Sweet Hong Yeonhwa
Sweet Hong Yeonhwa
No matter how troubled my mind was, I still had to prepare for the housewarming.
Even if my feelings were complicated, I couldn't just put off what I had to do and go dig a hole and hide in it.
I trudged out of the study.
'...It's huge.'
The mansion's kitchen I found was... more accurately described as a culinary lab.
It wasn't just any small cooking space.
It was the largest and best-equipped kitchen I'd ever seen.
How much would this kitchen cost? I was almost afraid of the answer.
'The condition... I could use it right now.'
I inspected it meticulously using Observation, but there wasn't a single flaw to nitpick.
'What's this? A steak broiler? A salamander for quickly searing the top?'
There were many unfamiliar cooking tools I was seeing for the first time. By quickly analyzing their internal structures and magic formulas, I understood how to use them right away.
The cleanliness was impeccable, and the tools were even more diverse and higher quality than the ones I had brought.
It was the same for most of the mansion's facilities.
By my guess, it had been decades since anyone lived here, yet all the equipment was top-of-the-line and cutting-edge. The condition and cleanliness were excellent.
'...Haah.'
I finished a quick survey of the surroundings and tidied things up.
After setting everything up for cooking, I began preparing the food.
- Tak-tak-tak-tak!
Vegetables and meat were chopped into chunks to a steady rhythm.
I didn't hold a knife in my hand.
As always, the Sky Wing Feather, one of the best choices of my life, acted as my hands.
A Sky Wing Feather honed to a blade trimmed the ingredients, and another Sky Wing Feather of a different shape placed the prepped ingredients into cooking tools.
Managing the cooking tools and ingredients was also done by the Sky Wing Feather.
The scene unfolded as if it were the most natural thing in the world in this spacious kitchen.
I cast a simple preservation spell on the food I'd prepared swiftly through countless simultaneous tasks. The Sky Wing Feather gently lifted it and moved it to the dining table.
Plates and bowls settled onto the table one by one.
The variety of food was vast, each dish sending up soft wisps of warm steam as if showing off its freshly cooked state.
Taste varies wildly from person to person. I roughly knew the guests' palates for this housewarming, but I made a variety just in case of any dislikes.
'Most importantly, they all eat a lot.'
A superhuman's body demands a huge amount of energy. Since their physical capabilities are on a different level, the calories they consume are vastly different too.
To meet that energy demand, they have to eat a lot.
'The people coming to the housewarming are... Master, Professor Liana, Baek A-rin, and... Senior Lee Ji-yeon.'
There are eight participants including myself. Six of them are high-level superhumans, and one is a fairy knight in the middle of her growth period. I'm a hybrid who doesn't know if he's human or fairy.
Whatever the case, even a table fit to buckle under the weight of the food might not be enough.
Even Ellia and Professor Liana, who don't exert themselves physically, easily eat several servings.
Those in professions that use their bodies intensely... Hong Yeon-hwa, Master, Baek A-rin, and Lee Ji-yeon eat much more than that.
Their meal portions explained exactly why superhumans all had such great figures.
Without that kind of diet, it was clear they couldn't maintain such voluptuous figures or large muscle mass.
Therefore, the spread for this housewarming had to be prepared in much larger quantities.
Two hands weren't enough, so I mobilized the Sky Wing Feather.
My real hands weren't idle either.
I gathered mana into both hands held before my chest. Pure white mana oozed from them, clinging stickily.
'Manifest, Calamity Flame.'
- Fwoosh...!
The moment I infused my Innate Talent into it, flames ignited using the mana as firewood.
This was my own Innate Talent, not a Calamity Flame imitated through Homogenization.
'Using it like this...'
I carefully fiddled with and controlled the Calamity Flame clinging to both hands.
Originally, Calamity Flame is difficult to use as a cooking fire.
Its output is so strong it burns ingredients without a trace, and controlling that is incredibly difficult.
- Fwoosh...
The fiercely blazing Calamity Flame subsided to a low flame.
When I gently brought the Calamity Flame cradled in both hands to the bottom of the stew pot, it clung to the pot without issue.
The movement was incredibly gentle. It was almost enough to create the illusion of a bird wrapping around its own egg.
'It's easy to manipulate.'
I observed the Calamity Flame with a strange expression.
This Calamity Flame wasn't imitated by Homogenization. It wasn't created by compiling Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame, the flames of those I observed in the Calamity Flame Family, and... the unidentified Calamity Flame I'd experienced before.
It was a unique Calamity Flame that had settled and bloomed within me.
They say it's an inherited-type unique ability, but there are naturally differences between each manifester.
The changes my Calamity Flame underwent through the trial made those differences even more distinct.
