At noon.
After eating hot pot two days in a row, Luke decided to change flavors. He had an entire cookbook in his head, so naturally, there was no need to cling to one thing and keep making it over and over.
Even if he changed dishes every day, it would still take a long time before he ran out.
Before cooking, he even humanely gathered the girls' opinions and filtered the menu according to their preferences.
For example, Lux really liked meatballs, the kind fried until the outer shell was crispy and crunchy. One bite filled the mouth with meaty fragrance, rich but not greasy. Its approval rating could be said to remain consistently high.
Another example was crab chowder buns, also a delicacy no one could get tired of. The crabs along Piltover's nearby coast were a famous kind of meaty crab, and their quality was quite high, not much worse than Demacia's.
As one hearty lunch dish after another was served at the table, the beasts hidden in the girls' hearts were completely awakened.
Luke was slowly savoring the food when a voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
"What's that? It looks so delicious. Save one for me."
The voice was ethereal, carrying a trace of drowsy laziness and casualness from having just woken up.
Without a doubt, it was the spirit goddess.
"Oh, right. You can communicate with me directly through thought. You just need to focus."
Janna's voice sounded as if she had just remembered this.
"Thought? Like this?"
"Mm, yes. You catch on pretty fast."
"And now?"
Luke asked again, but received no response. Then he came to a slight realization.
As long as he focused and wanted to communicate with Janna, he could convey his thoughts.
On the other hand, if he did not want to do that, his thoughts would not be transmitted.
Perhaps this was the special privilege of becoming her number one great believer.
After thinking for a moment, Luke asked through thought again, "Weren't you asleep?"
"I was just catching up on sleep. It doesn't take that long."
Janna's voice sounded a little more awake now. At this moment, she noticed something else. "Save me some of those meatballs too. They look so fragrant."
Luke nodded slightly. "All right."
"And that one, that round little pastry. I want that too. Actually, just save a little of everything for me."
Janna felt that ordering dish by dish was a little too troublesome, so she planned to taste everything.
Because every dish looked delicious.
Listening to the spirit goddess's food order in his head, Luke could more or less tell that she was probably a foodie too.
"Why don't you just appear and eat with everyone?"
"That won't do. As a goddess, how could I casually show my face before mortals?"
Janna spoke with reserved arrogance.
In reality, she indeed could not do that casually, because she had to maintain a sense of distance from mortals. Otherwise, once that distance became blurred, everything would become difficult to define.
Luke could only set aside a separate portion of every dish.
However, such suspicious behavior was noticed very quickly.
Lux looked at him strangely. "Why are you taking so much if you're not eating it?"
Luke said calmly, "I'm saving it for someone else."
"Someone else? Who?"
Lux pressed him, looking even more confused.
"Janna."
"Janna?"
Lux subconsciously looked toward the bluebird statue nearby and said disbelievingly, "Did she come to you in a dream or something?"
"That's right." Luke nodded and said, "Last night, Janna came to me in a dream. Now I've already built a good relationship with the local goddess."
Question marks could not help appearing over the girls' heads as they listened.
That casually?
He had built a good relationship just like that?
Lux was therefore somewhat unconvinced, but she did not keep focusing on it.
Because Jinx was about to steal all of her meatballs. If she still did not make a move, she would only regret it later.
So she refocused her attention on the battle against the little blue-haired girl and immediately forgot what had happened just now.
The other girls did not ask any further either and all focused on eating.
In their view, Luke had always been a little involved with strange, mysterious things anyway. He usually did not follow normal patterns, so this was not especially strange.
Thinking carefully, Luke had indeed been rather focused on Janna lately. He had made offerings to the bluebird statue and even given the band a similar name.
Now, preparing some new offerings for her did not seem like much.
As for Janna, she did not really mind Luke saying things so plainly. After all, as long as she did not appear, it was fine.
As for the rest, Luke could say whatever he liked. What she truly cared about right now was the feast of delicious food.
After lunchtime ended, in order not to make the hungry spirit goddess wait too long, and also to keep the food from getting cold, Luke carried the food to a rest room on the second floor.
Here, Janna directly appeared. Just like when he had seen her last night, she wore a white dress and looked as holy as a fairy.
However, whenever her eyes lit up at the sight of delicious food, that lofty, untouchable aura always became much more down-to-earth.
