20.

Irene woke up to see that I am not by her side as she thought I'm doing my morning practice. When my predecessor and Irene lived together, my predecessor would always practice using heavy sword everyday without fail even when she told him not to, that's why she is confident that in terms of swordsmanship, no one is my match.

She stood up and realized that she is still wearing her witch's garb so she enchanted her outfit to change in a simple dress as she stared at the dress that she used to wear when she was living together with me. She checked the kids and stared at her daughter, no, daughters sleeping peacefully. She smiled seeing their sleeping face as she fought the urge to pinch their cheeks as she found their sleeping face cute.

She remembered about what happened last night as she went down and checked on Gildarts. She is stuck between hard decision on whether to kill the defenseless Gildarts or not.

Making her decision, she decided to heed her husband's words not to touch him so she went down and washed her face.

Thinking about it, due to the reunion, she haven't inspected the house they lived in. She saw many contraptions that I used for cooking that have different enchanments and wondered whether her husband have picked up enchanting.

She inspected the enchantments surrounding the weird contraptions and lost interest as they only contained simple enchantments like heating, electricity, and the likes.

When she went to the backyard, that's what shocked her the most. She saw bundles of ginger, onion, and a gypsy tent with bines attached into the pole. (Yes, bines. Bines are different from vines in the way they grow. Vines use their tendrils to latch onto an item while Bines circle themselves in a helix formation, just like DNA)

She had a lot of questions in her mind and decided to ask me about it later when I returned home.

'Was the WoD really a barren land?' she thought.

She is inspecting the plants when she heard a loud boom in a distance as she smiled when she heard the familiar boom that I always created while practicing the way of the sword.

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I returned home as the sun slowly show itself to the world.

I entered the house and went upstairs and was surprised to see that Irene is already awake and decided to check the backyard from the window and saw her focused on checking the plantation that's why she didn't pick up my presence and went down to prepare breakfast for today.

I went to the backyard to pick up some garlic and onion.

"Quite a surprise isn't it? To see plants growing in the 'cursed' land" I said as my words startled her. Because she is so focused on finding the cause of how plants could grow in my backyard, she let her guard down. Seeing that its only me, she sighed.

"It piques my interest, how could plants grow in your backyard?" She asked, she didn't notice my partially restored magic circuits because I've ran out of reserves.

"Would you believe me if an insane old man proclaiming that he is greatest enchanter and a farmer at that, once lived in here?" I said as she shook her head.

"I know right? But in my adventurer days, I picked up all odd jobs to have food placed on the table. And one certain quest requires me to accompany an insane old man which I accepted because of high pay. One day, he kept muttering that his final masterpiece is that he had made soil in WoD to grow plants in his house. I thought he really is insane but..." I said, its true, my predecessor took all odd jobs in the guild to feed Erza and accepted a job to take care of an insane old man. Whether he is the greatest enchanter as he proclaims is not my problem anymore since he had died a few weeks after my predecessor took care of his needs.

"Check my magic circuits... He's the one who did this." I said as Irene did as I told. When she did, shock appeared on her face as her body trembled and tears started threatened to fall as she saw her husband's magic circuit, partially repaired as she ran up to me and hugged me taking her mind off of the plantation.

Although I am straight up lying, I can't just tell her that my predecessor and the man she fell in love with, died, and took his place and the fact that I have a system right?

For Irene though, years of guilt emerged from her memories as she always blames herself that if not for her, then my magic circuit would not be destroyed and would make a name for myself. She is relieved to see her husband's magic circuit restored although just partially.

Sensing her emotions, I rubbed her back as I said.

"I told you, its not your fault. Whatever happened is my(predecessor's) idea. So don't blame yourself about it."

"I guess I should thank that old man for repairing your magic circuit." She said as I shook my head.

"He already died a few years back and he told me that my magic circuit would repair in time." Which is true as I have asked the system once if I could fix my magic circuit by buying it from the system.

[Yes, Host have a maximum of 30% of repair progress that you can buy from the system. As you level up the system, it will refresh itself.]

So that means, by reaching level 3 of the system, I could heal myself back to top shape because I have already 10% and if what the system said is true then I can repair my magic circuits by 30% per level. 90% when I reached level 3. I can finally use my magic at full potential.

Nodding in joy, Irene finally let go of years of her guilt as she hugged me really tight.

After separating, I picked up some onions and garlic from the plantation as Irene was surprised about the size of the onions and garlic as its size is above average. I was about to go inside when she mustered her courage and said to me.

"My love, can you... teach me how to cook?" She asked me with some hesitation in her face.

I was about to tease her but I saw that her hesitation changed into determination as she waited for my answer.

'She must be wanting to do something motherly to Erza.' I thought.

"Sure, food tastes delicious when made together." I said with a smile which made me cringe because IT IS VERY BS, but it was all the words I could think to reply to her. As a person from the modern world it is very cringy, but in medieval era where words hold and mean a lot more, Irene found it sweet as she blushed when she looked at my smile.

Irene followed me inside. I then taught her all of the appliances. She was amazed that those simple enchantments could hold such amazing uses. It is simply revolutionary. Usually if one wanted to bake something, they covered it in salt or use the brick ovens, but my oven don't emit smoke and can be timed as well making baking accurate.

After teaching her about the appliances, I taught her different cutting techniques such as julienne, mince, dice, and the likes.

At first she had made mistakes as we had to redo several times but it didn't stop her from learning. Knife cuts can't damage her skin at all.

Meanwhile I started beating chicken breast to tenderize the meat as I prepared flour, eggs, and panko breadcrumbs. I want to make chicken katsu for our breakfast. I want Irene to make a mushroom soup as she followed every step I told her.

After an hour of cooking, the aroma wafted in the air and was about to wake the chipmunks up, but I underestimated their sense of smell as they rushed down the stairs.

"Be careful not to trip!" I shouted to them as they might hurt themselves if they ran down the stairs.

Seeing the food being put in the table, they immediately ran and washed their face and their hands as they sat on their chair with anticipation.

I served them the chicken katsu and the soup that Irene made. When they started digging in, their eyes lit up as they started eating as Irene poured the soup in the rice.

When she first saw the rice, she wanted to reprimand me because it is a food for slaves but I told her that there are other ways to cook rice and not just for gruel and porridge.

She seemed skeptical about it but stopped thinking about it since I've made food more delicious than those made by the royal chefs.

Irene's heart felt warm when she saw her daughters pouring their soup into the rice as they ate with gusto.

"What do you say about your mother's soup?" I asked as they immediately answered.

"So tashty!" Said Kagura with her mouth full

"Ish the besht!" followed by Erza

"Ish really *gulp*good." said Pitou as they didn't say anymore but just continued digging in.

Seeing the table wiped out after eating made Irene happy as she finally have a motherly moment with her daughters.

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And now, I rest.