Omniscient Necromancer POV

"Oh! It looks so, so delicious!" exclaimed Marceline, resting her arms on the table as she sniffed the air.

The aroma coming from the pan was a strong smell of basil with a hint of tomato and ground beef. This aroma was already permeating every corner of the apartment.

The women sitting at the table salivated as I approached with the pot, and my heart was pounding in my chest.

"I asked the skeleton to cut the noodles, but are they too thin?" I asked myself, swallowing hard as I placed the pot on the wooden table.

Rosella's cheeks were flushed with anxiety.

Still, she tried to maintain her composure in front of my mother and sister.

"It smells really good," Rosella commented coldly.

"Wow, Bran~, I didn't know you could cook..." Fumiko tasted it with a smirk. She obviously wanted to embarrass me in front of Rosella.

"I was going to be home all day with nothing to do, so I thought it would be nice to cook something different... Once I started, the ideas just came to me." I explained as I lifted a spoonful of noodles from the pot and placed it on a large white plate.

Of the three women sitting at the table, the first one I served was obviously my mother.

Fumiko looked at the noodles on the plate and bowed her head to take a closer look.

"What... is that? It looks like pastry dough, but..."

"It's noodles with tomato sauce!" I exclaimed and picked up two meatballs that were also in the pot. "And these meatballs I call meatballs!"

Rosella laughed softly. "What creative names!"

Marceline looked at me with her eyebrows lowered and muttered loudly, "He even named something that's famous... How self-centered."

My mother couldn't help but laugh at Marceline's comment, which reminded me that meatballs already existed in this world. My face turned red with embarrassment, and I served the rest of the dishes without saying another word.

However, it was all worth it when each of them took their first bite.

"Mmmph! Zat's delishus!"

"I've ner had meatbals this good!"

"I cod cry righ now!"

Fumiko, Marceline, and Rosella, respectively, said with their mouths full of food and immediately went for their second bite.

I didn't even have time to thank them for the compliments, because in a few seconds, the three of them held out their clean plates to me and shouted:

"I want another one!"

If at any point during the day I had thought that the effort of cooking all that was a waste, seeing those red cheeks and eyes shining with happiness made it all worthwhile.

It was for moments like this that I wanted to live in my past life, and that desire had now awakened in my new life.

"Until I find out what made me transmigrate here and how I can get back, I'm going to make Brandon Shibutani Oneal's life the best it can be!" I thought as I rested my head on my pillow that night.

Thinking about it made me finally make the decision I needed to make.

*

The next morning, I woke up to a knock on the door. However, it wasn't my door, but my upstairs neighbor's.

The walls of this old building were so thin, and the structure so rickety that any loud noise easily carried to the other apartments.

"Jonathan, you're going to be late for work again!"

"Urghh... I'm already up..." The owner of the room above mine muttered, but I didn't hear the floor creak like it did when he walked.

"Come on, I'm serious, Jonathan!"

"Me too, me too..."

Finally, I didn't just hear the floor creak under the man's weight, I also could see the wood sinking a little.

It wasn't that Jonathan was fat or anything, because until a few years ago he worked with my father at the port, but rather that the floor was made of only two layers of boards.

"I'll need to look for other apartments as soon as I tell Mrs. Carter," I decided aloud and got up from my bed.

After practically crawling to the bathroom, I plunged my face into the basin of water to finally wake up. I also took the opportunity to wet my hands and run them through my hair. Then I grabbed a towel and wet it in the same basin.

I rubbed the towel on my neck, behind my ears, and under my arms. Showering more than once a day would be essential in this world because of the pollution in big cities like Lovikalen, but since that wasn't possible, I preferred to just clean up a little in the morning and shower before bed.

When I put toothpaste on my toothbrush and was about to put it in my mouth, I heard a knock on the door again. This time, it wasn't upstairs.

"Brandon, is that you?" Marceline asked in a sly voice.

