We enjoyed our home for the first time in a long time.
　After all, our home is nice.
　Dinner soothed me.
　Mom's food isn't particularly good, but it suits my taste buds.
　Not only because I grew up with it, but because I love my mom.

And the next day, we were out hunting in the mountains.
　Not that I'm thanking you for your hospitality yesterday, but today I'm treating you to a homemade meal.
　Dia said she wanted to try my rabbit cream stew, so she came to find the ingredients.

Tart, do you still have the magic and strength to do so?
Yes, something!

The hunting grounds I usually use are at the end of a deep beast trail and also dangerous because of the territory of the ravenous beasts.
　It's not as manned and easy to walk through as the shallow parts of the forest, and just going forward will drain your strength and cut your legs off.

The reason for hunting in such a place is to avoid competing for prey with the fiefdoms.
　Some of the lords make a living by hunting. I don't want to disturb them.
　Not only that, but there are several advantages as well.
　The fact that even the hunters are not allowed to enter the area means that there is a lot of prey here.
　Furthermore, this bad road itself is a training exercise.
　I've been trained by hunting here.

''I found the remains of the Alvan Hare's passage this should not be too far away yet.

Going through rough terrain builds your body language and strength, training your attention and concentration to not miss the slightest trace left by the beast.
　That's a long time ago.
　Tart is taking the path I followed.

The tart guesses the location of his prey from the slightest trace left by the Alvan rabbit and chases after it.
　This hunt had given the Tart two challenges to overcome his weaknesses.

One, to keep activating Touahade's eyes at all times after entering the mountain.
　If he used Touahade's Eye, which kept consuming magic power, if he used it normally, he would fall down immediately unless he had [Super Recovery].
　That's why you have to keep it activated just in time.
　By keeping it activated at the minimum output for a long period of time, you will learn to control your magic power.

The other thing is to use your newly prepared weapon.
　Tart's spear is in a realm where it can be called top-notch.
　It's natural to continue to aim for the very top-notch, but as a shortcut to becoming stronger, use the new weapon in conjunction with it.

We're off the beaten path as knights and martial artists, but we are assassins.
　We just greedily pursue strength.
　Tart runs.
　While chanting the magic that Dia created after listening to the tart's request.
　It's a magic for assassination.

''[Wind Shadow]'

Tart was good at magic that moved at high speed while wearing a wind cowl to eliminate air resistance and reduce the consumption of energy.
　What he had just activated was that arrangement. While accelerating with the wind, the wind eliminates scent and sound, blotting out the signs and preventing the prey from realizing it.

However, it can't completely eliminate sound and smell. It would require extremely delicate manipulation to completely eliminate sound and smell.
　That makes it difficult to chant and control the magic itself.
　That's why the magic itself is somewhat sketchy and lightens the process, while moving to eliminate your own presence even with imperfect magic.
　It's easy to put into words, but difficult to execute.

Good move.

Alvan rabbits have an unusually good sense of hearing and smell.
　If he doesn't notice me while I'm hustling downwind, I'll pass.
　I'm watching the tart from a distance.
　The tart rolls up her skirt.
　On his left thigh was a split spear, and on the other side this time was a pistol and barrel.
　This was the new armament that he gave to Tart.

''You can use it on the tart as well [shooting]. Hopefully it works.

The 【Firefighting】 that me and Dia use had a major drawback.
　First of all, 【Gunshot】 requires the use of fire-attribute explosive magic, and can only be used by a small number of people with magic power.
　And in the case of shooting bullets from the explosion of a foul stone, it could be used by anyone as long as the foul stone was filled with magic power, but it had the disadvantage of being too explosive to withstand the explosion, making the weapon larger.

To solve this problem, we developed a powdered foul stone.
　With this, the amount of powder can be adjusted to the appropriate power.
　The gun bullets that Tart uses contain just barely enough powder to withstand a gun-sized bullet.

Tart takes out his right thigh handgun and mounts the barrel on the short-barreled gun.
　At close range, he takes advantage of the short barrel's advantage of ease of handling, and at medium range and beyond, he mounts the barrel to increase accuracy.
　As the tart packs its magic, the foul stone powder goes critical and explodes at once.
　A bullet was spat out of the pistol and the head of the Alvan rabbit was blown to pieces of wood.
　Tart shot with one hand, but he was able to do so because he had magic power and could enhance his physical abilities.

It is more than twice as powerful as a magnum bullet, and even if a big man held it tightly in both hands and fired it, it is such a lazy horse that it would blow away.
　Since it was developed as a gun to kill magicians, such an absurd amount of power was necessary.

''Roog-sama, you did it!　There's a good portion left to eat.

Just a few moments ago, I came close to subduing an Albanian rabbit, but it was torn apart by a bullet to the center of its body.
　To eat well, you have to shoot it right through the head, get as close as you can, and then keep your cool and shoot with precision.
　That's the kind of training, and the tart has accomplished it.

Well done, you've done it. You've done well, you've passed.
'Very nice. It's great that you can fire up to six rounds in a row.

When the cock is pulled, the revolver rotates and the next round is loaded.
　The pistol you handed to Tart is a revolver-type pistol and can hold up to six rounds.
　If the performance is pursued, it's better to use an automatic pistol rather than a revolver pistol.
　However, you must not let it go off by any chance.
　The revolver type was better to be equipped with a mechanism to block magic power from the outside except for the loaded bullets.

