Chapter 426 Hours Before The New Year



Pedrarruna Manor, Elffire City.

December 31st, 4:46 PM.

The four people who were missing arrived. Gwen and Kin arrived just a little bit after Sam and the girls. But Lauren and Max only arrived a few minutes ago. And without wasting any time, Theo put them to work as they were running against time to finish cooking before the party.

They divided themselves into two groups. Aurora, Sam, Ryoko, and June were in charge of decorating and putting the party together. While Theo and the others were in charge of cooking dinner.

When Theo saw that many people in his kitchen, he figured he had to take action as his kitchen was nowhere as big as the kitchen of the restaurant. He already could see that there were too many people in there.

"Listen up, guys, gather here." Theo called out loud.

They immediately lifted their heads and looked at him confusedly, but they still obeyed and gathered around him. They were already used to obeying his orders in the kitchen, so they didn't even question why he was doing that.

"Let's plan how and who will cook what." Theo started as he looked at them.

"Yes, otherwise we will probably mess up some preparations." Kumiko nodded in agreement.

The others also expressed their agreement.

Theo nodded and proceeded to delegate positions, "Everyone studied the menu already, so you guys know the basics of the preparations. First, Gwen and Kin, I want you two to work on the pies and desserts. Don't forget to..."

Just like that, Theo gave each one their own preparations to take care of.

Even though there were seven of them in the kitchen, at the end of it, each one had to take care of at least 4 preparations.

Theo, Kumiko, Shoko, Lauren, Max, Gwen, and Max discussed the whole preparation and how to complement each other's work for a little while. As they were already used to working together, they didn't have many problems with that.

When they finished their discussion, Theo looked at the six of them and remembered that his kitchen would not be able to hold up everyone's preparations. Although his kitchen was enormous and with a big oven, there was no way that it would be able to hold up everyone working there.

"Gwen, Kin, Max, there is a kitchen on the second floor with all the support of a professional kitchen. You three go there to make your preparations. I'll send the ingredients there." Theo said after thinking for a while.

Theo never had the opportunity to use the second-floor kitchen as he never had the opportunity. He designed that kitchen specifically for situations like there where he had too many people in his kitchen. 

"Okay, boss, but what about the preparations I'll need from Shoko?" Max asked.

"She can bring it there to you or you can pick it up here." Theo replied calmly.

They all nodded and discussed for a while longer the logistics before starting to work. There were only a few hours before the agreed time they combined that the party would start.

They all agreed that at 10 PM, the party would start. This meant that they had less than 5 hours to cook an enormous amount of dishes. 

While most people started their preparations in the morning, they only started working for real at the end of the afternoon. But that was not a problem for professional cooks like them. They were all used to cooking at the highest level, so cooking in a limited amount of time was not a problem for them. Especially when there were 7 of them working together. Although they had to cook a complicated dinner with lots of preparations for 11 people, that was a piece of cake for them who were used to cooking for hundreds of people every night.

While Theo and the others were highly focused on the task ahead of them, Aurora and the others were in the other room discussing the best way to decorate the party.

"What if we use some blue and azure lights to illuminate the tree? We can also light up the fireplace in the middle of the tree. The blue tree and the fire will give us the right colors." Ryoko suggested as she looked at the gorgeous tree fireplace at the center of the wall. She was used to working with colors, so she had enough knowledge to talk about it.

"Oh, Theo bought us some powder that we can use to transform the red and orange fire into a golden fire!" Aurora exclaimed in excitement.

Sam and June also had their eyes shining when they heard that.

Azure and Gold were the colors that represented this holiday. And if they had an azure tree with golden fire inside of it, they imagined that it would be the crown of the party.

"That's such a great idea, Ryoko!" Sam exclaimed in satisfaction.

"Yeah, I bet everyone will be shocked with it when they see it." June added with a smile.

"No problem." Ryoko replied embarrassedly with their compliments.

"But do we have azure lights to illuminate the tree?" Sam asked.

"I think we do. I'll ask Sylph to bring us the lights." Aurora replied calmly.

"And what about the sea creatures' decorations? Where do we put them?" June asked as she looked at the box in front of her that was filled with sea creatures' decorations.

Just like it was explained before. It was tradition to decorate a New Year's party with all kinds of sea creatures from the myths.

And the Azure Star was filled with myths about its enormous ocean. As the ocean was gigantic, the myths were even more fantastic than the ones from Earth. And every country had its own beliefs and myths about the ocean.

For example, the Pangu Country, just like China, believed in the same myths. They had the Dragon Palace, the Crab Generals, and the Turtle Minister. But the Pangu Country had other myths that did not exist in China.

The Sakura Abode Country had its own beliefs and myths as well. As the nation was a mixture of two cultures, its mythology was extremely complex and vast. They had the myth of the legendary Deep Sea Wizard Kingdom, where sirens and faires gathered to worship the mother sea. They also had the myth of the legendary Monster Court, where all kinds of monsters gathered. Monsters like the Ayakashi no Kaika Serpent, the Funa Yurei – The Boat Ghosts, the Bakekujira Mammoth Whale, and many other sea monsters. 

In other words, the Sakura Abode Country had an extremely rich and diverse mythology.

The decorations that the girls had of the sea creatures only covered a tiny portion of the mythology.

The girls continued discussing the best place and how to decorate the place while Theo and the others worked on the dinner.

Everyone was working hard to throw the best New Year's party of their lives.