WULFRIC stared at the dishes in front of him and his mouth started to water.  He readily closed it just to make sure that his saliva wouldn’t flow out.  He didn’t know the names of the dishes in front of him – well, except for the rice that seemed to have vegetables mixed in them – but they all looked delicious.  Not only that but they also smelled delicious. 

“What are these dishes called?” he couldn’t help but asked.

Astrid happily told the other the dishes that he cooked.  “This is vegetable fried rice, the one beside it is a plate of egg rolls, then, below is a plate of stir-fried potato, and finally, a plate of sweet and sour chicken.  I know they are very modest dishes, but I hope that Your Highness would like it.”

“No, I mean, they’re not modest at all.  They’re perfect,” Wulfric quickly said.  “And I’m sure I will love it.  In fact, I’m amazed that you were able to cook all these in such short time.”

Astrid smiled.  “Well, I’ve been cooking since I was a child.  Something like this is really not that much.”

“Can we just eat?” Reas suddenly interjected.  “I’m starving.”

The smile that was just about to cross Wulfric’s lips stopped in the middle, which, in turn, made it look like he was grimacing.  He quickly returned his expression to normal before Aster could see it.  But seriously, how come this brat seemed to be trying his patience today?

Astrid, on the other hand, just smiled helplessly at his brother.  “Okay, little brother.  Let’s eat.”  He then turned to Wulfric and nodded.  “Your Highness.”

And the three started to eat their meal.

The first bite Wulfric had of what Aster called as sweet and sour chicken, his eyes widened in surprise.  He felt like ten different flavors just exploded in his mouth.  This was the first time that he had eaten a dish that had some many flavors.  He wanted to eat more but he decided to have a taste of the other dishes first.  And he was glad that he did.  Because all the other dishes tasted just as delicious as the first one.  Even the fried rice tasted divine. 

That might sound like an exaggeration, but for a picky eater like him who’d rather drink a nutrient solution than eat something that only had one flavor profile, this simple homecooked meal was more than immaculate. 

Astrid smiled when he saw Wulfric stuffing himself of the food he made as if there’s no tomorrow.  Any decent cook would be happy seeing their food being enjoyed by someone.  Especially to such an extent.

“Your Highness, eat slowly,” he said in an amused tone.

“Yeah, we don’t want you choking on your food,” Reas said.  “Sir.”

Astrid was the one who winced inwardly at the mention of the word ‘choking’.  As someone who died in his last life because he choked on a piece of grape, that was definitely a sore topic.

Before he could stop himself, he had already kicked his brother’s shin under the table. 

Reas was of course startled by this.  He glanced at his brother, looking shocked.  “What was that for?”

Astrid smiled at his brother and put a piece of sweet and sour chicken on the other’s plate.  “Just eat.”

With that smile, Reas easily translated what Astrid said as ‘just shut up and eat’ instead of ‘just eat’.  So, he just ate that piece of chicken aggrievedly.  Wondering why his brother seemed to be favoring the general out of the blue.

Wulfric didn’t see this small interaction because he was busy gorging himself with the food.  With the way he was going at it, it didn’t take long before all the dishes on the table disappeared.  He probably ate ¾ of the dishes while the twins shared the remaining ¼ of the meal.

Realizing that, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face.  “Sorry, I usually don’t eat like a barbarian.  It’s just- it’s because the dishes you made were too delicious that I could hardly stop myself from eating them.”

“Yeah, we noticed,” Reas said in an emotionless tone bordering on sarcastic.

But Astrid quickly followed that up with, “It’s alright, Your Highness.  I’m happy you enjoyed my food.  There’s still some left over, if Your Highness doesn’t mind, I can pack it up for you.”

“Yes, please!” Wulfric didn’t even hesitate to say.

Astrid stood up to do just that while Reas started to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

Being the only one who didn’t have anything to do, Wulfric asked Reas, “Do you need help?”

“No, with your strength, you might accidentally break the plates if you do,” Reas said before adding, “Sir.”

Why did he even bother to ask? – Wulfric thought.  What did this brat think?  That he couldn’t control his strength?  Well, sometimes he really couldn’t.  But that’s not the point right now.  At the end, he didn’t insist and just walked to the living room so as not to get in the way of the two.

He sat down again on the seat he sat earlier on.  It didn’t take long before Aster walked up to him holding a food container. 

“Here, Your Highness,” Aster said, handing the food container to him.

Wulfric quickly stood up and took the food container.  Then, he carefully put it inside the space stone on his ring.  “Thank you.”

Astrid only smiled at that.  “It’s the least I could do for all Your Highness’ help today.”

“Can you stop referring to me as ‘Your Highness’,” Wulfric suddenly said.  Truthfully, every time Aster called him that he felt a bit of annoyance.  Because that title felt like a wall preventing the two of them to ever get close.  And he wanted to destroy that wall.  “You can call me Wulfric.  Even Wulf is fine.” 

Astrid didn’t expect that the other would suddenly ask that of him.  He hadn’t even thought of what kind of response to give when Reas beat him to the task.

“I think that’s highly improper,” his brother said..  And as usual, after saying something impolite, he added, “Sir.”

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