Chapter 746: Tempura Welcome Banquet

"Miss Fels, if there's a chance in the future, shall we team up and go to the Dungeon together?"

Facing the elf girl's invitation, Fels felt somewhat complex inside, but on the surface she still showed a shallow smile and replied with a single 'good'.

"Then I'll head back first. I need to go tell Miss Ais and the others that I've already learned Parallel Chanting. From now on, I won't be a burden in the team anymore!"

Lefiya waved her hand and bid her farewell.

"You weren't a burden to begin with..."

Fels murmured softly, also raising her hand to bid farewell to the elf girl. She watched as Lefiya ran off like a little fawn.

But when turning the street corner, the elf girl suddenly stopped her steps, switching from the direction toward North Main Street to the direction of West Main Street.

Lefiya subconsciously walked toward the Twilight Manor's Familia residence, but fortunately reacted in time — from today on she was temporarily staying at the Hearth Manor side, so she didn't take a wasted trip.

She walked toward the Hearth Manor with light, joyful steps. Night was falling, and the Hephaestus Familia's construction team responsible for the expansion work had also finished for the day.

Passing through the stone and timber materials from surrounding buildings that had been torn down but not yet hauled away on both sides, the elf girl arrived before the Hearth Manor.

"Miss Ais, Mr. Broly, I'm back."

The Hearth Manor's door wasn't locked. The elf girl pushed the door open and entered, shouting toward the inside as she walked in.

"Lefiya, you're back just in time. Come help out."

Ais's eye sockets were red, just like she had just cried, and she spoke to her like this.

"Uh, Miss Ais, are you cutting onions?"

Lefiya approached, smelled the pungent scent of the white diced granules on the cutting board before the Sword Princess girl, frowned slightly, and subconsciously asked.

"Mm, it's a bit irritating to the eyes..."

Ais nodded in reply.

"Then why don't you step further away to cut the onions?"

Lefiya was somewhat confused — the situation of cutting onions while sitting.

"Ais is incidentally training Qi adhesion."

Tiona explained from the side. As she spoke, her hands didn't stop either, holding a kitchen knife and chopping the meat ball before her.

"Qi adhesion?"

"After you left this morning, Broly taught us to manipulate Qi energy. It's just that to skillfully utilize it, we still need a period of time to adapt and train."

Ais explained. Qi adhering to the eyes is one form of adaptation training.

It's just that her adhesion seems to have failed a bit.

The cut onions, however, are now making her tear up continuously.

"Here."

Ryu walked over and handed her a wet towel.

"Thanks, Ryu, but could you help me wipe them?"

Ais thanked her, sitting on the chair, looking up at the Tavern Elf.

"Alright."

Ryu didn't hesitate either. Taking the wet towel, she began wiping Ais's eyes. Her movements looked very gentle, like an adult wiping a child's face.

"Lefiya, take this."

The scene before her seemed quite normal, but Lefiya felt a subtle wrongness. Before she could think carefully about what exactly was off, an iron basin had already been shoved into her hands by Tiona.

"We're making onion meat patties. Besides needing to be chopped fine, the meat for the patties also needs to be slapped until it develops a gelatinous texture. This task is yours."

One dicing onions, one mincing meat, and another who, upon returning, had an iron basin shoved into her hands and had no choice but to roll up her sleeves and start slapping meat...

Inside and outside the kitchen, everyone had different divisions of labor.

"This batch of garlic chicken wings is done frying. Broly, you take it to the table over there."

The Loli Goddess had an apron tied on, holding long chopsticks in her hand, yet she was presiding over the frying work at the stove.

After frying a tray of garlic-marinated chicken wings, she had the Saiyan boy take them away.

Then, she called the Tavern Elf to bring over the other ingredients that needed frying.

"The shrimp veins are all removed. Do I need to peel the shells?"

Liliruca finished deveining the shrimp. Looking at the large shrimp before her that still had their shells on, she asked.

"No need to peel. For tempura, you fry them shell and all."

Ryu answered her question.

"Then do I still need to do something?"

Liliruca discovered she had nothing to do. But in this situation, she felt she absolutely couldn't stay idle, so she asked.

