Chapter 26: Deconservation?
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Everyday things are often far more complex than anything one can imagine.
———
Shhh....
'...hhaa seriously... how did he manage to make my hair this disgusting so fast?'
After an unexpected interaction with Patrick, a chevarbre with some pretty strange tastes.
Tap.
Liu had gone to wash her hair in her bathroom, checking the mirror to see if everything was fine with her hair.
"Hmhm."
'At least I don't have a cowlick anymore...'
While drying her hair, she left the bathroom. Now looking for her watch to check the time.
'...where did I put it?...'
Trying to remember what she'd done with it earlier that morning, and not seeing it on the nightstand, she rummaged through her bed.
'...seriously, it can't have just vanished... could it?...'
Quickly losing patience, she climbed onto the bed, grabbed the comforter, and shook it every which way...
Bam!
...only to finally find her watch, which had just been flung against the dresser at the foot of the bed.
"...Mm... four hours and sixty... eight hundredths."
'...I need to go make food with Milo.'
So she left her room again, as always without turning off the lights, and headed to the living room...
'...I'll finally get to go to the storeroom...'
Clack!
"~~~"
...where she found, as expected, Lumian on the couch, still holding his weird piece of wood, with Milo sitting next to the couch and trying to look at the piece of wood in a not-very-subtle way.
"Uhm... are we making something to eat?"
Asked Liu, even though her attention was more on the music coming from the speakers.
...
Well, what happens next, that part... isn't something a certain twelve-year-old kid wants to share.
Yeah, a kid... honestly, it was embarrassing.
But anyway, the meal did end up getting made... so all's well that ends well... maybe.
...
Shhh...
'...this is all Milo's fault...'
While Liu washed her hands after having... uh, more or less finished making the meal, Milo was setting the table.
'...I hope it's at least edible...'
The meal at least looked like a salad... but according to Liu, the taste wasn't guaranteed, like, not at all.
Tock.
She shut off the water by pressing the button marked "water" on it. And dried her hands with that weird towel that never gets wet?
"Hhhaaa..."
"~~~"
A sigh — not to express her confusion about... this whole extremely strange mess, but just her indignation toward... this whole extremely strange mess.
And she finally left the kitchen to go sit at the table, in front of the... delicioussaladmadewithgreatcare.
"....."
'...what's with this silence? Aren't they starting? Bon appétit?...'
With Lumian across from her and Milo to her left, she was greeted by an unsettling silence, until Lumian...
"Hrhm, ladies first."
...that son of a ****, kindly spoke up.
Naturally, Liu reacted in a civilized manner.
'...damn it! It's their fault and they're making me go through this?...'
She quickly served herself a small, really small portion of the salad, then picked up her fork and stabbed at her plate.
'...they'll see, next time I'm the one cooking...'
Lumian and Milo watched her closely, trying to read the slightest reaction and figure out whether the salad was edible or not.
Especially since the assortment of unknown raw vegetables, which Liu had had to try to deconserve, already looked rather off-putting after everything that had just happened.
'...here goes...'
She still moved her well-loaded fork... up to her mouth, which she'd just opened, and...
"....."
...well, she started chewing, there wasn't really anything else to expect.
'...urgh...'
Except for the taste, that is. Which made Liu want to pull her best grimace.
'...what is this taste?'
But she held back, keeping her face practically neutral, so she wouldn't be the only one suffering. And she decided to swallow it all as fast as possible to get it over with.
"Uh... I think it's fine, it's edible."
She told them, laughing internally the whole time. And so they too started serving themselves and eating.
"~~~"
Lumian began:
"Enjoy."
Liu didn't answer, since she'd already started. And since she wasn't really in the mood.
"Enjoy your meal."
And Milo followed suit. The situation was now reversed — it was no longer Lumian and Milo looking for a reaction from Liu, but Liu looking for a reaction from them.
'...come on! eat!'
But well, she wasn't the least bit subtle about it, even making Milo doubt himself, and he hesitated a little before putting his fork in his mouth.
The sound of chewing could be heard, and without her trauma on the subject even crossing her mind, she was still surprised...
'...did they get a good portion?'
...surprised by the lack of discomfort on the faces of the two victims in front of her.
She hesitated a little, wondering if she was the problem, before asking:
"...so... is it good?..."
'...or do you two just have a taste problem?'
