Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

What better way to get to know someone than to go on a trip together with that person?

"Let's go play!"

As a sign of friendship, I grabbed Kanoko by her hand. In an instance, we were in the sky above Vera, a city of beastfolks. 

Since I had not recorded the coordinates of the Abyssal Gate or where the floating islands were, we had to travel via flight or at least that was my preferred method.

In any world, flying was a magical feeling and this was no different. Pulling her by her hands, and supporting her with my fey magic, we soared across the sky while the sun was slowly setting. To be precise, to speed things up before night fell, I had us travelling at sonic speed while permitting only a mild breeze to brush against us.

So far, she had been completely silent.

"How does it feel? This must be your first time, right?" I grinned from ear to ear then turned to see how she was.

"Yes... This is quite... thrilling..."

The color of her face said something different though.

"Are you perhaps scared of height?"

She stuttered, "Y-Yes... I mean.. No... I'm fine."

"You're clearly not fine. My bad."

The city of Gurok, or at least the mountain peaks, was already in sight so I quickly landed the two of us on a quiet street for her to catch her breath.

"Sorry about that." She apologized.

"We can take it slow."

"I don't want to take up too much of your time. You have to be at the tournament tomorrow, right?"

"Not necessarily but I did promise Smoothie that we could watch it together. Since you're free tomorrow, you should come as well. It'll be interesting for sure."

She was visibly relieved after I answered her, and on top of that, invited her out. It was like a get-together, no, it really was. I wondered if this was the first time anyone had invited her for anything in recent decades. Surely, when she used to be a human, she must have had at least one friend she spent time with.

"Alright, then count me in." She smiled shyly.

Oh my gosh, is this a new side of her I'm seeing for the first time? What a sight!

She raised an eyebrow and said, "You're not thinking of something rude, are you?"

"Aha, that's a secret!" Immediately, I tried to switch to a different topic. "Um, are you hungry? Foods and drinks are on me!"

Ignoring what I said earlier, her face brightened, "I'll have one of your special drink."

"Great, one strawberry juice coming right up!"

"Thank a lot, Berry."

"You're most welcome. We're friends now! This much is nothing between us."

She chuckled, "If you say so."

After a short break, she decided to try flying with me again. This time though, she said she would try to overcome her fears of height. Still, I thought it was a bit too early. Though as a friend, I decided to instead provide encouragement and support her in overcoming her fears.

We tried this just outside of the city on top of the mountains. I shielded her from chilly winds as she gazed below from on the tip of a vertical cliff. From here, we could see the entire Gurok's city centre illuminated with innumerable magical lights as if there was a festival.

"How are you feeling?" I asked while standing right behind her. In case her knees gave out, I would catch her before she fell to her death. Again, there was always the method of altering her consciousness and removing that fear altogether but it wasn't something I would use on friends. People should overcome their own fears using their own strength.

"I don't know..."

"I'm surprised you've never tried to conquer your fear of height with as long as you have lived."

"Hey, don't judge! I'm just..."

"Do you want to rest for a bit? I can just travel the rest of the way myself and teleport you there."

"No... I'll overcome it. This time, for sure!"

After another half hour of staring at the city, she came to her senses.

"It's getting late. We should find a place to stay for the night. How about we leave tomorrow morning?"

I knew for a fact based on what she just said that she couldn't overcome it. Well, it couldn't be helped so I went along with her. Unlike me, she still needed to sleep.

"I'm fine with that. Do you want to come to my place? I have guest rooms and everything."

She was clearly perplexed by my offer.

"You have guest rooms? I'm not sure I follow. Do you not live in Vera? I know you can teleport and all...?" Her voice trailed off towards with anticipation.

"It's a separate world. Let's go."

To make the transition as seamless as possible, I wrapped us in a dark barrier before transporting us into my subspace. Direct teleportation was possible but it was definitely easier to just shift the portal over us. Once we were inside my subspace, I uncloaked us.

"Mother, took you long enough!"

The first one to greet me was Smoothie. For some reason she was upset. I was sure I had properly adjusted the time flow of my subspace whenever I entered or left my subspace. I doubted I forgot this time.

Ah right... The outer layer and the center are operating on different times. It shouldn't be that long though.

"Sorry, how long was it?"

"A month! A full month! You had us waiting for one full month! How could you!?" Mera was glaring at me intensely.

"Sorry... How did you even manage to keep track of time here...?" I was a bit curious so I asked but that was kind of stupid of me.

"I kept track of it."

