Chapter 25: Exceedingly Delicious, Utterly Delectable

Inside the city defense headquarters, Flam, drawing upon her past experience in dealing with the blood of the Demon King, quickly laid out the mission.

To prevent any potential spread of the virus, Flam handed over several vials of alchemical potions she had brewed centuries ago to Odmeyer, instructing him to dilute them into fresh water according to a specific ratio. Once diluted, the solution was to be loaded into sprayers, which the city guards were to carry into the streets to carry out disinfection.

Observing the undisguised awkwardness on Odmeyer’s face, Flam explained with a deadpan expression, "Don't worry, this medicine is only five hundred years old; it’s definitely not expired. Everything I brew has a very long shelf life."

"Very well, Lady Flam, you are the expert in this regard." What else could Odmeyer say? He was just a warrior who specialized in swords.

"Oh, and one more thing—seal the sewers. I will find time to clear them out tomorrow. Before that, do not let anything escape from them, and do not let anyone enter."

"As you command, my lady."

After Odmeyer left, Flam temporarily commandeered his office. She set up a high-level isolation barrier within the room to prevent any external surveillance before activating a communication spell. The spell took effect immediately, as if the recipient had been waiting for a long time. A projection soon appeared before Flam.

"Your Highness, the matter has been resolved. The situation in Ryskan is under control. Thank you for granting me access to the military teleportation array."

"If I had relied on flying, I wouldn't have been able to get here so quickly. If that had happened, dealing with the situation would have been quite troublesome."

"Is there anything that you find troublesome, Lady Flam?" The violet-eyed girl with long chestnut hair in the projection chuckled.

"Isn't it troublesome to spend hours resolving something that could have been settled in minutes?"

"Fair point." The girl stopped arguing.

Flam looked at the girl in the projection. "So, Your Highness, why did you allow me to use the military teleportation array?"

"Even for you, such clearance isn't granted lightly. After all, the cost of activating the array once is significant."

"Well..." The girl smiled playfully. "It is that person's hometown, after all. And besides, it was an operation to eradicate the Brotherhood of Chaos. Using the military array for that is perfectly normal, isn't it?"

"Besides, this time it was the legendary Lady Flam herself who took action. Such a sight is rarely seen, isn't it?"

"That person?" Flam clearly knew how to grasp the focus of a conversation.

"Ahem, that’s not important! I will help you report on the situation in Ryskan. Goodbye!"

*Beep!*

The communication spell was cut off.

Flam muttered, "What an impolite little brat..."

...

Pushing open the door, the familiar scent of home rushed into Roland’s nose the moment the wooden door swung inward. Taking a deep breath of the familiar air, Roland tossed his gear onto the sofa all at once. After drinking a large glass of warm water from the thermal carafe in the kitchen, he headed upstairs, pushed open his bedroom door, and dove face-first onto the bed.

He instinctively reached for the quilt—he never folded it; he usually chose to flip it open at a convenient angle when getting up, so that when he lay back down, a single pull would perfectly cover his entire body.

But this time, he couldn't find the quilt in its usual spot. After scrambling around on the bed for a while with no success, Roland remembered something.

Right, that girl slept here last night. Although she hadn't slept in this bed before, she had unexpectedly and thoughtfully folded the quilt for him. It was perhaps the neatest the quilt had been since Roland bought it.

What an utterly unnecessary gesture of thoughtfulness. However... never mind, he would just sleep like this for the night.

A soft snoring sound soon emerged, and Roland drifted into sleep at an unprecedented speed.

"EIWAZ..."

A faint, unintelligible whisper echoed in Roland’s dream, repeating over and over again. In the hazy, dreamlike consciousness, Roland seemed to grasp its meaning through the repeated murmurs.

—The World Tree.

"!!!"

When Roland opened his eyes again, sunlight had already spilled into the room from outside the window, and the wooden window frames emitted a slight, sweet, resinous scent as they warmed. Roland rose from the bed; sleeping face-down all night had made his neck even more sore. After laboriously working out the stiffness in his cervical spine, he looked at the wall calendar, which was still stuck on yesterday’s date.

He stepped forward and tore it off. The date was officially December 7th, 1029, of the Imperial Calendar. After doing this, Roland sat back down on the edge of the bed; his brain hadn't finished its boot-up sequence yet. Of course, that was likely due to the murmurs in his dream.

The World Tree? That sacred tree growing in Avalon, guarded by countless powerful elves who had lived for who knows how many years?

"EIWAZ?"

Roland recalled the murmur from his dream and the pronunciation of the word. Then... nothing happened. It was as if it had been nothing more than a simple dream. Roland shook his head, casting the dream of the previous night out of his mind.

At that moment, he heard movement downstairs, seemingly coming from the kitchen. Roland tapped a mechanism on the headboard, and a knife made of magic-suppressing stone was quickly retrieved and held in his hand.

He pushed open the door and stepped out, deliberately making noise on the stairs. After taking two steps, Roland used a blink spell to teleport directly into the kitchen.

"Ah, you came down so fast! I only just heard you moving on the stairs!"

Kallya, who had changed into a different outfit and was wearing an apron, turned around with a spatula in her hand to look at Roland, who had suddenly appeared behind her.

Roland: "..."

Roland silently put the knife away, tucked it into his waistband, and hid it under his shirt.

"How did you get in?" Roland looked at Kallya with a strange expression. He had thought his "ill-fated connection" with Kallya had ended.

"Pfft, did you forget that you were the one who gave me the key?" Kallya stuck her tongue out at Roland and made a face, then reached into her pocket and pulled out the key to Roland’s house.

*Smack!*

Roland covered his face with his hand. He had actually forgotten about that.

"So, you didn't just come over to cook for me, did you?" Roland looked at the variety of food already spread across the table. He hadn't expected her to be such a good cook.

"What else?"

"Move, move! Don't block me!" Kallya said, bumping into Roland as she pushed past him to place the final dish on the table.

The breakfast on the table was truly luxurious. At least, since coming to this world, Roland had never eaten a breakfast with so many dishes. Generally speaking, there were only two things on his breakfast table: one was the habit he brought from his previous life—various pickled vegetables or small preserved seafood with rice porridge, or sometimes he would exercise his own initiative to fry some dough sticks to dip in soy sauce with porridge. Otherwise, it was various sandwiches—mostly the latter, mainly because it was convenient.

"This is quite a feast... Is this a dietary habit of Blackthorn Territory? Usually, I don't see this many dishes for breakfast."

"?" Kallya looked confused. "Didn't you check the time? It's already noon."

"..."

Fine, so this was lunch. No wonder there was pan-seared fish, steak, and creamy baked stew...

Kallya rested her head on her elbow and tilted her head with a smile. "You, didn't you sleep your brains into a fog?"

"Taste it. These were fresh ingredients I bought at the market early this morning!"

"Consider this a return gift. Thank you for all the food you gave me the other day."