Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 344 - 142: The Young Master of Fire Island

Chapter 344: Chapter 142: The Young Master of Fire Island

Nora had been feeling somewhat irritable lately.

Anyone with clear eyes could see that the relationship between Aske and Medea was heating up.

Of course, to say it was a relationship might be an exaggeration; in reality, they were just good friends.

Though Medea constantly teased and flirted with him, trying hard to break through this "friendship barrier" to rise into some kind of ambiguous realm of "more than friends but less than lovers," it seemed unlikely to happen in the short term.

That didn’t prevent Nora from feeling a certain sense of crisis.

Occasionally, she would indulge in wild thoughts just like Peggy, thinking, wasn’t I here first? Why is this happening?

But Nora was, after all, a rather pragmatic girl; she decided to take the initiative—starting with learning to cook.

In the wilderness without restaurants, everyone had to resolve their meals within Fire Island. Before, they would just cook some instant noodles, but since the last Christmas party, it had somehow become the Squad Leader’s job to cook and everyone else’s to eat.

Everyone enjoyed the food quite a bit, leaving Aske rather gloomy.

You tell me, a professional player, who would be considered a top soldier in this game world, how have I become a househusband in the team?

With Nora’s Mind Reading Ability, she naturally saw through Aske’s thoughts.

This meant, if she could learn even the most basic cooking skills, she could help out when he was cooking, naturally increasing her opportunities to interact with the Squad Leader and boost his favorability.

A perfect plan.

The kitchen on Fire Island was located in an annex of the manor, equipped with stew pots, pans, grills, and stoves, as well as air-dried sausages, hams, pheasants, and home-grown vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and cabbages—everything one needed was readily available. It was just that usually only Aske cooked.

So Nora picked some cabbages from the vegetable garden, washed them, and prepared to chop them.

She followed the recipe, slicing the cabbage into fine strips, then tossing them into the stew pot, intending to deal with the ham next.

In the distance out in the open, Eleanor was training with the Holy Sword.

She held the Longsword upright, concentrating with her gaze fixed on the target in the distance, a white light representing her will rising from her body.

As the Longsword fell, the white light burst forth, Eleanor lowered her arm and let out a long breath.

Still no good.

What was most frustrating was that she didn’t even know whether her failures were due to insufficient determination or something else entirely.

According to Aske’s compatibilities theory, it might be that she was simply not suited for this Extraordinary Swordsmanship by nature. If so, no matter how much more she practiced, it would be futile.

Eleanor shook her head, casting those distracting thoughts from her mind.

If the compatibility really was poor, the Squad Leader would have surely informed her, he wouldn’t just watch her waste heaps of time training in vain.

Suddenly, she saw a thin wisp of white smoke rising from the chimney of the manor in the distance.

A fire?!

The blonde Knight immediately jumped to this conclusion, since Fire Island was warm and spring-like all year round with no need for fires in the fireplace just for fun.

She sprinted back to the manor only to find the kitchen full of smoke, Nora coughing while adding firewood under the stove, and the stew pot above bubbling over with foam.

"Are you conducting an experiment in the kitchen?" Eleanor exclaimed in shock.

"No!" Nora replied, somewhat flustered, "I’m cooking."

Eleanor lifted the lid off the pot to see a stiff ham floating amidst the chopped cabbage, soaked in the broth.

"...What is this?"

"The recipe says to defrost the ham from the fridge before using it," Nora, having regained her composure, explained.

"And your way of defrosting is to boil it directly in the pot?"

"What else?" Nora said.

"Look at the recipe," Eleanor pointed at the words, "It says to defrost and then cut into slices before adding to the pot. If defrosting meant to boil it directly, they wouldn’t have included an extra ’defrost’ step in the recipe."

Nora: ...

"That makes sense," she had to admit Eleanor was right.

"I’ll go ask Aske," Eleanor said, "He should be on the Main Plane now."

"Wait." Nora grabbed her arm, "I want to give him a surprise."

"But neither of us know how to cook," Eleanor said with a laugh through her tears, "At this rate, it’s less likely to be a surprise and more of a shock."

"Then it’s okay to ask for help," Nora insisted, "Just don’t tell him for now."

The two girls discussed it for a while and decided to go find Sigrdrifa first.

"Defrost?" Sigrdrifa was practicing unarmed combat outside and looked confused when she heard this, "Shouldn’t you be asking Medea for this? Her flame ability is much faster than mine."

So, Nora explained it to her. If one were to use frost ability to draw away the cold air, then on a physical level, it would be a gradual increase in temperature. If one were to use flame ability to heat it, then it would be a rapid increase in temperature.

And the "defrost" mentioned in the recipe most likely should be a gradual increase in temperature, otherwise why not just throw it in a pot to boil?

"This sounds quite interesting," Sigrdrifa became intrigued, "Let’s go."

The three girls returned to the kitchen and saw Mia standing on a kitchen stool, opening an upper cabinet and searching for something.

"Mia, what are you doing?" Nora lifted her down, as the little girl standing on the shaky stool was too dangerous.

"I’m looking for sunflower seeds," said Mia.

"But you don’t like sunflower seeds," Nora remembered clearly, Mia’s recent favorite was sweets.

"The great and holy Lady Medea wants them," Mia said.

All three: .........

Then everyone remembered that Mia had already sold herself to Medea for that Shadow III extraordinary trait.

"How about you help me cook at noon, little Mia?" Nora had the intention to rescue her from misery, but Mia got angry instead: "I’m not little!"

She clenched her little fists and tried to bully Nora, but ended up being pinned down by the head with one hand, her flailing arms unable to reach as she gasped for breath.

"Sigrdrifa, defrost the ham, will you?" Nora said, holding Mia with one hand and turning her head, "Eleanor, help wash the vegetables next to you."

"Which vegetables?"

"That kale over there."

Nora took a slice of luncheon meat from an open can and stuffed it into Mia’s mouth. The latter kept her cheeks moving as she chewed vigorously, and with an indignant expression mumbled:

"Don’t think you can bribe me with food!"

Her unclear speech was not very convincing, and as she reached for more luncheon meat, Nora slapped her hand away.

Meanwhile, Sigrdrifa had already defrosted the ham and began to pull out her battle axe to cut it.

"Don’t use the North Wind Axe!" Eleanor hurriedly reminded her, "Look... it froze up again."

"Oh," Sigrdrifa was speechless and had to defrost it again.

"Where’s my servant?" Medea poked her head out from outside, "Why is it taking so long to come back?"

Mia quickly trotted over with the can in her arms: "Great and holy Lady Medea, I have brought you an even more delicious luncheon meat can."

Medea took a look at the can and then at everyone: "Are you... cooking?"

It’s not that Aske isn’t here, you’re not making poison, are you?

"We’re planning to learn a bit of cooking," Nora said with a flawless smile, "Do you want to help, Medea?"

"Help?" Medea’s brow furrowed, her intuition telling her this wasn’t so simple.

So she stared into Nora’s eyes, mind reading.

Nora smiled back at her, mind shield, reverse mind reading.

Medea intensified her spiritual output, trying to breakthrough the mind body defense, counter-counter mind reading.

"So what are you all doing?" Eleanor waved her hand in between the two, breaking their locked gazes.

"Fine, I’ll help," Medea rolled up her sleeves.

"And what about me, great and holy Lady Medea?" Mia looked up and asked.

"There’s no need for you here for now," Medea said, "Off you go."

And with that, Mia dashed out like a shot.