The morning Raven and the others were busy dealing with the queen and the mess she'd made, Aria was waking up on a couch–having comfortably slept. The cushions in Helga's house being much better than the mattresses at the inn, she woke up feeling refreshed and that sliver of back pain that had always been there; had disappeared completely.
"Oii, wake up..." Helga warned, passing Aria in the living room as she made her way to the dining with a large platter of breakfast.
But it wasn't her voice that drew Aria off the couch, instead, they were her daughters, who came rushing from the back and grabbed Aria by her hands. Pulling the elf off her feet, giggling and smiling, the mischievous duo led her to the dining table and Aria followed nearly stumbling every step of the way.
"WoowWO! Aughhh!" Letting go of the elf as they caught momentum, they nearly sent her crashing against the table, but moving her hand in front of Aria, Helga stopped her from falling face-first against the dining.
Helping Aria up, her eyes turned to her children–however, they held not anger, but rather indifference. Yet the empty look in her eyes was enough to chill the duo to their spine; it hadn't been too long since they'd been hung upside down from their tail after biting their mother in a fit of rage.
"It was her idea!" Tatiyan yelped, pointing at her sister.
"WHAT?! NO! I... Slowly looking at Helga, Stella's eyes quickly dejected to the floor, but to her surprise and her sister's she only gave a disgruntled grown.
"I-its okay, I was still kind of in a dreamy state," Aria chimed in, trying to defend the sisters.
Resting her hands on her hips, Helga heaved a sigh before fanning her hands suggesting to just let the matter go.
"Get on the table you two, and no more games," she warned, and without another eep or peep, the sisters covered their chuckling mouths and slipped into their chairs.
Getting into a chair as well, Aria lifted the plate covering her meal, and the moment she did, a steamful of aroma assaulted her nostrils. The sweet hint of a spicy sauce slathered on charred meat, run with a pair of sloppy orange yolks, and lightly sweetened rice pudding. It was a simple plate yet extravagant, at least for someone who lived in an orphanage before permanently moving to an inn.
Nearly crying from the taste, she opened her eyes ready to wolf down even more of the food, but that's when she noticed both Helga and her daughter staring right at her. Helga with anger and the sister with a smile as they barely masked their giggles behind their lips.
"You're gonna get spanked now! Ehehehe~" Unable to hold herself, Tatiyana burst out into a laugh.
"She might get a few, but you'll get a hundred if you don't finish your food before school start!" However, her joy was short-lived as Helga made her shriek in fear.
Past that point, none of the daughters spoke a word as they began wolfing down food faster than Aria could see. In the end, the duo were sent by Helga into their room to quickly change out of their night clothes and into something fitting for school.
"They pray because they find comfort in it, they think it makes them immune to anything and everything...all because of a damned daily prayer," saying those words the moment the two were left alone, Helga cleared up the doubts that were clearly reflected in Aria's shifty eyes while her daughters were praying.
However, the sudden steer to the conversation had left the room in an awkward silence, and so Aria decided to divert elsewhere.
"Aaaa...So how did you learn to cook so well?" She asked.
Tilting her head sideways while her eyes rolled up to search through memories, Helga quickly gave an answer.
"At the dragon lord's castle, I used to fuck the head maid who handled the kitchen..."
Needless to say, Helga's explanation drew Aria's curiosity but she was far too scared to question her further.
'I guess I'll just wait for training time...' She thought, awkwardly scratching the side of her head.