Chapter 7: Fun

After a few weeks the pain from the blisters subsided.

My palms filled with thin calluses that slowly made my life easier, I no longer suffered so much when I hit the damn dummy and my wooden sword already had its first splinters. On the other hand, I also resumed my solo boxing training, as I missed the feeling of punching the air and moving my waist.

Sir Marte was interested in the techniques of my world, especially the hip turn when throwing hooks and curves to the chin.

In any case, my new attitude change was also reflected in my relationships with people. I no longer limited myself only to reading and learning things, I also indulged myself in accompanying Sora during her rounds in the kitchen: I wanted to meet the people in charge of the area and also make friends with the guards who patrolled the palace.

I wanted to be like Alda and remove the stigma of superiority I had just because of my rank. Sure, in formal situations etiquette was paramount, but being solemn 24 hours a day did not give me more satisfaction.

“And that's how the economy works, do you have any doubt, sir?” Again the economics lessons didn't leave me in peace, no matter how hard I tried to get the hang of it I always came to the same conclusion: boring!

“The truth is, yes, are you married?” My question left the good Gonzalo out of place.

“Eh, why are you asking me that?” he asked, uncomfortable with my questions.

“We've had lessons for months and yet I hardly know you, come on, tell me about yourself, I want to know.”

“Well, unfortunately I'm single, I was never good with the ladies, now can we get back to the lessons?”

“Let's take a break today, we've put in a lot of effort and maybe it's time to take things slow. Come on, there really isn't a woman you like?”

“Maybe, but I'm too old for that, I'm 34 years old and I could never get married. That's why I chose the option of becoming an intellectual, at least books won't leave me alone.” Gonzalo was a very skinny man, with short dark hair and already showing some gray hair on the back of his skull. He certainly wasn't attractive at all, but sometimes physique didn't matter at all.

“Come on, you said you liked a woman, I won't tell anyone," I insisted, actually I felt like having some fun for a while.

“There's a woman in the kitchen who caught my attention the year before last; she's a maid they picked up from a looted village and it seems she's a widow. She doesn't talk much, but she always goes out of her way to do a great job.” Gonzalo's expression became more tense, he didn't quite know what kind of relationship these two had, but it was better to play it safe.

“And have you talked to her yet?”

“I-I couldn't...”

“It's decided then, let's go to the kitchen to look for the girl, then you'll talk to her. It's about time you forgot those books for a while and woke up the lover in you. “I gave him a playful smile to lighten the mood. “Let's go!”

“H-H-Huh... H-How you command.”

I was never really a good flirt, I was so busy attending to politics that I was never interested in having a girlfriend during my high school and college days. Still, I liked to read romance novels and also anime of that genre, therefore, my knowledge was practically based on fiction.

But this my new friends should not know.

We advanced through the busy corridors of the castle, dozens of servants were going about their daily chores and all bowed their heads as they watched me pass. After a few minutes we finally arrived at the main kitchen, the place was full of cooks moving from one side to the other carrying ingredients and metal pots.

In the middle of it all, the beautiful Sora was giving orders as if she were a general during a war.

“Your Highness!” exclaimed my personal maid, as she did so, all the cooks left their duties and lined up in front of us. “What a pleasant surprise, do you have a particular craving, we can prepare what you want tomorrow, because we have already started cooking today's dinner.”

Interesting.

I wanted to deduce which of all the cooks present here was the girl that my tutor was crazy about. However, Gonzalo refused to blush or look at one of the maids in particular; he always had that steady gaze that made him look like a soldier in times of hunger.

“Yes, I have a particular craving. I have a craving for a food worthy of the gods, a delicacy from a distant time that will make us love food again... Tomorrow I want to have hamburgers for dinner.”

“Hamburgers?” questioned Sora, a little surprised by the unknown request.

“Yes, it's a secret recipe from a far away land, Gonzalo says that the formula is hidden in the royal library, but he can't look for it alone, he needs one of you to memorize the process and at the same time, have a backup of information.” My request sounded very coherent, because in a world with little or no reading ability, memorizing recipes was of utmost importance to transmit knowledge to the common people.

