Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 425

Human happiness can, surprisingly, be fulfilled with very little.

Sleep well, dress well, eat well, and sleep well again.

It sounds simple, but in reality, it's quite difficult. In life, there’s often at least one of those things you can’t quite maintain.

In that sense, the Hunter’s party wasn’t satisfying any of those conditions.

So if they lost patience while the smell of ramen filled the cave, it wasn’t all that strange.

The warrior woman spoke.

“Don’t play innocent. You did this on purpose. Sealed the scent inside the cave and ate in front of us like you were showing off. While we’re out here chewing on bugs.”

It seemed she thought we’d cooked this meal just to mess with them.

Well... it wasn’t intentional, but...

“Trade us that ramen—for information.”

No need to ruin a conversation that was going unexpectedly well.

After all, I got this ramen in a whole box from Leadernoi.

—"This is ramen only the president can eat in this village, yes...! But now that Taonoi and I are basically like siblings, I’ll share it with you, yes...!"

Leadernoi’s warehouse had been stacked with the stuff.

It’d be nice if they shared it with the village, since there’s an expiration date and all... Anyway.

I said:

“I’ll give you three.”

Just as I raised three fingers, the priestess Miriam, who had been boiling a pot in the back, frowned and tried to stop the warrior.

“Rene, what are you doing?”

So the warrior’s name was Rene?

I couldn’t decide whether that suited her or not.

Warrior Rene brushed off Miriam’s protest and said:

“We’ve been eating nothing but weird greens and shrimp-flavored bugs for months. I want real human food for once.”

“Don’t be ridiculous...”

Even the priestess who tried to stop her looked visibly shaken.

Once Rene had made up her mind, it was probably impossible to stop her.

Glance, glance.

Miriam looked between Rene, me, and the Hunter grilling his corpse-worm on a stick near the fire, then finally let out a deep sigh and said:

“Ten packets. And if you have anything for washing, give us that too. Oil for hair, soap for hands and feet—I'm sure you’ve got that kind of stuff.”

Of course I had soap and oil.

Enough to give away for free.

But from what I’ve experienced, there’s no such thing as a “free” in this world. Anything you get for nothing will just end up giving you stomach trouble.

Fair trades are always the least troublesome.

Still, ten packets? That’s a bit much.

There are usually 30 in a box. We’d just eaten four. If I gave away ten, we’d only have about half left.

Was this really a fair trade?

I asked, lightly probing:

“How we negotiate should depend on how valuable the information you’re offering really is.”

It might end up being a huge disappointment.

But then, Rene raised one finger and spoke seriously.

“You guys are headed to the Final City, right? We know a shortcut there. And we’ve got a map of the inside. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

“Is that true?”

Even as I asked, I was thinking.

This was an unexpected windfall.

A shortcut into the city—and a map?

As I fell silent in thought, Rene added in a bargaining tone:

“You were saying earlier, right? That monsters have swarmed near the city and that going in wouldn’t be easy. You’re right. But if you know the easy way in, it’s a different story.”

“That’s true.”

Honestly, I wanted to trade right away.

But I had five companions—five wives.

So I had to ask their opinion first.

It was technically my ramen, but it was meant to be shared with them in the first place.

“What do you all think?”

At my question, Mirna turned to Rene and asked:

“How many days could we save with the shortcut?”

Flick.

Rene held up three fingers.

“Three days minimum. You’d be trading two meals for three days saved. And it’s the safest route. That’s not a bad deal.”

Three days.

If we really could save three days, ten packets of ramen was more than worth it. Even four packets per meal would only last three days at 36 total...

Just doing the math—it was a win.

Mirna seemed to realize that too, because she said, “I think it’s a good deal.”

Narmee and the other girls also nodded quietly in agreement.

It was a good deal.

I took some hair oil and soap from my inventory—《Squirrel Storage》—and handed it over.

Though right now, what they needed more was food than soap.

“This stuff? You can give it to the dogs for all I care.”

Rene shoved aside the plants and berries Miriam had laid out on the cutting board.

She eyed the boiling pot and the ramen packets with a furrowed brow.

I asked casually:

“Want me to help?”

Cooking ramen isn’t hard. But if you didn’t know how, you could waste a perfectly good packet.

Still, pride got the better of them.

“No thanks,” they said flatly.

The two women grunted and squinted at the writing on the packets.

I was just about to step in before they ruined something valuable when the Hunter, who had been grilling his corpse-worm, made a move.

He reached out his long arm and snatched the packet from his companions’ hands.

He read the writing for a moment, then tore it open and dumped the contents into the boiling water.

Not exactly graceful, but at least he knew how to do it.

Maybe he’d been watching me cook earlier?

It wouldn’t be surprising—he’s observant like a true Hunter. Even copying me wouldn’t be strange.