'I see. If you have any complaints, let me know. It's still a prototype. It needs to be improved upon.
'Yes!　I'll keep you posted as soon as I think of it. But this is really amazing. It doesn't even require chanting, and anyone with magic power can use magic with great power.

This gun was intended to be used by anyone, as she said.
　.........so that in the future, as soon as we can get high-performance gunpowder without relying on foul stones, we can make a gun that can be used by anyone in the true sense of the word.

The days of entrusting everything to one hero will end one day. Maybe this gun will take its place.

I say this jokingly.
　Once, in medieval Europe, the gun exterminated the knightly society.
　The privileged class of knights were allowed to be knights because they trained their bodies from an early age, learned the art of swordplay, reigned as overwhelmingly powerful men, and had the ability to protect the peasants.

But the moment they had a gun, a tool that made it easy for anyone to kill a man, everything changed.
　The training that the knights had built up since their childhood was meaningless in front of a lead ball, while the peasants trained for just a few days and even the knights became capable of killing them.
　The knights were no longer needed, the peasants felt the exploitation was ridiculous, and the knightly society was over.

Do you plan to end the current society by throwing guns around the world?
I'm not going to do that just yet.

This world, no, the aristocratic society in this country is just barely stable.
　There's no need to go out of your way to start a fire.
　In the first place, only magicians can use the gun you gave to the tart, and even if you could make a gun that didn't use a foul stone, it would only be used by your people.

Tarts. We should go home.
'Yes, I'm looking forward to making Master Lugue's cream stew. Even though I've been given the recipe, it's strange that I can't make it as well as Master Lugue does, and I'm missing something.
　Cream stew.
　I made it here when I was a child, and it became a specialty of Touahadé before I knew it.
　It is served to travelers at the inn in Tauahade, who then spread it around the world.
　...Recently, there are even some food lovers who come to the Tauahade territory to try the authentic cream stew.

'We don't make it that special, though.
'Let me watch next door. Today is the day I'll reveal the secret!

Tart is getting into the swing of things.
　While we were chatting, he finished peeling, bleeding, and dismantling the rabbit and wrapped it in the bark.
　When I got home, I decided to make a delicious cream stew with the rabbit that Tart had hunted.
　Tart did a great job on the hunt today, and I'll have to feed her the best thighs I can.

◇

Dinner is about to begin.
　Today's menu is rabbit cream stew and homemade bread. Another dish I added in a hurry.
　The cream stew is made with rabbit bones and dried mushrooms that grow wild in the Touahade mountains, and white sauce is added.
　It is made with plenty of seasonal vegetables and rabbit meat.

As I suspected, Roug's cream stew is excellent. My son's taste buds soak in it.
'Mom, I've heard a lot of people say it tastes like my mother, but I've never heard anyone describe it as the taste of my son.
But that's the only way I can describe it. It's delicious, Rogue.
That line scares me in more ways than one.

Mom has a big smile on her face as she pours cream stew into her mouth.

''Ugh, I'd like to win over Rougu-sama at least with my cooking skills.......this is the reason for my existence as a resident maid.

The tart was tasty but frustrating, and I was biting into the bone-in thigh meat.
　The best rabbit meat is the plumpest and most flavorful thigh. Eating this is a privilege for those who have hunted their prey.
　By the way, outside of the school, the tart usually does not eat with them as their personal maid, but today, Mom has given me strict orders to eat with them.
　I'm not sure if this has something to do with the fact that she called up the tart yesterday and told him all sorts of things.
　Dad's out of town on the matter of my awarding of the medal, and it's the perfect environment for Mom to misbehave.

'It's been a long time ago. I remember when you were my rogue mentor, and you made cream stew for me. I didn't know he could make such a good dish at that age. You've been messed up since you were little.
It's just a little premature. And the gratin you asked for is ready.
'Yes!　My favorite.

In truth, I prepared a gratin for Dia, who really wanted to have a gratin to make the next day with much of the cream stew.
　It's not too much work, as it's just a short, thick pasta dish with stew, tomato sauce and cheese, and baked in the oven.

The richness of the cheese and the tartness of the tomatoes make this already delicious cream stew even better.

Dia looks enthralled and eats the pasta with a generous amount of cheese and cream sauce.
　Gokuri and Tart are salivating raw, so I offer the gratin in front of her as well.

I didn't make one for me.
　It's a similar taste, even though I've changed the taste impression with the tomato sauce so that I won't get tired of eating the leftover cream stew the next day.
　If I ate it alongside the cream stew, I would get tired of it, and the cream stew was quite heavy.
　I'm surprised that my women have been able to eat it without any trouble.

I was very satisfied.
Mr. Roog, I'll clean up after you.
I'll be back in my room. Come back later, Rogue. I've finished analyzing the magic you asked me to do.

We'll each be scattered.
　I'll work in my room, too.
　I'm also concerned about the analysis I've asked Dia to do, and I want to improve the gun prototype.
　Tart glances sideways at me.
　That's the gesture you make when you're hiding something. He was like that when he gave me a surprise birthday present.

For now, let's pretend I don't notice it for now.
　I'm curious about what Mom has blown up, but I'm sure Tart wouldn't do anything to get me in trouble.