Chapter 37

Why had he learned how to butcher things in the first place?

“I knew a hyung in Majang-dong.”

“Gurgle?”

“After drinking with him a few times, I picked up a few skills.”

He had never actually broken down an animal in its complete form.

The man had said you shouldn’t entrust knife work to just anyone, so he had only taught him how to cut a large piece of primal meat into different parts in case he ever bought one for home.

In other words, he had never truly butchered anything properly.

“But even if I haven’t done it myself, I know how it’s done.”

Jio was a quick learner.

“Since its body isn’t cold, has it not been dead for long? It’s like a warm stone.”

“Gurgle?”

“It’s because I need to drain the blood. Once a fair amount of time passes after death, it gets difficult to drain it.”

The blood from its forehead seemed to have soaked into the ground for a long while, but despite that, the deer’s body was still soft, and Jio felt a little intimidated. It seemed this world, where food did not rot or spoil easily, had done something to it.

Yes, “food.”

“... If it’s an already dead deer, I suppose it counts as food.”

Jio himself was trying to butcher it, too.

'Anyway, if the body hasn’t stiffened, this will be much easier.'

Jio dragged the house-sized deer along and hung it over a droop-droop tree of suitable height. Then he made a hole in its neck so the blood could drain out.

“Honey.”

“Chirp?”

“Daddy has definitely evolved.”

“Gurgle.”

“I thought I’d evolved into a portrait, but I didn’t expect to get stronger too.”

It was hard to tell whether the laws of physics applied less because this was a world inside a painting, or whether Jio himself had grown stronger, given that he could hang a deer larger than himself in a tree without any effort.

“Then while the blood drains, shall we take out the organs?”

“Gurrrrrgle.”

“... Honey, don’t drink the blood from underneath. No, that’s dirty.”

The sight of a tiny bird drinking the blood streaming down was pure horror.

“Daddy got scared.”

“Hmph.”

“I’m not lying.”

The trust between father and child was absurdly low.

“...”

Well, it was funny, so that was fine.

'I need to take out the organs before they spoil.'

According to the rules of the painted world, it did not seem like they would spoil easily, but he had experienced Mangdung Fruits that had been exposed to the sun for a long time hardening almost like ore.

Since he did not know what kind of problem might occur, it was better to do what he could as soon as he could.

“The hide is thick.”

There was a considerable amount of fat beneath the hide as well.

“The system said this deer came from a rainforest, but aren’t rainforests usually on the hot and humid side? I don’t understand why its fur is this thick and why it’s packed with so much fat.”

“Gurgle.”

“Stop drinking blood, Honey. Daddy said it was unnerving.”

“Grumble, grumble, grumble...”

“I won’t let you off just because you’re cute.”

He had no intention of sleeping with a bird that smelled of blood.

“Hmph.”

Honey grumbled and complained, then soon spat something out in a clatter.

“...”

“Gurrrrrgle.”

“A jewel...?”

It was a sparkling jewel Honey loved so much, but after Honey, who had turned bright red, vomited up a red jewel and regained his original color, it did not seem like a coincidence.

“Did you turn the blood into a jewel?”

“Gurgle.”

“As expected of my son. You’re extraordinary.”

Jio decided to stop paying attention to it.

“Could Daddy use that to paint later?”

“Gurrrrrgle!”

“Since I’m grateful you gave me permission, I won’t say anything if you drink more.”

“Gurgle!”

“You had it all thought out, too.”

Drinking the blood of hunted prey might not have been all that strange. As a human, Jio did think, *'What the fuck is that?' *, but Honey was still a bird, in any case. In a way, it was only natural for him to have animal instincts.

'As long as he can return to his original state anyway, it really doesn’t matter.'

Although Honey was a child born of paint, suppressing even an animal’s instincts was not something a parent should do. As long as drinking some deer blood did not kill him, it was fine.

“I’m about to cut open the belly, so be careful not to get splashed by the organs.”

“Gurgle.”

“Right, let’s see...”

Jio focused his attention on his fingertips and felt along the deer’s belly.

“I heard this sort of thing is easier to split if you start from the anus.”

Starting a cut from the anus was a rather brutal matter as a fellow living creature, but that was the food chain for you.

“Heave-ho.”

Though he had never sharpened the knife separately, it was so sharp that the belly split open easily.

When the abdomen of the upside-down deer opened and the organs inside came into view, Jio witnessed something strange.

“...?”

Why was there a jewel here too?

