I Thought It Was a Fairy Tale but the Genre Is Strange

This is not cooking

“Ugh, disgusting.”

I turned my head away, grimacing. The wolf meat, cooked to a delicious-looking state, floated around, with its fallen fur alongside it. The whole wolf, cooked through. Just a moment ago, it had threatened to devour me, but now it had turned into a dish.

Elise tore off a piece of the tenderly cooked wolf meat and sniffed it.

“Ugh. Alice, are you really going to eat that?”

[Ugh, that’s disgusting. Why would you want to eat wolf meat?]

Alice made a pouty face and threw the meat back into the pot.

“It smells bad, so it’s not great. I was curious, but it’s a shame. Don’t you think?”

“Not at all.”

“Hmm~ Pretending not to care. Instead, we have some leftover meat, so let’s taste that.”

“Are you talking about the pig?”

“Of course~ If we roast it, it will taste quite good. Aren’t you hungry?”

Hungry. As soon as I heard that word, my stomach growled loudly. Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten properly since coming here. It’s amazing how I managed to endure all this time. Maybe it was because of the constant tension, but now that I thought I was free from the wolves, the hunger hit me.

But the thought of eating that despicable pig made me feel nauseous.

“No, it’s okay.”

“Hehe~ Your stomach says otherwise~ I’ll cook it deliciously for you later, so just wait a bit~”

Alice laughed cutely and poked my stomach. Ariel frowned and pushed her finger away.

[Don’t be ridiculous! Our prince doesn’t eat your cooking!]

Yeah, yeah, well said. I also didn’t want to eat an intelligent creature like a human.

[I’ll cook something a hundred times more delicious than you!!!]

“Huh?”

Why did it come to this? The two of them argued about how to cook as soon as they left the mother pig’s house. Which part to use, how to cook it. In the end, they decided to split the pig in half and each use their own part.

I just wanted to go home.

The sight in front of me killed my appetite. Blood. Yes. The once peaceful field was now stained with blood. The fresh green grass was soaked with thick blood, and around it were the flesh and organs of wolves. I was really glad I didn’t have these two as enemies.

And I really want to go home.

I just wanted to eat a bowl of rice with the kimchi stew my mom made at home. Hot and spicy kimchi stew. It tastes even better with pork in it. Hmm, now that I think about it, I don’t want to eat pork for a while.

Haa. How delicious would it be to mix rice with the spicy broth of kimchi stew, with steam rising from it. With moist and tender kimchi. Krr!

“Ah, I want to eat kimchi stew.”

I was startled and covered my mouth at the words that slipped out unconsciously. The eyes of Elise and Ariel, who had been discussing what kind of dish to make, whether it be roast or steak, sparkled.

“Kimchi stew? What kind of dish is that? Just hearing the name, it sounds like something our prince would like.”

[I will make it for you! Since it’s a stew, it seems like you just need to boil it with pork! If the prince explains a bit about kimchi stew, I’ll make it for you!]

“Oh my~ Then I should make it too? You can decide whose kimchi stew tastes better.”

I imagined it. A horrifying pork kimchi stew boiled with the youngest pig. The half-split pig’s head floating around in the stew, not even properly cleaned. Ugh, I felt even worse.

“No, it’s okay. There’s a necessary ingredient called kimchi, but we don’t have it here. So, you don’t have to make it. I’m not that hungry anyway. Hahaha.”

“Hmm~ Kimchi? That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

[I know that]

Eh? I was wide-eyed at Ariel’s shocking statement.

“You know kimchi?”

[I heard it from my father. He said there’s a food called kimchi, which is fermented with red seasoning, on some continent. I heard someone offered it as a tribute to my father a long time ago, and he ate it. I think we might find it if we travel.]

“Hee~ Then we can make kimchi stew when we find the continent with kimchi. Don’t be too disappointed that you can’t eat it now~”

Elise put her arm around my shoulder and patted my head. I wanted to cry. What kind of kimchi would be here? And I wondered if that kimchi would be the one I know. Surely the seasoning isn’t made with blood. But then again, it’s strange. How did the king of the sea eat kimchi? If you eat kimchi in the sea, the seasoning would wash away.

