After Pieta awkwardly got dressed and left the room a giant hammer made of divine light suddenly appeared above me. “Now then.” Posy grimaced.

‘Holly… She’s actually going to fight me over this? No, scratch that, she can still cast a spell like this? How is she still an apprentice?’

I slowly lowered my eyes from the hammer back to her. ‘I mean. Honestly, I think I would still win… But I’m not so against bathing that I actually want to fight her…’ I sighed. “Fine… But can I at least do it alone…”

She sighed back at me. “Sure it’s fine. I’ll just take a shower and meet you back here when you’re done. No one else will bother you while you're there, and it should be easy to find the soap and everything too.”

I nodded, waiting till I was sure she left to finally undress. It was as uncomfortable as I expected it to be, at least after I got in the water, after that I started to feel better more than anything, and by the time I got out the small abrasions I had from the poorly made shackles were actually healed. ‘I guess the holy water isn’t just for show… It still feels wrong somehow to use it for a bath though…’

I stepped back into the changing room to find a crowd of girls waiting patiently. ‘I would have been faster if I knew this would happen…’

When they saw me come out they all quickly crammed themselves in leaving me and posy alone again.

“You didn’t tell me everyone would be waiting for me…”

“Do you regret holding up the line?”

I looked back. “It’s embarrassing that I took so long… But I still definitely prefer it to bathing with them…”

She put a set of new clothes on one of the benches for me. “Don’t worry about them, they don’t mind. I’ll be outside when you get changed.”

I took a look at the clothes. They were cute at least… But I hated dresses. It didn’t help that I couldn’t figure out how to put it on… In the end, I just pulled some of the clothes I bought with Lola out of my storage and put those on instead. The baggy pants and sleeveless hoodie were sure to be far more comfortable anyway.

I pulled my hood up to keep my wet hair covered and stretched as I walked out of the changing rooms, admittedly glad that I decided to clean myself off in the end. “You know, that did actually feel pretty good, I’m starving though, I was told there would be food?”

She just stared at me blankly. “What the heck are you wearing?”

I flinched. “It’s not that bad is it?” I looked down, trying to get a better feel for what I looked like. “I thought I looked cool so…”

She sighed. “And the clothes I gave you?”

I pulled them out of the storage and handed them back. “Here you go. Sorry, I’m kind of a huge fan of pants.”

“You can wear pants under a dress.” She let out a sigh. ”I mean it’s fine for now I guess as long as you’re comfortable.”

‘For… Now?’

She brought me to the dining hall and it had already been mostly cleared out. To be fair the sun had set already, but the chefs were still there, cleaning up the dishes.

‘Guess everyone ate already. O well, I can just cook some stuff myself.’ I walked up to the chefs, feeling some spring start to come back into my steps as I bounced up to the counter. I pushed myself up and leaned forward feeling myself smile at even just the thought of a hot meal. “Hey guys, can I use your kitchen real quick? I promise I’ll clean the pots and everything after.”

One of the chef's eyes darted around the room like he wasn’t sure where to look. “U-uh sure that’s fine.”

“Great!” ‘I only have spiders left… But they don’t have any venom in the meat of their legs, it's a massive pain to get anything substantial from them… But I do have 20 sets of eight, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem.

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The boy I was talking to suddenly received a big slap on the back from a much larger man. “You idiot! This is the girl. Isn’t that right Posy?”

He looked around again, unsure of what to do for a moment. “O-oh right sorry sir!” The boy yelled before getting busy as the much larger man stepped up to the counter on the other side to greet me. “I would be happy to lend you my kitchen miss, but there's no need for that. We already cooked you something, and kept it hot and fresh for you too.”

I started to salivate the moment the smaller man grabbed something out of the oven. The fragrant scent of beef and sweet potatoes wafted through the air as he set the plate down in front of me and I almost started to cry as a bit of drool fell from the side of my mouth. “I-is this really ok? I mean… Can I really eat this?”

I could tell just from glancing at it that it was dragon turtle meat. The pure white marbling and dark hue gave it away instantly. On its own, that was already expensive, but sweet potatoes weren’t exactly cheap either… And sure enough, there was a massive amount of them sitting just to the side of the meat, topped with brown sugar. The meat was covered in a sauce that probably wasn’t cheap either given the other ingredients, and together it smelled so good I almost blacked out for a moment.

The chef laughed. “Food is made to be eaten. You’re helping Roger out with his training anyway so go ahead.”

