The Best Food? Its Bland

Creak~

The sound of the doors opening dragged him out of his dreamless sleep, promoting him to open his eyes and send a glance toward the door

Standing there was Ellis, whose cheeks were slowly being coloured with pink, and the maid next to her that was busy hiding her surprise at his presence

His mind felt somewhat empty as he sluggishly stood up, he felt extreme clarity yet that made his brain freeze up as it tried to cope with the new feeling, making him enter his confused state right now

He heard the sound of water and then wet steps, he then realized he was walking toward the doors to exit unknowingly

Ellis wanted to leave seeing him bare but his state called for her attention as she could feel his confusion, but with her unable to understand the situation herself she could only turn her head to the side while glancing at him every few steps

The maid didn't seem to share any of her embarrassment though, she was after all a mature woman compared to her, thus she already grabbed a towel and robe and was on her way to support YuJu, but seeing him stabilize when he was near them she only stood by the side offering the towel

"I apologise Master for not preparing the bath"

"Hmm"

He responded vaguely and grabbed the towel before drying himself

Once he was done the maid took the towel off his hands and slid the robe onto his body

He stalled for a few seconds before making his way out the door, the maid followed after sending a nod toward Ellis who asked her to prepare the bath, since the bath was already prepared and YuJu was in a weird state she decided to watch over him instead

The two reached a large hall after quite some time, when they went in he suddenly stopped and his eyes scanned the room cautiously before recovering into his normal expression slowly

'What happened to me?'

He didn't mean the earlier shock, as he knew the reason to that, but he wanted to know why he was suddenly thrown into a state of extreme sensitivity, where even the sound of a single water droplet could be distinguished from the rest

He had tried to understand what was going on but he only lasted a second before being overwhelmed, it was only when he entered this room that his memories of the danger he faced here snapped him out of his peculiar state

Thinking about the room he looked around once again, identifying the large hall that seemed nothing like his memory

The hall was big enough to house five long tables from door to door, its chandeliers that used to shine a golden light were now merely dull decoration without electricity to power them, the furniture in the room was nothing sort of extravagant, one could tell this place was used to house parties and large groups of important guests

But all YuJu could see in front of his eyes were corpses upon corpses of humans and beasts alike, at the time he couldn't help but throw up and alarm the guards, making his already hard mission almost impossible

He let out a heavy breath through his nose as he expelled those thoughts, he wasn't mentally weak as he was before, the memory didn't phase him one bit, nor leave a bad taste in his mouth anymore

"Is dinner ready?"

Back to his normal self he first thought about the boar they should be eating tonight

"Master, the meat seems to be harder than normal, it may take an extra hour to prepare everything"

He nodded already expecting her answer, humans still haven't learned a thing about the new world thus they naturally didn't know how to handle its new materials properly

"Go prepare it then, I will take a stroll around"

She reluctantly nodded, he seemed to have snapped out of his weird state but she still felt worried, in the end though she didn't know him enough to care too much nor did she feel courageous enough to argue, a second ago when they entered the room she felt a horrid chill run down her spine caused by his presence

So she bowed and left

"Hmm, she would have made a great slave"

He somehow ticked with her, he attitude was servile the second she met him and her tactful responses and good mental fortitude proved her capability, he even wondered why he hadn't heard of her before, alas he also knew many geniuses died under the hand of cruel fate

"If only I didn't have to rush for levels this week I would have taken her with us"

Sadly it was out of his hands, the plans he carefully made could not be disturbed, there wasn't enough time to level her up and if she went with them as weak as she is then only death awaited her

He sighed in disappointment and started to stroll this familiar yet completely foreign place, he was scouting the place for future use, as he had big plans for this land

He walked around the entire first floor, where there were five guest rooms, the large party hall, the big bath he was in before, a study room that was dilled to the brim with literary books and oil paintings that seemed expensive, alas who has time to enjoy literature and art in a time like this

Moving on to the next floor he explored it quickly as it was very simple in design, only having a circular connecting hall in the middle of the floor while five doors were evenly distributed around the hall, all of them were bedroom with each having their own bathroom and balcony

Finally, he reached the third and last floor, which was a small gym and entertainment centre, there was a billiard pool, a gambling table, some game consoles and even a roulette, he wouldn't need any of them as they were useless accessories, they would only be thrown away when he ould come back

After making his mind on the design he would use for the place later he went downstairs and sat in the dining room, waiting for the meat to be cooked while he patted and ruffled the happy Anput

Half an hour later Ellis came in wearing a rob just like him, while her still wet hair hung on her shoulder, her eyes seemed to give off an uncaring vibe as she walked confidently, giving off a dignif- Slap!

"Ah! Master!?"

An offending hand taught her not to saunter off by sneaking a spank, in front of the maid who just brought the food nonetheless

Ellis blushed hard, her already red skin from the bath turned rosy, she sent a blaming look toward him before sitting down while trying to suppress her embarrassment

The maid professionally ignored the small happening just now, she set the dishes one by one on the table, there was a plate full of roasted legs that gave off an extremely enticing smell that attracted Anput to the point of her gulping silently, a small plate of barbecued ribs that Ellis had her eye on since the made came in as its rich golden and brown colour made her very curious as to what the maid used as a sauce

Many more dishes were also introduced as they covered the entire table, some of which were cakes and sweets that were already prepared from before the apocalypse, although they were not fresh it was the limit of the maid could do alone, the fact that she made so many dishes of the boar's hard meat in such a short time frame spoke volumes of her skill

YuJu once again sighed reluctantly as he looked at the maid, truly feeling loss at not being able to bring her around

He suddenly felt the gaze of Anput and Ellis boring into him as if they would drill into his skin anytime, taking a look at them he noticed them staring hard while looking between him and the food

He did a double-take before understanding what they meant and picking up a fork, he picked up a small piece of meat with it and carefully put it into his mouth, allowing the strong, nutty, rich flavour to bloom in his mouth as he chewed the surprisingly soft meat, the taste was heavenly to say the least when compared to the normal dishes of earth, but to YuJu who had eaten food way better than this it was merely average, below that even, but for her to cook it this good on her first time was a great deal of talent

Still, his face portrayed no emotion making all three onlookers disappointed, Ellis and Anput then carefully ate the dishes with a lot less enthusiasm, but once the taste exploded in their mouths their eyes went wide, this was the best thing they had ever eaten!

The two turned to their master but saw him still eating the meat like it was any other meal, what did they have to do for this master of theirs to show an expression of surprise they did not know, and it wasn't the time to think about that either with such a great meal in front of them

The two enjoyed themselves while YuJu ate the meal slowly, everyone was having a good time except for the nervous reck of a maid standing next to them

She had naturally tasted the food and knew she it was good, she even thought she outdid herself by many measures, and the two diving into her food while trying to keep a civilized look were proof of that, yet why did the man who reigned as their master not show a slight change of expression, he didn't even blink!

Such a neutral expression made her doubt her food, she even wanted to take the plate away and see if it was just this plate that wasn't good tasting, alas it was all in her mind, and she could only wait by the side for the three to finish their meal