Later, almost at dinnertime, Zaydas met with Shuna and the rest in the living room.
Looking at Asia, Zaydas said: "Asia, I remember you wanted to learn how to cook. What do you think about learning with me?"
"I'll be happy~!" She replied with an adorable smile.
"That's unfair." Shion said: "I also wish to learn to cook with Zaydas-sama!"
Thinking for a bit, Zaydas said: "Well... Okay, come with us."
"Zaydas-sama..." Benimaru tries to say something, but stopped.
"Huh? Benimaru-sama, it seems you have something against me learning to cook with Zaydas-sama?" Shion shot him a sharp look, making Benimaru back off.
"Shion, it's not that, I... Yes, I just think you're already fine, you don't need to learn with Zaydas-sama, right?" He said something he didn't believe at all.
"Seriously?" Shion looks at him suspiciously.
Nodding several times, he says: "Yes, I'm serious!"
"Well, I'll let this one slide, but..." She said: "I'll do it anyway. That's okay, right, Zaydas-sama?"
"Of course it is." Zaydas agreed.
No matter how much she was able to improve, or even if after trying she still remained a disaster in the kitchen, the fact that her desire to cook was great was already enough for him to agree.
Meanwhile, Asia seemed a bit upset.
Well, the reason must be because she lost the chance to be alone with Zaydas while learning to cook with him.
"I want to learn too!" Shuna, who had been silent until then, said loudly.
Looking at her, Zaydas nodded: "Okay."
"Yay." She smiled.
...
In the kitchen, instead of using a kitchen knife, Shion wanted to use her greatsword...
"Shion, actually, your sword has a hidden form." Zaydas said mysteriously.
"A hidden form?" That got her full interest.
"Yes, the third form: Chef's Knife." Zaydas said.
"Chef's Knife... I like how that sounds~" licking her lips, she smiled.
"Howl, Chef's Knife!" She said loudly, excitedly. She really didn't need to say 'howl'. But, in her words: "I feel good when I say it."
The sword began to shrink in her hand, transforming into a knife 40 cm long and 5 cm wide, gradually tapering until it formed a sharp point.
"Amazing, this is fantastic, Zaydas-sama~!" She hummed.
No need to say she liked it a lot.
Seeing the envious looks from Shuna and Asia, Zaydas smiled wryly, but then brought out a large piece of Magisteel. Throwing it into his shadow, a mouth of some kind of wolf emerged and swallowed the piece of Magisteel.
Using Fenrir's skill with Modeling, he created two kitchen knives. One with a yellow handle and green blade for Asia, and another with a pink handle and red blade for Shuna. When they were 'spat out' from his shadow, he made them levitate toward them.
"Thank you, Zaydas-sama~"
"Thank you so much~"
"Mm, now, let's start with something simple..."
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Shuna, with her [Analyst] skill, was a student with a 10/10 grade. While Asia was 7/10. On the other hand... Shion barely reached 3/10.
Shion was the type who hates following recipes and loves to innovate. For her, if something looks good, she tries to add it. For example, she tried putting chocolate in the rice pot.
No need to say it wouldn't taste good, since it was seasoned with salt. Of course, if she hadn't used salt, it might have been edible, maybe even good depending on who was eating it.
But that wasn't the case this time. Besides that, she also tried adding different spices that didn't need to be added, and she was insistent to the level of stubbornness of a spoiled child.
"Shion, before you try to innovate, try following the recipe," Zaydas said to her: "After you succeed to the point of eating it yourself and thinking it's delicious, then you can think about innovating. You might even get new ideas like: Ahh, if I had added this, it would've been tastier, or if I had added that... Got it?"
"Yes, I got it..." She replied, a bit downcast, but she wasn't one to stay depressed and shouted: "Alright! I'll try hard!"
Afterward, she still tried adding unnecessary things, but when she was stopped, she wasn't as insistent as before.
By the way, it became very easy for him to cook now. If he cooked well before, now he could easily open a restaurant and become famous in no time.
...
When they saw the table being served, not only Benimaru, but even Hakurou and Souei seemed surprised as they looked at the food on the table.
It was easy to guess why they seemed surprised; the fact that none of the dishes served looked abnormal... That in itself was an incredible feat.