Milo didn't seem to really understand why she was asking that question.
"I've eaten worse."
Lumian, on the other hand, seemed to have understood Liu's ulterior thoughts far too well.
"Don't worry, we don't have any taste problem, it's just that you're not used to it yet."
'Used to what?...'
"~~~"
Without even looking at her plate, Liu stared at Lumian as if to demand an answer.
While Milo, who already seemed used to this kind of situation, continued eating.
"Used to what?... You want me to give you the answer? Or are you going to think about it yourself like a big girl?"
Lumian's responses to Liu's thoughts irritated her greatly, but they still made her think...
'...like a big girl...'
...even though she was still fixating on certain things, especially after what had happened.
'...by the way, how did he guess my question? Can he read my mind?...'
And of course, Liu, being the great thinker she was, asked herself the questions absolutely necessary to every situation.
'...it doesn't seem that impossible for him... no wait, actually it was just easy to guess the question I'd ask myself...'
Finding the answers to these questions absolutely necessary, she completely forgot her surroundings and continued her train of thought.
'...is that logical? He said I wasn't used to it yet... and the logical next step is for me to wonder what I'm not used to...'
"~~~"
She nodded unconsciously, reaching a conclusion absolutely necessary to this whole situation.
"Pfff..."
But Liu's satisfaction was swept away by a stifled laugh from Lumian. Bringing her back in front of her plate.
"...seriously, just think about the new things you're not used to."
Hearing that, Liu lowered her eyes and blushed a little.
'...darn it, I'm doing everything wrong today...'
Looking at the salad she'd made, she immediately started asking herself the right questions this time.
'...I'm not used to... these weird vegetables, and...'
The answers coming straight away and really easily.
"...is it the deconserved food that I'm not used to?"
Milo stopped eating — having practically already finished his plate — looking completely lost about the conversation.
Lumian, on the other hand, picked his fork back up and went on with the salad, clearly not wanting to answer.
"Honestly yeah, you deconserved the mania and that all-blue mushroom-whatever pretty badly. But the rest is fine."
Milo answered Liu, in the way he'd understood the conversation...
"Anyway, everyone deconserves a few things badly from time to time, it's just normal."
...and immediately went back to his meal.
"~~~"
'...oh so it's normal?... so it's fine, I didn't do anything crazy...'
Milo's answer, which was surprisingly not too far from the real subject of the conversation, relieved Liu somewhat of the weight of her shame.
But, still playing his not-so-nice jerk role, Lumian completely shattered her relief.
"Yeah well, go tell that to all the vegetables that ended up in the trash."
And Liu, unable to hold back this time, let her thoughts slip out in a slightly shaky voice...
"It's fine, I only wasted like... three quarters... roughly? Out of just thirty or so..."
...and she immediately regretted her words, blushing with shame afterward, she fixed her gaze on her salad once more, fleeing the situation as best she could.
"Haha, that was truly entertaining..."
Having finished his plate, Lumian added another layer to the ridiculousness of Liu's words, but in the end, he explained everything there was to explain:
"...in any case, the deconservation isn't the problem here. I'm sure you just find the taste strange because you've never eaten these vegetables before, and you're not used to how they look, which, yeah, is honestly strange the first time you see them."
He set his cutlery down on his plate, and finished speaking...
"You didn't even take the time to ask yourself whether you liked the taste or not. You were just unconsciously influenced by how the vegetables looked."
...with two sentences that rendered Liu's reflections more or less pointless.
"....."
The subject had taken a completely different direction, but Liu was in no way lost...
'...that's true, what did it taste like again?'
...at the same time, she was the subject of the conversation.
And in the end, she picked her fork back up and truly started her meal.
Swallowing her first real bite, mixing the weird blue mushroom-whatever with a bit of pinkish salad and another small, oddly-shaped vegetable.
She noticed that:
'...the texture is strange, but it doesn't make me want to throw up...'
And taking another bite, this time mixing the rest of the vegetables making up the salad.
She noticed that:
'...it's actually pretty good...'
"There's more left, so help yourself if you want."
Lumian pushed the salad bowl toward Liu, so she could serve herself again, given the small amount she'd taken.
She nodded in response, and without her even noticing...
Splat!
'....!'
"Who wants water?"
