Chapter 20
Calm down.
For now, let's cool it down.
I need to think, so I'll cool it down first.
It'd be a waste if it spoiled, too.
I'll use the image of strawberries inside a refrigerator for cooling.
What a shame—they were expensive strawberries I'd splurged on payday. I wanted to eat them.
"Refrigerate."
It feels cold when I gently touch it, so it seems to have worked.
Maybe it's a little too cold.
All right, phew.
As for butchering it, I guess outside is fine.
Since there's a high chance I'll fail.
What will I need?
The fishy smell came from the blood and internal organs, right?
Oh, I need to drain the blood!
Cut off the head, hang it upside down... That reminds me of those two-hour TV dramas.
What kind of gruesome drama is that?
Can I actually do this?
This is difficult. I might not be able to sleep.
I wonder if magic can somehow take care of it.
Blood.
Should I remove the moisture...? No, it'll dry out.
For now, I used Spatial Perception to look inside the prey.
I felt sick, so I rejected that idea.
What am I supposed to do by looking inside its stomach and heart?
No, all sorts of ridiculously realistic things are filling my head...
...
Phew... I've calmed down a little. Time to pull myself together.
Blood... blood vessels.
It's easier to imagine them as blood vessels. Now to... pull them out.
It would be easier if they came out of the prey on their own.
Blood vessels slowly crawling out of the prey... crawling out...
I'd probably have nightmares.
Nope, that's out.
Horrifying.
Phew...
How should I deal with them? If I could make the blood vessels disappear from inside the prey in an instant...
Hmm? Could I use this?
Make them disappear... where would they go? No, that won't work.
But instead of making them disappear, I feel like I could move them instantly.
Teleport them outside, burn them to ash.
It might work!
This should be fine.
I place my hand on the boar-like creature and use Spatial Perception to perceive only the blood vessels inside its body.
...Right, blood vessels include tiny ones too.
The image in my mind has turned into something I can't really make sense of.
Uh... instead of perceiving them, I'll imagine the blood vessels,
bring them out of the boar-like creature, and burn them.
I'll go with this.
"Teleportation, Combustion."
...Ash ended up on top of the prey.
I should have changed the location.
Clean.
Pull myself together. Next, the internal organs.
I'll burn these away, too.
Imagine the internal organs.
I've gutted a fish before, but this is a little different.
Internal organs—heart, stomach... It's an anatomical model.
The anatomical model I saw in the science lab.
As a child, I thought it was a creepy toy, so I used to take all sorts of things out and play with them... though I got scolded.
I remember quite a lot of it.
Then, I'll imagine the organs inside the anatomical model.
Hmm, brain, eyes, heart... internal organs... kidneys...
"Teleportation, Combustion."
I think it worked.
From now on, whenever I use this magic, I'll definitely close my eyes.
Absolutely!
Wind magic is awesome!
The prey split cleanly in half.
Ah, I forgot to remove the hide.
...I guess I'll just take out the meat inside and eat it.
It's different from what I imagined, but at least the butchering was a success.
I don't want to eat it raw, so I'll cook the meat with Combustion magic.
I did so, forgetting that I'd turned the internal organs into charcoal in an instant.
The result was a nice pile of charcoal... Nothing remained.
Of course.
I imagine it browning nicely and use Combustion.
The charred spots stand out a little, but at least I got to eat on the first day.
I had bad dreams.