The Slime Administrator

Chapter 17: The Turning Point

Shion stared at the flower field just beyond her window, feasting her eyes and mind alike, letting peace and calmness overwhelm her until she was sick of it. She took a long sigh, her hot breath in contact with the air around her.

It's been a few days since the festival was over, a hectic time for her as she was the lead singer in the festival concert. Her master said she was "Killing it," as the saying goes, while Shuna and the others congratulated her on her impressive performance.

Usually, when given praises, she would be filled with joy and drastically upscaled her ego, continued with her asking Shuna if she could be the lead chef in the Food Department for a greater reward.

But Shuna refused by yapping away about other things, yet Shion felt nothing during that time and only smiled back. She's happy, still, but it doesn't feel right.

Waking up from her "death" was a surreal feeling. She doesn't know how to describe it, she was floating in a dark abyss, and the next thing she knew, there was light blinding her eyes. It's not the same as dreaming, no, it was something else entirely.

She shook this feeling of hers multiple times, keeping up her "ahoge" persona, as her master calls it. But she doesn't feel the same as before. More dizzy than usual, literally and metaphorically.

"How did I even think like this?" Shion stretched on her swaying chair, causing it to lean back.

You know how a child gains their consciousness and life forces them to be locked in? That's what she felt, yet for the life of her, she couldn't throw this into the bin as her mind was warped into adult life.

Adult, she loathed that word. Everyone in the Oni village told her to grow up, and she never did. Why would she spend her time being unhappy and doing boring things like getting married? Even Shuna told her to, her best friend. Even Benimaru, her brother figure, told her to change.

She prefers to keep the smile as it also invites others, a noble cause indeed, yet the feedback says otherwise when she offers them her food-

*Cough Cough!!*

She coughed a bit from the sight of the sudden flashback.

She took her eyes off the flower beds and turned her attention to the complete paperwork on her table in the living room. At first, she thought being the secretary meant she would get to boss people around and spend lots of "time" with her master.

Yet reality often disappoints. Somehow, she felt the need to be....alone. To feel the peace of darkness, the void that exists after life.

The cheery voices ached her mind, she needed silence. And because of that, she had made quite a distance from her friends and her own master.

"Tch, bollocks." She stood and went to the kitchen, trying to bury this "anxiety" thing she's feeling.

Pristine kitchen appliances presented themselves in a neat manner, courtesy of Shuna, to keep her place intact and not look like a garbage disposal.

It's...been quite some time since she last cooked. She tried to improve her skills like how her master wanted to, before she prefer the desk job after realizing she's not cut for it.

Not her forte, but she knows how to get a job done fast and efficiently. Sadly, a desk job could eat a person away. To keep her sanity, she decided that it might be best to lean on the past.

"...It felt like a curse." She chuckled at the melancholy of her situation. She let out a sigh, which was hotter than before, weird.

With her chef's ability, she can make things taste good; even dirt would taste like chocolate. But if she had learn a thing about food, it's their presentation.