With the dismissal of the rest of the classes and a definitively richer pocket, I was ready to skip towards my dorm and prepare some very much needed food.
If it wasn't for Aurelia and the beef jerky she had with her…
A shiver run down my spine at the mere memory of starvation.
"Where are you going?"
I turned around to see Caelum with Rovan getting dangerously close to me. Caelum was not much of a threat on its own, but if Rovan started spewing nonesense about the military and a citizen's duty…
"Food."
"I figured as much, but where are you going?" -Caelum
Am I really that easy to read?
"Where else man? To my dorm and cook up something."
Rovan actually started laughing and Caelum was looking at me like a complicated mana calculus problem.
"Man I told you he doesn't know!" -Rovan
"I honestly thought he just hated us guts and didn't want to even think of sharing a table with us…" -Caelum
The fuck are they talking about?
Question marks were basically appearing all over my face, for a second I even thought they were materialising, until Rovan couldn't take it anymore and finally explained.
"Crow, in our dorms, there's a restaurant for our exclusive use. Did you have your butler cook for you these days?"
My butler at the time, did try to cook for me, but I didn't trust the man one bit and with the excuse of needing to know how tastes were created I cooked myself, would they have made fun of me had I told them? I opted to discover it right away.
"Fuck no, that treacherous bastard would poison me at the first chance he'd find. I cook every meal myself."
As expected their faces were a beautiful painting of shock and incredulity, so I just turned around and proceeded forward to the food that awaited me, only to have my waist enclosed by someone's arms.
______________________
"I still can't believe you fuckers have an entire restaurant at your disposal and decided to bother me. Do you not have any shame?"
In my enormous open space dorm, that made exception for bedroom and bathroom was completely opened, there usually was a corner kitchen fully furnished and a few steps away a single table and a chair with all my research papers.
This time however, twelve strangers sat on a carpet and suspiciously soft cushions brought in by a rose blonde pervert.
While I was working the kitchen with a couple of doppelgängers, those bastards were happily chatting about commoners food and how they never had home cooked meals.
Those unknown fools even had the galls to start drinking.
"ENOUGH! ALCOHOL IS BANNED BEFORE MEAL IF I AM NOT PARTICIPATING, TAKE IT OR LEAVE."
As soon as my clearly displeased voice echoed in the room, every glass and bottle disappeared.
"I'm not joking. Not only you're invading my place, you didn't even consider offering your help."
"Well… we would just bother you…" -Yom
"Then shut the fuck up. The act of preparing food for someone is sacred and must be respected."
With that, silence finally ruled the place.
Did I ruin their mood? I didn't car one bit.
The only important thing was that I could finally proceed to complete my cooking in peace.
Not that it really required any kind of focus, they wanted home cooked food and there was only one dish I knew it was "home cooked".
It brought up memories, some sweet, some bitter, but a nostalgic smile crept up my face nonetheless.
Many would think an infancy spent at an orphanage would be downright awful, but I had my happy moments there and at least there was always food on the table.
Caelum was the first to pick up my change in mood, followed only slightly by Yom and Aurelia. They didn't wait long for standing up and coming to me.
"What are you making?" -Caelum
"Honestly? You will probably hate it. It's the Orphan's stew."
"Is there really nothing we can help with?" -Aurelia
I thought for a moment and then I realised, I didn't have enough bowls.
"Actually, I don't have enough bowls, so… unless you guys don't mind sharing directly from the pot, it be good if someone went and got 12 bowls and spoons."
Aurelia nodded thoughtfully and left with Eira on the spot. Caelum still kept hovering around me, trying to memorise everything I did, the poor boy didn't know there was no recipe to the Orphan's stew, it literally was made of whatever was available.
Then I thought of something that could at least elevate the bland but salty stew.
"Yom, do you have any Syrah in your stash?"
He nodded out of instinct but then he probably realised what I wanted to do and put back the bottle he'd brought out.
"Just use pepper man! You're not poor anymore! Look! There's some right there, there's even chili flakes and cumin!"
"Oh shit! You're right!"
I run towards the spices I had never really used before, but then another doubt started to creep inside me.
"I don't know how to use them. Well, I guess today you'll have the standard issue and then I'll need to experiment with cooking some more."
The rest of the heirs didn't seem to mind, probably because they didn't know what they were missing on. I did still put some pepper into the stew though, I at least knew how to handle that.
Yom went back to sit down but…
"Caelum, you don't really need to keep standing here with me, you can go wait with the others, by the time the girls are back it should be ready."
"Can you… could you call me Cael?"
I raised my brows not understanding from where he was coming from, but there was nothing wrong with entertaining the young man.
"Sure, Cael. Now, go sit with the others."
"Yes."
He nodded satisfied, left to join the others and I went back to stirring the pot. The smell of the stew quickly spread across the room and my stomach started to growl viciously.
Right on cue, saving everyone from the ravenous song my belly was ready to sing, the girls were back.
Thanking the gods for their timely return, I started serving everyone with the stew and some fresh bread.
I didn't have the heart to tell them that we barely had stale bread at the orphanage. They could live without knowing it.
"Now, before we dive in, this will probably be disgusting to you all, kindly gulp down every last bit even if you don't like it, not for me, but for the kids I grew up with."
With that disclaimer taken care of I didn't wait any longer, broke a piece of bread, dunked it in the stew and wolfed it down with a spoonful of meat and veggies.
Everyone copied my actions with uncunny precision, which amused me a lot.
But didn't really dwell on it, there was food in front of me after all.
Memories of my childhood started resurfacing and my mana was starting to act of its own volition.
After the battle with the spawn of correction, my resonance had greatly strengthened and I still needed training to manage it properly.
Nostalgy, sadness, hunger, but also joy, compassion and care were all the emotions I knew the best when growing up.
Tears started streaking down my face without my knowledge and images of kids running around us started materialising. Some playing, some crying, some eating and some simply watching into nothingness.
"I'm sorry."
Nobody answered me.
"I'm sorry. I can't stop it… I'm sorry. You can leave guys."
Again, nobody answered, nobody left. Only the sound of spoons hitting their bowls and broken breathings.
The kids surrounded me, some hugging my thighs, some playing with my ears, some braiding my hair.
All the behaviours I'd imagine would happen if I went visiting them nowadays.
Nobody said anything, but Cael decided to scoot over, he came near me, still mindful of the illusory kids, as if they were real. He just sat there and kept eating.
His storm blue eyes met my murky green one.
We were both silently crying.
For what? I couldn't understand, but I felt grateful.
"Thank you Cael."
"No, thank you for accepting us."
We didn't say anything else, but everyone got closer and we shared my soul food.
Together.