We found the old horses at the back and got to work at once.

The old Black and Blanc were still just as youthful as before.

"Fuuuukyuyu!"

"Yarebaaaeeck!?"

They screamed as they saw me. I gently stroked their faces and warned them to shut it.

I wasn\'t gonna make these two old folks engage in a horse back ride after all.

We got to changing the feed and water at once, much like the old days.n0veLusB.C0M

"Oh, young master, Keith said lady Charlotte is in Dienin."

"What? The Duke allowed her in?"

Lily tilted her head as if asking since when did the Duke need her permission.

The answer was since when I had strictly warned Charlotte to stay away from him until he mentioned it himself.

"Also, more and more people keep returning into the city after the battle. I guess businnes will do good again—"

Lily seemed to be grasping at straws to make conversation, so I intervened and started talking to her about all she had done in these five years.

Lily\'s smile only kept getting brighter vy the second as we continued conversing about things. She even started blushing when we skipped work talk to switch to mundane get interesting topics, so I did it more on purpose.

"With so many guests it\'s a little hard to get time like this, right?"

"Sure is," I answered. "I like that everyone returned to Apollon but I enjoy our alone time too."

Lily looked away.

"Young master, you don\'t change much do you?"

I already knew who felt what for me.

I stepped ahead and kissed her on the forehead.

"Let\'s get inside."

***

Lily went back to her room while I strode toward mine. The mansion was strangely quiet today.

On my way to the stairs, I heard some clatter and decided to go the kitchen instead.

Inside, Maria was trying to cook quite a few portions all alone.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Young Master? You\'re back."

I rolled up my sleeves and washed my hands.

"No one\'s helping you today?"

Not like our spoiled little princes and princesses knew how to cook, but they did help everyday.

"Luka and the other three left to the Empire, so there was no need to."



"Luka did? He didn\'t tell me."

Maria smirked. I pushed her away from the cutting board and took the knife from her hands. By the time she could move back, all the chopping was done.

The chopping board was chopped too.

"Wow!" Maria hummed. She picked up a carrot from the side and tossed it at me. She couldn\'t even see me move my hands as it fell into bits right into a bowl.

"Hahah! You can never win."

"Win? You\'re like a circus trick, young master."

I pouted at her words, but Maria only tossed more at me.

Each time, she would clap in admiration. I guess it wasn\'t that bad to be a circus trick.

"Alright, we\'ve already got way more than we needed!"

"It was also fun to see the knives move on their own, but this is good too."

"Isn\'t it? It\'s like nothing is moving right?"

"It\'s exactly like that, just how fast are you?"

Fast. Well I could probably run from Pinot to the Asahi Empire within an hour, no enhancements.

We laughed at the silliness of what we were up to and got to cooking. Now that I couldn\'t handle many things at once with psychokinesis, it felt rather strange to cook.

I had gotten too used to having multiple limbs, cooking was rather delicate.

Maria and I stood shoulder to shoulder as we finished the rest of the work. I let Maria taste everything and she made me taste things herself. It felt rather serene.

"Young Master..." Maria called.

"Yeah?"

"Next month... will you be going?"

"Of course," I said.

"Can\'t you not?"

Maria worried for me far too much. Ever since the beginning, she never changed this part of her. It was not to stop me, but to protect me.

She always went to lengths to make sure I was safe. Her reason for getting angry was always out of worry. I truly appreciated it more than I could express.

But things were different now.

Instead of saying anything, I turned to face Maria.

Something I should have done back when I went to become an adventurer.

Just as I had grown...

"Haah..." Maria sighed. "Come back soon, young master. And uninjured."

"Of course, it will take ten of the Outer Gods to hurt me."

She grinned and placed her head on my chest. Without a word, I embraced her back.

We finished our cooking when I noticed a discarded plate still full of food.

"What\'s this? Who didn\'t eat?"

"Ah! That Dawn, she has not stepped out of her room since this morning."

What now?

***

With hefty servings of freshly made food on a service tray, I took a deep breath in front of the door.

A simple kick pushed it open.

"What are you doing, stupid? Why didn\'t you eat?"

Sitting inside on the bed was Dawn in just a very loose shirt. She was hunched over into a ball as she stared ahead.

With the tap of a button, the sounds of rain and a strange confession stopped. Dawn turned to me, rubbing her baggy eyes.

"Dusk..."

"What the hell? What are you doing?"

"I am watching Duckflix."

"We have Duckflix?!"

"All TVs come with Duckflix these days."

"WE HAVE TV!?"

The connection of all the worlds had equally harmful effects, huh?

"It comes with subtitles in the Imperial Language."

"Wow, capitalism sure isn\'t to be underestimated."

I closed the door behind us and sat next to her. She seemed to have been binging a drama for a while now.

"You have to eat, fool."

"I thought just one more episode but it kept changing on its own."

How evil, Duckflix. How evil.

"Eat now."

"Don\'t wanna~"

I sat next to her and pulled the tray with me. I pulled her closer and sat her on my thighs before wrapping my hands around her.

"Let\'s watch together, and eat together. Food tastes bad when you\'re eating alone anyway."

Dawn leaned back and snuggled into me. "Ok," she said as she started the TV again.

We sat together and ate together for about two more episodes when I got drowsy again.

It was getting harder to keep my eyes open. I had missed sleeping far too much.

I yawned, the sounds of the television going away.

"Dusk... Dusk."

"Yeah, sorry?"

"Are you sleepy?"

I nodded.