Dinner, a Name Revealed, and a Hint of Farewell
The evening shopping trip began with a nagging sense of foreboding.
Somehow, it turned into a cheerful stroll down the street with three girls in tow.
The recipe for this world's style of sandwich was simple enough.
All you needed was meat, bread, and vegetables.
The meat came from the belly of a monster called a Sail Hog.
Then there was the cheap, rock-hard bread available everywhere.
Buy a bunch of the small leafy greens called sheck—a lettuce substitute—and you were all set.
With all the ingredients for dinner in hand, we headed home.
Balen, holding the sheck, looked puzzled as she asked,
"We're using the bread just like this?"
"Yeah, why?"
Out of nowhere, she was questioning the bread's purpose.
I nodded matter-of-factly and asked why, but Balen crossed her arms, looking dissatisfied.
"Well, I seem to remember the bread from before wasn't that hard...."
"Oh, you mean that."
Turns out Balen had been eyeing my nostalgic recipe all along.
Seeing her pouty expression, I let out a relaxed smile mixed with understanding sigh.
Sure enough, the first time I'd encountered bread here, I'd been thrown for a loop.
It was as hard as a stone.
Don't picture something fluffy like castella cake.
You couldn't even bite into it with your teeth from the start.
The usual way was to soften it in stew or soup.
Back then, handing those kids a tooth-destroying weapon disguised as food would have been a disaster.
My clever solution at the time? Steam the rock-hard bread in a makeshift steamer.
"You just heat it up like this."
"Aha, so it's just the steam from boiling water...."
Back home, I demonstrated in the kitchen, and Balen marveled like, Whoa, that's a thing?
"I thought you soaked it in water and boiled it."
Hailey chimed in as she hovered nearby.
I'd rarely seen her cook up close, so she seemed genuinely intrigued by the method.
"It's not a super well-known trick."
I shrugged nonchalantly at their reactions and pulled out a kitchen knife to slice the meat.
The two kept hovering, eyeing the recipe hungrily.
Their presence wasn't fading anytime soon.
Finally, midway through slicing, I turned to them.
"Why don't you two just sit at the table and wait?"
"But I wanna see how you do it...."
"I'll tell you everything later."
Despite Balen's whiny protest, I cut her off firmly and shooed them out of the kitchen toward the table.
Maybe it was the knife in my hand.
They seemed intimidated—or maybe just wary of the danger.
They retreated to the table as I said.
I focused back on thinly slicing the meat, but soon enough, I felt footsteps creeping around again.
Who has zero patience?
I turned to say something—
"I said wait—"
"So this is how you soften the bread."
My words caught in my throat at the blue hair filling my vision.
Sepi was peering curiously at the pot I'd awkwardly rigged into a steamer long ago.
"...Yes, that's right."
A casual you nearly slipped out, but I urgently switched to polite speech.
My voice barely crawled out.
My heart nearly dropped out.
I clutched my left chest where my startled heart was pounding.
I hadn't expected her to come over first.
Instead of looking at me, she gazed pityingly at the makeshift pot and continued.
"Sometime back, Balen said she wanted moist bread."
"That was...."
"Don't say anything. Just listen."
What flowed from her lips was an old story I knew nothing about.
A moment from the time she'd shared with Balen, without me.
Suddenly, Sepi spoke as if realizing something.
"I just thought... you were sincere with the kids in your own way."
She ended it abruptly and trudged back to the table.
I had no idea what had shifted in her heart, but the open hostility she'd shown recently was mostly gone.
I sandwiched the stir-fried meat between the steamed bread, peeling off sheck leaves to let them cool the hot meat while adding freshness.
It had been a while since all four of us sat together at the table.
One was Sepi instead of Shane, but it felt like old times, if only for a moment.
The once-spacious table felt a bit cramped.
But it was a nice kind of cramped.
"Mmmph—! This is it! Right, sis?!"
Unlike Hailey, who ate quietly with her mouth closed, Balen started devouring hers with exaggerated excitement.
"...Yeah, it's good."
Before long, she'd become a fervent convert to this world's sandwiches and was proselytizing to Sepi beside her.
Sepi took a bite, covered her mouth daintily with her fingertips, nodded, and spoke.
It seemed objectively tasty.
She didn't show it much due to her age, but her positive review still lifted my spirits.
