The Divine Hunter Chapter 4

Reaper Scans

Chapter 4: First Day for the Newbie

[TL: Asuka]

[PR: Ash]

That night, Roy pleaded with Moore and Susie to accept him as the butcher’s apprentice. The couple initially refused, but his persistence eventually wore them down, and they relented.

Having been by Roy’s side since his birth, the couple found his sudden transformation after waking up rather peculiar. The once quiet and timid child had become remarkably talkative and expressive.

However, Roy's displayed concern for them felt genuine, preventing the naive couple from suspecting anything amiss. Instead, they welcomed their son's change, attributing it to the accident maturing him and fostering his growth.

As the next day dawned, the villagers of Kaer expressed surprise at the sight of a frail Roy trailing the butcher.

“Has Moore’s boy lost his mind after nearly being crushed? He’s as weak as a girl. He’s incapable of butchering anything.”

“Oh, what do you know, you simpleton? The boy flirted with death. Naturally, he’d change, but I doubt he’ll last the week. Not everyone is cut out to be a butcher, and it’s a lucrative profession. Why would Fletcher offer to share it with him?”

Despite the villagers’ whispers and barbs, Roy paid them no mind. His sole objective was to work with Fletcher, but by the end of the day, he realized the butcher's profession was far removed from his initial perceptions.

Once the larger livestock were brought to the slaughterhouse, Fletcher would administer a yellow powder to the animals, inducing paralysis and preventing struggle during the killing process.

Fletcher explained that the powder was an anesthetic obtained from the village herbalist. Following the slaughter, the most challenging task commenced: the precise dissection of the meat. To preserve the muscle integrity during cutting, a butcher required an intimate understanding of bovine, caprine, and porcine anatomy.

Lacking the talent for anatomical illustration, Fletcher resorted to teaching Roy through practical demonstration.

Witnessing Fletcher calmly skinning the cow, eviscerating it, and filleting the meat sent Roy reeling, causing him to vomit. The pungent odor of the animal's entrails permeated the air, creating a sickening miasma. Everywhere he looked, a crimson tide of splattered cow blood met his gaze.

His stomach churned violently, and he retched once more. While the killing itself wasn't the issue, the butchering of the livestock presented a formidable test of his resolve.

The butcher chuckled, “I sensed something peculiar when you dispatched that cow so effortlessly yesterday. Now you grasp the brutal reality of this trade. I warned you it was messy and arduous. Why else do you think everyone else shies away from being a butcher? Well, everyone except you, Roy. Naturally, you won't secure my business that easily. Let's see if you can endure until the very end.”

Once Roy managed to control his nausea, his head felt swimmy, and his legs turned to jelly. Yet, the butcher offered no respite.

“Come here and take this knife. I’ll show you how to make a flawless cut. Begin by mastering control over your strength. Start here, and slice upwards.”

“I said upwards! What the hell are you cutting?! Dammit! Put some force into it!”

Each minor misstep Roy made was met with Fletcher’s sharp reprimands.

“Gods, I muttered under my breath. Not only must the apprentice navigate a scene drenched in blood, but they must also endure such verbal abuse and back-breaking labor.”

Before long, soreness began to afflict Roy’s arms. His Constitution stat was a mere four, one point below that of a healthy adult. Consequently, he fatigued quickly. The strain on his body and spirit started to take its toll, wearing him down.

“Why did I even volunteer for an apprenticeship? I brought this upon myself.”

Despite his silent grumblings, Roy completed the task Fletcher assigned. It held more significance than his personal discomfort, primarily because each slaughtered livestock granted him EXP.

“After all, I am working for someone else. Even so, I get to strengthen my body, earn EXP, and I even get meat. It’s perfect. I have nothing to complain about.”

His inaugural day as an apprentice concluded laboriously after butchering two cows. The clients hailed from a different village, and Fletcher was compensated ten crowns for his services. “Business isn’t this lucrative every day,” Fletcher remarked to him.

Kaer comprised merely a hundred households. Even with patronage from neighboring villages, Fletcher’s workload wasn’t consistently heavy.

