The sound of a door creaking open distracted me and I stopped chewing on the nub of my pencil's eraser to look up, I saw that Lucille and her friends had finished their exercise.
“Oh, you guys are done?!” I said excitedly while pushing myself off the couch.
I know that before all of this, I said that learning politics was something that I'd willingly learn- which is why Prescine, Karsten, and even Zath were here holding books and staring at me in confusion. - but that was before I knew that there are so many things to learn!
Like seriously, Karsten and Prescine have been sitting down and patiently teaching me for the past hour and a half and we still haven't gone past the basics!
At first things were… standard, and some were even words that I was familiar with like population or village, or something or the other but then things like “sunk cost fallacies” (apparently I needed to watch out for this? And why do I need to stop a project after I invested a lot of money in it?) came in and they went through one ear and out the other.
“Okay, Neophyte,” Prescine clapped her hands, “good job~” she said with such an earnestly proud expression that it got butterflies to fly around my stomach, “you really did your best today,” she craned her neck to the right, “right Karsten?” The pious girl nodded, “you earned your break,”
“Really?” I was in disbelief- they were kidding, right? I spent most of our tutor session glaring for minutes on end at things I didn't understand.
“No, I am not,” Prescine stood up and dusted off her skirt, “I think that we'll need a thesaurus as well as a dictionary next time but for now? Believe me when I say you did well,”
“Uhuh,” I nodded anyway, “whatever you say- but- it's not like I'm being ungrateful or anything like that,” I added just in case my reply felt cold, I didn't to look like I hated them after what they did, “you two were really, really great and thank you for being patient with me throughout all this,”
“Don't mind it, Saintess,” Karsten followed after Prescine's example and dusted all the eraser debris from her own skirt, “and like Prescine said, you did your best,” the pious girl turned to my maid, “right Zathania?”
“Yep.” Zath looked up from the cookbook she was reading to nod at me, “you did a good job,”
“... why do I feel I'm being treated like a child?” Was I wrong in feeling that way or not? I swear I feel like that's what they're doing.
“Well uhm- that's actually fair,” Prescine's serious expression morphed into something mischievous before giggling, then she stopped and looked at me warmly, “okay- sorry, but you really did do well though!”
I narrowed my eyes, “alright, fine, I trust you,” I said before turning to Lucille and the rest, “so, I take it that the training went well?”
Laceresta, who looked satisfied- an expression that isn't a scowl is always a good sign with her, I reminded myself, - nodded before gesturing at Lucille and her team, “they did well,” she complimented to complete non-reaction of the three girls, “they kept going even after I pushed them to their limits.”
“Something like that,” Zyra said while keeping up a smile that barely hid how tired she was, “but she was right, we did… pretty well against a Prophecy, on all accounts,” a nod of satisfaction escaped her, which caused the rogue to look surprised at what she did for a split second, “anyways- fighting Laceresta had been hard so I can’t imagine how it would be like to fight you or Fafnir while using your Techniques,”
And speaking of Fafnir, where was she?..
“Neophyte would be downright impossible to beat given how fast she is and I… would be almost impossible, but you still wouldn’t be able to beat me, of course,” her voice came from behind them.
Looking behind the quartet, I saw the Dragon come out of the gym while still holding the book of fighting she took from the library, “this also proved useful by the way,”
“I hate to admit- because I didn’t think that it would’ve been useful-” Zyra cut in, “but it did,” she sighed, “what we learned from the book really helped when we fought as a party,”
I smiled, “I’m glad that it worked out in the end then,” I clapped, “so, you guys are clearly tired,” I started, “want me to cook food for-”
“Nope.” Laceresta shook her head while glaring lightly at me- and… here comes the scowl, oh how I missed it (I didn’t) after not seeing it for so long, “you think I forgot what your brother said back at the cafeteria?”
“Zath would be there with me!” I argued and turned to my maid, who looked up from her book, “right Zath?”
“Right.” She replied, nodding.
“Neophyte-” I faced Prescine, who was now looking worried for some reason? Goddess I’m not gonna burn the kitchen down! “- hear me out okay?” I nodded but why does everyone believe Bismuth?! It’s not like I burnt the kitchen every time I went there.
And when I did do it, it only happened like, four times!
