Jenni sat with a victorious smile on her lips. Although she couldn't find the dimension cube, he promised her that he would make ten of those desserts before he left for the expedition. All she had to do was help him with some shopping, which would take a couple of hours at most.
She rested on the couch with a silly grin as Warden went to refresh himself in the washroom. He asked her to wait for a few minutes, but, gods, this man took his time in the washroom like a woman. Thankfully, he came out after half an hour, fully clothed in an easy tunic and leather pants.
"I'm famished," he muttered. "Let me cook something real quick." Jenni was about to argue that her time was limited, even if it wasn't, but his next words stole the argument from her lips. "Did you have breakfast yet?"
"I... ate some leftovers," she said. "Well, wait a few minutes, I'll make us something fresh." With that, he got to the kitchen and began cutting herbs and vegetables, while igniting a stove to steam rice. He worked with perfect efficiency, which spoke volumes of his control. Well, cooking is nothing special compared to what it takes to lay runes on something. But still, Jenni didn't know how to cook.
Well, she could do simple stuff like tea, rice, toasting an egg, and such, but nothing like what this man does even with ordinary ingredients. "How have you mastered so many arts?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Many?" Warden said, not lifting his head from the vegetables. "I'm only good at four things, which can hardly be called many."
"Four things?" Jenni perked her eyebrow. "One is Runes, second is cooking, what are the other two?"
"Spear," Warden said. "But you use a sword?" Jenni argued. "Well, that's why I needed your father's help to smith me a spear," Warden said. "I broke my spear." Jenni was unsure what to say. "And what is the other thing?"
Warden smiled softly. "I need to find that out..." Jenni snorted. "If you don't want to say it, just say it; do you think I'll be jealous of you?"
Warden finally lifted his head to shoot her a look. "Well, I'm a little jealous of how easily you can cook and make those heavenly desserts, but only a tiny bit," she admitted. Warden laughed. "Huh, I thought you'd be more jealous of my runesmithing skills."
"As if, I just need time to reach Master rank in runesmithing; why would I be jealous of that?"
"You know cooking is far easier than runesmithing, right?" Warden said.
"Really?" Curiosity grew in her without her knowing. "How did you end up here?"
"Circumstances, I guess," he answered vaguely. It didn't take a genius to know he didn't want to talk about it, but Jenni felt like pushing more on the topic.
"I thought you're some noble lord. . . umm. . ."
"Really?" Warden asked, lifting his head to meet her gaze, a sardonic smile on his lips. "What gives that impression? Is it how I act?"
"I mean your white hair, and eyes," she said, studying his figure. "Your figure, and the aura you radiate when you're on duty..."
"My hair is grey, not white," Warden said, shaking his head. "My eyes too. And I don't think it's natural; it mutated with my power. As for my stature, there were countless common fellows... Hell, even those savage orcs have a similar stature. As for the aura, it can be cultivated."
Jenni picked up on the vagueness but didn't question it. "When you explained them, it makes sense, but for any outsider, you do look like someone of upper standing, like you know of your standing and how to act like it."
Warden grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"You still haven't mentioned how you mastered all that so early?"
"I may not be as young as I look," Warden said mysteriously.
"Even considering that your age will at most be forty," she said, doing a quick calculation in her mind.
"That's quite a time, don't you think, to master Runes," Warden said. "And getting into some other hobby?"