Vieille returned to the Agartha University Hospital the same day she left. She enjoyed the scenic river cruise from the capital of Agartha to Garbee, and in Garbee, she watched the sunset from the top of the boat, forgetting her words for a moment as the sun set on the horizon.
Perhaps because she had spent such a fulfilling day, she ate the meals served to her upon her return to the hospital and fell asleep as soon as she took a bath.
According to Matkal and Knogen, Vieille did not show any suspicious movements during the trip. However, she seemed to have been thinking about various things during the trip, and there were times when she was out of her mind.
Well, she is a little girl. That much can be fully expected. I'm sure that she will make some kind of move secretly so that no one will know while she is in the hospital.
After I finished listening to their reports, I thanked them for their hard work and let them leave. As for Matkal, however, he was to return to his residence in the capital with me soon after that.
When I returned home, the meal was finished and the children had gone back to their rooms to sleep. Peris reheats the food for me and Matkal. Matkal offers to help, but Peris tells him to sit down and smiles.
Tonight's dinner consisted of ramen, fried rice, fried chicken and salad.
Our head cook, Peris, is a do-it-yourselfer, and she finally made the noodles and soup for the ramen by herself. She was originally good enough to make her own pasta noodles, but when I casually mentioned ramen to her, a few months later, she made a wonderful bowl of ramen. As one would expect, there is no service to add more back oil or to order a second bowl of ramen. No, they will give you a second helping if you ask for it, I think to myself, as I sip the soup.
...... is delicious. The soup is light, but the flavor comes in two stages, and you can drink as much as you want.
The ramen and fried rice are served with a bamboo stick. This was also my request.
It all started when I casually mentioned one day that such a tool would be useful. At first, my wives didn't understand what I was talking about. Rico looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, and May listened to me with an indescribable expression on her face. Later I asked Sidi about it, and he told me that May's eyes were looking up because she was thinking about something she did not know. Sadie was thinking about something with her index finger under her chin, while her brow was furrowed in a crease that she could not tick. Soleil continued to smile kindly.
A few days later, a prototype of the lengua came from May. She did not expect that she would make it, and when she looked at it with surprise, she found a very strange shape. It was an iron plate bent into a shape that could neither be described as a spoon nor a ladle. The handle had numerous holes drilled in it, which May said had been made to reduce the weight. She said that she had calculated the amount of soup and ingredients to be scooped into the spoon, and had taken great care to ensure that the spoon would not lose its strength, but unfortunately, it was not what I was looking for.
Plastic does not exist in this world. So I suggested to him to make it out of a hollowed-out piece of wood, and he tried his best to draw a picture of a lotus root. By the way, I am good at drawing. No one ever praised me or guessed what I drew, but I am good at drawing.
The wives looked satisfied, but the next day, King Maintia suddenly came to visit them at the guest house. What in the world, they wondered, was he bringing with him dozens of paintings.
No, I was asked to do this by the Lord Considine. He asked me to redraw these pictures into something usable in the world. I thought it was a spoon, but he said it was not a spoon. So I spent the rest of the morning drawing them up.
We look at what King Maintia has written, piece by piece, in silence. When I had finished looking at all of them, I shook my head from side to side and muttered in disgust.
"Yes, this is the lotus root."
There were various kinds of lotus flowers painted inside, but one of them was exactly like this one. I pointed at it and said this is it.
He said, "You. If you are going to draw, you have to look at the model properly. Especially if it's in your ...... head. You have to draw it in your head, and then you have to keep it in your head. If you let your emotions guide your brushstrokes, you will end up like this."
For this king, it was a very decent thing to say. On his way back home, he wanted me to eat a dish made with the lengua as an apology. Come to think of it, I didn't send him anything after that. I should send him some ramen noodles, soup, ingredients, and fried rice.
As I was thinking about that, Matkal was almost done eating. Maybe because of her military training, she eats really fast. I hurriedly scarf down the food.
After the meal, we take a bath. Matkal tells me that he was followed by someone while he was rafting down the river.
"That's just my feeling. I felt a strange look in some places. It was as if they were staring at us."
"How do you even know that?"
"Yes. Most of the time, people look at you, but within a few seconds, they look somewhere else. But there were two who glanced at us and then kept looking at us.
"I'm sure it's one of Crimiana's."
"Probably, yes. It seems that the strategy of Mr. Linos has worked."
"Sort of."
I made it known that Vieille had left Agartha. So that we could see how the enemy would react. Matkal and I made a rough plan of maneuver while simulating the enemy's departure.
I get out of the bath and head for the bedroom. Soleil was waiting there. She is dressed in a light negligee, almost as if she were naked. The important parts of her body are hidden, so she is half-naked, so to speak. This is always the case, but it is still a little shocking to me no matter how many times I see it.
She came up to me happily and quickly jumped into my chest. And with her face buried in my chest. Then, with her face buried in my chest, she murmured in a small voice
"It seems that Mr. Vieille has given up."
"Oh, you gave up? Did you give up on them if you couldn't give up on them?"
"Very funny. Of course, it seems that they have given up on taking action in Agartha."
"Oh. I knew you were up to something."
"Yes. He was full of conflicts in his mind while he was going down the river. The spirits could feel it, too, so it must have been quite a struggle.
"So, when you say you gave up, do you mean ......?"
"After a certain point, the atmosphere changed completely. He seems to have become more peaceful."
"I see. It's just, that little b*tc*. She's going to do a lot of things again, isn't she?"
"Well, he's a quick thinker. ....... But, Master Mei said that it would be best to let her rest anyway.
"It's not so much that he needs to rest, but that he needs to be given some kind of healing."
"Indeed, I agree with you. I wish he had time for healing like we do. ......
Soleil looked up. She found herself naked, without a stitch of clothing on. I wondered when she had taken off her clothes. She looked up at me and slowly moved her face closer to mine. .......