(Elayne's POV)
When we arrived at the Fairy's Kingdom location, we found something quite beautiful, the entrance was being decorated with many flowers and there were many fairies flying everywhere. They immediately welcomed us like heroes.
"Welcome!"
"They're back!"
"Our Queen said to prepare a festivity, even after everything that happened two days ago…"
"I am a bit tired but just get it done with, come on, don't be lazy!"
Fairies were playful as ever, pushing one another to work even at these hours. The night had already fallen and the moon was beautifully shining atop the night sky. It was a very relaxing night to be honest, and I was happy to see everyone wanting to celebrate it to their heart's contents.
"Thank you for everything! Don't overdo it, okay?" I said, as we walked inside of the city, there were decorations everywhere, and magical lights were flying atop the skies.
People was holding into some strange things as well, a type of flower as big as a balloon that, by infusing some magic into it, would float around. They also changed color based in the mana infused into them, and if words were engraved using sorcery, they could even explode and unleash words or messages.
"Wow, this festivity is going all out, huh?" Titan wondered, looking around. "Ah, is that a food stall?!"
Titan suddenly ran forward and ended looking at a big stall where fairies were preparing their own plates of fast food, in there they had grilled meat of various animals, and even deep-fried legs of… bugs. Well, maybe they taste like shrimp.
"Oh, the heroes! Have some free samples!" A fairy girl flew towards us, offering us a whole frog stuck into a stick covered with a red sauce and completely roasted. It smelled rather well, to be honest.
"T-This looks a bit yucky." Said Rita, quickly stepping back. She clearly didn't wanted to taste new food.
"Thanks!" Titan was the first to grab one of them and chugged the entire frog, eating it happily. "Woah! It is so soft! Even the bones are easy to eat! Game food's always so insane!"
I guess I was partially in fault for this, I had, after all, given Titan a food addiction inside the game. And even in real life as I bring him lunch to work! I am sorry, Mark!
"I guess I'll try." I said, grabbing one.
I took a bite of the meat and the frog was surprisingly soft. The skin was very soft and delicious, completely covered with flavor, the meat was soft as well, like chicken, and everything inside was also quite tasty. The bones themselves were crunchy but not hard to chew at all! Wow, I never thought I would eat a whole frog so easily… I feel like I am visiting some Asian country.
"Hmmm, this is the Swamp Frog, they're deliciously soft and very tasty, we covered them on a sweet and spicy sauce, they're good whole, even the innards are tasty." Said Nieve, having two of them at each hand.
The mushroom brigade quickly regrouped with us and also took some free samples. The ones selling were growing a bit concerned to give too many things for free, so I ended paying them a bit. Each meal was around 100 Gold, but I had hundreds of thousands, so it wasn't a problem.
As we walked to the castle, I offered Rita a frog but she seemed reluctant, but I continued annoying her until she grabbed it.
"Ugh okay whatever, this is just a game right?!" She said, biting it angrily.
CHOMP!
For a moment, she remained in silence until she swallowed the meat inside her mouth.
"T-This is… so good!"
She even blushed a bit.
"Oh my god I am never judging food based in their appearance ever again!"
At the end she liked them very much.
We also went through other areas of the festival, eating bugs this time. They had giant mantis claws from a big mantis insect they raised as cattle for some reason. Apparently there were two types of living beings in here, much like NPC, "Beasts" were not monsters, and slaying them actually didn't turned them into materials. How interesting… so there are normal animals in this world, while monsters are the more game-like thing that people knows disappear after dying and turn into items.
Perhaps Saphee and the other two were beasts but by being corrupted with miasma, turned into monsters… maybe that's why she disappeared. Well, I don't really want to remember that sad story again, so I just drowned myself on good food. The mantis claws were actually very juicy and delicious, and had the flavor of crab and shrimp combined, and an unexpected fattiness to it all.
"Wow this is amazing!" Rita said, eating a whole claw which was around almost a meter long.
"Hmm! I can't stop eating! To think that they got cattle animals here! So this game world has actual normal animals and beasts, and then the monsters themselves, huh? It is very interesting… I guess NPC mostly feed on cattle and occasionally hunt monsters and eat their dropped meat items, right?" Wondered Titan.
"Yeah, NPC generally lack an Inventory so when items drop, they just carry them or put them inside a bag, so they can't go on extensive hunting quests like us. Well, that changes with you guys." I said, as I saw Nieve, Acorn, and the Mushroom Brigade chugging on a ton of food.
"Yeah! Inventory is the best; I can save all the yummy food there and it even keeps itself warm!" Acorn said happily.
"The inventory feature is really useful!" Nieve recognized. "I am thankful for this gift, Lady Planta. I will serve you as your squire from this moment onwards!"
Nieve was slightly drunk so she was talking more gallantly than before, as if she was a little fairy knightess. Well, she was technically that though.
"Haha, I am glad to have you in the party, Nieve. What about Florie though?"
"Ah, Florie!"
Nieve quickly realized she had to go look for Florie, flying away back home.
