Who’d’ve thought Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband would be useful beyond teaching me how to control my squirrel flames? By trading away a few of his wings and drumsticks, I got the last item I needed from Atlantis! This person, who I think was transformed from a plant because of the vines growing out of her head, actually exchanged a seed that can be planted in someone to help them generate spiritual energy internally for some meat, and not just any meat—renewable meat.

“Is it…, is it finally over?”

“Yep!” Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband’s acting like he died, but with this bird’s special ability to regenerate limbs quickly, he’s perfectly fine. Mm, his wings and legs are a bit naked-looking because he doesn’t have any feathers, but I’m sure he’s perfectly capable of keeping himself warm regardless. “You did a good job.”

Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband looked up at me. “Can you compensate me for my troubles at least?”

“I’ve already found you a wife, and you’re still asking me for more?” Geez. Some people try really hard to find love, and this stupid bird doesn’t know how big of a favor I’ve done him for hitching him to Mrs. Feathers. Maybe I should cut off his wings a few more times. Mm, they won’t heal as quickly though since this magical bird can’t regrow any more limbs today.

“I suppose I did eat a heavenly treasure when you first caught me,” Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband mumbled. “I’ll treat this as compensation for that time.”

Well, as long as he stops complaining, I don’t care what reason he comes up with. In the first place, is he even needed since I’ve copied, err, learned his spiritual-energy-circulation technique? What else can I learn from him? Oh, right! Vermillion birds were supposed to have an enslaving technique. Is he strong enough to know his yet? Mm, even if he does, if I want to learn it, the ruler will probably tell me to meditate because my soul’s easier to break than a shell¬-less egg when compared to hers.

“It is.”

Gee, thanks, Teacher.

“You’re welcome. Since you know your shortcomings, why don’t you start fixing them by meditating?”

Because I’m still not done selling all my food! It’s not every day I get to make a fortune off of my cooking, so I have to take advantage of this opportunity while I can. Who else is going to give me practically free treasures?

“Me?”

Well, yeah, but … it’s different! If you give me all of your treasures, then I’ll have less treasures than I would if you gave me all your treasures and I sold my food, see? Why settle for less when I can take more? I thought the ruler was supposed to be full squirrel. If I want to hoard a lot of things when I’m only part squirrel, shouldn’t she want to hoard even more than me?

“Oh, you’re saying if I want to be a better squirrel, I should hoard more of my precious and expensive treasures that I’m not using instead of passing them down to my disciple?”

Exactly! …Not. Exactly not what I was saying. You’re already a perfect squirrel; if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be ruling all of them, right? If anything, since you’re basically the ruler of all the beasts, it seems like your hands are full with running things, and you should totally give your precious and intelligent disciple more resources, so she can grow faster to take on some of your burdens, mhm, mhm.

…

Inhale. Exhale. Don’t think; don’t think; don’t think. Inhale. Exhale. Focus! Alright, as a good disciple, I should continue making money by selling food; the ruler might be rich, and she might be willing to give me treasures, but I can’t accept her goodwill without trying hard myself first! “Anyone else have any requests?”

For some reason, the beasts remained silent and exchanged glances with one another. Hmm. I might not be an expert at reading people’s faces, but even I can tell these guys are scared and uneasy! Why would they be scared and uneasy though? All I did was chop apart Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband a few times to sell his wings and legs.

“They think you’re going to do the same thing to them as you did to the vermillion bird: chop them into tiny pieces and sell those bits to everyone else.”

What? Are they really thinking that? The ruler’s capable of reading people’s minds, so she must be reading these guys’ minds, so unless she’s lying to me, these beasts really think I’ll chop them up! Just to make sure, I’ll ask this cow-person right now. “Are you scared I’ll harvest your tripe to sell if someone asks to buy some from me?”

“N-no,” the cow-person said. “Of course not.” He was definitely lying. I can tell by the way he’s unwilling to look me in the eyes and the way he’s holding his stomach as if that’ll protect him if I really wanted to make tripe out of him! “I’ve, uh, I’ve just eaten my fill. You’ve sold us so many things. Thank you, Big Elder Fluffytail, for helping me experience new things, but I really must take my leave now.”

After saying those words, the cow-person turned and ran away, splitting the crowd!

“If you’re going to turn him into tripe, I’ll buy some,” someone with cat ears said while raising a furred hand.

“I’m not going to turn him into tripe!” Hmph. These guys are looking at me as if I’m some sort of monster, and I don’t like it. If they don’t want to buy any more food, then that’s fine. I got everything I came to Atlantis for anyway; I can leave at any time I want. Ah? I got everything I came to Atlantis for! That includes a void dragon! I can use it to go home and reunite with Sophia! I wonder how she’s been doing while I was gone. I wasn’t gone for that long, but it feels like an awfully long time, and it’d feel even longer for Sophia! I bet she’s so sad since I’m not around. “Alright, everyone, I’m going home! My daughter’s waiting for me!”