After the two of them were done messing around with the soap, Ezekiel and Mari then stepped out of the bathroom. Alton was waiting outside, twiddling his thumbs nervously. Alton saw the two of them come out and asked, "S-Sis! He didn't do anything to you, did he?" Mari then walked over to Alton and said, "Of course not, Alton." Mari then gently placed her hand on Alton's head and started patting it, saying, "But thank you for worrying about your big sister." Alton blushed and said, "I-It's only natural I would worry!" That sister-lover would be relieved to hear that I would never stoop to the level of Suko if he means what I think he means by doing anything with her. Besides, I'd never date someone of Mari's status, thought Ezekiel. The three of them were suddenly interrupted by a butler, who said, "Queen Laycie would like me to inform you all that lunch is ready. The other guests are also at the dining hall and are waiting for your arrival. I shall escort you to the dining hall now if you'd allow me to." Mari then replied, "Please do." With that, they were all escorted to the dining hall.
They arrived at the doors of the dining hall, and the butler opened the door. The doorway revealed a long table, with King Anton and Queen Laycie sitting at the opposite heads of the table. Suko, Bear, Aqua, Kairi, Rina, and Mia were also sitting at the table, digging into the vast amounts of food they had to offer. Tom then walked into the dining hall right behind them with a certain grace and took a seat nearby. Mari scanned the table, looking for open seats, and she boldly grabbed Ezekiel's hand. Ezekiel shouted, "Wha-" before being dragged to two open chairs. Mari then let go of Ezekiel's hand and said, "Get my chair for me." Ezekiel blinked a couple of times, asking, "Huh? What do you mean?" Mari then exclaimed, "Hmph! Your manners are terrible! Horrendous! No lady would ever fall for you if you can't even do the basics for a woman!" Aqua's nervous, blushing face said otherwise, as she looked at her food as she heard that. Bear chuckled, noticing the commotion between Mari and Ezekiel and said, "Just pull her chair out, and once she's seated, push her chair forward, little bro." Mari nodded, satisfied with how Bear explained it. Ezekiel then said, "Oh! That! Yeah, yeah I can do that." Ezekiel then grabbed a chair and pulled it towards him, allowing for enough room so that Mari could sit down and get comfortable. Once Mari was situated, Ezekiel then pushed in her chair and took a seat in his own chair. In front of him were an assortment of foods, ranging from meats that he had never seen before to fruits that were common day items in his world. Mari saw his interest in the food and asked, "Have you never seen this much food before?" Ezekiel simply replied, "I have, but I'm just amazed at the quality of the food here compared to other places here." Mari smiled proudly and said, "Well, we are royalty, after all! We dine on only the finest of foods and hire only the top-notch chefs!" Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, thought Ezekiel, who started digging into the food.
The table was somewhat quiet, as the only conversation occurring was usually between Aqua, Kairi, Mia, and Rina. Ezekiel smiled, happy to see them all getting along with one another rather well. Everyone ate their fair share of food, and Bear said, "Man! This is some good food! Does it beat the Lad Steaks and pancakes? I'm not sure!" King Anton, intrigued by Bear's statement, asked, "What is this 'Lad Steak' and 'pancakes' you speak of?" Bear grinned and pointed at Ezekiel, saying, "They're great foods invented by my little bro right here!" Ezekiel nervously smiled, and Mari said, "Hmph! There's no way that something made by you would ever taste good!" Kairi then spoke up and said, "I hate to admit it, Mari, but his cooking is the real deal, and I'm a food critic." That shut Mari up. King Anton, still intrigued, asked, "If it's no trouble at all, would you mind making these delicacies of yours? I'd be interested in trying it, and I'll lend you any ingredients and chefs you need to make it. Of course, I'm not the type of king that would execute you just because it doesn't suit my tastes or anything, so don't feel pressured!" That literally made me feel even more pressured, thought Ezekiel. Queen Laycie smiled at Ezekiel and asked, "Surely you can make something edible, unlike my useless husband over there." King Anton exclaimed, "That was ONE TIME! I just so happened to burn the bread and vegetables, okay?!" Queen Laycie, still focused on Ezekiel, said, "If you can make something better than my husband can, it's good food in my book." King Anton sighed, saying, "You're a sadist, you know that, dear? You absolutely love to mock me all the time." Queen Laycie smiled at King Anton, releasing her murderous aura again and said, "What was that, dear?" King Anton immediately straightened up and said, "Nothing, dear!" Queen Laycie then looked back at Ezekiel and said, "Please, go now. Prepare your dishes." A butler then came up to Ezekiel's seat and led him to the kitchen.
