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"Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm Henry Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you."
When greeting a woman, a man shouldn't be the one to initiate a handshake. It was simply good etiquette. So Henry merely greeted her with a warm smile.
Ajak, however, extended her hand graciously.
"I'm Ajak, my friend. I haven't yet thanked you for what you did for Thena. Being able to help her... that truly means a great deal.
"You probably can't imagine how much despair her condition brought the rest of us. We weren't afraid of suffering the same illness ourselves—we were afraid of losing our friend."
Henry shook her hand with a smile.
"It was within my ability to help. Besides, I was paid for it."
"Oh?"
Ajak released his hand immediately and regarded the Kryptonian with amused interest.
"So you don't want me to owe you a favor?"
Naturally, Kingo and the others hadn't hidden Henry's identity from Ajak.
And as the leader personally appointed by the Celestial Arishem, Ajak wasn't like the others, whose memories only stretched back seven thousand years.
She had witnessed far more.
Back when the Kryptonian fleets had thrown the galaxy into chaos, forcing the Skrull Empire into constant retreat, Ajak had personally seen those mighty armadas in action.
So when Kingo and the others described Henry's abilities, she had never doubted for a moment that he was truly Kryptonian.
And precisely because he wasn't simply another human, Ajak didn't treat him with the same cautious distance she often maintained toward humanity.
Henry, however, had no particular thoughts about the Eternal leader's attitude.
He merely replied politely,
"Favors are expensive. They're difficult to repay.
"And if someone owes me one instead, it starts feeling as though I'm trying to take advantage of them.
"So... I'd rather not."
"Very well."
Ajak smiled.
"At the very least, allow me to thank you."
"That's more than enough."
Henry returned the smile.
Just then, Kingo—the ever-talkative lover of excitement—shouted from across the rooftop,
"Henry! Get over here! Thena and Gilgamesh are about to show off their signature dishes!
"If you miss this, you'll regret it!
"Ajak! Come on! It's been a long time since you've had their cooking too, hasn't it?"
The two walked over together.
The first thing Henry noticed was that everyone he'd brought with him wore expressions of complete bewilderment.
Then he saw the rooftop himself...
...and froze.
Ajak, on the other hand, smiled happily.
"Ah... it's been a long time since I've tasted these flavors.
"It seems the premium horse meat I brought is about to be completely overshadowed."
Since it was a barbecue party, classics like steaks and grilled sausages were naturally indispensable.
Henry had even prepared an entire roast lamb, complete with a carefully crafted glaze, intending to amaze everyone.
But Gilgamesh...
Had brought a camel.
Not an entire camel thrown onto a spit, fortunately.
Instead, he'd butchered it properly, preparing each cut differently according to its characteristics before coating everything in his own secret sauce.
The aroma alone was enough to make mouths water.
Then there was Thena.
She had somehow managed to outdo even that.
She'd roasted an entire lion.
Not on a grill.
The lion had been spread flat over an open fire, its limbs stretched outward.
The flames licked across its mane and fur, setting them ablaze and making the entire beast appear as though it were wreathed in fire.
Surely that would burn the meat into charcoal.
Yet Thena had stuffed the lion's abdominal cavity with a special mixture of ingredients that regulated the internal temperature, preventing the flesh from overcooking.
As for the scorched hide...
Apparently she intended to scrape or carve it away before serving.
Still, the most eye-catching part wasn't the cooking technique.
It was the lion's burning mane.
The blazing fire made it resemble a mythical fire lion glaring majestically at everyone present.
That was precisely why Katharine and the others stood there dumbfounded.
Who wanted to eat something while making eye contact with the thing they were about to eat?
Watching Thena calmly tending the coals and carefully roasting the lion, Henry finally asked,
"Big Sis... does meat from a carnivore actually taste good? Doesn't it have an overpowering gamey smell?"
There was a reason that cuisines around the world primarily used herbivores rather than carnivores.
Carnivorous animals carried strong odors that were notoriously difficult to remove.
In ancient times, when spices were scarce, people generally chose not to eat them.
Even the famous delicacy known as bear's paw only used... well... the paws.
Nobody was turning the entire bear into gourmet cuisine.
Edible?
Certainly.
Easy to prepare?
Delicious?
Those were entirely different questions.
The one major exception was probably the humble pig.
Being omnivores, pigs would eat almost anything—even pork... or human flesh.
Another reason many cultures avoided eating carnivores and omnivores was the uncomfortable moral implication.
If an animal ate people...
And then people ate that animal...
It carried an unsettling sense of indirect cannibalism.
That was likely one of the historical reasons certain religions prohibited pork and regarded it as unclean.
In short, from almost every perspective, carnivorous animals had never become common ingredients in human cuisine.
So Thena presenting everyone with a whole roasted lion naturally left Henry and the others speechless.
The Eternal warrior goddess, however, seemed completely untroubled by the question.
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"Long ago, when my friends and I roasted the Nemean Lion...
"It was unimaginably delicious.
"So this dish is something I only prepare on occasions worthy of remembrance.
"You should treasure this opportunity."
Standing among the ordinary humans, the youngest person present—Skye—voiced everyone's thoughts.
"...That's really a lion?"
Beside her, Gilgamesh burst into laughter.
"No!
"This is an Argolis Hercules Bull.
"It only looks like a member of the cat family.
"If you don't believe me..."
He pointed toward Henry.
"Ask the person standing beside you.
"Is that big cat over there a tabby...
"...or a tiger?"
Suddenly finding himself the center of everyone's attention, Henry noticed that not only were all eyes on him...
Even Katie turned her head and looked up at her two-legged Kryptonian companion.
Maintaining an utterly straight face, Henry replied,
"Of course Katie's a tabby cat.
"Has anyone here ever seen such a fat tiger?
"Come on, Katie.
"Give everyone a nice little 'meow.'"
"ROAR!"
Your mother!
Damn it!
She actually cursed at me! Don't think I can't understand!
Even if Henry hadn't yet achieved full fluency in Tiger, he was at least certified Tiger Language Level Five by now.
Just as he was preparing to kick the fat tiger squarely on her plump backside—and perhaps add Roast Tiger to today's menu—
Thena calmly drew a Greek kopis from nowhere.
She sliced off a piece of roasted hind leg, speared it with the tip of the blade, and casually tossed it toward Katie.
Despite never having played this sort of catch game before, Katie instinctively stretched out her neck, opened her jaws, and snatched the meat cleanly out of the air.
After chewing happily for a few moments, she licked her lips.
Still unsatisfied, the tiger wandered over to the roasting lion itself, drooling shamelessly.
"Looks like it's cooked."
Thena smiled.
"Who wants to try my handiwork?"
Henry couldn't resist commenting.
"That proves absolutely nothing.
"Even if it were raw, Katie would still eat it.
"Using her to test whether the meat's done is completely meaningless.
"Give me a piece.
I'm a much more reliable taste tester."
A dinner plate somehow appeared in Henry's hands as he shamelessly stepped forward.
Naturally, the glutton's behavior earned a chorus of playful boos from everyone present.
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