Lanqi Made the Wrong Meal

Closing the door behind them, the world seemed to fall quiet, and even the murmuring sound of the brook outside the courtyard grew noticeably softer. The two walked down the corridor leading to the drawing room, Talia guiding Sigrid forward. Soft light filled the house, illuminating the pristine hallway, while the air was suffused with a faint aromatherapy blend of grapefruit, rosemary, and bergamot. The fragrance played like a soft, whispered movement of music—comforting yet sharpening focus—and the harmonious, balanced ambiance instantly put one at ease. Sigrid silently stared at the grey-haired woman, her nose gently twitching. If not for the absence of that unique scent distinct to Caliera, Sigrid would have been all but certain the woman before her was Caliera herself. Though this grey-haired woman looked different, her voice and presence carried an air that made Sigrid feel as though separated by a lifetime, completely captivating her gaze. "Have you had lunch?" Leading the violet-eyed girl onto the mansion's ground floor, Talia paused and asked in a gentle, slightly probing voice. Like someone eager to be close, yet treading with cautious delicacy. "No." Sigrid gave a slight jolt, abandoning her attempt to catch the scent on her host, and rubbed her stomach as she answered. After all, this was another man's wife; surreptitiously sniffing her fragrance felt practically criminal. Indeed, ever since emerging from the Shadow World, she had been rushing from one place to another without pause. From South Vantina, she had crossed through the spatial portal to Brillda, confirmed her new identity on the second floor of the Brillda Opera House, and then arrived at Saint Creti Monastery, without having had a moment to even consider lunch. "Stay and have a meal with us before you leave. I was just about to cook," Talia decided briskly. Since this girl was a subordinate of her old friend Yabo, that made her a junior of their old Demon Realm as well. Looking after a young child from the Dimension Branch was only right. "Is that really all right? I was only hired to complete an assignment. Freeloading a meal at your home feels so presumptuous." Sigrid hadn't expected Professor Landry's wife to be so generous. She couldn't sense the slightest hint of hostility from her. That motherly warmth was growing stronger and stronger, practically brimming over. "I always make plenty of food. It's just a matter of setting an extra place at the table. Eat your fill later, don't be shy," Talia said, tugging at the kitchen door. Only to find the kitchen door was locked. And bolted from the inside. "Then I won't stand on ceremony. Thank you!" Sigrid bowed in grateful appreciation. Talia tried pulling the kitchen door again. "Tata, I'll cook! I'll bring it out to you two once it's ready!" Boss Cat shouted from behind the kitchen door, its tone uncharacteristically tense. Its voice had shifted from childish tones into a young maiden's, and it had even forcibly stifled its verbal tic. "..." This was the first time Talia had ever heard Boss Cat speak without saying "meow." "Oh? Is someone already cooking in the kitchen?" Sigrid asked curiously. She found the voice strangely familiar, yet couldn't quite place where in the depths of her memory it belonged. "It's the cook we hired, Miss Yami," Talia explained after a moment's thought. Boss Cat could be rather shy around strangers at times. Now that Talia was Professor Landry's wife, it was only natural for Boss Cat to pose as domestic help for the Landry household. If Boss Cat didn't want to see guests, Talia wouldn't force the matter. Besides, with Boss Cat taking full charge of the ladle for lunch, she could steal a moment of leisure to chat more with this adorable little thing from the Dimension Branch who had come to their home. "So your name is Tata? May I call you that?" Deducing the woman's name from the shout inside the kitchen, Sigrid asked with easy familiarity. "It's... a nickname, you could say. But you may call me Tata if you like." Talia stepped into the drawing room and looked back at the girl from the Dimension Branch. She hadn't originally wanted to use this half-true, half-fabricated name in the Creti Empire. It was a bit too informal. Yet her tolerance for this girl was inexplicably high; seeing the yearning flutter in her eyes, she agreed nonetheless. "Tata..." Sigrid murmured the name. "Oh, right, I shouldn't call you Auntie. I ought to call you Big Sister instead. You're so young and beautiful, and Professor Landry's wife to boot. I'm sure you must be adored and welcomed by the students at Saint Creti Monastery. It's just that you look so much like my mother, so I slipped up and called you..." Sigrid remembered herself and hurried to