Chapter 800: Lunchtime [Bonus - ]

Chapter 800: Lunchtime [Bonus Chapter]

The warm breeze sweeping across the glass-smooth crater carried away the last tang of ozone and crushed leaves, and the freshly flattened stone went remarkably quiet.

Floating in the air in front of Aki, the golden Lord Leaderboard threw a warm amber glow across her wide eyes.

Her fingers were still hanging in midair, trembling a little, as she leaned closer to read the glowing lines that had rearranged themselves after the nest was wiped out.

[Rank 5: Aki’s Wonderland — Lady Aki]

[Territory Score: 2,900 Points]

"Rank five..." Aki whispered as she blinked.

She rubbed her eyes with both armored fists, which hurt, and looked again... It still said five.

"Rank five... From rank fourteen. We jumped nine whole ranks from one nest."

Then it hit her all at once.

"KYAAAAAAAH!"

Aki’s scream of pure joy rang out across the whole flattened crater and sent a flock of birds bursting out of the trees.

She spun around, grabbed the closest person she could reach, which happened to be Ther’Abella, and started jumping up and down with her in a circle.

"RANK FIVE! THER’ABELLA, WE’RE RANK FIVE! WE’RE IN THE TOP FIVE!"

"My Lady... my Lady, please—" Ther’Abella’s head bobbed back and forth like a rag doll’s as Aki shook her by the shoulders, flecks of dried mud flying off her hair with every bounce. "My Lady, my ribs—!"

Aki let go of her so suddenly that Ther’Abella sat down hard on the stone, and spun around to Silas with her eyes blazing like two little suns.

THUMP!

Ther’Abella stayed sitting there, swaying slightly, with her eyes pointed in two slightly different directions.

"I see three of you," She told the nearest archer. "Good work today..."

"There’s only one of me, ma’am," the archer said.

"Then why are you all talking at once...?"

"Silas, look at this!" Aki beamed, jabbing an armored finger at the board. "Look how close it is! Second place only has a little over five thousand points! One more nest like that... just one more, and we’ll be in the Top 2! We could get the second spot before the sun goes down!"

Standing at the edge of the flattened stone with his hands resting on his belt, Silas gave her a firm encouraging thumbs-up, his dark blue eyes crinkling with warm amusement.

"Well then," Silas grinned, "good thing we’ve got one more nest marked on that map. The day’s still young, Aki..."

Aki’s lips burst into a bright triumphant smile, and she opened her mouth to declare that they were marching to the second nest right this second...

GRRRRRRROOOOOWL!

A loud hollow completely unroyal rumble echoed out from under Aki’s breastplate and rolled across the quiet crater like distant thunder and Aki froze.

A brilliant wave of crimson flooded across her cheeks, down her neck and up into the tips of her ears.

Her hands flew down and pressed flat against the front of her armor in a desperate attempt to smother the rebellion happening in her stomach.

GRRRRRRRRUMBLE!

...It got louder.

Silas chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, arching a knowing eyebrow at her.

"Sounds like your mana’s fully charged, but your stomach’s running on empty," Silas teased, stepping closer. "How about we take a break and get some lunch into that royal belly before we go charging into another pit full of roots?"

Aki dropped her eyes to the stone and scuffed it with the toe of her boot in sudden deep embarrassment.

"W-well..." Aki stammered, fidgeting with the strap of her bracer. "The thing is, Silas... we didn’t actually pack any lunch. We were so busy checking the weapons and the shield straps this morning that... um... nobody packed anything."

Behind her, the Captain of Aki’s original girls stepped forward with an apologetic wince.

"My Lady’s telling the truth, Lord Silas," the Captain admitted, rubbing the back of her neck. "We didn’t pack anything either... Our packs only have water skins and whetstones in them."

Elowynn walked up from the side, wiping a smudge of soot off her cheek, and leaned toward Silas with a sheepish lopsided smirk.