"Anyway, I'll go eat first. We can talk later."
With a wave of Janna's small hand, the food Luke had prepared miraculously disappeared in an instant.
"Don't be nervous. This can only be done through the specific relationship between you and me. As my devout believer, the offerings you present can be directly taken by me."
Janna's voice rang out in explanation. She had already arrived in her secret space, where she conjured a dining table and prepared to slowly enjoy the food.
Luke was not nervous. He yawned and lay down on the sofa, planning to rest for a while.
After people had eaten and drunk their fill, it was easy to feel tired. This kind of tiredness was not physical fatigue, but an emptiness of the spirit.
He closed his eyes to rest. About half an hour passed.
"I finished eating."
Janna's satisfied voice sounded. It seemed this meal had suited her taste quite well.
Luke slowly opened his eyes and sat up from the sofa. "So, do you have any other instructions, Lady Goddess?"
"You make it sound like I'm always ordering you around."
Janna's slightly dissatisfied voice rang out, then she continued, "About the matter I mentioned last night, have you thought of any solution?"
"For now, I've thought of two."
Then Luke roughly explained his ideas.
After listening while thinking them over, Janna said, "They do seem like decent methods. Try them for now. If they really don't work, we'll think of something else."
She had been silent for too long, so she held a trace of expectation for any method.
As for whether Luke's methods would work, she did not know.
And so, the days passed one after another.
In the blink of an eye, five days flew by.
In the morning, Porter and Briya brought the carefully crafted drum kit to Luke's training camp.
The training camp was a place found so they would not disturb the surrounding people. Its purpose was to give Lux and the others a better environment to study and discuss music.
"After our adjustments, there are no problems with the tone of this drum kit. Your Highness can use it without worry."
Porter introduced it beside Luke.
Speaking of which, this was the first time in these past few days that they had come to see their daughter. Seeing her chatting and laughing with her friends made them completely relax.
At this moment, Luke's gaze was sizing up the drum kit before him, which stood a little over a meter high. Its exterior was a bright metallic color, with gears interlocking in certain places, giving it a mechanical feel.
At the same time, the bass drum, hi-hat, snare drum, toms, and cymbals had all been installed in ideal positions, and it looked quite harmonious.
From its appearance alone, it was very cool.
The girls gathered around to observe, each of them looking very curious.
The most excited one was, of course, Jinx.
These past few days, she had been looking forward to it for a long time. At the moment she saw the finished product, she was finally satisfied.
"So cool!"
She immediately sat in the seat that belonged to her and saw two slender drumsticks, which she instantly picked up.
She struck a few times by feel, boom, boom, crash, crash. It was actually rather rhythmic.
And with every strike, the instant the sound rang out, Jinx felt as if something in her heart had been released.
It was extremely refreshing. Without a doubt, she loved this instrument.
It was practically tailor-made for her.
Seeing that she could not bear to put it down, Luke smiled as expected.
The drum kit was, by nature, an instrument made to release emotions.
Naturally, it was suitable for the little blue-haired girl, someone who had kept her feelings bottled up for a long time. Otherwise, he would not have said it suited her back then.
So Luke looked toward the couple and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
"It wasn't hard." Porter smiled and said, "Also, regarding the speaker Your Highness mentioned, we already have a preliminary idea."
Two days later, Luke had found them again and proposed a device called a speaker.
After connecting it through a kind of cable, it could receive the sound of an instrument, then amplify and spread it through the speaker.
It had to be said that this prince was indeed a person full of ideas.
Even when the two of them heard such an idea, they felt as if enlightenment had struck them. Clearly, it was such a novel design, yet they had never thought of it before.
So while the couple had been building the drum kit these past few days, they had not forgotten about the speaker.
Now they already had a complete idea.
"I'll have to trouble you with that as well."
Luke said after hearing this.
When it came to music-related tools, he trusted Porter and Briya greatly. The two of them were geniuses worthy of the name.
In this way, the basic preparations for the band could be considered ready.
Porter and Briya watched their daughter for a while, then did not disturb them any longer and left directly.
In the training room, the girls were still gathered around the grand-looking drum kit.
Jinx was someone who held grudges. As the owner of the drum kit, she looked at the curious Lux with a guarded expression. "Everyone else can touch it except you!"
Unfortunately, her revenge came at the wrong time.
