Molten Cocoa

Standing in the centre of the city he was going to be living in for the next six months, Kai did a slow twirl as he admired all the buildings surrounding him.

It really was a medieval city. There was blacksmiths, cottages, some clothes shops and a variety of other things.

"It's a nice place... Bar the blizzard."

Yelena smiled softly as she took Kai's hand, leading him to one of the many shops that she had to run her errands in.

"The blizzard isn't so bad once you have been here for a while, you slowly get used to it.

The outer wall of the city also shields us from most of it, so it could be a lot worse than it already is."

Kai didn't resist when the green haired maid grabbed his hand, in fact, he kind of enjoyed the feeling.

It reminded him of when he was younger and how his mother would hold his hand while bringing him around to do all their shopping.

At the time, he would have much rather just stayed at home to watch cartoons or something, but it was now that he was realising that he kind of missed the feeling. You didn't have to worry about anything as a child, all you had to do was hold your parents hand and be happy.

Yelena brought Kai around to a variety of different shops. She bought some groceries, some utensils, some silverware, she even bought a scarf in some fancy clothes shop that she mentioned Anastasia wanted to buy.

At some point in all of that, Kai became the dedicated bag carrier. It wasn't like it was a hard job, considering that he had over 100 Strength, but it was a little strange that what was meant to be his first day of freedom and exploring the city had ended up with him being a designated trolley.

The two of them continued to go in and out of shops, the amount of bags on Kai's body steadily increasing.

At one point, much to Kai's dismay, Yelena bought a hat that faintly reminded him of a sombrero and placed it on his head. Then, she used the ring around the hat to hold some of the smaller and more fragile items that could break in the bags.

By now, Kai was extremely tempted to just equip his spatial storage ring and just place all these items carefully inside, but he wasn't too keen on doing anything like that just yet.

After all, who knew how many eyes were in this city?

"Alright, that's everything on my list. I really do appreciate your help, Sir Kai."

Kai sighed softly, unable to nod his head incase he accidently dropped some of the mini items that were residing in his sombrero.

"Glad I could help.,"

Yelena then slowly turned around to look at Kai, a teasing grin slowly making its way onto her attractive face. She then began to tap her cheek as she feigned being deep in thought.

"But even though I've gotten everything on my list, I can't help but feel as if I've forgotten something."

Kai sighed once more.

"My payment?"

Yelena let out a shocked 'oh' and smiled at Kai, her eyes gleaming softly.

"That's what it was, you would be correct, Sir Kai. I completetly forgot about your payment. Luckily, I know the perfect thing to get you.

However, let me just take all of these off you first."

Kai instinctively took a step back from Yelena. To be honest, it wasn't really a big deal carrying all this stuff, it was pretty easy so there was no need to have her carry anything.

However, at the next moment, everything that Kai had been holding vanished as a ring appeared on Yelena's middle finger.

Kai's eyes widened in shock.

"Seriously, you had a spatial storage all that time?"

Yelena giggled softly as she tapped her ring mischievously.

"Of course I did, do you really think the royal family would send a maid out to run errands without one? Lord no, imagine how easy it would be for me to get robbed while walking around with all that.

Kai sighed again and rolled his shoulders before glaring slightly at the green haired maid.

"Then what was the point of having me carry all that?"

Yelena smiled innocently as she lightly knocked her nuckles against the side of her head.

"I forgot."

Kai dropped the subject after that, not wanting to give himself anything else to stress about.

"Well, fine then, what's my reward."

Yelena smiled softly.

"Follow me."

The green haired maid didn't even wait for Kai's response, she just began making her way down of the many roads in the city.

After a couple minutes of walking, Kai noticed that Yelena had been leading them to a building that was much larger than majority of the ones that Kai had seen in his time here.

There were two doors at the front of it, the doors reminding Kai of the ones you would see on saloons in the Wild West, the way you could simply just walk into them.

And, to be fair, Kai had the sombrero to match.

"This tavern has some of the best food in the whole city, and its really cheap.

Sometimes, I use some of the money that I'm left with and buy myself a meal here after running my errands. His and Her Majesty never notice as the amount missing is too little for them to care. And if they do notice, I just say that the price of one of the items that they got me to purchase went up."

Kai's eyes widened as the sudden confession. Like seriously, how good did some food have to be for you to risk your job, and even life over?

Well, that was a rhetorical question, he would be finding out soon enough anyway.

After pushing open the doors, Kai was instantly overwhelmed by the noise and all the people present. There were gargantuan men downing massive mugs of beer with no hesitation, server's wearing outfits that were designed to catch the customers attention, barmen constantly pouring new drinks, there was even a few women wearing rather revealing clothing that were clinging to the arms of some of the men in the tavern.

However, there was one feature about them all that was the same.

They were all either too drunk to notice or just didn't care that a royal maid had entered the establishment.

But not to Kai's surpise, Yelena didn't seem to mind that.

Yelena simply made her way to one of the empty tables while glancing at the menu, which was hanging off the wall over the bar. After noticing that Kai hadn't followed her, she smiled softly and gestured for him to sit down.

"I promise this place is incredible, if you just ignore the fact that there is a brothel upstairs."

Kai's eyes widened slightly as he took a seat across from Yelena.

Well, it's not like it was much of a surprise to him, it definitely explained why the servers were dressed like that and why there was women in skimpy clothing clinginging onto any man who paid them some attention.

"Well, alright then, but I'm not expecting much-"

Kai instantly swallowed his words when noticing one particular thing that was on the menu, one thing that was surely going to be the same as on Earth even though it had a different name.

After watching Kai fall silent, Yelena followed his gaze and smirked softly after noticing that he was staring so intently at.

While Kai was still obliviously staring at the menu, one of the many servers approached the table with a polite smile and began speaking.

"Hello there, are you ready to order?"

In all fairness, this server was dressed a little more modestly than some of the other ones present. This server wore a simple dress, but it still revealed enough of her breasts for it to be obvious where she worked.

"Yes, two Molten Cocoas please."

The server smiled politely and nodded her head before making her way over to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Kai was too lost in thought, reminiscing about the good old days where he would drink too much hot chocolate for it to be good for him.

What an incredible drink it was, truly the pinnacle of Christmas beverages. Who needs eggnog when you could have this hot chocolatey goodness.

Kai was so immersed in his memories that he didn't even register a fraction of Yelena and the server's conversation anyway.

But not even a full minute later, Kai was snapped out of it by the the sound of two bangs coming from the table that was in front of him.

Looking up, he saw the server flash him a small wink before walking away, leaving Kai stumped about what it could possibly mean.

Then, he looked down and didn't care about the server anymore.

Sitting in front of him on the table was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

Screw a gorgeous view, screw the pretty server that had just winked at him, screw it all, none of it mattered in the face of hot chocolate.

The eternal Christmas beverage.

And Kai was extremely pleased to see that it hadn't come in a small cup, it had actually come in the same size mug that all of the beer drinkers were drinking out of.

Yelena picked up her own mug before holding it out in front of Kai, waiting for a moment.

"What are you waiting for, drink up."

Not needing to be told twice, Kai grabbed his own mug and softly hit it against Yelena's before taking a sip of the hot beverage.

It was then and there that he learned what true happiness was.

Who needed all of the food that The Ever-changing offered when he can simply have a hot chocolate instead.