Chapter 21: Magic Breakfast
"Okay, it’s already pretty early in the morning, I’ve taken a nice shower, learned to move around decently well, and I’m ready for breakfast..." I say to myself as I look in the mirror.
’What a 100000/10 beauty, no doubt if beauty was power I’d be invincible’ It’s a shame that beauty isn’t power, so I’m not strong, but it’s okay, after breakfast I’ll create the first powerful puppet.
It will have the same appearance as Evelyn and will be a close-quarters puppet, possibly a swordsman so it can be fast enough to defend me from surprise attacks and assassins.
’Okay, so I just need to go have a peaceful breakfast with Augustus while Clarissa cleans my room, and then I just need to go back to the room and spend the rest of the day assembling the puppet!’ My plan is mapped out, quick, simple, and efficient.
"..." I go to the door and unlock it, soon I see Clarissa in front of the door and this was expected, but she looks down at the ground and seems to be trembling.
’Is she cold? Or is it still fear of what I did before? No, I doubt it’s fear of what I did before’ When I terrified her, she was very scared, but she started serving me as if nothing had happened while ignoring the fear.
She must be cold, after all my room doesn’t have any magic that helps keep it warm and cold at bad levels depending on the natural climate.
"Clarissa, I need you to clean my room during my breakfast period and then leave the materials I requested on the floor next to my bed. This time I want you to leave raw wood, a sharp serrated knife, demon meat... and something made of silver or gold" I say as she looks at me with trembling eyes.
"U-Understood, Evelyn-sama, I will do as you wish" She says as I pass her and leave the room.
’Evelyn-sama? Why call me that?’ That’s strange, but it doesn’t matter, I move forward being extra careful with my steps to not slip and fall or accidentally bump into someone.
"Hmm..." I walk to the location in calm silence, trying to be as careful as possible not to bump into Esther and lose more favorability, for now I’m giving Augustus my full attention.
Arriving at the room where he has breakfast, I enter and see him sitting there, he looks at me briefly and then returns his attention to the meal while I walk to the side of the table next to him.
The smell of the food is wonderful, although the uncomfortable and disdainful looks from the servants are unpleasant, but I know they won’t do anything, so I just ignore them.
"Good morning, Augustus, my favorite little brother" I say, sitting down and moving the chair closer.
"...Good morning, Evelyn" He says while cutting some kind of caramelized fruit and tasting it, I also decide to serve myself, taking a plate and putting slices of toast that I’ll spread jam on.
’Hmm...there are so many jam options and I don’t know the flavors...’ There are 7 jars, all with very unique colors, so I don’t know which is the best.
"Little brother, which of these is the best?" I ask, as he touches a jar and gently pushes it towards me, with a smile I take the jar with a viscous golden liquid.
’It’s not honey...’ I thought it was honey because of the color, but as soon as I opened the lid I smelled a slightly caramelized scent, like oranges. I take a spoon and immediately taste it.
"Uhmmm, it’s delicious" I say, taking another spoon and spreading this jam on the toast, I’m very curious to try these delicious foods.
In my past life, my meals were crap, I hate to admit it, but I was slowly killing myself with processed food and energy drinks, so in this life I want to experience these wonderful flavors calmly.
"Hey, little brother, do you want to see a trick?" I say to him while patiently waiting for him to look back at me.
"A trick?"
"Yes, I have a great trick to show you" I say as I use magic on the jam, now that I’ve evolved into a living puppet, I can easily create puppets out of anything.
Although these simple puppets are weak and have no skill, so they’re more of a normal entertainment.
We watch as the jam forms into a small mass with little holes representing the eyes and mouth, but the appearance is cute and fun, reminds me of a slime with little arms.
"What do you think?" I say as he watches the little jam thing crawling on the table with a cute smile.
"It’s making a mess on the table" That’s all he says.
"What a shame you think that" I say as the jam puppet moves across the table, collecting things with its little arms, although he doesn’t show interest, he’s watching with a certain curiosity.
We watch as the small gelatinous puppet picks up fruits, sweets, and other little things, assembling something on the plate, after building a neat little plate of sweets, it climbs on top of the sweets and dissolves, submerging the sweets in jelly.
