Mythran's Master Of All

“You know I would like nothing more than to learn everything you have to teach me, Nathalia.” Ren said. “Unfortunately, neither of us has the time right now.”

Nathalia was about to tell him that nothing else mattered to her, and he put a finger on her lips to stop her.

“Your staff is about to interrupt us because you have a meal to supervise.” Ren said, and she nodded.

“Keep an eye on the oven.” Nathalia said, kissed his palm, and went through the curtain.

While Ren waited for the casserole to cool and for the cakes to cook, Nathalia went to help the staff cook supper for the customers of the restaurant. Ren stored the box of Alchemy ingredients and took out two chairs to sit down on.

“I should have offered you a chair before.” Ren said to Xuunah and held it steady for her.

“I would have been in the way if I was sitting down.” Xuunah sat down gracefully and crossed her legs. “Since I wasn't in the way, I had the chance to see the two of you work together as if you were one person.”

“We kind of were.” Ren said and sat down himself. “Our movements complimented each other and that made the work go so much faster.”

Xuunah nodded. “I could feel your symmetry as you moved, almost like a dance.” She said. “It was quite beautiful.”

Ren thought about the analogy and smiled. “You're right, it was like a dance. Dancing always works out well when you have a great partner.”

They fell silent and watched the oven as it cooked the cakes, but the silence wasn't awkward or strained. Ren reached out absently and took Xuunah's hand, then started to fondle it. She didn't mention it or complain, mainly because she liked having someone do that to her.

The sensations in a physical body were a wonder to experience, and even the little bit Ren was doing was enough to give Xuunah a little thrill. They were both thinking about things, and when they happened to think of the same subject, she felt their thoughts sync up and spoke.

“Are you going to actively try to take the ghoul infected from the capital city?” Xuunah asked.

“No, I don't want to prove King Alamast right.” Ren said. “I will tell them that they can come to my county to live if they want to, but I won't say it's free or tell them they could all have some kind of job when they get here.”

“Is that true? Will they all have a job of some kind?”

“There's always something to do around there.” Ren said. “Imagine how quickly things would get done with a hundred, or a thousand, or even ten thousand people doing it.” He smiled. “Like harvesting.”

“It would happen almost instantly.” Xuunah said, and Ren nodded.

“But I know people. I've seen enough of them in this world to know that as a whole, they are lazy.”

Xuunah chuckled. “Why work when you don't have to?”

Ren smiled. “Exactly.” He said. “If I take a mass of people and just dump them into the county, I'll destroy the charm the county has, and I don't want to do that.”

“What if they all decide that they want to come, despite not knowing the benefits?”

“You mean like Narshan did?” Ren asked, and Xuunah nodded. “Then I'll figure out how to get them all to the county.”

“Ren, if there's thousands of them and they want to take their families...”

Ren sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

Teepo warned Ren about the time, and he made up a batch of icing for the cake. When it was ready, the cakes were ready to come out of the oven. Ren deactivated the oven and took out the cakes, then absorbed the heat from them. He applied the icing and assembled the cake, then decorated it to make it look fancy. He quickly added swirls, beads, streamers, roses, leaves, and some filigree to join everything together.

“Ren that looks divine.” Xuunah said as he finished, and then Nathalia came through the curtain.

“It really does.” Nathalia said and gave him a hug. “You've got a knack for decorating with icing.”

“I was just wasting time until you showed up.” Ren said, and she chuckled.

“Well, I'm here now. Let's eat.” Nathalia said. They did up three plates of casserole and cut off three pieces of cake for dessert, which left 5, and Nathalia told him to store the rest of the casserole and cake.

“But, shouldn't you...”

“I was making them for you, so don't worry about it.” Nathalia said. “I think you know a few people that could benefit from them.”

“Only a few?” Ren said and grinned at her.

“Try to keep it to a few, then.” Nathalia laughed. “There's not enough to the dishes to give to too many people.”

Ren stored the dishes and they took their meals to the dining room and sat down to eat. They didn't talk much except for idle chit-chat, and when they were done of the casserole, they each gained a point of Vitality and a slight boost to Regeneration.

“Wow, Nathalia.” Ren said. “I knew it would work, but still...”

Nathalia smiled. “With the ingredients you have, we can make something that will increase each of your stats just by eating.” She said. “Of course, you're going to burn through the ingredients quickly if you try to make too many things at once.”

Ren was about to respond when he was covered in a slight glow for a moment. “My sustenance ring just kicked in.”

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“It won't matter.” Nathalia said. “You won't gain the Health increases from eating normally, but the boosts happen no matter what.”

Ren nodded. “Dessert time.”

Nathalia and Xuunah took out their slices of cake and the three of them dug in and enjoyed the taste. When they were done, Ren received a popup.