Yerna’s food was terrible.
That was because she made the significant mistake of confusing salt and sugar, so it was impossible for the dish to taste normal.
Luke thought he couldn’t serve such food to Dayton, who would work hard all day in the forest.
“Didn’t you think to taste it in the middle?”
As Luke wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and asked, Yerna mumbled softly, staring at the pattern on the floor as if having multiple mouths wouldn’t allow her to speak.
“Well… even if I tasted it, I wouldn’t really know how to fix it… So I just tried to make it according to the recipe. Besides, I was too busy to follow the recipe exactly…”
Yerna’s words suggested that, even if the taste was weird, she lacked any talent for cooking, and since she wasn’t sensitive to food flavors in the first place, she couldn’t fix it. She simply followed the recipe as it was written because there wasn’t enough time.
Indeed, despite various twists and turns, Yerna’s cooking looked quite decent before tasting it.
The fatal problem was that very mistake of confusing sugar and salt.
Luke sighed as he looked at the container filled with ‘sugar’.
Upon closer inspection, the particles were different; could it be that there just wasn’t enough time to pay close attention?
“I suppose we need to write labels on the sugar and salt containers.”
“…Yeah.”
In the end, Luke had no choice but to roll up his sleeves.
Bringing a dead dish back to life is much easier than bringing a dead person back to life.
In fact, since Luke had experience resurrecting dozens of dead people, it was a reliable comparison.
To counteract the excessive sweetness, he referred to the recipe, calculated the ratios, added water and ingredients, and used various spices to cover up the taste, resulting in a soup that turned out much better than expected.
It had a sweet and salty flavor, with a subtle hint of freshness permeating it.
And perhaps due to the explosion that occurred earlier, the aroma of mugwort deeply infused into the soup, making the fresh feeling noticeably better than before.
Finally, as Luke succeeded in bringing the dish back to life and gave a thumbs up, Yerna let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness…”
Luke grinned.
“Well then, shall we go wake everyone up?”
“Yeah! Let’s do that.”
Now that breakfast was somehow complete, it was time to wake Dayton and the kids.
—————
Fortunately, the meal received positive reactions.
Dayton was so happy hearing that Yerna prepared this meal!
While he was the one who took care of the aftermath, it wasn’t a lie that it was ultimately Yerna who did the preparation.
Though feeling a bit shy, Yerna, with a red face, only clinked her spoon like a demure lady.
Still, it felt like a pretty rewarding morning.
After finishing the meal, it was time to brush their teeth.
He led the two children to the bathroom, squeezed toothpaste onto their toothbrushes, and filled cups with water for rinsing.
“Okay, now get your act together. Since you’ve eaten, you need to brush your teeth.”
“Ugh…”
“Hmm…”
However, perhaps because they had played all night long, Pyris’s expression was clearly tired and in no way resembled that of a child who had just eaten.
Originally a spirit who doesn’t feel fatigue, Pyris was quite sensitive to fatigue after manifesting.
Diana, who stood next to Pyris, also looked dazed.
Of course, she must have played with Pyris.
Fortunately, as they started brushing their teeth, their focus began to come back little by little, and the kids’ movements became increasingly precise.
Eventually, Diana got the hang of brushing her teeth fairly well, while Pyris remained inexperienced.
It must have been unfamiliar.
Though Luke had taught Pyris how to brush a few times, she had probably only brushed her teeth about ten times in total.
During that time, Pyris avoided brushing her teeth, complaining it was bothersome and tasted strange.
It seemed Pyris disliked the artificial taste of toothpaste.
Thus, Luke found himself having to re-teach Pyris how to brush again.
“Right, Pyris. This is how you brush. You’re doing well.”
“Mm…”
As Pyris continued to move the toothbrush according to Luke’s advice, Diana was swirling water in her mouth while brushing her teeth.
“Gurgle, gurgle…”
“Diana, you’ve got toothpaste foam all over your mouth. Rinse it more.”
Then, Diana spat out the water and replied.
“Ugh… Sister, you’re so naggy.”
“Naggy? This is advice.”
Luke answered, trying to hide his embarrassment at the unexpected attack.
But it seemed Diana still had more to say.
“But you kept nagging me while we were eating too.”
Diana disliked being nagged.
The nagging she always heard at the orphanage was irritating, and her brother always nagged her as well.
And she was at an age where she slowly started to dislike others intervening in her matters.
However, Luke, who wouldn’t give advice without goodwill… No, ‘advice’ filled his voice with genuine concern.