And it wasn’t consecutive either! There were actually weeks or even months in between those burnt kitchens!
“You’re hearing me out right?”
“Yes. Prescine, I’m hearing you out,” I drawled dryly.
“Okay, this tower is very important to the school so…”
And somehow, it was decided that everyone within the suit would go to the kitchen alongside me and Zath, most watched from a distance, with the few others who were capable of using Techniques related to water- such as Zyra and Prescine, - doing so.
And looking at them… I find it odd that there’s a giant ball of water floating above the head of both Zyra and Prescine but fine- they’ll soon realize I’m actually competent when it comes to cooking when I'm not tired.
“Okay, so, where to start?” I eyed the words and pictures written on the recipe book sitting on a book holder in front of us, “wait- I know that preparing a pie based off Honey Bark and Meat Root needs the standard ingredients so…” I scanned the counter, flour, baking soda, and uhhhhhhhhh- whatever else is needed to bake a pie, “I think we have everything,”
Zath turned to me, raised her eyebrow, and then proceeded to stand on her toes to open a cupboard to grab… something inside of it but she was struggling.
I decided to step in.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you,” I grabbed the milk and Zath stared at me dryly, “isn't this what you wanted? It’s milk!”
Milk is needed to make pies right?
“That’s cream, mistress,” her tone was as dry as her stare.
“Neophyte, it’s fine if you don’t cook for us you know?” Yhaine said followed by a nervous chuckle, “I mean, everyone here thinks that it’s fine if it’s Zath that does the cooking- or baking in this case, so you know, it’s- it’s fine if you uhm… just sit back and watch with us?”
“No.” I shook my head, “I swear I know what I’m doing,”
“Do you?” Karsten asked clearly skeptical.
“Yeah,”
“Alright- fine, I trust you,” Prescine started, “but I can’t say the same for everyone else,”
“We’ll be fine,” I waved her off, “and besides, if I do burn down the kitchen, I can take care of the fire with my speed easily enough,”
“If you say so…” she trailed off, “also, that second part was not very reassuring.” The girls nodded at her words, “but fine, I trust that you know how to bake pie,”
“I don’t- but that’s why I’m learning alongside Zath-”
I was cut off by a very loud, very audible sigh and I faced my maid to see her wear an expression that rarely comes to her face when she's with me- anger.
“Mistress.” I smiled, “I am going to teach you how to cook but you have to promise me that you’ll behave,”
“I’m not a kid-”
“I know. Neo.” Zath’s hand went up to grab my cheek, “you’re not a kid anymore,” her tone held the same warmth as her gaze, “and I’m sorry for treating you like one,”
“Treating me-” I shook my head, whatever it was she meant by that is not important right now (and probably not what I’m thinking, which the blame solely lies on Charcoal for.) and instead, I should focus on what she’s trying to say, “you trust me,”
“I do.” She nodded, “you’re not going to collapse due to exhaustion, you’re not going to stare at an open fire with a blank gaze, and you’re not going to leave a half forgotten oven on. Not this time.” She closed her eyes, “not anymore,” she opened them again, smiling this time, “and not with all of us around to help,”
“I…” what the fuck?
Did Zath just… did- acted- did she just act tender and warm just now?
And you know what? I was fine with it.
I hugged her, “you know, you’ve always been silent,”
I heard her hum, “mhmm.”
“Every time right?” She nodded and I felt her movement, her heat pass to me, “like- whenever I- I- how do I say this, back then you always just nodded, every single time-”
“I’m sorry.” She hugged me tighter, “I shouldn’t have been so indifferent… callous, I guess, is the right term- but I really did truly care about you,”
I hugged her even tighter- enough that I lifted her up. I buried my face in her shoulders, “I know.”
“Okay- now that is gay,” I stopped and glared at Sleet, and so did everyone, “what? It’s true isn’t it? You can’t hate me for speaking the truth!”
“Way to ruin the moment,” Korbinian rolled her eyes, “but congratulations for… whatever happened here just now- guess what I saw the vassalhood wasn’t me hallucinating,” she coughed into her hand, “anyhow, I’m not trying to complain or anything but we’re supposed to cook here right?”
“Right,” Laceresta walked forward, “we’re supposed to cook here,” she opened the fridge, “has anyone tasted my home’s cooking before?”