"Fufu. Zaydas-sama worked really hard." Shuna's words seemed to imply something.
And, unbelievably, the Onis seemed to understand the message she wanted to convey, and they looked at him with a strange look that gave Zaydas chills.
Wanting to shift the focus, he said: "Okay, let's eat. It must be delicious, after all, Asia, Shuna, and Shion worked hard to make this for us."
"Yes!"
Shion's name and cooking seemed to make the Onis uncomfortable, but they still responded with an excited voice like the rest.
No matter what, everything looked delicious, and if it was as Shuna tried to convey to them, Zaydas must have prevented Shion from adding something weird to the food.
Initially, it would've been impossible to fit so many people to eat at the same time, after all, there were only seats for 8 at the table, but Zaydas expanded it to become big enough to have space for everyone.
And, as the host, Zaydas sat at the head. Obviously, it wasn't because the girls started fighting over who would sit next to him...
"It's really good!" Benimaru tasted it and exclaimed.
Shion, somehow, seemed to sense some insinuation aimed at her in Benimaru's words and said: "How rude, of course it's good!"
"Mm, yes, it's really good!" The one who said that was Ria.
Tia and the rest tasted it too.
When everyone approved... Shion shed tears.
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In his room while he was alone, he spent: 3,000 AP, Zaydas replicated the Extra Skill [Ranged Barrier (Rank B)], then another 11,000 AP and replicated the Skill [Physical Attack Nullification (Rank A-)].
Standing in the middle of the room, he activated 'Ranged Barrier' and saw a translucent oval layer around him.
Using 'Body Double', creating a clone of himself, he handed an ordinary sword to the clone.
At the sound of something tearing, not even blood appeared the instant the sword's tip pierced Zaydas' stomach. He didn't feel pain being pierced like that.
'This is similar to the 'Akuma no Mi' Fruits from 'One Piece,' the Logia type...' He canceled the clone's creation and stored the sword.
No wonder the skill's description says it's a passive skill that completely negates all physical damage.
Of course, even though he also possessed 'Magic Resistance,' that skill doesn't nullify all magical attacks, but rather reduces the effects of magical attacks below a certain threshold to be insignificant.
That said, even so, he felt that if he used the 'Diabolic Dragon' skill, it would be hard to inflict heavy injuries on him.
'No, it's still not enough...'
As long as he didn't become at least a 'True Chosen Hero or True Demon Lord,' he shouldn't relax and get too arrogant.
In fact, he knew he had acted rashly when he threatened those watching him through Gelmudo's eyes. After all, he had no way of being absolutely certain that whoever was watching wasn't one of the True Demon Lords.
'Well, it doesn't matter anymore.'
Dwelling on something he had done wasn't his style.
Picking up his sword, Zaydas lamented a little for not even having had the chance to use it. Even though there were many Orcs as enemies, they were all weak. Even the Orc Lord, who could've put up some resistance, was dealt with by the Onis, after all.
Placing the sword in his personal subspace, Zaydas sat on the bed.
When Rurushi entered the room wearing only a nightgown with nothing underneath and snapped her fingers, turning off the lights, he stood up, approaching her.
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The next morning, Zaydas woke up in a good mood.
In the kitchen, the ones making breakfast were Shuna and Asia.
Shion wanted to 'help,' but Shuna made an irresistible proposal. She said to Shion: "If you let me and Asia make breakfast, at noon, we won't interfere if you go cook with Zaydas-sama."
Well, it really worked, and Shion stayed humming until breakfast was ready.
The first to taste it was Rurushi, who said: "Nhm... This is delicious~~"
"Mhn, yes, it's really good..." With her hand in front of her mouth while chewing, Tia confirmed.
"Tia-san, it's rude to talk with your mouth full," Shuna warned.
Nodding, Tia kept chewing until she swallowed: "Sorry about that."
"It's fine." Shuna smiled generously, with her hand extended, covering her mouth with the wide Miko sleeve.
...
In the afternoon, Zaydas began building a golden fruit orchard behind his mansion.
It was an orchard the size of a soccer field, 120 meters long and 90 meters wide.
The orchard was surrounded by stone walls using Modeling. And around it, he plowed to make the soil fertile and would decide later what to plant.
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