Chapter 289

Haruto ignored Inuyasha and the others complaining about how anticlimactic the fight had been and walked straight over to the giant centipede yōkai.

Its actual strength really was pitiful.

It possessed an impressive amount of yōki, but had no idea how to use it properly. Miroku had struck it once with his staff, and that had been enough to kill it outright.

Still, the demonic energy inside it was real, and so was the enormous body stretching twenty or thirty meters long.

Haruto crouched beside the corpse and tapped one of its armored plates with a finger.

A deep, solid sound answered him.

Beneath that heavy shell, however, lay thick, plump flesh.

This was a premium ingredient that had practically delivered itself to his doorstep.

Haruto’s mind immediately began racing through possible ways to cook it.

While he remained crouched beside the centipede, studying his newly acquired "ingredient," a group of villagers approached.

The moment they saw the gigantic yōkai corpse lying on the ground, broad smiles appeared across their faces.

A heavyset middle-aged man in his thirties or forties hurried forward.

His gaze swept across the group before settling on Miroku, and he bowed deeply.

"Thank you very much, traveling monk!"

"This monster has been tormenting our village for a long time! Thanks to you, we’re finally rid of it!"

"To show our gratitude, the village has prepared a generous feast."

"Please, you must come rest in the village and allow us to properly thank you!"

At the invitation, Miroku immediately adopted a solemn expression.

His eyes, however, instinctively drifted over the villagers standing behind the man.

All he saw were older women and half-grown children.

Not a single young woman was anywhere in sight.

Miroku cleared his throat and assumed an expression of profound compassion.

"There is no need. Helping those troubled by yōkai is simply part of my duty. Your gratitude is more than enough."

The middle-aged man let out a heavy sigh, his disappointment impossible to hide.

"I see... What a shame."

He shook his head helplessly.

"All the young women in the village had been looking forward to your visit, but if you insist..."

With that, he turned away and prepared to lead the villagers back.

Miroku’s expression changed instantly.

He hurried forward and stopped the man with a righteous look.

"You have extended such sincere hospitality. To stubbornly reject it would surely invite divine punishment!"

The middle-aged man stared at Miroku, completely baffled by the sudden reversal.

Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Shippō, and Haruto, who had just walked over, all looked at him with undisguised contempt.

Kagome covered her forehead and sighed, no longer even bothering to comment.

Sango clenched one fist so tightly that her knuckles cracked.

Her murderous gaze fixed on Miroku’s back as she silently considered how best to "educate" this monk who completely lost his mind whenever young women were mentioned.

Even after accepting the invitation, however, the group did not leave immediately.

The giant centipede corpse still needed to be dealt with.

Inuyasha folded his arms and kicked its hard shell.

"If we leave this thing here, the yōki from the corpse will attract a bunch of lesser yōkai and cause trouble for the village."

"We should just dig a pit and bury it."

Haruto immediately objected.

"Burying an ingredient this good would be a waste. I’ll take it."

Since Haruto wanted the corpse, none of the others had any objection.

So he stored the enormous centipede away.

Afterward, the group followed the middle-aged man into the village.

It was a small settlement of only a few dozen households.

The centipede yōkai had terrorized the villagers for so long that nearly every family had been keeping their doors and windows tightly shut.

Now that the monster was gone, the entire village seemed to come back to life.

The middle-aged man brought the group to his spacious courtyard.

Several women were already bustling around the cooking fires, and when the guests arrived, they paused their work to smile and bow politely in greeting.

While the villagers enthusiastically prepared dinner, Haruto turned toward Inuyasha and the others.

"By the way, do you want to try some of my cooking?"

Inuyasha nodded without even thinking.

"Sure! Of course!"

He had been curious about Haruto’s cooking from the beginning.

He had eaten food from Kagome’s modern era plenty of times, and it was delicious.

Since Haruto was an actual chef, surely whatever he made would taste even better.

"Your cooking, Haruto-kun?"

Kagome clasped her hands together in front of her chest, eyes already shining with anticipation.