“Aren’t they all spicy?” I let go of a red faced Zath, who’s eyes were in the same state, guess she was crying like me just now, “can you tone it down?”
“That depends,” Laceresta hummed, “how spicy do you like your food?”
In any other girl, I would think that this would be an innuendo and I’d have to start worrying if I’ll suddenly see them wearing a naked apron one morning to "spice things up” but this was Laceresta- she can’t be hinting at that kind of spice obviously, and she was, then she’d tell us because she’s just that blunt.
“A little spark at the tongue sounds good?” Prescine answered for me, “but if you want to make it as spicy as it naturally is then I’m willing to try,” she grinned slyly, “right as long as you also try my culture's food,”
“Uhhhh- what kind?” I asked as Zath started preparing the ingredients- she was further helped by Fafnir who reached out into cupboard and took out a small tray of eggs, oh, so that was what she was looking for.
“Because if it’s vegetables, then I’m willing to try,” hell, I’d even die to taste the fruit cocktails that Exube seems to consider its specialty, even if it's alcohol, “but if you’re cooking fried bugs…”
Prescine turned green, “WHAT?!” I winced, “why would I cook fried bugs for all of you? That’s- that’s downright disgusting!”
“You can never know…” I murmured with a shrug, glad that I wasn’t about to eat bugs.
“How would she even find those here?” Karsten paused, “there aren’t any dead bugs in any of these drawers are there?”
“What? No!” Now it was my turn to raise my voice, “what- you’re all kidding-” I said in suspicion when everyone stared at me as if I would somehow manage to put a bag of those here! “I'd never buy dead bugs!”
“Are you sure?” Laceresta raised her eyebrow as she prepared the ingredients for what she was about to cook, which I'm pretty sure was going to be either curry or those weird roasted foodstuffs, those two dishes are what the Beasmen are so fond of for some reason.
"Uh, yeah?” I replied, "why would I ever buy bugs? They're literally disgusting!”
“Then what do you usually eat?” Sleet said, who herself was making something- a frozen meal? Oh, yeah, dessert she's making dessert for us- neat. Guess we don't have to worry about that later on.
Also, if everyone's going to cook food from their own culture then fine, I'll get them something only I can make.
Now, what kind of food did American culture produce?..
Hm…
I pepped up to buy my thoughts more time, “well if you're all curious-”
“Not really,” Laceresta rebuked while keeping her eyes on the ingredients in front of her, which as expected, were for curry.
“- then I'm going to cook you all something called a-” what do I want to cook? Come to think of it? “A… uhm,” what fast food meal was good enough back in my old world that it would impress these guys? Burgers were a goner, french fries too, as well as a few things from the places that I got “inspired” from.
So what do I….
Ah, got it- “I'll cook you guys waffles!”
They all stared at me dumbly, “what's that?” Prescine was the one curious enough to ask.
“Well-”
I wanted to impress them and this is what I came up with, in retrospect, this may have been a bad idea since I didn’t know what to do…
But I'm confident I can make it delicious and besides, these guys were like, based on Japanese tropes right? That means that they'll like this right? Anime said so…
I think-
I am now regretting that I didn't say the word “sushi” earlier but eh, I also don't know how to make that so it's fineeeee.
“It's a simple meal but basically, I'll uh, make batter…” which needs egg, milk, and stuff like that, I think.
“And then I… put it in a pan and fry it-” which is how you cook waffles, yep. I'm 100% sure. “And then it's cooked!”
“Sounds delicious,” Fafnir replied, “but… can you cook enough for all of us? This feels like a one person meal,”
“Pfft, I have super speed, of course I can?” I waved her off.
“Trust me, I know what I'm doing,” I added as I grabbed my ingredients.
“I… I think we're fine right girls?” Prescine cheered very weakly.
“Fine what? Feeling our heart race because we're scared of being cooked ourselves?” Sleet snarked, she got elbowed by Korbinian, “it's true though,”
“We'll be fineeee,” I waved them off, “you can trust me on that.”
“Uhuh…” Zyra neared me, “is it fine if I work alongside you?”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” I nodded.
Risk of burning the kitchen or not though, I'm glad that everyone got together like this.
