Step Up, Not (1)

Leaning into the kitchen, Laura scanned the surroundings. Royal chefs were busy about, creating meals in great numbers for tonight's banquet. To the far corner near the open window, there he was together with the head chef.

Without pulling the chefs out of their work, Laura stepped in and approached him.

"Oppa."

Black hair, black eyes. "Excuse me," Jiwon said to the head chef, turning to Laura, "Did you get the items."

Laura nodded and took out the various seafoods from the magic bag– spacial bag. One by one, Laura arranged the ingredients on the kitchen counter. A large block of octopus, oyster the size of one's torso, a whole killer tuna, small shellfish of sorts, sea urchins, and many many eels. The sheer quantity occupied half the entire counter lined against the wall.

"These are good. I can start preparing right away."

"I wish to see your skills in action, O' hero-dono," the head chef said, amused.

"By all means," Jiwon grabbed the block of octopus and borrowed a large kitchen knife, about to start when he noticed Laura's stare.

At times, this person could get too passionate about cooking that he'd ignore the people surrounding him..

"Thank you Laura," Jiwon said, a sparkling smile on his face, "I'll have you taste test the first samples of the dish."

"Really?" Laura's ears bounced to that statement. It was a blessing to be given the first taste. Moirae was the one who often stole this privilege, "Promise. No letting Moirae-san eat it before me."

"I will stop her if she tries.."

"I believe you.. to an extent."

"I swear I will, this time.. for sure.."

"Ah, Oppa, close your eyes for a moment."

"Hm?"

"Do as I say."

Jiwon closed his eyes. A bag being crumpled, it was a nostalgic sound.

"Ah~" Laura prodded.

Jiwon opened his mouth.

He felt something salty– crunchy–

He opened his eyes and saw in Laura's hands, a bag of potato chips.. chilli flavoured.

"Where did you.. get that?"

Laura tossed a chip into her mouth. "From a friend of mine. I have ice cream and various other snacks from your world, "Laura shoved the half-eaten potato bag into the magic back and showed him other items like a can of potato chips, chocolate ice cream, yoghurt ice cream, crackers, sir-dried fish skin snack, instant noodles– and many more.

Laura felt a little sly of pride from Jiwon's dismayed expression. She had successfully destroyed his reasoning. Some brands he did not recognize, but seeing these snacks again after two years caused an odd feeling to spring from his chest.

More so, this 'friend' Laura mentioned, how was it that Jiwon had no idea of it? He was sure Laura hadn't met anyone significant as she stuck to him..

That was wrong. She had been reincarnated 3 seasons earlier than himself and had only accompanied him on the journey for a little less than a season.

"This person who gave you the snack.. who is he? Or she?"

"It's inconvenient to discuss it here.." Laura looked at the head chef. He bowed in apology, "It's alright, you can observe how Oppa cooks, I didn't come here to take his time away."

"Hm.." Jiwon mulled in suspicion.

It was someone of importance.. and with this in mind, the first person Jiwon thought to be a possibility was..

"The 13th Goddess."

"Huh?" Laura, who was just about to leave, turned her head to him.

"Alright. We'll talk about it later," He probably hit the mark, Jiwon smirked. He turned to the kitchen counter and started preparing the ingredients.

"The 13th.. haha.. maybe.." this time, it was Laura's turn to show dismay.

Nine was done for.

Laura walked out the royal kitchen with a small dilemma. The situation whereby Nine's false identity was to be spread— assumed to be the 13th goddess was growing bigger and bigger. More people are starting to believe that the 13th Goddess resides in Erudite kingdom.

Worse comes to worse, a wild hunt for this Goddess could actually happen– that was just one of Laura's delusion thoughts.

The next worst thing was that if Nine's name were to be revealed in any way, their lives– Noel, Liliath, Prune and Rinalanashin included would not stay the same again? Their efforts to keep a low profile would be wasted.

More so was..

How would Bleu feel about this? Did she know?

It sounded way too funny.

Nine as the Goddess of Comfort when in reality.. the Goddess of Comfort was Bleu.

Laura was stuck at an impasse. How should she go about explaining this misunderstanding to the heroes? Aoki Kaito, the hero saved by Nine previously kept spewing news about Nine, most of them falsely assumed, inflated to grandeur his (her) image.

Laura turned at a corner, planning to take the stairs down to the training ground when..

"Laura-sama."

"Huh?"

"Pardon this request. May I know if you have this delicacy called ice-cream?"

"Eh.."

The maid El, stood blocking the way.

"Ice.. cream.. how possibly.." Laura blinked a few times. This maid.. how did she know that she had ice cream?

"Her Highness Siesta wanted to try it, were you uninformed by the Irregulars?"

"Irregulars..?"

The maid looked around in prudence, with the vicinity clear, she pulled up the message UI.

"H-huh.. you too?"

"If you know this much, you should also understand that this should be kept secret in regards."

"Yes."

It was a conversation between Liliath and Her Highness Siesta who inquired about the high elf– which soon turned into a conversation about ice cream, snacks and pizza.

"I didn't know Her Highness had this side to her.." Laura's ears twitched.

"Same could be said for yourself, Your Highness."

"How many people know about this? Them? Were there any other heroes given this skill?"

"From our investigations, it seems that only us three who encountered the Irregulars were given this route of connection."

"How so.. there's a tumor of lie growing within the castle.. should we be proactive to clear it? The Irregulars.." Laura wasn't all too fond of addressing them 'Irregulars' but it was a fitting name, "Were they told about this situation?"

"Her Highness Siesta has taken measures to quell what she could. Though, with the limitations of our authority, there isn't much we can do about it. The best option here would be to pull the Irregulars over and have them clear the misunderstanding by their own hands."

Laura pondered about it for a moment.

At this point, what the maid told her was true. If they, who possess this Unique Skill, tried to reveal Nine's true identity, it would be equivalent to selling him (her) out. Rather than go through the trouble, it would be more effective and efficient if they could come and explain the situation themselves..

In both cases, it was an inevitable outcome unless..

Even Laura herself, under Bleu's tutelage, only managed to grasp but a small portion of the truth behind those Irregulars. Laura knew there was more to this facade– more than their latent abilities and possibilities that they had already shown.

"What measures has Her Highness taken?"

"Blackmail."

"H..no. I suppose there are reasons for that. Where is Her Highness now?"

"By this time.. she should be at.."

A switch inside Laura flipped.