-Ughh….As you say:
Kiro heads to the kitchen and wears his apron over his coat:
-What are you planning on making? –Says Luchia
-Beef stew with carrots and potatoes.
-Couldn't you just waited with him, letting the cooking to us?
-I just wanted to prepare this myself.
"I didn't meet my mother often, since she always was abroad, at her home country, but one thing I learned from her is cooking this, to perfection."
-Now, Luchia you peel the potatoes, Vallerie, you chop the carrots, I will prepare the beef.
Kiro starts cutting the beef in smaller pieces and begins to remove the fats, not over trimming as the fat makes the beef tender. Next he seasoned the beef with salt and pepper. Then, he threw the chunks in a soup pot that had a bit of oil in it. After a while of heating, Kiro removes the meat and adds some onions, garlic and balsamic vinegar to the pan. He cooked it the vegetables until they were softened, then he adds tomato paste, cooking it a minute more. Then he adds the meat back to the pan and sprinkles it with flour, stirring until it's dissolved. Kiro adds broth, water, thyme, bay leaves and sugar covering the pot.
"Alright, this should be ready in about two hours."
-Did you finish with those?
-Yes
-Good, put the potatoes and carrots in cold water and let's have a rest.
Kiro prepares himself some basil tea, takes it and heads to his bedroom, sitting on his bed.
"I just wish I could sleep right now, maybe I can have a little nap"
As soon as he finishes his tea, he closes his eyes and falls asleep. He finds himself at the endless blossomed field of spiritual realm with Esgrieth sitting on a rock:
-Strange for you to visit in this time
-Can you wake me up in two hours?
-Do I look like a timer to you?
-Can't you do something for me for once?
Kiro sits on the grass and picks up a flower, gently pulling its petals, just after a short while Esgrieth says.
-Exactly two hours, wake up now.
Kiro wakes up and rushes to the kitchen, he grabs the potatoes and carrots, then he throws them into the pot with the other ingredients.
-Another hour to wait.
Kiro heads to the front door and gets outside the mansion. He sits on the stairs and gazes upon the garden:
"Well, it sure looks livelier than before"
He stands up and then approaches his horse:
"A short ride through the forest would sure kill some time"
Kiro mounts the horse and then he sets off into the forest. He rides slowly, gazing upon the trail he was passing by. Brown leaves fell from the trees. Sometime after, he encounters a child wandering through the forest. Kiro stops his horse for a moment and looks at the child.
-What are you doing here?
The child just stares at Kiro with his mouth open.
-Are you lost?
The child starts walking slowly towards Kiro and his horse
"I got a bad feeling about this"
-Bloodlust
Kiro's eyes turn pitch black; as soon as bloodlust was triggered the child became invisible
"What the hell?"
Kiro's eyes turn back to normal, the child appeared again. Kiro dismounts his horse and then stands right in front of the child"
-What are you?
The child closes his mouth than says:
-You smell weird, you might taste weird, bye weird.
The child disappears right in front of Kiro leaving him shocked.
"What the hell was that, that was straight out of a horror movie, even bloodlust couldn't tell what it was. I should head back"
Kiro mounts his horse once again and heads to the mansion. After a while, he arrives, leaves the horse and then heads to the front door.
"The stew should be ready by now."
Kiro heads to the Kitchen, removes the pot from the fire and the tastes the stew with a wooden spoon.
"Not bad, not as good as mom's stew but it still tastes great"
Kiro heads to the living, along the way, He encounters Luchia:
-Where were you, don't you have any idea how to treat guests?
-I prepared the stew; if you wouldn't mind prepare the table.
Kiro enters the living room; he sees that his guest is sleeping soundly on his chair.
"Talk about patience, now how am I supposed to wake him up…"
Suddenly, Vallerie enters the room and says:
-Dad, the food is ready, wake up.
Walgrouf wakes up and coughs up a bit, gets up and leaves the living room.
"Knight or not, old age does its damage"
Kiro heads himself to the dining room where he sees the table already set and the stew on the table. All of them sit down, and then Walgrouf says:
-I've been to many households, from a peasant's shack, a nobleman's mansion to the royal castle itself, and I never have seen a place where the Master let's his servants eat in the same table with him.
-I don't pay either Luchia or Vallerie to work as maids, besides they do the cooking most of the time and I think it wouldn't be fair we didn't eat in the same table.
-You truly are something else mister Kiro.
They continue eating, until the sun had already set and it was leaving its place to the night.
"That stew took a long time to prepare"
-It was wonderful, truly delicious
-I'm glad you liked it
-Now if you would excuse us, we should go.
-But dad, it's dangerous to roam the forest at night, beastmen might attack us
Kiro clears his throat and says:
-You are free to stay for the night if you like.
-That's a generous offer from you!
-No problem at all, besides the mansion has a lot of bedrooms; just pick one of your liking for the night.
-I will certainly, thank you once again.
-If you would excuse me, I should go to sleep myself, goodnight
Kiro leaves the dining room and heads to his bedroom. He sits on the bed and takes his clothes off.
"Maybe I should have a bath, today has been unusually tiring."
Kiro wraps a towel around himself and heads to the bathroom. As soon as he enters he prepares the bath. He dips in the steamy water of the bath.
"That's what I was looking for"
Steam had covered the room. Suddenly, Kiro hears the door open.
-Who's there?
-Ohh… I'm so sorry, I didn't know, please forgive me!
Kiro turns his head to see Vallerie with a towel wrapped around her body.
-Wha…what are you doing here?!
-I thought everybody was sleeping, so I decided to have a bath.
"I guess I'm not the only one who enjoys a nice hot bath in the middle of the night "
-I'm so sorry; I shouldn't disturb you any further.
-Actually, I wasn't thinking of staying long, you can wait here until I'm finished if you want to.
-I guess I will.
Vallerie sits on the edge of the bath with her feet in the water.
-So it's you last day here.
-It is, I really enjoyed my time here, with you and Luchia.
-I'm glad to hear that.
-At least I get to see my family again, it's been so long.
-Tell me about them.
-Well, I have two older brothers; one of them is merchant that travels kingdom to kingdom his goods, while the other helps my father at the shop.
-I see, so what are you planning to do once you go home?
-I might help father around the shop, and mom around the house. I'll make sure to visit whenever I have time.
-I'm happy to hear that, now would you turn around until I wrap a towel on my waist?
Vallerie turns around as Kiro leaves the bath and wraps his towel around himself.
-Well the bath is yours, goodnight.
Vallerie slightly blushes as Kiro leaves the bathroom. He heads to the bedroom once again and as soon as he arrives, he collapses on the bed. His eyes het heavier and heavier, until he decides to close them….