'It seems much larger than the jewel Honey spat out.'

Judging by the location, it was where the heart should have been.

“... Isn’t this kind of ridiculous...?”

A jewel heart was shattering common sense.

“How did something like this purify and produce blood?”

“Gurrrrrgle.”

“I’ll check if it’s safe later and give it to you, so come down.”

Honey, who always lost his mind over anything shiny, made a fuss, but Jio shook his head. No matter what, giving him an animal’s organ felt far too strange.

“Let’s just finish breaking it down.”

Jio finished cutting the belly open from the anus area to where the ribs were. It was his first time doing this kind of butchering, but fortunately, there was no disaster of rupturing the organs.

“The blood needs to drain properly too.”

“Chirp?”

“If you don’t drain the blood in time, that blood seeps right into the meat. Then the quality of the meat itself can spoil easily, and it gets too gamey... so if possible, you have to drain the blood right after catching the animal.”

He carefully removed the remaining organs as well, making sure they did not burst.

“If they burst, it’ll be a catastrophe.”

He would see hell.

For the hide, he had to start with the hind legs, where his hands could easily reach.

“There’s so much fat that I’m not sure if the hide will be usable.”

“Gurgle?”

“To dry it enough to make something out of the hide, all this fat needs to be gone. Still, the fur is quite fluffy, so if I make it into a cloak, it should be useful even after I go back to reality later.”

“Chirp.”

“I don’t want to keep relying only on you.”

The day before they went sightseeing, Honey had helped Jio when he was wondering whether to draw winter clothes because he did not have any. As long as he held Honey, his whole body grew warm, so he did not need separate winter clothes.

But he could not do that every time.

“I should prepare the hide.”

In any case, it was still a good thing that there was a fair amount of fat.

“The meat smells pretty good. Even the fat has a savory smell. You shouldn’t throw away fat like this. If you render it and save it, then use it later for stir-fried dishes, the flavor doubles.”

“...”

“Eating the fat as is won’t be as tasty as you think.”

At the sight of Honey staring intently at the fat and coveting it, Jio’s heart warmed.

It felt like looking into a mirror or a photo album. This was family. Honey was definitely a big eater like him.

“Since you’re eating anyway, how about getting a little fatter?”

“Hmph.”

“If you don’t want to, never mind.”

The thick hide was cut away. While checking the grain of the deer’s muscles, he slowly stripped off the deer’s fur coat. Fortunately, despite the abundant fur, the hide was not that tough, so he could work without much difficulty.

“Starting with the hind legs... the torso...”

He flayed the hide from the hind legs, where bone touched immediately without much flesh, the part that would be the ankle in a human. Next came the torso, then the forelegs, and then he cut away the peeled hide together with the deer’s head, completely breaking it down.

Surprisingly, because he separated it without mistakes, the hide remained fairly intact.

“Let’s separate the fat too.”

“Gurgle.”

“... Just have a taste.”

Jio gave permission to Honey, who was coveting the fat, and Honey, having tasted the fat with his father’s permission, writhed in agony.

“I told you it wouldn’t taste good right now.”

“Gu, gu... gurgle...”

“Trust Daddy a little. Daddy is ridiculously good at knowing when something tastes bad.”

“Gurrrrrgle...”

“Enough to cry over it?”

Shocked that the fat tasted bad despite its savory aroma, Honey sniffled sadly. Jio put Honey, who could not recover from the shock of the bizarre food, into the hood of his cloak.

“Now I need to start breaking it down in earnest.”

Since he had separated all the organs, hide, and fat, it was time to remove the lean meat.

'The smell is definitely good, just like the system explained.'

He had heard that the meat of wild animals was tough and smelled gamey, but this did not seem like that at all.

Because Jio enjoyed cooking quite a bit, he knew very well what smell raw meat gave off. No matter how well-raised a calf’s meat was, it was bound to have a distinctive bloody smell.

But this deer did not have that unpleasant smell.

“... It seems like there’s a bit of a nutty smell too.”

If he had to say, the aroma was closer to walnuts than peanuts.

“That’s funny.”

He was momentarily flustered because it was his first time in his life smelling this sort of aroma from meat, but it did not feel strange like mint-flavored potato chips. Rather, the aroma blended quite well, giving him a fresh kind of enjoyment.

“A different world really is a different world.”

“Gurgle?”

Even ingredients that looked more or less similar differed little by little in scent and taste from those on Earth.