apologize. "Call me whatever you wish. It doesn't bother me." Talia parted her lips, her expression tinged with a radiant glow. Hearing the girl's earnest words, she could tell that every single sentence was the honest truth. Had any other teenage girl called her "Auntie," she might have taken offense, but coming from this child, it didn't bother her in the least. She couldn't help but fantasize how wonderful it would feel to have a daughter like this call her "Mother." "Is your mother doing well these days?" Talia inquired softly. That the girl had just so happened to say she resembled her mother stirred subtle ripples in Talia's heart. "She... is no longer with us." Sigrid cast her eyes downward, speaking with sorrow. Having grown up in an orphanage on the Northern Continent, she had never seen what her mother looked like. Only Caliera in her dreams had perfectly matched her fantasy of a mother. After spending two dreamlike weeks with Caliera in the Shadow World, she had practically come to believe Caliera was her one and only mother. Yet Caliera had vanished tens of thousands of years ago. She had to accept this cruel truth she was so unwilling to face. Perhaps only in the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber could she ever see Caliera again; in this waking realm, it was an impossibility. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories." Looking at the child's dejected figure, Talia felt a pang of sorrow, an unnamed tenderness welling up within her chest. "Actually, I don't know why, but the moment I laid eyes on you, Miss Tata, I felt you looked remarkably like my mother... It might be very rude of me to say so, but I swear I'm not lying," Sigrid looked into the grey-haired beauty's eyes and confessed candidly. She was utterly baffled as well. Why was it that every frown and smile of Miss Tata, even that melancholic air, was identical to Caliera's? She was so gentle. "I believe you. I know you aren't lying." Gazing into those earnest, bright violet eyes, Talia felt an overwhelming surge of compassion. Unable to resist any longer, she wrapped her arms around the endearing girl before her. Her discernment confirmed that every word was true. It was terrifyingly coincidental. She was envisioning the girl as her daughter, and the girl was envisioning her as a mother. Was the Goddess of Fate truly manifesting a miracle, bringing together two souls in need of each other? "Miss Tata..." Sigrid stood in a daze, feeling the woman's warmth and softness, and gently rested her hands against her back. It was identical to Caliera—it felt just like Caliera's own embrace. At such close range, had the woman possessed that unique fragrance as well, Sigrid feared she would have suffered temporal disorientation, believing her Caliera had been resurrected in the mortal realm. How could two people possibly be so alike? Sigrid remained in stunned bewilderment. Though hugging another man's wife was improper, her selfish yearning made her want to endlessly breathe in Miss Tata's subtle, refreshing scent—a rich aroma of motherly love that she could not bring herself to refuse. Only after several seconds did Sigrid reluctantly release the grey-haired woman, like someone forcing herself out from under warm blankets on a freezing winter morning. "Miss Tata, you must be a wonderful mother. Do you and your husband have children?" Sigrid praised her from the bottom of her heart and asked. Professor Landry was truly blessed to marry a woman of the Caliera archetype. With a wife like this, a man was set for life. Sigrid hadn't seen any trace of children since stepping into the house. It seemed only the couple resided in this vast mansion. Hearing this, Talia turned her head away, her cheeks blushing crimson. "H-He and I don't have plans for that yet..." she stammered. "Do you like children?" Sigrid asked again. "I suppose... I wouldn't dislike them." Talia felt that whether a child were well-behaved like Hubao, lively like Xigelei, or mischievous like Lanqi, they would all be terribly adorable. "Then shouldn't you two work harder at it?" Sigrid nudged Talia with her shoulder, squinting with a grin as she whispered playfully. "N-No, no, we... he..." Talia was completely flustered, barely able to string a sentence together. She was beginning to regret letting herself get carried away with this child. Though they had only just met, chatting felt like reuniting after a long separation, and she had unconsciously treated her like family. In reality, she had only just assumed the disguise of a fiancée, not an actual wife. Have children? How would they even do that? Just imagining having offspring with Lanqi made Talia's head spin, her cheeks burning like fire. "Could it be you two haven't even..." Sigrid seemed