Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 54: Winning Adoration

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Winning Adoration

I was still wiping away the tasty remains of Mordred’s experiment. Pan called, took off with Edda, and Mordred got angry I didn’t pay him attention.

Well... I might have snapped at him, but that’s beside the point.

Now that Edda is shared between us, I could use Pan’s efforts to further my own means. The thing is...

He wanted to melt down some dragon hoard gold, get rid of the signature, and sell it. I honestly didn’t understand what that was about, but I left him to it.

I’ll miss the boy, but I did my best by him. Pan will just have to face Solas alone... and spend time in debtor’s jail.

May God help him there.

But right now, I had worse problems. One of them being the fact that my son didn’t want anything to do with me!

And wanted to dump me in a mental hospital!

Mordred had to be stopped.

I made him a grilled cheese sandwich. He ate it, asked for a second one, then got a fondue out of thin air, and he was now eating that.

I could smell Nate’s grubby fingers trying to take away my son from me from a mile away!

But what could I possibly do? Nate was the boy’s father. Well... in part.

Although now that I thought about it, I really couldn’t name the priest who had married us. So, it went without saying that I couldn’t really say we were married.

But...

"Dad?" Mordred asked, as he dipped some more of the toast I made for him into the cheesy goodness. Not gonna lie, I wanted some of that. "Why don’t you just admit you love papa Nate?"

I snorted.

"He is too perfect to be real," I knew that now. I knew that his delicious cooking had to be a clever trick!

He must have a chef in his employ! Someone who cooked for him. And that someone had worn the disguise of the goblin chief!

"And papa Aron? Isn’t he the same?" Mordred stuffed his mouth soon after. I snorted once more. Children these days...

"Why do you think that?" But I didn’t want to have to get fondue out of my curls, so I decided to humor him. Maybe he was going to be kind about it?

Sure, he was a Boliarin, but he was my son. That should count for something, right?

"Well, he claims he is your soulmate," he began, as he prepared another piece of toast. Man, where did that kid stuff all that food? He should be fatter than a roll of cheese by now!

Speaking of cheese, I was running out. Nate sent less and less with each shipment, and...

"Dad?" Mordred asked, as he snapped his fingers before my nose. "Why can’t you pay attention to me?"

I gulped. Oh, no. That was bad. The kid thought he wasn’t enough!

There was only one thing to do in that situation!

"I’ll make you a mug cake," I told him, already taking out a package of flour.

Nate was giving the stuff in packages, instead of in sacks. I didn’t know why.

"Dad?" Mordred asked, as he simply began to spoon the fondue into his mouth. I looked next to the bowl.

Huh, he ran out of toast. What sort of father am I, to let my son run out of toast?

"I’ll make you a bowl cake!" which was still a mug cake, but in a bowl.

He just smiled. It was the sweetest smile I had ever seen on his face. A smile that should have been there from the start.

I smiled back.

My trusty pink measuring spoon was put to use once more. Three spoonfuls of flour, with just a pinch of baking powder, least I gave my son acids, then just a tiny bit of cocoa and sugar and finally the oil and milk!

I mixed everything well, noticed how it had the consistency of warm pudding, and then dumped the bowl in the microwave rune.

As the bowl began to spin, I looked at Mordred.

"Your first word was Domination," I said because I felt that it was important.

"Dad?" Mordred’s eyes finally left the mug cake, which had the size of a normal soup bowl.

"And I put you in one of Solas’ old animal onesies, once. I even have a picture," and now, I was getting down to business. I took out my secret weapon. Something I had never expected to have to use.

Much less against Mordred, who had been the milder of the two.

He took one look at himself in the lion onesie and threw the picture in the campfire, which was keeping us warm.

"That’s not even the original," I told him with a smile that was all teeth.

"What do you want from me, papa?" He was smiling as well. Huh... was I supposed to be a bad parent to get him to do that?

"Get Morty," I told him, as the microwave rune pinged. I took the bowl, which was hot, but not too hot. I smiled as I saw that it was perfectly baked.

Three minutes at maximum heat because for a bowl, you need luck.

I handed my son the treat.

"Now, I know that you think me weak," I handed him a clean fork. I didn’t want for him to become a messy eater. "But I’m not. And, besides, you will find, dearest son, that I can be evil when I want to. Your papa Aron is in danger. You were created with his mana. And we are going to rescue him!"

"But papa," him calling me that, was like a bald for my soul. Normally, he called only Nate that. "How?"

I smiled.

"With the best method of them all," I patted a flour package, as I made the mental calculations. "The Murder Muffin way!"

"With cats?" Mordred asked, blinking.

I sighed.

"No... with muffins," not even poisonous ones, but I didn’t tell him that. I wanted for him to keep calling me papa.

It was nice.