0157 I Am Still a Chef

“Wait. What do you mean, ‘the designated chef for the ritual sacrifice’?” Momo’s face darkened. “I don’t remember submitting an application to the Night Ghosts for a job as a chef.”

“It’s fine. Just think of it as me submitting one for you. Otherwise, it would be terribly difficult for me to openly bring two humans back to the camp.” Xi smiled with an almost healing sweetness.

“But you’ve been with us lately. When would you have had time to submit an application?” Momo widened his eyes and pressed on. “Wait. Do you even know what submitting an application means?”

“I registered you with my tribe before you got lost. How often do humans willingly come to our southern forest? This place is inferior to the northern Beast Forest in both natural resources and mineral wealth, and monsters suitable for humans to hone their strength and combat skills are rare as well. You two are good-looking, properly equipped, and reasonably strong. You obviously didn’t come here just to stroll through the forest. It only takes a little deduction to realize that you’re here for the Night Ghosts~”

Xi wore the same bright smile as before, as though seeing through Momo and Huan Luo’s intentions at a glance were the most ordinary thing in the world.

“As for applications, I really don’t understand them. But I suppose they’re something like the examinations or registration forms humans use when applying for things.”

“…What remarkable powers of deduction. I’m impressed, truly.”

Momo stared speechlessly at Xi’s innocent expression. Although she still looked as cute and soft as ever, with the sort of delicate, teasingly vulnerable appearance that invited mischief, and although her pronunciation remained as halting and awkward as usual, her image in Momo’s heart had suddenly grown grand and radiant.

Of course, Momo was also becoming increasingly certain that Xi was a witch of the Night Ghost tribe.

“So what exactly do we have to do?” Huan Luo briskly asked the most important question at hand.

“Oh, that’s actually quite simple.” Xi smiled as she explained their task. “Once I take you inside, just follow behind me. Leave all the explaining to me. When the examination begins, simply cook as you normally would. If your food tastes good, you’ll be allowed to stay.”

“Another examination.” Momo’s body visibly shrank, his face filled with despair. “I always thought graduating from university would be the final major examination of my life. I never imagined there would be a mantis stalking the cicada while an oriole lurked behind it. I’d barely escaped my graduation exams before being confronted with all sorts of employment exams… Is there anything I need to prepare for this one? Why don’t you give us a list of the key points? I’m going in with no preparation at all, so please let me pass.”

“There are no key points. You can relax. Those so-called Night Ghost master chefs are no match for you. Every year, everyone competes back and forth, yet all they ever make is grilled meat. It gets exhausting just looking at it. If something different doesn’t appear this year, I’m going to the human territories to scrounge for food.”

As Xi spoke of this “tragic history,” her smiling face suddenly crumpled.

“For three hundred whole years, those useless cooks have done nothing but grill meat, grill meat, and grill meat. My teeth are about to be worn down from chewing it.”

“Then this competition must have a purpose and some rules. Tell us both.”

Ignoring Xi’s fallen expression, Momo caught her by the arm and looked at her hopefully, trying to coax a little more information out of her.

“This is simply an event held by the Night Ghost tribe to worship nature once every fifty years. There’s no particular purpose. It’s practically the same as a human festival or temple fair. The only real difference is that, while our festival is taking place, our witch also invokes the God of Nature. We offer various sacrifices in exchange for the God of Nature’s descent and protection. Food is one of the most important parts of the offerings.”

Seeing that neither Momo nor Huan Luo had any intention of fleeing, Xi continued walking slowly ahead while carefully organizing her explanation of these matters, which were common knowledge to the Night Ghosts.

“The person responsible for providing the food is different every time. Before each ritual, a selection competition is held to choose the best chef to prepare offerings for the God of Nature. At the same time as providing the food, that person will also receive the blessings of the God of Nature. That’s why everyone fights so desperately in every ritual.”

“…Why do I have the feeling that once we win this cooking competition, every Night Ghost who entered will seize us on the spot and knead us to death?” Momo muttered quietly to himself.

“I reported both of you this time, so you’re a team. From selecting and finding the ingredients to preparing the finished dishes, everything will be handled by the two of you. That shouldn’t be too difficult, should it?”

Xi clasped her hands in prayer and looked at Momo and Huan Luo with a smile full of confidence.

“…No objections,” Huan Luo replied.

The three of them chatted all the way to the entrance of the Night Ghost settlement.

Unlike the cities Momo had seen before, the Night Ghost settlement looked more like the African tribes he had once seen on television. After passing through a long row of artificial trees arranged from low to high, they saw no signboards, plaques, or anything of the sort. Instead, the natural branches of the trees formed a tall gateway overhead. One glance was enough to tell that they had entered Night Ghost territory.

Beyond the wooden gateway stood neat rows of log cabins. The redwood native to the southern forest was one of the most suitable materials for roof beams. Naturally straight and resilient, it neither attracted insects nor grew mold. Yet because it was exceedingly rare, humans seldom used it to build houses.

But every cabin before Momo’s eyes was made from redwood. There was not the slightest sign that anyone regarded the timber as precious.

These cabins did not seem to be ordinary residences for Night Ghost civilians. In front of every one of them stood a uniformed Night Ghost warrior on guard duty. They looked much like the Night Ghost squad Momo had encountered before. With their black hair, dark eyes, deep-brown skin, and pointed ears, they looked nearly identical from a distance.

Momo gazed thoughtfully at Xi. Her appearance was so distinctive among the Night Ghosts. No matter how he looked at her, she clearly did not resemble an ordinary person. Even the unusual coloring alone made it obvious that her creator had assigned her a mission entirely different from that of the other Night Ghosts.

Xi led Momo and Huan Luo onward step by step. The Night Ghost guards on either side acted as though they could not see them at all. No matter how curiously Momo looked around, not one of them gave him the slightest response. Every Night Ghost seemed to have agreed beforehand to empty their minds and stare straight ahead.

Momo and Huan Luo exchanged a puzzled glance. But Xi looked completely calm, as though she had long been accustomed to the guards’ reaction. The two of them therefore said nothing more and reined in their gazes, following obediently behind her.