Chapter 279 - Family Meal

After helping out the healers, Shiro looked around to see what else she could do.

However, the villagers urged her to take a rest with a smile since she had already done plenty for them.

Therefore, Shiro took this chance to hang out with her own family. Well… it was no longer her family in a sense since she wasn't Nytri anymore.

"Since I've promised you, let me cook up a decent meal for you." Amanda smiled and put on an apron.

"Thank you, do you need any help?" Shiro asked.

"No it's ok. I can't have our benefactor help cook her own meal now can I?" Amanda chuckled and gestured for her to sit down.

"Haha, just sit down and relax. I can guarantee that Amanda's food is one of the best in this village." Gerald said while giving her a small thumbs up.

"I look forward to it then." Shiro nodded her head. She had long forgotten the taste of her mother's cooking and wondered if the legacy space could recreate the feeling.

Looking over at Nytri who was staring out the window, Shiro walked over.

"What are you looking for?" Shiro asked.

"Mn? Oh I'm trying to find Dalim. I haven't seen him yet." Nytri replied with a frown.

"Dalim? Is he someone important for you to look for him like this?" Shiro teased with a nostalgic smile.

Hearing her question, Nytri blushed and looked down at the windowsill.

{My queen… are you sure that this is you? If I had to describe it, Nytri is like a delicate flower while you're… Hmm… a violent venus fly trap?}

'Well do remember that this is me before I was subjected to years of torture by the scientists. It wasn't odd that I fell in love with a boy. If my memory is correct, he had always helped me when I was in trouble and had a dream of becoming a teacher. Do you want to know why he wanted to be a teacher?'

{Sure.}

'Because if he educated all the kids in the village, they'll be able to go to the cities and live a better life.' Shiro chuckled while remembering some of the childhood moments that they shared.

{Shouldn't kids have dreams that benefit them more than other people? He sounds quite mature.}

'Well he was the type to always look out for others.' Shiro shrugged.

"Um S- Shi? Shico?"

"It's Shiro." Shiro chuckled seeing her younger self struggle at remembering her name.

"Mn. Shiro, can you tell me how to be strong and pretty like you? That way, I can help Dalim more." Nytri asked politely.

"Hmm… we'll have to ask your parents then. If you get stronger, there will be a lot more responsibilities you know? That and also you'll face lots of people who are stronger so once you decide to be strong, you have to keep growing stronger if you don't want to be eliminated." Shiro patted her head and stood up.

In this legacy space, she wanted to see what life would be like if she hadn't received the nanobots. That being said, it wasn't as if she regrets the things that had happened to her. It was just mild curiosity.

Feeling her hair, Nytri frowned in confusion.

Ignoring the confused Nytri, Shiro sat on one of the sofas and looked back at her mother and father working in the kitchen.

{It's a nice family isn't it?} Nimue called out while observing the situation from the mana realm.

'Yeah.' Shiro chuckled before taking out the nanobot research vol 3.

It was a rather simple book and was barely decorated.

Flipping it open on the first page, she started to read while waiting for the food to be prepared.

[After experiments regarding the fusion of nanobots and mana, we've discovered that it becomes highly adaptive. Whenever a 'will' is injected through the mana, the nanobots will try their best to shape that 'will'. However, without sufficient information, this would be impossible. Hence why a database of sorts should be implemented within the host.

[However, as the nanobots are highly volatile, the more we inject into a subject, the higher the chance of rejection. We must get past this hurdle first before implementing more changes to the nanobots.]

Flipping through the pages, Shiro found out that most of it was filled with the information she already knew. But half way through the research paper, she discovered that her nanobots, were just the simplest form of this concept.

If one had to describe it, it would be akin to having access to 30% of the functions and passing it off as whole.

'Hmm…. Does that mean there are higher forms of the base class? I suppose I did have the nanotech war maiden as one of my class up options.' Shiro thought to herself in curiosity.

Reading further into the volume, she discovered more concepts that had connections to the class.

Examples being how it may be able to affect the system due to the fact that there had to be a source for the system. A brain if one could describe it as such.

However, just as things were about to go into more detail, Shiro found that the book had finished.

"Tch. Can't they just finish on a good end or something. Don't cut it off when it just starts to get good ya b*stard." She cursed silently while putting the book back into her inventory.

Taking a deep breath, she crossed her legs and leaned back.

'Since volume 3 ended like this, it should mean that there is a volume 4. Volumes 1 and 2 are just as important since they will probably give me more detail regarding the base concept of this class.' She mused to herself.

Shaking her head, she flexed her fingers, causing a swarm of nanobots to rotate around her hand.

The key point about volume 3 was focusing on the nanobot's individual prowess rather than when it shapes itself into an item.

Much like how some mages will control water, if she was to reshape the core structure of her nanobots, she'll be able to increase their lethality without having to turn them into a gun.

Furrowing her brows, she realised that trying to redesign the core structure of the nanobots was going to be much harder than she had expected.

Much like what happened with her genesis hand cannons, if the balance was wrong, a backlash would occur and send a wave of pain through her body.

Even if she had great pain resistance, it didn't mean she couldn't feel pain.

'Hais… I'll probably work on it while I escort the villagers to the new city.' Shiro sighed softly.

{It's ok my queen. I believe in you.} Nimue encouraged.

'Mn, thanks.'

"Miss Shiro, dinner is ready." Amanda called out from the kitchen as Geral helped her bring out the dishes.

Looking at the table full of home cooking, Shiro felt a little emotional.

'To think I'll be able to eat her cooking again, even if it is an illusion…' Shiro thought with a sigh.

Gesturing for everyone to sit down, Amanda passed Shiro a set of knives and forks.

"Well since you're the guest, you should eat first." Amanda smiled.

"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro grabbed the fork and picked up a piece of the closest dish and placed it in her mouth.

Just as she ate the food, memories started to flood her mind of when she ate her parents cooking. From when she was a child to the day they died.

"It tastes just like how I remember…" She muttered as tears started form in the corner of her eyes. She felt like a lump had grown in her throat as she struggled to talk.

"Pardon me for a second." Shiro excused herself and quickly left the house. Dashing into the forest, she sat down on the branch and wiped away her tears.

Taking several deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down. But if someone was here, they would notice that her voice quivered with each breath.

"Seems like I miss them more than I thought…" Shiro muttered while hugging her legs.

All of the emotions that she should have felt years ago came rushing back to her now that she took a break from thinking about revenge. A single meal with her parents was all it took for all the built up sadness to overwhelm her.

Nimue didn't know what to say since she was rather surprised at Shiro's moment of weakness. Not that it was a bad thing of course.

After calming herself down, Shiro looked into the sky.

"I'm sorry that your daughter had turned into such a bloodthirsty being." She apologised with a sad smile.

Eventually, she shook her head and looked down at the several crystals that glistened on her palms.

[Tears of the Sylph Queen (Red)]

The tears that belong to someone who rarely cries. Some might say that these might be the only tears that she will drop in her life.

Effect when consumed: +5% element affinity, +5% INT.

All effects are permanent and can't be stacked. Effect scales up with level.