A faint fragrance of tea drifted through the room.
With practiced ease, Mana Nakiri brewed tea for Su Wan and Leonora Nakiri, then poured each cup in turn. She sat upright the entire time, every motion refined and composed, carrying all the grace of a great family's heir.
"Big Sis Su Wan, have you and Brother Fang Zheng really made up your minds? Little Fang Ye is only three months old. If you leave now, won't that be bad for his growth...?"
Watching Fang Ye resist playing with Alice Nakiri with all his might, only to get pestered until he had no choice but to throw a toy ball for her to chase like a puppy, Leonora turned and asked Su Wan the question.
"The organization gave us more than half a year of maternity leave. Now that little Fang Ye has been born, that leave is just about over. It really would be shameless to keep freeloading here any longer.
"As for taking Fang Ye with us, we've thought about that too. But the place we're going is no place for a child. If we bring him along, it'll be far too easy for him to end up in danger.
"And staying here ourselves may not be safe either. Over the years, too many people have wanted us dead.
"Hiding away for a short while might be fine, but if we remain absent from the organization for too long, sooner or later someone with ulterior motives will notice. Then they'll follow the trail back here.
"After thinking it over from every angle, the best choice right now is to leave Fang Ye here while we go. So... can I ask you to help look after him?"
As she spoke those last words, Su Wan suddenly placed both hands at her sides, bent forward, and gave the two women a deep bow to express the sincerity of her plea.
"Please, raise your head."
Both Mana Nakiri and Leonora Nakiri froze for a moment at Su Wan's sudden gesture. Then they each reached out, one from either side, supported her by the shoulders, and helped her back up.
"You and your husband are the benefactors of the Nakiri family. If the two of you hadn't stepped in back then, the Nakiri family might already have ceased to exist.
"So please don't say 'ask.' We'll treat little Fang Ye as one of our own and take good care of him."
Mana spoke with solemn sincerity.
Quite a few things had happened three years ago. If Fang Zheng and Su Wan had not rushed over to help, the Nakiri family probably would have long since become a mere hound of the dark culinary world.
And if it had come to that, the Nakiri family would no longer have been the Nakiri family. So saying that Fang Zheng and Su Wan had saved them was no exaggeration whatsoever.
"That was business. This is personal. No matter what, I still have to thank you."
"Now you're just being formal. But Fang Ye is so young—if you leave him all of a sudden, he may not be able to take it. We still need to think of some kind of compromise."
Leonora frowned slightly. She could understand why Su Wan and Fang Zheng wanted to leave, but there was no doubt this would affect the child's development.
"We've thought about that too. Zheng's preparing a farewell gift for little Fang Ye right now—something to take our place and accompany him through childhood."
If Leonora could think of it, there was no way Su Wan and Fang Zheng wouldn't have considered it already. They had planned everything long ago, and more than half of those preparations were already complete.
"Now that you mention it, I really haven't seen him for half a month. What kind of gift takes that much time to prepare?"
Thinking of how she had not seen Fang Zheng at all recently, Leonora's voice filled with curiosity. What kind of gift could replace a child's parents? Did something like that even exist?
"I haven't seen Father in quite a while either."
Mana spoke up as well, her brows drawing together slightly. Senzaemon Nakiri was usually busy, yes, but not so busy that he would vanish for half a month without showing himself once.
Now that this had happened so suddenly, she could vaguely smell that something unusual was going on.
"They went to the Secret-Realm Gate in the mountain behind Totsuki. Judging by the time, they should be back soon."
Looking at the curiosity on the two women's faces, Su Wan finally revealed where Fang Zheng and Senzaemon Nakiri had gone. They had not told anyone else about it.
"The Gourmet Secret-Realm Gate in the back mountain?!"
Leonora gasped, disbelief written all over her face.
"With Brother Fang Zheng's strength and Father's, there is indeed a very good chance they can bring back what they want from beyond the gate... but isn't that still far too dangerous...?"
Compared to Leonora, Mana appeared much calmer, though the slight trembling of the hand hidden beneath her sleeve made it clear that she, too, was far from composed.
And yet, if there was anyone present whose mind was truly in turmoil, it was Fang Ye.
On the surface, he was still playing with Alice, but in truth, he was listening with complete concentration, taking in every word the adults said.
Though it had only been a brief exchange, it revealed an enormous amount of information.
The organization. The Gourmet Secret-Realm Gate. A wish-granting treasure.
Every piece of it told him that this was no ordinary world—at the very least, not the purely food-centered world of the original story.
Beyond that, the identities of his bargain-bin parents seemed far from as simple as they appeared. Otherwise, there was no way they would choose to leave when their child was only three months old.
Because he retained the memories of his previous life, and was fundamentally an adult soul in a baby's body, Fang Ye did not have many feelings about Su Wan and Fang Zheng leaving, nor did he feel sad.
What he needed to do now was grow stronger as quickly as possible. Only then could he secure a place for himself in this unknown world.
"The Nakiri clan's clothes-bursting curse exists because one of our ancestors failed inside the Secret-Realm Gate. In the end, the disaster spread to the entire family—even outsiders who marry in and take our surname are affected."
The moment Mana finished saying that, silence fell over the room.
Although they believed that with Fang Zheng and Senzaemon Nakiri's strength, obtaining what they sought inside the gate and returning safely should not be too difficult, until the dust settled, they could not help but remain tense.
"Ah, enough of this. If we keep talking, the atmosphere's going to get heavier and heavier. Right now, all we can do is trust them. That's enough."
Seeing how solemn the mood had become, Su Wan clapped her hands and brought the subject to an end.
As she spoke, she reached out, picked up a cream puff from the table, and popped the whole thing into her mouth. The crisp shell gave way to rich cream that melted over her tongue, bringing a wave of sweet, luscious flavor.
The next instant, warm tea followed, its faint tannic bitterness and lingering fragrance gently washing away the dense sweetness.
"After eating a cream puff and then drinking tea, the tea fragrance lifts the cream to another level, while the cream's sweetness sets off the depth of the tea... the flavors just keep expanding in your mouth..."
Su Wan closed her eyes as she spoke, her face full of blissful enjoyment.
"That feels a little... mismatched."
Mana Nakiri deadpanned without hesitation.
"What do you know? This is called East-meets-West."
Hearing Mana's comment, Su Wan couldn't help rolling her eyes at her. Their back-and-forth lightened the atmosphere, easing away some of the tension and replacing it with something more relaxed.
"When are you planning to leave?"
"This week, probably."
After a brief spell of laughter and chatter, Mana suddenly spoke again, her voice low. Clearly, she could not truly bring herself to act as though she didn't care.
Over the past half year or more, from sharing a hospital room during pregnancy, to giving birth together, to now, she and Su Wan had become extremely close friends.
For Mana Nakiri, who had always been alone since childhood, this friendship was precious beyond measure. If circumstances did not force it, she genuinely did not want Su Wan to leave.
"Then let's go out for a while over the next few days. We can leave the children to the servants—good timing for them to get used to what it feels like without their mothers around."
The words were admittedly a little irresponsible, but Mana felt that sometimes people still had to live for themselves, if only once.
"Several days is a bit much. Going out for one day, I could accept that. I've been in Tokyo this long and still haven't really looked around nearby."
Su Wan could see what Mana was thinking and understood that her friend simply could not bear to part with her, so she answered in a gentle voice.
"I'll take you. I don't go shopping often, but I do know a few good places..."
"It's a deal."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 100)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 100)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter89)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter86)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter63)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter75)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 53
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 57
From Junkman to Wasteland 35
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 26
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 27
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