Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 234: A Clan of Karens

Ren stared at the elder.

"Neither of you can ever be forgiven."

The harsh words hung in the cool morning air, thick with bitterness. Ren took a deep breath. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy winning over the White Tiger Clan. They hated both her and Kael with a burning, justified passion. But Ren had spent years surviving the cutthroat, high-stress restaurant industry back in her world. She had dealt with extremely difficult, entitled customers before.

She knew a "Karen" when she saw one, even if this particular Karen was a scarred, elderly tiger beastman leaning on a wooden walking stick.

Good food had a magical way of bringing warmth to even the coldest, most bitter hearts. She just needed to convince them to actually eat it. Which, honestly, shouldn’t be that hard. The elder was putting up a fierce front, but his stomach was growling so loudly it sounded like distant thunder. Ren also didn’t miss the way his eyes kept traitorously darting toward the bubbling, fragrant cauldron of elk stew every few seconds while he was spewing his insults.

Ren decided right then and there that arguing with this stubborn beastman would get her absolutely nowhere. He wasn’t going to listen to reason. It was like trying to reason with a customer complaining that their water was too wet. It was a complete waste of time and energy, and the hungry strays surrounding the fire were still patiently waiting for their meals.

Ren turned her back on the elder. She grabbed one of the wooden bowls and a large wooden ladle, and began serving the thick, velvety stew to the rogue strays as she spoke. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"I don’t want your forgiveness," Ren stated flatly, handing a steaming bowl of meat and potatoes to a frail, pregnant stray female who looked like she might cry from gratitude.

The elder’s jaw snapped shut. The entire White Tiger Clan blinked, completely thrown off by her blunt dismissal.

"And I’m not doing this for the White Tiger Clan," Ren continued, moving down the line of strays, ladling out the rich, glossy broth. "I love to cook. I have been doing it ever since I was a little child. I dedicated my entire life to the culinary arts. Food that spreads love, fills empty stomachs, and celebrates the pure joy of eating."

She handed a bowl to a limping ape beastman, offering him a warm smile before turning her gaze back to the stunned elder.

"A very famous chef once said, ’Food is our common ground, a universal experience,’" Ren quoted. "I arrived in this world with nothing but the clothes on my back and my trusty cast-iron frying pan. I didn’t think much of it then, but now I know exactly why it came here with me. I was fated to share the joys of tasty food in this forest. It wasn’t just some cosmic coincidence."

Ren stopped serving for a moment. She stood tall beside the roaring fire, her green eyes locking onto the elder’s defiant gaze.

"This forest is my home now," Ren declared fiercely. "And while I still have breath in my lungs, I will feed the hungry here. I am not a part of the White Tiger Clan. Hell, I’m not even a tiger! I am cooking because I love it, and I am sharing my food because I want to."

Ren narrowed her eyes, delivering the ultimate chef’s ultimatum, throwing in a blatant lie for dramatic effect.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with you or your forgiveness," Ren lied smoothly, crossing her arms over her grey fur dress. "So, you can either shut up and eat, or get out of my kitchen."

The elder was utterly stunned. He stood frozen, his knobby fingers gripping his walking stick tight. He couldn’t understand some of the bizarre concepts she was talking about—what was a ’chef’? What was a ’kitchen’?—but he perfectly understood the core of her message: she didn’t care if they stayed or not.

To the elder, this female was terrifyingly heartless. She showed no remorse, no regret! In his mind, she should be groveling in the dirt, begging them to eat her food in a desperate bid to earn their forgiveness. Instead, she was treating them like an absolute nuisance.

The elder looked over his shoulder at the rest of the White Tiger Clan. They were standing behind him in solidarity, backing his authority, but they looked incredibly thin and haggard. Every single pair of tiger eyes was trained hungrily on the steaming cauldron of stew. The elder’s heart twisted. He had to make a horrific decision: a choice between his own stubborn pride, and the physical well-being of his starving clan.

It was then that Kael finally spoke.

The massive White Tiger had been quietly listening to Ren’s passionate speech. Even though he didn’t understand the culinary references, he was incredibly empowered by her fierce defense and her unyielding spirit.

Kael stepped forward, his broad chest swelling with pride.

"I apologize!" Kael spoke loudly, his deep, booming voice echoing across the entire clearing, silencing the murmurs. He bowed his head respectfully to his former clan. "I apologize wholeheartedly to the clan for my actions while I was feral. I wish I could change things. I wish I had made better decisions, and I wish I could return all that was lost."

He lifted his head, his golden eyes blazing with absolute conviction.

"But," Kael declared, "I do not regret chasing my mate."

The clan gasped collectively.

"My mate is the most precious female in the world," Kael announced proudly, gesturing to Ren standing next to the soup pot. "And she was chosen by the Moon Goddess herself for me!"

Ren’s stomach dropped. ’Oh no. No, no, Kael, please don’t—’

"Ren has a divine mission set out by the Moon Goddess to cure Feral Madness!" Kael announced to the captivated, starving audience. "To do this, Ren needs strong beastmen to mate with to increase her power!"

Ren stopped breathing entirely.

Kael puffed out his chest, looking around at the rogue strays and the White Tiger clan with a challenging, competitive glint in his golden eyes.

"And if any beastman here is strong enough to defeat me in combat," Kael bellowed, officially opening the worst tournament in the history of the world, "they can volunteer to be one of her mates!"

Ren’s eyes widened as she dropped the serving wooden spoon in the stew.