Sylvia felt overwhelmed, surrounded by the fairies and with Felix standing in front of her, arms crossed and glaring.
In a cold sweat, Sylvia opted for a harmless smile, pretending to know nothing.
Beaming.
I don’t know anything.
…her efforts to appeal thus were dashed as Felix scowled.
“We need to talk, you and I.”
At Felix’s firm tone, Sylvia could only nod repeatedly.
With everyone inside, Sylvia, mindful of Felix, relayed the same message to the Croban mercenaries.
“Everyone, go wash up and come down.”
“Yes!”
Their robust response seemed to shake the house. The large men ascended to the upper floor one by one. The clanking of armor and swords echoed. Felix, not going up, stared intently at her.
Eryngium detached from Sylvia’s head and sat on the dining table, surrounded by the other fairies.
Sylvia addressed Felix, who was glaring with wide eyes.
“Um, should I get you something to drink?”
His already parched throat seemed to thirst more at her suggestion.
“Yeah, make that watermelon thing.”
His way of speaking was…
She rolled her eyes and conjured a whole watermelon on the table. Then she asked in a flat tone.
“Are you going to eat it with those hands?”
She pointed at his hands, filthy with the blood of beasts.
Felix, who had intended to eat as is, hesitated, feeling somehow in the wrong. Sylvia quietly channeled her magic into a water spell. Having already met Eryngium, she saw no need to hide her abilities from him any longer.
Water materialized from thin air and drenched him.
“What!”
Startled by the sudden water, Felix unleashed his magic. At the same moment, Sylvia cast a wind spell, and their magics collided.
Normally, a collision would have resulted in the one with weaker magic being injured, but no such incident occurred between the two.
This was because they shared the magic of the Black Dragon, obtained from the same source.
Felix’s eyes grew even wider, and Sylvia dried his body with the wind. Observing his expression, Sylvia sensed she had a lot to discuss with him. She lightly took his hand, which was awkwardly still. That minor touch made him tremble loudly as though his armor was clanging.
Yet, he did not pull away from her hand. Led by Sylvia, he sat at the dining chair, merely blinking, while Sylvia elegantly sliced the watermelon with wind magic and placed it on a wooden tray.
“Start with eating. You haven’t eaten anything, have you?”
He wanted to ask how she knew, but the sight of the vibrant red watermelon made him salivate.
Felix picked up a slice of watermelon and took a big bite. The crunchy sound was refreshingly pleasant, and his parched mouth quickly became moist.
Chewing thoroughly.
He hardly chewed before swallowing, and a portion of the watermelon quickly disappeared. Having one piece made him crave more. Felix began to finish off the slices of watermelon one after another.
In the meantime, the fairies were busy chatting among themselves.
[Hey, Eryngium. Where have you been all these three years? And why were you here?]
Clover asked out of curiosity. But Eryngium, more surprised, asked Clover in return.
[Three years?]
Eryngium had thought it was at most half a year. Including the time spent here, she guessed it might be a year…
[You vanished into that void, and it’s already been three years. Felix has grown a lot too.]
Eryngium, looking dazedly at Poppy who spoke in frustration, then scrutinized Felix, who was eating watermelon.
Indeed, he seemed more robust than when they had parted. He was tall then, but if he had seemed somewhat gaunt and lean, now his facial lines had thickened, and his physique, although hidden by the armor, appeared solid enough to be noticeable.
Eryngium murmured with a voice laden with hollowness.
[Three years have passed…]
The other fairies consoled Eryngium.
[Don’t feel too disheartened. You would have been the same even if you were here.]
[Yeah, Eryngium. You always just found everything bothersome.]
[But, to think you were with Sylvia… Could this be such a coincidence?]
[Oh, but what was inside the pouch given by Aethernum-nim?]
[So, did you manage to find anything?]
Just as the fairies were about to glare at each other for the seemingly comforting yet questionable words, Lupinus suddenly asked a piercing question.
