Chapter 268 | Food! Food! Food!
"Excuse me."
Everyone looked up to find a middle-aged man standing at the edge of their picnic area. He held an empty bowl, and Dexter recognized him as someone who had tried the stew earlier. The man smiled awkwardly.
"Do you have any more?"
Dexter stared at the empty bowl, then at the man. "You already had some."
The man looked embarrassed. "My wife wants to try it."
A woman’s voice immediately shouted from behind him. "Don’t blame me! You ate the first bowl yourself!"
Everyone laughed, and the man turned red. Dexter shook his head. "Fine."
He reached toward the container, then stopped. It was almost empty. His eyebrows rose. That had been fast. He glanced around. Several people nearby were eating his dishes. Others were discussing them. A few more seemed to be looking in his direction.
Dexter frowned slightly. Perhaps he’d underestimated how unusual his cooking was.
Old Lady Lucy noticed his expression. She calmly took another bite, for a fraction of a second, the playful old woman disappeared. Her eyes became deep.
She could feel the changes inside her body more clearly than anyone else here. An old injury in one of her meridians, something she’d carried for years, felt... warm and soothing.
Lucy looked toward Dexter again. The young man was currently arguing with Mira because he’d apparently taken a piece of roasted meat from her plate.
"You have your own!" Mira snapped.
"Yours looked better."
Dexter smirked.
"It’s the same meat!"
She glared at him.
"Yours had more sauce."
"Give it back."
"I already ate it. Unless you want to eat what I’ve eaten."
"Give it to me."
"That would be indirect kiss and it would count as me winning our bet."
Mira stared at him, and Dexter smiled innocently.
Lucy watched them, and her smile slowly returned. Interesting. Very interesting.
...
Dexter’s original plan had been straightforward: bring some food, exchange a few dishes, eat with his wives, and then return to the rides before the afternoon disappeared. Instead, people kept coming.
At one point, Dexter caught an old man attempting to approach from a different direction with a different hat. Dexter stared at him, and the old man stared back. Neither spoke.
Eventually, the old man sighed. "You remembered me."
"You changed your hat, Grandpa. Not your face."
"I thought your generation had poor attention spans."
"Not when someone’s stealing my stew."
The people around them burst into laughter, and even Old Lady Lucy nearly spilled her drink.
Things had finally begun settling down when two familiar voices suddenly rang through the crowd.
"Dexter!"
"Dexter!"
Dexter closed his eyes, because he knew those voices. Mira looked toward the sound, Selene tilted her head, and Tessa glanced up from the pastry she was eating. Old Lady Lucy immediately grinned.
"Oh?"
Dexter opened his eyes to find two tiny figures charging across the grass. Peter and Paul, each twin carrying an empty plate in both hands decorated with cartoon mana beasts. Several meters behind them stood their parents, their father scratching the back of his head while their mother covered part of her face.
Both wore the resigned expressions on their faces.
Peter reached Dexter first, with Paul arriving half a second later. Both thrust their plates forward.
"Food!"
Dexter stared as Peter raised his plate higher. "Papa said your food is really good!"
Paul bounced impatiently. "We brought plates!"
"I can see that."
Dexter looked at the containers. There wasn’t much of the Grade One food remaining, so he picked up the serving spoon. "All right. Let me see what’s..."
"Wait."
Dexter looked toward Mira, who was watching the twins. Then she glanced toward the second cooler—the one Dexter hadn’t opened throughout the meal exchange.
"Give them from ours."
Dexter paused as he raised an eyebrow. "Our portion?"
Mira nodded. "Yeah."
Dexter studied her for a moment. "You sure?"
"Why wouldn’t I be?"
He turned toward Selene. "What about you?"
Selene smiled. "Give them some."
Dexter nodded, then looked toward Lyra. She froze, her gaze going toward the cooler, then toward the twins, then back toward the cooler. Dexter watched the internal war unfold across her face and nearly laughed.
"Lyra?"
She looked at him.
’It’s our food.’
Lyra’s expression became painful, as she glanced at Peter and Paul, who smiled at her and Paul waved. Lyra’s resistance crumbled, and her shoulders dropped as she reluctantly nodded.
’Fine.’
Dexter grinned. "Such generosity."
Lyra glared at him. ’Just small portions.’
Dexter laughed. "All right."
He reached for the second cooler. Until now, nobody except the four of them had paid much attention to it. Why would they? The Grade One dishes had already been extraordinary enough to dominate the exchange.
Dexter opened it and a rich fragrance escaped. Everywhere turned silent.
Dexter noticed, he simply behaved as though he hadn’t.
The difference between these dishes and what he’d been serving everyone else was enormous.
These were Grade five nourishing meals, food Dexter had specifically prepared for his wives.
The fragrance alone seemed unusually pure, and warm steam curled from the containers, carrying mana so gentle and refined that even people without exceptional perception could feel something unusual.
Tessa swallowed. "Dexter..."
"Hm?"
"What is that?"
"Food of course."
Tessa stared at him, and Old Lady Lucy’s eyebrow twitched. Tessa’s father slowly looked toward Dexter.
"I know it’s food."
"Good. I was worried."
Tessa glared, and Dexter smiled innocently. He could feel the elderly people’s attention on his hands. They knew. Perhaps not precisely what grade the food was, but they knew this wasn’t ordinary food.
Lucy glanced at Dexter, who was casually filling two children’s plates as though he were serving ordinary rice. Her eyes narrowed.
Dexter finished Peter’s plate, then Paul’s. "Here."
Peter stared down, his eyes widening, while Paul inhaled deeply. "Smells good!"
"Very good!" Peter agreed.
Dexter smiled. "Eat slowly."
Both immediately began bouncing. "Food! Food! Food!"
Selene laughed. "Don’t spill it."
Dexter was about to tell them to walk carefully when Lyra stood and brushed down her dark dress. ’I’ll take them.’
Dexter looked up. "You don’t have to."
Lyra had already taken both plates, and Peter immediately grabbed the hem of one side of her dress while Paul grabbed the other. Lyra blinked as the twins started walking.
"Food!"
"Food!"
Lyra followed.
"Food!"
Both boys stopped and looked up at her. Lyra couldn’t make the sound aloud, but she’d mouthed it, and her eyes were smiling.
The twins burst into giggles, and then all three continued to chant as they walked.