"And what do you mean by that?" The rabbit had taken it personally.

Ayra smiled. "Well, not that. It’s just that..." She stared at the meal. "I don’t like this meat."

"..."

The rabbit scoffed. "So you’re saying that my cooking is hideous? That I can’t cook at all?"

"Ah, no I didn’t say that at all..."

The rabbit folded his arms, rolling his eyes. "That’s what you clearly mean. And for your information, I’m the best cook around here. Everyone here loves my meal!"

Ayra blinked. "Well, that says a lot about their taste..."

"Huh??"

"Nothing," she smiled.

Ash simply watched them go back and forth.

"You think you’re better than me? I might be a D-rank male but I’m still better! You think you’re so good, huh? Sure! Come and prepare some meat, let me see! I doubt you can even hold a meat properly!" He challenged her.

"Okay," Ayra nodded. "I’ll cook."

"..." He never expected her to accept. "Okay. Then come and prepare, let’s see what you can do."

The other cooks behind stared at each other and said, "Don’t let an F-rank female in here. She’s going to mess up our kitchen."

"True. What can she even make? It’s a waste of our time!"

But the rabbit was insistent on humiliating Ayra and upholding his reputation. "No. She thinks she’s so much better than me. Let’s see what she can do. That’s if she can even survive in the kitchen at all."

Ayra casually stared at them as she nodded. "Okay. I’ll prepare something then.. lead the way."

The rabbit scoffed as he led her into the kitchen.

Ash casually followed behind. He was curious to know what tricks this female had up her sleeve. He, like everyone else, doubted that Ayra could pull off anything.

After all, they knew that this F-rank female was bad at everything. Cooking was not even in the question. So they had gathered to see her fail for sure.

Ayra stood before the huge firewood prepared for her. She looked around, looking through the available meats and ingredients, but none of them were what she needed. They weren’t good at all.

She sighed as she stared at the fresh bull meat being butchered. "Can I use that?"

"No! You can’t!"

"That’s a new meat that would be used for upcoming months! We can’t make use of it now when other meat are still here!" Another insisted.

But Ash stared at her. "Okay. You can have it."

They stared at Lord Ash in shock. "But..."

"I’m in charge of feeding, so don’t worry. I say it’s okay," he responded as he stared at Ayra. "But if you mess up the meat and ruin this fine meat, there’ll be punishments. Like death."

Ayra swallowed hard. Why were they obsessed with killing her? But she was confident and she smiled and responded confidently. "Okay. Sure. But if I actually get it right, I want my reward."

"And what’s that?" Ash was curious.

Ayra smiled. "A kiss," she teased him.

"..." The cooks were speechless.

"What a shameless female," one said.

"Does she think Lord Ash would actually even look at her?"

"A kiss? What a joke!"

The men brought in the meat for her and she instructed them on cutting it and all.

Ayra couldn’t make use of the ingredients there, so she had offered to go out and find others.

"Is she running away?" One asked as she left.

"I knew she doesn’t have anything to offer. Just confused. A lot of ingredients here and she’s running out?"

"This female really is confused," the cooks scoffed.

But Ash casually sat and observed what was happening. He observed as Ayra soon returned with some ingredients she had gathered from around.

The cooks were even more confused. "What are these? We don’t use those here in our kitchen though."

"Why is she picking up casual leaves from outside and bringing them here?"

"How dumb of her! She’s going to ruin the meat with that! Lord, stop her now," the rabbit demanded.

But Ash said nothing but watched. They had already made the deal, so he didn’t say another word.

They simply watched as she prepared the whole meat with the assistance of some other beastmen permitted to help by Ash—not the cooks. They watched as she mixed the meat with the ingredients which she sprinkled around. After she was done seasoning them all, she soon began frying them against the fire.

It took a while, and then the aroma hit. Something had begun making its way into their nostrils—the cooks, the chief cook, the beastmen, and Ash. They suddenly began sniffing something strange and unique. Something that had brought their nostrils to life as they stared at Ayra.

"What’s that smell?" One of the cooks asked. "Is it coming from her pot?"

"I doubt."

"But it seems like it’s what she’s preparing. Is her meat smelling this nice...?"

"I highly doubt. The meat would taste terrible for sure.. just wait," the rabbit said confidently.

The smell was getting better and better, and they kept getting surprised and confused. Was this scent really coming from this female’s cooking?! They doubted.

Soon, Ayra was done. She smiled at her creation as she brought out a portion on a plate. The meat looked well nourished and garnished with the perfect ingredients. It looked golden and thick. Its aroma was simply breathtaking, and they couldn’t stop staring as she served the plate to Ash.

"Here, enjoy," Ayra smiled.

Lord Ash stared at her, suspicious. The smell was heavenly, and he clearly couldn’t wait to taste it. But he summoned one of the beastmen to taste it to avoid poisoning.

"Yes, Lord," the beastman took a bite from the meat on his plate as everyone stared at him, curious. They studied his changing expression to know if the meat was actually good or...

And just then, the beastman staggered backwards, handing on his neck as though he was choking, and immediately he fell flat on his back.