Rage.
Pure rage.
Absolutely unadulterated rage.
That's what I felt coursing through me as I watched the amber substance leak from my pupil’s mouth as she struggled to keep her consciousness.
Going back just a couple of seconds before, I felt a smile creep its way onto my face as I watched Maua’s eyes light up as she bit into the massive burger that she could barely hold in her hands.
The smile immediately disappeared as I saw her eyes hollowed out as the pain appeared.
I vaulted across the table, assessing the situation in my mind as I leaped.
It didn’t make any sense.
Why would she react so badly to the food?
Aunt Moni might be one of the most terrifying people to exist, but the lady absolutely threw down in the kitchen.
The taste is absolutely exquisite and completely worth the trip and the possible injuries I might obtain from a certain buff sea anemone lady.
But that’s not why I took the girls here.
Moni’s a special type of chef. Both her concept and affinities are perfect for it.
That allows her to cook for many more types of people than just us sea folk.
Naturally, her range of species includes the Spiritoids from the Spectra Kingdoms. That’s not something that most are capable of, and Aunt Moni is the only one in the sea to my knowledge.
Spiritoids are a bit different from the rest of us. Every being on the planet has Soulia and needs it to survive. Some are even formed from it, like the Bloomed.
Spiritoids take that up a step. Not only are they made from it, need it to survive, but they themselves actually are part, Soulia.
This makes cooking for them a lot more difficult than for others. The food must be prepared in some special way that I don’t remember the details to so that the dormant Soulia stays that way. If anything is off, the awakened Soulia can wreck up the Spiritoids’ bodies.
Now, I’m not sure what an Edenite actually is… but the ability called Spirit Form made me wary.
So, to proactively combat that, I specifically brought us to eat out here. I even told Moni in advance to take care when preparing Maua’s food…so how did it end up like this?
Another reason that I came to the Anemoni Inn was again for Aunt Moni. Or rather the history I have with her. She’s undeniably trustworthy. A lifelong friend of my mothers, I know for a fact that she wouldn’t do anything to harm me or any of my party.
As an Archduchess, it’s only natural that I have some enemies pining to take down me and the people. An obvious way to go about that would be poisoning my food. Which isn’t a problem here…Wait.
I’m an idiot. I assumed because the cook wouldn’t do anything to the food, it would be fine. The effectiveness of poison that is applied after the food is cooked is significantly weaker than if they were mixed in during the preparation.
Knowing this, I ignored the obviously malicious waiter, assuming that we could shrug it off even if she did something funny.
Which was a mistake. I did all that preparation, just to forget about Maua. Obviously, she couldn’t take whatever poison was used.
My suspect identified, I made it across the table and took my pupil in my arms. The liquid from her mouth was odd. It was almost like sap, but I just chalked it up to her body reacting to the poison.
I looked down at the girl giving her a smile and caressing her head.
Seeing that she was still fighting to stay awake, I decided on my course of action.
“Mayari, put her to sleep, please,” I said, handing my pupil over to her.
Soulia poisons travel quicker through someone awake than someone unconscious.
“Sure,” she replied, taking Maua. “But what are you going to do Aunt?”
“I’m going to have a nice little talk with that waitress,” I snapped as flames combusted around me.
Mayari nodded understandingly.
“I know you’re angry, but please don’t kill her out of anger, Rua,” My lovely girlfriend requested. “Find out what she did first.”
“Alright, I promise I won’t kill her on the spot.”
As the conversation ended, I quickly made my way to the kitchen, stumbling into a confused Moni.
“Murua? What’s wrong?” she asked, steadying the both of us.
“Where’s the little waitress girl who was serving us?”
“Oh, Denice? She just left a couple of minutes ago. Something about an emergency at home. Left me short-staffed.”
“Tree bark!” I cursed.
“What did she do?”
“She poisoned Maua!”
“What?!”
“Can we talk about this later? I need to know where that girl is headed…now.”
“Right, hang a right as soon as you exit the inn. She lives in the third house to the left on the same road.”
“Okay got it.”
Receiving the information I needed, I dashed out of the kitchen and headed straight for the front door.
I immediately turned right, flapping my wings to get airborne.
I was halted as I crashed into someone.
Instead of them flying off from the impact, I bounced back onto the ground.
Shocked that someone was able to knock me down, I gazed at the figure looming above me.
She was a tall woman, a couple of inches taller than me. Her eyes shone with a pretty silvery glint, along with the markings of the same color on her face. Upon her head were a set of silver fins, attractive enough to be mistaken for a crown.
“Mama?” A question leaked from my mouth as my rage dissipated.
“Ooou. RuRu. Howdy!” she said with a smile full of teeth. “Where are you in a rush to go?”
“I’m chasing a…” I trailed off as saw a certain waitress being held by the scruff of her uniform by my mom.
“Oh so you were looking for this person?” she asked, emphasizing the question by shaking the waitress.
I nodded in confirmation. “But why did you stop her, Mama? There’s no way you could’ve known that she did something. ”
“True that.” She agreed. “Well, since the inn was boring, I decided to explore around. I was at a food stall when I saw her running frantically. So I figured that she was either up to something and was running away from the crime she committed or she needed to be protected. Either one would ease my boredom. Now that one of my two favorite daughters is here looking for the person my hunch is all but confirmed.”
“Sounds like you…wait. What do you mean one of your two favorite daughters…you only have two.”
“Well, I have a daughter-in-law too. I would have two of those if someone would stop being a scaredy dragon.”
‘Ugh. Both of these old hags are brutal.’
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “Anyways, could you hand that little waitress over to me? I need to tortur- I mean question her for a little bit.”
“And miss out on some fun? Ha! You wish. Take me along with you, and I’ll help out with whatever the problem is.”
“Hah. Fine.”
