Chapter 23: Chapter 62 – Trying to Adjust

I came out of bed this morning to Irapesha scolding Cresta in the kitchen like a mother would their child.

"You can't keep eating all these burgers. From today onwards, I'm limiting how much you eat to one every two days." Irapesha folded her one arm out of instinct, standing with her back pressed to the fridge.

"That's so mean! I'm an adult, too. I should be able to eat what I want, whenever I want!" Cresta declared in torment. She was trying to move Irapesha from the fridge, but the dragonewt wouldn't budge.

I knew Cresta was significantly stronger, but Irapesha had her beat in martial technique. With her feet planted firmly on the ground, she wasn't going to be pushed aside so easily. More than likely, Cresta also didn't want to oppose her too much.

"But I was looking forward to eating the melty-cheese, triple-patty, and bacon burger this morning!" the fast food enthusiast welled, clutching Irapesha's legs from the ground.

"What the hell happened here?" I asked, entering the kitchen.

"Perfect timing," Irapesha said, lifting Cresta off the ground like a suitcase. "Can you make a healthy meal by human standards for her to eat? I can't stand that she continues to put so much junk into her stomach."

"One healthy meal coming right up!"

Cresta stared at the breakfast put before her with so much pain, I didn't even know it was possible.

I made a traditional Japanese breakfast like one I'd eat back home. A bowl of rice was accompanied by side dishes of tofu, natto, grilled fish, and mixed vegetables with a bit of soy sauce. All chocked full of vitamins and a variety of flavors. This would fill a student up until lunch and give them the energy they needed to stay awake even after a long night of studying.

My mouth was watering just looking at it.

"What is this white cube stuff? And these sticky looking beans?" she asked, grossed out at how much the sticky threads stretched.

"Tofu and fermented soy beans. It's really good for you" I explained.

"Eat your breakfast, Cresta. All the way down to the last grain," Irapesha said.

I'd made a much larger portion for her to suit the size of that body. That way Cresta didn't eat alone. Unlike Cresta, however, Irapesha's body ran hot and burnt off more calories simply by existing. The difference in size between their plates was a mug and a bucket.

Although Irapesha quite enjoyed eating my food, the assassin looked like she was getting mauled and destroyed with each bite.

"None of this tastes like a burger!" she cried.

"That's because it isn't a burger…" I put a hand to my face.

"Can I at least get another fish?" a pair of moistened eyes stared up at me.

Irapesha parted with her giant slab of grilled cod and gave it to Cresta to eat instead.

 "Don't say I've never treated you kindly," she remarked.

"You're the best!" Cresta said with tears in her eyes.

As the two of them began to eat, Irapesha was having a noticeably harder time using the utensil. Because of her one hand, she couldn't quite lift the bowl of rice to her face like one normally would. She leaned forward uncomfortably, picking at the food bit by bit with a fork. Whenever a piece of food slipped onto the counter, she would sigh in dissatisfaction.

It was honestly a pitifully sad sight for someone who was treated as a hero in her world.

"You're welcome to just use your hand if it's easier for you. Screw table manners when it's just around eating," I told her.

"I appreciate it, but it would be very unbecoming of me to do something so barbaric," she said.

"How about I feed you?" Cresta asked. Since she had long mastered human utensils since coming here, she deftly lifted a piece of fish to Irapesha's face.

"No, it's fine…" Irapesha tried to turn away, but the feeder was insistent.

"You're always taking me. It's okay to let me return the favor! Say, ahhh!" She opened wide in hopes of getting her to do the same.

"Cresta, stop it already!" Irapesha yelled, slapping the piece of cod away. The chopsticks hit the far wall and clattered noisily to the ground.

The two of us shrunk in our seats from her outburst, but none was more surprised than Irapesha.

"I'm sorry… Please, excuse me. Thank you for breakfast," she said, leaving the kitchen.

Did I do something wrong? I thought I was helping," Cresta whimpered.

"It really isn't your fault." I put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Irapesha's having a tough time adjusting. You know how hard she's been fighting all this time. Looking weak in front of us is what hurts her the most."