The sound of a door creaking open distracted me and I stopped chewing on the nub of my pencil's eraser to look up, I saw that Lucille and her friends had finished their exercise.
“Oh, you guys are done?!” I said excitedly while pushing myself off the couch.
I know that before all of this, I said that learning politics was something that I'd willingly learn- which is why Prescine, Karsten, and even Zath were here holding books and staring at me in confusion. - but that was before I knew that there are so many things to learn!
Like seriously, Karsten and Prescine have been sitting down and patiently teaching me for the past hour and a half and we still haven't gone past the basics!
At first things were… standard, and some were even words that I was familiar with like population or village, or something or the other but then things like “sunk cost fallacies” (apparently I needed to watch out for this? And why do I need to stop a project after I invested a lot of money in it?) came in and they went through one ear and out the other.
“Okay, Neophyte,” Prescine clapped her hands, “good job~” she said with such an earnestly proud expression that it got butterflies to fly around my stomach, “you really did your best today,” she craned her neck to the right, “right Karsten?” The pious girl nodded, “you earned your break,”
“Really?” I was in disbelief- they were kidding, right? I spent most of our tutor session glaring for minutes on end at things I didn't understand.
“No, I am not,” Prescine stood up and dusted off her skirt, “I think that we'll need a thesaurus as well as a dictionary next time but for now? Believe me when I say you did well,”
“Uhuh,” I nodded anyway, “whatever you say- but- it's not like I'm being ungrateful or anything like that,” I added just in case my reply felt cold, I didn't to look like I hated them after what they did, “you two were really, really great and thank you for being patient with me throughout all this,”
“Don't mind it, Saintess,” Karsten followed after Prescine's example and dusted all the eraser debris from her own skirt, “and like Prescine said, you did your best,” the pious girl turned to my maid, “right Zathania?”
“Yep.” Zath looked up from the cookbook she was reading to nod at me, “you did a good job,”
“... why do I feel I'm being treated like a child?” Was I wrong in feeling that way or not? I swear I feel like that's what they're doing.
“Well uhm- that's actually fair,” Prescine's serious expression morphed into something mischievous before giggling, then she stopped and looked at me warmly, “okay- sorry, but you really did do well though!”
I narrowed my eyes, “alright, fine, I trust you,” I said before turning to Lucille and the rest, “so, I take it that the training went well?”
Laceresta, who looked satisfied- an expression that isn't a scowl is always a good sign with her, I reminded myself, - nodded before gesturing at Lucille and her team, “they did well,” she complimented to complete non-reaction of the three girls, “they kept going even after I pushed them to their limits.”
“Something like that,” Zyra said while keeping up a smile that barely hid how tired she was, “but she was right, we did… pretty well against a Prophecy, on all accounts,” a nod of satisfaction escaped her, which caused the rogue to look surprised at what she did for a split second, “anyways- fighting Laceresta had been hard so I can’t imagine how it would be like to fight you or Fafnir while using your Techniques,”
And speaking of Fafnir, where was she?..
“Neophyte would be downright impossible to beat given how fast she is and I… would be almost impossible, but you still wouldn’t be able to beat me, of course,” her voice came from behind them.
Looking behind the quartet, I saw the Dragon come out of the gym while still holding the book of fighting she took from the library, “this also proved useful by the way,”
“I hate to admit- because I didn’t think that it would’ve been useful-” Zyra cut in, “but it did,” she sighed, “what we learned from the book really helped when we fought as a party,”
I smiled, “I’m glad that it worked out in the end then,” I clapped, “so, you guys are clearly tired,” I started, “want me to cook food for-”
“Nope.” Laceresta shook her head while glaring lightly at me- and… here comes the scowl, oh how I missed it (I didn’t) after not seeing it for so long, “you think I forgot what your brother said back at the cafeteria?”
“Zath would be there with me!” I argued and turned to my maid, who looked up from her book, “right Zath?”
“Right.” She replied, nodding.
“Neophyte-” I faced Prescine, who was now looking worried for some reason? Goddess I’m not gonna burn the kitchen down! “- hear me out okay?” I nodded but why does everyone believe Bismuth?! It’s not like I burnt the kitchen every time I went there.
And when I did do it, it only happened like, four times!
