The winter rain sprayed down on the world, lowering the already chilly temperatures of Astra. Due to the rain, when one leaves the comforts of one's shelter, they wear cloaks to protect themselves from the elements. However, when the heavy rain soaks through the cloaks and wets the clothing underneath, no more protection will be bestowed by the cloaks. The cold rain water complements the chilling wind, producing a bone chilling frost on one's body. Due to this heavy rain, the usually busy streets of Astalan is quite empty, with the only sound being the raindrops pounding against the ground.
Loganel sat in the living room of his dorm, reading from a book on dark magic and dispelling curses. Nearby in the fireplace, a warm cozy fire blazed on, providing his dorm with desperately needed heating. On his lap, Mazriel lay curled up as it slept in the cozy warmth of its master. As Loganel read from the book in his hands, he brought the cup of hot chocolate to his mouth, took a small sip, and returned it to the coffee table. Then, he would stroke Mazriel's warm fur with a gentle motion before returning his focus to his book.
It has been about two days since he had bought out Iry from her status as a prostitute, restoring her freedom. However, she still resides at Sister Lori's since finding a reasonably priced living space is not an easy task. Loganel knows that this should've been his responsibility, but he needed the time to study the art of the Arcane and hone his skills in order to be able to tackle stronger monsters and bring in more money. He is ashamed of himself for pushing the task of settling Iry down to Lori, but Lori forgave him and even offered to take full responsibility for finding Iry a place and help her settle down in the normal world.
It has been a few hours since Loganel had started reading and he had just finished with the book in his hands. He closed the book, looked up, and stared out the window at the downpour outside, which along with the gray clouds overhead, dyed the world a bland yet somewhat gloomy gray. In this weather, all colors seemed to have lost their vividness, becoming more and more dull. However, it is also due to this effect of the heavy rain that one appreciates the warmth of a fire and also...the warmth of companionship.
At the moment, in those numerous houses down yonder and in the many dorms of the Academy, friends and family gathered as they shared the comfort of each other's presence before a pleasant and warm fire. They probably would dine over a common table, chatting about recent events in their life as they dispelled the loneliness contained within them, creating a miniature sun that shined through the gloomy clouds in their minds. However, as for Loganel, he often lacked the presence of a close friend to share such a moment with. That is, if he was still the Loganel that had existed a year ago.
A gentle knock on Loganel's door signaled the arrival of a person who shall offer Loganel his or her companionship. Loganel gently displaced Mazriel from his lap, placing the cat on the couch with its furry stomach facing up, and walked over to answer the door. As the door slowly opened, it revealed Tetsuya and Kaz.
"Hey!" Tetsuya and Kaz greeted Loganel, who walked to the side to offer them passage into his house.
The two entered and began taking off their shoes so as to not get the shiny wooden floors of Loganel's dorm dirty. Kaz, since he resides in the normal dorms, had journeyed from there to the special dorms. Therefore, the rain cloak that he wore is soaked by the heavy downpour. This prompted him to hang it up on the special hook on the outside wall by the door.
"Man it's raining hard out there," Kaz left out a sigh of relief as he entered the dorm and immediately went over to the fire to toast himself up. "How're you doing, Mazzy?"
He started gently stroking Mazriel's tummy after realizing that the cat was just laying there. As a demi-human, Kaz belongs to the Felinoran group, which is a sub-race of demi-humans that share feline characteristics. Due to this, Kaz gets along extremely well with Mazriel.
"It seems like its pouring hard outside," Loganel commented as him and Tetsuya walked over to the couch and sat down.
"Yeah it is," Tetsuya stared out the window. "It's cold as hell out there as well."
"..." The conversation suddenly reached a stalemate as no one knows what to talk about next.
"I have a genuine question," Kaz broke the silent spell as he sat down after getting tired of stroking Mazriel's stomach. "What the hell are we supposed to do with three guys in a room?"
"..."
Kaz's insight on the situation rendered Loganel and Tetsuya speechless. They too have just realized the situation and have no plans. Initially, they just wanted to gather and chat. But what to chat about, they haven't decided on.
"What?" Kaz looked around at them with a surprised look on his face. "Don't tell me you guys never thought about this."
"Ahahaha," Loganel and Tetsuya laughed awkwardly. "Sorry..."
"Are you serious?" Kaz got up from his seat in shock. Then, he slumped back down onto his couch as all his strength escaped him from boredom. "So what're we supposed to do with three guys?"
"T-Tetsuya," Loganel directed the conversation towards him. "In your world, what do three guy friends do?"
"They ugh...they hang out."
"What do you mean by 'hang out'?"
"Hang out is ugh...it means...it means to hang out."
"So we're asking what 'hang out' is!"
"Um...Play video games?"
"We don't know what that is and we don't have that," Kaz added. "What else do your people do?"
"Young guys would ugh...watch videos together?"
"What're 'videos'?" Loganel asked. "It's not like we have a TV or computer to play that stuff."
"Yeah we don't..." Tetsuya sighed but he immediately stopped and looked up at Loganel, eyes widened with surprise. "How do you know about TV's and computers?"
"What?" Loganel looked at the two of them. Tetsuya eyed him with a look of shock whereas Kaz stared at him with a look that's almost as if watching a show. "I ugh...I don't know. Those words just seems to pop into my head at that moment. Like if you ask me what those things are, I can't tell you."
"..." Tetsuya sat there in silence, taking in what Loganel had just said. "Weird..." he whispered to himself.
