Chapter 179 : A Bowl of Egg Fried Rice
Chapter 179: A Bowl of Egg Fried Rice
It was late at night.
Lucy lay on the bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
Not because she wasn’t used to the bed.
Nor because she was afraid.
She was simply hungry.
It felt like a hand was clawing inside her stomach, rumbling in protest like thunder.
That single mouthful of purple soup had been too powerful, making her vomit everything from the previous day.
“This won’t do… if this keeps up, before Lady Lilia comes to collect my corpse, I’ll turn into a dried husk first.”
Lucy climbed out of bed, clutching her stomach, her eyes glowing green.
She remembered that during the day, when passing by, she had seen something that looked like a kitchen near the main hall.
There should… probably… maybe be food there that normal humans could eat, right?
Even unmoldy bread would do!
Barefoot, Lucy slipped out of the house like a ghost.
Following her memory, she groped her way to that large building.
A faint light was on inside.
A strange fragrance drifted out through the crack in the door.
That was…
The aroma of oil sizzling at high heat, mixed with the sweetness of roasted grains, and… meat! The smell of properly cooked meat!
Lucy’s saliva instantly flooded her mouth.
Pressing against the wall, she carefully pushed the kitchen door open a crack.
The kitchen was huge, with all kinds of alchemical—no, cooking utensils hanging all over the walls.
At the very center, a frying pan over magical flames sizzled loudly.
And in front of the stove—
A familiar figure stood with her back to the door, wearing that signature black-and-white maid outfit, her silver hair casually tied behind her head.
It was Lilia!
At that moment, she held a pair of long wooden chopsticks, skillfully stir-frying something in the pan.
Lucy held her breath, not daring to make a sound.
She watched as Lilia grabbed a handful of something green, like chopped scallions, from a nearby plate and sprinkled it into the pan, then tossed it twice.
“Hoo…”
Lilia turned off the magical flame and poured the contents of the pan into an exquisite white porcelain bowl.
It was a bowl of golden, glistening, irresistibly fragrant… fried rice?
Each grain of rice was coated in egg, dotted with diced ham and shrimp.
What kind of divine food was this?!
Lucy stared wide-eyed, and her stomach let out an extremely uncooperative—
“Grrrrrrr—!!!”
In the quiet midnight kitchen, that sound was practically a dragon’s roar.
I’m dead.
Those two words flashed through Lucy’s mind as she turned to run.
“Stop.”
A cold voice sounded behind her.
Lucy froze, then stiffly turned around, forcing a smile uglier than crying.
“G-good evening, Lady Lilia… I… I was just taking a walk…”
Holding the porcelain bowl, Lilia turned around, her crimson eyes narrowing slightly.
Her gaze lingered on Lucy’s flat, shriveled stomach for a second.
Then she glanced at the freshly made bowl of food in her hand—originally meant to soothe her wounded soul.
Lilia sighed.
She pulled over a chair, sat down heavily, crossed her legs, and gestured toward a small stool opposite her with her chin.
“Come here.”
“If you don’t want to die, close the door.”
Lucy shakily shut the door and shuffled over like a prisoner awaiting judgment, sitting on the stool with perfect posture, hands placed neatly on her knees.
Lilia scooped a spoonful of fried rice into her mouth, chewed twice, and showed a satisfied expression.
“The Demon Realm cafeteria food really isn’t meant for humans.”
She swallowed, looked at Lucy who was frantically gulping saliva, and suddenly pushed the bowl slightly toward the center of the table.
“Hungry?”
Lucy nodded wildly like a woodpecker.
“Want to eat?”
Lucy nodded even harder, tears almost falling.
Lilia curled her lips into that signature smile that made people’s skin crawl.
“You can eat.”
She took out a small notebook and pen from her pocket and slapped them onto the table.
“But this is a special late-night meal for the Demon King. The ingredients are very precious.”
“I see your legs are working fine now, and your brain seems clear enough.”
“This bowl of rice—you’re borrowing it.”
“From now on, every day besides fertilizing—”
“And then…”
Lucy didn’t even wait to hear the rest. She only caught the words “you can eat.”
“I’ll do it! I’ll do anything!”
She lunged forward, grabbed the spare spoon under Lilia’s disdainful gaze, and shoveled a huge spoonful of fried rice into her mouth like a starving tiger.
At that moment—
The fragrance of egg, meat, and rice exploded in her mouth.
Tears of happiness streamed down Lucy’s face.
To hell with the priest, to hell with the Hero, to hell with saving the world.
As long as she could eat this bowl of rice every day—
Even if she had to be a gardener for the Demon King for the rest of her life, she’d accept it!
Lilia watched the one-legged girl wolfing down the food, resting her chin on one hand as she thoughtfully twirled her spoon.
This silly priest was indeed easy to fool.
But…
With someone to handle the miscellaneous chores, she could free up more time to slack off.
After all, this was for the sake of “taking care of subordinates.”
Yes, exactly that.
When the last grain of rice coated in golden egg slid into her mouth, Lucy even had the urge to swallow the porcelain bowl along with it.
She lifted the bowl and examined it under the light.
Spotless—no need for soap at all.
Her protesting stomach had finally quieted, replaced by a warm, melting sense of fullness.
This feeling…
She hadn’t experienced it in a long time.
Ever since she had been chosen by that so-called “divine sensing stone,” stuffed into a carriage like livestock and transported to the capital, then thrown into that seemingly glamorous but actually scheming Hero party—
She had never eaten a full meal again.
That red-robed female mage always complained that she ate too much, saying things like “only pigs keep eating,” and would only give her scraps of black bread so hard it could smash a Goblin.
And now—
In the Demon King’s base—
She had actually eaten the most delicious egg fried rice of her life.
Lucy let out a burp that smelled faintly of scallions, her whole body collapsing limply onto the stool, eyes unfocused, her soul seemingly ascending to heaven.
“Full?”
A cool voice came from across the table.
Lucy snapped back to attention, sitting upright like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, hands neatly on her knees as she nodded frantically.
“F-full! Thank you for the meal, Lady Lilia!”
Lilia rested her chin on one hand, her crimson eyes deep under the dim light.
Looking at this foolish priest with grease still at the corner of her mouth and a silly grin on her face, she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly:
She was way too easy to maintain.
Just give her food—doesn’t even have to be that good, even staff-meal-level fried rice—and her Loyalty would instantly max out.
Was this what happened to someone who had been thoroughly beaten down by human society?