"Eh? You want to become my apprentice?" ∑(′△｀)?!
Mei stared in surprise at Bella, who was kneeling before her and kowtowing.
What was going on? Hadn't I brought her here just to stall her? Why had it suddenly turned into her wanting to become my apprentice?
"That's right!" Bella raised her head and looked at Mei earnestly.
"Please accept me as your apprentice, Master Mei!"
Xiaoyue and the others had mentioned before that Ruoshui from their class had apparently become an apprentice like this. Right! It seemed she also needed to prepare a pot of tea.
Bella looked around. There didn't seem to be any tea leaves, so just as she was about to go look for some, Mei helped her up.
"Get up first." Mei helped Bella to her feet, then asked, "Why do you want to become my apprentice?"
"So I can serve Her Majesty the Queen even better!" Bella said firmly.
"From the sauce just now and this pot of curry, I can tell that you are absolutely far better than me when it comes to cooking."
"To offer Her Majesty the Queen the finest food, I swear on my title as Her Majesty the Queen's personal maid that I will learn to make even more delicious dishes!"
Seeing Bella suddenly fired up, the soul of the Herrscher of the Feast within Mei began burning as well!
And as everyone knew, the most important thing about a Herrscher Core was not its authority, but...
"Good!" Mei swept out an arm. "In that case, let me see your determination, little Bella!" ??(??ω??)?
"Yes, Master!"
"Don't call me Master. Call me Teacher Mei!"
"Yes! Teacher Mei!"
"Very good. Little Bella, first make one of your signature dishes! Let me see what you can do!"
"Yes, Teacher Mei! I'll give it my all!"
With that, Bella picked up several skewers of roasted wings and breathed fire onto them, beginning to grill the chicken wings.
Seeing how serious Bella was, Mei nodded in satisfaction.
Then she suddenly froze...
Wait, what just happened? How had I suddenly gained a student? And those things I just said...
Thinking of what she had just said, Mei's face gradually turned red. o(*////▽////*)q
To calm herself down and stop thinking about how she had acted just now, she decided to keep cooking to distract herself.
Then Theresa and the others arrived.
Himeko: "I see, so you got yourself a student?"
So before my student had even graduated, she had found me a grand-apprentice?
Theresa: "Compared to that, I'm more curious about how Bella became your apprentice."
"That isn't important." Mei laughed awkwardly. She couldn't exactly expose her own embarrassing past, could she?
Mei hurriedly changed the subject. "Since you and Teacher Himeko are here, let's eat together."
The moment Bella heard the words "eat," she jumped straight down from Sirin.
"Her Majesty the Queen! Please wait a moment. I'll immediately prepare your favorite roasted wings." (?˙▽˙?)
As she spoke, she took several marinated chicken wings that had not yet been grilled and breathed out a ball of fire from her mouth, beginning to roast them.
Bella controlled the temperature of the flames and quickly finished grilling the chicken wings.
By then, Mei's dishes were ready as well, and they were brought to the dining table together with Bella's chicken wings.
Mei: "All right! The dishes are all ready, everyone dig in." (﹡?o?﹡)
"Her Majesty the Queen! These are the roasted wings I carefully made. Please try them." (?＞?＜?)
"All right, then let me taste your cooking! ☆"
Sirin picked up a chicken wing with her chopsticks and put it into her mouth to taste it.
"Her Majesty the Queen, how does it taste?" (???ω???)
Bella nervously awaited Sirin's evaluation.
"Mmm~ It tastes good! I'm very satisfied. ☆"
"Yay!" (?＞?＜?)
Just as Sirin wanted to eat another piece, her body suddenly stiffened. Clutching her head, she staggered to her feet.
"Her Majesty the Queen, what's wrong?"
Seeing this, Himeko suddenly had a guess.
"Could it be..."
At the same time, Mei and Theresa also guessed what was happening to Sirin and watched her nervously.
Clutching her head, Sirin let out a strained roar:
"I want to eat~ Mei's cooking!"
At that moment, her eyes returned to their original blue.
"Kiana!" ×3
That was right. Kiana's body had detected the delicious smell of Mei's cooking, awakening Kiana's previously sleeping soul.
"No! These are chicken wings Bella worked so hard to make for me! How could I fall here! ☆"
Kiana's eyes turned gold again.
"I won't give up any chance to eat Mei's cooking!"
Kiana's eyes turned blue again.
"I'm the strongest Herrscher of the Void! How could I lose to you!"
Kiana's eyes kept shifting between gold and blue. Then suddenly! Her body slumped back into the chair, her head hanging low. Her long white hair covered her face, making it impossible to see her expression.
"Kiana..." ×3
"Her Majesty the Queen..."
Bella, Mei, and the others stared intently at Kiana, waiting for her to raise her head and reveal the answer.
Kiana raised her head, but her eyes were neither blue nor gold. One was blue, and the other was gold.
(You can use Skyward Ranger as a reference.)
"Her Majesty the Queen?" Bella asked cautiously.
"It's me. ☆"
"That's great!" (?˙▽˙?)
Mei: "Then Kiana..."
"Mei, I'm here!" (﹡?o?﹡)
"What is going on?" ×4 ∑(′△｀)?!
Kiana and Sirin gave them an explanation...
Theresa: "I see, so the two of you are sharing this body now?"
"More accurately, I only come out when it's time to eat. After all, this body... ☆" (￢_￢)
Sirin's gaze was full of disdain.
"Hey! What do you mean by that? Looking down on me?"
Since Kiana and Sirin shared the same body, Kiana naturally felt Sirin's disdain too.
Seeing the two about to start arguing again, Mei hurriedly interrupted them.
"All right, Kiana, stop arguing. Eat first."
"Since Mei said so, this lady shall mercifully let you off!"
"Heh~ ☆" Sirin looked somewhat disdainful, but she was too lazy to pay Kiana any attention. Compared to that Grassworm, the roasted wings made by her own servant were more important.
Seeing the two calm down, everyone else also breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to continue eating.
But soon, a new battle began.
"I want to eat this!" ×2
"I want Bella's roasted wings! ☆"
"No! I have to eat Mei's fried chicken!"
"Heh~ The chopsticks are in my hand. I'll eat whatever I want! ☆"
(Right now, Sirin controlled the right half of the body, while Kiana controlled the left half.)
As Sirin spoke, she stretched the chopsticks toward the chicken wings.
"Ahhh! In that case, this lady isn't someone to be messed with either!" (╬◣д◢)
Kiana directly reached out to grab the fried chicken Mei had just finished frying...
"Hot, hot!" ×2
"Damn it! Since you're being heartless, don't blame me for being cruel! ☆"
Sirin directly reached for the metal skewer holding the roasted wings.
"Ahhh!" ×2
The skewers had not cooled down yet, and they immediately burned both of them, making them scream again.
Watching them like this, Mei and the others felt that every future mealtime would probably be very "lively"...
Before you continue