The meat and vegetables were flying through the air in a perfectly organized line out the window.
Ella couldn’t help but wear a stunned expression as she watched them leave in a group, as if they were a flock of migratory birds or a herd of cattle. She rubbed her eyes, wondering if she had been contaminated by Anastasia’s colorful jelly and was hallucinating. In doubt, she jerked her head to look at others, checking if they could see this too.
Luckily, it wasn’t just a hallucination visible to Ella alone; people here and there began to notice the existence of the ingredients making an absurd escape from the restaurant.
“No way…”
The Great Witch and Agnes weren’t much different from Ella in their reactions. They blinked in surprise, staring at the bizarre sight as if the fairies were playing a prank.
Yet oddly, Lee Yang-hoon and his wives laughed at the absurdity without showing any suspicion that it could be a hallucination. Iarin merely took a glance and then dropped her head back to her food as if she’d understood something.
And Iserin was visibly conversing with a demon standing nearby, lips moving in what seemed to be an interesting discussion.
Was it out of curiosity?
Suddenly, Anastasia bounced over to Iarin.
She placed her palm on Iarin’s thigh to make her presence known, and as soon as Iarin looked at her in confusion, she seized the opportunity to hop onto her lap and lean against her body, asking:
“Hey, A-Rin? I have something to ask you. Will you answer?”
“Uh? Sure!”
As Anastasia adorably leaned against her and made her request, Iarin nodded like she was bewitched.
“Do you know what that is over there?”
“Uh? That’s probably something the vastness conjured up.”
Iarin casually tossed the words like they were of no significance. But perhaps thinking that Anastasia, snuggled in her arms, needed a clearer explanation, she opened her mouth again.
“Strange things like that happen sometimes. People mess around with magic or test it out and act weird. Like bringing a bunch of cockroaches, or they once tried to mimic a piper and brought dozens of hamsters with flutes….”
Iarin wore a somewhat nostalgic expression.
“It seems to be less common lately, but still…. At least it’s rather mild this time, so don’t be too shocked…. By the way, Anastasia? Would you like to eat with me?”
“I’m fine~”
“I’ll feed you…”
“Really, I’m okay~”
Anastasia firmly declined Iarin’s offer and hopped back down, seemingly done with the conversation, returning to her seat without looking back. Then she grabbed one of Ella’s hands and said:
“Let’s go check it out.”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“Oh, no….”
Anastasia’s eyes widened at Ella’s refusal, her face expressing disbelief that her suggestion had been turned down.
With a shocked expression, she asked:
“Aren’t you curious?”
It was the same question as before, but the nuance was entirely different. While the previous question felt like a simple suggestion, this one carried an enormous pressure as if to say, ‘You’re not curious? Are you out of your mind?’
Ella momentarily fell silent at Anastasia’s audacity, which placed curiosity above common sense or decorum. With determination lighting her eyes, she looked at her and said:
“Sister, just eat your food peacefully.”
“Food?”
Anastasia turned to look at her dining table.
Colorful.
A candy land made of jelly and chocolate.
Anastasia tore her gaze away from the table and glanced towards the window.
The vegetables and meat were indeed flying in the air!
Not just walking or crawling, but flying!
She couldn’t contain herself.
Her heart, instinct, and countless experiences from the dream world urged her to rush outside right then to find out what was happening with the vegetables and meat. Besides, nothing indicated danger, so checking just a bit shouldn’t be a problem.
“Little sister, this big sister really wants to go see that outside!”
“Eat your food and then you can check it out.”
“But I want to see it now!”
“Little sister told big sister to eat first before looking!”
“Then even if you won’t come with me, can you at least let go of my hand? It’s a bit tight holding on like this~”
Anastasia whined to her sibling. However, Ella, with a stern expression, held onto her firmly and sat her back down in the chair, warning her with wide eyes that if she didn’t finish her meal, she couldn’t leave.
With a dilemma between Ella’s stern words and her overwhelming curiosity, Anastasia debated whether to bolt outside, but recalling Ella’s insistence on etiquette from the day before, she complied and settled down to eat. After all, even if etiquette lessons were inevitable, there was no need to raise the intensity of that education unnecessarily.
“The scene in the restaurant right now is the creation of the Great Witch personally putting her hands on everything….”
“I thought it looked too refined, but it turns out to be the work of the Great Witch….”
“Plus, just the fact that she ordered food herself is an astoundingly conscious thought….”
Thus, Anastasia did her best to ignore the old people’s ramblings tickling her ears, concentrating her entire being on the food and its ingredients.
Mimicking the dining etiquette she had seen and heard in her dreams without being caught by Ella, she elegantly consumed her meal, receiving Ella’s awe-struck gaze, and then stepped out of the restaurant.
Click.
As soon as she closed the restaurant door, she dashed down the hallway toward the garden.
Knock, knock.
As soon as Anastasia arrived in the garden, she gestured towards a nearby tree as if asking to be picked up. However, even after knocking twice, perhaps the effect of witchcraft had worn off, the tree remained unresponsive, so she shook her head in disappointment and started jumping instead.
Finally, she reached a place where the vegetables and meat were moving at a leisurely pace.
“Wow.”
The first thing to catch her eye was a mushroom.
Not just any cooking ingredient but a huge one, seemingly half her size, resembling a boulder. The mushroom had a wide, semi-circular cap atop its whitish, bulging stalk. And constantly alternating horizontally along the top of the stalk were lines that looked like it had a mouth that opened and closed, as if chewing on something.
There were eleven of those mushrooms, all synchronizing perfectly, opening their mouths at the same time, then closing them together. At that timing, as if there were an invisible conveyor belt, the pieces of ingredients were sliced into eleven and popped into the mushrooms’ mouths. And each time they swallowed an ingredient, the mushrooms grew larger and larger.
And in the center of the growing mushrooms was Jinseong.
Dressed lightly in jeans and a shirt, Jinseong lay on a soft surface made from the caps of several mushrooms, munching on raw meat.
He was gnawing it with his incisors and canines, and the blood from the meat soaked the mushroom completely, while floating fruits longed to enter Jinseong’s belly. The blood vanished the moment it touched the mushroom cap, like how a sponge absorbs water, creating a sensation that blood vessels flowed through the mushroom.
Anastasia watched this in amazement, drawing closer to Jinseong, and asked, eyes sparkling with wonder:
“Benefactor, does it taste good?”
“It’s pretty decent.”
Jinseong replied to the curious Anastasia, though his expression was as expressionless as ever, showing that he was not eating for pleasure but perhaps out of the need to survive or fulfill some obligation.
“What does it taste like?”
Anastasia felt her curiosity swell even more at his expression.
Jinseong acted as if he was used to this kind of attitude.
“It’s a taste that awakens my primal instincts.”
Though she showed her curiosity, Anastasia did not appear to be deterred; rather, Jinseong’s answer stimulated her curiosity further. And whether it had its effect, she cutely asked for a piece, to which Jinseong tore off a small bit of meat and placed it onto her hand.
As she brought it to her mouth, nearly bursting with curiosity…
“Gyaah! Sister! Why would you want to eat that!”
Ella, who had already finished her meal and rushed outside to keep an eye on Anastasia, dashed over like lightning and snatched the raw meat from her hand.