Lux raised a brow and sneered. "Looks like a few days without a beating and you've forgotten who's in charge!"
With that, Miss Crownguard directly moved in and gave the little blue-haired girl who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth a harsh lesson.
Under Jinx's resentful gaze, Lux sat in the drum kit's seat and touched here and there.
Watching this scene, Jinx felt as if she had been cucked right in front of her face. Her heart turned sour, and the pain was so great she could barely breathe.
She silently clenched her fists, a flash of tears appearing in her eyes.
One day!
She would make this little blonde pay the price!
However, Lux did not go too far. She merely touched it and looked it over before standing and returning the seat to Jinx.
This drum kit had a domineering appearance, and its size was large enough too. It was certainly pretty cool.
However, she could not say she liked it that much. In comparison, she still preferred the guitar she had gradually learned over the past few days.
After sitting back in her seat, Jinx looked at her drum kit with some heartache. "Even if you were defiled by someone like that, I still won't abandon you."
She swore that she would love Explosion No. 1 for the rest of her life.
Incidentally, Explosion No. 1 was the new name Jinx had given her beloved drum kit.
Those words fell into the ears of Lux, who had not walked far. The corner of her mouth twitched, and she turned back to knock Jinx on the forehead.
"I only touched it. How did that defile it?"
"Since you touched it, Explosion No. 1 is no longer pure! If you've got the guts, let me touch your guitar too!"
"No way."
Lux refused without hesitation.
Jinx snorted coldly and lifted her head. "Actually, I already secretly touched it to my heart's content while you weren't paying attention!"
Lux flew into a rage when she heard this and reached out to pinch Jinx's provoking little face. "What did you say?!"
In the end, the matter concluded with both sides of Jinx's cheeks pinched bright red. She sat there, still looking completely unconvinced.
As for Lux, she looked huffy and kept wiping her guitar again and again while holding it.
In reality, the two of them did not truly dislike each other.
It was just that the two of them had been making trouble like this for more than a day or two. Anyway, the first thing they did after waking up every day was find the other person annoying.
Everyone had seen it so often that they were long used to it.
"All right. Play that part you struck earlier again."
Only now did Luke look toward Jinx and speak.
Hearing this, Jinx picked up the drumsticks. As she swung them, the rhythmic boom, boom, crash, crash rang out again.
"Not bad. Looks like your talent is pretty good. The drum kit's position in the team is also unique. Its special tone can often make the accompaniment more outstanding."
Luke smiled as he spoke.
Jinx was very susceptible to praise and immediately became smug. "Of course. Just look whose instrument it is!"
"You say that as if the guitar and bass aren't both unique too."
Lux mocked the ignorant little blue-haired girl. "That line of his can only fool someone like you."
When Jinx heard this, she bared her teeth and glared at her again.
The two instantly began glaring at each other once more.
Luke ignored them and looked toward Seraphine, Sona, and Orianna. "In any case, practice hard for the next few days. Don't embarrass yourselves when it's time to perform in front of people."
The three girls all nodded.
These past few days, Seraphine had already begun teaching Lux and Orianna how to play the guitar and bass. Neither of them lacked talent, so they learned very quickly.
Sona also assisted from the side.
Meanwhile, Jinx, who had been waiting for her own instrument, had also expanded her music knowledge quite a bit by watching and learning.
That was why, when she played the drum kit now, she could have a certain sense of rhythm.
Luke had not been talking nonsense. Her talent really was not bad.
For the next few days, the main goal was to make Lux and Orianna more skilled with the guitar and bass, as well as have Jinx fully learn the drum kit.
"Looks like it's starting to take shape."
At this moment, Janna's voice suddenly sounded in Luke's mind.
As soon as she appeared, Luke knew it was almost mealtime. So he silently turned, left the rest room, and walked toward the kitchen.
The spirit goddess's voice chased after him. "What are we eating today? Can I have seared pork belly?"
"Yes."
Luke nodded slightly.
"Then can we add braised pork belly too?"
"That's fine too."
Listening to the spirit goddess place her order, Luke was also getting somewhat used to it.
Recently, this goddess had been appearing three times a day, morning, noon, and night, arriving precisely at mealtimes. It could be said that she was extremely punctual.
And although she had been a little embarrassed when ordering food at first, by now, one could say she had become more and more skilled at it.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810