’It’s easier to control the puppets than I initially thought’ It followed the step-by-step exactly and assembled the dessert just as I expected.
"Try it, little brother" I say, passing the plate to him, with a certain distrust he takes the plate and with a fork takes a piece of the dessert soaked in jelly.
"..." He tastes it for a while and I see a small smile on his face.
"It’s a bit too sweet" He says, continuing to eat.
[Augustus’s Favorability +2 (Total = +8/100)]
’Bingo!!’ I smile at the increased favorability while trying a piece of his plate, the taste is good, a bit too sweet as he said, but it’s pleasant.
"You know, Evelyn, if you didn’t waste time on things like this, maybe you could get a little stronger" He speaks not as an insult to what I showed, but as a genuine advice.
"Maybe..." He’s wrong, no matter how much I try to learn things, my puppet ability prevents me from getting stronger, I can’t learn swordsmanship, martial arts, or different magic than those related to puppets.
At most I can learn small things, maybe a skill that can ignite a tiny flame the size of a match with a finger, or something similar, but never something that would make me stronger.
"You...could come play with me today?" He asks.
"Unfortunately no, I want to build another puppet today, it will be my greatest creation so far" I tell him honestly, he doesn’t seem disappointed.
In the end, 8 affection doesn’t make him see me as someone special, it was just an attempt that didn’t have much value for him.
"Maybe in the future then" He says as he goes back to eating.
"For sure in the future, and little brother, you can be sure I’ll show up at the next family tests and shock everyone" I say as he looks at me surprised and I hear whispering and laughter from the servants.
’...Envious...and stupid, I’m no longer that failure, I’ll make these servants be left speechless when I have my powerful puppets’
"You? And what would you have that could be useful in the family tests? I’m sorry to say, but you’re weak, you don’t have good magic, you don’t have good skills, you don’t have any physical aptitude, and you don’t have much knowledge" He looks me in the eye as he speaks.
"I know, but that doesn’t matter, I’ll find a way, and besides, knowledge can be acquired in the library, and now I can go there!!" There are so many things I want to research in the library, like the complete history of this world.
And there are the other continents, besides, I want to be the opposite of my shameful past life, and since in the past life I lived in my room, in this life I want to travel to other continents and explore the world a bit.
I want to go to places I’ve never seen, I want to eat foods from various cultures, although I don’t care much about meeting new people...there are things that can’t be changed, and Evelyn herself didn’t like meeting new guys.
So fortunately I won’t force myself to try to socialize when I know I can’t, but I still want to travel, although I need to solve many dangerous things before thinking about traveling.
"I see...well, I wish you luck" He says, and I’m surprised, he knows I’m competition and yet he wished me luck, maybe because he doesn’t expect anything from me, but it’s still touching to know that he wishes me luck.
"Thank you, little brother, unfortunately luck is almost never on my side, but I will lasso destiny like a rampaging bull and guide it where I want" I say as he laughs at me.
"You’re quite different from what I expected...it’s kind of funny" He says with a genuine smile that he doesn’t try to hide.
"Well, I believe we are all quite unique deep down, we just don’t show it because we’re competing" This is a fact, not everyone is what they show, all the candidates have pasts they want to hide.
And because we’re competing in an environment that values strength above all else, we don’t have the opportunity to show weakness, and it’s exactly for this reason that the story has the famous romantic cliché.
Grace, as a human who came from outside this continent to try for peace, has nothing to do with this horrible competition, which allows her to discover the past of each one and in the end become an emotional support.
Because with Grace, each one can show their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, although Esther’s weakness and vulnerability have always been a facade, but it’s understandable that everyone acts the way they were raised.
And although humanly speaking they are all horrible beings ethically in our demonic culture, emotionally they are not so bad, they are just people who had a difficult past and were raised in a culturally dangerous way.
"Well, enough talk, little brother, all this food won’t disappear if we don’t eat it, I need a lot of nutrients to maintain my stunning beauty" I say with a smile as I take a piece of toast and bite into it.