Dinner
After playing with Grulf for a while, I stood up.
“Groof?”
Grulf looked like he wanted to play more.
“It’s almost time for dinner. I have to prepare.”
“Groof!”
Grulf was very excited. His tail was wagging wildly.
He was reacting to the word ‘food.’
“After all, Milka is busy helping Philly now.”
“Groof.”
And so we would go out and buy some random groceries and come back and cook them.
Just simple stuff, like cooking meat and making soup.
As I was cooking, Grulf would run in a circle around me.
“Groof.”
“Don’t worry, I’m making some for you too.”
When I was almost finished, Serulis came to the kitchen after finishing her bath.
Lord Gerberga was on her shoulder and Nia was also with her.
“I’ll help you!”
“Thank you. But I’m mostly finished here.”
Nia bowed apologetically.
“It’s something that I should have done, and I’m sorry to have forgotten.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anyone who is free should do it.”
Perhaps they had smelled the food because now Milka and Luchila also arrived.
“Thank you for preparing dinner for me!”
“Thank you, Mister Locke.”
“Were you able to help Philly?”
“Yes. Though, she was teaching us while we did it!”
“It was very different from magic and quite interesting.”
Luchila and Milka were now interested in alchemy, it seemed.
They should learn everything that they could.
“Alright. Help me carry the food to the dining room now.”
“Leave it to me.”
And so we all worked together to carry the food to the dining room. Shia, Philly, and Tama were waiting there.
“I made some for you too, Tama.”
“Woof.”
Tama’s tail wagged happily.
And so we all sat down to eat dinner.
“By the way, Shia. What did you all receive yesterday?”
“Medals and reward money.”
The chiefs of the beastkin wolves had gathered together at the palace yesterday so Eric could reward them.
I did not attend. I didn’t want to draw any attention.
“He didn’t grant you any new titles?”
“It would affect the other nobles if he did. It is a very complicated matter.”
Philly said with a serious expression. Perhaps she was right.
When we were about halfway through with dinner:
“Ah, I see you are all eating! Excuse me! I seem to have visited during dinner time again!”
Kathe said as she burst in energetically. She always seemed to visit when it was dinner.
“Do you want to eat too, Kathe?”
“Do-do you mean it?”
She always pretended to be modest. And as always, I answered,
“Of course.”
“Thank you!”
I put some food in front of her and she thanked me as she started to eat.
“Good! It’s so good!”
As the person who made it, I knew it wasn’t that great at all.
“It’s alright.”
“No, it’s delicious!”
Still, it made me smile.
Besides, Kathe ate a lot. Which was always nice to see.
“By the way, Kathe. What were you doing today?”
“I was patrolling the area around the water dragon settlement. To see if the dark ones have been up to anything.”
The barrier around the settlement had been broken on the day we crushed their main base.
The broken barrier was repaired with the power of all the water dragons and my own help, and now it was stronger than ever.
I had even added resistance to physical damage, so it would survive a meteor strike.
That being said, caution was still good.
So Kathe’s efforts were much appreciated.
“Did you notice anything?”
“There were lesser vampires and goblins. That’s all.”
“…Are you sure about that?”
“About what?”
“You wouldn’t be getting humans and goblins mixed up again, would you?”
“Oh, I am passed that.”
Kathe said proudly.
“I am now able to tell humans and goblins apart.”
“Oh, that is quite an achievement.”
“Hehe. It is because I now meet you humans every day. It is only normal that I can tell the difference now.”
That is a very good thing.
Serulis said as she at her meat.
“But why was the barrier broken in the first place?”
“The obvious reason. They brought in magic machines that hadn’t been activated yet.”
But there were magic circles that detected any enemy intruders.
And so the water dragons were aware of it and tried to stop them.
But the gate was suddenly attacked at the same time, and the main fighting force was lured away from the center of the barrier.
That gave the enemy an opportunity to destroy the core.
“They were probably attacking the settlement every day so they could find the location of the core.”
The barrier that protected the base of the dark ones was very powerful, but the concealment magic was insufficient.
Perhaps it was the strength of the barrier that led them to believe that they didn’t need to hide their core as much.
So we were able to find it quickly and drop down meteors.
However, the core of the settlement was hidden well.
And so it required many attacks to find it.
“But we strengthened the concealment magic and changed the location as well. They won’t be able to get in so easily next time.”
“Would it be hard for you too, Mister Locke?”
“It would be hard if I didn’t know anything about it. It would take me a lot of time.”
“Then it must be quite safe.”
Shia sounded relieved.