Chale, maybe I need to start making a future plan to encourage reading in commoners... But I'll take care of that later.

“That makes sense, do you have one of my girls in mind, your highness, I can't accompany you because I have to supervise this place. “Sora pointed to the 10 ladies working in the kitchen, all of them remained silent and with their eyes down; the rules of etiquette prevented them from showing any kind of informality with their sovereign. A law that little by little I would like to change.

I gave Gonzalo a glance and he finally blushed.

A huevo!

“You choose, Gonzalo," I ordered.

“Yes, your highness... Miss, could you accompany me to the library, please?” The chosen one finally made her presence known.

My tutor pointed to a woman with tousled, tousled black hair, with a fringe that covered her eyes as if she were the protagonist of a novel H. Even so, her appearance was no more than average: slim and dark-skinned, like any other girl from the peasantry. In fact, her features looked Mexican.

“As you command.” The woman shyly curtsied again and then stepped forward.

Long live the bride and groom!

Well, no.

This was merely an excuse to have them together, I myself gave Gonzalo the recipe on a piece of paper and when the time comes he will give it to her. The objective (apart from donating the recipe to the world) was for the two of them to get to know each other better.

“Thank you for your time, we are leaving.” The maid accompanied us for a few meters, it was there where I realized an important detail... I could not be so close or she would never speak!

Damn it, being king didn't allow me to gossip in peace.

“Gonzalo, come here. “My tutor approached his ear just as I asked him. You won't be able to interact if I'm close, I'll hide behind so don't ruin it.

“As you ordered," he mumbled, almost reluctantly.

“I'm coming, it's time to run errands, I'll leave you two alone.” My disappearance was the lamest in history, I simply turned around and walked until I had some distance, then hid behind a giant chalice-shaped ornament.

As soon as I left, the maid finally took a deep breath and decided to chat first, either out of politeness or just to get the stress out of her system.

“My name is Aura, nice to meet you.”

“I'm Gonzalo, it's my pleasure. “The introduction was good.

“Aura is friendlier than she looks.” Suddenly a familiar voice called me from behind. “Do you think they will become friends?”

“Sora, shouldn't you be in the kitchen?” I didn't think my main assistant was a gossip like me.

“I left them to their respective activities, I don't want to miss this for the world. I always wanted to see straight Gonzalo acting like an idiot for a woman.”

“You're a box full of surprises, Sora.”

“Courage, Gonzalo.” Another nosy voice called us from behind.

“Are you here for the gossip too, Alda?” I wasn't surprised by her arrival, in fact it seemed strange that she hadn't joined the ruckus before.

With the group assembled, we followed this potential couple through all the corridors of the castle. They walked along, ignoring the other employees and chatting about irrelevant topics. For example, Gonzalo explained his hobby of reading encyclopedias and how he was trying hard to teach me about economics.

Aura hardly spoke, but listened with a polite smile. She didn't look uncomfortable at all; I even saw her smile genuinely on a few occasions.

Once inside the library, time passed without anything interesting. Typical intellectual and business talk, or so it seemed. Between the lines there was an invisible spark that Alda failed to catch, for after half an hour she looked desperate for a more direct advance. Sora, on the other hand, lay quietly analyzing Aura's gestures like any good shipper.

“Do something now," Alda whispered.

“They've done too much.” I answered with a discreet murmur, we were hiding behind a pallet of books and we didn't want to be discovered so easily. Look at Aura's gestures.

The woman began to play with her hair little by little and also made her knees point at Gonzalo. These small movements implied a high level of non-verbal communication, I studied them myself during my past life as I conducted human psychology workshops.

“You are someone observant, your highness. “Sora nodded her head, leaving the innocent Alda speechless.

“There are a lot of books here, I've been working here for a while and I've never been to the library before.” Aura played with the sleeves of her dress again and arranged her dark hair once more. “I can't read anyway, it's a pity, I'm sure these books have a lot to say.”

