______________________________________________
Outskirts of Adventurer Town Siel, Training Camp (Kyle POV)
______________________________________________
A breath of fresh air entered my lungs as I took in the beautiful scenery surrounding me while stretching my arms a bit. Spread out in front of me was a rocky clearing with a gentle waterfall, which emptied into a small, tranquil lake at the base. The faint breeze blowing by ruffled my hair and clothes a bit while bright sunshine sparkled off the soft ripples on the surface of the crystal clear lake, completing the serene atmosphere of the rocky clearing. Although, I will admit the peacefulness was slightly ruined by the sight of Regnis and Sophie desperately running back and forth across the clearing while covered in sweat…
Ahem. Well anyway, a few hours ago we arrived in the Adventurer Town of Siel, a small town to the south of the capital. I remember staying there for a night when Aria and I were traveling to the capital from Delhurst, and while the town itself was actually quite ordinary, one of the mountains nearby was the perfect setting for our training camp. There was water here, there was a large clearing nearby with plenty of room, and it was far enough out of the way that we probably wouldn't be disturbed.
And anyway, if we're talking about a training camp, it has to be on a mountain, doesn't it? It's almost a natural law of the universe at this point that training on a mountain increases the effectiveness of the training, especially for Regnis and Sophie, who have both had contact with main characters like Halbert and Raven. Some plot armor has probably rubbed off on them already and I've even assembled all the necessary training arc buffs for them. They've been in contact with two main characters, they're training in the mountains, and I guess I count as an old master, right? Well, anyway, I'm even helping them cheat a bit, so I'm fully expecting that somehow they'll defy every single expectation I have of them and learn some overpowered forbidden techniques through sheer willpower or something by the end of their training montages.
I smiled and nodded to myself in anticipation before turning around to complete the aforementioned cheating device for Regnis and Sophie. Three small tents surrounded a fire pit and our backpacks were laid out on the side next to a few bags of supplies I bought in Siel, however, in front of me was something that seemed out of place for our quaint little camp. At my feet was a pool of warm water which I dug out and filled using alchemy earlier. It looked like just a small hot spring with nothing too special about it, but the key to its specialness was the blue, palm-sized alchemy stone I held in my hand. It was engraved with a series of complex alchemy circles, and a faint, hazy glow surrounded it as I held it in my hand.
The alchemy stone was something I prepared yesterday for the training camp. Since today was the first day of training, I thought I would keep it simple, and just told Regnis and Sophie to just run back and forth across the clearing 100 times without body strengthening magic so they could improve their base physical strength. You see, the way body strengthening magic works is that it's like multiplying your original strength and speed, so the higher your base stats are, the stronger and faster you'll be with body strengthening magic. For example, if your body strengthening magic was at the level where it doubled everything and your base stats were at 10, then your body strengthening magic would raise them to 20, but if your base stats were at 15, the same level of body strengthening magic would raise them to 30 instead.
Unfortunately, I can't teach them how to use a higher level of body strengthening magic since I could never use it myself in the first place, and as for imbuing their bodies with a natural law like I did… Well, let's just say even if they were at the level where they could manipulate natural laws, they probably wouldn't be able to endure the insane amount of pain from the process so our best option right now is to do some physical training and raise their base stats to increase the effectiveness of their body strengthening magic. However, the problem is that eventually their bodies will give out from the constant physical strain and exhaustion, right? So that's where this cheating device comes into play.
You see, back when I had just been summoned to Aias, I used to do a lot of physical training with Kazuki since swordsmanship was my main method of fighting. But thanks to being a manaless, I usually had to train at least twice as hard as him to even have a chance of keeping up and as a result, I was no stranger to running out of stamina, passing out in the middle of training, and waking up the next day with crippling muscle pain from pushing my body to its physical limit. So in order to try and fix that problem, I did some research into alchemy circles that were related to healing. Eventually, I managed to find an alchemy circle, Revitalization, which relieved the target of all physical fatigue and restored them to a normal state, but unfortunately, just like healing magic, it also sapped the target of their vitality. Revitalization was basically the equivalent of borrowing energy from your future self, which was why it wasn't used often except for urgent situations where your life was on the line. However, it was basically my only option if I wanted to even try and keep up with Kazuki's insane rate of growth. And well, although it was kind of expected that his strength would skyrocket compared to mine with him being the chosen hero and all that, my pride, or I guess I should say my pettiness, wouldn't let me just sit back and watch him run so far ahead of me...