The sharp violet eyes, which had been narrowed, disappeared under the eyelashes. Eryngium, with her lips tightly sealed, attracted the attention of the fairies who had been chatting away.
Clover asked on behalf of the others.
[What? Didn’t Aethernum-nim mention it? He gave you the pouch saying it was to help Felix eat comfortably, when we asked for his help. Wasn’t it your mission to find something with that pouch?]
Eryngium shrank under Clover’s voice, laden with a sharper tone than before.
Just as the fairies were either trying to come up with an excuse or waiting for a response, everyone’s attention was abruptly drawn to Sylvia’s voice.
“So, you can’t just eat watermelon! How can you fill up on watermelon alone? How long do you plan to survive on just fruits and vegetables!”
“It’s none of your concern.”
While the fairies were engrossed in their conversation, Sylvia, having noticed him eating only watermelon, decided to offer some food.
She then took out a lunchbox she had prepared earlier and pushed it towards him. This sparked Felix’s refusal, which was the beginning of their disagreement.
Sylvia, annoyed by his stubborn insistence on finishing the whole watermelon and demanding more, pushed the lunchbox even closer to him, and Felix pushed it back towards Sylvia.
Their squabble continued until Sylvia pulled the lunchbox towards herself and took out a pair of chopsticks.
She began to eat heartily. She enjoyed the egg rolls made separately with the yolk and the white, spicy and sour cucumber salad, pork marinated in Galbus oil and apple, and the golden brown zucchini pancakes along with the rice.
Felix, not given the watermelon he requested and seeing Sylvia eating by herself, felt his anger rising.
He was about to retort when…
He caught a whiff of a savory aroma. The faint smell captured by his nose, which had been losing its function along with his taste, involuntarily made his mouth water.
And then, Felix saw something he hadn’t noticed before when they dined together.
Perhaps because it was just the two of them now, he could clearly see that Sylvia ate her food with great relish. Her enjoyable eating made others want to eat too, capturing Felix’s gaze completely. Once lost, his gaze did not return; he was fixated on the movements of her chopsticks.
Sylvia, even in her youth, was told by friends to stream her eating. She ate a lot, and just watching her eat made others unable to control their portions and eat more.
Sylvia, who had been told countless times to try mukbang on a personal broadcast, boldly placed a large bite of pork stir-fry and cucumber salad into her mouth.
Gulp.
Felix swallowed his saliva forcefully, which naturally resonated in the space where only the two of them were present.
Sylvia, noticing his glance, deliberately opened her mouth wider and put in both the zucchini pancake and the egg roll. The yolk egg roll was chewy, the zucchini pancake was tender and crispy, the white egg roll was springy, and the rice was fluffy yet sticky.
She finished the lunchbox in no time and poured herself some corn silk tea. The tea with floating ice cubes went down smoothly.
“Ah, refreshing!”
Sylvia exclaimed with a wide smile after drinking in a manner that seemed refreshing even to onlookers. Then, she turned her head to look at Felix. Felix, with his eyes intensely focused, was staring at the empty lunchbox until their eyes met, and then he turned his head away as if pretending not to notice.
And then he said softly, almost like a command,
“More watermelon, please!”
Seeing his sharply narrowed black pupils, Sylvia knew she had failed. She had attempted a mukbang challenge in hopes of enticing him, but it had not worked. Deciding that appeasing him was crucial, Sylvia made various types of watermelons grow.
Felix’s complexion brightened at the sight of watermelons of various sizes and colors. Forgetting his intention to talk with Sylvia, he started spooning into a watermelon while still in his armor.
Sylvia subtly stood up and headed towards the kitchen. She had to prepare dinner for the others too. Wondering what to make, she decided to go for something simple and moved quickly. She drew out a vast amount of magic and directed it into multiple magic circles simultaneously.
Various plants grew around her. Lotus blossoms appeared, onions sprouted, and bamboo shoots grew. Stalks elongated with perilla leaves, and root vegetables like sweet potatoes and stem vegetables like potatoes began to bear seeds.