“To be honest, it’s a little disappointing that the heart is a jewel like this. The heart of a freshly caught animal is a pretty good ingredient when cooking, so I was thinking of grilling it once... but if it’s in this state, it might be a bit awkward to eat.”

“Gurrrrrgle.”

“Right, even if I can’t, you’ll be able to eat it. Daddy will cook it for you.”

It probably would not taste like much in this state, after all.

“... But there’s even more than I expected...”

He removed the soft meat buried deep on the inside of the back, the loin. Then he broke down the legs and stripped away the firm flesh.

“Hmm.”

This part seemed like it would need to be simmered slowly. At least the upper leg meat seemed tender enough to eat.

After removing everything else as well, the ribs, tenderloin, and all...

“Ta-da.”

“...”

“We have a mountain of meat.”

“Hmph.”

“Is it a lot?”

“Gurgle.”

“I thought so.”

There was a reason the system had told him to dry it in the sun as processed meat. With this much of it, it seemed best to salt or dry most of the meat and store it.

“It won’t spoil if I put it in the ice storage... but I should still make what I can.”

For now, jerky and sausages came to mind.

“Should I do the jerky first?”

Sausages would take much longer, after all.

“I need to draw out the blood first.”

“Gurgle?”

“Even if I hung it upside down and drained the blood, not all of it would have come out. It wasn’t hung for that long either, so if I want to properly remove the gamey smell, I need to soak it in water and draw out whatever blood is left.”

Jio soon came out of the cabin carrying a large basin.

“Honey, put the meat in.”

“Gurgle!”

With the delicious jewel heart held hostage, Honey was a good worker.

The two put the meat for jerky into the large basin and poured plenty of water over it from the stream that flowed leisurely around the cabin. The streams spread all throughout the forest were very useful even in everyday life.

“If I were making this on Earth, I would put in some cheongju too...”

He had no alcohol besides wine, and the meat itself had almost no gamey smell, so there was no problem.

“I should make the marinade while the blood drains.”

“Gurgle?”

“The crops in the kitchen garden have all grown, so shouldn’t I make use of them at times like this?”

After washing even the deer blood from his hands, Jio picked several crops from the monster garden and soon returned to the cabin. Fortunately, the monster garden did not get angry just because Jio took a few crops.

“It definitely recognizes who Daddy is. It was worth raising them with sunlight and water.”

Standing in the kitchen, Jio took several powders from the shelf.

“And let’s use some syrup too.”

He also took out the Mangdung Fruit syrup he had shoved into a corner of the kitchen. It was what he had set aside in advance before giving some to Yu Seongun in the past.

“You need to add syrup like this too so there’s some sweetness.”

“Gurrr...”

“It may seem strange, but it’s surprisingly good.”

Sweet and salty was an unchanging truth wherever you went.

Jio inspected the ingredients.

“Fresh onions. Since there’s a lot of meat, about ten... The garlic and ginger powder are already here. I’ll add some sugar too. If I make it with a bit of Mangdung Fruit syrup, it should work...”

Making jerky was not that difficult.

Finely mince cleaned onions until they become like a paste, then mix in various powders that are spicy and sharp enough to remove unpleasant odors. Add a little syrup to add sweetness and a bit of sugar to erase the dry, rough taste, and the jerky marinade is complete.

“Has the blood drained by now?”

After he put the marinade on a plate and washed the cutting board and knife, quite a bit of time had passed.

Looking at the sky through the leaves that was already beginning to darken, Jio left the cabin. At night, Honey, who glowed like faint moonlight, helped him avoid stumbling in the dark.

“Ah... this seems about right.”

“Gurrrrrgle?”

“This is dirty. It’s just water mixed with blood. I’ll give you something else later.”

Jio placed the damp meat on a tray and returned to the kitchen.

“I need to finish quickly and sleep too.”

The rest was simple now.

He lightly shook off the meat filled with moisture, and when it seemed adequately dry, he kneaded it with the marinade he had made beforehand to season it. After leaving it so the marinade could soak deeply into the meat, Jio washed his hands.

“It’s done...”

“...”

“... Honey, why do you keep coveting the organs?”

No matter how much he was Jio’s son, it was a taste he could not understand.

In the end, Honey and his waterfowl friends shared the deer’s organs deliciously. The golden waterfowl lake, where bloodstained organs floated about, had something mysterious and grotesque about it.

“Ah, except this.”

“Hmph.”

“I’m going to make sausages.”