Quinn
I thought it was very clever of me to create vending machines to magically conjure small bowls of fruit as snacks for the children, but I just didn't know how... popular it'd be, not until that very evening.
As usual, the dining hall was crowded and loud as everyone came in for dinner, and Aldric came to sit beside me. As a greeting, he kissed me on the forehead and then began eating, which was seafood paella, stunningly delicious and packed with rice, spices, and seafoods such as prawns, mussels, squids, lobsters, and chunks of white fish. To add to the Spanish cuisine of the evening, there was also tortilla Espanola, or Spanish tortilla, an omelet made of egg and potato, patatas bravas, which was potato that had been cooked in olive oil and then served with spicy sauce, pollo al ajillo, which was garlic chicken, and pisto, the Spanish version of ratatouille, and they were all mouthwatering.
I was just popping a forkful of paella, including a prawn, into my mouth and loving every bit of it when Mark came to stand in front of me near the table and said, "What is this about fruit and the Vicky Vending Machines?"
I lifted my head, my eyes wide. He found out about that, did he?
I pointed to the door and said, "It's out there for the children." I smirked. "Did you want to try the fruit, too."
He sighed. "That's not it, Quinn."
Aldric must have sensed that Mark was not pleased with something and directing his annoyance toward me. He said, "Is something the matter, Mark? I don't appreciate you using that sort of tone with Quinn."
Tone? Ah, he meant the exasperated sort.
Mark said, "I've been bombarded with questions from almost everyone I met in the last two hours. They're asking the same thing and that's when they're going to get their point card so they can eat the fruit. Because apparently, the children go around telling everyone how exotic and sweet and delicious the fruit is and that they can only get it when they receive a point card from my lady, whatever in heaven a point card is."
"Well," I said. "A point card is a card I created so that the children can insert it into the vending machine to get the fruit. If I were to simply have the fruit sit out there, they'd either not touch them, which will leave the fruit to rot and that would be a waste, or they'd eat too much and spare no room for their lunch or dinner, and that's not good for children. They need a proper diet, so a point card is perfect since they are portion controlled."
Mark sighed. "I see. Yes, I understand that logic, but what I'm trying to ask is, are we going to be giving out a point card to everyone?"
I chuckled awkwardly. "Ah, that, in this case, I didn't think that far ahead. Perhaps we should?"
"Yes, I think we should, because apparently, Uncle Colt has been snaffling Leo's and Ruby's fruit in front of their very eyes."
Across the table, Leo said, "He just grabbed my rambutan without asking. He said what's this red hairy-looking thing and then took one without asking and peeled it and ate it and then took another. He took half my rambutan. I like rambutan, and now, I have to wait until tomorrow to get some more when I get more points."
Oh, dear. I didn't know there was snaffling going on within the family, and from a great uncle at that. And speak of the devil.
Uncle Colt was strolling in from the direction of the residential area, chewing something. Who had he snaffled the fruit off this time?
"Evening all," he said once he was at the dining table.
"What are you eating, Uncle Colt?" Leo asked. "You didn't steal any fruit from the other children, did you?"
He burst out in loud laughter. "As if I'd do anything of the sort. Unlike you, Leo, little Declan was nice enough to offer me some of his. The thing call jackfruit is mighty sweet and juicy." He rubbed his hands together and said, "Mmm. Dinner tonight looks delicious." Then he started loading his plate with paella until it formed a decent-sized mound. I suspected he'd have three filled plates of paella and three of the other dishes, too, followed by three servings of dessert like he usually did.
Yep, Uncle Colt was a big eater, all right. I just bet he could finish a whole jackfruit by himself. A whole jackfruit was massive and could weigh between twenty to fifty pounds.
Mark shook his head as he turned to me. "We need to distribute those point cards and make sure they have names on them because we don't want any snaffling of that, too." He flicked his eyes to Uncle Colt who was busy wolfing down paella and very oblivious to the discussion revolving around him.
"They already have names on them. They're connected to their status card, after all. And we'll do it after dinner."