Ezekiel wasn't too surprised to see that the kitchen was rather nice. It was big, and many chefs were busy at work preparing things for the next meal. It was quite a buzz of activity to put it lightly, and Ezekiel wasn't sure where to begin. Ezekiel also felt uncomfortable with the number of stares that he was receiving from the other chefs, realizing that he truly felt out of place while standing inside the kitchen. That's when one chef came up to him and asked, "Are you the one that the king and queen sent in here?" Ezekiel nodded, then said, "Yeah, I'm here to make some dishes for everyone." The chef nodded, then said, "Alright, boss. You tell us what to do, what ingredients to get, and we'll do it on the dot." Ezekiel nodded, saying, "Sounds good. I think I'll start with the steaks and get those out first." Soon, everyone got to work, with Ezekiel guiding the chefs on how to make a proper Lad Steak. Ezekiel had them make the medium-rare version, as he believed the tenderness of the steak at medium-rare might make for a better meal than the medium-well version. Ezekiel also was able to remember the kinds of seasonings that Whiskey used on his steaks, so he also taught the chefs how to make that. The chefs were rather impressed that such a young kid could know quite a lot about cooking, and it was knowledge that most of the chefs didn't know about. Once a Lad Steak was made for everyone, Ezekiel said, "Alright, let's get those out and we can move onto the pancakes." Once the steaks were brought out to everyone, Ezekiel began giving the chefs instructions on how to make the soufflé pancakes, and the chefs were once again impressed with Ezekiel's cooking abilities. The pancakes were quickly made and brought out to the table. With a nervous sigh, Ezekiel then stepped out of the kitchen and made his way to the dining hall.
Once he got back to the dining hall, he saw that King Anton and Queen Laycie have not yet eaten their dishes. King Anton noticed that Ezekiel had come back and said, "Ah! Welcome back, young chef! I wanted to wait for you before I tried your dish!" Ezekiel nodded, and for some reason, waiting for him made Ezekiel more nervous than if King Anton had started eating before he got there. Nonetheless, King Anton had waited for him, and he hoped that it suited his tastes. King Anton first inspected the Lad Steak. After a brief inspection, he then cut into the Lad Steak and was pleased with how easy to cut it was. King Anton then took a bite into the Lad Steak, and immediately said, "Wow! This is incredible! What was this called again?" Ezekiel sighed in relief, and said, "It's called a Lad Steak, and it's a specialty that I made at a place called The Crimson Tankard Inn." Queen Laycie had also tried the steak, and she said, "This is rather delicious, young man. If my husband could feed me this kind of food, I might just love him a tad bit more." King Anton started choking on his steak after hearing that statement and quickly gulped down some water. King Anton then said, "Not funny, dear." Queen Laycie then chuckled to herself. King Anton and Queen Laycie then tried the pancake and were delighted at its fluffiness and taste, as they had never had something like this before. Mari was still a bit hesitant, but she reluctantly tried the steak first. She hated to admit it, but the steak was unlike anything she had ever had before, and it was truly good. Mari was able to say, "F-For a peasant like you, t-this is good." Ezekiel smiled at the compliment and said, "Right? I'm glad you like it!" Mari's heart skipped a beat when Ezekiel said that, and she immediately said, "B-But I bet the pancake isn't that good!" Mari then took a bite of the pancake, and she fell in love with it. Mari quickly ate the pancake, then said, "Again, it's not bad for a peasant!" Ezekiel laughed, saying, "I'll take that as a compliment." Alton also enjoyed the food, as he was happily eating away. Tom said nothing, but his face showed that he loved the food before him. He wondered if he should learn to cook so he could impress women by making things for them.
