🦊 🦊 🦊
THE entire mansion smells delicious. The table is already set, with plenty of salad and bread on standby, ready to welcome our guest whenever she arrives.
“Here, take this.”
“Sure! Mmm… This is my favorite stew!”
The gigantic bowl contains a huge portion of brown stew, filled with copious amounts of vegetables and tons of juicy meat.
It smells so good!
It’s a hearty soup with plenty of meat and goes very well with bread.
Don’t even think about it! You’ll get your share soon enough! I tell myself.
Drooling in anticipation, I carefully cradle the bowl in my arms when I suddenly hear a loud noise from the hallway.
Is Angela here already?
Several seconds later, Ektor escorts Angela into the living room.
“Thanks for inviting me over. Wow! It smells simply divine!”
She just arrived and already she’s drooling. I know how she feels! Seated at the dinner table, she squirms in anticipation of the feast laid out before her. Her cool elegance has been completely replaced with girlish glee. It’s truly adorable.
“Rinny! Give me a hand here!”
“Oh? What do you need?”
I hear Claire yell out Rinny’s name from the kitchen. It sounds as if the main dish is ready to go.
“Hey, you guys! The main dish looks so friggin’ delicious! I gotta have a taste!”
“Holy smokes!”
Rinny bounces out of the kitchen, carrying an entire roast chicken. It’s quite large, definitely not something Claire could carry by herself, but Rinny’s strong enough that he can easily hold it in one hand.
“I stuffed the inside with lots of soft and fluffy pilaf,” Claire explains. “I heard you have a huge appetite, so I hope you’re hungry! I used some herbs to give it a more appetizing smell… I guess I went a little overboard. I feel like I made enough food for an entire battalion!”
The table is packed full of an assortment of dishes. There are three kinds of salad, plenty of bread, brown stew with crackers topped with cheese and ham, fried potatoes, and various kebabs. Plus, we’ve got dessert waiting for us in the fridge. It really does look like a feast! It brings back memories of the joyous festivals in our village.
“This seems like a lot for just the six of us,” Angela remarks.
“I forgot to mention, there are two more coming,” Ektor tells her. “And speaking of which, here they are.”
That’s right! Angela isn’t the only person we invited over for dinner.
“Sorry for running late! Wow! Something smells good!”
“Ugh! I was right in the middle of something…”
Candice bounces in, as lively as ever, dragging her grumbling cousin, Kiefer, behind her. Ektor had used the communication gadget earlier to invite them over. Of course, Kiefer refused at first, but Candice, who’d been eavesdropping, wanted to come so badly, they ended up accepting the invitation after all.
“It’s good to get out of the house sometimes!” Candice says. “Plus, you found out your little gadget works, and now you can talk all about it with Ektor in person!”
“I didn’t need to come all the way over here to do that…” Kiefer whines. “Although the spread looks amazing. I guess I’m kind of glad we came after all. I’m feeling a bit famished for once.”
Wow! Claire’s cooking is so good, it makes even Kiefer forget about work! I hope Angela feels the same way.
I glance over at her to see her eyes practically glued to the food in front of her. I feel bad making her wait any longer. I want her to fill up her plate and her stomach right away! However, we have to wait for everyone to take their seats.
Just as Claire settles down, Ektor opens his mouth to speak. “Before we dig in, I’ve got one thing to say!”
“You’re killing me, Ektor!”
Ektor whistles loudly, getting everyone’s attention, causing Angela who’s been fidgeting in her seat and drooling, to glare at him angrily.
“The reason we invited you over here tonight, Angela, was to extend an invitation to join our guild. Everyone here is already a part of the team.”
“Huh? You mean the Lanakiller guild? I thought it was just the three of you. Since when did you get four new members?” she asks, her eyes shifting anxiously between Ektor and the food on the table.
Ektor offers a quick explanation as to why they need more members, leaving out how he got the four of us on board. It’s clear her mind is full of food, so I doubt she’d remember even if he mentioned it.
She looks so hungry; I feel bad for her.
“So, you just need me to fill some kind of roster, right?”
“To put it bluntly, yes. But we don’t want just anyone on the guild list. We need people we can depend on, with considerable skill, and who are friendly and easy to get along with. We have a reputation to keep, after all.”
