Seventh Meal - Gratin (1)

The world had been in chaos for the longest time with the invasion of the demons.

Humans had been driven to the brink of extinction until the appearance of the heroes.

The four heroes of light rose up against the demon king and fought for the future of the human race.

Even though they had been severely outnumbered, they were able to create miracles again and again, pushing back the forces of darkness.

Eventually, humans were able to reclaim their lands and push the demons back to their original territory. However, that didn't mean that the demons were done for just yet.

They had retreated, but that didn't mean that they were finished since there were still the four demon generals and the demon king waiting in the demon territory.

The four heroes of light gathered up their courage to bravely head out into the demon territory to finally put an end to this war.

It took a long five years, but by the end of it, they were finally able to defeat the four demon generals and the great demon king. But that victory had come at a cost…

One of the heroes sacrificed themself to take out the demon king and they both disappeared from this world forever. He was regarded as the greatest hero and a living legend, but that still didn't mean that he was coming back.

However, his friends, the other heroes never gave up hope and prophesied that the fallen hero would be back one day.

The first hero of light was Angela, the saintess of the holy church.

After the war, she devoted her life to saving as many people as she could and continued on as the saintess of the holy church. There were many legends of her wandering the land and curing those that needed her help.

The second hero of light was the Dwarf King, Gondor Firebeard.

He had only been the prince back when he became a hero and had ascended the throne as the king after the war was over.

Even though he was a dwarf, he fought alongside the heroes and was regarded as a hero by humans and dwarves.

The third hero of light was Elsie the Sage.

She was a half elf magician who received the title of sage after the war was over. She was the most powerful magician ever seen in the history of this world and she had terrorized the demons with her magic.

After the war, she devoted herself to her research and to this day, she never stopped her research even though twenty years had already passed.

As for the topic of her research, it was always spatial magic for an unknown reason.

She was also a firm believer that the fallen hero was not dead…Perhaps that was why she was so devoted to studying spatial magic.

The fourth and final hero of light was the fallen hero, Kai the Warrior.

He was nothing more than a young boy who had picked up the sword after his village had been slaughtered by the demon army. He had fought alongside people that were much stronger than him, barely surviving battles after battles until he became strong enough to be known as a hero.

With this power that he obtained, he cut down the four demon generals and opened the path to the demon king's castle.

But in the final fight, he had no choice but to sacrifice himself, taking the demon king with him and finally bringing peace to this land.

Thus he became known as the fallen hero.

However, there were those that believed that he was still alive and were finding a way to bring him back.

"El-chan, are you really still trying to find a way to bring Kai Kai back?"

Elsie looked at the beautiful face with blond hair in front of her and gave a sigh before saying, "We only know that he disappeared when he struck down the demon king, we don't know if he's dead yet."

Angela looked at her and gave a sigh before saying, "It's been twenty years, perhaps it's time for you to give up…I know how you felt about Kai Kai, but…"

Elsie couldn't stop the tears from forming in her eyes when she heard this, but she quickly squeezed her eyes together to push them away. Then she took a deep breath and said, "You might have given up, but I'll never give up."

Angela looked at her friend on the screen and couldn't help shaking her head while giving another sigh.

While she was still a beautiful young girl with green hair and piercing green eyes, while she didn't age because of her elven genes, Angela could see that she was very tired. It was clear that she got very little rest as she sank herself into her research. It pained her heart to see her like this, but she understood why she did it.

Kai was her first love and this first love had never even come to fruition before it had ended.

So naturally she wouldn't give up until she was able to find Kai again…or at least find some clue that he had already perished.

This was the last hope that she had…

Angela was about to say something, but before she could, there was a sudden flash of light that came from the screen. She couldn't help squinting her eyes when this flash of light appeared, but then she quickly said, "El-chan, what happened? Are you alright?"

However, that green haired figure had her back to her, so all she could see was the long flowing head of green hair.

On the other side, Elsie was staring at something that had appeared in the center of her research lab. This was something that didn't make any sense at all and if it wasn't for the fact that she could see it with her eyes, she never would have believed that this was possible.