Obviously, the only one who could keep track of time in my subspace was Smoothie, specifically, [sage].

"Sorry about that," I apologized again while bowing my head slightly. "Don't worry though, hardly any time passed outside."

Meanwhile, Kanoko was visually absorbing everything from her surroundings, not literally.

I briefly introduced the two of them to each other. "Alright, Mera, this is Kanoko. Kanoko, this is Mera. I hope you two can get along."

After the introduction, I announced with great excitement, "Alright, tonight you'll taste my home cooking! It'll be a feast!"

I received a few gazes filled with suspicion.

"You can cook? Are you sure it's actually cooking?" Kanoko asked.

"You're just going to create food out of thin air again." Mera added.

"I agree."

"Aww... Smoothie, you too? Don't doubt me! I can cook if I try, you know?"

Kanoko, giggling at our silly banter, added, "You're just doing your magic gimmicks though. I don't think that's considered cooking. But, I'm willing to try."

Happy fox girl, cute. Now that I've invited her into my home, I wonder if she'll let me touch her fluffy ears and tail... Oh please...

"Oh right, Kanoko, do you mind teaching Smoothie how to properly transform? Her transformation isn't complete so she can't eat food."

"Sure, I'm surprised you haven't mastered it either."

"I'm just built differently, you know? And, thanks!" Then I turned to Smoothie, "Smoothie, you better learn quickly or no food for you!"

"Meanie!" She pouted with a frown.

"Wait, Berry, it took me decades to..." Her voice trailed off but didn't finish her sentence seeing how Smoothie was on the verge of tears.

That stupid [sage] ability is useless... Don't tell me even with its advises, she'd still need years to master it. That can't be the case, right? Well, there's always my backup plan so nothing to worry about!

"Uh. I'll leave it to you... I'm off to the kitchen. Bye!"

With that, I made a quick escape from this dangerous situation.

While in the kitchen, my mind was on a fieldtrip, pulling out all stops from my past life, anything recipes and cooking techniques I could dig up. Creating ingredients was permitted, but everything else had to be prepared with my actual skill.

Think, think, think! You've got this! You just need the mindset of a chef... Yes. I can see it now! Tears of joy from Smoothie as she tastes my signature dishes.

"Hm? What. Why are you two looking at me like that? I'm the new head chef around here, you know?"

Blackberry and Blueberry, my two maids or clones, were staring at me blankly like I was an idiot from an outsider's perspective. Although their intelligence wasn't set as high as Comrade Snowberry, they were still quite capable at their respective assignments. Also, because I hadn't gotten around to develop their emotions and expressions, they could only show either a blank expression or a gentle smile. Jokes aside, they were just playing along with me, or I was just playing with myself?

Anyhow, now that I was here, I reassigned their tasks. They were now to help me with making the most exquisite foods known to this subspace. And, to ensure I didn't cheat, there was a glass panel attached to the kitchen to allow observers to examine my absolute elegance while creating world class exquisite foods.

You'll all just watch. I'm the chef of the century.

First of all, for the main course, I decided on curry. Who said spices had to be from this world? Nobody. There were some basic vegetables and fruits from this world that would go well with curry so I employed them into my recipe.

Curry powder was basically the top secret ingredient.

Obviously I couldn't win when it came to local cuisine so I had to resort to this cheat.

You'll want seconds. Ehehehe...

I knew for a fact that sweets weren't popular with the beastfolks. However, curry was sure to be popular as long as it wasn't sweet curry. Adjustments were necessary. Because everyone had different preferences, I decided to create several versions of it.

Staring at me through the glass panel was Mera with a bored expression, her eyes half open like she was watching paint dry.

I had my assistants peel and cut the vegetables. As for meat, I picked one that was tender and juicy that was commonly sold in Vera.

Anyway, in about half an hour, three pots of curry were ready to be served. One was sweet with a slightly fruity taste, one was spicy, and one was herby or just regular.  

The next up was rice which was cooked in merely another half an hour. I wanted to bake some bread which was also eaten in Appallia but there was just no way I could make bread from scratch in a short amount of time without using my cheats.

By now, two fey beings had joined Mera at the table. Vintelo and Mufy seemed to have became quite good friends over the past few weeks.

Vintelo, please say "woof." I joked in my mind.

To be frank, I had a feeling they were going to ask me to let them leave sooner or later. There really wasn't much to do inside my subspace. Having them join Oortez's research team was probably not a good idea either.

Oops, I better not get distracted. It's not a full course meal without desserts.