Chapter 53: Dinner
After everything was settled, we returned to guard, but this time with help of the villagers. I walk around the village, if something happens I can help right away. After keeping watch for a long time, the night would finally come, but nothing strange had happened yet, or perhaps they would attack at night.
Because it will be night soon, I have to go back to the house first, we will all have dinner, while the others are on guard. Once there, I only saw Karyn and Leila, I didn’t see Shelly and Nylah.
“Where are Shelly and Nylah?” I asked them.
“They’re still on guard, they say, we’ll take turns eating dinner. This is so that if something happens, we can handle it right away.”Leila told me.
“Okay, I see,” I nodded.
“So who will cook? I can cook too if you want,” I said.
“You can cook Lute? How about helping me cook, I want to see how good you are at cooking,” Leila smiled.
“Trust me,” I said as I patted my chest.
“Hmph, it doesn’t taste good at most,” Karyn snorted.
“You’ll see later, how about you. can you cook? You know, if a woman can cook, that’s a man’s ideal woman,” I taunted her.
Karyn’s expression darkened at what I said. She stood up from her seat and pointed her finger at me.
“Of course I can cook, I’ll show you,” Karyn said angrily and walked into the kitchen.
“W-wait Karyn, you can’t do that,” Leila tried to restrain Karyn.
“What do you mean I can’t do it, Leila? Don’t you believe me?” This time Karyn glared at Leila.
Leila was silent, not knowing what to say. She looked at me with an expression like crying inside. Karyn went straight to the kitchen leaving us alone.
“Look at Lute, you just made her do something she’s not good at,” Leila said holding her head in one hand.
“I-is it that bad?” I was dumbfounded.
“That’s really bad, you’ll see later. There was a time Karyn was cooking, we didn’t even eat all day, the food looked weird and tasted awful. But Karyn forced herself to eat food while crying.”
‘What!? Did I just make her cook some weird food now,’ I cried inwardly.
“Anyway, we have to stop it now, or else we won’t be able to eat anything today,” Leila rushed into the kitchen.
I followed behind her, when I got to the kitchen I was dumbfounded. It wasn’t long before Karyn was in the kitchen, but there was already chaos here.
‘She washed meat until it was foamy? How could that happen? Wait, what’s with the violet liquid in that pot? Does she want to make soup? Seriously, how can the soup be bubbly and give off an aura of death,’
“It’s already started, we can’t stop her anymore. Lute!! Let’s also quickly cook now, otherwise, we won’t have any food to eat.”
Leila quickly grabbed the remaining ingredients in the kitchen and started cooking. I followed her and helped her cook. Eventually, we work together to make food with existing ingredients.
“Leila, bring a pot and water here, I’ll cook,”
“Okay,”
“Cut these ingredients, I’ll cut the meat,” I told her.
“Wow Lute, you are reliable, even I haven’t cooked at all and just helped you,” Leila looks happy.
“Of course, I’m used to living alone, so this is nothing,” I said proudly.
….
As long as we were helping each other cook, Karyn’s face was gloomy as she cooked. She didn’t know what she had made, I just chuckled at her mixing all the ingredients into the pot.
After preparing the soup, I made other dishes which are tempura from prawns, omelet rolls, unfortunately, there is no rice here. If there is rice here everything is perfect, maybe I need to visit the human kingdom later, because they have rice as their staple, while for Beastmen their main food is meat.
“Finished,”
It didn’t take long to cook, we finished preparing everything, I breathed a sigh of relief. But when I turned to Karyn, I widened my eyes.
‘W-what is she making, if I eat that, I’m not sure if I’ll still be alive,’
I got goosebumps looking at strange looking food she made, it was as if it was calling me going to the death. But from Karyn’s face, she looked satisfied that she had made all this food. I don’t know what else to say.
“I’ve finished preparing everything, we’ll see, whose food is the best,” Karyn said to me with a smug expression.
“Are you sure you brag about that food?” I looked at her in disbelief.
“Of course, is there a problem?” Karyn looks at me sarcastically, but she ignores it and carries her food into the dining room.
‘Of course it’s a big problem!’
“I now understand Leila, what did you mean earlier,”
“Hah.. let’s take this food to dining room,” Leila sighed and brought the food we made earlier.
….
After preparing all the food, some of the food looked delicious, some looked terrible.
“You try my food first, we’ll see whose food is better,” Karyn snorted.
“Err.. do I have to eat it?” I pointed at this strange and chewy object, maybe it’s meat, I don’t know, what’s this.
“Of course you should try eating it, otherwise you won’t know taste,” Karyn looked at me displeased.
Swallowing my saliva, I stabbed the thing with a fork, it tasted so chewy like pudding. Leila looked at me worriedly as I was about to put it in my mouth. Putting the food in my mouth and swallowing it, I felt at a glance, someone was calling me in the middle of a distant lake.
I realize with all these flashes, I’ve felt it before. This flash was very similar to the first time I cooked food, it tasted awful, but this time it was even worse. Spicy, sour, bitter and various flavors that I don’t understand make my tongue go numb.
“Cough, cough, what kind of food are you making, this is terrible,” My body shivered, remembering taste of the food.
“What are you saying? How my food tasted terrible.”
Karyn pouted and tried to eat her homemade food. Instantly her face immediately changed as she ate her own food, she held her mouth trying to swallow it whole.
“Th-it’s delicious, you might not be able to taste it properly,” She said, although the corners of her lips had a strangely colored liquid.
Karyn ate her own food voraciously, the corners of her eyes showing a hint of tears there, as if she was about to cry. I was taken aback by her crazy actions, and thought if she was okay?
‘Really, how childish it is,’
Sighing, I put the soup I made with Leila in a bowl and gave it to Karyn.
“Here eat, you’d better eat soup we made than eat that weird thing,”
Karyn took it hesitantly, she also didn’t want to eat the food she made earlier, because it tasted awful. But since she didn’t want to taste the food anymore, she accepted it.
The moment she put soup into her mouth, at that instant, her eyes filled with tears, and tears fell from corners of her eyes.
“Wuu…This is delicious, Hiks.. this is good..Hiks..this is delicious, this is delicious,”
Karyn was sobbing at that very moment, she was eating soup while crying which made her look cute. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry seeing this, she’s like someone who finally has hope to live at the end of her life.
‘Hah.. this is the second time I see a girl feeling sad while eating my cooking,’