Chapter 1852: Chapter 1850: Candlelight Dinner
At first, it was just a children’s game.
"Are you hidden?"
"Not yet."
While running through the ruins, the silver-haired girl responded with a giggle to her parents’ questions. Her eyes lit up and she crawled into a nearby abandoned wardrobe, closing the door.
"Alisa, where are you?"
"Come out quickly."
Watching her parents search frantically for her, the little girl hidden inside the wardrobe covered her mouth and let out a faint giggle. It was then that a series of chaotic screams suddenly erupted.
"Wild God!"
"The Wild God is here, run!!"
"Alisa!!"
At this point, her parents’ tone was no longer leisurely, but filled with anxiety and fear.
"Where are you? Come out quickly! Hurry!!"
A gigantic creature descended from the sky, trampling its prey right in front, then opened its mouth to bite their limbs, pulling, tearing, and greedily devouring.
"Ahhhhh!!"
The piercing screams echoed, and the girl curled up in the wardrobe couldn’t even move a muscle. Her face still bore the smile from before, now turning a ghastly pale. Everything changed too fast; one moment, she was playing hide and seek with her parents, and the next, she watched as they were torn apart and devoured alive by the Wild God right before her eyes.
Dad... Mom...!!
The girl stared wide-eyed, collapsing to the ground, drained of strength, able only to watch in despair as the Wild God consumed her parents. Then... the Wild God seemed to notice something and turned its head, slowly approaching the wardrobe where the girl was hiding.
Next, the girl saw the creature’s face glaring expressionlessly through the crack in the door, and in the next moment, she knew nothing more.
"I see."
Fang Zheng withdrew his hand from the forehead of the unconscious Alisa, frowning slightly as he stared at the girl before him. He now understood why Alisa was behaving that way. It wasn’t just hatred for the Wild God that killed her parents, but also a deep-seated loathing and blame towards herself.
If only she hadn’t been so playful, wanting to play hide and seek with her parents.
If only she had reacted sooner and come out of the wardrobe.
...But unfortunately, reality has no "if only".
The reality was that Alisa wanted to play hide and seek with her parents on a whim, resulting in her parents not escaping in time because they were looking for her, and being consumed by the Wild God, while she... survived.
For someone with even a slightly fragile psyche, experiencing such an ordeal might lead to suicidal thoughts.
Obviously, judging by Alisa’s previous demeanor, she was no better off.
"It seems it’s time to learn some Enchantment School spells."
Fang Zheng pondered long and hard, finding it to be a thorny issue. Even though he had dabbled as a psychologist, Fang Zheng understood that many problems aren’t solved just because you empathize with someone. In a situation like this, if Fang Zheng were to go the conventional route and comfort Alisa, saying something like, "This was just an accident, your parents weren’t killed by you, they wouldn’t want you to grieve their loss" ... even he wouldn’t believe it. Solving issues with just a few words of comfort is entirely plot-dependent, not realistic.
Weaving memories might be more reliable!
Or perhaps just find Shihou Souki? Although it’s a possible solution, whether it really resolves the issue is another matter.
"Knock knock."
Just then, there was a knock on the door, followed by Feli peeking her head in from outside, fixing her gaze on Fang Zheng.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, tonight’s dinner..."
"Uh, I’ll cook, I’ll cook, okay?"
Seeing Feli, Fang Zheng quickly raised his hand. He knew that if he told Feli to eat instant noodles again like the other day, the door would probably not survive.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, you can cook?"
Hearing Fang Zheng’s response, Feli was stunned. She always thought Fang Zheng was some powerful leader, and such things as cooking... shouldn’t there be a chef or something?
"Why couldn’t I cook? Remember, even if you become a god, you can’t skip cooking... otherwise, what would the little girls at home eat?"
"Does a deity need to eat?"
"Can’t a God of Food?"
Faced with Feli’s question, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes helplessly. At this moment, he was incredibly thankful that the system hadn’t thrown him into a ’Cooking Master Boy’ world or a ’Food Wars!’ world. If it had tasked him with something as the God of Food, would Fang Zheng do it or not?
As to whether the system would give such a task, Fang Zheng didn’t have to think twice. Looking at that damned God of Magical Girls’ divine position was enough to know that if there was a chance, that damned thing would definitely trap him.
Thinking this way, it was fortunate he didn’t end up with the God of Love’s divine position in the World of Love. Even though many girls in that world had secret crushes on him, in the end, Fang Zheng only took Sora, and maybe had some ambiguous moments with Kiyora Setsuna and Hoshii Miki. The rest were mostly politely refused. If Fang Zheng had taken in all the girls like World, Word Leaf, Touma, Yukina, and the 765 idols as his harem, he was certain he couldn’t escape the God of Love divine position.
Oh dear, in hindsight, it was indeed wise of me.
Otherwise, it would be so awkward for a man to be the God of Love!
Should I end up naked as Cupid?
Moreover, if I were to matchmake, wouldn’t I risk making them green instead? After all, Kato Megumi was a prime example; back then, Aki Tomoya vowed that their relationship was exceptionally stable and wouldn’t break over such ’trivial’ matters. At that time, Fang Zheng thought, ’Yeah, right, if this doesn’t end, then she must be a saint or mentally unstable.’