"Don’t look at me either, handsome," Elowynn sighed, flicking her red braid back over her shoulder. "If I try to make food, the bread comes out harder than a cannonball and the meat tastes like a chimney... Cooking’s definitely not one of my talents."

A chorus of sheepish mumbles and awkward throat-clearing rippled through the archers and spear girls.

The truth was simple... Out of every single girl in Aki’s Wonderland, not one of them could cook.

Aki let out a long tragic sigh, her shoulders slumping as her stomach gave another faint mournful whine.

"I should’ve prayed harder at the altar," Aki mumbled, her lips forming a deep pout. "Five amazing dwarves and five amazing Shieldmaidens... and not a single cook out of all ten of them. If we want to eat, we’ll have to share the rations again."

Her face twisted into a look of pure horrified disgust at the very thought.

’Ugh, those awful gray bars...’ Aki thought, her tongue practically curling up in her mouth at the memory. ’They taste like wet chalk mixed with gravel, and they sit in your stomach like rocks for the whole day... I really need to buy good food next time. Pre-made food, maybe... anything that doesn’t taste like dirt and sadness...’

Silas threw his head back and laughed, the deep rich sound rolling across the flattened clearing.

"Good thing you’ve got Blessed Land backing you up, then," Silas said with a confident smirk. "Did you really think I’d let my favorite Princess march through the wilds on an empty stomach, or worse, eat chalk? I packed plenty of lunch from our side before we came through the runes. And actually..."

He turned and pointed back toward the mossy boulder where Solenne and Kaelia had been sitting.

"...there’s a very good reason I brought Kaelia along today."

Every eye on the ridge snapped toward the boulder.

Sitting neatly on the flat rock with her apron a little rumpled and her small hands folded in her lap, Kaelia blinked in sudden startled alarm.

A dusting of flour still clung to the tip of her cute little nose, which made her look completely out of place among all the swords, shields and craters.

Beside her, Solenne gave her an encouraging little nudge with one of her tails.

"Kaelia isn’t just here to see the sights," Silas announced, his voice carrying clearly across all of Aki’s girls. "She’s Blessed Land’s S-Rank Chef and after we’re done, she’s going to teach any of your girls who want to learn how to actually cook, so you never have to choke down chalk ever again."

Every single one of Aki’s girls froze.

Aki, Elowynn, Ther’Abella, the Captain, the archers, the spear girls and even the five new Shieldmaidens turned their heads at the exact same time and stared at the petite black-haired chef with wide unblinking eyes.

To a group of girls who’d survived on porridge, dry jerky and chalky ration bars for a while, the words "S-Rank Chef" sounded holier than the name of a goddess...

Kaelia squirmed under the weight of dozens of wide hungry stares.

A fiery blush exploded across her cheeks and ran all the way up to the rims of her ears, and she shrank against Solenne’s side, nervously pleating the hem of her apron.

"A-ah... um..." Kaelia stammered, her voice tiny and sweet. "I-I’d be happy to show you some of the basics... I-if you want to learn, that is..."

The silence broke instantly.

"A COOK!" one of the young archers screamed, happy tears springing into her eyes. "WE HAVE A COOK!"

"Thank the heavens!" the Captain hollered, throwing both hands up toward the sky.

A wild ecstatic cheer tore through Aki’s ranks.

The spear girls raised their spears, the archers jumped up and down, and the five new Shieldmaidens pounded their fists against their breastplates.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Before Kaelia could even catch her breath, Aki, Elowynn and half of Aki’s girls surged forward to the foot of the boulder.

Together, in one desperate grateful motion, the whole front line dropped to their knees and bowed low in front of the little chef with their hands pressed flat on the stone.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

"Kaelia!" Aki cried, looking up from her bow with shining worshipful eyes. "Please! Teach us your ways! Save our tongues from the gray bars... We’ll scrub every pot in the kitchen if you just show us how to make soup that doesn’t taste like river mud!"

Lupina dropped to her knees beside them for no reason at all except that everyone else was doing it, and her tail wagged so hard it slapped the archer next to her in the face.