So I got to work, and after a few months of research and experimentation, I finally managed to modify it into a new alchemy circle which could use vitality from sources other than the person being targeted, and with a few other alchemy circles to help supplement its effects, it could even affect multiple targets through the use of a medium like, for example, a small pool of water. Unfortunately, I still had to find a source of vitality other than me to power it and since most external sources of vitality were extremely rare and expensive, running it was basically equivalent to burning money, but luckily, abusi-, ahem, utilizing my authority as an ally of the hero let me 'convince' the Church of Light to help me cover those expenses.
I named the new alchemy circle[Sanctuary of Revitalization], which I know is a pretty unoriginal name, but you know, a few months of constant research kind of wears out your creativity...
Anyway, moving on, normally I would've needed to spend an astronomical amount of money to get enough objects with vitality stored in them to run this thing constantly, but wouldn't you know it, turns out that we have someone here who coincidentally has an infinite amount of vitality, me. And the stone's already starting to absorb some of my vitality from me just holding it, so if I activate it and let it absorb a ton, it should keep the thing running for a while. Hopefully, at least enough to help Regnis and Sophie get through the physical training I have planned for them. Well, there are also a few small side effects like having to eat a lot more to keep up with the amount of energy being used, but I turned out just fine after using it constantly for almost two years, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? And anyway, I brought my cooking utensils for a reason.
What? Is it ethical to help them cheat like this? Well, trust me, if my experience with Kazuki was any indication, then they'll need all the help they can get to even stand a chance against a main character like Halbert. In fact, I'm sure he's off somewhere right now discovering some hidden bloodline ability or mastering a secret skill that he found on the side of the road one day. There's no way they, Regnis especially, will be able to catch up to Halbert without some sort of boost. Besides, all I'm doing is relieving them of all their physical exhaustion, their mental exhaustion I can't do anything about, so it's really up to how strong their wills are to see if they truly can complete all this training I have planned. Just think of this as… accelerating their growth rate a bit.
"[Sanctuary of Revitalization], continuous cast, activate." (Kyle)
The moment I activated it, an intense blue glow burst outward from the stone and I felt it violently absorb as much of my vitality as it could before I dropped it into the pool. At first, the glow pierced through the water too, but after a second, the alchemy stone sunk to the bottom and the glow slowly dissipated as the water finally calmed again.
For a moment, I felt slightly lightheaded as I stood there staring at the small pool, but after sitting down on a nearby rock and taking a few deep breaths, the lightheadedness disappeared and I was back to normal. The sight of Regnis and Sophie running back and forth filled my field of vision again as I let out a sigh before quietly talking to myself.
"Well, it's all up to you two now... Honestly, I didn't think both of you would last this long, but it looks like I've underestimated you two. You're both keeping up, so give it all you've got and show me what you're made of." (Kyle)
The edges of my mouth couldn't help but curve upwards into a smile as I watched them try their hardest to continue running, and for the faintest of moments, I really believed that they would complete the first task of my hellish training schedule with ease.
Then, Sophie tripped and fell over.
Ah.
Regnis stopped running and started to slowly walk over to see if Sophie was ok, but after he made it about halfway there, his legs gave out from exhaustion and he fell over and collapsed himself.
I sat there at a loss for words for a moment before getting up and walking over to the middle of the clearing to go help them.
"... Well… On the bright side, at least they lasted until I finished setting up everything, right?..." (Kyle)
______________________________________________
Royal Academy, Headmistress' Office (Mari POV)
______________________________________________
The sound of pages being flipped echoed through the room for a moment before being drowned out by my voice as I called out to Zane.
"Zane, are you finished with the academy seal? Also, how much longer are you going to take with the approval forms for those budget requests? They were supposed to be done as soon as possible!" (Mari)
"E-Eh? Wait, didn't I leave the seal on your desk earlier? And I'm going as fast as I can with the approval forms!" (Zane)
I raised my head a bit to stare past my desk. Zane was sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of papers. He scrambled around looking for the academy seal in a panic before I stopped writing for a moment and let out a sigh.