...Milo had gone to fetch water from the kitchen, and the way he set down the pitcher made Liu jump.
"~~~"
Before Liu could answer.
"Serve us. Slave."
Lumian pulled out something absolutely wild with a truly, like, truly irritating face. Liu wanted to hit him even though she wasn't even the one being addressed.
'...he really has mental issues... it must be old age...'
Milo froze on hearing that, still standing, his hand holding the pitcher...
"....."
...he ignored Lumian and served Liu even though she hadn't asked for anything. Then he sat down in silence and crossed his arms.
"Come on, chill, I was joking."
Milo, still ignoring Lumian, turned his head toward Liu to sulk.
And in response, Lumian, quite set on getting himself served a drink, poked at Milo's brand-new sensitivity.
"You know, it's not your fault your uncle never taught you good manners, or how to cook for yourself. Honestly, being taken care of isn't a choice, it's a fate."
Liu was set aside this time, she'd served herself more salad, and had continued her meal while drinking the water Milo had poured her.
'...he's really laying it on thick...'
"Seriously, what does my uncle have to do with any of this? And besides, it's not like it was his job to teach me good manners or how to cook. Is it?"
Lumian rolled his eyes up at the ceiling and sighed, deliberately provoking Milo, before answering.
"You know, it's not a big deal if a kid like Liu is more polite and cooks better than you... It's not your fault."
'...huh!'
Still eating, Liu felt like something shady was going on.
But Milo, for his part, had been provoked just a bit too much to keep his calm.
"Ha! What do you mean she's more polite than me?? Sure, fine, she cooks better than me, but there's no way she's more polite than me."
'...what do I have to do with this conversation??'
This time without saying a word, Lumian opened his eyes wide and shot Milo a scornful look, saying something like: you're being a little too sure of yourself.
"~~~"
And that look made Milo go on lashing out at Liu. Without looking in her direction, he spoke to Lumian, pointing her out in a roundabout way with a few hand gestures.
"No, seriously, she's super arrogant even while being ignorant about most things, she's violent and she insults people easily. That's the very definition of a brat."
'.....??'
So... the conversation had been turned toward Liu... and since Lumian kept throwing the same look at Milo, the result was that Milo went on:
"She was so confident and arrogant when she arrived at the storeroom, and she kept acting all proud even after messing up with the vegetables. Seriously, no..."
He changed his voice and made an annoying face...
"If you've never cooked before, just let me do it and teach you."
'Hey!!'
...then he dropped the sarcastic voice and the annoying face, to finally finish his sentence.
"...that's what she said... Pfff... and on top of that she's so stubborn she didn't let me deconserve a single ingredient, and I wasn't even allowed to help her make the salad, since she supposedly..."
He finished with an exaggerated air-quotes gesture with his fingers. And stressing his voice on the last word:
"...was too embarrassed!"
"I never said that!! Or talked in that voice!"
Even though she knew Lumian had redirected the conversation toward her, Liu couldn't just stay silent after so much injustice. And despite still feeling embarrassed, she wanted to defend herself anyway.
"~~~"
"Oh come on, don't be such a baby..."
But before Milo could answer, Lumian cut in with an authoritative voice right in the middle of the conversation...
"Hey! Calm down, you two, you're not going to fight over something this small, are you?"
...he said, as if he weren't the one who'd started all of this.
"....."
"Anyway, I didn't ask, but what's a slave? And how do you two know what that is?"
On top of that, he redirected the conversation in a whole other direction as if nothing had happened.
'Why is he changing the subject again?'
Not knowing what else to do, Liu just kept eating in silence, giving up on defending herself and, despite herself, thinking over Lumian's questions.
"What's with these questions out of nowhere?"
Muttered Milo. For once, he too seemed visibly thrown off by Lumian's attitude.
'...he didn't just pull them out of nowhere...'
In any case, Lumian had more or less managed to completely steer the conversation exactly where he wanted...
'...was that done on purpose?'
...maybe.
Liu doubted Lumian's intentions:
"Why are you asking us these questions?"
The same went for Milo. Almost at the same time, he asked his own question too:
"What does that have to do with our conversation?"
But well, Liu, being the great thinker that she was, had gone further than Milo in her deductions.
"~~~"
Lumian, all smiles, looked strangely satisfied with Liu and Milo's questions. But he answered all the same...
"Just answer my questions, or you won't get dessert."