He nodded and then returned to his seat.
"It seems you've caused more undue disturbance to the Norsewood people again, Quinn," Aldric said, his eyes glinting.
I said, "Oh dear, does that bother the lord of the land?"
"Not at all," he said. "Rather, it's amusing to see."
Ah, so he found me causing disturbance to his people amusing, eh? Changing the subject, I asked, "Will you be training again after dinner?"
He nodded.
"Then how about I bring you some snacks later?"
"That sounds delightful," he said.
After dinner, Aldric and most of the soldiers left, and Mark and I, with the help of the admin team, began handing out point cards. There were already lines outside waiting for their turns on the vending machines. Seriously, they had just had a big dinner and dessert, and they were already eager for the fruit? Where were they going to put those? I saw a few taking the bowls of fruit up to their units, as there had always been a few who took leftovers to their units to have later when they got a bit hungry at night.
"Isn't the portion size too small, Quinn?" Uncle Colt asked, taking his card from my hand.
"Pardon?" I raised my gaze to look at him.
"I'm voicing my concern that the portion size of the fruit is too small for men like me," he said.
I said, "But it's meant to be a snack, sir, not a full meal."
"Lassie," he said, looking me straight in the eye. "You've been with us for a good while now. You do know us Norsewood men have big appetites?"
"More like an endless pit of a stomach for you, Uncle," Sara said beside me.
Uncle Colt ignored Sara's sarcastic comment. "That small portion size isn't going to satisfy men like me, even for a snack, whatever that is."
"Uncle!" Mark said. "Please, you're holding up the line."
I said, "How about this? I make it so that the adult's portion size is bigger."
Uncle Colt seemed satisfied with that and, grinning, he turned on his heel and headed toward the door. I spied him joining the long line at the vending machines outside. It looked like he was going to have his snack of fruit right after dinner, like almost everyone else.
In my mind, I said, "Vicky?"
I've already reprogrammed the machines to have different portion sizes for adults and children.
"Thank you," I echoed in my head.
It was Kent and Derek next in front of us, and Kent said, "It's quite unexpected and rather thrilling to see Norsewood people liking the fruit this much, especially those tropical ones."
Derek chuckled. "That just means we'd have to ensure the fruit trees we're cultivating are successful; otherwise, we won't be forgiven, especially by the children."
"And Uncle Colt," Sara said. "I won't be surprised if the cultivation of all those fruit trees doesn't work, he'd hijack one of the vending machines and hide it in his apartment for personal use."
Would Uncle Colt really go that far though? I said, "Yes, indeed, gentlemen. You must ensure that the fruit trees in the greenhouse can be cultivated for the sake of Norsewood's future."
It seemed the Norsewood people's palates were indeed diverse. I supposed that was to be expected since I had been feeding them many different types of cuisines around the world from Earth.
I managed to escape the chaos of the fruit snack party and headed up to the penthouse a bit later. There, I went to the terrace outside the master suite and collapsed on the luxurious sofa, sighing in pleasure as my body melted against the softness of plush seating and cushions.
Finally, some me time.
"Ah, that's better," I said, gazing up at the night sky where countless dots of stars glittered against the backdrop of darkness. The dome glass roof made it even better, with a little distortion here and there with the curve and shiny lights.
It was beautiful, the sight unlike anything I had ever experienced back on Earth due to all the lights in the cities. But of course, one could see the night sky clearly if one went out into the woods a distance away, but obviously, it was better here as I didn't have to do anything like that.
"I really am far from home, huh?" I said to myself. Because what was up there, the way the stars positioned from my point of view, was completely different than Earth. Then I wondered what part of the galaxy this world was in. Was it still part of the Milky Way? Only its solar system was placed in a different location to the one where Earth was? Or was it within another galaxy completely? I mean, there were at least two hundred billion galaxies in the universe, after all.
This world is not within the Milky Way galaxy.
I jolted. Vicky! She knew I had been thinking about that, eh?