D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2138 What is Sleep?

Chapter 2138: Chapter 2138 What is Sleep?

— Kat —

Kat stretched out and left the roof when the sun just started to peak over the horizon. She’d spotted what MIGHT have been a few watchers over the night… or they might not have. Nobody was being obvious about it and it was possible they were either watching their home or just something else. It was a bit relaxing all and all. Kat had mostly just wanted to stay awake… but it had given her time to think over a few new moves to practice with her abilities as well as ponder the nature of her demonic fire and whatnot.

One of those considerations was that her demonic fire, perhaps by intent instead of design, seemed to be more aligned with ’freezing’ then ’cold’. Sure it was ice attuned, but she was able to freeze things a bit more specifically then a ’make things cold’ fire would make you think. Kat wondered if that was something she was doing subconsciously or if it was simply the way of things.

That was her main testing interest, though another was to see if she could transform parts of her body into water, and then freeze them, focusing mostly on the outer shell so she could control the inside and use them as bullets. Using that combination she could make ’real’ finger guns with bullets of ice. It seemed like a neat idea honestly, and was likely going to be the next serious combat technique she tested, even if pondering on the meaning of ice might be better long term.

Oh, there was also Steel’s quick visit. Kat had noticed him approaching the front door and floated down to greet him. Apparently he was just planning to leave a note… but he wanted to stress that there was no rush to enter the poison mist again, and that everyone basically had the day off. Apparently their was an ongoing argument between the king and his advisors on the best way to deal with things.

The King wanted to have people working on suits to send guards in to watch the puddles before more money was spent cleaning things up, some others were angling for just leaving everything until the culprits, while Steel himself was arguing that the cleanup should continue BUT focus on the outer area and slowly ’contract’ the shielded area so that they were at least slowly gaining ground.

Kat thought Steel had a good idea, and so did the king… but looking for the culprit would probably take a long time. Kat didn’t mention her idea aloud but she got the sense Steel knew she supported his idea. Regardless of those worries though it was nice and convenient for everyone that their late night wasn’t going to be too much of a setback. It meant that even though Kat was moving at the crack of dawn, she wasn’t really rushing to make food.

She was also deciding to try something interesting. It took a lot of digging around in the pantry, but hidden away Kat managed to find everything needed to make pancakes! Well maybe. There was a powder that she thought was baking powder and was probably fine… it was the vegetable oil that she happened to be missing. Kat was pretty sure that butter and milk would work as substitutes but it wasn’t the recipe she knew so… how much of them she needed was a bit up in the air.

A few testing batches proved that she needed to be using a lot more milk. She didn’t really have any measuring instruments, at least not accurate ones she knew how to use anyway. In the end, she needed to triple the amount of milk in the mixture and add in a decently sized hunk of butter to get the flavour where she wanted it.

Once that was dialled in, Kat just had to make a whole bunch. The magical heater she was using acted a lot like an induction cooktop keeping the metal pan at a constantly searing heat. Had to be a bit careful not to burn anything but Kat personally preferred her pancakes to be a touch crispy on the outside so she wasn’t shy about keeping the heat high.

While that was being done, Kat was also cutting up the various ingredients she expected to be used as toppings. Plenty of fruits, a few bits of meat and a couple of weirder things like vegetables for people who were crazy. Kat also found some honey and sugar but they didn’t need to be prepared, just placed on the table for anyone who wanted them.

Kat ended up finishing quite the feast… even if most of that feast was pancakes. Nobody else seemed to be up to appreciate them yet though, so she quickly stored them all away in to keep them warm and went to relax on one of the couches until everyone else showed up. Kat’s original plan was just to ponder more on her training options but she quickly found herself drawn into a bit of meditation. Everything seemed quite fine, even the link with Lily showed that her girlfriend was doing well.

Apparently accidentally hurting someone was one thing… but intentionally crippling a man was entirely different and not at all worth worrying about. Kat somewhat agreed, though they were being attacked both times so didn’t exactly consider either circumstance to be a problem. Still, it seemed to show that Lily wasn’t at all worried about it, which Kat decided was the most important thing.

Kat was surprised when she picked up on movement, only to open her eyes to Appoline. An Appoline carrying a stack of paper. “Good morning,” announced Kat, drawing attention to herself.

Appoline stumbled a bit as she took the last stair, surprised at Kat’s greeting but nodded over towards her. Lily was still asleep around Kat’s neck for the moment but that was fine. “I’ve got this for Lily and Tweedle,” explained Appoline.

Kat glanced at the thick stack of paper. “Weren’t you meant to sleep?”

“Yes,” confirmed Appoline.

Kat waited for a follow up comment, perhaps an excuse or at least a bit of reasoning… and nothing. Not a single word. “Right… so… why?” asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, “I was having a hard time getting proper sleep. I’ve been up and down from my room several times for water, snacks, just to kill time. Eventually I decided to be productive… and as such I’ve written out a bunch of notes for Lily and Tweedle going over their attempts at the potion. Most of this is for Lily actually, because I can’t use specific alchemy terms that she’d understand and she had more to learn.

“Tweedle meanwhile, mostly needs to work on her confidence and only minimal refinement in her various techniques.” Appoline shrugged. “This should be a good start for both of them.”

“Do you usually go to such extremes?” asked Kat. “Oh, also do you want to wait for the others or do you want to eat now? I’ve already done breakfast. I thought Hedera would’ve been up already but I think you’re the first…”

“I think she is awake, I believe I heard her talking to someone one my way down?” Kat focused on her hearing in response to Appoline’s comment. Seemed that Hedera was talking with Weaver. The sounds were distorted but she still recognised the voice.

“Oh, yes seems she is,” agreed Kat. “Now the food?”

Appoline shrugged, “I can wait. As I mentioned I’ve been up and down to the kitchen more then once,”

“Yeah I did hear people moving about but I didn’t think it was you every time,” mentioned Kat.

“It might not have been… I believe I made four or five trips?” mumbled Appoline.

“That sounds… close to correct? It was six trips for sure,” Kat added.

“Someone else once or twice then,” Appoline concluded with a shrug. “Regardless, if the food can wait I’m happy to look around. I probably should apply some of that potion to my neck… then again… if I have to be brewing all day… hmm…”

“Actually we’ve got the day off,” Kat explained. “Steel came around to leave a not late at night but we chatted for a bit.”

“Huh… I didn’t hear that during my rest… odd. I’d think that would wake me but… I suppose that’s nice to hear. In that case, I’ll be off applying that potion to my neck. I’ll be fine to eat with it on, but I’ll need to leave it at least half an hour before that so I best get started. I’ll just leave the papers for Lily over there,” Appoline gestured at one of the coffee tables and then made her way back upstairs.

Kat watched the elf go for a few moments before turning her eyes to the damned essay on the bench. *Well I suppose you can’t say she doesn’t care about her students. That looks like a LOT of writing and worse, she doesn’t have anything other than a pen to write it all out with. No keyboard, no typewriter. Pretty sure she doesn’t have magic for it… that’s… a lot of dedication. Though HOW did she manage to get it done when it sounds like she only just started? We finished at like midnight and I think it’s only seven or eight in the morning now…*