Knightly Naps and Elven Laughter

Chapter Three: for a performance

I woke up early in the morning, the sun still hadn't risen and the sky was twilight. I turned to see that Iikorin was asleep on the bed, so I rose up from the mattress on the ground very silently, making sure not to wake her up.

Left the room to peek in on the princess and saw that she too was asleep, to which I closed the door back again and went downstairs only to be presented by the sight of the dining table readied with food covered by lids, it looks like Iikorin made all this food for the princess and me before she went to sleep. It made me really happy to think that she saved some food for us but also a little troubled.

"I should have stopped her back then"

I said under my breath and prepared myself to uncover whatever kind of disastrous substance awaited me at the table.

As I lifted the lid of the largest bowl, a very tantalizing aroma emanated from within, it was so overpowering that the lid fell from my hand as I was completely absorbed in the smell. The loud clack of the dropped lid brought me back to my senses and I took a good look at what looked like a cabbage stew, I quickly grabbed a bowl and filled it to the brim with the stew.

Sat down and could not believe that what I was eating is made by that stupid Iikorin.

"Sup cool dude, ya better reheat me before eating more, yer stomach will be upset otherwise yanno"

". . . ."

I looked at the bowl of stew without moving my head and saw that it was wearing cool sunglasses. My hand which was holding the spoon started trembling while I was deep in thought about what I had just eaten.

"Nev'r eaten boosted food before, have ya? Dun worry ma cool guy, wer totally edible!"

I was an idiot to think that she could ever do anything without it being weird in some way or another!

I put the bowl on the table and put the lids back on without uttering a single word to the stew that was trying to strike up a conversation.

I will make her eat all this by herself later.

∆ ∆ ∆ ∆

It's been an entire week since the talking stew incident, and of course, I made her eat it all by herself. We have started the princess's rehabilitation and it is going pretty well, she is now able to eat her food by herself, and we have moved on to the standing/walking phase of the training. I want to talk to Iikorin about sending her to the palace but she has been keeping her talking to me to a minimum since last week. Whenever I talk to her, she would make a "Hmph!" sound and turn away unless it's truly necessary, making it difficult to approach her these days, normally it wouldn't matter but the real reason I am so infuriated by this is that she keeps making the "boosted" food every single day and when I go to tell her to stop, she would do the usual and ignore me. So today I have decided that I am going to settle that room paint argument once and for all!

"Iikorin", we need to talk

"Hmph!"

I tried to approach Iikorin while we were all gathered at the dining table eating lunch, but she did that again.

"Are you still upset over what happened a week ago? It's been a whole week, let's just get over it"

"Of course I am! Do you think just patting me on the head is enough to make me happy? I don't want to talk to you ever again unless you apologize!"

"Wait wait wait, just what exactly happened between you and the pointy-eared girl?"

"What reason is there for me to apologize? If anyone, you should be the one to apologize for painting half the room wall pink!"