A reputation to keep?
His words are like a dagger in my heart.
That’s right. This isn’t just some friend group. This is an advanced-level guild, with members to match, and it’s important to keep that in mind at all times.
“I know joining our guild doesn’t offer much, considering how well you’re doing on our own. I don’t think you’ll see a decrease in your profit margin, however, and you’ll always have a place to stay if you’re interested. Plus…” he trails off while waving both hands over the food spread out on the table before us. “We might not always have extravagant feasts like this, but if you join us, you’ll get to eat Claire’s delicious cooking whenever you want! I don’t think that’s such a bad deal, right? What do you say?”
He really is reeling her in with food! And he’s not even trying to hide it, which makes me feel better! Honestly, this is the best chance they’ve got. It’s the only thing Angela seems to really care about.
Everyone watches her silently, waiting for her reply.
“This was a trap all along, huh?”
“You knew it was a trap when you came.”
Angela peers at Ektor from the corner of her eye, and for a moment, I worry she’s angry. However, she quickly bursts into laughter.
“I won’t make my decision until after I’ve had my fill. I can’t commit to anything without having a taste first.”
“Haha! Fair enough! I’m sure you’ll love it, though!”
Phew! She’s not angry after all.
With Angela promising to give us her answer after the meal is over, we finally dig into Claire’s amazing feast, ready to eat ourselves into a food-induced coma.
Mmm! Everything is just sooo delicious! I’m gonna stuff myself silly!
As we all begin eating, the conversation doesn’t turn to boring stuff like introductions or work, but exciting stuff like what everyone did today or their most interesting or bizarre jobs. Mixed between each tale, all of us shout out compliments to Claire for her marvelous cooking. She gets so flustered each time, and it’s so adorable! She pretends like she doesn’t care, and yet I can tell she’s pleased by the way her ears flick this way and that and her enthusiastically wagging tail!
“You learned how to cook while living at home, huh? You’re amazing, Claire!” Angela says.
“I don’t think it’s all that impressive,” Claire shakes her head. “I just like to do it, so I got better at it. Honestly, you being such a skilled swordswoman is far more impressive to me.”
“I feel the same way you do. I just like swinging a blade, so I got better naturally. I guess that’s simply what happens with anything you truly enjoy doing.”
Cooking and swordsmanship are two entirely different things, and yet it seems they have something in common after all. When you like something enough, you end up doing it all the time, and in turn, naturally get better at it. The better you are, the more you enjoy doing it. It’s a never-ending cycle.
“Don’t forget about me!” Kiefer interjects. “I love making magical gadgets, and so I make them all the time, and in turn, am the master of gadgetry!”
“For someone who crushes on girls all the time, you’re pretty unpopular, Kiefer,” Candice remarks.
“Ouch! Come on, Candice! It’s not that I’m not popular! It’s just that my inventions take up too much of my time!”
I love hearing their back and forth. I get the feeling Kiefer cares more about Candice than he lets on, although I think he’s far more popular than she realizes. He’s funny, he seems considerate of others, and very kind. I’m sure if he actually met someone whose company he enjoyed, he’d quickly sweep them off their feet.
“It’s your awful attitude that makes you so unpopular,” Rinny suddenly barges into their conversation. He chuckles to himself between huge bites of chicken.
“Wow, Rinny! You’re one to talk about awful attitudes,” Kiefer shoots back.
Kiefer has an awful attitude? Really? Granted, he tends to get so lost in his work that he neglects everything else in his life, so maybe he should work on that…
“It’s not awful, just…weird,” Rinny says hesitantly.
“So, I’m a weirdo then? Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because I take it as one!” Kiefer laughs.
“You’re the weirdest weirdo I know.”
I see. It’s not that his attitude is bad, it’s that he’s a bit odd. Still, I’m not sure if calling someone a weirdo is exactly a compliment.
I listen in as everyone chats together happily while enjoying a delicious meal. This is one of my favorite types of moments. I could join in with the conversations, but I prefer listening to everyone instead. I love learning about everyone’s hobbies and interests and the types of things they like. It fills me with joy to see everyone enjoying themselves so much.