Chapter 11 ~ Angel of Death

It was odd to see Ryina dealing with the shop on her own. After she was finished handling an adventurer that ordered a few potions, she smiled as she turned to me.

“Good morning, master.”

“Morning, Ryina. Did Lily go out or something?”

“No, master. She seems to have gotten sick but don’t worry, I told her to rest and let me take care of the shop.”

Ryina had learned to handle the shop without me or Lily to intervene. She was able to take stock of the inventory and deal with customers. While she had the shop covered, I made my way up the stairs and opened the door to the bedroom. Lily was laying there in the bed with a cold cloth on her forehead. I made my way over to her as she opened her eyes.

“Looks like you made it up, Nyizel.”

“I was a bit surprised to see Ryina running the shop by herself but I’m glad she is able to without any problems. How are you feeling?”

I removed the cloth from Lily’s forehead and placed it in the nearby cold bucket Ryina had left out; however, the water was lukewarm. Placing my hand on her forehead, I could tell that her body temperature was a bit higher than normal.

“I’ll make you something to eat and stay with you for a while.”

“Try not to worry, Nyizel. I’m fine.”

“No, I will take care of you, now relax and let me make you some soup.”

Lily smiled and closed her eyes. I made my way into the kitchen and thought about how best to make the soup. The guild had taught us many things, cooking was surprisingly not one of those skills. Every target I killed did not live long enough to tell me if they enjoyed the meal. Looking over the ingredients in the kitchen, I decided to go with tomato soup. It was a fairly simple dish that made use of tomatoes, basil and salt. Filling up a bowl with some water, I placed it on the stove and started to heat up the water. Grabbing a tomato, I started to chop it up into thirds and put it into the water. I was unsure how long I needed to wait for the soup to be ready but I figured it needed at least five or ten minutes to be ready. Heading over to a small nearby table where I kept some medical herbs in the kitchen that helped with aliments such as colds and fevers, I broke off a bit of the herb and waited for the tomato soup to finish heating up. Once the soup was hot and boiling, I removed the bowl from the stove and placed the herb in the soup. Grabbing a wooden spoon, I served the soup to Lily who was happy that I had made her soup.

Dipping the spoon into the soup, I blew on it gently and fed it to Lily. For a moment, I thought I could see her expression change into one of surprise before settling into the usual smile. She continued to ingest the warm liquid down her throat, seemingly trying to force it down. Before long, she had eaten roughly half of the bowl.

“It’s good. Thank you, Nyizel.”

“I’m glad you liked it. You need anything else?”

“No, no. I am fine. I just need to rest.”

Nodding and taking the bowl with me, I closed the door behind me. I noticed Ryina just entering into the kitchen. It was nearing the last few minutes of the closing hour and she had decided to grab a bite to eat.

“Master, is that soup?”

“Yeah, I made it for Lily. You want the rest?”

Ryina graciously took the bowl and plunged the liquid of the spoon into her mouth. In that moment, she spit the soup back into the bowl. She quickly handed the bowl back to me.

“What kind of soup is that? It tastes awful, master.”

“It’s just tomato soup.”

“That is not tomato soup, master.”

“Lily seemed to like it.”

“Pretty sure she just did not want you to feel bad about how the food was. I can make something for myself and Lily, so don’t worry, master.”

Ryina began working on a dish for herself. I could not help but feel a bit useless when it came to cooking. Cooking was not a forte of mind in my previous life. Being a vampire did not help since I was unable to eat food or drink of any kind – other than red wine. The one time I did try to eat human food, I found my body rejected it. Maybe one day Emily could create a food that vampires could eat but it is likely that would be a day none of us vampires would see anytime soon.

Once Ryina was finished, she set a few plates of food on the table and two glasses of wine. I watched as Ryina downed the food like a ravenous beast without shame. It was rather amazing to see a young and petite elf indulge in so much food and still maintain her slim figure. Sipping at my wine slowly, I was worried about Lily. She said she was fine but my mind could not help but wonder if she was lying about her heath. I always believed Lily and that she would never lie to me but it was hard not to push the thought out of the back of my mind.

“Hey, Ryina. Question for you.”

“Yes, master?”

“If you could have one thing in the world, what would it be?”

Ryina seemed thrown off by the question for a moment before entering a deep thought about what she could have. Most elves wanted to be free and have a home in the forest. Their life was fairly simple and while some wanted to attain a deeper study of magic, elves were simple creatures.

“I just want to keep working at this shop with you and Lily, master.”

“That is something I can continued to grant you,” I said as I downed the rest of my wine.