"How am I supposed to get anything done if you're going to take this long with just some simple approval forms?" (Mari)
"How am I supposed to go any faster!? There's way too many! I'm only about halfway through them all, and I still have to double-check all the math afterward! Give me another hour at least!" (Zane)
Zane cried out in indignation as I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples while mentally rescheduling everything I needed to do after taking Zane's speed at filling out paperwork into account.
"Well, hurry up then. I don't have all day to teach you magic, you know." (Mari)
"What kind of teaching is this!? I'm just helping you do your work! All you've done so far in terms of actually teaching me magic was tell me how to cast that first circle wind spell yesterday!" (Zane)
"Well, why do you think we're rushing to finish everything? It's so I can clear up next week to teach you full-time. What? Did you think I would just drop everything and immediately start to train you all day just because you came in and asked? I have things to do too, so the longer you take, the less time I'll actually have to train you afterward. Also, that first circle wind spell I taught you has a name! It's called[Zephyr Gyre], and it's my own original spell, an evolving spell with infinite potential! You're lucky I even showed you how to cast it in the first place, and the fact that you can't push it past a first circle spell means that your skill at controlling mana is terrible!" (Mari)
"Well, where am I supposed to find the time to even practice it if you're making me do all this paperwork? I have to sleep too, you know!" (Zane)
Zane continued to rummage through the piles of papers around him as I slumped over on my desk before letting out a tired groan.
"Ugh… Well, this wouldn't be a problem if you just finished everything I gave you on time like Ky did. If he were here, he would've finished the approval forms, reviewed the entire budget, and made me a cup of tea by now…" (Mari)
"Well, I'm not Ky! Besides if he would've finished everything faster, then why didn't you get him to help you instead?" (Zane)
"I would've if I could, but he ran off yesterday with Regnis and Sophie for a training camp or something." (Mari)
I pouted after grumbling about Ky's absence for a moment, but surprisingly, what answered my grumbling wasn't another remark from Zane like I expected. Instead, the sound of papers fluttering slowly died down and I looked over to see that Zane had stopped rummaging through the piles of papers around him. He had a serious look on his face as he stared at his own empty hand in front of him while quietly mumbling to himself.
"... so he's with Ky…" (Zane)
"Hey, stop slacking off and get back to work." (Mari)
I called out to Zane again, but he just pushed around a few piles of papers, pulled out the academy seal, and tossed it over to me while still staring at his open hand in silence. I immediately sat back up and caught it before yelling at him for throwing it over so suddenly, but the moment I said a word, Zane cut me off with a quiet resolve in his voice.
"Oi-" (Mari)
"You said[Zephyr Gyre]was an evolving spell, right?..." (Zane)
I sat there for a moment before I answered Zane with a confused look on my face.
"What?" (Mari)
"Regnis is training with Ky, right? And Halbert is probably with his master right now. Those two are already charging straight ahead, so how am I going to catch up to them like this?" (Zane)
His open hand tightened into a fist for a moment before he turned to me and raised three fingers.
"Three days. I'll raise[Zephyr Gyre]to the second, no, the third circle within three days! And I'll finish the approval forms right now too! Just give me half an hour! Now come on, let's finish this before we waste any more time!" (Zane)`
Zane began to sort through the approval forms again with a burning determination in his eyes as I facepalmed.
There's no way he'll be able to make it to the third circle in three days. Maybe the second circle if he's lucky, but he would need a miracle to make it to the third circle! If I say anything though, he'll probably lose all his motivation to keep working!
A moment passed before I slumped over on my desk again with an exhausted sigh.
Reina, where are you? I miss you already!
______________________________________________
The Goddess of Love's Divine Domain, Eliza's House (Reina POV)
______________________________________________
"Lady Eliza, I finished cleaning the house." (Reina)
A light sigh of relief left my mouth as I walked over to the sofa where Lady Eliza was lying down and reading a book. She flipped to the next page before turning away from her book to look at me.
"Oh, you did?" (Eliza)
A moment passed by as Lady Eliza slowly sat up before glancing around the living room.
"Alright, looks clean to me. Nice job, Reina." (Eliza)
"Thank you, Lady Eliza, but… what do I do now?" (Reina)
"Hmm. Well, Olivia should be back with Sera soon, so I guess just take a break for now. After all, it's probably better if you rest for a bit before learning magic from Sera." (Eliza)
"Um… I know I asked this before already, but are you sure it's ok to have her holiness come over to teach me magic?... I mean, she's a Goddess, isn't she? I feel like I'm wasting her time asking her to come over and teach me magic…" (Reina)
I fiddled around with my fingers nervously as Lady Eliza just slumped back on the sofa before reassuring me.
