小嫂子的味道

Fifteen days passed in a snap. And today it was 31st December, the day of New Year.

In this world people didn\'t celebrate Christmas or anything like that but apparently, new year was a thing here.

The preparation had been done, it was night and all of us had gathered in the main hall. On the table there was a cake standing proudly which Ainge and Anya had made together. Ellyn would\'ve helped too but cooking wasn\'t her strong ground.

It was a good three layered cake and had took a great deal of time for them to bake it.

\'But I guess it\'s too big even for six people.\'

[Seven.]

\'Yeah, six people. Even so, I think we will be able to finish only half of it.\'

Fortunately, this world did have something like a fridge. It worked on an entirely different technology, or rather magic I should say. The deign of it was the same rectangular box like it was in my former world but for the cooling system it took help of magic.

I\'d studied a bit about it in the library since I found it interesting.

Custom magic spells were used to keep the things inside cool. The ice element was borrowed and its coldness was circulated in the whole fridge through runes that were inscribed all over its body on the inside.

Therefore I did not have to worry about the cake going waste. I would\'ve force fed myself if that were the case.

"Zero, what are you doing there? Come here, it\'s about time," Ron said as he called me to where everyone stood—around the table at the center of the hall.

"Yep, I\'m coming," I said and walked to there and stood beside Anya.

We looked at the clock, it was just marked at 11;59 and there about a minute remaining before the start of a new year.

All of our eyes were pinned on the clock as it slowly ticked forward. Now less than thirty seconds were remaining. All of us were on the edge. Fifteen seconds. There was a quiet and silence shrouded the hall. Ten seconds.

Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

"Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!"

"Happy new year!"

All of us said at the same time, though Ron was the loudest. There were wide smiles on the faces of everyone present here. And by now I could hear the firecrackers that were bursting outside—you might think that how this world had firecrackers but apparently, creating them with magic was one of easiest tasks.

The celebrations came after that. Ainge had already prepared dinner—oops! Special dinner I should say. She\'d put in more work in it and that I could tell by the smell as it was served in front of us by the maid.

As I put in the first bite, a nuclear bomb of flavors exploded inside my mouth. Words are not enough to describe how wonderful and delicious it was.

The celebrations went on for a while and it was 2 o\'clock at night when I went to bed.

***

Opening the door to my I stepped inside and the first thing I saw was the excited figure of Req.

"Did you brought it as you\'ve said you will?" she asked hurriedly, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

"Yes, yes. I\'ve brought it as I\'ve said I will," I showed the plate I was holding in my hands which carried the cake Ainge had made.

"Hehe, I wuv you so much!" she said as I handed him the plate.

Since she didn\'t have a physical body, Req had no to eat in order to stay alive. But despite that her interest in food was no less. I think it was reasonable since rather than being in \'food\', her interest was inclined more toward the types of food that weren\'t available in her time period. Anyone would be excited to try the food they have never even seen before.

I changed into my night clothes and sat on my bed. Req was sitting on the same bed but on the lower side as she ate the cake.

"Don\'t spill it on the bedsheets; I am not in any mood to do the cleaning," I stated.

"I know, I know. I won\'t ever do that," she replied without even looking at me.

Judging from the way she was eating—with pure enthusiasm—that didn\'t sound very convincing.

In the meantime, I had picked up a book for myself. I opened it and lay on the bed and started reading it.

Soon Req finished eating and threw the plate toward the desk—she literally threw it toward the desk, it was a wonder it landed perfectly and didn\'t broke.

"Oh, I just remembered. You said you telling me about \'it\' when the time is right, right?" she said as she sneaked inside the blanket beside me.

I skimmed through my memory, I did have told something like this to her. Back when we had to buy clothes.

"What of it?" I appealed.

"I am willing to wait, but when the time will be right?" she asked.

"To be honest, I don\'t really know either. The time will be right when the time will be right, that\'s it," I stated.

"What the hell? That doesn\'t make any sense?" she retorted.

"It is what it is. I don\'t really know when the time will be right, but you will know when it is time. The circumstances will be right, and there won\'t be any harm in telling you then. So I will. You shouldn\'t worry about it too much."

"Heh? That sounds like you\'re giving me an excuse," she said.

\'That\'s because I was giving her an excuse, after all. If possible, I wanted to avoid telling her about the calamity before it happened.\'

"I can\'t do anything about that," I stated.

She sighed and gave me a disappointed look, I ignored her. After that, she gave up and settled herself in the bed.

"Wait a minute, are you going to sleep with me again?" I asked.

She giggled. This time I sighed.