chapter 40

I became 15 years old. Now, I’m twice adult.

I didn’t really tell anyone about my birthday, so there was no celebration party to speak of. From time to time a met the owner of「Miraya」, Akima. She always tried to invite me to play in her establishment. When someone tries to invite you so hard it makes it even harder to agree.

There was also a pleasant result. I was able to replicate the beef stew, which I always ate in that hotel.

Because I often ate there, the chef noticed me and taught me some things. When I praised his creation, he gave me some demiglas sauce and the recipe. No one will fault me for replicating it. Being able to enjoy that beef stew in my home is…..priceless.

I finished my work, returned home, took ou a large pot and loaded the ingredients. The chef in the hotel had to spent about 12 hours to cook it. So I cooked with utmost care, following the recipe.

I really did that for 12 hours. While adjusting the heat with fire magic, it took me until the morning to finally complete it.

Then, the incident occurred.

Gon declared that he was hungry. I planned to split the finished beef stew into multiple portion, but, as expected, I was pretty hungry myself. At that time, I planned to stuff ourselves with some fried dishes.

「Doon! Gasshan!!!」

The beef stew, which was the product of my titanic efforts, was spilled on the kitchen’s floor. The time stopped for me.

「Kyaaaaaaaaa」

A harpy was attracted by the smell and sneaked into the kitchen trying to steal the pot. However, when it tried to get away, it succumbed to its sheer weight and spilled the stew all over the kitchen. Recently, there were no monster attacks, so I dispelled the barrier some time ago. My map didn’t help at all. I was aware of a monster flying above my mansion, but since it didn’t have any ill intent I overlooked it. I never expected to meet a monster that was after our food.

Harpy fled outside with a mocking expression. Its arms and legs were that of a bird, but the rest of its body was human. I could read its expression very well. This thing was considering me an idiot. Something exploded inside of me.

「God damn it!! I will slaughter you!!!!!!!!」

Stepping over the beef stew remains, I picked a club and went outside. Harpy was flying in circles above the mansion, but maybe because it recognized me as an enemy, it attacked me with its sharp claws.

「Gachin!!」

The harpy’s attacks proved ineffective in the face of the barrier. I grabbed its leg and smashed it on the ground. Again. And again.

「Pigya! Pigya!! Pigya!!」

It tried to slap its wings and escape into the air, but I used the club to smash them.

「Pyiiiiii!!!」

I throughly beat up the wailing harpy with the club.

「Just how long do you think it took me!? Do you know how long I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred!!」

The harpy didn’t have a single uninjured spot. In the end I smashed its face using the club as a baseball bat.

Harpy still seemed alive. how tenacious. When I planned to continue with the punishment, I saw a presence on the map. Dozens of harpies were flying towards me, most likely, its comrades.

When they saw their comrade, they instantly recognized me as an enemy and launched the attack. However, their numbers are of no concern to me. I will plummet them just like the previous one. Plummet. Plummet.

「Pii……Pyi…..」

Tens of harpies with their limbs bent in unnatural direction lying on the ground. My wrath won’t be dispelled with just that. When I was thinking what about their fate, even more harpies came out of the forest. Fine. I will be your opponent, no matter how many there are!

Dozens of harpies appeared following behind a huge harpy. The giant harpy saw the disaster site and raised a loud screech. With that as a sign, the harpies banded together and attacked me.

Even an elite knight or magician would find it difficult to escape from this situation. But that didn’t apply to me. I smashed their wings and made a mess of them like before. The giant harpy, that was hiding behind the rest, launched a wind magic attack at me. It was a nice tactic. However, it was easily dodged by me while I caught it by the leg.

「Pyiiiii!!」

It attacked me with its free leg, but wasn’t able to even scratch me. While holding its leg, I smashed it against the ground, broke its wings, broke its limbs and smashed its face.

Close to hundred harpies sprawled around me. I enclosed them inside the barrier. Then I applied recovery magic on them and called Gon to interpret my words.

「Because we won’t be able to talk while you are injured! Even if they are you comrades, you made a mess of a stew that I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred for who knows how long! How are you going to compensate me!? Don’t think that you would have an easy death!!!」

A strong-willed harpy tried to attack me from inside of the barrier. I dragged it out and slashed at it with「Onigiri」.

「Pyiiiii! Pigya!!!!!!!」

It screamed in agony.

「This was just an appetizer. I will let you suffer even more before I kill you! Do not make light of the food grudge!」

「Pi, pyii…..」

The harpies were shivering. Some of them even wet themselves.

「Pi! Pipipipi!」

The giant harpy said something.

「It wants you to quell your anger」

「Ah? Quell my anger?! Don’t talk about it with that mouth of yours!」

「I’m a general harpy, a head of this flock. I wish to avoid my family getting killed at all costs. We apologize regarding the conduct of our comrade. We can obey you demands, but we want to avoid being wiped out, or so it says」

「You can’t do shit! Nuu, only your blood can quell my anger! There is no other way but to atone with your blood!」

「No, rather than that, we can use the to guard the vicinity. Harpy is a B rank monster, A rank in group. In such a number they should even reach S rank. They would be extremely convenient to reduce the monster population around us」

Ho, so I can obtain monster meat without doing anything.

「Besides, harpy’s eggs are quite the delicacy. It’s a good idea to make them pay some eggs as a tribute」

「All right, if you accept those condition, I can leave you be. If you don’t, I will leave you here to starve to death」

Of course, the harpies agreed in a moment. Once I accepted it, I healed the one slashed by「Onigiri」and returned it to the flock.

According to Gon, harpies are creatures with a strong sense of camaraderie. With the general harpy at the top, they could triumph over any other creature in this forest. In other words, there are on top on the food chain in this forest.

「They just stumbled on the Great Demon King」

You mean, me?

The whole flock of harpies, which were confident in their victory, was instantly plummeted. Quite scary if you think about it.

In general, harpies are very protective of their young ones. They lay about 5 eggs in three years and carefully nurture every child. But it seems that before the eggs hatched, they do not have much interest in them and the conditions were accepted smoothly. (TN: Not sure about this one)

The general harpy stayed behind as a hostage. It was prohibited from accessing the insides of the mansion until I give a permission. This condition limited her scope of activity, but the general harpy itself didn’t have any objections. On the contrary, it god addicted to the food a gave and became friendly with Irimo. Even now, it stays together with Irimo in the stables.

By the way. amongst the harpies, the word「stirred」became a word of a devil. When I occasionally use this word, the general harpy as well as the other ones freeze in fright.