...with a threat...
'...seems like whenever he asks us something, there's always a catch attached...'
Liu wasn't really bothered by Lumian's answer. She'd nearly finished her plate, so she kept eating, waiting for Milo's response.
"Tch!"
Milo, on the other hand, was bothered, and he showed it before giving his answer, not wanting to give up the dessert he'd been looking forward to for a while.
"A slave... is basically the same thing as a servant, just ruder. And I only learned the word from reading manga."
Despite Milo's answer, which clearly showed his displeasure, Lumian nodded in response and turned to Liu, waiting for her answer.
'...me too?'
Finishing her last bite, she answered with a:
"Same."
...before finishing her glass of water right after.
And Lumian, having gotten his answers, stood up and asked:
"What do you two want for dessert?"
He didn't wait for their answer and started heading toward the storeroom. Not leaving Liu any time to think about what she wanted among all the strange desserts she'd seen earlier.
"I want the last piece of palia."
'....?'
Milo answered right away, pressuring Liu even more. So she answered quickly but with a bit of hesitation:
"Uh... the pink thing in the cup with yao... something written on it, I can't remember!"
"~~~"
Lumian disappeared into the storeroom the very next second, leaving Liu a bit of time to go back to her earlier train of thought.
'...I don't get it...'
"It's yogurt, not yao."
But Milo cut her off. She just nodded, a little embarrassed by everything that had happened today.
"By the way, did you figure out why he asked us those questions and all that?"
Milo, for his part, had gone back to normal as usual, not the least bit bothered by what had happened.
'...how does he do that?'
According to Liu, he was surprisingly mature, she found the contrast rather pleasant.
"I don't really know, I don't see what the word slave has to do with our training..."
Clack.
Before she could keep talking, Lumian came back from the storeroom and set their desserts down in front of Liu and Milo, then sat right down with his own dessert in hand, placing a spoon in the middle of the table.
"You're going to have to deconserve it the right way if you don't want your dessert to end up inedible."
Being, without a doubt, the subject of that sentence, Liu didn't immediately understand what he meant.
'...deconserve a cup?'
"Desserts get deconserved too?"
Nodding, Lumian went straight ahead and opened the lid of his... yogurt cup, a different one from Liu's, and picked up his spoon and started eating.
'He already deconserved it??... so that's what the spoon is for...'
"All resources that can spoil are conserved by the family that manages the resources."
Opening his own dessert, which looked like a cereal bar, Milo answered without being asked. He'd surely gotten used to doing that by now.
'.....'
"~~~"
"...does it get deconserved the same way as the vegetables?"
And, honestly still bothered by the whole idea of deconservation, Liu asked a question she already knew the answer to.
"Yeah, anything that can spoil and gets conserved is either put in a container, like your dessert, or under packaging like the vegetables. And to deconserve them, you just have to open the packaging with a bit of energy while visualizing the process."
'....'
Milo's answers were genuinely precise and thorough for once, taking Liu completely by surprise.
'...why does he know so much about this? Is he part of that resources family or something?...'
Curious as she was, she nodded in response to Milo's explanations and placed her hand on the lid of her dessert...
"...but, how am I supposed to visualize the process when I don't even know what it is?"
Tock.
Lumian set his spoon down on the table — he'd already finished his dessert — and while Milo was starting his, he explained to Liu how to do it.
"You don't really need to know the exact process for every single food, otherwise it'd mean that every time you don't know a food, chances are you'll deconserve it wrong. That'd be dumb."
'Mhmh.'
He shot a quick glance at Milo, for some not-so-clear reason. Before continuing.
"Conservation is done differently depending on each food or perishable resource, that part's true. But the process of conservation itself is fundamentally simple..."
While speaking, he picked up the lid of his dessert and closed the cup back up.
"...you can think of it as a stop in time for each resource, at just the right moment."
'...time? Seriously?'
He tapped a few times on the lid as he continued his explanation.
"~~~"
"Deconservation is just a matter of timing. That timing obviously depends on the resource and how it was conserved. But the energy you use to deconserve is what serves that purpose... activate your energy perception."
Which Liu did, extremely focused on Lumian's actions, without even noticing that the music had stopped.
'...so I need to cover the lid with my energy?...'
Visibly, or rather, perceptibly, Lumian had covered the lid with his energy.