For a flame that could easily burn a person to death with a single splash, it was outwardly incredibly beautiful.
It had a fascinating atmosphere that made you wonder if it might save people rather than killing them.
The orange-tinted flame, paler than the original crimson, flickered as if dancing, making my expression even stranger.
'For me, the output actually increased and manipulation became easier, so I like it...'
Manipulating the Calamity Flame also became easier.
If it used to be a vicious bastard of a dog ready to bare its teeth at any moment, now the change was so drastic it felt like a gentle puppy rolling over on its back and wagging its tail happily.
Thanks to that, I could casually mobilize the Calamity Flame even just to cook food like this.
'Didn't they say food cooked with Calamity Flame tastes better?'
Food cooked with Calamity Flame was said to be tastier.
Especially food needing a smoky fire flavor... like meat dishes, they said it's much better.
Ever since I saw Hong Yeon-hwa, who already loves meat dishes, going absolutely crazy over it, I've been using Calamity Flame to cook every time.
'Come to think of it, I think I saw a line saying ramen boiled with Azure Sea tastes better too.'
I remembered a similar line from the original.
Was it the 1st Iteration? When I was moving as a party in a dungeon, I recalled a Status Window message saying the sense of fullness increased after eating ramen made with Azure Sea.
'I should ask Baek A-rin for a taste test later.'
- Fwoooosh...
It was while I was in the middle of cooking like that.
As if to prove that Calamity Flame was still Calamity Flame no matter how gentle, it elevated my emotions and tapped at past memories.
Of course, there was a difference from before.
If it used to feel like it was maliciously grabbing the dirty memories by the hair and yanking them up, now it felt like it was gently coaxing and soothing, leading me by the hand to re-appreciate good memories.
▶Agapanthus: Hello? 【No. 1 Shut-In Idiot】?
▶Me: Why are you insulting me?
▶Agapanthus: Huh?
They were definitely good memories. But they weren't something I especially wanted to recall right now.
My movements stopped abruptly for a moment.
- ... Blub, blub, blub, blub
I resumed moving at the sound of boiling water and cooking meat.
The monitor screen that used to light up a dark room suddenly popped into my head.
▶Agapanthus: Did you sleep well last night?
▶Me: Yes
...
▶Agapanthus: For your health at least, don't skip meals.
▶Me: Okay
...
▶Agapanthus: <Super Easy Meal Kit Fried Rice 10-pack> This is cheap and tasty
▶Agapanthus: If you really can't be bothered to cook, at least get something like this to eat
▶Me: Thank you
...
▶Agapanthus: And open your windows regularly,
▶Agapanthus: Or if you hate that, at least get an air purifier.
▶Me: Thanks for worrying about me
...
[Contact Change Agapanthus▷Kkonnim]
...
▶Kkonnim: Hey you didn't eat again?
▶Kkonnim: Come on, please
▶Kkonnim: Eat some breakfast
▶Kkonnim: You keep that up and you'll seriously collapse and die
▶Me: I'm already full
▶Me: (emoji of a puppy collapsed on the floor, panting)
▶Kkonnim: I might seriously track down your house and break the door down
▶Kkonnim: Hurry up and heat the thing I recommended last time
▶Me: Hmph
▶Me: Can't we just go play a game of Omok instead?
▶Kkonnim: Nope, hurry
'Kkonnim...'
An internet friend.
A person who suddenly struck up a conversation with a message one day, and for some reason acted like we were close.
At first, I was suspicious and either ignored them or gave curt replies, but... before I knew it, we'd grown close.
'Agapanthus.'
I heard it was a type of flower. Depending on the classification, it includes six to ten species.
It mostly blooms in summer. The flower is funnel-shaped, mostly purple, but there are also white or bluish varieties.
I tried growing it on my apartment veranda once, and it wasn't a particularly difficult plant, so I managed to raise it fairly well.
There were a lot blooming in this mansion's park too. I don't pay them any mind. Lots of other flowers are blooming along with them. I had no reason to be fixated on an Agapanthus alone.
There was an Agapanthus flower in the Vice Headmaster's office. It bloomed prettily in a pot and was quite well-maintained.
An Agapanthus flower also blooms in the study of the mansion where the Headmaster is said to have lived. It was a fresh flower full of vitality, as some subtle magic was applied to it.
The figure from the study I observed there looked exactly like the person I'd pushed away to save in my previous world.
'......'
My mind tangled into complicated knots.
A few words lined up and drifted through my head. The words connected haphazardly, spinning out various hypotheses.
They were still just hypotheses, nothing confirmed, but it didn't feel pleasant at all.
'Stupidly...'
Even I thought the hypothesis was idiotic.