I frowned, confused as to why Marceline was still there at that time of the morning. Was it earlier than I thought?

I opened the door and saw her rubbing the side of one of her eyes, barely standing with Rosella leaning on her back as if she were a backpack.

"Good morning," I said, smiling at the scene.

When Rosella heard my voice, she slowly raised her head until our eyes met. Her eyes widened and her face turned red. It wasn't surprising that this happened, because both she and Marceline were wearing short nightgowns.

Marceline was my sister, so she was used to me seeing her like this some mornings and didn't mind, but it was completely different for Rosella.

"Bra-Bran-Brandon!?" Rosella exclaimed, taking a step back until her back hit the wall.

"Good morning to you too, Rosella." I said, trying not to laugh, and put my toothbrush in my mouth. "Wait a mimmut an' I'll lemme use the bafroom!"

"Okay~..." Marceline said as I closed the door.

When I finished brushing my teeth and left the bathroom, only Marceline was outside. Confused, I asked,

"What about Rosella? Where did she go?"

Marceline looked both ways down the hallway, finally noticing the guest's absence.

"Oh no..." Marceline muttered, scratching the back of her neck. "She asked me to accompany her to the bathroom. She must have gone back to bed." Marceline shrugged.

"Come on, you should take better care of your new friend."

"I-I know! That's why I'm going to take advantage of the fact that it's Saturday and take her to some nice places in town today! And she told me what happened yesterday at the grocery store on the corner. You need to take care of her when you're with her too!"

I nodded twice. "I know, I know. But don't forget to be careful. She could still be targeted by—"

Marceline interrupted me. "You don't need to warn me. She's my friend now too." Marceline said in a serious tone and closed the bathroom door.

Confused, I scratched my chin and only then realized that there were a few strands of hair there. "Argh... Now I need to buy a razor."

After a quick breakfast, I got dressed to leave the house. Since I was going to Central Police Station to inform Paladina of my decision, I knew I couldn't wear just any clothes.

So, I put on a white shirt with a black vest over it and a blazer. I polished my shoes with the last bit of polish I had and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was the only visible problem now.

"My hair is too long," I concluded after holding the end of my bangs and realizing that it easily passed above my eyebrows. "Since I'm out of money, I won't be able to see Mr. Dalfodi this month either. At night, I'll ask Marceline to trim the ends."

Mr. Dalfodi was the barber who had been cutting my hair for as long as I could remember. He always told me stories about my brother, so I had my hair cut by him whenever possible.

A little gel solved the problem with my hair for the time being, and soon I left for the police station. I didn't invite Rosella to come with me because she already had plans with Marceline.

I had already taken the cable car to the Central District the day before, so I walked this time. I couldn't afford to use the cable cars whenever I needed to. For that, I would need to get a higher, steady salary.

I wasn't the only one who thought so, but also everyone in the poorest neighborhoods of Lovikalen. At that time, big cities like Lovikalen were rare, so public transportation was still poor and expensive.

Another way to travel besides cable cars was by carriage, but there were few coachmen you could trust. The fare at the beginning of the trip was one price, but at the end they could charge more for detours along the way. It was a kind of extortion, and that's why coachmen only did this to people who looked poor enough that they wouldn't cause them any trouble.

What I said about poor people being the least benefited, even by the poor themselves, was a big problem not only in the Tower of Babel, but also throughout the Kingdom of Durtch. Perhaps even worldwide.

For this reason, as long as it wasn't a trip to another city, I would rather simply walk through Lovikalen than deal with the coachmen's mafia.

When more than an hour had passed since I left home, I finally arrived at the Central Police Station. I took a deep breath after reading the stone plaque above the double doors and took a step forward.

That's when the door opened and I had a feeling of déjà vu, except instead of a fugitive jumping at me, I saw a familiar, calm face.

"Brandon?" asked Kyle Barlow as he adjusted his glasses.