Queen's... Essence?

Kai froze.

He turned and glanced at Anastasia, who had taken a seat at the table beside Castillian. Kai's eyes widened slightly when he saw her lift a hand up to her mouth to hide a growing smile.

Was she... teasing him?

Kai quickly cleared his throat and sat down in the empty seat beside Petunia.

"Ah, yes, there was. It was a really big one though, I've never seen anything like it before."

Castillian didn't seem to find the humour in Kai's words.

"I see, and what exactly did you do with this... big fly?"

Kai smiled innocently.

"I killed it, roasted it and fed it to the wolf that lives in my shadow."

Castillian grunted, not taking Kai's words seriously. A wolf living in his shadow? Yeah right.

Meanwhile, Kai's attention turned to Anastasia, who was laughing softly from Kai's words.

To be honest, she looked kind of cute when she laugh-

Kai felt his face heat up as he shook his head. Seriously, was he actually about to think that? She was a married woman, Kai had no idea how old she actually was, and she even looked like she was in her mid 40s.

What was wrong with him?

"Oh, dear, I don't know why you're so upset, that was funny. I'm sure it was simply just a case of Kai wanting to entertain himself after being in a tutorial for so long. It must have been a long time since he caught sight of a bath after all."

Castillian let out another grunt, but took his wife's words into consideration as he sighed and went back to feeding Petunia, his smile growing once more.

"I don't care if he hasn't seen a bath, it's his first day here and he's already caused a mess. That's disrespectful towards me, it's disrespectful towards you, it's disrespectful towards the maids who prepared his room."

Anastasia's smile softened.

"And what if I said it wasn't disrespectful?"

Castillian grunted for a third time.

"Then I suppose it would be fine."

And that was the end of that conversation. Kai was in awe that Anastasia could control Castillian so easily. He was so worked up just a moment ago, yet here he was now, a giant smile on his face as he continued to feed Petunia that strange porridge.

After waiting for a few moments, Kai tentatively reached for one of the strange looking food items so he could have something to eat. Nothing on the table looked like anything Kai had seen before, so he was just hoping to get lucky with what he picked.

However, just as he was about to grab a strange looking sausage off of one of the platters, he heard a tut come from his left.

"Oh no, Kai, I wouldn't recommend that. Here, have some of this."

And with that, Kai watched as Anastasia picked up her knife and fork and cut off a section of the strange omelette thing that was on her plate. She then tenderly lifted it with the side of the knife and carefully placed in on Kai's own plate.

"But My Queen, that's your own break-"

"Oh it's fine, I just want to see does he like it."

Kai ignored the glare he was getting from Castillian and looked down at the omelette thing. It was yellow and had bits of pink and green spread throughout it, reminding Kai of ham and vegetables.

He lifted his head, but instantly regretted the action as he saw Anastasia propping her elbows on the table and using her hands to rest her chin on, a slight smile as she watched Kai.

"Go on, try it."

She reminded Kai of a mother watching her child open her Christmas presents, only making Kai blush even more.

"Um... thank you..."

He felt the glare from Castillian intensify, so he added on at the end:

"...Queen Anastasia."

And with that, Kai picked up his own knife and fork and cut a bit off the section he had been given. He lifted it up to his mouth and ate it, chewing it slowly and...

His eyes widened in surprise. The texture was kind of weird, almost rubbery, but it tasted really nice. It tasted what an omelette would taste like if it used ingredients from space in the making.

After swallowing and making sure there was nothing left in his mouth, Kai turned to Anastasia and smiled.

"It's really nice, what is it?"

Anastasia smiled in response, her eyes gleaming with pride at the fact Kai liked it.

"It's called the Queen's Essence, it's made using various ingredients in this city. In fact, I'm the only one in this entire city that is allowed to eat them, so consider yourself special."

Kai had already taken another bite, his face paling slightly after hearing that he shouldn't even be eating these.

Then, to Kai's horror, Anastasia leaned down a bit and said in a slightly sultry tone.

"So, Kai... Did you enjoy eating my Essence?"