So what if the other party approached me deliberately?
Aren't all people like that? Didn't I myself recently approach Baize with the intention of getting close to him?
If my hypothesis was correct... Kkonnim had simply done the same.
My feeling hurt was... nothing but a double standard.
Realizing that made my mood sink even further. The blazing Calamity Flame also became dejected and lost its vigor.
"Why'd you get all gloomy again?"
"Hek...!"
As I was standing there blankly finishing the cooking, a hand rested on my waist.
* * *
"Huh?"
Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been wandering blankly through the mansion, suddenly stopped in her tracks.
The scent that subtly tickled her nose was quite potent.
A spicy and sweet... meat smell.
"Ah, he said he was cooking."
Lee Ha-yul had suggested having dinner together as part of the housewarming.
So he said he needed to prepare a lot of food and disappeared in a flash, asking us to wait a little.
'I'm hungry...'
Maybe because the smell had stimulated her, Hong Yeon-hwa suddenly felt a pang of hunger.
Soon clutching her rumbling stomach, she looked around.
Indeed, it was the time in the evening when she would normally have picked up her spoon.
'Should I have just gone to help him...? No, if I'd followed, I would've just been in the way.'
Hong Yeon-hwa had no particular talent for cooking.
Her skills were limited to rough field cooking.
And even that wasn't a skill for making food delicious, but just a skill for making it edible for people.
That wouldn't help Lee Ha-yul, who was trying to make a tasty meal.
Besides that, the only things Hong Yeon-hwa could do were set the spoons or trim the ingredients...
- Swish-swish-swish-swish!
- "...What's that?"
- "Ah, it's an artifact. It's much faster doing it this way."
The artifact Lee Ha-yul carried around was far better at that.
That winged garment split apart like tentacles and handled everything from ladles to knives, performing every role. It was utterly absurd.
She already knew his mana manipulation skill was beyond common sense, but to think he could even handle an artifact that way...
"Hoo."
In the end, even stripped of a helping role by an artifact, Hong Yeon-hwa had to quietly make herself scarce because she'd just be in the way.
But now she was hungry.
Hong Yeon-hwa moved her steps towards the source of the smell, rubbing her empty stomach.
- Fwoosh...
"Huh?"
And so, she arrived at the kitchen and could see Lee Ha-yul.
The huge kitchen, as if matching the mansion's grandeur, was bustling.
The winged garment artifact was busily moving, making and transporting food.
A sight you'd rarely see even for money didn't enter her field of vision.
Instead, what she saw was Lee Ha-yul's back, wrapped in a strangely bitter mood.
"......"
She moved her feet and stood behind Lee Ha-yul.
Despite her openly revealed presence, Lee Ha-yul was distracted by something, hands resting blankly in the air, cooking food using only the artifact.
And conveniently, the artifact was floating in the air a little apart from Lee Ha-yul.
"Why'd you get all gloomy again?"
"Hek...!"
"Whoops?"
Since he wasn't cooking manually, she slipped her arms around him from behind, and he even jolted in surprise.
Lee Ha-yul, who had trembled as if shocked by electricity, turned his head and met Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes.
He was trying to hide it, but Lee Ha-yul's face held a subtle hint of hurt and loneliness. Under it, the pure white apron he was wearing filled Hong Yeon-hwa's gaze.
"Yeo, Yeon-hwa? Wait a second... I'm in the middle of cooking..."
When Hong Yeon-hwa kept her mouth shut, Lee Ha-yul's eyes gently drooped as if troubled.
He turned off the cooking tools that were still running and gently patted the hand Hong Yeon-hwa had wrapped around him.
And then, as if it had just occurred to him, he smiled a gentle smile and spoke.
"I made a lot of the meat dishes you like. Just wait a little bit longer...?!"
This almost felt like he was the one doing the seducing.
She kept one arm wrapped around Lee Ha-yul and used her other hand to grab his chin and gently lift it up.
Keeping him like that, she lowered her head and overlapped their lips.
"Mmph...!"
For a brief moment, his eyes flew wide open at the sudden action, but soon Lee Ha-yul comfortably leaned his body against Hong Yeon-hwa.
As if finding it awkward instead, he even stood on his tiptoes and subtly pushed out his lips.
"Smack..."
The lingering loneliness that had subtly surrounded him began to wash away, and Lee Ha-yul's face, melting into affection, was revealed.
"Hmph."
'He's so damn cute.'
Only then did Hong Yeon-hwa let out a satisfied laugh and strengthen the arm she had wrapped around him.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Hong Yeon-hwa
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♡ (91▷92/100)
｢Affection｣ ｢Guilt｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Warmth｣ ｢Stability｣