Sliding a small ceramic bowl across the wood, he revealed a chili lemon honey mix.
Skipping the tutorial completely, Aria grabbed a chicken wing. She aggressively dunked the entire piece, spilling sauce everywhere before biting into the the piece.
Her eyes imdiately sparkled and she began bobbing her head forward and backwards in pure happiness.
The princess and the knights imdiately grabbed their own pieces of chicken and dunked the at right into the sauce and bit down hard.
The hard exterior crunching against the ridiculously soft chicken inside felt like magic. Tangy, spicy honey just tied the whole thing together perfectly. And exactly as Adrian predicted, the guests absolutely loved it.
Three heavy pieces of fried chicken later, the princess was totally stuffed.
But her eyes kept glancing at sothing. She could not stop looking at the bowl of perfectly rectangular nuggets sitting nearby.
"Do you have anything else?" she asked hopefully.
"I actually have sothing special just for you," Adrian smiled.
He walked to the counter and walked back out with a different bowl of nuggets.
Except these were not rectangles.
He had the at cut into fun shapes. There were stars, hearts, flowers, and even little dogs.
A soft gasp escaped the princess. She instantly loved the fun shapes, thinking they looked way too cute to eat.
On the other hand, Aria did not care.
She just reached across the table and grabbed a dog-shaped nugget. And while the priness watched, she casually bit its head right off.
Because there was no way she was losing to soone her own age, the princess snatched a heart-shaped nugget and took a hesitant bite. And even though the minced at inside was literally the exact sa stuff as the boring rectangles, her brain played a massive trick on her. She hadn’t even tried the standard shapes, but she still felt like the heart tasted infinitely better.
The knights skipped all that cute looking stuff entirely and they stuffed their mouths with regular nuggets and loaded up on second helpings of beef tacos.
The princess slumped back into her wooden chair once she was done, and then a loud, burp ca from her
Aria giggled at the noise. But a second later, an even louder burp ca from her own mouth. Her cheeks instantly turned bright red from the embarrassnt.
The princess slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself but it didn’t really help. She chuckled at Adra and then looked at Adrian. The dinner was finally done.
Servants entered the room to clean up the table so the others left.
"So," Adrian said as he sat on the plush sofa in the living room. "What actually brings a royal down to my territory?"
Her eyes practically sparkled. "Rumors! People keep saying the Goddess blessed you that it was because of you, that she blessed the dungeon too. I wanted to see it for myself... so, do you actually have a special power?"
Adrian leaned forward and lowered his voice.
"I do." Adrian said. "But it is a secret so you have to promise to keep quiet. You cannot tell anyone about this, not even your father. The Goddess explicitly told so, and she permitted to tell you but no one else is supposed to know. The goddess seems to favor you." he lied straight through his teeth.
The princess nodded quickly, "I promise!"
She patted her pockets and pulled out a thick parchnt.
"I do not know how to guarantee my word." the princess said. "But I brought a blank Soul Binding Scroll so we can use this."
Adrian’s eyes lit up. A blank Soul Contract was incredibly rare and expensive.
"Please wait outside." Adrian told the two Imperial Knights.
The knights nodded respectfully and exited the mansion without a word.
Adrian took the scroll from the princess.
’System.’ Adrian thought as he used his dungeon link.
He sent the blank scroll into his spatial storage. He allowed the dungeon to scan and record it and a second later, he pulled the original scroll back out. Now he could duplicate Soul Contracts whenever he wanted.
He grabbed a quill and wrote out a simple contract. The clauses were simple, the princess would have to keep his secrets and in return he would show her his "power". There were no hidden traps or insidious clauses that hard her but it did not state that he had to show all his powers. It also did not say he had to show the powers that he was "granted by the goddess".
It was a perfect loophole.
They placed their hand on the parchnt and both of them bound their soul to the agreent.
"Alright." Adrian smiled. "You know how raw at carries diseases right? It makes it unsafe to eat unless it is cooked thoroughly."
The princess nodded.
"And your royal chefs usually completely cook the at to make sure it is safe, right?"
"Yes." the princess said.
"My blessing allows to instantly purify any at." Adrian said. "It removes all the toxins and bacteria. That ans I don’t have to ruin the beef by overcooking it. I can just eat it when it’s partially cooked if I want."
Adrian leaned back. "Makes the cuts way juicier. Infinitely better than anything you have ever tried."
She frowned and wrinkled her nose. "Isn’t raw at totally disgusting?"
"Not really." Adrian chuckled. "Besides, I sear the crust anyway. I can just make you a proper steak tomorrow morning so you can judge it yourself."
She thought about the insane culinary skills he just put on display today and decided to give it a shot. Because even if the idea of raw at made her stomach churn, the risk actually seed worth it.
"There is one other thing." Adrian dropped his voice to a low whisper. "Because of my nightly prayers, I occasionally speak with the angels of the Goddess in my dreams. They give a lot of advice and that divine guidance is exactly how I could turn Oresfall into this."
It was a complete lie but he wasn’t punished by the soul contract.
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