The Signature Braised Ribs
All the dishes received thunderous praise, but the one the children's hands kept reaching for most was Anna's signature braised short ribs, marinated in her special homemade sauce. The thick, sticky seasoning clung tenaciously to the meat's surface. Its subtle, never-overpowering sweetness was so addictive it kept drawing hands back for more.
It's definitely made with fruit. Arina rolled the sauce she'd scooped onto a spoon around her mouth, analyzing the ingredients. There's apple for sure, but the pear... I'm not quite certain. Still, with these coarse particles I can feel, it seems like a lot of minced garlic went in. Did they grate onion into it as well?
True to her status as a nine-dan homemaker running an entire household at the age of twelve, Arina meticulously broke down every ingredient. Yet no matter how many times she tried to recreate the flavor in her mind, something felt two percent lacking.
"Um..."
After pondering for a long while without finding the answer, Arina cautiously tapped Anna on the arm.
"This is so incredibly delicious. If it's not too much trouble, could you possibly share the recipe with me?"
"Of course."
What trouble? She could share something like that anytime. Anna nodded willingly at Arina's request and began explaining everything from the ingredients to the exact ratios.
"Ah, so that subtle note I kept tasting was kiwi?"
"That's right. If you could pressure-cook it for a long time, tenderizing wouldn't be an issue, but we don't have that kind of time. So I just added a bit more kiwi than usual."
Arina nodded as she carefully recorded every word in the memo app on her smartphone. She was already thinking how happy her uncle would be if she made this for him on the weekend.
"So Arina cooks at home too?"
"Yes, I quite enjoy it."
"There's some sauce left over from this batch. Would you like to take it with you?"
"Really? Thank you so much!"
Watching the bright smile bloom across the girl's face, Anna unconsciously reached out and gently stroked her hair.
Maybe I should have had one more daughter?
She loved her energetic, always-playing son, but having a daughter to share these warm, peaceful conversations with didn't sound bad at all. She'd sworn after the agony of giving birth to Andy that she wouldn't have another child, yet these occasional thoughts made her realize she was simply an ordinary mother after all.
Tap tap!
Right in the middle of her conversation with Arina, someone lightly knocked against Anna's leg from beneath her chair.
"Ba!"
"Oh my, Andy, did you wake up?"
Andy approached with half-lidded eyes that proved he'd just risen from sleep and offered his signature greeting. After greeting his mother first, he walked right past his father Hemming and headed straight for Togun, who sat beside him.
"Ba!"
And just like always, Andy climbed up into the seat next to Togun. Togun smiled and stroked the boy's head while glancing at Hemming, who had frozen solid at being so blatantly ignored by his own son.
"You're up?"
"Yeah!"
"Hungry?"
"Not yet!"
"Then shall we eat together?"
"Yeah! Let's eat!"
Togun took out a fresh pair of chopsticks and fed Andy a piece of rolled omelet. The boy chewed it happily, looking exactly like a baby bird accepting food from its mother.
"Is that Andy?"
Watching them, Marily suddenly leaned in with eyes full of curiosity.
"......"
Andy didn't avoid her gaze. Instead he stared straight into her shimmering blue eyes. Like looking in a mirror, when Marily tilted her head right, he tilted left, and when she tilted left, he followed by tilting right.
"Pretty eyes!"
Soon he broke into a bright smile and reached out toward her. Marily took his tiny hand and nodded, clearly pleased.
"You have a good eye."
To identify her best feature at a single glance. For someone so young, his powers of observation were remarkably sharp.
"Still, don't fall for me too deeply. I prefer older men over younger ones."
"Terminal princess syndrome, I see."
"Since I'm an actual princess, it doesn't really matter, does it?"
Marily shot Jeon a sharp glare at his remark. Did that ice block not know the difference between jokes and sincerity? Or was he simply desperate to pick a fight with her no matter what? If it was the latter, she had no intention of backing down. While her magic power might not match Arina's, she possessed a special power called authority that no one could rival.
"Nice to meet you, Andy."
Marily turned away from Jeon, who had indifferently ignored her piercing look, and faced the boy.
"I am Marily Raymond. You may call me Sister Marily."
Since he was the son of an academy alumnus, she would graciously permit him to address her as sister. Marily puffed out her chest as she spoke. But perhaps because he was still so young, he didn't fully grasp how significant the offer was. After tilting his head this way and that for a moment, Andy soon beamed and answered in a loud voice.
"Yeah! Sister Marily!"
"......!"
It was the pure, innocent reply of a child. Completely different from those cunning noble children already equipped with adult calculation through early education. Precisely because of that, its destructive power was exceptional. It felt similar to how she felt when looking at Arina.
"Yes, make sure you never lose that purity of yours."
"Yeah!"
Even though he probably didn't fully understand what Marily said while stroking his head, Andy answered with energetic vigor. Then he looked around, searching for his next target. After Togun and Marily, the person whose eyes he met was Professor Karlsen.
"......"
Was it strange that the man kept eating with his head lowered even after he'd arrived? Andy stared intently at the top of Professor Karlsen's head for a long time.
"Hm?"
Finally sensing the gaze, Professor Karlsen lifted his head. The moment their eyes met, Andy suddenly began to hiccup.
The heavy dark circles under his eyes. His hollow cheeks, as if everything he'd eaten had vanished somewhere. The bony wrists visible beneath his sleeves and his uniquely gloomy aura made him look exactly like the ghosts Andy had only imagined.
"Oh dear. It seems our little gentleman was quite startled by my face."
He had kept his head down and focused only on eating precisely to avoid this. Yet he'd accidentally made eye contact.
