“Alright, please stop fooling around with Danasuo, my lords.”
“Hurry up and wipe the mud off your faces.”
Mrs. Nashi walked over from not far away.
She held several clean cloths in her hand, a helpless smile on her face.
Just a moment ago, the group had been causing a ruckus in the fields.
Now, everyone still had more or less mud smeared on their faces.
“Thank you very much.”
Leticia was the first to take a cloth, wiping the mud off her face bit by bit.
The others followed suit and took their own cloths.
Lin Ling casually wiped her face a few times.
Once she confirmed that the cloth was no longer picking up any mud, she nodded in satisfaction.
Kainster, on the other hand, kept rubbing his face with his cloth.
“Is there still some here?”
“A little bit.”
Lin Ling pointed at the tip of his nose.
Kainster wiped it again.
“How about now?”
“To the left.”
“And now?”
“To the right.”
“Soulmate...”
Kainster finally realized what was happening.
“Are you doing this on purpose?”
Lin Ling immediately turned her head away.
“Miss Saintess has no idea what you are talking about.”
By the time they finally restored their original appearances, it was already close to noon.
While they were messing around earlier, Mrs. Nashi had already found a flat spot near the field and laid out a picnic blanket.
“You can all have lunch here today.”
Mrs. Nashi placed the last cup down.
A gentle breeze blew through the fields.
The sunlight fell upon the picnic blanket, making the spot feel exceptionally peaceful and leisurely.
“Ah! Right, right.”
Lin Ling seemed to suddenly remember something.
She looked down and began rummaging through her sleeves.
“I almost forgot.”
Watching her search frantically, Leticia was initially a bit puzzled.
Then, she remembered that when she had followed Danasuo out of the dining hall that morning, she seemed to have forgotten to bring along the lunchbox the Head Chef had prepared.
“Found it!”
A look of joy washed over Lin Ling's face.
In the next instant, she pulled two identical wooden lunchboxes from her sleeve.
The lunchboxes were even enchanted with preservation magic.
“Uh...”
Danasuo drifted over to the two lunchboxes.
“Lady Saintess.”
“Are you sure you can tell which one belongs to Sia?”
She was somewhat curious as to how Lin Ling had managed to stuff two such large lunchboxes into her sleeves in the first place.
But right now, there was a more pressing question to consider.
These two lunchboxes looked exactly the same.
Had this usually scatterbrained Saintess really not mixed them up?
Leticia also stared at the lunchboxes before her, falling into a brief silence.
She remembered that her portion would contain lighter, milder foods suited to her taste.
As for Lin Ling's...
Knowing how the Head Chef usually doted on Lin Ling, he had probably prepared extra portions of her favorite dishes.
“Of course Miss Saintess has her own way of telling them apart.”
Lin Ling looked at the skeptical faces around her.
Her expression gradually grew solemn.
It seemed she had to show them the true extent of Miss Saintess's abilities.
Under everyone's bewildered gazes, Lin Ling brought the two lunchboxes up to her face one by one and gave them a light sniff.
Everyone: “...”
Seeing Lin Ling sniff the lunchboxes with such deadpan seriousness, the others actually fell quiet in spite of themselves.
After she finished sniffing, Lin Ling stood in place.
Her brow furrowed slightly.
She looked as though she were meticulously analyzing every trace of scent lingering in the air.
The surrounding atmosphere inexplicably grew a bit tense.
“H-How...”
Kainster couldn't help but take half a step forward.
“How is it?”
Lin Ling slowly opened her eyes.
“I've got it.”
Her voice was filled with absolute certainty.
Then, Lin Ling handed the lunchbox in her left hand to Leticia.
“This one is Sia-chan's.”
Leticia took the lunchbox.
Danasuo still looked at Lin Ling with a healthy dose of skepticism.
“You can really smell the difference?”
Lin Ling didn't answer.
Instead, she slowly opened the lunchbox in her own hands.
In the next instant, a familiar, mouth-watering aroma wafted out of the box.
She looked down, staring at what lay right in the center of her lunchbox.
It was a pair of Battle Rooster wings.
Tears gradually welled up in Lin Ling's eyes.
“Head Chef... you wonderful man.”
Tilting her head up at a forty-five-degree angle, tears of profound emotion quietly slipped from the corners of her eyes.
“To think you'd secretly slip Battle Rooster into Miss Saintess's lunchbox...”
“This is... truly beautiful.”
Lin Ling cradled the lunchbox with both hands.
She looked as if she were gazing upon a masterpiece of fine art.
“What?!”
“It's actually Battle Rooster?!”
Hearing this, Kainster immediately peered into Lin Ling's lunchbox.
The moment he caught sight of the chicken wings, his knees slammed onto the ground.
Clenching his fists, he began repeatedly pounding the dirt before him.
“Dammit!”
“Why?!”
