When Noel returned to his camp, he took a moment to clean up. The winds in the forest were strong, and after just a day, the camp had become an unsightly mess.
To make matters worse, he hadn't realized how close the explosion site had been to his camp, and the shockwave had left the place in even worse shape.
"It's such a mess…" Noel couldn't help but sigh. It was so filthy and chaotic that he could hardly stand looking at it.
Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about food supplies. Tias had given him a large bag of tree fruits—what a good elf she was. Their friendship truly was something beautiful.
Still, Noel craved the taste of meat. No matter how delicious tree fruits were, they were only good for filling his stomach, while the taste of meat and fat brought true satisfaction to the body and spirit.
"Whirlwind."
Whirlwind was a basic spell, simply using wind elements to rotate and compress the airflow.
Yet the whirlwind Noel conjured was quite powerful, lifting leaves, branches, and even small stones.
He carefully controlled the whirlwind to sweep through his camp from every angle, sucking up all the trash and even the dust into the swirling vortex.
After completing the thorough sweep, Noel directed the whirlwind toward the forest, effectively dumping the debris elsewhere and leaving his camp much cleaner.
Once tidied up, the place looked much more pleasing, no longer as chaotic as before.
It even felt a little cozy, almost like a home.
Suddenly, Noel realized something might be wrong—he hadn't cleaned the treehouse. It was in an even worse state.
Because of the explosion, dust had piled up inside, and since he had hollowed out the tree, the structure had also suffered some damage. For example, there was a stone inside the treehouse that didn't belong, and when Noel looked up, he saw a hole in the ceiling about the same size as the stone—clearly the stone's doing.
Still, the treehouse was in decent condition overall, at least enough for one more night's sleep, and one night was all he needed. Tomorrow, Mond would be coming to pick him up.
Noel used wind magic to clean the treehouse quickly, leaving it reasonably tidy.
Next, he went to check the traps he had set. Unsurprisingly, the traps weren't in perfect condition.
It looked like the vibrations from the massive Nue moving through the forest had caused the ground to collapse around them.
But he still had some luck. One trap had caught a wild rabbit.
A sharp, sturdy earthen spike had pierced the rabbit's body, its blood still dripping onto the spike. It seemed the rabbit had only fallen in recently.
Noel felt a pang of pity. Rabbits were so cute—how could he treat them so cruelly? It was heartbreaking.
Of course, he wasn't about to climb down and retrieve the rabbit by hand, so he used magic instead.
"Whirlwind." The spell lifted the rabbit from the pit and into his hands.
Noel hesitated, not wanting to touch the rabbit directly—his pity getting the better of him. But then he reconsidered. This was food, meat, precious fat, words that were music to his ears.
He had read in the alchemy manual about a delicacy called spicy rabbit head, but sadly, he had no spices.
Spices were expensive, and as a poor alchemy apprentice, there was no way he could afford them.
Noel gathered firewood in the forest with practiced ease, returning to his camp along familiar paths, ready to resume his familiar survival routine.
His movements in wilderness survival were so smooth and practiced that even professional survivalists would struggle to find fault. It was truly authentic.
First, he used Wind Blade to butcher the rabbit, removing all the inedible organs.
The rabbit had been in the trap a bit too long, past the ideal time for processing fresh meat.
Still, it wasn't too late. The meat wasn't ruined yet, so it was still good enough to cook.
After butchering, he used wind magic to whittle some sticks, skewering the rabbit thoroughly. He would have liked to build a simple spit for roasting, but given the state of the meat, he decided to skip it this time.
He placed the skewered rabbit over the campfire to roast, and smoke immediately billowed up, drifting in a fortunate direction.
The smoke didn't blow toward Noel, but away from him—an incredible stroke of luck, since inhaling it would have left him coughing for ages.
Noel sighed in relief, but then, just as suddenly, a gust of wind changed direction, sending a thick cloud of smoke straight at him.
"Ack—cough, cough! Ugh, so smoky!" Noel complained helplessly, tears welling in his eyes from the stinging smoke.
A moment later, the wind shifted again, giving him a chance to recover.
By then, the meat had become beautifully tender, the smell of roasting rabbit filling the air as golden fat glistened in the sunlight.
But Noel preferred his meat a little more well-done, with a tougher chew and a richer aroma.
After a bit longer on the fire, the rabbit turned from golden brown to a deeper caramelized brown, the scent growing richer with a hint of char.
Seeing that it was ready, Noel quickly grabbed the skewer, ignoring the heat.
He took a big bite, juices squirting out and splashing onto his face. "Hot! But so delicious!"
Even though he had said earlier that he wouldn't eat rabbits, how could he resist something this tasty? It was too tempting, too fragrant.
It was one of those times when your mouth says "no," but your body moves anyway—so frustratingly irresistible.
"I feel bad for you, little rabbit, but thank you for the meal. May you rest in peace in heaven." Noel put his hands together, saying a small prayer, feeling a bit of the guilt ease from his heart.
"You won't die, you know. Your flesh will live on with me forever." Noel said, looking at the rabbit's bones.
Still, he felt a pang of regret. He hadn't been able to enjoy the spicy rabbit head dish he had heard about. Such a pity, given how good the meat was.
Noel's simple life was quite content. After finishing his main course, he even had dessert.
The dessert was the tree fruits Tias had given him. Noel wiped the fruits clean and took a bite.
They tasted incredible—better than the ones he had eaten in the treehouse.
Noel understood now. These fruits were Tias' gift to him, and their large size and juiciness made it clear they were of the highest quality.
But there was one problem: they didn't keep well. Within a day or two of being picked, they would spoil if not eaten.
It would be a waste to throw them away, so he had no choice but to eat them all, even if it meant doing so with tears in his eyes.
"It's not my fault," he told himself. "I didn't want to eat this much. But they would go bad if I didn't."
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