Around the same time, Gallahan was talking about the flower festival in Lorem,

"Say Ahhh...Oliver"

Ann brought a spoon full of bright red soup near Oliver's mouth, urging him to open up.

"..."

Oliver gulped at the sight of the red liquid steaming in front of him.

His brother on the other hand was standing behind Ann encouraging him with a thumbs up.

After closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Oliver opened his mouth, allowing Ann to feed him.

"How is it?" Ann asked eagerly, as her emerald eyes shined brightly.

For a second, the fur on his tail and ears stood still as if it was on fire from the spiciness of the soup. But he quickly regained his composure to face Ann.

"It's good.."

Oliver managed to say the two words she needed to hear before turning around to fan his tongue with his hands.

'Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot.'

As expected Ann's sense of taste was in a different dimension in contrast to his or rather anyone except herself. Since she seemed to have a high tolerance compared to others.

'How is she still standing without breaking a sweat?'

Although Oliver wanted to scream, he was not brave enough to provoke Ann. Especially when there was no one nearby to shield him.

So he did the next best thing.

That was to drag his brother in before he escaped.

"You should give some to Noah too"

Oliver suggested in the middle of saving his tongue, blocking Noah's chance of an escape. He knew that his brother was planning to skip dinner with an excuse.

But if he was going to suffer, so should his twin. It was an unspoken law.

"No, I have a tummy ache. So I was going to skip dinner toni..."

Noah started making excuses when Ann walked up to him and stuffed a spoonful of soup inside to shut his mouth.

"All the more reason to eat"

She said, genuinely thinking that it would be bad to sleep with an empty stomach while having a tummy ache.

"Ugh.."

Noah crunched down on the floor on his knees holding his throat next to Oliver feeling like he had swallowed molten lava.

With teary eyes, he watched as Ann picked up the spice sprinkler to supposedly add more Killium spice to the already flaming liquid, which could no longer be considered food. Because she clearly intended on killing everyone present.

'Did he have such a bad stomach ache?' Ann wondered, seeing Noah lying on the ground before turning her attention back to cooking.

"I'm gonna just add a teensy bit more spice..."

Ann said as she twisted open the cap of the sprinkler and raised her hand over the pot.

'More?'

The twins felt their souls leave their bodies.

But before Noah and Oliver could say something to stop Ann, the conversation about the flower festival had captured her attention.

"Who would reject a flower from a beautiful girl? Haha.. Isn't that right Sir Kalan?"

'She stopped?'

Their escaped souls returned back when the twins noticed Ann pause right before she added more spice to the soup.

She was listening to the conversation between Gallahan and Kalan.

But the problem was that she was holding the sprinkler in a dangerous position, with its cover removed and suspended on top of the boiling soup.

One wrong move and everything will be lost

'It's alright. I'll go from behind and take it while she's not looking'

'Got it!'

Sighing in relief at the sight, Oliver signaled Noah to stay put and tried to take the sprinkler away out of Ann's hands while she was distracted.

However, right as he was about to sneak it off Ann's hand,

"I'm married"

Kalan declared surprising everyone including his own subordinate.

"Oops.."

Ann mumbled.

'NO!'

The twins screamed silently.

As surprised as she was, Ann had dropped a handful of red powder into the soup, having opened the wrong side of its cover. After realizing that she had added more than what was necessary by accident, she hastily tried to fix it by adding extra ingredients.

"That was not supposed to happen..."

Ann smiled awkwardly and tried to coax Oliver and Noah as they stared at her petrified.

"It's fine. I can fix this"

Things turned from bad to worse when she started mixing everything within her sight to fix the soup since it was getting late for dinner.

"If I add a bit of water we can fix this. Ah.... that was a lot of water. Just a little bit of spice, a pinch of salt to balance it and we'll be done.... Ah hell, now there's too much salt.."

And so the devilish cycle began, much to the horror of the pale twins.

Ann's shadow fell on the trees behind her as she vigorously mixed the ingredients together. From the twin's perspective, she appeared as a crazed witch concocting a poisonous potion, making them tremble in fear.

And fear they should.







A few minutes later, a bowl of hot steamy soup was served to everyone in the circle surrounding the fire.

"Bon appetit!"

Ann said, bowing dramatically like a theatre artist.

She took a seat next to Raeden with a bowl of her own and waited for the response to her recently refurbished cooking skills.

"Thank you for the meal"

"Thank you for the meal"

"Thank you for the food'

"Thankyou"

Gallahan, Will, Ezra, and Kalan were the main focus points since Ann pretty much knew how her colleagues would react to her cooking. Although they complained a bit, they always ended up finishing their share without leaving a scrape.

"It has a good aroma"

Gallahan took a whiff of the aroma arising from the soup. He was instantly able to guess the dominant ingredient present.

"Killium?"

"Yeah. That's right. How did you know?"

Ann asked, surprised. She did not expect her secret ingredient to be exposed by someone without tasting it first.

"Years of experience on the field. How could I not know the Ruir tribes' primary weapons lubricant"

"Weapons lubricant?"

"Oh? You didn't know?"

Gallahan lowered the bowl in his hands.

"The Ruir tribes in the west are notorious for covering their weapons in Killium essence before engaging in battle. Even the imperial knights find it hard to face them"

'They use this on weapons? How intriguing....Hehe'

Ann smiled ominously, thinking about the possibilities of the future.

'Why would you tell her that?!'

Noah and Oliver felt a chill run down their spines on seeing Ann's wide smile.

While Ann was busy dreaming, Gallahan patted Will's shoulder and shook his head.

"Grandson, I cannot die for the sake of your first love. I have a lot of years ahead of me. You need to fight your battles alone"

"What are you saying, Gramps?"

Gallahan pitied Will for the first time for having less awareness of his surroundings. When literally even the most harmless things done by the people we trust could cause danger to his life.

Meanwhile, Kalan has been staring at the soup without moving an inch, while Ezra was blowing on his bowl to cool it down.

'Is he having a staring contest with the soup?'

Ann frowned when she saw his expressionless face opposite to her. She was intensively observing him to hear his opinions when to her surprise, he suddenly started drinking the soup without a break.

"Should we warm them?"

Noah asked in a whisper to his brother.

Together they patiently watched as the guests started tasting the soup one after another. But they were not that kind of heart to stop them.

"More for them means less for us"

Oliver shrugged.

"That's correct too"

So instead of warning them, they waited for the show to begin.