Keeping the rest of the White Whale meat preserved long enough to fetch a premium price wasn't realistic. The turnaround would take too long.
Felt decided to roll out her plan for the slums instead.
While her reputation sat at its peak, she had the remaining White Whale meat hauled straight into the Slums and began handing it out.
Free. Not a single coin changed hands.
Meat from one of the Three Great Mabeasts was already a draw on its own, without even factoring in the bidding wars that had broken out among the nobility over the same product. For people who usually went to bed hungry, the question of whether they wanted a taste wasn't a question at all.
Word spread fast.
The hungry poured in from every corner of the Slums, each one hoping to get their hands on a portion and find out what the legendary meat tasted like.
Fortunately, Reinhard had anticipated the crush before Felt even began. The moment he learned what she was planning, he reached out to the nobles and merchants who'd already declared their support for her and asked them to mobilize people. More handout stations to spread the load, and bodies on the ground to keep order.
Maintaining calm in the Slums while handing out free goods was no easy task. Without enforcement, a riot was almost guaranteed.
Gojo hadn't escaped the detail either.
"As your biggest business partner, shouldn't I be at home drinking tea and counting money?"
Surrounded by the din of the Commoner District, he turned a weary look on Felt.
"Don't start. This was your plan."
"No way I'm letting you lounge around. You see me out here, don't you?"
Standing beside him, Felt shot him a flat glare.
It had taken the chaos on the ground for her to realize how naive her thinking had been.
The moment word went out, the entire Slums, easily a hundred and fifty thousand strong, came converging on the handout points. Even with multiple stations, the tide of people was more than the volunteers could comfortably manage.
The one saving grace was Reinhard's preparation. He'd called in a small army of hands ahead of time. Without them, the scene would already have collapsed into pandemonium.
"You're the only candidate who came out of the Slums. If you're not here, this whole thing means nothing."
Gojo muttered it while scanning the packed crowd.
"Yeah, that's not what I'm worried about right now."
Felt's face scrunched up.
"With this many people, I'm starting to wonder if there's even enough White Whale meat left."
"You're underselling the whale. That thing was massive."
"Strip the bones, strip the parts you can't eat. The leftover meat still won't stretch to one chunk per person, come on."
Felt held up her fingers to mime the size. A block of White Whale was somewhere around five hundred grams, roughly a pound.
"If anyone doesn't get a portion, they're going to be furious. Then they're going to start something."
She'd grown up in the Slums. She was kind enough, but she knew these people. For every one worth pitying, there was another looking for a reason to kick off.
She smacked herself lightly on the forehead, frustrated.
"Such a nice idea too. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this charity thing."
"There might be a workaround."
Gojo tilted his head, an idea catching.
"What workaround?"
Her eyes snapped up.
"Have Betty release a Great Rabbit."
"Feed it the parts of the whale nobody can eat."
"As it eats, one rabbit becomes two. Two become four..."
"Then we've got more meat than we know what to do with."
Felt's whole expression lit up.
"Right!"
"The Great Rabbit!"
"But someone has to keep eyes on it. Once it starts dividing, if no one's watching, it's over."
"Easy. Send Elsa. A Great Rabbit is nothing for her. We move the scraps here, throw up a quick shed out back, and let it feed in there. Betty and I are on site too. Nothing to worry about."
"You're a genius. I knew you'd have something!"
She punched his arm, beaming, then rubbed the tip of her nose.
"I'm going to get Reinhard to set it up!"
And she was off at a sprint, weaving through the crowd toward him.
The Royal Guard Knights didn't officially back any particular candidate. But keeping the peace in the Royal Capital fell squarely within their purview, and with the entire Slums whipped into a frenzy by Felt's event, there was no version of this where the Knights stayed clear. This many bodies in one place, the fights and thefts were going to compound quickly. Tired or not, they had to be in the thick of it.
Reinhard was keeping watch while exchanging quiet words with a few of his fellow Knights not far off. The candidate he backed was at the height of her star, and the glow of it reached him too.
"Reinhard!"
Felt skidded up to him.
The nearby Knights bowed immediately. After acknowledging them with a nod, she pulled Reinhard aside and spoke into his ear, voice low.
He listened, thought it over, then inclined his head. "Understood, Lady Felt. I'll see it done."
His execution was predictably fast. Within minutes he'd located a reasonably intact building a short way off.
Gojo called Elsa over and laid out the job in a few sentences.
"Now this is a boring assignment."
"You get to play with a Great Rabbit's innards however you want. That's not enough?"
She gave him a pointed look.
Was she supposed to be that easily satisfied?
That said, she wasn't going to refuse. She was on Gojo's payroll now, and the boss's word carried.
The building was prepped fast. Cartloads of inedible White Whale scraps began moving inside. Betty was already there, reaching into her pocket space and hauling out a single Great Rabbit.
She tossed it on top of the pile. Ravenous hunger took over; the creature dove in and began to devour.
Mouthfuls disappeared. Then, while the whole group watched, the Rabbit's body twisted, contorted, and split. A second identical Rabbit stood next to the first, same size, same shape.