"The batter's running a bit short. If Miss Lili has time, you can help mix some batter."

"Okay, but what's the ratio?"

"Half a catty of cake flour, 4 taels of cornstarch, 1 tael of buckwheat flour, plus 1 egg, and an appropriate amount of ice water. Mix until it pulls into unbroken strands and reaches a yogurt-like consistency."

Ryu stated the batter powder ratio. This is the Hostess of Fertility's tempura batter recipe, and food fried with this recipe will have an extremely crisp texture on the outside batter.

"So, we're making tonight's dinner?"

Lefiya looked at everyone busy working. She, who had already started slapping the meat ball, asked with belated realization.

【54】 "Eh, does this even need asking?"

"Eh, does this even need asking?"

Hestia looked somewhat confused, turning her head to look over.

"Our Familias all have cafeterias. Meals are basically made by professional chefs."

Lefiya subconsciously replied.

"Then my apologies. Our Familia is too small — three people total when you add everyone up. We don't have a dedicated cafeteria or chefs to cook. Guests who come stay with us have to personally cook their own meals!"

"Ah, Lady Hestia, that's not what I meant."

Hearing the displeasure in the Loli Goddess's tone, Lefiya hurriedly explained.

"It's just that Mr. Broly always takes you and Miss Lili to eat at the Hostess of Fertility, so I thought you wouldn't be cooking at the base, which is why I was somewhat surprised."

Given that Broly frequently patronized the Hostess of Fertility, it almost felt like the Hestia Familia's dedicated cafeteria.

"Expanding the base cost a lot of money; always eating out is hard on the wallet, so naturally we have to cook for ourselves."

Hestia replied with a sentence, but that wasn't the real reason they didn't go eat out at the Hostess of Fertility.

"What matters in getting along between people is creating shared memories, and compared to the simple act of eating out together—which requires no effort beyond money—the memory of dividing up the cooking and then sitting at one dining table to eat together feels more meaningful..."

These were the words spoken by Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth who had read many books, when Broly went to pick her up from work in the afternoon and told his own Goddess on the way home that Ais and a few others had moved into the base today.

"Take them to buy ingredients; tonight we'll cook at the base."

Those who were supposed to come, aside from the waitress girl who needed to work at the tavern, had all come.

Judging by how they got along, they were quite harmonious.

"So, tonight's tempura big meal is the welcome dinner for you moving into Hearth Manor and living with us from now on!"

After finishing dinner together, Hestia, seated at the head of the dining table, raised the juice in her hand and, as the Mistress of highest status at Hearth Manor, welcomed Ais and the others' move-in.

"I hope everyone will, with me this divine adult as the main focus, get along well with my Broly from now on."

The Loli Goddess said this while slipping in a private favor.

"Oh~"

Ais and Tiona and the others didn't realize the private favor in the Loli Goddess's words, and subconsciously all responded.

"Liu, try this onion meat patty..."

Tiona served food to the Tavern Elf.

"Liu, these chicken wings taste very good, with a strong garlic aroma."

Ais also served a chicken wing to the Tavern Elf.

Faced with the two's kindness, Liu couldn't refuse and could only thank them one by one and accept.

It was at this moment that Lefiya suddenly realized what exactly was wrong.

After Ais and Tiona returned, they seemed a bit too close to Miss Liu.

Whether it was the change in address or their posture in getting along, both were somewhat different from before she left.

【When I went to find Miss Filvis to train and practice simultaneous incantation, what exactly happened?】

Lefiya thought this, and upon seeing Ais serve food to Liu again, she hurriedly took action herself.

"Miss Ais, try this potato pancake."

She actively served food to the Sword Princess girl.

"Mm, thank you, Lefiya."

After Ais accepted and thanked her, she gave no other indication.

"Cough cough..."

The elf girl had to cough twice to give a reminder.

"Lefiya, is your throat uncomfortable?"

Then, she received the Sword Princess girl's puzzled gaze and question.

"If that's the case, it's best to eat less fried food; that will make your throat even more clogged."

Tiona said from the side.

And fried meat was very delicious to her.

Paired with the palate-cleansing sweet and sour juice, she felt she could eat a large plate.

