"I can leave it to you, right?" Ludwig looked at a young demon who was fiddling with his own fingers on the sofa.
"Y-yessir." The demon answered in stutter. But below that stutter, he could feel his firm resolution.
"Good." Ludwig smiled before his eyes moved towards another young demon. However, unlike the first one, she was the embodiment of calmness. "Make sure to explain our situation well to the customers. If they don't want the existing menu, tell them they can come back at dinner time."
"Please rest assured. I will make sure nothing is wrong in the restaurant." The young female demonkin, Vilera, answered. Her words were firm, making all the concerns he had about leaving the restaurant vanished into thin air.
"Thank you." Ludwig nodded before he rose to his feet. "I'm leaving then."
Waving his hands to both of his employees, Ludwig vanished into the void, dark and ever changing as always. His mana flared, rearranging the darkness, giving it clarity. Before long, a barren land filled with rivers of bubbling and flowing molten rocks came into his view.
Willing his mana to take him to that place, he could feel the reserves in his tanks decreasing. The scenery shifted little by little, and before long it became reality. The volcanic air burned his lungs. Heat shimmered off jagged black stone, sulfur hung heavy in the air.
Ludwig made a hole in the empty air beside him. He then plunged his hand towards the darkness it contained. He fingers closing up, coiling on a soft and firm grip. With a pull, a pure white sword made its entrance to reality, a contrast to the red and blacked dominated scenery.
A shriek slashed through the ash heavy sky. Several wyverns circled above, gliding leisurely through sky man would hesitate to fly in. Their scales were a deep shade of red, bordering brown, their wings moved up and down, sending ripples of wind around the area.
He squinted, lips pulling close to the ears. A fine ingredient many hunts. But only those strong enough and smart enough lived to tell the tale.
His mana exploded, blocks of sub-space only he could see appeared in a constant distance between each other. Kicking the ground, his body blitzed into the sky. The distance between him and the wyverns were too far to be bridged by a single leap, so he had to use the sub-space blocked he manifested to reach the desired heights.
The wyverns roared, probably didn't take it kindly for a stranger to barge into their domain. But rather than flinching, Ludwig just smirked. If it were dragons who roared, maybe he might be forced to rethink his past choice. But wyvern was no dragon, not even a cousin twice removed. They didn't have enough presence on them to make him even flinch.
As all the wyverns looked at him with flaring anger in their eyes, Ludwig channeled his mana. He changed the property of his mana into the space property and let it coated the edge of his blade. The other part of his mana traveled far, nowhere near the wyverns which were ready to turn him apart.
When the closest wyvern from him folded its wing and dived, Ludwig let his mana transported him. The next moment, he was far from the concentration of angry wyverns, but there's still one in front of him. Coaxing his mana to move again to his sword, Ludwig changed the property of this new batch of mana to time property.
The white sword glowed blue, and Ludwig swung.
The sword sliced past the reddish scale with ease as if it was nothing but butter, the pain it inflicted palpable from how loud the wyvern roared. White meat could be seen through the blood pouring from the wound. But just as the blade faced resistance from the neck bone of the winged lizard, a wisp-like silhouette swung the blade in its hand just like what Ludwig did before.
When the wisp overlapped with his real body, the blade in his hands regained its momentum. The bone cracked, the sword with runic enchantments continued its journey to cut through the neck cleanly.
After reaping the life of the wyvern, Ludwig moved his mana to enveloped the falling wyvern. Then, it vanished. Stored in the corner of his Storage Dimension.
Ludwig moved again, his movement mirroring what he did before. Aggroing the wyverns with his presence, close the distance to the furthest wyvern with a blink and attacked it with Rewind Cut—Cold, merciless, efficient.
He didn't do it because he wanted to return to the restaurant as quickly as possible. He was concerned, yes. But it hadn't even been ten minutes since he left, nothing should happen now.
The reason he did all he could to kill the wyvern rather than fighting it to stretch his leg was because of the taste. Mana was truly unique, from plants to dragons; every living thing had it in their body. Yet, when it was not used, it lay dormant, like the fuel of a stopped car.
By killing monsters in a single strike, it prevented them from using their mana. In return, the meat from the game would be soft, no tinge of their elements would defile the taste.
Ludwig landed, the rugged ground beneath him was vivid for his feet to feel. In the sky, the wyvern was gliding. Their heads went from side to side, looking for him. But try they might, finding him would be impossible.
A shimmering transparent wall only Ludwig could see boxed him from the terrain outside. He was detached from the reality where the wyverns lived, but still existed within. He let his mana sweep through the terrain once again, searching.
When he felt the thing he wanted to find, Ludwig smirked and blinked to the place. Reality folded like a curtain under his space manipulation, in the next moment, he found himself in a place where the sky was no longer visible.