Kai nearly coughed up the omelette that was in his mouth. He felt his face heat up once more, this time it was much worse than any previous time.

What had she just said? Did she have any idea of the double entendre of what she had just said.

It seemed that Castillian didn't, he was too focused on Petunia to comprehend what his wife had just said.

After glancing back at Anastasia, he saw the smirk on her face and sighed. She was teasing him.

My god... what is up with that woman?

"They were very nice. Thank you for sharing them with me."

Kai sighed again as his face returned to its normal colour. What was up with him? He wasn't like this with Noelle or Sofia, even though they could both be considered as attractive as Anastasia, so what was up?

Kai grimaced slightly as an idea he didn't want to admit popped into his mind.

... Was this just his type?

Kai went back to eating the small portion of eggs left on his plate, inwardly thinking that the taste had changed after what Anastasia had said.

Twenty minutes later, the maids came back in and collected the plates and platters, all of them moving like ballroom dancers and managing to avoid each other effortlessly.

It was a cool sight, all those people acting like a single organism in the way in which they operated.

After they all left, Ezekial took Petunia and went to wherever Castillian had whispered in the blue-haired swordsmans ear right before they left.

Then, there was only Kai, Anastasia and Castillian left in the main hall.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Kai coughed and started to get up out of his chair.

"I'm going to go back to my room. Thank you very much for the breakfast, it was really delicious."

A small smile made its way onto Castillian's face, him not shying away from the praise.

However, Kai wasn't able to smile as he noticed Anastasia standing up at the same time.

"Dear, I'm going to walk Kai back to his room. I'll leave you to tend to your duties."

Then, Anastasia leaned down and kissed Castillian on the cheek before elegantly making her way to Kai's side.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

This time, Kai managed to successfully not blush as he started walking, Anastasia starting to walk beside him.

Once they were outside the door of the main hall, Anastasia sighed and raised a hand up to her forehead.

"I'm sorry Kai, I didn't realise that Castillian would get so worked up about me telling him about... the fly."

Anastasia then laughed softly, the sound sweet on Kai's ears-

He stopped that train of thought there, not wanting to potentially embarrass himself.

"It's fine, it was an understandable reaction. I probably should've apologised."

Anastasia smiled sweetly down at Kai, she then patted the back of his head and said:

"Hmm, well, look at you being all grown up. If I didn't know better, I would believe that you're a few centuries older than you already are.

Actually, I might just pretend that's the case..."

Kai's face started heating up as he threw a side glance to Anastasia, noticing the teasing smirk on her pretty face.

However, at this point, Kai couldn't tell if Anastasia was only teasing him or actually hinting at something.

And to be honest, Kai wasn't sure what he wanted the answer of that to be.

After that, both of them walked in silence until they reached the door to Kai's bedroom. Once they arrived, Kai held in a sigh of relief, happy that he'd soon be free from the teasing of Anastasia.

Reaching for the door, Kai felt a shiver run up his spine as a hand reached over his shoulder and grabbed onto his own, preventing him from opening his door.

Kai turned his head slightly, but was caught off guard by the sight of Anastasia's lips right beside his ear.

"You know, Kai, you're a real nice boy, maybe I'll come around again and... give you another taste of my Essence."

Then, Anastasia let go of Kai's hand and patted his head one last time. As she walked away, Kai heard her say:

"Now, be a good boy and don't cause any more trouble."

Kai remained perfectly still for a few moments, contemplating what the hell had just happened.

Honestly, was that woman actually his type? Basically anything that she did made his heart flutter.

Made his legs weak.

Made the back of his mind tingle strangely.

But even after all that, Kai couldn't help but wonder if she was being serious about coming around to let him taste her eggs again.

Sighing, Kai slapped his face a few times and composed himself. Where was Nonchalance in all this? That was meant to keep him calm in stressful situations, yet why wasn't it helping at all?

...Was it just that Kai innately deemed the situation not stressful?

Kai sighed once more, wondering how on Earth he was going to get through these next six months.

Opening his door, Kai got ready to lie down on his bed and get some well needed rest after that fiasco.

Only he was surprised to hear the sound of... Singing?