From Londoner To Lord

118. Cheese And Butter

"Oh, that's cheese," Mr Kigeir replied with a smile. "You can eat the cheese and butter along with bread, but not both of them together. Just take some of that cheese with your finger, and put it on the bread before eating - just like you do with butter. And don't forget to thank the maids if you go for another helping of those."

Elsie nodded, and took some butter on her fingers before tasting it.

Maisy couldn't miss this opportunity to tease her new best friend. "You said you had already eaten cheese in the past, but you didn't even recognize it! Weren't you lying earlier?"

"No, I wasn't!" Elsie retorted, before she took a sip of soup - probably while she thought of an excuse. Suddenly, she looked at Mr Kigeir with wide eyes, "We can get more of these?"

"Yup," Mr Kigeir nodded. "You kiddos are lucky. We adults were only given one helping, but children are allowed to go for seconds. Although I don't think you will get any more pie, since there was so little of it, but you should be able to get most of the other things again."

"Awesome!" Elsie looked at Maisy and grinned. "I'll finish my food first, and I'll take whatever is left on the tables!"

"No, you won't!" Maisy retorted back, and quickly took a sip from one of her soup bowls, but Elsie saw her, and lifted a bowl in each of her hands, and quickly began drinking from them one by one, to be the first one to go for a second helping.

"Slow down, both of you!" Mr Kigeir's wife scolded them. "You won't get to eat a feast like this again any time soon. So you should savor and enjoy it instead of trying to race with each other."

Elsie gave a reluctant nod. "Yes, ma."

Maisy nodded as well. She was smiling as she picked up a piece of bread to eat along with butter, thinking their competition was over, but suddenly Elsie pointed at her and complained, "But ma, she was the one who started it!"

"No, I didn't!" Maisy replied immediately.

Elsie was going to retort again, but Mr Kigeir spoke to both of them. "It doesn't matter who started it! Just slow down and enjoy your food." He pointed at Timmy and his younger son. "They are eating more properly than you all, even though you both are older."

Chastised properly, both of them gave nods, and skipping the competition for now, they began to savor each bite.

It was only now that Maisy got a chance to put some butter on bread, and when she tasted it, it felt so... smooth and yummy! The soup and stews were good, but butter was better! And it even rhymed! She giggled to herself thinking about it, before she focused on her food again.

This was the first time she had ever tasted butter, and it was as good as Elsie had claimed it would be. After that, she took a small piece of cheese and took a bite of it without any bread, and it tasted amazing! By now, she was completely sure that she hadn't eaten anything better tasting than cheese or butter! They both tasted amazing!

Then she took a small piece of bread, and looked at the cheese and butter waiting on her plate. Now she was confused. Which of those should she eat first?

Suddenly, she laughed at herself. Looking at Timmy, who had closed his eyes in enjoyment as he ate something, she realized how much things had changed for them... Only a few weeks ago, she didn't know how she would find any food for her brother and herself. She had scrounged through all of the garbage piles in the village, and there wasn't anything left anywhere. But today... Today she was confused if she should eat butter or cheese first!

She realized that it was a rare feast, and choosing between butter and cheese wouldn't be a problem for her any time soon in the future. But for tonight, she couldn't help but look at the sky in thankfulness. Maybe the goddess was watching over them after all.

After she was done with all of the food, she looked at the last thing remaining on her plate. And it was the Toloraberry Pie. She lifted it up carefully, and gently took a very small bite of it. And for a moment, she couldn't understand the taste even though it felt really nice... It was only then that she realized that it was sweet tasting!

Yes! That's what a sweet taste meant! The Toloraberry Pie was what something sweet really tasted like! Now she had a new favorite food, along with butter and cheese!

As she thought more about it, she suddenly realized that until now, she had thought that the porridge which the children got served to them every day as the free meal tasted sweet, but that porridge wasn't really sweet at all!

As she took another small bite of the pie, her eyes started getting a little wet. Once again, she took another small bite, and even though she hadn't eaten something that sweet ever in her life, she found that she liked the sweet taste of a pie. A lot.

Finally, she saw that only one small part of the pie was remaining, and she decided that she wanted to savor it slowly. Or maybe she could hide it in her pocket to taste it tomorrow... But then she noticed that Elsie - who had eaten her own serving of pie before other things - kept eyeing that last piece of pie on her plate.

Recognising the danger immediately, she quickly snatched that last piece of Toloraberry pie from her plate and put it in her mouth, and then grinned at Elsie, who just huffed in response, and began to eat her own food again.

Soon, she stood up with her plate to get a second helping of everything, but Elsie - who had still not finished her food - noticed her, and after immediately gobbling up whatever was left on her plate, she started to walk quickly towards the tables where the maids were still serving to the children, and quickly overtook her, so she would be the first one to get the second helpings. Maisy also started walking faster, until both of them were running towards the tables.

However, instead of worrying about who would win the race, Maisy laughed at both of their antics, and after Elsie noticed it, she joined her in laughing as well, even though neither of them stopped running.

Their rivalry wouldn't stop any time soon, it seemed. But Maisy didn't mind it at all. It was the first time she had gotten a best friend, and she loved every moment of it, even if half of it was spent in bickering between her and Elsie. Giving a shake of her head, she happily let Elsie take the lead, and followed behind her best friend. Cheese and butter were waiting for her, after all!

*******

~ Calubo ~ Enjoy more content from empire

~ Somewhere inside the forests surrounding Tiranat ~

Night had already fallen and the icy winds had picked up, making it too cold to stay anywhere in the open, especially without a fire nearby. But the bandits didn't really care about that, and most of them were snoring under whichever bush they had chosen as their bed.

It seemed like a full moon night, but because of the dense clouds, the visibility was quite low, though it was still enough that he could barely make out Nokozal and another bandit sitting next to each other maybe a dozen feet away. They were the ones keeping watch right now, and they seemed to be whispering something together - probably planning how to attack tonight.

Calubo couldn't help but give a sigh. Because of a continuous worry about what was going to happen to Tiranat tonight, Calubo had been wide awake since the morning. Would these bandits also put the village to fire, just like Torhan's group of bandits had done around a month ago? Would the village's food supply also be looted by these bastards, making the villagers starve in the winter? Would his cousin Nurobo even stay alive after tonight? He didn't know. So he hadn't stopped praying to the goddess for a moment, since that was all he could do right now to help the village.

A little while ago, he had heard some kind of cheers from the direction of the village, but he didn't know why that would be. The last time he was in the village, the villagers didn't have anything to cheer about anyway. But perhaps the new baron had done something about it? At the very least, the village should have quite a bit of grain now, based on the two caravans he had observed coming to the village. If only he were in the village as well...

The fatso, who had been deemed his caretaker by Nokozal, had tied both of his hands together, as always, and had tied the other end of the rope to his own hand. However, despite the continuously growling stomach of the fatso, he was fast asleep right now, a few feet away from Calubo with seemingly no worries at all, making him hate the fat bandit even more.

Soon, he heard the crunching of leaves from nearby - a sound which felt even louder in the night - making Nokozal and the other bandit on watch duty stand up slowly with their swords ready. But immediately after that, he heard a series of bird whistles from the same direction, making the bandits relax. Before long, he saw someone walking towards the bandit chief, and while he couldn't see the newcomer clearly, it had to be the runt based on his small build.

"So, what news have you brought?" Nokozal asked the runt in a low voice - a sound which still carried over well enough in the night for Calubo to hear without much difficulty.