“What is that?”
Felix asked with eyes full of curiosity. Whenever he asked like this, she would always explain with a welcoming tone.
As expected.
Today, too, she smiled brightly and continued to explain.
“The first is to grill vegetables in the meat oil, and the second is fried rice.”
“Fried rice?”
“Huh?”
Sylvia felt something was off as she spoke. Could it be…?
“Have I never made fried rice for you?”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Oh my gosh!”
To think she had never made fried rice for him all this time despite cooking so many meals!
“…Well, I guess it’s possible.”
For Sylvia, fried rice had two meanings. The first was the fried rice you eat as a dessert after finishing all the meat, just like now.
The second was fried rice made to use up leftover ingredients.
But ever since they came here, they could grow just the right amount of ingredients as needed, and there was never any leftover meat.
“Hah… I can’t believe I haven’t made this for you yet.”
“Is it that delicious?”
“Yeah, it’s so good that if two people are eating it, one of them might die without noticing.”
“…Then I don’t need to eat it.”
Though she said it as a joke, his reply was different than usual. Sylvia looked at him curiously, and Felix smirked as he responded.
“I wouldn’t know if I died, but if you died, I couldn’t live, Siri.”
Felix mischievously called her ‘Siri,’ bringing to mind the image of him from just a few months ago.
It was a look she hadn’t seen often since he became emperor and they became husband and wife.
That comfortable, yet intense gaze.
“…I’m glad we came out.”
“It really is nice.”
After finishing her words, Sylvia flipped the pork belly again. She checked that it was nicely browned and then pulled out her secret weapon that she had been saving.
She brought out the napa cabbage kimchi, which she had been saving until the fish sauce was completed, and placed it on top of the accumulated oil.
The oil splattered wildly, but Sylvia didn’t mind. Just placing it on the pan already released a delicious aroma that made her swallow involuntarily.
She spread the kimchi wide to soak up the oil and cut the pork belly into bite-sized pieces. At the same time, she finely sliced green onions while raising various wrap vegetables like lettuce, perilla leaves, dandelion leaves, angelica leaves, and mustard greens.
She mixed soy sauce, red pepper powder, sugar, vinegar, and sesame oil, placed it all in a large bowl, and set it on the table.
She placed the cut pork belly in the bowl and quickly said,
“Let’s eat!”
“Let’s eat!”
Sylvia first ate wrapped in lettuce and perilla leaves. Then, she wrapped it with lettuce and angelica leaves, and then lettuce and dandelion leaves, quickly adding a generous amount of green onion salad and starting to eat various combinations.
Felix also started eating quickly, not falling behind her.
“Mmm, delicious!”
Sylvia exclaimed with a nasal voice. Although grilling over charcoal is great, she nodded, thinking nothing beats using the lid of a large pot.
“The taste is definitely a bit different.”
“Right? You can feel it, right?”
“Yeah.”
Felix tried eating the pork belly without any wrap vegetables, finding it even more savory.
“Is this the taste of oil?”
“That’s right. There’s a special taste when you eat it without draining the oil. Now, try this with it.”
As they ate, she used wind magic to tear apart the well-grilled napa cabbage kimchi. She wrapped it around the pork belly and held it up to his mouth.
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
Felix quickly accepted it and chewed. After a few bites, his expression brightened.
“It’s delicious…”
“Right? Plain kimchi is good, but grilled kimchi is practically a different dish altogether.”
“…How can it taste so different?”
“Hehe, just wait a little longer. I promise I’ll make the fish sauce.”
Felix chuckled softly at her words. Though the name was unfamiliar to him, he knew about that fish sauce because Sylvia had gotten into trouble with him over it.
Not just trouble—serious trouble.
If Aeternum were still alive, it wouldn’t have been a big issue. They could just draw on its power.
But that wasn’t the case anymore.
Although Sylvia possessed far more magical power than an ordinary mage, creation magic wasn’t something humans were meant to use.
That’s why he had scolded her so harshly.
If she ended up draining her magical reserves like before, unaware of how much she had left…
His expression darkened at the thought, merely imagining the worst outcome.
“What’s wrong? Does something not taste right?”
Noticing his change in mood, Sylvia asked, and Felix replied in a low voice.
“Creation magic is absolutely forbidden.”
“…Okay.”
Understanding why his mood had soured, Sylvia stuffed a large wrap of pork belly into her mouth and began chewing, her expression sullen.
