CH272 Change of Plans; Wolf Chef and Gourmet Eagle

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"Udara, there's been a change of plans." Alex's tone carried a quiet urgency. "I need you to quickly learn everything you can from Sir Holder. We'll likely be entering a planar gate within the next three months—it could be later, but it could also be sooner. I need you to become a competent spy recruiter and handler by then… if not a full-fledged spymaster."

Udara blinked, startled by the sudden responsibility, but Alex's eyes held hers firmly.

"I really need someone like that at my side," he continued. "And right now, there's no one I trust enough to hold that position other than you."

"I will make sure to learn quickly, Master," Udara promised with determination. "But… what about my guard duties?"

"Don't worry about that. I'll also be preparing for our departure. For the next few days, I'll be holed up in the study and in my private space, working on a few things. Even if I need to step out, I'll have the guards with me. You can focus entirely on your training."

"Understood, Master."

"Where are Fen and Senu?" Alex asked suddenly.

Though he could easily reach out to them through their links—especially Senu's—he didn't feel the need to intrude on their privacy without reason.

"They went into the back mountain," Udara replied. "They've been hunting these past few days while you were secluded. I checked with the stewards, and they said it was fine so long as they hunted only for food and not for sport.

"I have already made sure they knew not overhunt and waste prey within the mountain. Besides, with Fen's cooking, they ate everything they caught, so I let them be."

"Got it." Alex nodded, satisfaction flickering across his face.

Thinking of Fen and Senu, he was pleased with how well his two beast companions were getting along. The wolf and the eagle had developed a curious friend-rival relationship. The pair now spent much of their time conjuring beastly chaos with one another, which spared Alex—an admittedly irresponsible master—from having to watch over them constantly. Their antics gave him the freedom to enter seclusion without worry.

Speaking of Fen, the wolf chef had made another breakthrough in his culinary journey.

In the days after the battle at the Northern Dankrot Fort and leading up to their return to Ashen Castle, Fen had learned a new trick.

By obsessively strengthening his familiarity with the Water Tentacle spell to an almost unhealthy degree, Fen could now wield the watery appendages like functional hands. With them, his culinary potential had taken another leap forward.

With two extra 'hands' at his disposal, Fen could attempt far more complex cooking techniques beyond mere temperature control. More importantly, the wolf chef no longer needed an assistant with opposable thumbs—he could now run his kitchen entirely on his own.

This was a welcome development for Alex, who more often than not had been the "cooking assistant with opposable thumbs."

His only concern was that Fen now had two watery tentacles sprouting from his sides in a semi-permanent state—especially during his cooking sessions. And judging from the wolf's determination to refine his element, it was only a matter of time before he sprouted even more. Alex couldn't help but picture Fen becoming this world's version of Doctor Octopus.

As for Senu, the Nightmare Eagle's imperial nature was growing stronger by the day. She now found it beneath her dignity to eat raw meat –except for really high-grade meat—steadily developing what could only be described as a gourmet palate.

Alex's only comfort was that she paired perfectly with Fen. A gourmet and a chef… a match made in heaven.

The very thought of living in a reality where Fen wasn't around to cook for her made Alex shudder. Preparing meals for Lady Queen Senu on his own would have been nothing short of torture.

'Where did I go wrong…?' Alex thought helplessly. 'Why are my Beast Companions so strange?'

He shook his head wryly and turned back to Udara.

"I'll be going into seclusion immediately," he informed her. "Don't expect to see me for at least three or four days. I'll need to meet with my siblings after that before diving into another, longer seclusion."

"Understood, Master."

"I'll leave you to your training then," Alex said.

Udara hesitated, then spoke softly. "Master… if you want, you can stay and watch me train. I'll make sure to keep myself under control this time."

"Ah…?" Alex froze, remembering the embarrassing scene from earlier. The way he'd nearly lost face made his ears burn. He quickly shook his head. "Thanks, but I've had more than enough for today."

With that, he left in haste, almost as if fleeing from danger.

Udara pouted, her eyes lingering on his back as he retreated down the corridor. But just as he was about to vanish from her sight, a thought came to her—a thought that brought a beautiful breathtaking smile to her lips.

It wasn't her succubus charm that made it captivating. It was simply her.

Meanwhile, Alex entered his study and locked the door behind him.

The room wasn't messy—though books were scattered across the desk, none bore any of his jottings. Anyone paying close attention would realise at a glance that this was just a façade.

The young noble mage waved his hand—an unnecessary habit he had picked up—as he prompted OmniRune to open the portal to his Sanctuary space. Alex stepped through.

Inside, he arrived before his Rune Table, which he had moved to the resting area of the pocket dimension. The decision wasn't just to give the Nest Queen more room to grow but also to escape the bloody stench and gruesome sight of the last surviving drone tearing into the Wildkin corpses he had received.

Those corpses had come courtesy of a "Golden Palace Wyvern express delivery" from Werth, after Exercitus Alexii retook the crucial Imperial hinterland city—the Empire's narrow gateway to the north of the continent.

These were no ordinary bodies. They belonged to some of the strongest Wildkin slain in the battle, each marked by vivid, rich vein-like Ancestral Tattoos that glowed faintly across their skin.

Alex left the drone to feed them to the Nest Queen. He knew the process would extend her metamorphosis even further, but he allowed it anyway. After all, who knew when he would next get such prime material?

The timing mattered. He had to ensure the corpses were consumed quickly, before the Ancestral Tattoos faded. Unlike the flesh, which could be preserved through physical or magical means, the tattoos carried a metaphysical nature that could not be stored for long.

Even with the added pressure of confirming the Nest Queen's growth before entering the Interplanar Gate, Alex chose to stay the course. The chance to harvest such rare growth material—and extract precious research data—was worth more than achieving the metamorphosis before the planar travel.

"At least that takes one problem—one project—off my list for now," Alex muttered to himself.

He turned to his Rune Table. Unlike his study, which he kept staged to appear as if he'd been working there, the table here was a mess of notes and sketches. This was the true heart of his work, the place he had actually spent most of the past three days of reflection.

His thoughts shifted to the Interplanar Coordinate Orbs, still held safely by Earl Drake, as he gathered the papers that recorded his musings on the campaign—and on himself.

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