Rage.
Pure rage.
Absolutely unadulterated rage.
That's what I felt coursing through me as I watched the amber substance leak from my pupil’s mouth as she struggled to keep her consciousness.
Going back just a couple of seconds before, I felt a smile creep its way onto my face as I watched Maua’s eyes light up as she bit into the massive burger that she could barely hold in her hands.
The smile immediately disappeared as I saw her eyes hollowed out as the pain appeared.
I vaulted across the table, assessing the situation in my mind as I leaped.
It didn’t make any sense.
Why would she react so badly to the food?
Aunt Moni might be one of the most terrifying people to exist, but the lady absolutely threw down in the kitchen.
The taste is absolutely exquisite and completely worth the trip and the possible injuries I might obtain from a certain buff sea anemone lady.
But that’s not why I took the girls here.
Moni’s a special type of chef. Both her concept and affinities are perfect for it.
That allows her to cook for many more types of people than just us sea folk.
Naturally, her range of species includes the Spiritoids from the Spectra Kingdoms. That’s not something that most are capable of, and Aunt Moni is the only one in the sea to my knowledge.
Spiritoids are a bit different from the rest of us. Every being on the planet has Soulia and needs it to survive. Some are even formed from it, like the Bloomed.
Spiritoids take that up a step. Not only are they made from it, need it to survive, but they themselves actually are part, Soulia.
This makes cooking for them a lot more difficult than for others. The food must be prepared in some special way that I don’t remember the details to so that the dormant Soulia stays that way. If anything is off, the awakened Soulia can wreck up the Spiritoids’ bodies.
Now, I’m not sure what an Edenite actually is… but the ability called Spirit Form made me wary.
So, to proactively combat that, I specifically brought us to eat out here. I even told Moni in advance to take care when preparing Maua’s food…so how did it end up like this?
Another reason that I came to the Anemoni Inn was again for Aunt Moni. Or rather the history I have with her. She’s undeniably trustworthy. A lifelong friend of my mothers, I know for a fact that she wouldn’t do anything to harm me or any of my party.
As an Archduchess, it’s only natural that I have some enemies pining to take down me and the people. An obvious way to go about that would be poisoning my food. Which isn’t a problem here…Wait.
I’m an idiot. I assumed because the cook wouldn’t do anything to the food, it would be fine. The effectiveness of poison that is applied after the food is cooked is significantly weaker than if they were mixed in during the preparation.
Knowing this, I ignored the obviously malicious waiter, assuming that we could shrug it off even if she did something funny.
Which was a mistake. I did all that preparation, just to forget about Maua. Obviously, she couldn’t take whatever poison was used.
My suspect identified, I made it across the table and took my pupil in my arms. The liquid from her mouth was odd. It was almost like sap, but I just chalked it up to her body reacting to the poison.
I looked down at the girl giving her a smile and caressing her head.
Seeing that she was still fighting to stay awake, I decided on my course of action.
“Mayari, put her to sleep, please,” I said, handing my pupil over to her.
Soulia poisons travel quicker through someone awake than someone unconscious.
“Sure,” she replied, taking Maua. “But what are you going to do Aunt?”
“I’m going to have a nice little talk with that waitress,” I snapped as flames combusted around me.
Mayari nodded understandingly.
“I know you’re angry, but please don’t kill her out of anger, Rua,” My lovely girlfriend requested. “Find out what she did first.”
“Alright, I promise I won’t kill her on the spot.”
As the conversation ended, I quickly made my way to the kitchen, stumbling into a confused Moni.
“Murua? What’s wrong?” she asked, steadying the both of us.
“Where’s the little waitress girl who was serving us?”
“Oh, Denice? She just left a couple of minutes ago. Something about an emergency at home. Left me short-staffed.”
“Tree bark!” I cursed.
“What did she do?”
“She poisoned Maua!”
“What?!”
“Can we talk about this later? I need to know where that girl is headed…now.”
“Right, hang a right as soon as you exit the inn. She lives in the third house to the left on the same road.”
“Okay got it.”
Receiving the information I needed, I dashed out of the kitchen and headed straight for the front door.
I immediately turned right, flapping my wings to get airborne.
I was halted as I crashed into someone.
Instead of them flying off from the impact, I bounced back onto the ground.
Shocked that someone was able to knock me down, I gazed at the figure looming above me.
She was a tall woman, a couple of inches taller than me. Her eyes shone with a pretty silvery glint, along with the markings of the same color on her face. Upon her head were a set of silver fins, attractive enough to be mistaken for a crown.
“Mama?” A question leaked from my mouth as my rage dissipated.
“Ooou. RuRu. Howdy!” she said with a smile full of teeth. “Where are you in a rush to go?”
“I’m chasing a…” I trailed off as saw a certain waitress being held by the scruff of her uniform by my mom.
“Oh so you were looking for this person?” she asked, emphasizing the question by shaking the waitress.
I nodded in confirmation. “But why did you stop her, Mama? There’s no way you could’ve known that she did something. ”
“True that.” She agreed. “Well, since the inn was boring, I decided to explore around. I was at a food stall when I saw her running frantically. So I figured that she was either up to something and was running away from the crime she committed or she needed to be protected. Either one would ease my boredom. Now that one of my two favorite daughters is here looking for the person my hunch is all but confirmed.”
“Sounds like you…wait. What do you mean one of your two favorite daughters…you only have two.”
“Well, I have a daughter-in-law too. I would have two of those if someone would stop being a scaredy dragon.”
‘Ugh. Both of these old hags are brutal.’
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “Anyways, could you hand that little waitress over to me? I need to tortur- I mean question her for a little bit.”
“And miss out on some fun? Ha! You wish. Take me along with you, and I’ll help out with whatever the problem is.”
“Hah. Fine.”