My feline tenant placed the large piece of fish given to her back onto Irapesha's plate, then scarfed down the rest of her own food despite hating every second of it.

"I'm off to work. I'll talk to Pesha when I get back," she said.

"Wait, I'll drive you—"

"No need!"

Cresta sprinted out of the house before I even hopped out of my seat. Irapesha returned a minute later while I was washing the dishes. She glanced around the room in search of her missing friend.

"If it's Cresta you're looking for, she left for work."

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I was about to wrap the leftovers when Irapesha planted her butt back on the seat in front of her food.

"I've never felt so pathetic in my life," she quietly said.

"Sorry to break it to you, but someone who almost single-handedly turned the tide of war, had a statue erected in her honor, and survived a hundred-foot fall is anything but pathetic," I explained.

"But if another war were to break out—"

"There won't. Your fight is over. It's time to live the life you had fought for."

Irapesha saw the cod that Cresta had returned to her plate.

"You said I could eat with my bare hand?" she asked.

"By all means. I'll take care of the mess after, so don't worry about it." I smiled.

The doorbell rang much later in the day. A delivery man was waiting outside with a large number of boxes.

"I don't remember ordering anything," I said, scratching my head at all the packages.

"It all goes straight here. For… Remmy?" the man said.

"It's finally here."

The slime formed herself at the front door and spooked both of us.

"Holy shit, a slime girl!" he exclaimed.

"She does that all the time, and I still haven't gotten used to it…"

I helped Remmy carry all the stuff into her room. RBG lighting in the dimly illuminated space turned the place into a miniature rave.

"So, what's all this for?" I asked, setting the boxes gently on the ground.

"I'm building a new desk and computer," she said.

A whole lot of tentacles emerged from Remmy's body. They broke open the boxes and put things together like a manufacturing line on crack. She didn't even need to keep an eye on what was happening, and everything was done in three minutes flat.

"There's so much you can do, but video games are what you chose instead?" I was both impressed and astonished. A new desk and new computer had been built right next to her first setup. She could probably make a killing helping people build computers because of how many technically incompetent folks were out there.

"Please… Something like this even a human baby can do," she said.

"What kind of human babies do you know…?" I reluctantly asked.

"The ones online. I play against them all the time."

I had the distinct feeling she was under a misconception, but calling online gamers 'babies' wasn't too far off. I should know, being one of them.

"Wait, if you have two computers in your room, does that mean you can split yourself again? I thought you couldn't do it anymore."

Remmy shook her head. "It isn't for me."

In the next moment, Irapesha came through the door.

"It's for me," she said. "Remmy told me a computer wouldn't last in my room. I wanted to try out this thing called 'gaming' which she says is good for relieving stress."

"This could be either very bad or very good if stress relief is what you're looking for from video games." I squinted at Remmy, hoping she knew what she was doing introducing Irapesha to video games.

"I think for her very first game, it should be a classic called Dark Souls. What do you think?" Remmy asked me.

"NO!"

After showing Irapesha and a whole bunch of games to try for a few hours, her virgin eyes had had enough and needed rest. Most of them she couldn't play with one hand anyway and only served to frustrate her further. She pushed herself to try them nonetheless. As we exited Remmy's room, she grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

"I'd like to ask a favor," Irapesha began. "At this rate, it will become very awkward if nothing is done."

"What is it?" I asked.

"The guilt from having accidentally hurt Angeline still troubles me. She was trying to help me at the time, no less… Can you introduce us so that I can formally apologize?"

Right now, Ange was still very much afraid. So much so that she stayed inside mine and Tamara's room for most of the days. This might be a good chance for them to get to know one another beyond superficial knowledge of the other.

The best way for them to get along was to break those misperceptions they carried. Ange wasn't just some murderous demon like the ones I encountered in Weyera, and Irapesha was a lot more gentle than the stories made her out to be.

"You've got your heart in the right place, that's for sure. I'll try to convey that back to Ange and see what I can do," I said, already coming up with an idea.

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