King Anton then said, "You know, I might just have to make these two dishes a regular meal here. They were quite good!" Ezekiel then said, "I'm honored that a king such as yourself would compliment my cooking." King Anton smiled and said, "Please, anyone who wouldn't compliment food as good as this would be insane!" Queen Laycie then said, "I second that. Perhaps you could teach my useless husband here how to cook properly. I bet he could learn a thing or two from you, young man." King Anton said, "Ouch. That's actually true." Ezekiel then said, "I wouldn't mind teaching you, your Majesty. Although, I believe that one of your chefs might be a better teacher than me." King Anton smiled, saying, "Perhaps, but how were you able to make all this food in a short amount of time? Surely you didn't make this all by yourself, did you? You must've taught my chefs how to make it." Ezekiel chuckled, saying, "You got me there, your Majesty." King Anton then said, "But it's okay, young man. I have no need to cook anything, as I have cooks to do it for me. However, I don't deny that the possibility of learning from you might be rather fun." King Anton then stood up from his chair, looked at everyone, and said, "Well, I have matters to attend to. We shall have dinner in about 5 or 6 hours, so a butler will come and fetch you when the time has come." With that, King Anton left, followed by Queen Laycie, Mari, Alton, and Tom. Ezekiel's party was left, sitting at the table in silence. Kairi then spoke up, saying, "Well, that was a rather interesting lunch." Bear chuckled, saying, "You can say that again. The queen has the king wrapped all on her finger!" Kairi sighed, saying, "They've always been like that, Bear. It's sort of a dysfunctional royal family." Suko then exclaimed, "I'm so jealous of you, Ezekiel! Do you plan on adding that little rich girl to your harem? I'm pretty sure she's into you." Ezekiel immediately said, "First, I'm not making a harem. Second, I highly doubt she's into me." Bear then said, "I think she is." Aqua suddenly tensed up upon hearing that, but she didn't say a word. Ezekiel chuckled and said, "I seriously doubt that any woman is interested in me right now." Bear wanted to smack the shit out of Ezekiel for being so oblivious, but he held himself back.
Ezekiel then got up from the table and said, "Well, I've actually been wanting to check out the town a bit, so I think I may do that to kill some time." Kairi smiled and said, "That's a good idea! The area around here is quite nice, too. I'll ask Tom, Mari, and Alton to see if they want to come with us." Ezekiel was fine with Mari and Alton coming along, but he wasn't sure how Tom would act if he did come with them, worried that Tom might be a more refined Suko, but still just as perverted. Kairi then rushed out of the dining hall, saying, "Meet me at the front gate!" So, Ezekiel and the others then headed for the front gate.
To their surprise, Kairi was actually at the front gate before them, and standing next to her were Mari, Alton, and Tom. Tom looked ready to go, and Suko had a feeling that Tom was quite similar to him based on Tom's previous actions. Suko smiled then got close to Tom, saying, "Listen, my boy. You think we could be friends?" Tom immediately said, "I would never be friends with a peasant like you." Suko then grinned and said, "What if I said that I was rich in another way and could pay you in women?" Tom instantly smiled and said, "Why withhold such information from me? I shall allow it!" Kairi then stepped forward and smacked both of them, but Suko's slap to his face was much harder, and Kairi exclaimed, "Women aren't objects you can just trade like money! I'll beat the shit out of both of you if you bring that up again!" True, women are people as well, thought Ezekiel. Alton then said, "I-Is it scary being outside?" Mari then said, "Not really. Just stay close by me and we'll be fine." Mari then looked at Ezekiel and said, "N-Not that I want to be shopping with a peasant like Ezekiel." Ezekiel simply laughed at that statement and said, "Well, I've been meaning to whip up some new items, so this might be a good time to do it. Let's head to the market!" With that, everyone left the castle and headed for the market.
Everyone walked together through the market, and it was a rather big market. Ezekiel could tell that it was a much bigger market than the one in Wolfwater, and Ezekiel kept his eye out for a particular shop. After wandering around for a bit, he finally found the shop he was looking for: a glassmaker. The party stepped inside and was entranced by the beautiful art made of glass that was displayed on the shelves. The party was also greeted by a dwarf who said, "Welcome to my glassmaking shop! What can I help you with?" Ezekiel then asked, "Have you ever made a convex objective lens or a concave eyepiece?" The dwarf scratched his head and said, "I'm afraid I haven't. I've actually never heard those terms before." Ezekiel then produced a drawing from out of his Book of Knowledge, and it was actually a blueprint of a spyglass. Ezekiel explained the blueprint to the dwarf, saying, "I simply need two small glass discs, and I need both of them to be bulging outwards slightly like they are in this blueprint. One of them needs to be 50 millimeters in diameter and the other 49 millimeters." The dwarf scratched his head and said, "Hmm. I can do that." The dwarf smiled and said, "It's been a while since I've had a good glassmaking challenge on my hands, so I'll get to work on it. Come by in an hour and I should have them finished." Ezekiel grinned, saying, "Excellent. We'll leave you to it."
