Chapter 164 - Knives

After a couple of minutes Ethan had explained the arrangement of the bedrooms, Hestia and Lili chose to have two rooms close together, with Hestia located at the end of the right wing of the house, while Lili was located exactly next to her.

Although they would have been quite far from where Ethan's room was located, they had no choice given the lack of rooms. With only one room to sleep in remained still without an owner, Ethan had thought of letting it become a guest room for the time being, Or at least until someone decided to live in the house.

But just thinking about it, Ethan shook his head firmly.

'I don't think there'd be anyone really willing to live here...'

In Ethan's mind, already felt pretty lucky to share a relationship with Ais and Lefiya, and even though he definitely felt there was something between him and Hestia, he had the sensation his relationship was complete at the time.

On the one hand, Ais was rather quiet but able to express her feelings much more easily by acting accordingly to them, which made it very easy for Ethan to physically bond with her, and improve his relationship from that point of view, and then get to actual communication.

Lefiya instead She had the ability to express her words clearly and coincidently - as long as she wasn't embarrassed - that allowed Ethan to further deepen his bond with her on a psychological level, understanding what she wanted step by step, and move forward with smaller steps, but they certainly didn't lag behind Ais.

Taken separately, Ethan thought he was the same as Ais, more practical in expressing concepts with actions than with words, but this proved to not be true because he had managed to create a link with both, and this relationship of theirs seemed to succeed, but this could easily change if another person whom Ais and Lefiya didn't trust enough appeared and took part in what they were convinced was now a complete relationship.

'For the moment it's better to focus on my current relationship alone. During this period I will also be able to understand how I want to move from now on'

Sighing, Ethan had just finished depositing the baggage Hestia and Lili had decided to take with him before deciding to head downstairs to help was better than remaining there waiting for both to be done. Alerting them to come downstairs for dinner as soon as they were ready, they both nodded as Ethan did exactly what he had thought a second earlier

Heading downstairs, Ethan saw Lefiya trying to cut carrots. This vision would normally make him smile and leave her to her job before checking what Ais was doing, but he couldn't ignore the wrong and dangerous way she was using the knife.

In a second, Ethan was next to her and without being able to restrain himself, he brought his hand on the one she was using the knife to stop her while Lefiya gasped for the sudden contact

And realizing to whom this hand belonged added to the fact he hadn't given her any time to prepare mentally, brought Lefiya to have the face all red but instead of trying to run away, she stared at him in the eyes and even if her mouth tried to say something, No sound was capable of coming out Lefiya's throat.

As Lefiya realized what was happening, Ethan took the knife from her hands and by totally ignoring her embarrassment, he reciprocated by staring at her in the eye before pointing to the knife he had in his hand with the other

"Look, this kind of knife won't be useful for combat, but that doesn't mean it's not capable of hurting you. If you can't use it and still want to help at least specify this so that Ais could explain and show you how to handle it..."

Avoiding embarrassing her again, Ethan shifted his gaze to the knife before turning it with his fingers for a few seconds. Although he himself was't very practical to use a kitchen knife for what it was useful to carry out, Ethan knew a few tricks to have fun with it, which he often used to do before...

'But now that's not all. Although the weight and shape are different, I can almost use it as if it's a dagger...'

"You're having fun...I see.."

This was all Ais said before returning to check on the meat she was cooking. Although she wasn't an experienced cook in fact, this wasn't the first time she had tried cooking something.

Ais' few words, however, were enough to remind Ethan how long it actually took to learn something so useless and that could only serve to show how good he was at something.

To these memories, Ethan shook his head. Even though he didn't want to deny the past, he felt like he was slowly moving away from the version of himself that was on his old worlds, and the more time passed, the more Ethan realized the difference from such an inaccessible past that was nothing more than something to forget.

Letting go of these thoughts, Ethan nodded as he answered

"I'm having fun..."

Whispering these words though, Ethan who had looked down for a second, returned to look in front of him before understanding if he looked perfectly in front of him, Lefiya wouldn't have been the dominant thing in his sight.

Looking slightly down, Ethan went back to what he wanted to tell her

"Anyway, I'm not that prepared to teach you how to use a knife for cooking because I've never used it that way, but I know the basics.."