"Trust me, it'll be fine. Despite the way she acts, Sera loves slacking off, so there's no way she'll give up the chance to come over and cut work for two weeks to teach you magic. Besides, what are you scared of? She might be a Goddess, but you're the one and only Magical Girl of Love, aren't you? So don't worry, it's not like she'll bite or anything." (Eliza)
Lady Eliza let out a chuckle before starting to read her book again as I pulled my fist close to my chest and closed my eyes.
Anxiety and fear, those were the two emotions that swirled around in my heart knowing that I was about to meet another Goddess, but despite my unease, I tightened my grip on the broom in my hand.
Lady Eliza's right. I'm the one and only Magical Girl of Love… and I need to get stronger. Strong enough to protect the people important to me!
I opened my eyes again, and this time, they shone with radiant determination as I nodded to Lady Eliza.
"Ok." (Reina)
I walked over to the closet to put the broom back before making my way over to the kitchen to take a small break and prepare myself.
***
"Come on, Reina. You can do this..." (Reina)
I hugged my staff a little tighter as I whispered to myself while Lady Eliza and I waited at the empty ritual grounds in the backyard for Lady Olivia to return. A light breeze blew by the picturesque scene, making my hair flutter for a moment before suddenly, a magic circle formed on the floor in front of us.
Here she comes!
A blindingly bright light shone outwards from the magic circle as I held my arm up to shield my eyes before I heard an unfamiliar voice ring out.
"Eliza, I'm here. Where's the kid I'm supposed to be teaching?"
It was a woman's voice, dainty and light, yet somehow tinged with a hint of feistiness to it. And after a moment, I finally lowered my arm to see who it was as Lady Eliza called out to her nonchalantly.
"Oh, hey. You're finally here, Sera. Been a while, hasn't it?" (Eliza)
The first thing I saw was a familiar sight, Lady Olivia, but behind her was an unknown young woman with a confident smile. She had silky black hair which was tied into the shape of a short folded ponytail and her eyes were a brilliant vermillion red while her outfit consisted of a sleek, sleeveless robe the same color as her eyes as well as two slim, light-purple arm covers that spanned from just below her shoulders to her wrists. A combination of ethereal elegance and liveliness radiated out from her as she stood there for a moment with her hand on her hip before answering Lady Eliza.
"Yeah, it has. By the way, why didn't you tell me sooner that the obnoxious idiot finally left? He was so annoying, especially after he opened up! I liked it a lot better when he barely opened that aggravating mouth of his. Honestly, I don't know what you two both saw in him to fall for him like that." (Sera)
Eh? Fall for?
Her holiness crossed her arms and let out a disappointed sigh before Lady Olivia cut in with a slight blush on her face.
"Ahem. Lady Sera, I know it's been a while, and I'm happy to have you over again as well, but please don't just openly reveal our personal matters like that!" (Olivia)
"Eh? Reveal? Wait. Does the kid not know?" (Sera)
Her holiness glanced at me with a confused expression for a moment before the edges of her mouth curved upwards into a mischievous grin as she poked Lady Olivia to tease her.
"Oh? Are you embarrassed about your little crush on that idiot? It's ok, we're all friends here, aren't we? And the kid's gonna find out eventually, so why not just tell her now?" (Sera)
Her holiness shrugged playfully before turning around to face me again, but before she could even say a word, Lady Olivia instantly grabbed her holiness' shoulder and stopped her. Lady Olivia had a scary smile on her face and her grip tightened as she spoke with a threatening tone in her voice.
"Lady Sera, Lady Eliza asked you to come over to help teach wind magic to Reina, right? Well, it's understandable if you want to relax a little before starting, but if all you're going to be doing here is gossiping about my personal matters, then perhaps I should send you back to your own divine domain so you can finish up the rest of the work that you just handed over to Lady Kris before coming over." (Olivia)
Her holiness froze up for a moment before turning to Lady Olivia again, this time with a panicked look on her face.