Zucchinis grew, and glossy purple eggplants appeared. The fragrant shepherd’s purse filled the area, and avocado trees grew, bearing fruit. She quickly harvested the vegetables with wind magic, washed, and chopped them.
Then she made a dough mixture. She mixed flour with sweet potato starch, added eggs and salt, and adjusted the consistency with ice water. On one side of the air, there were chopped vegetables, on another side the dough mixture, and right in front of her, oil was boiling over a fire in mid-air.
Sylvia first thinly and lengthily sliced the potatoes, coated them in the batter, and deep-fried them.
Sizzle.
The moment they hit the oil, a pleasant sound and savory smell spread. The entangled strands formed a palm-sized portion of potato fries.
They tasted fantastic.
“Frying makes everything delicious. They say even a shoe would taste good if fried.”
Nodding vigorously in agreement with her own statement, Sylvia continued to fry more potato fries of the same shape. She neatly arranged them vertically on a large cypress tray and then fried the shepherd’s purse. The aroma of the freshly fried shepherd’s purse, clumped together like the potato fries, was irresistibly delightful.
“Ah, how can shepherd’s purse ever taste bad!”
It’s delicious in miso soup, in kimchi stew, even in kimchi soup, fried or seasoned, and even mixed with rice.
“Truly a versatile herb.”
Sylvia muttered, nibbling on the fried items. She then mercilessly sliced the onions. Both white and red onions were lightly dusted with the batter and fried. They cooked quickly, so there was no need to fry them for long. The onions released an indescribably pleasant aroma upon touching the oil.
She thinly sliced the eggplant into fan shapes and then coated and fried them.
She kept the flour batter cool with ice magic to ensure the frying batter remained crispy and made a crunching sound when bitten.
Lotus roots were thinly sliced and fried one by one. The zucchini and perilla leaves were also fried individually with care. Even the belatedly grown pumpkin was cut into manageable sizes, coated in the batter, and fried.
Felix, in the living room, was tortured by the continuous assault of the rich and savory smells.
His once awakened sense of smell did not fade away. This sensation was peculiar and exhilarating for him. It had been quite some time since his stepmother had started to secretly poison him. Since he didn’t die from the poison, out of spite, he consumed all the poisoned food.
As a result, his life was not in danger, but he lost his sense of taste. He realized this fact too late but could not tell anyone. In the royal palace, he was a loner.
The palace servants tending to him were all under the influence of his stepmother, and his uncle and his knights had to roam outside under the guise of hunting demons, leaving him completely isolated within the palace walls.
Only the fairies stayed by his side, but they could offer no tangible help. However, without the fairies, Felix might have lost his mind long ago. The fairies, appearing suddenly at some point, have since been guarding him.
It was surprising that among those fairies, Eryngium, who was notably bothered by everything, had voluntarily stayed by Sylvia’s side. Felix, momentarily distracted by the watermelon, thought of her as she entered the kitchen and then got up from his seat.
He hesitated for a brief moment in front of the always shut kitchen door. Upon opening the door, Felix was frozen in amazement at the wondrous sight before him.
In the kitchen, with her robe off and in a comfortable shirt, Sylvia’s exposed arms and wrists shimmered with a brilliant golden light. The plants growing and being harvested around her seemed like knightly escorts surrounding her.
Vegetables swirled around in the wind, orchestrated in the kitchen’s airspace.
Whoosh.
The flames danced around the simmering oil, and in the air, the dough, glowing with a yellow aura, floated amongst ice cubes. The wind circulating in a set pattern transferred the properly sized cut vegetables to the dough, then into the oil.
With each vegetable fried, a delicious aroma took over the kitchen.
Hearing the bustling noise from upstairs, Felix quickly shut the kitchen door. Even to him, the sight was both marvelous and perilous, uncertain of how it would appear to others.
Even if those people were his trustworthy subordinates, somehow, he wanted to act this way.
Bang.
The sound of the door shutting startled Sylvia, who quickly turned around.
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