“Books take you to wonderful worlds and can also offer you unique skills. Not just recipes.” When he talked about books, Gonzalo's look seemed to go beyond imagination, he looked so happy and self-confident that not even Sora could recognize him.

“Great..." whispered Aura.

“Do you want to learn to read? My classes with the young king are in the afternoon, but I have the evening free if you would like to come here so I can teach you a few lessons.”

“Are you serious?” Aura grinned from ear to ear, raised her voice and almost got a scolding from the librarian, except that I gave her a furtive glance myself to keep him quiet.

This was abuse of authority, but I didn't mind at all.

They almost made a date!

“And what time do they kiss?” whispered my lovely sister again.

“Miss Alda, love is not instantaneous, to get to kissing you must first get to know the other person and be sure whether you like them or not.” Sora patted her head while patiently explaining the process of romantic love.

“But in Lily the Princess's stories there were always kisses and romantic scenes from the beginning.”

“Oh, Alda, the Lily the Princess stories are just that, fantasy stories based on the controversial Lily I. “Again, Sora ruffled her hair.

Anyway, back to our little couple....

“Of course, I liked you, Aura, I-I'd like to spend more time with you. “Oh, not bad, Gonzalo, not bad at all....

Aura blushed and tried to hide her face between her tousled hair.

“Thank you...”

The task I entrusted them with went into the background, they continued talking about simple things like their favorite foods and hobbies unrelated to work. Even I was surprised to learn that Gonzalo loved raising horses and keeping the carrier pigeons we used during military campaigns.

The young maid still revealed some interesting facts: She was 25 years old and came from a village sacked by the King of Apollo's men. Until that moment my face had not stopped smiling, but hearing that piece of information made me a little uncomfortable.

The Kingdom of Apollo... A country to which we owe our freedom and our resources.

Hearing her testimony first hand made me realize that there were many other "Auras" like her, helpless orphans who had to survive in a violent world. She actually looked grateful for the offer she was given, for it is not every day that someone shares their time to teach you a difficult discipline.

“It is decided. “And after a promise, they continued the useless search for the recipe; about 50 more minutes passed until Gonzalo finally took the white note from his pocket, then he slowly placed it inside a thick book that was lying in the corner.

By "coincidence" my tutor's hands got hold of the text and after opening by "chance" the specific page, both he and Aura saw my recipe.

By the way, the paper in this world was indeed totally white, due to the rare trees that bore a blue fruit that did not exist in my home world. And not only the paper, also the furniture and weapons had a slightly lighter color than normal, this only with the ash tree, as the local gardeners used to call it.

“I think we're done, would you read the recipe out loud to me a few times, so I can memorize it.”

“Sure, but let's do it outside, it's not polite to talk loudly in a library.”

“Right," Aura replied.

Immediately my band of gossipers ran out of the place; we slipped into the back hallway so as not to be seen and unfortunately we could no longer hear what they were saying.

“That's enough for today," I commented, very relaxed about my teacher's good performance.

“B-But if nothing happened, they didn't even hold hands?”

“Alda, you and I are going to have a serious talk about romance, you can't fast forward things! “Sora exclaimed.

“But it's boring to wait, the best romances are the ones that happen instantly and hot!” Ugh, what a mentality for a ten year old girl, what the hell was she reading, better not to know.

“That's it, that's it, get the snacks ready because our talk is going to be a long one.” Sora smiled mischievously as she pulled my sister's cheeks. I couldn't help smiling from ear to ear for this funny scene, what a fun afternoon!

“Ouch, it hurts... But I want snacks, so I accept, sorry bro, today will be just a girls' snack.”

“So, I'll see you later. “I turned around with nothing more to say, since being in the middle of a female discussion was beyond my capacity as a king.

Anyway.

Since I decided to live in acceptance of this world, my evenings have become fun. I enjoy the food and the company of my loved ones more; even so, my duty was still to train to be a great monarch. And for that very reason I needed to see my people face to face....