to read the state of these newlyweds and gasped in surprise. "He and I have slept together every single night for months!" Talia retorted stubbornly, blushing furiously. If only to play Lanqi's fiancée convincingly without revealing any cracks, she had to stand her ground. What she said was the literal truth. Ever since she became Lanqi's natal card, whenever Lanqi rested, she would turn into a magic card and stay inside Lanqi's soul space. Wasn't that just like a married couple living together every day? "Could you tell me about your passionate romance?" Sigrid leaned in closer and asked, raising an eyebrow. She had never seen Caliera blush, but seeing this grey-haired woman's reaction allowed her imagination to picture it. "W-Well... we just went on dates often, held hands sometimes, and then I let him hold me..." Just recalling their days in the City of Flowers, Palieu, made Talia feel equal parts shy and sweet. ... On the second floor. "Honestly, that Toliado didn't even check with me first before sending the young lady straight over..." Lanqi muttered fretfully to himself as he hurried to find Talia and ask her to give the girl from the Dimension Branch a warm reception. He walked down the stairs. Halfway through his communication with Toliado, Toliado had apparently been arrested by the Imperial Special Operations Division. Who knew what he had been staking out, but he had ended up surrounded by the Special Operations Division lying in wait, then cuffed and hauled away as a suspect. "What on earth was that 'surprise' Toliado was talking about? He didn't even finish his sentence." Supposedly, she had traveled all this way just for this, so turning her back now would be terribly embarrassing. Suddenly, he heard laughter and chatter coming from the ground floor. Surprisingly harmonious. Right after, Lanqi saw an apple floating toward him via telekinesis. It appeared to have slipped out from the crack beneath the ground-floor kitchen door, propelled by Boss Cat with all its might toward the foot of the stairs. Carved into the apple was Boss Cat's handiwork. Engraved with two large words: *RUN AWAY.* "..." Lanqi caught the apple and turned it over in bewilderment to inspect it, but found no further information. "What could possibly happen?" Lanqi took a bite, casually tossing the apple as he continued downstairs. What danger could there possibly be in this house? Talia was right on the ground floor, and he could hear her cheerful voice. Lanqi stepped around the turn at the foot of the stairs. He saw Talia standing in the drawing room, laughing and talking with a light-haired girl whose back was turned to him. Like old friends hitting it off at first sight, they held hands as they conversed. *So a guest really did arrive,* Lanqi thought, a smile spreading across his face. Raising a hand in greeting toward the girl from the Dimension Branch, he said, "Hello, I am Professor Landry. I was on a call upstairs just now and couldn't greet you right away," Lanqi spoke with cheerful openness. Beside the dining table in the drawing room, Talia shifted her gaze from the girl before her toward the stairs. "My husband has come down. He's honestly just mediocre—not nearly as impressive as the imperial magic engineering circles hype him up to be. I only married him rather reluctantly," Talia released the girl's hands, speaking with a boastfulness she could scarcely conceal. "We'll eat together shortly." Although she usually didn't think much of her little disciple, flaunting him as a husband seemed to offer quite a bit of face. The light-haired, violet-eyed girl turned around, looking toward the figure by the foot of the stairs. "Lan—" She had barely begun to say "Professor Landry" when the words froze in her throat. Her breath hitched; then, drawing a sharp breath, her eyes went wide. There was one person in this world whom she could recognize instantly without hesitation, even if he were reduced to ashes. That aura was far too familiar; that presence was one of a kind. Sigrid's eyelids twitched; she could hardly believe her eyes. She had imagined ten thousand scenarios of reuniting with the Holy Son in the Southern Continent. Yet never in her wildest dreams did she anticipate that upon seeing him again, he would be another woman's husband. *Thud.