Last Problem Left

After I woke up, I immediately went straight to the bathroom and took a shower. When that's done, I went up to check on Sophia if she was now feeling okay after what happened yesterday.

"Sophia...?" I knocked on the door lightly, and then waited for a couple of seconds for her reply. But after awhile, I didn't get an answer, so I decided to use my dark magic to open the door on the other side.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘱, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨. I thought to myself. Looking around the room for a few minutes, I then went to the kitchen to grab something for her to eat after waking up.

But...

"This are all uncooked ingredients..." I took some vegetables from the cabinet and began examining them one by one.

"Is she perhaps a vegetarian?" I pondered. But after recalling about our first meeting and her eating steak, I dropped those thoughts.

Cracking my fingers and preparing every ingredients to the table, I began cooking.

𝘛𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘶: 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩, 𝘙𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦.

Step 1: Slice the tomatoes, eggplant and marrow. After that's done, I placed them in the table and prepared myself to cook the sauce.

Step 2: For sauce, chop onion, tomatoes and olive oil. Add olive oil in the frying pan and fry, then, add salt and pepper, and some parsley.

Step 3: When the sauce is cooked, lay them down in pan, then arrange the eggplant, tomatoes and marrow slices add parsley, pepper and garlic.

Step 4: Put it in the oven for an hour.

Since oven didn't existed in this world, I can just use one of the artifact that produce fire to rush things.

𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦. Feeling satisfied, I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the towel I brought earlier when I came in, and began preparing plates to the table.

...

As if smelling something delicious, Sophia slowly opened her eyelid and bent her body forward.

Then, not long after, Athan appeared from the kitchen while wearing an apron and was wiping his hands throughly with a towel.

"Umm... What are you doing here?" Asked Sophia, slightly tilting her head. Though, her eyes didn't left the table that beside him that was filled with delicious food. Because of this, Sophia's mouth watered.

"I just came here to prepare something for you to eat." Athan answered with an amused smile. "Well then, since I've already fulfilled why I came here in the first place, I'll be leaving you alone now." He spoke, making a small wave as if to say goodbye.

Just when he was about to step out of the door, Sophia rushed forward to grabbed his clothes on the back.

Athan was a bit taken aback due to her sudden actions, but decided to shake his head to remove his internal thoughts. "What are you doing?" He asked.

Sophia lowered her head bashfully whilst looking down on the floor, then, she raised her head and looked at Athan.

"Si-since you don't have anything to do anyway... And, you're the one who cooked it, I figured that you should eat as well." Sophia said as she looked at Athan with puppy eyes.

Seeing her like this, Athan's face suddenly stiffened while remaining with his smile. "Okay, I guess..." He spoke, averting his eyes elsewhere.

After Athan finished preparing everything on the table, he helped Sophia to get up since she still couldn't lift up her legs due to what happened last night.

Soon after they reached the table, Athan placed her to the chair, as he took a sit across her and began eating.

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘭... 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮. Athan thought, stabbing the sliced eggplant and bringing it up to his mouth.

Athan could survive even for a whole year without eating anything. Due to one of his dark magic abilities, he acquired an ability where his body could absorb mana, which becomes the replacement for food since his body circulates them, turning them into proper nutritions for his body.

Sophia clicked something on the side of her mask, then, the bottom half of the mask suddenly opened up slowly.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮... Thought Athan. While eating, he secretly took a quick glance towards Sophia. And when they're done, Athan helped her wash the dishes before leaving.

"I better get going now." Athan said to Sophia while making as slight wave, Sophia also waved back and slowly removed her mask to look at Athan with a dazzling smile.

"See you later." Sophia spoke, prompting Athan to clutch his heart tighly.

𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴... He thought to himself as he went ahead and got back to his room.

***

After checking up with my things inside my room, I once again went out, heading to the Academy's Laboratory.

Even though today is Sunday, any students of the Aspirant Academy can enter the place because the academy is always opened 20/7. Also, if the students have to inform the Principal if he or she wanted to stay overnight. But, it is important to submit a valid reason for this.

I soon reached the laboratory and when I do, I saw the Academy's legal loli, Mina, sitting on her desk while playing with her hair.

"What do you want?" When she heard this question, Mina turned her head towards me and took out a folder inside the drawer beside her.

"A weird-looking guy asked me to give you this." She spoke, handling the folder to me.

I took a glance inside and when I do, I couldn't help but let out a smile.

"Seems like they'll be able to finish the mission I ordered them to do after a few weeks..." I muttered out loud. When Mina heard this, she tilted her head to the side.

"Huh?" When I noticed this, I quickly raised my hands to eliminate her from thoughts. "Don't worry about it. I know who that guy was."

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥-𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬. I internally said to myself.

"Oh, right!" Mina spoke as if she had realized something. "There's something I want you to do when you're inside the dungeon."

"What is it?" I asked.

She hopped down from her desk and took out a camera artifact from her 'clothes'.

"It's...."

When she was done talking, I went back to my room to take a rest.

After I took a quick shower, I laid down on my bed to rest and slowly closed my eyes to sleep.

"Up to my last problem... The dungeon."

Saying this, I let my consciousness fade as my vision slowly blacked-out.