"With your energy, you show that you have the intention to deconserve the resource..."
Which he did, apparently, without Liu being able to really make out the difference.
'Is something happening?'
"...in response to your intention, the conservation process reacts in the form of a release, and the moment of that release..."
The moment of that release was fairly noticeable, visually — much like the lid opening — audibly too?
"...is the moment when you can open the packaging or the container."
Deactivating her energy perception, Liu paused for a moment, replaying in her mind what had just happened...
'Mm... that seems pretty simple...'
...before trying to do it for her own dessert, right after forgetting what she'd just watched.
"I'll try!"
She said out loud to focus herself. She reactivated her perception and began.
'...the energy...'
She covered the lid with her energy.
'...the intention...'
She sent her intention to eat this dessert through her energy.
'...the reac...!'
Faster than she'd expected, the release of the conservation energy occurred.
Splat!
And she flung the lid open with a sudden, exaggerated motion...
"Whoa!"
...nearly toppling off her chair. Steadying herself, she deactivated her perception, only to see Lumian cracking up at her.
"Pfff..."
'...what a crappy day...'
Checking on Milo, to see if he too had an unpleasant look on his face, she found him lost in thought, his dessert already finished.
He opened his mouth and asked:
"Uh... so conservation is just a stop in time? That depends on how each resource or food spoils... something like that?"
Liu's excitement and confidence after getting Lumian's explanation had completely made her forget any inconsistencies or questions she would otherwise have had.
'...is he still on this?... anyway, I guess he's not part of that family after all...'
But Milo, for his part, had thought it over while she'd been deconserving her dessert.
"No, not really, what I explained was just to simplify the deconservation part. You could say there's a stop in time during the conservation process, but that stop in time is only a consequence of the process itself. Mmh..."
Listening to Lumian's explanation, Liu started on her dessert too, taking the spoon in the middle of the table and tasting it.
'...that sounds hard to explain... Mm! It's really good!...'
"...conservation itself is just the slowing down of a resource's deterioration, until that deterioration is stopped, more or less completely. But it's not a stop in time itself, it's a stop in that resource's life."
As always, the way Lumian phrased his explanations was complicated.
And still eating her dessert, Liu started trying to understand what he meant.
'...so, I need to tell time apart from life?...'
"To stop a resource's life, you need to know how it works, how it grows, ages, dies... Once you roughly understand that process, you use your energy to slow it down to a certain point. Hhaa..."
He sighed for some unknown reason, taking a small pause, before finishing his explanation. Maybe to give Liu and Milo a chance to jump in.
'...makes sense... but I don't get it...'
Since she hadn't understood, she checked on Milo...
'...as expected...'
...who didn't seem to fully understand either.
"...Well, the full explanations are a lot more complex. But either way, it's not something you can learn in an instant with a few explanations."
Milo, lost in thought, clearly had no intention of continuing. So Liu finished her dessert...
'...makes sense...'
...and giving up on understanding this whole concept of conservation and deconservation, she made room for her curiosity instead.
"But anyway, can't you just stop time inside the packaging to conserve the resource?"
Lumian rolled his eyes up at the ceiling for real this time, clearly too lazy to answer that.
But he formulated a quick answer anyway:
"It's possible, but for that you'd need to understand how time itself works, and that's a lot harder and broader than just understanding how a given resource's life or time works..."
Liu nodded and kept looking at Lumian, waiting for the rest, which he resigned himself to putting into words.
"...basically, it's possible, but it'd cost way too much energy for most people. Restoring the balance that your lack of understanding leaves in the process of your action, is what consumes the most energy."
'...huh!'
Surprised by the rest of his explanation, and by the fact that Lumian had just gotten up to go somewhere, leaving curious Liu behind. She exclaimed:
"Wait! I didn't understand any of that..."
And Lumian answered quickly.
"Either way, it's too complex for you two right now. This afternoon I'll explain the basics. That'll be better."
Clack.
He left the room, out toward the outside of the carriage. Leaving Liu and Milo in the confusion of a subject that was supposed to be a simple everyday action.
'.....'
Turning toward Milo, Liu met his gaze.
And, still not having noticed that the music had stopped, they both asked themselves the same question at the same moment:
"Did you understand any of that?"
———
But does the complexity of everyday things stop them from staying simple?
———