Elsa moved before the new one had settled. A clean slice, and the original was gone.
"That it?"
"Yeah, that works."
"Might want to let it multiply a little more though. This won't feed the crowd out there. A mob of hungry slum-dwellers isn't any less dangerous than a Great Rabbit swarm."
"Noted."
Elsa gave a small nod. To anyone else these things might register as hazardous. To her, they may as well have been housepet rabbits.
The Great Rabbit's reproduction rate was, to put it mildly, ridiculous. Given endless food, it turned on a dime. The pile of discarded whale innards vanished one chunk at a time, each meal spawning another Rabbit. One became two. Two became four. Four, eight. Eight, sixteen.
The only reason the creatures hadn't already devoured the world was their own internal rule about cannibalism. Without their tendency to eat each other, they'd be an extinction-level species in short order.
Soon, butchered Rabbits began flowing out of the building in a steady stream.
Watching the quantities pile up, Felt finally let out a breath. Supply wouldn't be an issue anymore.
The early chaos in the Slums subsided. With enforcement on the ground and nobody brave enough to try anything, the operation ran smoothly. Portion after portion went out. The entire district was soon blanketed in the heavy scent of roasting meat.
Some took their share and slipped off to the Commoner District to trade it for larger quantities of grain. Most chose to eat it themselves, curious about the legend in their hands.
The immense White Whale's remains shrank visibly as the crowd kept moving.
With food supply now a solved problem, Felt's mind started turning again.
The Great Rabbit was also one of the Three Great Mabeasts. Plenty of people would want to try it, including the nobles. If anyone worried about eating what the Slum-dwellers ate, a little packaging would sort that out. Label it as premium cuts, or top-grade portions. The nobles and merchants didn't know the first thing about either beast. She could say whatever she wanted.
She could already see it. Between bounties, novelty sales to the wealthy, and ongoing supply, the Great Rabbit was going to become a serious revenue stream.
Just as the Witch of Gluttony had envisioned all those years ago. An endless food engine. Feed it basic waste, watch it split, control the count. A literal mountain of gold.
Even after the move to Kararagi, they wouldn't have to worry about running through their savings. Full self-sufficiency.
Felt's feast in the Slums stretched across three full days.
The White Whale meat was gone by day two. Every portion after that came from Great Rabbit.
The event's impact was undeniable.
Felt's already considerable reputation vaulted to new heights. Born in the Slums, carrying royal blood, and now doing all of this on top of everything she'd already accomplished, the whispers in the streets began to converge on a new title.
The Merciful Lion King.
Once the emblem of the Lugunica royal house, the lion had faded from public memory after the ancient contract with the Divine Dragon. For generations, the title of Lion King had gone quiet.
Now, on Felt, someone had remembered.
That one name shifted the political weather. Nobles and merchants who'd been on the fence suddenly committed to the rising candidate. The most visible consequence was immediate: once the Slums event wrapped, letters of introduction piled up at her door. Nobles and merchants asking for audiences.
What they wanted had stopped being subtle.
"Looks like we're not that far from leaving for Kararagi."
Gojo stood at the window, watching Dragon Carriages roll in and out of the courtyard. He spoke without turning.
"Really?"
"Feels more like wishful thinking to me."
Betty was draped across the desk, turning a small cube over in her fingers, bored.
"Is it wishful though?"
"Once Felt finishes with these visitors, we should be right on top of the goal. Grab the money, teleport out nice and quiet..."
"That simple, is it?"
"What if they don't let you leave?"
Betty lifted her head and leaned back in her chair, mouth twisting.
"As if. Unless Reinhard himself steps in, no one else can keep us here if we want to go."
Gojo waved it off.
"And if she actually becomes queen?"
A spark of curiosity flickered in Betty's eyes.
"Becomes queen?"
He was halfway to a laugh when his gaze drifted back to the line of Dragon Carriages in the courtyard and the chuckle caught in his throat.
The idea hadn't landed before. Hearing it from Betty now, it didn't sound impossible at all. The way things were trending, that throne might really end up beneath her.
A mental image surfaced. Felt on the throne. One corner of his mouth curled up, slow and deep.
"You call Subaru an idiot every other day, and then you go and ask me something like that."
"The reason we were ever planning to skip town is that the odds of her actually winning were slim. But if she's going to win, why would we run?"
"When there's a queen in your corner, is there anything left to worry about?"
Gojo stretched, grinning at her.
"Unless you'd rather eat hardship than live well?"
"Tch. I was joking. I can't believe you took it seriously."
Betty pursed her lips. She clearly didn't buy the casual pivot.
Gojo smiled and let it drop.
Then the familiar chime of the Supporting Star System rang in his head.
[The anime Re: Zero - Starting Life in Another World is about to air.]
[The interdimensional broadcast function is now active. You can view the comment section and Popularity Ranking in real time during the broadcast.]
This fast?
He blinked. The next airing was coming earlier than he'd expected.