Lefiya: "..."

"Uh, I think Lefiya wants this."

Broly stood up on the chair, supported the tabletop with one hand, and clipped a piece of boneless fried cod meat into the bowl of the elf girl sitting opposite him.

"Th-thank you..."

Lefiya thanked him, but her mood was somewhat complex; someone noticed her needs, but the first person to notice her needs wasn't Miss Ais, but Mr. Broly.

"Uh, sorry, Lefiya, what do you want to eat? I'll serve it for you."

Ais was a bit slow on the uptake, but after realizing she might have neglected the elf girl, she immediately offered to make it up to her.

The belated serving of food... well, it was still very fragrant; after regaining the Sword Princess girl's attention, Lefiya easily gained satisfaction.

"Miss Ais, I have already learned simultaneous incantation."

The elf girl shared her good news.

"Ah, congratulations, Lefiya~"

The Sword Princess girl's mouth corner curled slightly, showing a somewhat shallow smile, but her smile came from the heart, as she was happy for the elf girl's growth.

"This is thanks to Miss Filvis's careful guidance and Mr. Broly's previous battle mindset training for me..."

Lefiya expressed her gratitude to the Saiyan boy, then asked: "By the way, are we going to the Dungeon tomorrow? If possible, I want to invite Miss Filvis to come with us."

"That might not work; I have something to do tomorrow."

"Ais and Tiona and them will go to Daedalus Street with us tomorrow, and together with Broly help me distribute free fried food to the children at the orphanage over there."

The Loli Goddess explained from the side.

And this was actually what Bell wanted to do; his little girlfriend lived on Daedalus Street, and when the white-haired boy went on a date today, he saw a group of orphanage children drooling over the fried potato balls in his hand. After learning about the orphanage children's situation, the boy was kind-hearted and wanted to treat those children to delicious fried potato balls.

Of course, since charity should start at home, Bell approached his own Main God and proposed spending money to buy out the entire day of the fried potato ball stall where Hestia was located tomorrow.

And after hearing the boy's motive, Hestia was moved by his kindness; as the Goddess adult who had been flown out by another of her own children, Hestia, no longer a Poor God, naturally had overflowing sympathy and slapped her chest, saying she would contribute her share.

As for why Ais and the others were dragged into this, it was the same reason as cooking together—it just happened to coincide.

"So, the reason everything tonight is fried food is?"

"Practice for blowing things up to eat tomorrow for the orphanage kids over on Daedalus Street."

The Loli Goddess replied as if it were only natural.

"For the kids over there, oil is important, so……"

That is why tonight's celebration meal is all fried food.

"Miss Lefiya, will you come help tomorrow too, just like tonight?"

Hestia asked.

"Ah, okay."

The elf girl nodded quickly, then asked again.

"Can I bring one more person?"

"Is it Miss Filvis?"

"Mm."

"If Miss Filvis is willing to come help, then of course it's fine; the more people, the more food can be made, thereby sharing with more people to eat."

Preparing to provide fried food for the orphanage children was Bell's idea, Hestia added on to it, Broly would pay for it afterward, and Ais and the others just happened to be dragged in, preparing to create beautiful memories named 【Everyone Doing Charity Together】.

And kindness, in the mate-selection standards of the masses in this world, whether male or female, can count as a bonus point.

"Burp~"

A fried dinner made all the girls eat until they were full of burps.

"Lefiya, do you want to try developing Qi too?"

Facing the Saiyan boy's question, Lefiya, who had already learned that Ais and Tiona had both learned new abilities from Mr. Broly when he wasn't around, also had not the slightest hesitation, directly nodding to indicate she also wanted to keep up with her companions' pace.

Then……

"Ah, Mr. Broly, why are you touching over here?"

"Don't be nervous; this is just the normal process of letting you perceive the Qi flowing inside your body."

"Eh?!"

After hearing that Ais, Tiona, and even the Tavern Elf Miss of the same race as herself were all helped by the boy like this, and thereby perceived the so-called Qi energy, Lefiya also endured her shyness and discomfort, gesturing for Broly to continue.

(Chapter End)