"Let's stop for today. I have hunted some preys in this area."
Aiwai moved her hand where she had thin strings that Yale and Wyba didn't notice before.
Those stings were attached to arrows she had shot previously while flying, and when she moved her hand the arrows with the preys returned to her.
Yale and Wyba were unable to remember when Aiwai had shot those arrows, they couldn't see her well in the position they were when flying, but they didn't notice anything at all.
There were a lot of preys, more than what they can eat, but for Yale how many wasn't important, he wanted to know how she hunted those beasts while hugging both of them because they should have noticed if she moved her hands to shot.
Seeing that Yale was looking at the preys with a strange face, Aiwai decided to tease him a bit.
"I will cook them, so don't stare at them like that right now. Even if you prefer raw meat, I can ensure that you will also love my cooked meat dishes."
"I prefer cooked meat! Wait! I wasn't staring the preys because I wanted to eat them right now! I was just impressed by how you hunted them without Wyba or I noticed."
Aiwai laughed, she knew that Yale wouldn't look at the caught preys because he wanted to eat them right now.
She had already guessed a bit of Yale's personality and considered him independent and hard-worker, it was easy for her to think that seeing how he was at a higher realm than Wyba and that he was the one acting like an adult.
"It's good that you prefer cooked meat, I also prefer it cooked, we aren't beasts after all."
After hearing Aiwai's reply, Yale didn't say anything else as he understood that she was only teasing him.
Wyba was about to say that she preferred raw meat, but after hearing Aiwai's reply, she decided to remain silent. After all, even if she preferred raw meat, she also liked the cooked one.
Yale was seated in the floor while Aiwai was cooking the food, Yale was used to cooking the food himself, but since Aiwai wanted to do it, he didn't argue.
Wyba went to Yale's side and seated right there with her shoulder touching Yale's shoulder.
"Wyba is happy right now."
Yale's mood improved a bit after hearing Wyba's words.
Wyba liked the current situation, Aiwai had recognized both as real siblings, even if Yale always told to everyone that Wyba was his sister, the people didn't consider Wyba his real sister as she was in her beast form. In the previous town, she was in her half-beast form, but she seemed more like her daughter than his sister as she compared the situation with the tiger girl and her father.
However, being with Aiwai both were really treated like brother and sister. Furthermore, Wyba had noticed that even if Yale didn't seem to feel too comfortable with the current situation, he was rather relaxed compared to before.
Yale was always worried by training or their safety, so it was strange for him to spend a relaxed time with Wyba and that was the first time both were like that after Wyba had transformed into her half-beast form.
The main reason for Yale being relaxed was Aiwai, with her near there wasn't any need to worry about their safety. Yale might feel weird near Aiwa due to how she acted with him, but he didn't doubt that she cared about him and Wyba.
Aiwai had prepared almost a banquet of meat; there were only a few vegetables and fruits on the huge table she had taken out from her spatial artifact.
They were in the midst of the forest, but Aiwai decorated it quickly until it seemed a civilized place.
Usually, making that in the forest was foolish as the light would attract beasts and having a lot of food on a table would do a similar effect. Furthermore, as they may need to flee at any moment, taking out too many things was something Yale had never done.
However, Aiwai didn't need to fear anyone in the forest, her Spiritual Sense was enormous, and in that area, there was absolutely nothing that could threaten her. If any beast neared them, it would only turn in a new dish for them.
Yale had to admit that Aiwai's cooking skills were top class, he merely roasted the meat before eating it, but Aiwai was really skilled in cooking.
"Delicious, Wyba loves this meat!"
Wyba decided that since that moment she liked more Aiwai's cooked meat than raw meat.
Aiwai smiled after hearing Wyba's praise; she was very confident in her cooking skills.
She was also staring at Yale, wanting to hear his opinion.
"It is indeed the best meat I have eaten in my whole life. Is it possible to train the cooking technique like archery or swordsmanship? I have never heard about that, but it is difficult to believe that with such common beasts you managed to cook this if that wasn't the case."
Since Yale knew that forging was possible to train to higher stages, cooking might also have that potential and that Aiwai had trained it at least to the master stage, as she was at the Master Rank, reaching the master stage in any area wasn't too difficult for her as long she tried to do it.
"Oh, so you are really capable of appreciating a bit of my ability. You are right; I trained my cooking until the grandmaster stage."
Saying that she was at the grandmaster stage was equivalent to saying that she had trained her cooking abilities with effort and not merely relying on her realm.
"The grandmaster stage should be the stage after the master stage, right? I thought that your specialty was archery, but now I am sure that your specialty is cooking."
Yale was only teasing her in revenge; he thought that her archery should be at the same stage than her cooking.
"My archery is in a higher stage than my cooking. Do you want to know what stage is that? You seem to have some knowledge about that, but looking at your face you only guessed the grandmaster stage, and you have no idea about what is next."
Yale indeed didn't know about it, he couldn't train anything past the expert stage with his current realm, and no one taught him about that before.
"I want to know."
Yale loved to learn things especially those regarding turning stronger.
"Wyba also wants to know!"
Wyba wasn't thinking that much when she spoke; she only felt that if she also said it, she would help her brother.
"Well, since you both want to know it, I might explain it a bit. Any of you have reached an apprentice stage?"
"I am at the expert stage in swordsmanship, but I can't train it more until my realm increases more."
Aiwai was a bit surprised, she had guessed that as Yale seemed the hard-worker type, he might have reached an apprentice stage, but having reached an expert stage was enough to surprise her. Of course, the main reason for her surprise was that she still thought that Yale had four years old.
"Very well. Once you reached the Apprentice Rank, you will be able to continue improving until the master stage if you have enough talent and put your effort into it. The same applied to the Expert Rank; the upper limit will increase to the grandmaster stage."
Yale already knew that part; he was expecting the next part of the information.
"When you reach the Master Rank like me, you will be able to train until the sage stage, but that is incredibly difficult, I have only managed to train my archery until that level, other abilities like cooking are still at most into the grandmaster stage."
Aiwai had lived a lot compared to Yale's current life and Wyba, but for her current realm she was still considered very young, for someone at her age to reach a sage stage was impressive, that wasn't something easy to do.
Among half-beasts Aiwai was considered a real genius who also had an excellent bloodline. She wasn't inferior in any way than the dual practitioners.
"Well, I may be at the expert stage in swordsmanship, but I am unable even to reach the apprentice stage in archery. Sis, you are far better than me as you managed to train in many areas even if they aren't at their peak..."
Aiwai started to laugh after hearing Yale.
"So, that was the reason you were that interested in my archery before. It isn't a problem with your talent; there is a special requirement for reaching the apprentice stage in archery, without knowing it unless you discover it by coincidence, reaching the apprentice stage is impossible."
Yale was shocked by that, he had been quite depressed for being unable to reach the apprentice stage, but Aiwai words improved his mood because as long she told him that requirement, Yale had confidence in reach it.