I still hesitated. “Honestly this is so expensive I’d rather just sell it and eat some warg stew.”

Posy pinched my arm with a growl. “I’m sorry, she wasn’t trying to be rude.” She said on my behalf.

The chef just laughed some more, clearly taking no offense.

I wiped the drool from my mouth and looked back at my plate. “It’s true though… This meal is worth at least 1 gold…” I froze stiff. “That’s… More expensive than everything I own… I could live off that for a whole year…”

Posy groaned, staring at me intently. “Just eat it and be grateful.” She muttered.

“Grateful? You keep threatening me into doing things. It was like this with the bath too, you said you rip my clothes off yourself.”

She let out a sigh, calming down, her more bubbly side starting to come back finally as she pointed at the young chef. “It would hurt Roger’s feelings if you didn’t eat it…”

“What the. This is a compliment. I’m saying it’s too valuable to eat.” ‘Wait… But it is food though, someone has to eat it.’ I turned back over to Roger, who was bright red in the face, ‘what got that reaction out of him?’

The larger chef simply leaned back against a sink as if enjoying the show.

“You’re… feelings… aren't hurt… Right?”

He turned away. “Nope! I-I’m fine.”

Posy groaned. “Just eat the food!”

“Or what, you’ll rip my clothes off?”

“Maybe I should, I bet Roger would think you look way cuter in a dress.”

“How is that even relevant?”

She paused, and I couldn’t help but follow her eyes back to the poor boy who was now even redder.

The large chef clapped his hands together, silencing all three of us. “As fun as this is, I’m going to have to ask you both to stop before you give my apprentice a nosebleed from all the blood rushing to his face. Oh… And… I say this as someone who cares… But maybe try to not talk about ripping each other's clothes off in public ok?”

I felt my whole body stiffen as I started to turn red too. “That’s… not… Urhm… Sorry…” I muttered.

“You should be,” Posy said triumphantly, crossing her arms with a hmph.

“What the… You started this!”

“Nope, this is all your fault, you could have just eaten the food they made for you, but instead you're over here jumping around whining about how you're not good enough for it.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” The chef mumbled.

“Uh…” I let out a soft whine before turning back to her. “If you weren’t being like this I probably would have eaten it already…”

“Also true.” The chef once again agreed.

Posy growled again. “Being like what?” She muttered.

‘How do I even put this…’ “Argumentative and pushy…”

Her face twitched and she scowled again. “At least I have a bit of decency…” She grumbled.

“See, like what did I do wrong this time? How am I indecent? What, are you going to blame me for making Roger embarrassed now too? You were a part of that conversation too you know.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe a few words wouldn’t have gotten to him if you weren’t moving around so much and making it obvious to everyone here that you weren’t wearing anything underneath that sweatshirt of yours.”

I felt chills run down my bare arms until my skin looked all prickly. My body tensed up so much that the arches in my feet cramped as I folded my arms over my chest and stepped away from everyone.

The chef let out a long soft growl as his face sank down into one of his hands before he rubbed his brow. “Roger, you remember what to do when the girls start fighting right?”

“Hide and pray?”

“Good lad. Although our gues seem rather level-headed, so you might not need to.” He stood up with a groan and headed over to Posy, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Posy, do you remember what I told you last time?”

“All of it… What are you referring to specifically?”

He sighed. “All of it…”

Her eyes slowly bounced away from him and shot to the side.

“I can see you already get my point, so I won’t bother repeating myself.” He rubbed her head as he turned back to me and crossed his arms with a sigh. “As for you… Geeze… you look like you need a hug.”

“Please don’t…” said back quickly.

He chuckled. “Oh, I wasn’t going to. But you know what’s even better than a hug? Some dragon turtle topped with my own special sweet sauce!” He grabbed the plate and reached it out toward me.

I slowly started to stand up straight again at the smell, but my body wouldn’t let my arms budge, rendering me unable to take the plate.

He let out another sigh. “I’ll set it on the table for you. But if you don’t hurry it’ll get cold… Then it would only be as good as a sweaty hug. Still good, but also kinda not.”

I looked over to Roger who was still bright red in the face, imagining I looked the same… Without a word, he quickly got to work cleaning the inside of one of the ovens, allowing me to breathe again after he finally took his eyes off me… Or I should say away from me, as they tended to be more so either on the floor or the ceiling, never staying on mine for long.