“Why must it be so?!”
He had only just laid eyes on a whole Battle Rooster in the dining hall last night.
But before he could even properly savor it, he had been dragged away by Zona.
Now, he had finally crossed paths with it again, only for it to be inside Lin Ling's lunchbox.
“Curse my luck!”
Kainster slumped onto the ground.
His sorrowful wails echoed across the surrounding fields.
Amid Lin Ling's tears of deep appreciation, Kainster could only drool in envy over the Battle Rooster he couldn't eat.
But in the next moment, the distinct, irresistible aroma of Battle Rooster suddenly drifted right before his nose.
Kainster froze.
He slowly raised his head.
There stood Lin Ling, holding out one of the chicken wings in her hand.
“Soulmate.”
Lin Ling's face bore an incredibly solemn expression.
“Truly beautiful things...”
“...should not be kept to oneself.”
Kainster stared blankly at the wing offered to him.
The corners of his eyes began to glisten.
“Lin Ling...”
“Take it.”
Lin Ling nudged the wing a bit closer.
“This is your share of the Battle Rooster.”
With trembling hands, Kainster reached out.
He accepted the wing with the utmost reverence.
“Ah, it really is beautiful.”
He gazed at the chicken wing.
It was as if he were holding not a piece of food, but some priceless relic destined to be passed down through the generations.
As for what happened next...
According to some passing demon residents, someone spotted two fellows near the fields that afternoon, dancing a bizarre dance with chicken wings clamped in their mouths.
“Chic-kin!”
“Beau-tiful!”
With the wings clenched in their teeth, Lin Ling and Kainster performed the motions of a Battle Rooster slamming against a stone wall.
At some point, even Danasuo had joined in on the fun.
Watching their increasingly synchronized movements, Leticia subconsciously took a step forward.
It seemed she, too, wanted to join this bizarre dance.
But the moment she took that step, Mrs. Nashi reached out and held her back.
“My lords, please stop fooling around.”
Mrs. Nashi held Leticia with one hand while pressing her other hand to her forehead, looking utterly exasperated.
“Your lunch is going to get cold.”
Thanks to Mrs. Nashi's intervention, the trio was finally forced to stop dancing.
“Ahem.”
Kainster returned to the picnic blanket.
He sat cross-legged, his expression instantly reverting to the serious demeanor befitting a prince.
“That was merely an accident just now,” he explained to Leticia, who was quietly eating.
It was as if, as long as he looked serious enough, the guy who had just been dancing with a chicken wing in his mouth had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Leticia looked up at him.
“I see.”
Kainster fell silent for a moment.
Staring at Leticia's current appearance, the lingering playfulness in his eyes gradually faded.
“By the way,” he said, “you're the missing Saintess of the Holy See, aren't you?”
Leticia's hand, which was holding a piece of bread, paused slightly.
The surrounding atmosphere suddenly grew a bit quiet.
However, Leticia did not deny it.
She gave a gentle nod.
“Yes.”
Since the prince had chosen to bring this matter out into the open, it meant there was something he wanted to know.
“Relax.”
Kainster noticed her wariness.
A casual smile returned to his face.
“I just think you're completely different from how you used to be.”
Kainster looked at the Leticia of today.
When he had first seen her in the dining hall yesterday, he had actually doubted whether the person in front of him was truly the Saintess he once knew.
Although her tone of voice was similar, everything else was entirely different.
“...”
Leticia remained silent for a moment.
“Some things happened, so I changed a bit,” she replied calmly.
Kainster nodded.
“Your manner of speaking is indeed very similar to before.”
“But the Leticia of the past would never sit on such a simple picnic blanket to eat.”
“Nor would she fool around in the fields with demons like you did just now.”
The Leticia of old had always stood high up in the White Tower.
Every word she spoke had to conform to the Holy See's expectations of a Saintess.
It was even more unthinkable for her to sit by a ridge in the fields without any regard for her image, sharing lunch with a group of demons.
“The past?”
Leticia lowered her eyes.
“I've made too many mistakes, so I want to start making amends.”
“That's why I'm learning how to get along with others.”
As she spoke, she subconsciously reached up to touch her neck.
Then, she took a piece of sliced fruit from her lunchbox and handed it to Danasuo, who was sitting beside her.
Danasuo held the fruit with both hands and began taking tiny bites of it.
Leticia watched her, the expression on her face gradually softening.
She reached out her hand and gently pinched Danasuo's tiny cheek.
“Mmph.”
With the fruit still in her mouth, Danasuo's cheek was squished slightly out of shape by Leticia's gentle pinch.
Kainster watched the smiling Leticia.
In the end, he shrugged.
“At least the current you isn't half bad.”
With that, a casual smile returned to his face.
Leticia sat in place.
Hearing Kainster's words, she couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.
Rate on N.U.