"Let's not talk about that now," Kaz laid down on the couch. "We still have to find something to do. I can't believe I have to spend my afternoon in a room with only guys. Where's the girls at?"
"Sheriel told me that they're having a girls only dinner tonight at one of the restaurants in the city," Tetsuya responded, pushing his suspicions to the back of his mind for the time being.
"So they're eating right now? That's nice..." Kaz started drooling. "Come to think of it, I'm hungry right now." He got up and started for the kitchen's refrigerator, a device in which cold Mana is contantly generated by the Mana supplied by the school. "You got anything in here?—What the heck! It's empty. All you have are some onions and sauces!"
"Kaz," Tetsuya shook his head. "You expect too much from a single teenage boy's refrigerator."
"What do we do now?" Kaz sighed as he closed the refrigerator door. "You got any snacks around here or something?" He began digging through the cabinets and cupboards in the kitchen. "Oh man...There's only plates after plates after plates. Oh and a knife...You got nothing edible in here."
"Sorry," Loganel laughed it off.
"Do you not have anything?" Kaz complained. "Any meat?"
"If you're really hungry." Loganel picked up Mazriel and brought him over to Kaz who was standing by the kitchen counter. "We can always cook him."
Mazriel, upon hearing its master's words, started suddenly freaking out as it sensed something in Loganel's speech and frantically tried to escape.
"W-what the hell!" Kaz grabbed Mazriel from Loganel's arms and hugged it in a protective manner. "I'm not gonna let you eat Mazzy!"
"I'm just kidding," Loganel chuckled.
"Hmm?" Mazriel and Kaz eyed him with a doubtful look.
"Are you guys serious?" Loganel sighed in disbelief. "If you're really really that hungry, I have that."
Kaz's eyes followed Loganel's finger to see what he was pointing at, which is a bag of cat food.
"I'm not a goddamn cat!" Kaz shouted. "How're you gonna expect people to eat cat food?"
"Can you two stop about eating?" Tetsuya got up from his seat and sighed. "Now I'm hungry too."
The three boys then sat back down on the couch, pondering over life in silence.
"You know what?" Kaz got up in an invigorating fashion as he moved to the door. "Let's just go out and buy some food!"
He opened the door, revealing a thunderous monsoon from outside that poured down as if the Goddess herself seeks to drown away all land. Slowly, Kaz closed the door once again.
"We're gonna die if we go out there..." Kaz commented, shivering from the brief moment of exposure to the cold air outside.
Then, the three boys returned to the couch, sitting there in absolute silence as they pondered their life. Mazriel, feeling none of their concerns, got up from its comfortable sitting position and walked over to its food bowl and began eating. Little did the gray tabby cat know, three pairs of hungry eyes eyed it as if it was prey.
"Mazriel is kinda meaty..." Kaz gulped.
"Hey hey," Tetsuya said as he wiped away his drool. "That'll be cannibalism. Leave it to us."
"I'm not a cat," Kaz responded.
"The two of you," Loganel sighed. "Chill out."
"W-what's gotten into us?" Tetsuya immediately snapped back to normal.
"How could I even think about eating a cat..." Kaz shook his head as tears formed in his eyes. "We're gonna die here, are we?" Kaz's cat ears drooped as he laid on the ground in despair.
"It's just heavy rain! Calm down!" Loganel tried to restore the optimistic humanity back into the two.
"Kaz..." Tetsuya suddenly said. "You said there were onions and sauces in the refrigerator right?"
"Yeah," Kaz turned his head so as to gaze at the refrigerator.
"Since it's come to this," Tetsuya got up from his seat with his hands in fists, signifying his unwavering determination. "Looks like it is time for me to show you two a delicious cuisine from my old world!"
The trio gathered in the kitchen with Tetsuya in the center of the three, peeling and preparing the onion as the other two watched.
"Listen up," Tetsuya warned the other two. "I'm not a pro at cooking so don't blame me if things go bad."
"Please don't," said Loganel. "We only have two onions."
"So what're you making?" Kaz asked as he watched the fire on the stove, which is fueled by Fire Mana, and the pan of oil above it.
"Fried onion rings," Tetsuya said as he, with precision, sliced the onion so that each ring was uniform in width. Once the oil in the pan became hot enough, he placed all the onion rings into the oil. Then, the oil started spattering everywhere.
"What the hell?" Loganel and Kaz immediately dodged behind Tetsuya.
After a few minutes, Tetsuya scooped out the rings of onions and placed them on a plate.
"Are you sure these are edible?" Kaz poked at the funny looking objects that appeared burnt.
"I'm not sure," Tetsuya shook his head. "Because we didn't have flour to coat the rings."
"What?" Kaz looked over at Tetsuya with disbelief in his eyes as he slowly sunk to the floor.
"I mean...it's still onions," Loganel said. "Eating this should at least keep the hunger away."
"You're right, but..." Kaz got up and eyed the burnt onion rings with disgust. "It's just onions. It doesn't the best by itself."
"Hehe," Tetsuya's eyes seemed to glow. "That's why we have these!" He revealed the numerous sauces that Loganel kept in his refrigerator. "Just drench them in the sauces and you won't taste the onions."
"But all you're doing is tasting the sauces..." Kaz weakly pointed out.
"We don't have a choice now," Loganel picked up a onion ring and dipped in the nearby opened tomato sauce. "It's either this, Mazriel, or starvation."
Author's Note:
A light-hearted chapter, aka a filler chapter. Please vote and comment. Thank you!!!