A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 203: Dinning with the Vestra’s

Chapter 203: Dinning with the Vestra’s

I look down at my plate and grabbed my knife and... A spork? ... And took a look at the meal prepared for everyone.

The meal was a stew with some vegetables, likely grown from this very farm and then harvested and stored for later use while the rest is sold to the kingdom, another hold that Kronia might have over the kingdom since this farm is owned by her family which holds her in quite high regards.

There was a tender meat inside of it also, and it seemed to be cooked like beef but it had a red hue to it for some reason. I dug in to the meal and found the vegetables to be soft yet flavourful and full of juices that they soaked up from the stew.

The wave of rich flavours encapsulated my taste buds with a delightful sensation of flavours. I stabbed a piece of meat and took a bite and it did the same, just bursting with a rich and flavourful taste that overwhelmed my taste buds.

I heard everyone else compliment Kronia for her excellent cooking like always or something, but I just kept on eating.

Soon enough though, my bowl was empty and I was craving more. I looked up to see Kronia chuckling at my appetite.

"Don’t worry, I have plenty more for everyone." She said comfortingly as she snapped her fingers and my empty bowl was suddenly replaced with a full one, which I immediately dove into.

I heard some more chuckling besides just Kronia’s but I was too enamoured with my meal to pay attention to who else laughed at me. It was just too delicious for me to pay attention.

Soon afterwards, I finished my second bowl and was about to ask for seconds when I suddenly noticed that Aria, who was sat next to me, had barely touched her food.

"Aria, is something wrong? You’ve barely touched your food." I asked worriedly.

"Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing, just... Thinking about what you said is all." She replied with a thoughtful expression as she poked at her food.

I stared her bowl and asked with drool coming out of my mouth, "If you’re not going to eat that, can I have it?"

"PFFT!!" Someone spat out their food and before I could look to see who, Aria defended her bowl by shifting it away from me and covering it with her hands.

"What? No, my stew!" She hissed defensively, finally taking a bite out of her meal and chewing on it aggressively.

Several people then burst into laughter and I could see that the old man across from me was trying to reign it in from the way he keeled over the table.

It took a second for Aria to realise what was happening but when she did, she started to blush profusely as she lowered her head and just continued eating her stew. The sight was even funny enough to make me laugh.

"Hahahaha! You look adorable like that!" I said whilst laughing, which only caused her to further hide in her embarrassment.

This just caused everyone who wasn’t laughing to take a peek and burst out laughing as well. Now, the whole table was laughing at Aria’s embarrassment.

We all soon stopped and everyone returned to their own conversations. As for me and Aria, she just stared at me in shame and irritation for what I did.

"It’s not my fault that you spaced out like you did, besides, why are you thinking about what I said now? You’ll have plenty of time to think about it after dinner, won’t you? So do as your grandma said and enjoy the meal she made." I said as I rested a hand on her arm, which she shifted away as she thought I was going to try and steal her stew.

But she stopped half way upon realising that I wouldn’t because I was in the midst of devouring my third bowl of stew.

"..." She stayed silent for a moment before thanking me. "Thanks for what you said earlier by the way."

"Hmm?" I stopped in the middle of my third bowl to resume speaking with her, "What for? I just said to not limit yourself to your type and try something new."

"Still, it’s allowing me to get a new perspective on what I should look out for in the future." She explained.

"You’re welcome, I guess. I just felt sad seeing you sad, so I said something that I thought would help, that’s all." I replied before taking another chunk of meat out and stuffing into my gob.

She chuckled at my casual response and just continued eating, this time with a smile on her face instead of the depressing and somewhat gloomy look she had on her earlier.

"Thanks for that. She’s been rather upset in general lately because of this issue, so thanks for helping her out." I heard Kronia thank me for helping her daughter get through a tough time apparently.

"Oh, no problem." I replied before going back to my meal, realising that it was empty once again. "Anyway... Can I-"

*Snap*

"Thank you!" I thanked Kronia before diving into my fourth helping of her delicious stew.

She just chuckled and continued talking to the couple across from me, one of them most likely being her child.

_

_

_

After I had my sixth bowl of stew, everyone else had finished their own helpings of Kronia’s stew, though, no one managed to figure out what the ’special ingredient’ was even then.

It was then revealed to be hell food, specifically from demonified monsters from dungeons along with some devil spices which is just a fancy way of saying spices from hell. How she got her hand on those spices is beyond me, but I didn’t care as it was delicious nonetheless.

After dinner was concluded, Aria brought me to my guest room for the night, even though she didn’t have to, she said that she wanted a word privately with me.

When I jumped on my bed to lie down, she sat on the edge so I slinked up to her and asked what she wanted to talk about.

"Well, I wanted to know if you would be willing to take me with you..." She blurted out nervously as she twiddled with her fingers, her eyes darting all across the room.

Whatever smile I had on my face faded instantly as I told her, "You... Wouldn’t survive out there... And, I don’t want to have that on my hands. Nor would I want to explain that to your family..."

"I see..." She responded dejectedly. "It’s just that... With what you said, I might be getting feelings for you that aren’t just sexual, they’re... I- ... What I’m trying to say is-" She stumbled to speak and tell me what she wanted to but I could tell, so I placed a finger on her lips to shush her.

"I understand, but it’s probably better that you forget about me after I leave. I won’t be coming back, so you might as well forget me."

"But that would mean forgetting what you told me, and that would just leave me in the same spot as before."

"I- ..." I was going to say something, but realised that I had nothing to say as I just lay there in silence.

Eventually though, I do speak up, "I think you should get some sleep." I shuffled up to the head of the bed and rested my head on the pillow, which should be comfortable, but it just didn’t right now.

I heard the door to my room close, leaving me alone with my thoughts. And I couldn’t take my mind off of my interaction with Aria, even as I drifted off to sleep.