Although he said so though, Ethan had in middle school the opportunity to hone his technique with kitchen knives, and although it had been years since Ethan had used it properly, he would have done his best to teach Lefiya that on the other hand, was still pondering about Ethan's actions, and when she heard he wanted to teach her, all she could do was nod her head while apologizing for her behavior, even though it wasn't necessary at all.

Explaining as quickly as possible also because there wasn't much to explain, Ethan had quickly managed to make Lefiya understand what was the right method to implement to cut several things, And for pure evidence, Ethan had left Lefiya in charge of using onions as guinea pigs.

The method he used wasn't complicated, but compared to other things such as carrots, the difficulty was certainly a bit higher, having to make more than one cut.

Having understood the method and having already tried on the carrot which was cutting before, Lefiya placed the onion on the cutting board with a determined expression

First removing the outer part starting from the 'head', she managed more or less to perform what had been requested by cutting the onion first into 8 large pieces, and then turn it sideways so that she could cut again to obtain small onion cubes.

Realizing that she had succeeded, Lefiya turned to look at Ethan with a happy expression as if she had just done the hardest thing in the world, and although he felt his heart suddenly warm to the sight of her smile, he decided to not spoil her.

With an "Eeeh" he replied to her enthusiasm with a small laugh

"You managed to do the job properly the first time, which is commendable but you still have 3 more onions to work on, when you're done then you can really feel satisfied with yourself"

At his words, Lefiya sighed as she expected some sort of compliment but, although the moment she thought such a thing she could feel her cheeks warming up again, Lefiya had understood what Ethan meant by his words, and taking a quick look at the three onions, she took the closest to her in her hand before placing it on the cutting board.

"If you say so, I have no choice but to finish my job..."

Back to his work, Ethan's job had become Lefiya's previous job, which was to take care of carrots as Ais was cooking the beef.

As Ethan cut the carrots, an image of him approaching Ais before embracing her from behind made room in his mind and, as he realized what he was thinking and where his thoughts were going, Ethan immediately shook his head before returning to focus on the carrots, lucky that he was now able to do a simple action properly even if completely distracted..

---

After a few minutes, Ethan had started working seriously and, having finished cutting the carrots, he saw there were also potatoes on the table, so he didn't hesitate to take one before he started peeling it as he heard Hestia and Lili arrive at them while they were busy chatting.

Noticing that all three were busy dealing with something, Hestia was the first to realize it and, momentarily interrupting her conversation with Lili, began to speak

"Sorry it took so long. We would like to help us to cook, what will we eat?"

When asked, Ethan brought his eyes up. Although he hadn't exactly asked what they were going to eat, he had more or less understood what they will eat, but surprisingly it was Lefiya who answered while she was still focused on taking care of the last remaining onion.

"Some week ago, Ais had asked the girls working at the Hostess of Fertility for a recipe for something easy to prepare and good to eat, and we were advised this dish, if I'm not mistaken it was called..."

To her uncertainty, Ethan completed the sentence

"..Curry, with beef."

He was convinced this was what they were preparing, and in fact his theories weren't wrong as Ais nodded before adding

"It's done... you can take plates from there if you want to help..."

Pointing to a shelf not too far from her, Ais remembered seeing many plates and, once Hestia opened it, she could see there were indeed plenty of plates as, turning to look at Lili, she added

"Okay, Lili, I'll bring three plates, you bring two"

At his words Lili nodded convinced while Lefiya, having by now finished her work, looked around and noticing Ethan now with Ais while the two speak animatedly, Lefiya could see how Ais was now clearly smiling behind her usual emotionless face, and although this already made the atmosphere quite lively, she could already see that Lili and Hestia's presence animated much more what would surely have been a more intimate atmosphere.

Although at first she thought this might stumble in their relationship, Lefiya concentrated on picking up all the pieces of onion in a small bowl while with a small smile, a thought formed in her mind.

'Maybe this isn't so bad...'

And it is just as this thought formed in her mind, that Lili lost balance, falling along with the plates..

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox) | Are you liking the interactions between Maple and Ethan?)

(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)

(Alternate Titles: "Karma? Nah, it was the author's job here. Unforgivable", "Ethan...do not let your mind wander about strange thoughts! You have to hold on until you're on the bed for that stuff...cosplay s.e.x doesn't sound so awful though.", "I am Lili. Everyone hates me, but I don't care about that! I'll let them see how I'll conquer Ethan's heart...somehow." , "Ais' smile...we must protecc this")