Reborn As The Villain

Chapter 259 - 213 Part 1: Bonds Forged in Adversity

Chapter 259: Chapter 213 Part 1: Bonds Forged in Adversity"Thank you!"

Evelyn immediately bowed to Arnold when he came over to the group. Everyone else who wasn't here an hour ago bowed as well.

...

Arnold could recognize a few of them, one of whom (out of a pair of twins) was a transfer student from the Republic of Zrek, a nation that will purge all mages in its country later into the main story if the current president loses in the election and a certain someone is made his successor four years from now. This will be an important arc for Lauran if she is to become the Archmage and gain the favor of all the Towers, unlike Freya who's on odds with every tower except the Second Magic Tower in the empire.

While the Six Magic Towers (from the original seven after the theocracy's elite mages left the country) were under Freya's leadership, that did not mean that she was respected by all the factions within the towers. This was most likely the doings of the infiltrators from the antimagic regime that lurks in the Republic. She also could not control everything that was going on inside the towers so she despised working with all the acting leaders who ruled in her place.

She despised sharing achievements between Towers so she had frequently kept a lot of re

"Huh, it looks like they did quite a bit of shopping." Evelyn said before approaching that group who had seemingly been missing for the last two hours.

They were a small group of five comprised of only girls who carried shopping bags filled with loads of ingredients that was fit for a feast. Sabrina and the others followed after Evelyn, curious as to what they were up to.

'Is that our class moderator Keetha...?' Sabrina spotted a tall young woman who was ordering the other girls around like where to put the bags and to get started on rinsing the vegetables. At first glance she looked similar to Berene. Well, that's because the two were twins. But unlike Berene, Keetha didn't wear glasses but wore contacts instead, which made her green eyes blue.

"What's all this about?" Evelyn asked when she arrived. The girls were already taking the groceries out of the bags and laying them on a makeshift table that was manifested with wood magic and built into a generic table with a form of engineering utility magic.

"Ah, there you girls are. We were thinking of making something special tonight so a few of us went back to the city to buy some ingredients." The class moderator, Keetha looked back at everyone with a satisfied expression.

"Uhm, what's the occasion?"

Everyone usually cooks their own food or go without any cooked food at all since this isn't exactly a simple camping trip.

At Sabrina's question, Keetha scratched her cheek, "Well, it's for our junior Arnold... He's going so far for all of us even though many of us treated him poorly at the academy and said some really mean things. Uhm, we haven't told Celeste or Her Highness Olivia but some of us have been working to get him expelled from the academy. I feel like a bad person remembering what I was up to behind his back... I feel inclined to confess how I wanted to abuse my power as a moderator and former disciplinary committee member just to kick him out of the academy..."

Right... Sabrina noticed that the group of girls who were gathered here were the same girls who she used to gossip to about Arnold, which was mostly just them complaining about what a terrible person he is, or rather "used to be".

"We could use the extra hands, girls." Keetha said with a smile directed at the girls, "We're cooking for the whole group of over 50, after all."

What do you say, she asked while staring into Sabrina's eyes.

"Uhm... Okay..."

"Uhm, I'll have to sit this one out..." Evelyn said while smiling wryly, "It's not that I don't want to so don't misunderstand. It's just... I'm afraid I might burn something..."

"Hmm, fair enough. Miss Evelyn grew up pampered in a duchy household, after all." Keetha said gently. Her words were implying that Evelyn never had to do things herself because her uncle's wealth and many servants did everything for her.

Evelyn couldn't argue with that logic since it's true....

"I only know how to cook meat." Shirley spoke next. It's not that surprising since she's a demihuman whose diet consists mostly of meat and she spent most of her childhood outdoors when hunting with her fellow tribesmen as the princess.

"That's fine. We'll leave the meat up to you then. It's over on the table so you can get started right away."

"Got it." Shirley nodded and headed over to the table.

Besides Evelyn who had to politely excuse herself due to her inexperience in cooking, Sabrina, Madilith, Berene and Anais hurriedly began helping the others with the food. Keetha was mainly observing them and not actually participating in the cooking itself. Of course, she made sure everyone was doing everything right.

Since they couldn't find a pot big enough to add all the ingredients in, they had to build one using magic. That required quite a lot of iron which they could've bought at a blacksmith but they stuck to melting all the pots they currently had in their possession. Up until now the whole group had been cooking their food separately.

A giant glob of iron was what resulted from smelting all the iron pots under high temperatures. The same magicians who made the tables tried to sculpt a big pot. Its design was very primitive, although you can't expect much from people making a pot for the first time. It didn't even have handles so the magicians also had to use telekinesis magic to move the pot to the big fire in the middle of the camp.

The adventurers didn't just idly stand by during all this. In fact, many of them came up to Sabrina and the others and asked if they could assist. More hands are always welcome, Keetha replied to them before she barked orders like a squad captain in the military.

It took about an hour before the ingredients could be added into the pot. With the increase in size, reaching the pot was also difficult so the magicians had to even build multiple stepladders to allow everyone to add the ingredients whenever necessary.