"Wait! I'm sorry, Olivia! Don't send me back! Kris is still angry at me because of that time I went down to the main plane to mess around a few years ago, she'll kill me if she finds out I dumped all that work on her again to come over and slack off! L-Look, I'll start teaching her right now." (Sera)
"Then get to it! Honestly, you and Lady Eliza are exactly the same. You'll both take any chance you can to skip work, hmph." (Olivia)
Lady Olivia's scary smile finally faded as she crossed her arms and pouted before she and her holiness walked over to me and Lady Eliza.
"Alright, Reina. Lady Sera here will be teaching you wind magic, and while I can't speak for her personality or work ethic, at least her skill at wind magic is top-notch. Also, speaking of work ethics, thanks to a certain someone lazing around all the time, there's still some work I need to take care of, so I guess I'll leave you under Lady Sera's watch for now." (Olivia)
Lady Eliza let out a dry chuckle and avoided eye contact as Lady Olivia turned to her before letting out a tired sigh.
"Anyway, if you need me, I'll be in the study room like usual, so good luck, Reina." (Olivia)
"Thank you, Lady Olivia." (Reina)
Lady Olivia smiled gently at me before entering the house, leaving me and Lady Eliza with her holiness.
"So I guess you're the kid that I'm supposed to be teaching. Reina, right?" (Sera)
"Y-Yes, your holiness!" (Reina)
I immediately straightened my back and saluted her holiness while Lady Eliza energetically stepped forward to introduce me.
"Yep. She's my new heroic spirit trainee, the Magical Girl of Love, Reina!" (Eliza)
"Magical Girl of Love? What's that?" (Sera)
Her holiness stared at me in bewilderment for a moment before Lady Eliza explained what a magical girl was while making a few punching motions in the air to mimic the action of a fight.
"Well, a magical girl is basically a mysterious hero who uses the power of her magical staff to transform and battle against the forces of evil in the name of love and friendship! Think of it as a heroic spirit with a secret identity. Come on, show her your transformation, Reina." (Eliza)
Eh?
Lady Eliza turned to stare at me with a shining, expectant look on her eyes as all of my determination from before immediately shattered while an embarrassed blush spread through my face at just the thought of showing off my costume to another person, much less one who happened to be a goddess.
"D-Do I have to? It's embarrassing!" (Reina)
"Of course you do! What kind of magical girl doesn't transform? Besides, what are you embarrassed about? You're the one and only Magical Girl of Love chosen by yours truly, aren't you? So stand proud, and don't forget to pose when you finish the transformation sequence!" (Eliza)
Lady Eliza grinned at me as I dropped to my knees in defeat before slowly getting up again with a flustered face and channeling mana into my staff to activate it. A ball of pink mana formed in the middle of the hook of the staff and music started playing from seemingly out of nowhere as a bright pink light enveloped my body before shattering like glass to reveal me dressed in my magical girl uniform, posing shakily as tears flowed from my eyes.
"Tada! Isn't the design for the uniform cute? I designed it myself!" (Eliza)
Lady Eliza closed her eyes and nodded to herself with a satisfied smile while her holiness just stood there and stared at me awkwardly.
"I mean, the costume looks fine, maybe a little too frilly for my tastes, but that's not the problem. She's supposed to have a secret identity, right? Shouldn't she have a mask or something too so everyone can't see exactly what she looks like?..." (Sera)
"Ah." (Eliza)
A moment of awkward silence passed by as Lady Eliza stood there and stared blankly into space before turning to me again with a worried look on her face.
"Quick, Reina, I need to design a mask for your costume!" (Eliza)
"Eh?" (Reina)
Lady Eliza stared at me intensely to inspect my costume before patting me on the shoulder and making a declaration with a determined look on her face.
"Don't worry, Reina, I'll get the design for your mask done by the end of the week! In fact, I'll redesign the whole costume! Sera, I leave Reina to you for now!" (Eliza)
Wait! Lady Eliza!
Lady Eliza promptly ran back into the house with gusto, leaving another awkward silence between me and her holiness before suddenly, her holiness called out to me.
"I guess I should start by actually introducing myself." (Sera)
She crossed her arms as a light breeze blew by, making her hair flow lightly in the wind as her crystal clear voice rang out again.