As it turned out, there are no real saints in this world. Being good-natured is one thing, but when deeply hurt, they’ll explode too.
After forgiving twice... a third time... you grit your teeth and move on. But if you still last a whole week... what if Kato Megumi didn’t change her mind in a week, would you continue for another week?
This kind of behavior is intolerable even for a saint.
Hmm... Looking at it this way, should I consider myself the God of Minotaur?
Doesn’t sound too bad, actually?
But Minotaur... Minotaur, huh...
"How do you feel about having steak tonight?"
"...huh?"
Fang Zheng put his words into action, and shortly afterward, a lavish dinner spread was set out. He even placed a few candles and wine glasses, and then poured some grape juice to set the mood, treating it like a candlelight dinner.
However...
"Mr. Fang Zheng, what is this?"
"It’s a candlelight dinner, isn’t it?"
"No, I mean..."
Looking at the stuff in the plate before her, Feli was speechless. Besides the steak that seemed relatively proper, the rest... Feli didn’t even know what to say.
Although Fang Zheng had eaten Western food before, he hadn’t cooked much of it. Grilling steak was easy enough with a quick video tutorial, but for the stuff he wasn’t fond of, he tended to substitute with other ingredients.
Like when he couldn’t find any vegetable salad, he simply chopped up some cucumbers and tomatoes as pickles.
Not being a fan of bread, he sliced up some steamed buns and toasted them.
Spaghetti is something Fang Zheng hadn’t eaten even once in his entire life, so he decisively boiled two packs of instant noodles as a substitute, then topped it with a fried egg, along with a seaweed egg drop soup... Perfect!
"Isn’t this fine?"
Looking at the dinner spread, Fang Zheng shrugged.
"As long as you can eat it, it’s fine. Besides, I’ve given you the atmosphere, so no need to sweat the details. It’s not like those Western restaurants; it’s all about the atmosphere. If the food is passable, that’s enough. And those stingy restaurant portions—ours here is generous and filling!"
"That’s not the point... Never mind."
Listening to Fang Zheng’s response, Feli’s face was lined with black streaks, but in the end, she let out a helpless sigh and sat across from Fang Zheng, beginning to enjoy this unique candlelight dinner.
The meal was bland and uneventful; after all, despite Fang Zheng’s divine position, his cooking skills hadn’t improved much. However, his ingredients were decent, so the meal’s taste was passable at least.
It definitely wasn’t to the extent where Feli would take a bite, eyes glistening and cheeks flushed, feeling her heart melt and her affection skyrocketing, yearning to offer herself to Fang Zheng... That was an unrealistic fantasy.
Unless there were drugs involved in the meal.
"This truly is the most special candlelight dinner I’ve ever had."
Feli put down her fork, savoring the instant noodles she’d just eaten; she almost didn’t know what to say.
Who eats instant noodles at a candlelight dinner?
"I used to eat like this often; never found anything wrong with it."
Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders; during his childhood in his past life, when the power went out at home, everyone would light candles and eat instant noodles... nothing special about it, right?
"But, I still want to thank you."
"For this meal?"
"I mean about Jernie."
Feli glared at Fang Zheng upon hearing this, thinking she was better off not mentioning this meal, as doing so made her want to kick someone.
"Thanks for saving Jernie."
"You’re welcome; after all, acquaintanceship deserves some courtesy, and making friends opens more paths."
"..."
Listening to Fang Zheng’s reply, Feli turned her head, gazing silently at the pitch-black world outside the window.
"Did I... make a mistake?"
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever heard my brother talk about me?"
"No, I haven’t."
Fang Zheng shook his head, and Feli sighed.
"I was originally born in another city, where my family was considered the ruling class. Since I was born with a powerful Nen Aura, my family always hoped I would develop in that direction. In fact, after my birth, my future was decided for me by everyone."
At this point, Feli clenched the dining knife in her hand.
"But I didn’t want to accept this fate; I wanted to choose my own future, so I left and came to Jernie. But what I didn’t expect was that even my brother didn’t support me, instead placing me in the Martial Arts Department..."
That explains why Feli always had a cold attitude toward Kalian.
"Has your perspective changed now?"
"Because I wonder... if I’ve been too willful?"
At this point, Feli once again gazed at the earth below.
"I always lived in a Mobile City, and never knew the outside world was like this. I always thought I had been severely wronged, but seeing those living outside without food or water, constantly worrying about attacks from Wild Gods and Contaminated Beasts... Although I’m not sure what exactly happened to Miss Alisa, she surely had a tragic past, given her reaction. Meanwhile, I’ve been hiding in my own world..."
Feli usually wasn’t one for many words, but witnessing Alisa’s outburst must have deeply affected her.
"There’s nothing wrong with that; you’re still young and growing, having such thoughts is commendable."
At this point, Fang Zheng cheerfully raised his fork, pointing at Feli’s plate.
"To change yourself, start with the little things in daily life—begin by eating those tomatoes."
"Ugh..."
Listening to Fang Zheng’s words, Feli’s expression changed instantly.
