Three girls huddled in the furthest corner of the kitchen as they stared in fear at the pot that was on the stove.
It was seeping out an evil aura and they were terrified, seeing how Kari could make up such a thing.
Amelia was next to Kari, sweating as she kept her mouth shut instead of telling Kari, that what she was currently doing was wrong.
Especially when she added cut pears into the chicken bone soup. Ah, she wanted to cry but she didn't want to hurt Kari's feelings!
Kari grinned, she was oblivious to the fact that she was, in fact, a terrible chef. I mean, who adds fruits to chicken soup? It was just insane and disgusting!
However, she didn't seem to notice this and continued adding strawberries and other fruits to the soup. It smelled disgusting.
Amelia who stared at the pot with a deadpanned face was definitely going to throw this post away and replace it with her cooking, she just... needs to find out how to lead Kari away from the stove first.
Making eye contact with the three girls, she made gestures on leading Kari away and they all nodded.
Quickly forming a plan, Yona brought up her phone to call the boys to come over here.
Once that was done, she bravely got up and walked up to Kari while holding in her breath and tapping on her shoulder.
"Hm, yes?" Kari hummed as she turned around and tilted her head.
Yona showed a strained eye closed smile, "Uhm, the boys are coming, do you mind escorting them here with me please? I'm sure Amelia can handle your cooking while you're gone."
Kari contemplated before smiling and nodding, taking off her apron, she passed it to Amelia who breathed a sigh of relief and immediately went to the fridge to get some ingredients while Yona led Kari away, out of the dorm and far away from the kitchen.
...
Kari waved her arm eagerly at the boys who were waiting at the pavilion near the white fountain, where water would change colours.
Xlec turned around and grinned, waving back with the same enthusiasm.
He then spotted Yona behind Kari and stiffened a bit as his face flushed red and he avoided eye contact with her.
Walking closer, Xlec scratched the back of his head nervously as Kari giggled, greeted him, and graciously made an exaggerated gesture of introducing Yona to him who still had her stoic face on.
She looked at Xlec for a few seconds before nodding slightly, Xlec took it as a greeting and smiled happily.
Damon popped out from behind Xlec, asking curiously, "Where's Amelia?"
"Oh- She's in the kitchen at our dorm. She's currently cooking." Kari answered.
Now, as you might know, or remember, Kari SHOULD be a good cook since she cooked in the space room before right? But you see, there's just one thing…
Anything that involves seafood, soup, desserts or baking, well, her cooking skills will plummet like it's at the end of the waterfall.
Why? You might wonder. It's because she just learned to cook like two dishes in her life and just cooked and ate those repeatedly. Specifically the two dishes are instant noodles and fried rice.
It was only in this life, where she decided to try cooking new things but she can't really tell when they taste bad cause she used to basically eat rotten food and things close to trash to fill her hunger in her last life when she was a kid in the slums.
Anyway, so yes, that's a problem. Fortunately, it seems like the spirit pets haven't figured that out yet.
Luckily, she's good at handling pre-made food
However, if they do... Well...
Anyways! Getting over that, Kari and Yona quickly led the boys to their dorm. Entering inside, they could immediately smell a waft of the food Amelia had cooked.
Damon immediately went off to find Amelia and basically tackled her. Burying his face into her neck as he hugged her tightly while Amelia was just there, holding him with a bright red face.
Megumi, Yona and Reina became shy when they saw their respective fiancees. While Kari looked at everything on the sidelines, giggling like a madwoman.
As they were all endorsed in that lovey-dovey atmosphere, Kari snuck to the dining table and grabbed some food to eat first.
Gobbling it down, Kari let out a sigh of satisfaction as she rubbed her tummy. "Yummy~"
Kari then decided to go out for a short walk, as now, she felt extremely awkward being the only one without a partner in this so-called couple atmosphere.
The cons of being single...
Exiting the dorm, Kari didn't know where she wanted to go so she decided to just take a walk around the campus while looking at her phone.
Her feet clicking against the concrete ground, Kari hummed lightly as she walked with her earpieces stuck in her ear.
She was currently reading a novel.