Chewing and chewing, she kept making wraps with a pitiful expression, which made Felix burst out laughing.
“Ah, really. Why are you so cute?”
“…”
His blatant expressions of affection were sometimes delightful, yet also incredibly embarrassing. Sylvia, pretending to be distracted, wrapped grilled kimchi around the pork belly and put it in his mouth.
“Mmm. It’s really good.”
“You’re going to be surprised when you try the fried rice later.”
“Is it that good?”
“Yeah, should I make it now?”
“Sure.”
At his firm reply, Sylvia moved the remaining pork belly, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and green onions to a dish, leaving aside the pork belly for the fried rice.
“Oh, and the sausages are done too.”
Sylvia pulled out one of the sausages that had been stuck into the ground.
“Hmm, looks like it’s cooked well. Here, try this first.”
“Okay.”
Felix quickly took the sausage, blew on it, and bit into it. The sausage’s firm texture snapped under his teeth with a satisfying pop.
“Huh…”
He exhaled a puff of hot steam and chewed thoroughly.
“This is the best sausage I’ve ever had, Siri.”
“Really?”
With a proud expression, Sylvia used wind magic to chop up the grilled kimchi and pork belly.
Then, she pulled out pre-cooked rice from her spatial storage. She mixed the white rice with the chopped kimchi and pork belly, spreading it evenly to cook thoroughly.
“Try these potatoes and sweet potatoes too. Also, cut the green onion in half, spread it out, and put the pork belly on top to eat. The onions get sweet when grilled, so they’re delicious on their own too.”
“Okay, okay.”
Felix followed her instructions, eating as she suggested. The potatoes were fluffy, and the sweet potatoes were sweet.
After eating those two dishes, Felix felt a strange sense of freshness in his mouth.
With renewed energy, he eagerly ate the pork belly with grilled green onions, followed by wrapping the meat in leafy vegetables and chewing heartily.
Meanwhile, the fried rice was ready.
“Here, try it.”
Sylvia served him a large portion of the fried rice. Felix, with an expectant expression, took a big spoonful.
Blowing on it to cool it down, he quickly put it in his mouth.
“Hoo…”
He slowly blinked as the flavors of the kimchi, pork belly, and white rice blended together in his mouth.
Why, how on earth…
“…How could you keep something this delicious from me until now?”
“Is it really that good?”
“Are you kidding?”
Felix felt as if he had been hit on the back of the head. To think such a taste existed!
Honestly, it felt even more delicious than most meats he had eaten.
He quickly moved his spoon, eating with enthusiasm. Seeing this, Sylvia couldn’t hide her satisfaction as she scraped the browned bits of fried rice stuck to the pan with her spoon.
“Here, this is the best part. Try it.”
Without asking what it was, he immediately accepted the spoon she offered and put it in his mouth.
“Mmm!”
Though it was the same fried rice, the difference in texture made the taste distinct.
This was why he couldn’t help but admire Sylvia.
He thought it wasn’t easy to cook the same dish in different ways to bring out such varied flavors.
“You’re the best, Siri.”
“Hehe, I think so too.”
Sylvia playfully responded as she quickly ate her own portion of fried rice.
“Mmm, this is the taste.”
It had been a long time since she’d had fried rice, especially with kimchi, which she hadn’t tasted in what felt like ages.
As she ate the nostalgic taste of her hometown, Sylvia wordlessly continued to enjoy her meal.
In the end, the two of them leaned close together, scraping the last browned bits from the pan.
After finishing, they quickly cleaned up and lay down on their vine bed, falling asleep. Being on a trip after so long, they were both tired and quickly drifted into slumber.
The next morning, they were awakened by the sound of a gently flowing stream and something flying nearby.
Sylvia rubbed her eyes, still heavy with sleep.
“Yawn, maybe we camped too close to the stream.”
Though it was nice to feel like they were camping, it was indeed a bit noisy. But what bothered her more was a different sound.
“Did a bug get in…?”
With no magic barriers around, it seemed they had hastily put together a makeshift shelter.
They had left gaps to enjoy the cool natural breeze, but it seemed a bug had slipped in through one of them.
Of course, for a bug, the sound of it flying around was a bit too loud.
“Sigh.”
Whatever it was, she intended to chase it out before it woke Felix.
Finally opening her eyes, Sylvia was startled by what she saw flying around inside their makeshift shelter.
Very startled.
With wide eyes, she stared blankly at the creature flitting about.
“…E, Eryngium?”
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