His boots crunched softly against the rock beneath him, every sound echoing through the dimly lit place. In front of him, large leathery ovals were half buried in earth and ashes. He willed his mana to move it, to the same space where the heart of the demon king rested.
With another thrum of his mana, he was gone. And the place he arrived at was the exact opposite from the place he was at a few moments ago.
* * *
I think I got carried away. Ludwig chuckled as he walked through a street. The sweet scent of flowers, fruits, and vegetables wafted around in perfect harmony. Chatter, scream of promotion, and a serious voice of haggling also filled the street.
His chef persona couldn't help but to scan all the stands he passed through. His restaurant had enough ingredients for this week, but browning past ingredients wasn't just about that. It's about trying to spark a creativity, thinking of dishes his mind never thought about.
Only after he saw a familiar building on one side of the street, he stopped. He then strode towards the opened door while bracing against the assault of smell that would soon hit him.
"You are back again, Sir." A cheery voice of a young woman traveled to his ears from behind the counter. "Do you need something?"
Ludwig pulled his lips into a smile and raised the wooden box he brought with him. "I wanted to use your butchering service."
"Is that so?" The woman smiled. "Please follow me Sir."
The woman stepped away from the counter, guiding him through the store. Once they reached a huge door on the back of the store, she pushed it open with her tiny frame. As the door rumbled open, a thick fishy and iron smell assaulted his nose. But in that room full of blood and viscera, a man with bulging muscle sat, a roll of tobacco in his lips.
"Sir, this customer here wants to use our butchering service." The clerk said.
The man looked at Ludwig, his brows raised. "What are you waiting for then? Pull the monsters out."
Ludwig put the box on the floor, making a mental note to clean it later. Then, he plunged his hands into its opened lid. A leathery texture of the scale was vivid for his palms to feel, and with a quick yank, he pulled the body to room. He did it a few more times, by the time he's done, three corpses of wyverns and their heads were on the floor.
When he looked up, he could see the clerk and the butcher looking at him like he had grown another head. The eyes of the butcher only linger for a fraction of a moment more, though.
"Misa, leave the room. And never tell this to anyone." The butcher said in a low tone.
As the wooden door closed with a heavy rumble, the butcher opened his mouth again. "Five Volcano Wyvers killed in a single strike." His tone was serious, his eyes were even more. "Someone strong enough to hunt wyverns without receiving any damages. Silver hair and silver eyes."
The man then lowered his upper body towards Ludwig. "This establishment is honored to be of service to the hero."
Ludwig's eyes twitched as saw the bowing man in front of him. "Stand up, would you? The war with the Demon King is over. I'm just a normal person now. And the Hero is not me, it's the other guy."
The man straightened his bulky body. "I understand."
"Good man." Ludwig chuckled. "I heard from Bigbelly Bradley that you are the best butcher on this side of the world. And after buying some meat from this establishment, I start to believe he's not lying for once."
"You flatter me, Sir." The man said.
"Stop with the Sir. Just call me Ludwig. Normal person, remember?"
"Understood." He nodded, then to prove how quick-witted he was, he opened his mouth again. "Is that all wyvern you have on you?"
Action speaks louder than words. So without wasting his breath, Ludwig just waved his hands, manifesting twelve more wyvern corpses. "How long will it take for you to butcher all of it?"
The man's pupils were shaking, and Ludwig couldn't blame him for that. All of these wyverns lived miles away from each other, and no normal person could travel those distances in such a short time—well, expect him. However, the reason behind his surprise was probably due witnessing his power the first time, because his teleportation ability was known to many through Ortus.
Once the tremor in his pupil was gone, Ludwig could see a calculation in it. As expected. "A day should suffice for everything."
Ludwig hummed. A day. No matter how good he was, butchering so many big beasts was bound to be exhausting. In other words, he might be pushing himself past the limits because of his identity. "I'll just take one around noon. You can finish the other in two days."
"Thank you for your generosity." The man said.
"How much will it cost?" Ludwig asked.
"Do you want to pay in sharing some portion with us, or gold?"
"Will all scales of seven wyverns of your choice be enough to cover the cost?" Ludwig enquired.
"Whole scales?" The man's eyes widened.
"Yeah."
"It will be more than enough." He answered quickly.
"It's a deal then." Ludwig moved his hand closer to the man, palm opened.
"Thank you for your patronage. Si–Kuhum." The man said as he shook Ludwig's hand.
When their hands separated again, Ludwig let his voice echo through the room. "I'll leave the box with you. Inside, time didn't run. So stored the meat you have butchered and the wyvern you haven't worked with there, will you? I don't want the taste to be ruined."
"I will do so."