And it wasn’t consecutive either! There were actually weeks or even months in between those burnt kitchens!
“You’re hearing me out right?”
“Yes. Prescine, I’m hearing you out,” I drawled dryly.
“Okay, this tower is very important to the school so…”
And somehow, it was decided that everyone within the suit would go to the kitchen alongside me and Zath, most watched from a distance, with the few others who were capable of using Techniques related to water- such as Zyra and Prescine, - doing so.
And looking at them… I find it odd that there’s a giant ball of water floating above the head of both Zyra and Prescine but fine- they’ll soon realize I’m actually competent when it comes to cooking when I'm not tired.
“Okay, so, where to start?” I eyed the words and pictures written on the recipe book sitting on a book holder in front of us, “wait- I know that preparing a pie based off Honey Bark and Meat Root needs the standard ingredients so…” I scanned the counter, flour, baking soda, and uhhhhhhhhh- whatever else is needed to bake a pie, “I think we have everything,”
Zath turned to me, raised her eyebrow, and then proceeded to stand on her toes to open a cupboard to grab… something inside of it but she was struggling.
I decided to step in.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you,” I grabbed the milk and Zath stared at me dryly, “isn't this what you wanted? It’s milk!”
Milk is needed to make pies right?
“That’s cream, mistress,” her tone was as dry as her stare.
“Neophyte, it’s fine if you don’t cook for us you know?” Yhaine said followed by a nervous chuckle, “I mean, everyone here thinks that it’s fine if it’s Zath that does the cooking- or baking in this case, so you know, it’s- it’s fine if you uhm… just sit back and watch with us?”
“No.” I shook my head, “I swear I know what I’m doing,”
“Do you?” Karsten asked clearly skeptical.
“Yeah,”
“Alright- fine, I trust you,” Prescine started, “but I can’t say the same for everyone else,”
“We’ll be fine,” I waved her off, “and besides, if I do burn down the kitchen, I can take care of the fire with my speed easily enough,”
“If you say so…” she trailed off, “also, that second part was not very reassuring.” The girls nodded at her words, “but fine, I trust that you know how to bake pie,”
“I don’t- but that’s why I’m learning alongside Zath-”
I was cut off by a very loud, very audible sigh and I faced my maid to see her wear an expression that rarely comes to her face when she's with me- anger.
“Mistress.” I smiled, “I am going to teach you how to cook but you have to promise me that you’ll behave,”
“I’m not a kid-”
“I know. Neo.” Zath’s hand went up to grab my cheek, “you’re not a kid anymore,” her tone held the same warmth as her gaze, “and I’m sorry for treating you like one,”
“Treating me-” I shook my head, whatever it was she meant by that is not important right now (and probably not what I’m thinking, which the blame solely lies on Charcoal for.) and instead, I should focus on what she’s trying to say, “you trust me,”
“I do.” She nodded, “you’re not going to collapse due to exhaustion, you’re not going to stare at an open fire with a blank gaze, and you’re not going to leave a half forgotten oven on. Not this time.” She closed her eyes, “not anymore,” she opened them again, smiling this time, “and not with all of us around to help,”
“I…” what the fuck?
Did Zath just… did- acted- did she just act tender and warm just now?
And you know what? I was fine with it.
I hugged her, “you know, you’ve always been silent,”
I heard her hum, “mhmm.”
“Every time right?” She nodded and I felt her movement, her heat pass to me, “like- whenever I- I- how do I say this, back then you always just nodded, every single time-”
“I’m sorry.” She hugged me tighter, “I shouldn’t have been so indifferent… callous, I guess, is the right term- but I really did truly care about you,”
I hugged her even tighter- enough that I lifted her up. I buried my face in her shoulders, “I know.”
“Okay- now that is gay,” I stopped and glared at Sleet, and so did everyone, “what? It’s true isn’t it? You can’t hate me for speaking the truth!”
“Way to ruin the moment,” Korbinian rolled her eyes, “but congratulations for… whatever happened here just now- guess what I saw the vassalhood wasn’t me hallucinating,” she coughed into her hand, “anyhow, I’m not trying to complain or anything but we’re supposed to cook here right?”
“Right,” Laceresta walked forward, “we’re supposed to cook here,” she opened the fridge, “has anyone tasted my home’s cooking before?”