* The apple in Lanqi's hand slipped and hit the floor, rolling round and round. Lanqi's pupils experienced an earthquake of their own. Throughout the drawing room, only the sound of drifting air remained, but none of the three moved a muscle. It was a tableau frozen in motion. Talia was the first to move, looking between them. She didn't understand why, upon seeing each other, both Lanqi and this child looked as though their brains had crashed. Talia waved a hand before Sigrid's eyes, yet she couldn't break the girl's unblinking, fixated glare at her husband. Only after a long while passed. "Side, what are you doing here?" Lanqi forced himself to stay composed, squeezing out a smile as he asked. His brain operated at lightning speed, swiftly piecing together the chain of cause and effect behind all this. If Sigrid had crossed the sea to the Southern Continent, she would most likely contact the Resurrection Church's channels, which meant she could have ended up with the Dimension Branch. And Cardinal Toliado of the Dimension Branch was well aware of the situation on the Northern Continent, so he naturally knew one side of the story between McCarthy and Sigrid! *“I guarantee I'll find a perfect fiancée worthy of you, Dean Rocky McCarthy—one you won't be able to resist falling for!”* *“You two just go to the Shadow World with an easy mind. When you return, even if I have to cast teleportation magic myself, I'll bring your fiancée right to you!”* Lanqi's memories rushed back to that night a month ago. Every word Toliado had spoken in the opera house that night resurfaced like demonic chanting, echoing in his ears and reverberating in his mind. "!" Lanqi understood everything. He swallowed hard. Things were about to go catastrophically wrong. "My, my, we really shouldn't underestimate the Holy Son. How long has it been since you scurried off to the Southern Continent, and you've already married *such. a. wonderful. wife.*" Sigrid enunciated each word of the last phrase with venomous emphasis. "Wait, wife? No, she's my fiancée—no, no, not fiancée either..." Lanqi began to explain, but caught Talia's gaze turning dangerously frosty. It seemed his frantic denial of her status as his wife in front of an outsider had enraged her thoroughly. The moment Lanqi's voice hesitated, he heard Sigrid's scoff. "What's the matter? You care so much about what she thinks that you can't bring yourself to deny it? She tastes that good, does she? Good enough that you have to be with her every night, unwilling to part with her for even a moment?" Sigrid asked Lanqi, a smile still fixed on her face. She repeated the exact words Tata had just told her, having correctly read the look in Lanqi's eyes. "No, that's not how it is." Lanqi stood his ground as if facing execution, staring at the two predators before him, cold sweat beading on his forehead. If he ran away now, he would never be able to clear his name. "How is it not? And... you two know each other?" Talia looked at the girl in bewilderment, then at Lanqi, whose demeanor was completely amiss. So Toliado had sent over an acquaintance? Yet she had never known Lanqi to be acquainted with a girl like this. The ambiguous relationship between them was thick enough to smell in the air, filling Talia's heart with profound displeasure. "Did you two hold hands and hug each other while eating? Is that true?" Sigrid pressed on, all three speaking past one another. She sought verification from Lanqi for the seemingly fabricated past Miss Tata had just described. The more she asked, the more she sensed that what Tata had said might actually be true. Lanqi seemed to have left his vocal cords upstairs, unable to utter a single sound under the piercing glare of two sets of eyes. If he admitted it, Sigrid would explode. If he denied it, Talia would explode. Either way, at least one of them was guaranteed to detonate! "Lanqi, say something." Talia could see that there was indeed history between them. She seemed to understand why Lanqi was desperately trying to deny their relationship in front of another woman. The sourness in her heart felt like disappointment, like anger, like doubt, like sorrow—this tangled, indescribable mix of emotions made her extraordinarily displeased. "We clearly did all those things, didn't we? You even said I was like a big grey cat you could cuddle, and held me while feeding me the entire afternoon," Talia interrogated him, throwing caution to the wind regardless of whether the words would cause her to implode as well. She only wanted Lanqi to confess. *Clatter, smash!