Vivian's carriage arrived a few days later after Duke because of Vivian's insistence of visiting the major Granaries and farmer associations under Maine's direct influence.
"V-VIVIANNNN~!!!" Duke ran towards Vivian like a puppy, hugging Vivian tightly as she arrived.
"D-Duke!" Vivian fought Duke back, narrowly escaping his arms.
"Hey, hey! S-Stop it! It's only been a week or more, sheesh" Vivian's normally noble way of speaking around the Knights was interrupted due to Duke's sudden clinginess.
"I missed ya Vivian!" Duke gave Vivian a genuine smile.
"Huh... I missed you too, Duke... Now let's get inside before we talk more" Vivian sighed as she shyly admitted that she also missed Duke, slightly blushing from her words.
But even though Vivian told Duke they'd continue talking inside, the two just couldn't help but continue their conversation as the (two friends) married couple had a lot of catching up to do.
"Hey! Duke! Have you been eating more than you should have?!" Vivian growled as she noticed Duke's slightly larger belly.
"E-Eh?! R-Really?! I made sure to eat less than my Knights during the campaign though! Oh, cruel Gods of Weightloss, why do thee forsake me so?!" Duke dramatically moaned towards the heavens, much like the forsaken hero he was, as, despite the evidence, Duke really did eat less than his Knights during the Bandit subjugation!
"Y-You don't have to be so dramatic!... Maybe it's just your abdominal muscles (hot abs) developing? Right? Haha... Think positive, think positive!" Vivian repeated, as she uncharacteristically comforted Duke, forcing herself to utter words she knew were false just to appease his aching heart.
But, one could say Vivian's comforting of Duke could also be a sign of her trust for him. Vivian truly believed Duke really did follow the diet plan she gave him.
"V-Vivian..." Duke looked towards Vivian, feeling touched from her words as he expected a great scolding from her.
"Yeah! You're right, you're right... It's probably my abs! Gahaha, yeah~! My abs!" Duke held his stomach like a pregnant woman in denial of the truth...
Luckily for Duke and Vivian, even if they didn't truly believe their own words...
It was really Duke's abs that were growing this time.
*Clank* The doors to Duke's mansion opened up where both Duke and Vivian were greeted by Benjamin and the wise and mysterious~ Galeo...
"Sir Duke, lady Vivian welcome back!" Benjamin gracefully greeted.
While a chicken in Galeo's hands screamed.
*BaKACK~!*
"W-What are you doing?!" Vivian screamed.
"O-Oh, I'm trying to make instant dinner by making this chicken EXPLODE!" Ok maybe wise is a bit too much to describe Galeo...
"..." [I'm out...] Vivian did not respond as she headed immediately into the kitchen, while Duke on the other hand became glued to Galeo thanks to his curiosity.
"E-Explode?! C-Cool!!!..." Duke squealed *Cough Cough* [I-I'm a dignified lord now! Act dignified Duke, act dignified!] Duke thought to himself.
"I mean, for what reason must this BIRD explode?... Persay?" Duke pompously spoke while forcefully deepening his voice to sound 'sophisticated' in front of Vivian and Benjamin... sadly the two were already in the kitchen.
"Ay yes! I shall explain! Well~ you see, heat travels... Bla Bla Bla. So I thought: How to spread that heat equally?! I asked myself! And so I invented this: The Wave Oven~! Tada~! Or maybe it should be called the Tiny Wave oven Hohoho~ Pun intended! It's funny because the waves are... Bla Bla Bla" Galeo began to continuously explain as Duke listened... well at least unlike before where everything Galeo talked about sounded like gibberish to Duke, as time went on, Duke began to slowly understand the monstrous genius... well at least a little bit...
*Ting Ting Ting BOOM!* (The sound of Duke's mind exploding)
Duke's mind finally exploded while trying to comprehend Galeo's almost alien intellect and self-discovered Knowledge.
"W-Where would a-an exploding chicken even be u-used?" Duke asked as his eyes formed spirals in confusion. If only he knew how advanced Galeo was for his time...
"W-Well, the Wave Oven won't only be for chickens ya know, Bla Bla Bla"
"Ha ha ha... That's our Galeo~! Talking all science and logic..." Duke's eyes formed spirals as he weakly went to the kitchen to alleviate his hurting mind. "V-Vivian! Let me help ya cook!"
Well, to be honest, it was a miracle that Duke could even understand a portion of what Galeo says. A testament to this fact is that even the greatest Philosophers in history who were considered as the Continent's greatest minds found no favor from the four Gods of Knowledge. (Edea, Hypothesese, Theirie, and Thot)
(In fact, only the founder of the Philosophers was ever favored by Edea, meanwhile, Galeo here, on the other hand, was favored by all four of the Gods... probably making him the greatest genius of Science and Engineering in history)
And also Galeo didn't really mind Duke's reactions. Since Duke was the first person in a long time since his daughter died that had tried to understand him and not just shake him off as some crazy fool... In fact, Galeo felt grateful to Duke, the young curious Count.
[A curious lad, that one] Galeo thought, smiling as he followed Duke who was currently running towards the kitchen... Galeo's affection for Duke deepening.
Vivian and also Benjamin, surprisingly, were already skillfully cooking food enough for four people while Duke helped out in any way he could... Of course, the master of Science himself, Galeo was not too far from the three who were cooking... Although whatever he was cooking up didn't look too edible...
"Galeo?... What's that purple thing?" Duke worryingly asked as it looked like Galeo was brewing some sort of poison.
"Ho ho ho, desert my boy, desert!... Come, give it a taste!" Galeo insisted as he put a spoonful of purple liquid.
And of course, Duke, ever the curious soul ate up the spoonful of purple liquid.
"S-SWEET! But it's TOO sweet, can you remove some of the sugar?" Duke shat out.
"Hoho~ easily my boy! I can use different types of processes, from Evaporation to Osmosis, I have different machines and structural designs to specifically remove the sugar water from this... Bla Bla Bla" Galeo began explaining.
"No no, I just thought maybe we could just make more of that purple liquid without the additional Science... Never mind" Duke's words fell to deaf ears as Galeo had already taken out a weird gizmo and filled it with some Sugarwater he mixed.
"See here, Duke. Using heat to evaporate and ice to condensate, this box managed to separate the Sugar that had already melted into the water!" Galeo showed Duke two cups with the separated water and sugar granules.
"A-Amazing! It's pure water!!!" Duke shouted as he began to taste even more and different experiments Galeo gave him.
"Huh... one of these days, Duke might just get poisoned if he continuous to act like that..." Vivian sighed as she saw Duke immediately eat any weird liquid Galeo put out.
"W-Well its alright. I mean it's Galeo after all... Galeo wouldn't endanger-"
["Benjamin my friend~! Since Duke's not around, I only have YOU to test my experiments! Come come, don't be shy now!"] Benjamin suddenly remembered Galeo's antics he was forcibly roped into as it was only the two of them around while Duke and Vivian were away, and decided to just shut his mouth in regards to the dangers Galeo's experiments contained...
"I-I'm sure Duke will be fine... he's a strong lad!" Helpless against Duke and Galeo's uncontrollable antics, Benjamin was forced to simply hope for the best...