Chapter 50: In Good Company
LEO
The smell of food in the air, the sound of the soup boiling, the warm glow from the kitchen fire—I liked them all. Everyone helped with cooking, but mostly under the guidance of Isabelle. She was a surprisingly good cook, and Thomas had every reason to build our expectations earlier and be confident that we wouldn’t be let down.
"This soup is so good, Isabelle!" I praised her once more.
"Gees, Leo. Thank you, but you don’t have to say that after every spoonful!" Isabelle said playfully.
"Whoever marries Isabelle would be one happy man!" Dimitri said.
Just as I was thinking about how my Dad always used to praise Mom’s cooking—and I felt sorry for him now, suddenly remembering that Mom was probably forcing him to eat a lot of vegetables now that I wasn’t around—and say things like ’the quickest route to a man’s heart is through his stomach,’ I noticed Janice suddenly wearing a serious look on her face that reminded me of Ms. Kelly from my primary school when she was about to correct us on something.
"Dimitri, actually—," she said, raising one finger, "that is not a very appropriate thing to say."
"Huh?" Dimitri looked confused.
"Janice—," Beatrice was trying to cut her friend off, but Janice continued, saying,
"Isabelle will become a wonderful mage, a Royal Knight, and you expect her to be bound by domestic duties, cooking for her husband?"
"Huh? Wha—?"
"Who says Isabelle’s husband won’t be the one to stay at home and cook while Isabelle focuses on her career as a Royal Knight?"
The whole table went quiet. It made me think. But I couldn’t understand what Janice was going on about.
"Er—, can’t Isabelle work as a Royal Knight, then come home and cook dinner?" I asked.
Janice looked at me as if she expected this question, but rather than reprimanding me, she seemed happy to correct me.
"Why should she? She works, her husband works too, hopefully. They’d both be tired when they get home after work. Why should Isabelle be the one to cook every time when they are equally tired?" Janice asked, looking at each one of us carefully.
I looked over at Marius and he looked completely bamboozled. I had to stop myself from laughing (because I didn’t want Janice to think I was laughing at her) because I knew exactly what Marius was thinking in his head—why don’t they just get a chef?
"I just meant, er, Isabelle cooks really well. It was a compliment, gees," Dimitri said, shrugging.
"A compliment based on prejudice—not a harmful one, maybe, but a prejudice nevertheless, that it should be women who take up the domestic duties by default," Janice said, smiling.
I looked at Isabelle to see what she might have to say, but then Dimitri suddenly said,
"Hey, Thomas. Are you going to cook for Isabelle? Do you know how to cook? I’m not sure you can match this soup, mate."
"Nah, Isabelle’s soups are the best, and—wait... waiiit... WHAT?! Why are you asking ME?!!"
Thomas blushed, unusually for him. He stood up with a spoon in his hand, stretched over the table, and smacked Dimitri on the head with it.
Then Isabelle burst out laughing, then Beatrice did too (only after seeing that Isabelle was laughing), and Janice joined in as well.
After dinner we sat around the fireplace in the big and spacious living room and drank herbal tea and ate the lovely biscuits that Marius brought from his home. They were as good as I remembered, if not better.
Dimitri told us about some old folk tales of his homeland, the northern mountain region bordering the Kingdom of Moravik, something about a Bear God marrying a human lady, who bore twelve children for him, and how that was the origin of the twelve Moravik tribes. Thomas joked that he wouldn’t be surprised if Dimitri was one of the descendants, to which Dimitri said he would be proud to be one.
Then Beatrice talked about visiting her father’s vineyards when she was younger. Isabelle asked her how big they were, how many barrels of wine they produced per year, and just bombarded her with a barrage of questions, until Thomas stopped her by saying,
"Isabelle, stop prying into other people’s business again."
Isabelle apologized, explaining that it was one of her father’s dreams to own and run a vineyard because he loved wine, which prompted Dimitri to ask Thomas whether he would be capable of managing a vineyard in the future, which in turn earned him a smack on the back from both Isabelle and Thomas this time.
After that, it was my turn to talk about my hometown, which everyone seemed so keen to hear about, to my delight. I almost felt like I became Blabber Becky, trying to introduce the entire annual cycle of seasonal festivals while explaining how schools in Erdville were nothing like the Academy here in the capital, and how none of us received any combat training and such, but also how no bandits had dared to raid Erdville in thirty years, which somehow led to everyone becoming very confused about why we held festivals at schools while bandits were invading.
When my story ended and we turned to Janice to tell her own, she surprised us—but not Beatrice—by saying,
"I’m sorry that I do not have a fun story to tell, but may I sing a little song, perhaps?"
"Yeah!"
I jumped up from my seat and approved before anyone else, perhaps a little embarrassingly, but it was only when she suggested the idea that I realized I had been missing all the singing and dancing the villagers enjoyed during our numerous festivals each year.
Everyone else liked the idea as well, and when I looked at Marius, he seemed particularly interested too. So after a big round of applause, we all sat quietly with our ears perked up.
The night was getting better and better, and I thought I couldn’t imagine a better company to be with tonight.