"Don't be too frightened. I may look like this, but I'm not a bad person. I'm a good dark mage."
"Dark mage!"
In the fairy tales children of this age usually read, dark mages appeared quite frequently. A girl in a red hood eaten by a wolf enslaved by a dark mage on her way to grandmother's house. Or siblings lost in the forest discovering a witch's candy cottage, entering in a daze, and facing being devoured. Considering how few truly evil dark mages actually consumed human flesh, it was a rather unfair stereotype, but even the dark mages themselves couldn't deny that the subject made for the perfect villain in children's stories.
"Hmm."
Wrong choice of words. Seeing Andy go from hiccuping to full-body trembling, Professor Karlsen scratched his cheek awkwardly.
How should I fix this?
Should he loudly declare that he didn't eat children? No. That would only make things worse. Nothing he said right now would carry any credibility with Andy.
Thus, Professor Karlsen looked toward Marily as if seeking help for a problem beyond his own ability to solve. And Marily, as if meeting his expectations, smiled sweetly and nodded.
As expected of Student Marily!
True to her reputation as the greatest genius known throughout the Ellemental Kingdom, it seemed she already had a solution prepared.
"Andy! If you don't want to be eaten by the dark mage, run away right now!"
"Student Marily?!"
But Professor Karlsen's hopes were utterly shattered by her next words.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Taking Marily's shout as a signal, Andy bolted upright and fled toward the kitchen. Karlsen reached out with a dazed expression, but the gesture only heightened the boy's terror.
"I'm sorry, Professor."
Hemming bowed his head with an awkward expression as he watched Professor Karlsen, wounded by his son's reaction. The professor shook his head, his face completely deflated.
"It's not your fault. I'm fine."
He didn't need to apologize. The critical damage to his paper-thin biscuit-like mentality had come not from the young boy, but from his own student.
"Children can be like that. I'm used to this kind of treatment because of my face, so it's all right."
"......"
His face did not look all right at all. Those sorrowful eyes seemed ready to cry at any moment. Yet the actual culprit, Marily, simply giggled while watching him.
"Haha..."
Togun smiled awkwardly between the two of them. Then he turned his gaze toward Andy, who had fled into the kitchen.
The open kitchen offered a clear view inside. Andy had hidden his body beneath the sink, only poking half his face out. He looked exactly like a cat with its fur standing on end, clearly screaming I'm still wary of you! It was an extremely rare reaction from Andy, who usually showed excellent sociability even toward strangers.
"......!"
Just as Togun was pondering how to resolve the situation, he spotted a pot on the shelf directly above Andy beginning to tilt downward.
Dangerous!
A child's head was far more fragile than people realized. If that iron pot fell, it could cause serious injury. The moment he realized it, Togun's body moved reflexively with blinding speed.
Oh?
The only one who fully understood the sequence of actions was Professor Karlsen.
Just how intensely has he been training him?
The human body was not nearly as precise as people imagined. Even the simple act of raising an arm involved multiple muscles. While there was naturally a primary mover, the body created motion through perfect harmony with the assisting muscles. It was an instinctive process, and for an ordinary person to intentionally control each individual muscle was nearly impossible.
If perfect mental control was the greatest virtue of a mage, then perfect physical control was the greatest virtue of a martial artist. Ordinary people could not achieve it. But a true martial artist had to. They needed to move every single muscle with intention. The result was efficient bodily operation. After all, the difference between using something without understanding it and using it with complete knowledge was night and day.
No need for me to intervene.
Even after recognizing the danger to Andy, Professor Karlsen made no move to act. He was already certain of the boy's safety.
Bang!
At the same time, Togun shot toward Andy like a bullet. His gastrocnemius and soleus muscles contracted rapidly. All seven muscles of his quadriceps and hamstrings functioned with perfect efficiency, generating explosive speed in an instant.
The footwork Togun had learned from Jealousy. The faint image of a tiger rose behind his back as he reached Andy's side in the blink of an eye and pulled the boy firmly into his arms.
"......"
Yet no matter how long he waited, the expected pain of pots crashing down on his head never came. When Togun glanced upward, he saw the bizarre sight of several pots stuck together and embedded in the ceiling.
"Are you both all right?"
Magnetic manipulation. Jeon, who had temporarily magnetized the pots to prevent their fall, slowly approached the pair.
A series of events that had happened so quickly there hadn't even been time to feel surprise.
"Andy!"
"Are you okay?!"
Hemming and Anna rose belatedly from their seats and rushed toward Togun and Andy.
Both of them are impressive.
Precise physical control and flexible magic manifestation. Both Togun and Jeon had made remarkable strides in their respective domains.
But the most surprising one is...
Yet the person who had surprised Professor Karlsen most wasn't either of them. The reason he could be certain of Andy's safety from the very beginning. It was Arina, who had sensed the danger before the pot even began to tilt and spread a magic circle throughout the entire kitchen.
Her spell calculation speed had become overwhelmingly faster compared to before.
"Phew."
After confirming Andy's safety, Arina let out a small sigh and quietly withdrew her magic circle. Simply by improving her spellcraft slightly, her overall mana manipulation ability had risen as well. After all, the phenomenon she had just created went completely unnoticed by everyone present except Karlsen.
It seems the time has come to combine individual training with joint sessions.
The little commotion had unintentionally revealed just how much the children had grown. At the same time, the moment was fast approaching when Marily Raymond—who had been idly playing around while everyone else trained like dogs—would have to start working in earnest.
While she still remained blissfully unaware of her unfortunate future.