It was a door that was standing right in the center of the room.

This was a simple looking door and the only defining feature that it had was a dog's paw engraved in the center of it.

There was nothing that this door was attached to, so it didn't make sense how it was just floating there in space.

She could also see behind the door and see that it didn't lead anywhere. The only thing that was behind this door was the same lab that had always been there.

But she couldn't help feeling a strange attraction to this door…

It wasn't because the design was special or because of the fact that the door was just floating in space.

It was because she could feel traces of spatial magic coming from the door.

This was a feeling that she had never felt before and she could tell that it was different from all the spatial magic that she had studied before. If she was able to integrate this new kind of spatial magic into her research, she was certain to make new breakthroughs.

So she hung up on Angela who was still shouting at her and started moving towards the door.

After being hung up on, Angela still couldn't help being worried and made several calls to different people.

She was currently on a completely different continent, so she couldn't go and help Elsie. However, she was the saintess of the church, so she also had plenty of connections.

On Elsie's side, she slowly approached the door until she was right beside it. She had made sure to go slow just in case there were any traps here, but that didn't seem to be the case.

When she was right beside the door, she started releasing her own magic power to check the door. However, she found that no matter what she did, she wasn't able to find anything.

It was almost as if this was nothing more than a normal door.

But how could that be possible?

Would normal doors really just appear out of nowhere like this?

Even with magic, this was something that would never happen. After all, this was her lab, which was an isolated space that had a barrier around it to ensure that all conditions were constant.

Even if someone wanted to send this door here or make this door appear, it would be impossible with the barrier in place.

This was a barrier that was created by the Sage Elsie, it could be considered the strongest barrier in the world. Unless there was someone that had a greater understanding of magic than her, it would be impossible for them to make this door appear.

By last count, that was indeed impossible since there had been no one more skilled in magic than Elsie in the history of this world.

So after checking the door with her magic, she slowly stood up and came up in front of the door.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to figure out the secrets of the door by checking it since she wasn't able to crack through whatever barrier was protecting it. If she used force, she might even break the door and lose the chance to study the spatial magic that she was sensing from it.

The only option that she had was to play along and see what this door wanted.

But of course, she wasn't going to risk her life doing so.

She changed into full battle gear and covered herself with multiple barriers just in case anything happened before slowly reaching her hand out towards the handle.

With a slow turn, the handle fell down and the door opened up in front of her.

When the door opened, there was a bright light that came from it that forced her to close her eyes. At the same time, there was a faint bell jingle that came from above her.

She immediately jumped back and raised the staff in her other hand, preparing for something to jump out at her. However, nothing came out of the door in the end.

The light also faded quickly and she was able to see what was behind the door.

A restaurant, just a simple restaurant.

Her chin couldn't help dropping when she saw this, but there was nothing else she could do because that was all that there was.

There were many different races sitting at different tables eating. A few of them had looked over at her, but they just turned back to their food after taking a simple glance.

It was almost as if they were already used to seeing someone acting like this, which of course they were since it happened a lot of the times when people came to the restaurant for the first time.

Elsie just stared into the restaurant for a minute before slowly walking forward.

She could feel the spatial magic coming from this restaurant, so she couldn't stop her curiosity.

She walked through the door frame and she entered the restaurant. When she did, she felt the strong spatial magic energy around her that made her look all over, trying to figure out what it was.

However, after she walked through the door, it closed behind her and all the spatial magic energy disappeared.

She turned back to the door, but she found that there was no trace of spatial magic left.

Seeing that someone new was here, Yami came over to greet her, "Hello, welcome to the Between World Restaurant."

Elsie jolted when she heard this since she was surprised by this sudden voice, but at the same time, she felt that this voice was a bit familiar…

As if she had heard it somewhere before.

She slowly turned around and the moment that she saw Yami, her chin dropped again and she pointed at her as she said in a stuttering voice, "You…How could it be you?!"