As the party exited the shop, Bear asked, "What are you making with those?" Ezekiel answered, "A spyglass." Bear scratched his head and asked, "So, what is it exactly?" Ezekiel turned around and faced everyone with a grin. Ezekiel pointed to a sign that was rather far away down the street and asked, "Can anyone see that sign over there easily?" Everyone had to squint to try to see it, but no one could see the sign clearly from where they were standing. Ezekiel then said, "Well, what if there was a tool that allowed you to see that sign clearly from far away? That, in a nutshell, is what I'm trying to make." Rina then said, "Oh, that would help me on my hunts!" Suko, with a bloody nose, said, "That would help me on my peeping adventures for sure!" Ezekiel laughed and said, "It has many uses, but for what I plan on using it for is much handier. I'm pretty sure Tokuda will love for this tool to be in the hands of the Freedom Legion." Ezekiel turned to Bear and said, "I need your help. Your woodworking skills are good, so do you think you could whip up the general frame of the spyglass?" Ezekiel handed Bear the blueprint, and Bear took a quick glance at it. Bear then said, "It doesn't seem too hard. I can do it." Ezekiel smiled and said, "Good." Ezekiel then looked at everyone and said, "Everyone, this may take a bit, so feel free to walk around the town on your own. If you do, just meet back at the glassmaker's place in about an hour." With that, Bear and Ezekiel went to find a woodworking place to work on the frame of the spyglass. Suko and Tom went to go do whatever perverted shit they were gonna do. Mari, Alton, and Kairi stuck together and Kairi began recommending all sorts of places in this town that had great snacks and sweets. Aqua, Rina, and Mia used this opportunity to get to know one another better and began walking and talking through the town.
After an hour had passed, everyone met back up at the glassmaker's shop. The dwarf had finished the lenses, and Bear had finished the frame of the spyglass. Bear had also chopped the frame in half longways as if the spyglass frame was going to be two pieces of a sub sandwich. Ezekiel took one of the two halves of the spyglass frame and gently set the lenses in their corresponding positions. Ezekiel then took the other half of the spyglass frame and set it on top of the lenses and other frame, connecting the two together and tightening it with a couple pieces of rope. Ezekiel took a deep breath, hoping that it would work like he thought it would, and peered through the spyglass. He saw Bear's enlarged nose through the spyglass, and Bear asked, "Does it work?" Ezekiel then chuckled and said, "Dang, Bear, when did your nose get so big?" Bear laughed and said, "So it works! Lemme see!" Ezekiel handed the spyglass to Bear, and Bear peered through it. Bear was holding it the opposite way, so when he looked at Ezekiel, he could only see Ezekiel's shrunken head. Bear laughed and said, "Why is your head so small, little bro?!" Ezekiel then grabbed the spyglass from Bear, turned it around, and said, "Now try it." Bear took another look and saw Suko's eye enlarged. Everyone took turns with the spyglass, trying it out on different objects and marveling at the wonders of it. Even Tom and Mari, who still questioned why they were with the peasants, marveled at the new tool that was made in front of them. Bear then asked the golden question, asking, "How does this even work?"
Ezekiel then said, "Well, to put it simply, what I've made is basically a Galilean spyglass. It's an improvement over previous spyglasses since this one can magnify items around 20 times, whereas older ones magnified items to around 3 to 10 times as much. Galileo Galilei, a famous astronomer back in my world that lived a long time ago, didn't invent the spyglass but he definitely made significant improvement on it, and it became the basis on which much more powerful spyglasses called telescopes were made. Back in my world, we have some telescopes that can magnify up to 50, even 100 times more than older telescopes, and that number will only increase over time." Ezekiel then drew a small diagram on the dirt road with a stick, saying, "So here's what you wanted to know. The spyglass is based on the idea of light refraction. Light is going through the spyglass as you look through it. The two lenses basically squeeze the light together to narrow your vision and keep a straight line of sight. Since the spyglass is long, it helps to make you see things that are further away due to the idea of magnification. To keep increasing the magnification, we would have to make it longer and longer, and this would make us see things even farther away." Bear scratched his head and said, "Simple terms, please?" Ezekiel sighed, saying, "The lenses that I put inside squeeze light together to narrow your vision, and since the spyglass is long, you can see things from farther away." Bear said, "Oh! That makes sense!"
After Ezekiel's explanation, Ezekiel put away the spyglass for now. Everyone was amazed at the spyglass and more amazed at Ezekiel's knowledge to create such things. Everyone was so amazed, that none of them seemed to notice a robed figure, watching them from the shadows, keeping a close eye on Mari specifically. In the robed figure's hand was a small book, with the title saying, "The Gospel of the Followers of the Fallen One." Ezekiel felt a strange presence and turned towards the direction of the robed figure. However, Ezekiel saw nothing, as the robed figure had vanished out of thin air.128Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR81W8adJAN
