B4 - Chapter 4 - Feast of Flavors

Very quickly, the room filled with a pleasant aroma of garlic and herbs, along with the unmistakable scent of fresh bread.

"Sounds like you're having quite the fun conversation," Paige said with an amused smile. "I hope you've worked up an appetite."

As if immediately answering her question, there was a light grumbling noise that came from Hana, who now joined Lily in blushing profusely. Evidently, her plan of walking to Kaeling had worked a little too well.

A bowl was placed in front of each guest containing what was now shown to be a soup, the fragrant smell becoming even more pronounced now that it was in front of them. In addition, each person received a plate on the side with freshly sliced bread.

"Right, I'll let you all dig in, so please enjoy," Paige said, leaving the room with Christopher in tow.

"Well, don't wait for us. Judging by our daughter's expression, you both must be famished," Darien said.

Hana wasted no time in grabbing a spoon and digging in, with her parents watching with warm smiles, as if they knew their daughter all too well. Lily followed suit, getting a spoonful of the soup and blowing on it before taking her first taste.

Delicious!

The soup was a silky mushroom soup finished with cream, roasted garlic, and herb oil. The smell alone had set Lily's expectations high, and now the taste had proven it was worth it. She had several spoonfuls before noticing the bread on the side.

Hana had already tried some and was now dipping her bread into the soup to soak some of it up and eating it that way. After Lily broke off a small portion to try on its own, she copied Hana's example and was once again delighted by the flavors. It was a warm honey-oat bread, and while not as complex as the soup, the two went delightfully well together.

After everyone was about halfway through their soups, Selene spoke up. "So, Lily, what can you tell us about yourself? I'd love to hear a bit more about you."

After politely swallowing her food and waiting a moment, Lily responded. "What would you like to know?"

"Hana has told us a bit about you, but mostly about your time in Regarth," Selene explained. "We'd be interested in hearing about some of your time before then. What was growing up like? How were you introduced to magic, glyphs, and such? Whatever you feel comfortable with sharing."

Lily nodded and proceeded to try her best to retell some of her upbringing between mouthfuls of food. She spoke of her upbringing in the orphanage and of her time, for the most part, being sheltered by Margit and Rose due to her poor condition. She hadn't really told this part of her past to Hana, so her friend was quite surprised, as Lily certainly didn't look so sickly anymore.

The group seemed quite fascinated that she didn't start her magical journey the way you'd expect and was actually training to be a simple scribe. Of course, that all changed when she found ancient glyphs in an old book passed down by her mother.

"Hana mentioned that you are Nina's daughter… To think that was what happened to her…" Darien murmured.

"Did you work with her?" Lily asked.

Darien shook his head. "I would've liked to, but she was a bit of a wildcard and never wanted to formally settle down with any of the adventuring organizations. We did meet on a few occasions, and even were in the same dungeon once or twice, but I mostly just followed her career like I would any high-ranking adventurer."

"What was she like?"

"That's a bit hard to describe…" Darien chuckled. "I guess the simplest explanation would be if Alice had double the energy and confidence."

Lily frowned. "She was like Alice…?"

"More like Alice was copying Nina," Darien replied. "It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that every Lagia wanted to be like her, or at the very least looked up to her."

"And not just Lagia, pretty much all of the adventuring Demis did," Hana chimed in.

"It's honestly quite the pleasant surprise to see you so well-mannered. I'll admit when I heard we were meeting with Nina's daughter, I was wondering if we would need a bodyguard or two," Selene said jokingly.

While Darien laughed at his wife's joke, Lily could only halfheartedly chuckle. She wasn't offended by it or saddened by the topic; she just wasn't sure how to feel about any of it. This was someone whom people talked about with awe, but to Lily, she was still a complete stranger. Their only connection was Arakil's grimoire, but it was hard to even see that as her mother's keepsake anymore.

Selene and Darien noticed Lily's attitude, and both apologized, but Lily quickly told them not to worry about it and gingerly explained her feelings on the matter. Darien and Hana seemed to both understand where she was coming from, but Selene looked almost devastated by it.

"Sorry… It's just as a mother, I can't help but feel terrible for her. I suppose the silver lining is that the orphanage raised you well, and that the last treasure she found ended up helping you."

"Speaking of which… I'd love to see that book at some point," Darien said, as if trying to shift the subject.

"Remember, it's not just a book, it's also Lily's Familiar," Hana said sternly.

"I wasn't planning on trying to acquire it, I was just curious if it looked like anything I've seen in the past," Darien said earnestly.

"I've got the book in my pocket, I don't mind showing you," Lily replied.

Darien seemed quite pleased, but before they could proceed further, Paige, Christopher, and Noah entered the room with a much larger serving of trays and food. It appeared the main course had arrived.

The first thing that struck them was the scent of rosemary, followed by the rich scent of perfectly cooked meat and roasted vegetables. The group couldn't help but stare longingly at their dishes in front of them, and the owners couldn't help but chuckle at their reactions.

"I hope the starter left you ready for the main course," Noah said proudly. "Tonight is my rosemary venison loin, served with roasted root vegetables, blackberry reduction, and buttered baby potatoes. Please enjoy."

"Noah, you've certainly outdone yourself. I can see why you don't need the dungeons anymore," Darien said, looking like he wanted to dive right into his food.

"That's not technically true. Some of these ingredients actually come fresh from the Regarth dungeon," Paige replied.

"Really?" Hana asked, looking doubtful. "We've been to the forest a few times, but I've never seen anything that looked this good."

"Thank you for the compliment," Noah chuckled. "But to answer your question seriously, you'll have to go deeper. There are all sorts of different biomes in there, and you never know what you'll find."