“Aren’t they all spicy?” I let go of a red faced Zath, who’s eyes were in the same state, guess she was crying like me just now, “can you tone it down?”
“That depends,” Laceresta hummed, “how spicy do you like your food?”
In any other girl, I would think that this would be an innuendo and I’d have to start worrying if I’ll suddenly see them wearing a naked apron one morning to "spice things up” but this was Laceresta- she can’t be hinting at that kind of spice obviously, and she was, then she’d tell us because she’s just that blunt.
“A little spark at the tongue sounds good?” Prescine answered for me, “but if you want to make it as spicy as it naturally is then I’m willing to try,” she grinned slyly, “right as long as you also try my culture's food,”
“Uhhhh- what kind?” I asked as Zath started preparing the ingredients- she was further helped by Fafnir who reached out into cupboard and took out a small tray of eggs, oh, so that was what she was looking for.
“Because if it’s vegetables, then I’m willing to try,” hell, I’d even die to taste the fruit cocktails that Exube seems to consider its specialty, even if it's alcohol, “but if you’re cooking fried bugs…”
Prescine turned green, “WHAT?!” I winced, “why would I cook fried bugs for all of you? That’s- that’s downright disgusting!”
“You can never know…” I murmured with a shrug, glad that I wasn’t about to eat bugs.
“How would she even find those here?” Karsten paused, “there aren’t any dead bugs in any of these drawers are there?”
“What? No!” Now it was my turn to raise my voice, “what- you’re all kidding-” I said in suspicion when everyone stared at me as if I would somehow manage to put a bag of those here! “I'd never buy dead bugs!”
“Are you sure?” Laceresta raised her eyebrow as she prepared the ingredients for what she was about to cook, which I'm pretty sure was going to be either curry or those weird roasted foodstuffs, those two dishes are what the Beasmen are so fond of for some reason.
"Uh, yeah?” I replied, "why would I ever buy bugs? They're literally disgusting!”
“Then what do you usually eat?” Sleet said, who herself was making something- a frozen meal? Oh, yeah, dessert she's making dessert for us- neat. Guess we don't have to worry about that later on.
Also, if everyone's going to cook food from their own culture then fine, I'll get them something only I can make.
Now, what kind of food did American culture produce?..
Hm…
I pepped up to buy my thoughts more time, “well if you're all curious-”
“Not really,” Laceresta rebuked while keeping her eyes on the ingredients in front of her, which as expected, were for curry.
“- then I'm going to cook you all something called a-” what do I want to cook? Come to think of it? “A… uhm,” what fast food meal was good enough back in my old world that it would impress these guys? Burgers were a goner, french fries too, as well as a few things from the places that I got “inspired” from.
So what do I….
Ah, got it- “I'll cook you guys waffles!”
They all stared at me dumbly, “what's that?” Prescine was the one curious enough to ask.
“Well-”
I wanted to impress them and this is what I came up with, in retrospect, this may have been a bad idea since I didn’t know what to do…
But I'm confident I can make it delicious and besides, these guys were like, based on Japanese tropes right? That means that they'll like this right? Anime said so…
I think-
I am now regretting that I didn't say the word “sushi” earlier but eh, I also don't know how to make that so it's fineeeee.
“It's a simple meal but basically, I'll uh, make batter…” which needs egg, milk, and stuff like that, I think.
“And then I… put it in a pan and fry it-” which is how you cook waffles, yep. I'm 100% sure. “And then it's cooked!”
“Sounds delicious,” Fafnir replied, “but… can you cook enough for all of us? This feels like a one person meal,”
“Pfft, I have super speed, of course I can?” I waved her off.
“Trust me, I know what I'm doing,” I added as I grabbed my ingredients.
“I… I think we're fine right girls?” Prescine cheered very weakly.
“Fine what? Feeling our heart race because we're scared of being cooked ourselves?” Sleet snarked, she got elbowed by Korbinian, “it's true though,”
“We'll be fineeee,” I waved them off, “you can trust me on that.”
“Uhuh…” Zyra neared me, “is it fine if I work alongside you?”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” I nodded.
Risk of burning the kitchen or not though, I'm glad that everyone got together like this.