With their day’s work concluded, Fletcher, in a display of magnanimity, gifted Roy a palm-sized portion of meat. He didn’t view Roy as mere unpaid labor either. He pledged to pay Roy one crown weekly, but Roy raised no objections. As a novice in this field, financial compensation was secondary at this early stage.

“What shall we do with the entrails, Uncle Fletcher?”

“Discard them.”

The fictional realm of “The Witcher,” as Roy recalled from his previous existence, bore a striking resemblance to the European continent. Not everyone possessed the stomach for the internal organs of livestock. Following the larger animal butchering, these innards were typically discarded in the wilderness to be burned or tossed into rivers for the fish.

“May I have them?” Roy harbored no particular aversion. Having resided in Nation C during his former life, where culinary habits were remarkably broad, he had encountered his share of offal. Innards? So what? To him, it was simply meat. As a growing adolescent, any sustenance was welcome.

As twilight began to paint the sky, elongating shadows and merging them with the fading light, Roy, after cleansing the blood from the butcher’s yard, departed with a heavy, blood-stained sack of innards. The substantial weight nearly caused him to falter, but he persevered. The day’s butchering had also earned him ten EXP.

With the sun dipping below the horizon, plumes of smoke ascended from the chimneys of Kaer’s weathered dwellings. Field laborers, their hoes slung over their shoulders, returned from their day's toil. Children, grimy from enthusiastic play, chased livestock in the courtyards. As darkness enveloped the landscape, the warm glow of candlelight flickered through the windows, offering a touch of comfort to the encroaching night.

Roy drew a deep breath. “I wonder how long this tranquility will endure.”

***

While still some distance from his home, Roy perceived the approach of two soldiers towards the village. Their attire consisted of yellow armor, and swords were sheathed at their belts. After accepting several sizable sacks, the soldiers promptly returned to their cart and made a hasty departure. The villagers, accustomed to such visits, showed no particular reaction.

Roy understood the reason behind their presence. Every inhabitant of Kaer was obligated to contribute a portion of their harvest as tax to the sovereign of Lower Posada. This ruler exacted a hefty thirty percent, leaving the villagers with just enough to subsist. Moore, possessing skullcaps and common hops in his yard, surrendered two bags of dried skullcaps to the collector after the harvest.

These skullcaps, analogous to Earth’s tobacco leaves, were a common indulgence. When leisure permitted, villagers would fill their pipes, pack the skullcap within, and enjoy a smoke – a cherished ritual of their existence.

Taxation was a ubiquitous burden, particularly within Aedirn. All territories under its dominion, including vassal states, faced steeper levies than those in the other three northern principalities. Consequently, Aedirn was perpetually plagued by the threat of agrarian unrest.

Engaging in conversation with the villagers as he moved about, Roy learned of an uprising instigated by peasants in Aldersberg, located in southern Aedirn.

“What in the world is the monarchy contemplating? It’s no wonder Aedirn ultimately forfeited its claims over both the northern and southern territories, becoming a fractured nation.”

“Calamity looms. I must race against the passage of time.”

Sustenance was Roy’s sole solace for his mounting anxieties. He still possessed some rooster meat from the previous day's endeavor, and upon returning home with beef, Susie prepared a generous cauldron of meat stew. Though unseasoned and bland, the inherent flavor of the meat remained, and at least they had secured some protein.

Fletcher may have discarded the offal, but Roy salvaged it, meticulously cleaning the pieces. He then gathered celery, wild greens, and salt, which he obtained from his parents through a small plea. Following this, he stir-fried the assembled ingredients.

The mingled aroma of meat and the distinct scent of innards permeated their dwelling from Roy’s stir-fried concoction. The former Roy might have disdained such a rustic preparation, but his current physique readily accepted it. Foodstuffs were a rarity in their era, and meat, even more so. Given that sustenance was typically limited to two meals daily, a developing youth like him could not afford to forego any opportunity to consume meat.

While meat was undeniably valuable, Roy lamented that it yielded a mere 0.1 EXP. He recognized that the most effective method for advancement lay in dispatching creatures. “I can achieve rapid progression even with just a few kills every other day,” he reflected, his anticipation for his butchering pursuits beginning to grow.

***

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