"Oh man, this is delicious, so delicious!"
"This is quite the feast. I feel like I'm getting younger!"
After that, they offered the leftover meat and bones to the villagers as thanks for helping butcher the wyvern.
They had properly secured the ingredients they needed for the party. The meat was frozen solid all the way through, so preservation was no issue at all.
What they treated the villagers to were scraps of meat and bones not even worth taking home, but the villagers cooked them into soup and ate with visible enjoyment.
"Mm mm, the soup is great too! Rest!"
"Yeah... it sure is."
Rest and Yuri also smacked their lips, sipping on the soup the villagers had given them.
While Yuri looked positively delighted, Rest wore a scowl.
He had not a single complaint about the taste of the soup, but... the lower half of his body had perked up thanks to the dragon meat, and that was weighing on his mind.
*(So dragon-type meat basically has an aphrodisiac effect, huh... I need to be careful. Seriously.)* For a while now, he couldn't relax unless he was hunched forward.
His gaze kept being involuntarily drawn to Yuri's chest and hips even more than usual, but he desperately willed himself to look away with iron discipline.
*(At least the regular meat doesn't seem to have the same potency as the liver... small mercies.)* "Thank you both so much. It's not every day people get to eat wyvern meat, so everyone's thrilled."
Ribery, their guide, came over and bowed to the pair.
In her hands was a plate of food. It was a meat dish, but... it looked like it was made from different ingredients than the wyvern meat.
"Here, it's a local village dish. The seasoning might be a bit rustic and plain, but..."
"Oh hey, that looks pretty tasty!"
It was a braised meat dish.
The savory aroma lured me in, and I stuck my fork in—but a distinctive gaminess spread across my palate.
It was similar to beef but had a strong, acquired taste. Some would love it, others wouldn't—but at the very least, it wasn't a flavor Rest disliked.
"Huh, that's an interesting taste. Is this monster meat too?"
"No, no—this is just livestock raised in this village."
Ribery shifted her gaze to the side.
There stood an animal that bore a striking resemblance to a cow. It had a similar build, complete with two horns on its head, but what really set it apart was its remarkably long coat of fur.
"It's called a yakue. They're commonly raised in the villages around here. Their milk gets processed into butter and cheese."
"Oh, cheese, huh… That might go nicely with some drinks."
"If you're interested, please—go ahead and try some."
Alongside the meat dish, Ribery brought out a plate of sliced cheese as well.
Not bad at all. Cheese was a fairly mainstream food, so it didn't feel particularly exotic—but it was solidly good.
"Ah… although, maybe putting something like pizza on the menu could work too…"
Pizza's flavor changed dramatically depending on the toppings.
For instance, it might be interesting to try using wyvern meat as a pizza topping.
It wasn't just meat—seafood was a classic pizza ingredient as well. In regions far from the sea, nobody served seafood pizza, so it could be a surprisingly novel dish for a party.
"It's good, it's really good! Rest—here, here, have a taste."
"Yeah, I already know it's good, so stop getting so close. You're pressing into me."
Yuri was making a point of offering me the cheese, but Rest carefully maintained some distance, making sure her lower half didn't take on a mind of its own.
To divert her attention away from the weapon-like assets bearing down on her, she spoke up with something serious.
"Good, we got wyvern meat. Now we just need fish and alcohol, I guess?"
"I don't know about fish, but why not ask Celestine about liquor?"
"Celestine... why does her name come up?"
Celestine Crocus was a duke's young lady and a classmate friend of Rest's. Incidentally, she was also the woman who had recently become Rest's fiancée.
"Celestine mentioned it before. She said her father's hobby is collecting alcohol. She laughed about how he loses himself whenever it comes to booze and it's a real hassle."
"Yeah... in that case, she might know about rare liquors too."
Asking to suddenly meet with the duke out of the blue would be rude, but with Celestine, they were close enough that reaching out casually was no problem.
Once they brought the wyvern meat back, it might be worth making a trip to the royal capital to see her.
"Oh, Rest! This skewer is delicious too! You've gotta try it!"
"Yeah, I know... that's exactly why — don't come any closer!"
As Yuri hugged up close, blissfully unaware of the situation with Rest's lower half, and pressed the meat toward her, Rest clamped a hand over her crotch and screamed.