"Really? Wouldn’t that be too much trouble?"

From what Haruto had told them earlier, becoming a Super Chef was something only extremely accomplished cooks could achieve.

And Haruto had traveled through multiple worlds.

He was probably far beyond an ordinary Super Chef by now.

Just thinking about what he might make was enough to excite her.

Seeing Inuyasha and Kagome agree so enthusiastically, Sango smiled and rolled up her sleeves.

"Then we’ll be in your care, Haruto. If you need help with anything, just say so."

Miroku immediately smiled as well.

"My, my. To have the opportunity to taste the work of a Super Chef is truly a rare blessing. Naturally, I could hardly refuse."

Even as he spoke, he still found time to sneak a glance at a young woman passing by the courtyard entrance.

"Don’t worry. It’ll be delicious."

Haruto confidently patted his chest.

Then he walked to the open space in the center of the courtyard and brought out the giant centipede yōkai he had stored earlier.

Its dark-green armor gleamed with a cold metallic sheen.

The twenty-to-thirty-meter body occupied nearly half the courtyard, and even in death, it still looked intimidating.

The smile on Inuyasha’s face froze.

He pointed at the corpse.

"Hey! Why’d you bring that thing back out?!"

"Don’t tell me you’re actually planning to cook that?!"

Until now, Inuyasha had somehow failed to connect Haruto calling it an ingredient with what that actually meant.

Looking at the enormous centipede corpse in the courtyard, he was completely dumbfounded.

Kagome instinctively took half a step backward.

The sight of all those densely packed legs made her skin crawl, but curiosity still won out as she looked toward Haruto.

"Haruto-kun... you really plan to cook the centipede yōkai?"

Shippō immediately darted behind Kagome again, only daring to peek out with half his head.

"You really are going to eat yōkai!"

Seeing their alarmed expressions, Haruto waved a hand and explained seriously.

"Didn’t I already say I was going to use this centipede as an ingredient?"

"Besides, don’t worry. I checked it already."

"One hundred percent of its venom is concentrated in the poison sac inside the head and the venom glands on both sides."

"There isn’t any toxin left in the muscles or connective tissue anywhere else in the body."

"So the meat itself is edible."

Haruto brought out the Melk Knife.

With a casual turn of his wrist, the centipede’s hard head armor split open as cleanly as tofu.

He slipped the tip of the blade inside and lifted out an intact milky-white sac.

The poison sac.

Haruto then removed the venom glands as well.

He placed the poison sac inside a sealed container before pointing toward the exposed cross-section of the head.

"There. The toxin’s gone."

"Everything else is edible."

"And honestly, the meat looks pretty good."

Inuyasha and the others looked over.

The exposed flesh looked nothing like the grotesque interior they had imagined.

Instead, it was snow-white and extraordinarily fine, almost like polished white jade.

The muscle fibers were clean and delicate, carrying a faint translucent sheen.

Clear gelatinous juices even seeped from the cut surface, making the flesh look unusually tender and moist.

More surprisingly, there was no foul or rotten odor at all.

Instead, it carried a mild, sweet aroma reminiscent of fresh shrimp and river crab.

Their resistance immediately weakened.

In truth, eating a little yōkai meat was not necessarily a serious issue for any of them.

As for the yōki contained within it—

Inuyasha was a half-demon. To him, demonic energy was practically nourishment.

Miroku was a monk.

Sango was a demon slayer.

Kagome possessed purifying spiritual power.

And Shippō was a genuine fox yōkai himself.

A small amount of residual yōki would hardly affect any of them.

Especially with that surprisingly appetizing white flesh sitting right in front of them.

Inuyasha scratched his head and stared at the tender cross-section for several seconds.

Then he swallowed.

"Tch. Fine."

"If you say it’s edible, I’ll try it."

"But if it tastes awful, I’m blaming you."

Despite the words, his eyes were filled with obvious anticipation.

Kagome, Sango, and Miroku no longer objected either.

Only Shippō remained trembling behind Kagome.