“Isn’t it possible to burn your tongue if you fall asleep while eating? I’m worried about you. Because you’re all my precious family.”
“Hmm…”
Hearing his earnest voice expressing concern, Diana couldn’t retort any further.
And the phrase ‘precious family’ was also quite surprising.
“A family… now, huh.”
“Yeah.”
Pyris nodded and smiled at those words.
“It’s amazing that my sister Luke is now my sister, and sister Yerna is my mom.”
It was quite a wondrous thing for Diana that someone she knew had turned into family.
She had thought that family was something predetermined at birth, but she realized that it could expand unexpectedly.
‘Now I’m going to live with my sister in the same house forever!’
It felt as if she was in a friend’s house, playing without any need to go home.
Diana was extremely excited.
However, Luke ultimately had to nag again.
“Actually, to be precise, I’m not your sister, but your niece, and Yerna isn’t your mom, but your sister-in-law.”
Even though there was some age difference, Diana wasn’t Dayton’s daughter.
But that left Diana with a very confused expression.
“…Sister is a niece? Mom is… a sister-in-law?”
“That’s right. To be exact, that’s how it is.”
“??”
With a puzzled expression, Diana scratched her head, while Pyris pulled on Luke’s sleeve and asked.
“Sister, what’s a sister-in-law?”
“A sister-in-law refers to your brother’s wife. Since Yerna is your brother’s wife, she becomes a sister-in-law to you.”
“Ah—.”
Pyris opened her mouth as if she understood and nodded.
However, Pyris’s expression was still quite bewildered.
“You didn’t understand at all, did you?”
“Yeah!”
“…”
Luke shook his head.
——-
After Dayton went to work, and Yerna went out to mow the grass in the newly created yard from their move, Luke was analyzing the glasses left by Seyeo, the dark mage.
This was one of the great advantages of having his own room.
He could place a research subject on his desk, and lay out plenty of paper, pens, other magic circles, and reference books.
How convenient this is!
In the past, he couldn’t even use magic properly for fear of paying a high price for it, and he had to study in the bathroom due to a lack of personal space.
But what about now?
There were no worries about the magical energy cost since it was near the forest, and there were no spatial restrictions. If a larger scale experiment were required, one could just turn the ‘key’ in the door, synchronize the coordinates, and go to the alternate space, ‘Arinseia.’
It was like a complete transformation.
Thanks to this, there had also been noticeable progress in the research of these glasses.
It could be said he had temporarily set it aside due to various reasons.
“Hmmm. I see. It seems these glasses also had an enchantment similar to magic sight.”
So it appeared they were able to recognize their own ‘value.’
While it may not be exactly identical in effect to magic sight.
He thought there was something magical about them, and indeed they were artifacts.
Luke tried putting the glasses on for a moment.
If he were like an ordinary cat-type Hyun with ‘top ears,’ it might have been inconvenient to wear glasses since they don’t have ears to hang them on, but Luke had dragon horns, so wearing them was not a problem.
“Surely, they’re not the same as magic sight. They only display a rough level of information.”
A little while later, Diana came to find Luke.
“Big sister! Read me a fairy tale!”
“Diana…?”
‘Big sister’—what does that even mean?
Well, she’s my niece and sister, so it isn’t entirely incorrect…
Luke turned around, slightly confused by the strange title she used to call him.
Then Diana tilted her head and asked.
“Big sister? Why are you wearing glasses? Are your eyes bad?”
Luke took off the glasses and placed them on the desk, answering.
“No, I just tried them on for a moment to see how they looked.”
“Oh, I see! But where did you get those glasses? They’re cool! I want to try them too!”
“Not allowed. Your eyes might get bad.”
Luke rejected her outright.
He hadn’t even fully figured out what sort of magic was enchanted in the glasses, and it would be troubling if it negatively affected the eyesight of a growing child.
“But you wore them!”
“I’m fine.”
Because he knew his own eyes couldn’t get worse.
However, the issue was that it looked to Diana like double standards—where she was told she couldn’t wear them but he could.
“That’s unfair! I want to try them too!”
Diana began to throw a tantrum.
“…Sigh.”
In the end, Diana’s tantrum resolved only after Luke secretly created a similar item to his glasses using his 5th circle authority with several elemental spells and handed it to her.
Using the authority of the 5th circle, which symbolized perfect mastery over all elements, just to make a toy pair of glasses was ridiculous.
A mage from 5000 years ago would probably laugh and say what a waste that was.