After the meal ended and everyone was relaxing in satisfaction,
a question broke the sated silence.
"So, what's your name?"
"Pardon?"
The sudden question left me sputtering dumbly.
Sepi—of all people—was asking my name.
A stunned noise escaped my lips.
Why's she suddenly curious about my name?
As I floundered in the abrupt self-introduction,
"Oh...! I've been wondering too."
"Yeah, to us you're just Uncle...."
"You girls too?"
Hailey and Balen jumped in, showing interest.
Surprise overtook my confusion.
They'd never even known my name this whole time?
We hardly ever had reason to use names, but... huh?
I started feeling a bit hurt, but then realized I'd rarely used my own name either.
My real name was better off unknown, anyway....
Looking back, they'd trusted a shady slave trader uncle without even knowing his name.
Naive? Pure-hearted?
Recalling the kids from years ago who'd followed me without a care for such details, I slowly opened my mouth.
"Bron. That's my name."
"Bron... Bron...."
As I voiced the alias I currently used, Sepi repeated it like she was committing it to memory.
"Uncle Bron... it rolls off the tongue nice!"
Balen, meanwhile, stubbornly stuck to her long-winded habit despite hearing it.
Too ingrained now to change.
Knowing that, I waved it off casually.
"You girls can just call me whatever you're used to."
"Eeeh...."
Told there was no need to change, Balen let out an oddly disappointed sigh.
Did she prefer using the actual name?
Still, no need to switch what worked.
"Anyway, thanks for the delicious dinner. Next time, let's find a nice restaurant and all go together."
With that, the short chat wrapped up, and Sepi stood first.
She'd made a vague promise for a future group meal—who knew when.
"Don't be too much trouble. Head back to the workshop before it's too late?"
"Yeees—"
A final reminder for Balen to go home.
Balen answered half-heartedly, but Sepi seemed unworried and left without lingering.
Watching them, she came off like a sharp, no-nonsense mom and her promise-keeping daughter....
At any rate, it was clear a solid trust had built between them.
"She seems more like a mom than a sister."
"Not wrong, hehe."
Hailey's brief observation on their bond drew a sly, affirming giggle from Balen.
We kept chatting for hours after that.
As the streetlamps began to dim,
it was time to walk Balen back to the workshop, and we all stood up in unison like we'd planned it.
"Got your key?"
"Sis'll open it when we get there."
I asked out of habit, and Balen answered while bundling into her clothes.
"I don't carry a spare or anything...."
"Then we're just adding to the workshop keys floating around out there?"
Hailey voiced her regret, but Balen insisted it'd just mean more stray keys on the streets.
"Ugh, show-off."
"Hehe."
I couldn't help sighing and grumbling beside them, and Balen just chuckled vacantly, ducking her head a bit.
The night streets buzzed with the merry clamor of drunks surrendering to booze now and then.
Our shadows overlaid the moonlit path.
Balen started playing shadow puppets with hers.
"Awoo~"
"Such a kid."
She even mimicked a wolf howl, and Hailey poked her side in embarrassment.
They bickered, but their voices sounded somehow joyful.
Forgetting the late hour as I watched them, we soon arrived at Sepi's Workshop.
A quick knock, and the door creaked open stealthily.
Inside, a sleepy-faced Sepi slowly beckoned Balen from deeper in with a hand wave.
She'd clearly waited up, fighting drowsiness for Balen's return.
But Balen, still full of energy despite the hour, flashed us a bright smile regardless and whispered,
"See you...!"
"Yeah."
"Night."
Hailey waved a small hand, and I gave my goodnight.
The door shut with a creak.
Just one person less, and the air turned eerily quiet.
"...Shall we head back?"
"Sure."
In the stillness, Hailey smiled and asked.
I nodded shortly, and she sidled up, clinging to my arm.
As if saying, now that Balen's back at the workshop...
...the rest of the time was all hers.
Back home, settling into bed,
Hailey suddenly poked her head over from the top bunk, like she'd remembered something.
"What's up?"
"Um, I might be away from home for a few days starting tomorrow."
Asking her bright-eyed gaze why, she dropped the vague bombshell about possibly leaving tomorrow for a few days.
Her sulky face screamed she didn't want to.
It wasn't even confirmed—just a maybe.
I had no choice but to wait tensely for her next words.