TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 11

Redhead and I made our way back.

That was quite the fishing trip, I have to say. And what we ended up catching was impressive.

I'd even had the passing thought to just eat the fish on the spot after escaping from its mouth, but I'd decided that was much too barbaric. I knew I'd been eating monsters whole, slime-style, for a while now, but resorting to eating it raw and unprepared in human form was not okay.

Honestly, having that urge was a bit disturbing to me, but I brushed it off as nothing but a silly intrusive thought.

Right when we arrived back at the ogre village, we were crowded with kids asking us if we'd caught anything. Redhead tried to shift away from them, seeming a little bit uncomfortable. So I bumped him forward and whispered, "Come on, just talk to them. They're your people."

He sighed and rolled his eyes before setting them forward. "We caught the largest fish I've ever seen!" He tried to do it all proudly, but he was still a bit uneasy.

"Hehe." I chuckled at his awkward boasting.

It wasn't long after I urged him on like that, that we got to planning the feast. The old Whitehair was honestly really helpful with preparing the fish. He made a lot of interesting cuts after making the odd request of skewering it on a single large wooden pole–literally just a stripped and sharpened tree trunk. This thing was huge.

Redhead got to be the de-facto leader for just one night, and after getting over the initial stage fright, he took to it well enough.

Everyone got to spend their time happily. They even brought out alcohol, which I was banned from drinking by the Princess! According to her, I was both too young and too powerful to drink safely.

The Redhead certainly got a kick out of that, grinning evilly as he drank sake right in front of me.

The fish we caught by the way? Great.

The Elder even confirmed the sage's intuition. After I showed him the heart of the fish, he explained to me that it was using its heart to circulate mana around its body.

The forge ogre went crazy when he saw the mana crystals on the heart too. He nearly begged me to use a few to set into the hilt of the sword for Redhead, so I let him have the fish heart. I didn't particularly need it, and according to the sage, I could make another whenever I get monster-fish flesh. Which was information I didn't need to know.

Luckily, late into the feast, near midnight it must have been, I managed it. I got a sip of sake while the ogre princess wasn't looking!

But god had forsaken me.

[[Notice: Effect of poison has been nullified.]] The sage declared defiantly.

Alcohol's not poison! I internally protested, but to no avail.

[[Notice: EFFECT OF POISON HAS BEEN NULLIFIED.]]

The message was repeated more forcefully the second time, which I thought was strange, but I ignored it. I was too annoyed about not being able to get intoxicated even if I did get my hands on some liquor. Just another thing I had to miss out on thanks to my biology, I suppose.

So I stayed one more night, relaxing in my house and patiently awaiting sunrise while musing on my time with the ogres. They were good people, and I wished the best for them. Unfortunately, I needed to leave, but who knows? I could always come back.

I certainly couldn't let that redheaded hotshot get one up on me.

As the sun finally rose, I popped up into human form and walked out to the front of my house. A few of the ogres were waiting for me, I guess they wanted to see me off.