Dinnertime.
"Ahwum, ahm."
Jane shoveled spoonful after spoonful of the murky greenish broth into her mouth with evident relish. Once she'd finished the soup, she picked up her fork and stabbed at a deep-black fish head that was gazing blankly up at the ceiling.
Watching Jane eat Linie's cooking with such obvious delight, Aura leaned sideways toward the silently brooding Nanoda and whispered in her ear.
"Hey — is this actually edible? Jane looks like she's genuinely enjoying it."
Aura still didn't trust Linie's cooking. In the past, she and Nanoda had always made their escape beforehand, and she had no idea whether Linie's culinary skills had improved at all over the years.
"..."
Staring at the fish-head soup in front of her, Nanoda's instincts were screaming at her — this thing was a threat on par with a Great Demon from centuries ago. She said nothing, still weighing her options in silence.
Seeing no reaction from Nanoda, Aura likewise made no move to pick up her knife and fork.
From beside them, Linie's gaze drifted over, her expression caught somewhere between confusion and quiet anticipation.
"Lady Nanoda, Lady Aura — why aren't you eating? I already tested it myself and it came out pretty good, I think. Look, Lady Jane is almost finished."
Jane swallowed the last small half of the fish head whole, finishing every last bit of Linie's dish.
"Mm... full."
When a member of the Demon Race had sufficient Mana, they had no physical need for food. What they called "being full" was simply the sense of satisfaction that came from having something sitting in their stomach.
"Aura — together."
Nanoda decided to take the plunge. She scooped up a spoonful and swallowed.
Sour, faintly bitter — at first there was barely any sensation at all. Then a flavor beyond all description came surging straight up into her nasal cavity.
It was like the sweat-soaked sock of a beautiful girl who'd just finished a summer jog in her sneakers — the fabric gone black at the toe — wrung out and blended into a fruit and vegetable smoothie.
Even the body of a Great Demon from the Mythical Era felt, in that single instant, as though its taste buds had been forcibly awakened.
"So? How is it?"
Aura asked for her verdict. Keeping her face perfectly blank, Nanoda gave her a thumbs-up and spoke in as breezy a tone as she could manage.
Gotcha!
She couldn't suffer through this dark cuisine alone — good things were meant to be shared. Such was Nanoda's reasoning.
Seeing no signs of poisoning, unconsciousness, or frothing at the mouth, Aura's anxiety eased. She steeled herself, scooped up a large spoonful, and shoved it into her mouth.
Almost immediately, her previously composed expression crumpled completely. Her eyes went wide, and she fixed them on Nanoda's faintly smiling face in a death stare.
"You—"
The words never made it out. She pitched forward and slumped face-down onto the dining table, a thin trickle of white foam seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Aura's stomach was, unexpectedly, quite fragile.
"Huh? What's the matter with Lady Aura?"
Linie was bewildered. Lady Nanoda had just complimented her cooking.
"Probably collapsed from sheer excitement — it was so delicious she passed out."
Nanoda set down her spoon and silently mourned for Aura for a few seconds. Compared to her, Jane and Linie's taste buds were simply on another plane of existence entirely.
"Ah — let me help Lady Aura to her room to rest. Since Lady Nanoda thinks my cooking is delicious, you can have everything Lady Aura didn't finish too — we mustn't waste."
With that, Linie took hold of the seemingly unconscious Aura and helped her up.
"That's not — I mean..."
The words reached the tip of her tongue, and she let them die there.
Watching Linie support Aura toward the stairs, Nanoda had a sudden idea.
"Jane — do you think Linie's cooking is good?"
Jane, who had been rocking back and forth in her chair with her feet dangling, tilted her head.
"Mm... it's okay."
"Jane, would you do this for your mother? Be a good girl and eat the rest for me..."
Nanoda slid both portions of fish-head soup across the table.
"Really?"
"Please!"
"Jane is a good girl. She listens to her mother."
After settling Aura in her room, Linie returned to the dining area. By then, both portions of fish-head soup had been scraped utterly clean.
"My — was it really that good?"
"Of course. Now — I'm going to take Jane back to her room. I still have to tell her a bedtime story."
"Mm, alright."
At that moment, Jane let out a sudden, resounding belch.
"?" Linie looked at Jane's visibly distended little belly and tilted her head.
"Children — their digestion is just slower, that's all."
Nanoda laughed, just slightly sheepishly.
Linie nodded without reading too much into it and began clearing the things off the table.
Nanoda brought Jane back to her room and let out a long breath of relief.
She thought: thank goodness she'd been quick-witted about it.
In Aura's room —
Aura lay flat on her back in bed, eyes closed, breathing slow and even, the very picture of serene repose.
A moment later, she abruptly opened her eyes.
She sat up and had a look around. Then she exhaled.
"One more bite and I might have actually been poisoned. Thank goodness I faked it fast enough."
She quietly congratulated herself on Lady Aura's excellent quick thinking.
The next day, inside the Demon Special Zone's training grounds —
The demon soldiers had all gone out to tend the fields today, leaving the place completely empty.
"So... what is it that Lady Nanoda wants to talk to me about?"
Yuna's cheeks were faintly pink. One hand pinched at the hem of her skirt, the other touched her braided pigtail. She looked a little nervous.
Her head was already full of imagination.
Surely Lady Nanoda wasn't going to push her up against a wall and confess her feelings...?
"Yuna — I have something I'd like to ask you."
"Of course. Go ahead."
Nanoda drew a slow breath and began.
"I've been thinking it over, and I believe this is something you really need to know. Do you want to find out about your origins?"
"Huh?" This was a development Yuna had never anticipated.
"...?"
"My origins?"
"That's right. Once I had a lead, I asked Aaron to look into it. We verified the situation. It concerns your parents."
At Nanoda's explanation, Yuna's expression grew serious. This was a subject that mattered deeply to her.
Her father had once told her that he was a court Mage who had fled the capital. By chance, he had rescued a merchant caravan belonging to Gaderia, received the help of Baron Aaron, and had been sheltering in Gaderia ever since.
As for her mother — her father had never said a single word about her. When Yuna was small, she had asked him where her mother had gone. He had only smiled at her with great gentleness and said that she was watching over Yuna and himself from somewhere up above.
It wasn't until Yuna was a little older that she understood. Her mother had most likely already passed away.
Yuna pressed her lips together and met Nanoda's gaze with steady, unflinching eyes.
"Please — tell me."
"Your father was a court Mage. And your mother... in all likelihood, was a princess of the Empire."
"...?!"
"A certain unpleasant individual gave me some information. Yuna — they said that Imperial blood flows in your veins. The blood of the Northern Empire's royal family. I didn't believe it at first, but after Aaron and I investigated and confirmed it, it seems to be true."
Nanoda's tone was laced with a kind of helplessness. She had considered keeping it hidden — but that would have been unfair to Yuna.
With the Empire now thrown into chaos following the loss of its Emperor, if Yuna truly was an imperial princess, the implications for the future could be enormous.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!