* The sound of pots and pans clattering to the floor echoed from the kitchen. It seemed Boss Cat had lost all composure upon hearing this; startled out of its wits, its telekinesis had wavered, dropping the pans. Even though Boss Cat knew that hugging and eating together in the City of Flowers, Palieu, had been a complete misunderstanding—Tata had certainly misread Lanqi's mind at the Colonges Sunbridge Inn Restaurant—the inherently proud Tata would never yield an inch before another woman. The atmosphere in the drawing room grew thick with tension once more, like a powder keg on the brink of explosion, waiting only for a single spark to detonate. The distance between the three was merely a few meters, yet it spanned an impassable chasm. Talia's breathing was fraught with unease, and the slightest twitch of Sigrid's knuckles threatened catastrophic consequences. Positioned at the epicenter of the storm, Lanqi was like a fragile skiff in the eye of a hurricane, ready to be swallowed at any moment by the war brewing in this house. Finally. "While this matter isn't quite so simple, one thing is certain: Miss Tata and I are currently doing our best to play the roles of fiancé and fiancée in order to deceive the Creti Empire," Lanqi took a deep breath and spoke to the two of them. "When this happened, I provided a complete explanation to my client, Mr. Toliado. He knows everything. However, there may have been many misunderstandings along the way, because he was just arrested a moment ago." Boss Cat eavesdropped on the commotion outside from the kitchen. First of all, panicking at a time like this was useless; the guiltier the person appeared, the deeper their misunderstanding would grow. Only sincerity and courage could persuade both of them to accept the situation and allow him to explain the full story calmly. Lanqi's tone was measured and unhurried, perfectly relaxed. Hiding in the kitchen to cook, Boss Cat listened to Lanqi's firefighting efforts. It knew sincerity was Lanqi's ultimate secret weapon—neither Talia nor Sigrid had ever been able to resist it. Yet Lanqi only returned to pristine sincerity when driven into a desperate corner, facing danger with raw honesty. And once he got too sincere, things tended to turn surreal. Still, today Lanqi had no choice but to fight with everything he had, leaving no regrets. "I understand that this is your first time meeting in the Creti Empire, and it is my responsibility to explain things to both of you. In truth, there are things that even I can never keep under control, which led to mistakes. Sometimes we outsmart ourselves, harbor illusions, sink into obsessions, get hurt by others, and hurt others in turn." He continued, bowing in apology to both of them. "I made the wrong meal—an erroneous demonstration." Even though Lanqi was still apologizing clearly and sincerely, his slip of the tongue had already betrayed his unease. Today's sudden turn of events had simply caught him completely off guard. By the time he saw Sigrid, she was already in their drawing room and had been chatting with Talia for quite a while. On the minimap, Sigrid had walked right up into his face before he noticed the problem. He was at a bit of a loss as to how to resolve this situation. "No matter. It just so happens we have the right meal right here. Why don't the three of us sit down and chat while eating? What do you say?" Sigrid was well-accustomed to Lanqi's approach to problem-solving and often emulated it; she pointed toward the dining table. This would satisfy the needs of all three of them: the two women would get their explanation, Lanqi could clear things up, and they would take care of lunch in the process. She knew the Holy Son's verbal artistry all too well to let him brush over the critical points and gloss over this so easily. She needed to hear the full story of what was going on. And was that "big grey cat" truly so adorable? Just a thieving cat! "..." Talia turned her head and stared at this woman. Her golden eyes were no longer filled with the motherly affection from moments ago; the highlights had faded from them, and tilting her head, she glared like an assassin at this person trying to steal her man. Ever since the fall of her kingdom, she had been left with nothing. Now she only had this precious disciple left. If anyone dared try to steal her disciple, she couldn't guarantee what she might do. "All right." Sensing the oppressive atmospheric pressure, Lanqi walked over to the side opposite Talia and Sigrid at the dining table, pulled out a chair, and prepared to sit down to give them a thorough explanation of everything. "Come here." Sigrid patted the chair beside her. After she and Talia had sat down, perhaps out of mutual disdain, an empty seat was left right between them. "..." Lanqi didn't dare speak, his eyes merely darting toward that empty chair. If he sat between the two of them... would the three of them actually be able to eat lunch? "What is there to feel guilty about?" Seeing Lanqi hesitate, Talia softened her voice a fraction, offering a hundred-percent perfect smile as she told him, "Lanqi, sit down." His master was sitting right beside him; what did he have to fear? "..." Without a word, Lanqi circled around the table, walking briskly toward the requested seat as if marching to his execution. Talia on his left, Sigrid on his right, both women staring at him. Cold sweat breaking out across his neck, Lanqi sat down.