Before we knew it, the meal was over, and there was nothing left on either Raina's or my plate. Whatever the chef did to make that dish was absolutely amazing, and I would do whatever was necessary to get that again. Raina also seemed to shair the same sentiment but also seemed highly confused after eating and was staring at her plate like it had betrayed her. This did not concern me much, though, as I was savoring the lingering taste of deep-sea fish, some wild game, and most of all, the perfectly prepared tofu.
Thinking on this I got a moment of inspiration and pulled out two new books before writing down a few things and asking one of the maids if they would not mind opening one of the doors to the garden. Thankfully, they opened the door because the moment finished writing, I threw the book through the door as lightning struck it. The lightning lasted for a few minutes when I threw a second book out the door and the lightning struck down on it as well. Everyone was looking at me again, but I ignored them as I walked towards where the books landed on the ground.
By this time, the lightning had started to get stronger, but the books were still sitting there unaffected by the continuous blasts of high-voltage electricity striking them. When I was next to the books, the maids tried to pull me back, but it was not necessary, as the lightning was suddenly pulled from the clouds and wrapped around the books for a few seconds before disappearing.
With the lightning gone, I was allowed to pick up both books, walk back to the table, and approach the chef. Most of the people in the room looked at me, confused again, but I ignored them and said, "How much of that food are you willing to make for me if I give you these?" presenting the books I had in my hands. Raina was sitting there and watching everything I was doing and she seemed to know what I was about to do.
The chef was taken aback by this offer and panicked for a second but caught himself and said, "I am willing to make it for you as long as you want it."
Nodding at this, I handed him the two books in my hand and walked back to my seat at the other end of the table, where I was designing a compound for my mountain. The confusion of everyone in the room besides Raina was obvious until the chef shouted out that what I handed him was a set of Primordial-level techniques. The confusion then turned to shock, but this was not all, as he unintentionally shouted that it was also a set of techniques made specifically for chefs.
Soon, everyone looked at me with a clear look of greed, but I ignored them again and went back to designing the compound. This time, I was designing a garden and shrine that had been recommended earlier. Raina then walked up behind me but was stopped when Mrs. Xia cleared her throat. With the attention now on her, she asked, "What is it that you are doing?"
I was about to respond when Raina beat me to it, saying, "Give a kitsune their favorite food, and they will give you the greatest gifts. Mess with their food, and you will not live to see another day. That is what the Kitsune representative always told me. It is only now that I am one of them that I understand what she was talking about."
This answered the question everyone was asking, and now most people in the room were looking at the chef with barely concealed jealousy. The first one to break the stalemate of the room was the shy little maid who pointed at a spot on my drawing, saying that I had made a mistake. From what I could tell from the reaction of everyone else in the room, they feared what would happen to her after pointing this out. Unlike what they thought, I did not do anything besides asking what the mistake she was pointing out was because I could not find the mistake she was talking about.
After I asked her a question, she did not seem afraid and instead pointed out that the side of the garden where the workshop was did not have a pathway for entering and exiting. This was not something that I had considered, and I had to think about whether I wanted to have access from the workshop, as I would need to rework the design of the workshop as well. Considering that I would most likely spend a couple of days at a time in the workshop, I agreed with her and redrew the plans for the garden. I then changed the workshop blueprints as well.
I even considered her help to be significant enough to put her name on the blueprints as an assistant designer. It was only at this point that I realized I did not know her name, so I asked, "I forgot to ask, what is your name?"
It was at this moment she seemed to have gotten afraid and answered shakily, "Y-Yuki."
Nodding, I wrote her name down in the corner of the blueprint before asking, "Is that all? No last name?"
She rapidly shook her head in response and said, "No. No last name. We only get one after we are recognized by the family, and we take on the family's name."
I nodded my head and thought about what to write down when I heard Raina whisper in my ear, "Put down her last name as Lockheart."
Jumping at her voice, I looked around and saw that Raina was now standing next to me. With her standing next to me, I reached up and covered my ears while giving Raina the stink eye. She then laughed in response and stepped back.
Carefully removing my hands from my ears while keeping an eye on her, I reached over and wrote down what Raina told me to. She then asked me, "What materials do you need to build this little complex you designed?"
While I was very excited by her question, I still did not trust her, so I calmly responded, "I will need a lot of wood, stone, and some iron alongside a few gardeners to help with designing the flower and tree layout of the gardens."
Raina nodded once and then turned to Mr. Xia, asking, "Would you mind if we had a meeting in your office?"
He simply gave an affirmative hum and got up from his chair, walking out of the room. Mrs. Xia then looked over to me as I watched Raina follow Mr. Xia out of the room, and I suddenly felt like I was being watched by the reaper himself. I then looked to Lou Xia for help, but for some reason, she did not even look in my direction, and was instead looking at Yuki with a small amount of anger clear on her face.
It was only when I started looking around for an escape route and saw the spare blueprinting paper on the table that I got an idea. I then said that I had some more buildings to design for my mountain and pulled a piece of paper over to my side. This was honestly an excuse, and I did not think that I would ever use these buildings in the future, not knowing how wrong I was. Thankfully, Mrs. Xia bought my excuse, If only just barely, and left the dining room with the promise that she would have me take a shopping trip with her before I left.
Lou Xia did not say anything and just left the room along with her mother. This part hurt more than I would like to admit. In an attempt to ignore this pain, I turned to the blueprint paper and started to design a teaching hall. This did not last long, though, as I got a notification appearing in my vision.
{Chruch SYSTEM Installation initialized}
{Anilizing Host Circumstances}
{Modifying SYSTEM To Fit Host Situation}
{SYSTEM Renamed To Religion Leader System}
{Name Will Change When A Name For The Highest Position Is Created}
{SYSTEM Data Download Started}
{Existing System Detected}
{Contacting Administartor}
{Porblem Resolved: Resuming Instalation}
{00.15%}
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(01.73%}
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.
[...]
I was slightly shocked by the notifications, as I had forgotten about this during breakfast. This shock faded as the download started, and I saw how fast it was progressing. I then got to work as I started to remember the way Lou Xia acted earlier, and I wanted to forget for now. This lasted until it was time for the final lesson I would give at this mansion. From here, the day went as normal until dinner, where I was given a different traditional Kitsune meal that was just as good as the last one, though Lou Xia still acted like she did earlier.
This made my thoughts start to go down a darker rabbit hole as I left the dinning room after the meal.