indicating that this was the place where the territory of the Lotus region started.
Apparently, the Golden Dragon Branch was located in the center of the Lotus region. They were almost there.
Shoyo: "Only about a half a day's worth of walking left"
Nagare: "Since this is the place where the Lotus region is, they are bound to have food stalls or eateries, right? I have the money, so we might as well grab something to chow down!"
Shoyo: "Nagare, are you ok?"
The usually serious and calm Nagare was acting like a delirious and anxious child.
Nagare: "Better than ok! We are finally out of that stupid forest! Finally, real food, I am coming!"
He ran as fast his feet would carry him.
Shoyo: "Naga-kun, wait for me!"
In the end, the two of them stumbled upon a food stall right outside of town.
Shoyo: 'Strange, I don't see any other person in sight. Is this really diner?'
As for Nagare, his mind was no longer in control of his body.
Rather, his stomach was the one making the decisions.
Nagare: "Two large meat bowls soups, please!"
Owner: "Coming up"
After a few minutes, their orders were ready.
Shoyo: 'Something does not smell right…the smell; it is coming from the soup…'
As Nagare reached down to chow it down, he was stopped by Shoyo's words.
Shoyo: "Unless you want to become a cannibal, don't eat that"
As soon as he heard that, Nagare's chopsticks ended up falling on the ground while his mouth was wide open, preparing to swallow the food whole.
Nagare: "Shoyo, what do you mean?"
In response, Shoyo simply sniffed the bowl.
Shoyo: "Sleeping powder and paralyzing poison. One slurp of this and you will be as helpless as a trapped hare"
Nagare: "Are you saying the owner drugged the soup!?"
Shoyo: "Not only that, it's made of…"
Nagare: "human meat"
Nagare's expression of shock switched to that of rage.
He immediately grabbed the hilt of his silver sword.
Shoyo: "I believe this is your specialty, Demon Hunter-kun"
Nagare: "Damn right it is"
* * *
Nagare: "This is so messed up"
Shoyo: "My my…"
The back of the diner was essentially a butcher-shop, but there were no bovines here, only skinned human corpses on hooks.
There were also large cocoon-like objects hanging on hooks, which Nagare assumed were for keeping human meat fresh.
On the floor lay the corpse of the monster Nagare just defeated.
Its upper body was disguised as that of a human being, but the lower body had countless tentacles extending from it. Each tentacle ended with a blade like protrusion.
Luckily, the monster was rather fat and slow, so Nagare managed to slash through its body before decapitating it.
But even if he killed the monster, it would not bring back any of the monster's victims,
After a brief battle, Nagare overwhelmed the monster who pretended to be a diner owner, just to lure in unsuspecting victims, only to eat them after they were paralyzed after eating his spiked food.
Shoyo: "From the number of bodies, this must have been going on for a while"
Nagare: "There was not a single person in sight, no wonder; it is likely this monster made this town his hunting grounds"
Shoyo: "Hmm, it is very faint, but I can hear a heartbeat…"
He put his ear on one of the cocoons.
Shoyo: "Naga-kun, do you mind opening up these cocoons?"
With a single slash to each one, the cocoons were cut open.
Just as expected, each one contained preserved bodies of human victims.
Out of all of them, only one was still alive.
The survivor had short hair, fairly androgynous appearance, and wearing a kimono with the same emblem on the back as Nagare. Without a doubt he was also the member of Order of Hunters.
One thing did catch Nagare's attention though.
Nagare: "His right hand…it's a wooden prosthetic"
Shoyo: "Poor thing"
Lifting the unconscious survivor on his back, Nagare asked.
Nagare: "Can you sense any other monster or any survivors?"
Shoyo: "No, aside from this one, not a single one is alive"
Nagare: "I see. We should have come here sooner. We might have been able to prevent their deaths…"
Nagare sighed.
Nagare: "We need to burn this place down to the ground"
Shoyo: "No arguments here"
And burn it down they did.
Now, the two, or rather three of them were outside of the burning diner, just watching the flames consume it.
Nagare: "Before we get to the Golden Dragon branch, we might need to find out what is going on in this town"
Shoyo: "Agreed"
Nagare: "By the way, how did you know the soup had poison in it? I didn't smell anything"
Shoyo: "Nothing can fool a Yaksha's nose. It is comparable to that of a bloodhound"
Nagare: "Right…."
Nagare: 'What the hell is a Yaksha anyways? Why does he keep calling himself that? Heck, even if he could smell the difference, how could he tell it was human meat?'
Nagare: "The human meat, how did you know?"
Nagare: 'Is this guy a monster too? Don't tell me all this time I had been traveling with a man-eating monster?!'
Shoyo: "Well…A while ago, I got captured by a tribe of Amazons. They eventually discovered that I could heal lost appendages, so they kept me around as their endless supply of meat. I managed to escape after a month but….the smell of my roasted flesh is not easy to forget"
Nagare: "A-A-Ah….I am sorry I even asked"