"Anyway, enough about that. Your food is getting cold, please eat and enjoy," Paige said before escorting her husband and child out of the room.

"Let's eat first, we can talk again after," Hana said, already reaching for her cutlery.

There were no complaints, and soon all that could be heard was the clink of forks and knives against plates. Lily opted to try some of the roasted vegetables first and was delighted by how fresh and well-prepared they were, savoring every bite.

After that, she tried the venison, and while she would have normally preferred it medium-well, at establishments like this, you had to accept what the chef chose. In this case, it was medium-rare, and she took her first bite without hesitation, the juicy flavors exploding in her mouth.

Contrary to what Arakil thought when he first heard of this world, almost all Demis were omnivores. While they certainly had some physical animal characteristics or features, it wasn't out of the ordinary for them to eat meat from animals. Arakil had actually found this somewhat startling when Lily first told him about this, as he couldn't imagine effectively a "bunny girl" eating rabbit meat.

Lily had actually never tried rabbit, as she had heard from someone that it was gamey and pungent and had been put off as a result. Of course, there were some unavoidable stereotypes that Demis dealt with on the regular, but for the vast majority, it was just a matter of personal preference. For example, Arakil had once, almost jokingly, asked if Lily liked carrots, to which she responded that they were nice but she much preferred strawberries.

Once everyone had had enough time to try every part of their meal, they began casually discussing it and sharing their thoughts. It seemed there were no complaints at all, and everyone was thoroughly enjoying it. About halfway through, Paige came through, refreshed their drinks, and warned them to save some room for dessert.

Rather than our walk here, I should have tried to drain my Mana Core… That would have given me more than enough room.

Lily was definitely feeling a little full, and while it might have been a tiny bit rude, Hana offered to help her clean the plate. Selene lightly scolded her daughter, but Lily ended up accepting the offer, albeit a little reluctantly. Even though she wanted to make sure she could enjoy the dessert, it was hard to part with such delicious food.

Much to everyone's relief, the dessert wasn't brought out immediately, leaving them time to chat and, more importantly, for their stomachs to settle a bit. From there, they resumed their earlier conversation, and Lily took out Arakil's grimoire from her pocket, who was pretending to be unsummoned.

"I'd be very surprised if you've ever seen anything like this book," Hana said to her dad. "I'm pretty sure it's one of a kind."

"I don't doubt that, but you forget I'm also an official appraiser. Even if I can't tell exactly what it was, I could at least get a general idea of anything maybe close to it in age or quality."

Darien then spent some time examining the book and even casting a spell to aid him. However, he seemed only more puzzled by the result he received before handing it back to Lily.

"I can see why they gave it back to you, and nobody swiped it," Darien replied. "I'd swear there was nothing at all special about it, and considering my daughter said you once blocked a fireball with it, that certainly can't be the case."

Lily nodded, and from there she continued where she left off in her story: how she wanted to draw glyphs and ended up working at an alchemy shop as a result. Occasionally, one of them would ask a question to which Lily would try her best to answer, but otherwise, they mostly just listened.

It wasn't that Lily was a master storyteller, but more that her experience was extremely unique and thus oddly compelling. Nobody in the room could say that they'd ever heard of someone's bloodline awakening as a result of working with glyphs, but Lily's had, or so her story described.

Arakil gave me my Mana Core through glyphs, so you could easily say that glyphs awakened my bloodline.

"I can see why you and Rose are so close," Hana said. "I'm a little jealous, since I didn't have an older sibling to play with."

"I think your mother would have a heart attack if you and Rose were growing up together," Darien chuckled. "You were already a handful, I think you two would've just fed into each other until things escalated beyond control."

"Surely I wasn't that bad…"

"Dear… You stole one of your father's swords," Selene said, with a raised eyebrow.

Hana tried to brush it off with a bit of fake laughter, but it was evident that she'd been caught red-handed. There was a bit of a change in pace as the two started reminiscing about Hana's childhood, and the girl was left red in the face with embarrassment as buried stories came to light.

Much to Hana's relief, Paige came to her rescue along with the final meal for the evening—dessert! It was a smooth, creamy dessert, pale ivory in color, molded into a dome-like shape that seemed to quiver ever so slightly. It looked like it had been drizzled with honey, and on the side were a mix of fresh berries, including several strawberries. Lily's eyes went wide and were especially drawn to the pinkish-red delights.

"I've never seen a dessert like this before…" Hana admitted, staring at it in amazement.

"It's a honey lavender panna cotta," Paige explained. "I probably shouldn't say this, but it's actually not too many ingredients. Basically, heavy cream, sugar, some mountain lavender, and then the toppings. It's one of Christopher's favorites, which is why he's not here with me now, or he might've tried something."

Hana's parents softly laughed while nodding at Paige's words, as if they perfectly understood what she was going through. Before she left, she asked if anyone wanted tea with their dessert, and everyone said yes.

Finally, with her mouth watering, Lily got her chance to try it and was enraptured by the sugary delight. Paige had said it was simple, but the combination of sweetness and the unexpected texture sent Lily over the moon. Hana seemed to also be in bliss, and the two adults in the room seemed to be enjoying the pair's reactions before finally touching their own.

Not much was said during this time, although to Lily's surprise, she ended up receiving two extra strawberries from Hana. Lily had devoured hers first, and seeing this, her friend decided to give her a few more. Maybe as thanks for earlier, or maybe as a result of her early bit of gluttony.

When Lily ate the last spoonful of her dessert, she couldn't help but stare longingly at the empty plate, as if wishing she could magically make more appear. Sadly, she was an astral and glyph mage, not a pudding mage, so her plate remained barren as she sipped on her honeyed tea.

*****

Author's Note: I apologize to anyone I've accidentally made hungry. :D