"Job well done."
Taking a few steps back, I used the very last rays of the sun to admire the house which I just finished constructing. Even though it could present nicely only from the outside, with the insides still being a complete mess, just the fact that the three of us no longer had to worry about shelter was already a huge step forward.
In the end, I decided against building a separate house for Celleria. As annoying as she was, there was no denying it that in the possible near future, we would have to rely on her in order to learn in more detail about the way of living that people on this continent believed in.
Just like someone from the medieval far east would stand out in medieval Europe even if he would be capable of masking his different facial traits and adopt the way that locals were dressing, so would be the case with the two of us, making Celleria's help all the more important for us. After all, if we acted like her servants, then for the small cost of our pride, we could avoid nearly any attention!
"Bart! Dinner is ready!"
Hearing the shout coming from behind me, I turned around. Right in the middle of the small clearing that I decided to leave out of the construction site, Eve and Celleria took care of a huge fireplace. On it, a huge carcass of a beast that I hunted during a break from the building was roasted above the fire, spreading a delicious aroma through the entire area.
"I'm coming!'
Taking the one, last look at the simple house in front of me, I put away the tools that I use to turn simple logs into elaborate works of art. Dusting off my clothes with few energetic pats, I could see a huge cloud of wood dust raising up from my body only to calmly fall down the ground.
Satisfied with the outcome of a day of my hard work, I finally moved back to the campfire and sat down beside it, nearly instantly receiving a huge bowl carved out from a block of wood leftover from the build, filled with what looked like a broth.
"Just when did you have the time to cook a proper soup…"
Shaking my head in amazement over Eve's cooking abilities, despite how eager I was to dig in, I forced myself to wait for my fiance to sit down with her own bowl. After all, no matter what kind of troubling matters were lurking beyond the horizon, it was the very first time that I had the chance to comfortably eat a meal of her production ever since the frantic times back in the arena city begun!
"Let's dig in!"
Sitting directly on the grass beside me, Eve gestured at me with a welcoming smile. Just like it was the first time since a long while ago for me to eat her cooking, it was the first time for her to enjoy me praising her for it!
"It's delicious!"
While I knew that I could expect something that no restaurant back on earth would be ashamed to put at their main dish, my expectations turned out to be insulting to the reality. The mellow taste of some strange vegetables served as the appetizer, while the fatty chunks of meat not only enriched the taste but also melted down in my mouth, releasing something that I could only call a flavour bomb!
"Why are you praising her so much? It's not like with those ingredients she could do anything worse…"
Instantly spoiling our little fun, Celleria butted in, while ignoring the fact that her own spoon was already approaching the speeds of spacecraft balancing wheel. But how could I accept this kind of irritating behaviour? While poking fun or annoying me was one thing, doing those things towards Eve was completely inexcusable!
"Celleria, stop that. Not only it's annoying, but you are now making this great meal taste worse than it does. If you can't appreciate everything we are doing for you, it's fine, but don't try to annoy us. Don't forget that you are not irreplaceable."
There was a limit to how far she could go with us. So far, I was tolerating her irritating behaviour due to her being Eve's step-sister, but that was about it. Her services as the guide on the continent could be easily replaced, as just by fulfilling some quests or missions I could easily obtain more funding than necessary to just hire someone for this task!
"Bully…"
Uttering this slur under her breath, this annoying girl quickly moved to the other side of the fireplace, putting the flame between us. But rather than pointing out how quickly she escaped the moment I started to actually care about what she was doing, I decided that enjoying this small bit of privacy for the two of us was way more important.
"Dear, how about we try the main dish? The way it smells is making me hungry, and this soup alone, no matter how insane it is, just can't sate this hunger of mine!"
Putting away the empty bowl, I tickled Eve's side as I spoke. With how the sun was already gone for the night, it was given that as soon as we would return to the house, then we would finally get some time to enjoy ourselves. As for Celleria, me openly lashing out at her was just a part of my plan to make sure she wouldn't even attempt trying to butt in during our fun!
"Sure thing, just give me a moment."
Smiling back at me with her hands only accidentally all over my body as she used me as the support to stand up, she picked up one of the knives that I made from the spare wood, before slicking a long strip of perfectly roasted and spiced meat from the grill. But rather than putting it on some kind of plate or even passing it to me directly, she put one end of the meat in her mouth, before standing above me with the sparks of joy filling her big eyes!
It seemed that our fun would begin even before moving in, to the only room that I bothered to finish in that new house of us, namely bedroom!