"I'm the Goddess of Fire, Sera Kuon. Nice to meet you, Reina." (Sera)
"W-Wait, Goddess of Fire? With all due respect, your holiness, aren't you supposed to be teaching me wind magic?" (Reina)
"Well, I might be the Goddess of Fire, but that doesn't mean my wind magic is weak. After all, I'm a True Ancestor Phoenix, so my mastery of wind is second only to my mastery of fire." (Sera)
Eh? P-Phoenix?
I scanned over her holiness a few times, but no matter where I looked, there were no feathers or anything. She just looked like a normal person.
"Actually, I guess in terms of my physical body, I've already completely transformed into a human a long time ago, even before I became a Goddess, but technically, I'm a sacred beast since my original form was a True Ancestor Phoenix. Although, as much as I loved my original form, I have to admit, it really was a pain in the butt to do anything! Being a human is much easier. I'm not gigantic anymore, I don't accidentally set things I touch on fire, and having actual hands is great! There's a reason every sacred beast eventually ends up trying to turn into some sort of person. It's just way too convenient." (Sera)
Her holiness waved her hand a few times to dismiss my concerns before continuing.
"But anyway, that's enough about that. Since I'll be your magic teacher for now, you can just call me Master Sera. I've heard enough of 'your holiness this' and 'your holiness that.' It's annoyingly formal, and all it does is remind me of work!" (Sera)
"Y-Yes, Master Sera!" (Reina)
Master Sera spun around and stared at the open field behind the ritual grounds for a moment before calling out to me again as I hugged my staff.
"Alright, I guess we should get started then." (Sera)
"W-What should I do, Master Sera?" (Reina)
I hugged my staff a little tighter as I asked Master Sera about what our first course of action would be, but she just ignored me and took a step forward before holding her hand out towards the ritual grounds. Instantaneously, wisps of wind tinted with the same brilliant vermillion red as her eyes materialized from seemingly nothing. Then, the red wind swirled and churned around us like a storm as I held up my arm to block my face from the raging tempest before suddenly, all the wisps rapidly converged right above Master Sera's palm to form a slightly transparent red feather that subsequently burst out in a blazing flash of flames.
After a moment, the air around us finally calmed down and Master Sera turned around to face me again with a smile on her face.
"Well, first I need to know what level your affinity with wind is at, so here, eat this." (Sera)
Eh?
I stared at the burning feather in Master Sera's hand for a moment before she urged me to eat it again.
"I can't come up with a lesson plan unless I know what level your affinity with wind is at." (Sera)
"W-W-Wait! How will eating this help me figure out my affinity to wind!?" (Reina)
"This is an original spell I've developed that artificially refines your body. After you eat it, you'll pass out for an hour or two and the spell will burn away any internal impurities. It does have a small side effect though where you randomly emit elemental mana during the process, mostly fire-element." (Sera)
I'll explode! I'll definitely explode when I eat it, won't I!?
"Luckily, it's not really a side effect for us, since I can tell what level your affinity with wind is by sensing the concentration of any wind-element mana your body emits. Also, there might be a few hallucinogenic dreams while you sleep, but I'm sure you'll be fine… Probably…" (Sera)
Master Sera took a step closer to me, but I immediately backed away as I hugged my staff a little tighter and called out in a trembling voice again.
"I-Is there no other way to figure out my affinity with wind!?" (Reina)
"Well, there are a couple other methods that I know, but they all take way too long, and most of them require that you stay constantly focused too, so this is the quickest and easiest way! Not only that, but you'll also be getting physically stronger without even trying, so we won't have to put that much effort into training your body strengthening magic either. Now come on, we don't have all day. Look, it's even strawberry flavored!" (Sera)
Master Sera stepped closer again as I started to slowly back up towards the door to the house before opening my mouth to refuse. However, it seemed like that was my first and final mistake.
"I- Ack!" (Reina)
The moment I opened my mouth to speak, Master Sera's hand instantly shot forward and shoved the flaming feather into my mouth. An intense strawberry flavor immediately gushed out from the feather and covered every last corner of my mouth as an incredible sense of drowsiness started to overwhelm me.
Why is the strawberry flavor so strong!?
Then, a strange sense of weightlessness enveloped my body before I felt a cozy warmth surge through me. It swirled around inside of me and spread out to every last inch of my body as I faintly heard Master Sera's voice ring out one last time before passing out.
"See, I told you it tasted good." (Sera)