Out of nowhere, Kari felt someone hit her shoulder and she stumbled back slightly before catching herself.
A frown came into view as Kari looked up to see who had bumped into her.
Her eyes widened.
She mumbled under her breath,
"Zayd...?"
The boy who had bumped into her looked up as he rubbed his shoulder, and showed a confused expression, "I'm sorry- Who?"
Kari snapped out of her thoughts as she blinked repeatedly. She frowned slightly before looking at the fallen papers on the ground. She breathed out and picked up the papers, handing them to the boy.
She gave him a smile, "New here?"
The boy nodded with a grin, "Yes, I am!"
She tilted her head, the suspicion in her eyes hiding behind a layer of curiosity and friendliness. She parted her mouth open, "How come you transferred so late into the year? It's already September."
"Uh, well." The boy stammered, "I don't really know myself either..." He lied.
Kari's eyes deepened slightly as the boy started sweating profusely. He knew he was found out.
Kari grabbed his hand and then pulled him over to a secluded area.
Leaning against the trunk of the owl tree, she raised an eyebrow at the boy (Zayd).
"So?" She voiced out, "Why are you here? I thought you hated humans? I thought you didn't want to be found out?"
The boy(Zayd) started avoiding eye contact with Kari. After all, he couldn't possibly tell her the real reason now, could he?
"Wellllllll..." He dragged out.
"Yes?"
Trying to rack his brains for a reason, one suddenly came into mind and he forced a strained smile. "I-I just... I'm just interested to see what humans are teaching nowadays! Yes, that is, right?"
Kari deadpanned at his last words, he just thought up that reason, didn't he?
She let out an exasperated sigh, looking at him in the eye, "Zayd, who's gonna take care of your duties? You know you have things to attend to right?"
Zayd grinned, "I'm taking a vacation, so it's fine! Besides, my assistants are taking over my work in the meantime. I have been a slave to my work for far too long."
Meanwhile, at the castle...
Currently, the three assistants Zayd had mentioned were shedding blood, sweat and tears as they were all stuck at their own desks with multiple cups of coffee to the side, 5 pizza boxes and several cans.
They had all divided his work among the three of them, and they were very tired.
How on earth did their King manage to handle all of this by himself when the three of them can't even do so!?
Back with Kari and Zayd...
Kari could imagine his assistants doing his paperwork, showing pity on her face.
Shaking her head, "Fine, I guess that's okay. How long are you going to be here for?" She asked.
Zayd smiled, "Until you graduate!" He clapped his hands together.
Kari raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "You're gonna be here for THREE years? Do you not pity or feel empathy for your assistants?"
Zayd shrugged, "I handled all of that paperwork for several hundreds of years myself. They will do just fine!" He waved it off.
Kari: "..."
Her empathy was rising.
Those poor three assistants.
"Ugh, okay. Never mind that, what name did you choose? Classes, dorm and schedule?"
"Oh- Here, it's in these papers." Zayd handed back the papers to Kari.
Kari grabbed them and shuffled through them, once again, she looked up at him with suspicion.
"This," She waved the papers up and down at him.
"Why do you have the same classes like me? And how on earth is your room the closest to mine?"
Zayd looked away.
Kari: "..."
"Okay. Ok. Fine, that's okay. Where's your luggage?"
Zayd tapped the small ring on his fingers. "In here, this is a space storage ring."
Kari nodded, "Alright." Once again, she grabbed him by his hand. "Let's go to your dorm first, then I will show you around."
Zayd nodded at her plans, he looked down to see their entwined hands. A small blush crept upon his face as he grinned stupidly as Kari dragged him over to his dorm.
Having acknowledged his feelings over the past few days, Zayd had concluded one thing. He was...
Definitely in love with Kari.
Despite wanting to deny it, he knew he couldn't, even he, a demon, didn't know how to control emotions. So Zayd just decided to accept it.
Fine, so be it. Let him be in love with Kari. He didn't mind anyway, he did like this warm feeling after all.
'I love you so much, Kari!'
With darkness gathering in his mind, his eyes darkened slightly as he let out a soft chuckle.