“Then shall we cook our pig for now? There~ it’s running away well, haha.”

Elise let go of me and hopped towards the pig. The pig was struggling to escape, using a long stick it found somewhere as a cane, clutching its broken thigh. But it was bleeding so much and the injury was so severe that its speed was similar to that of a snail.

“Hey~ Going on a trip~?”

As Alice hopped like a rabbit, the pig’s face turned pale as he looked back.

“Ahhh! Don’t come, oink! I, I’ve been punished enough, oink!!!”

He frantically moved his cane to escape, but Alice picked up a stone from the roadside and threw it, hitting his head.

“Squeeeal!!”

He let out a desperate scream and collapsed with a thud. The shadows of three figures loomed over him. The pig trembled as he saw me holding a sickle.

“Reaper! The reaper has come to take me, oink!! Please, please spare me, oink! I, I want to live, oink!!!”

He was already out of his mind. Whether it was due to the loss of blood or the realization that he was at death’s door, his sanity was shattered. He was sobbing, spitting, and crying.

[Our prince is indeed a reaper]

“Kya ha ha, cute. Darling, how should we kill him? Should we behead him, or crush him with my mace? Or should we butcher him right here?”

All were terrible options. I stared at the pig’s gnawed thigh. The blood pouring from his thigh was like a waterfall. A pale face. A body exhausted from all the suffering.

I shook my head.

“No, there’s no need for that.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the pig’s head slumped forward and hit the ground. After a few convulsions, he became still.

Death from excessive bleeding. He was tormented by the fear of death until the end. He was gnawed on the thigh by a wolf in real-time, received all kinds of death threats, and was tormented by the fear of being killed until his last moment, unable to maintain his sanity.

He had endured torture that was unbearable both physically and mentally.

He experienced the fear of suffocating from his irresponsible actions, becoming prey like the brothers he sold out.

And so it ended.

Tears glistened in the eyes of the dead youngest pig. He seemed to think that he met a fitting end, trembling in fear until he died from excessive bleeding.

His death was neither shocking nor evoked any sympathy. It was an unpleasant sight, but it felt like a fitting end for a villain.

[What? Is he dead? Is it over so anticlimactically?]

“Heh~ How boring.”

Alice and Ariel lamented the pig’s demise. And then came a time they never wanted to experience.

Their cooking duel began. They slaughtered the pig right there and took the meat they would cook. Finding the view from the cabin unsatisfactory, they returned to the forest and began cooking after some distance.

Alice roasted the whole pig, while Ariel grilled a succulent steak.

I didn’t want to eat any of it.

Truly. No matter how much of a pig it is, it’s a sentient being. A rational being like you. A creature no different from a human. That’s the true identity of the pig being cooked right now.

So, could you eat that pig? It looked no different from a human to me. In other words, to me, this was like eating human flesh.

Moreover, both of them were already looking at me with crazed eyes, desperate to make me eat their cooking.

Eyes that said they would make me eat it no matter what.

“Come on~ Try it. It’ll melt in your mouth.”

[Perfectly sealed in the juices! It’s definitely going to taste better than Alice’s cooking!]

“Ha, hahaha.”

Imagine two beautiful women, covered in blood, presenting you with such a dish. Can you imagine it? My feelings!!!

The steak wasn’t even properly cooked, with blood pooling like the Han River. The roast pig Alice gave me to taste was a split pig’s head, with the brain, eyes, and tongue all grotesquely visible.

I just wanted to eat a normal home-cooked meal!

“Ahhh!!”

Suddenly, something burst out of the nearby bushes.

The creature screamed and collided with Alice and Ariel’s grotesque dishes. The horrifying things that could barely be called food soared into the air and fell to the ground, dirtying them.

I cheered inwardly.