THWAP!

"Please, Kaelia!" Elowynn begged, bowing with her palms up. "Teach me how to cook meat without setting the whole spit on fire! I’ll carry your spice jars anywhere you want...!"

Kaelia gasped and waved her small hands frantically in front of her bright red face, completely overwhelmed by the sight of armed warriors and a princess bowing at her slippers.

"P-please, everyone, get up!" Kaelia squeaked in total panic, her voice jumping an octave. "You don’t have to bow! It’s just cooking! Anyone can learn if they pay attention to the heat! Please get up, you’re making me so embarrassed!"

Silas watched the whole thing with his hand on his hip, shaking his head with an amused affectionate grin.

"Alright, alright, at ease before you give our chef a heart attack," Silas laughed, clapping his hands together with a sharp crack that cut through the worshipful racket. "If you want the lessons, you’ve got to eat the food first. Let’s get this set up..."

He reached into his Inventory.

VWOOMP!

With a series of soft rustling thuds, six big woven straw mats appeared on the smooth stone and rolled themselves out to cover thirty paces of rock in clean comfortable seating.

Lupina and Rowenna stepped in right away to help, pinning the corners down with smooth stones so the breeze wouldn’t flip them.

Lupina’s ears were standing straight up, and her tail was thumping against her thighs as she sniffed the air, because she knew exactly what was still sitting in Silas’s Inventory.

"Water girls, front and center!" the Captain called briskly.

A slender brown-haired girl in light blue cloth stepped forward from the back.

She was one of Aki’s mages... She raised both hands over the middle of the mats, and her mana swirled into a cool blue spiral that smelled of fresh rain.

SPLASSSH!

A ball of crystal-clear water formed between her palms and split into dozens of gentle spinning streams that swept over the hands and faces of every girl there, washing away the mud, the sulfur dust and the green sap in seconds.

The water gathered off the edge of the stone and soaked harmlessly into the cracks, leaving everyone clean and fresh and smelling like mountain mist.

Ther’Abella got an extra stream straight to the face.

SPLOOSH!

She stood there dripping, with her eyes shut and water running off the tip of her nose, while the water mage covered her mouth and hid a small chuckle.

"Oops... Sorry Ma’am."

The water mage’s friends carefully didn’t look at her though their shoulders were shaking.

"Now for the main event," Silas smiled.

He raised his right hand over the middle of the mats.

POP! POP! POP!

One after another, the food Kaelia had made that morning came out of his Inventory.

First came the twelve big brass flasks, their polished sides gleaming in the scattered sunlight. The moment Silas gave the valve on the first one a quarter turn...

HISSSSS!

A thick billowing plume of white steam rolled out into the clearing, carrying a smell so impossibly savory that every conversation on the ridge died instantly.

It smelled like rich roasted marrow bones simmered for hours over slow coals, with crushed wild garlic, sweet leeks, soft root vegetables and a splash of honey wine.

It was so thick and heavy and mouthwatering that several of the archers swallowed out loud, their eyes glazing over like they’d been hypnotized.

Next came the eight heavy wooden crates... Silas popped the lids open one by one to show what was inside.

Stacks of fresh bread were piled inside, their golden-brown crusts glistening with melted butter and sprinkled with coarse salt, still hot to the touch.

Beside them lay thick juicy slabs of smoked boar, shining with a dark sticky glaze of spiced plum and juniper, the tender pink meat falling apart under its own weight.

Tucked in around the edges were jars of sweet chilled blackberry preserves, pots of whipped herb butter that smelled of thyme, and bowls of crisp pickled peppers to cut through all the richness.

Within minutes, all of them were sitting in a wide noisy circle across the mats, staring down at the huge steaming spread with wide reverent eyes.

Wooden bowls and pewter spoons got passed from hand to hand, clinking cheerfully against the stone.

"Dig in, girls," Silas called, settling down cross-legged at the head of the main mat. "There’s enough for three helpings each."

The clearing turned into glorious chaos.