The Dragons' Bathhouse: A Reverse Harem Enemies-to-Lovers Soulmate Romance

3

Horror churned in Eden's belly as she glanced towards the kitchen. Speaking of which, she had never heard the kitchen this quiet. The sudden lack of sound was stark to her ears, creating a high-pitched ring of white noise. Eden gulped nervously.

There was no screaming from the supervisors, no sound of oil splashing on the stove or fire roaring in the hearth. No chanting of spells or bubbling of broth, no running footsteps or spilling water. No grunting and growling from the mythical creatures, no odd animal bray—

Eden ran to the doorway, her jaws dropping open at the sight.

Everyone was frozen in place, stuck amid whatever they had been doing. She could see the steam from a newly cooked batch of salamander legs caught in the air like a giant white fluffy cloud; see huge globs of soy sauce floating mid air as a giant poured the bottle; see mixtures of frying meat and vegetables suspended over a wok managed by an orc.

It was as if they were all playing a game; as if the new rule was to freeze for five minutes; as if time had stopped. Eden's eyes widened at the thought. Fuck! She fumbled with the packet in her hands, shifting the leaves as she peered at the silvery label. She squinted, smoothing out the wrinkled packet.

Time-stop: 30 minutes

She let out a sigh of relief, the tension in her body dissolving as she registered the words. Thank God, it was only 30 minutes. She pressed a hand to her chest, rubbing it to calm her pounding heart.

Time-stops were not uncommon for the gods and goddesses and they usually ate them in great quantities for a variety of different reasons. For the sex-crazed god that she was in charge of last year, he had consumed a time-stop of 20 days. The guy had spent it fucking a bunch of prostitutes just minutes before meeting his soulmate.

Eden grimaced at the horrible memory.

The amount of cleaning she had to finish after that was massive and it had taken her another three days of scrubbing to get some of the things he used clean, like the damn furniture. Everything else had been tossed out and burned to crisps. Thank God Eden was only stuck in time for a mere 30 minutes, she wouldn't have known what to do if it had been 20 days.

What should she do now? She drummed her fingers on her arms, cocking her hip to the side. Wait for Seri to start moving? Eden glanced at the girl. It would be boring to just wait for the time-stop to end. Spending 30 minutes pacing about the cafeteria was not fun and Eden had absolutely nothing to do. She glanced at the clock tower that stood in the middle of the kitchen, staring blankly at the frozen hand.

Seri would be risking her position by transporting her to the meeting point with her powers. And if they were both caught together, Seri would be heavily punished by Ukiyo for neglecting her duties, maybe even more so than Eden.

Eden hummed, furrowing her brows together. She could technically walk over to the meeting zone during the time-stop, that way she wouldn't have to trouble Seri. Her eyes brightened at the thought and she jumped to her feet. Perfect.

She clapped her hands together, fumbling around in her pockets for a pen. Eden hastily scribbled a note to Seri on the packaging of the time-stop, pausing for a moment to read her quick message. The cake is a time-stop. Decided to walk to the meeting point. See you after work!—Your BFF, Eden. She placed the empty packet into Seri's hands, grimacing at the awkward positioning of her best friend's fingers before pulling away quickly to test the balance.

The makeshift note remained steadily cupped in her best friend's hands.

That should do the trick.