A Genius Chef

"Hm..." Sakura squinted her eyes as she looked at the lump of rice in front of her. The rice was burnt. to the point that the whole lump would be recognized as a single entity. 

How did this happen? Well, half an hour ago Astra and Sakura returned to their house. 

As promised Sakura went to the kitchen to make dinner. However, she realized a problem soon enough. 

There was no rice cooker. 

Yeah, she messed up. 

So, she thought that maybe she could cook with the stove, only to realize that she didn't have any idea how much wood she needed to use. She made a random estimate and shoved as much wood in the stove as she could. The result?

This lump of black rice. 

*Bang!!!* 

She hit it with her hand in an attempt to break the lump of rice. Only to break the table. 

She took a look at the broken table and then looked at Astra. 

"..."

"Would like me to cook for you, master?"

"Yes, please." Sakura felt like burring her head underground like an ostrich. She didn't even feel this much ashamed when she pulled out that cringe thing back in the war in the desert. 

Well, at least later that night Astra's cooking turned out to be good. 

Astra hasn't ever cooked and for a first-timer, her cooking was impressive. when asked how Astra knew how to cook Astra just answered that she had searched in Sakura's memories. 

Apparently, The tastes of the food in her memories can tell a lot about how to make them.

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Next morning, 

"Yawn, good morning, Astra." Sakura woke up from a very sweet dream. She saw that she and Misaka, her childhood friend, went on a beach vacation and had a lot of fun. It was a good dream. 

"Good morning, Master. I made you some breakfast." Astra came in with the breakfast in her hand. 

"Hehe, you didn't have to." Even though Sakura said that she still accepted it. 

After tasting what Astra made Sakura couldn't help but marvel. It was better than last night's dinner. Did she just improve this much after one night?

"You really are a genius, Astra." 

"I am glad you like it, Master."

With that, they had a lively breakfast in the morning. 

"By the way, master."

"Hm? What is it?" Sakura asked.

"There were some soldiers here previously."

Sakura frowned. "Soldiers?"

"Yes, they were here to inform us about a notice made by the city lord." 

Sakura frowned more. Lately, the city has been in chaos. So, it shouldn't be a good news. 

"There will be a war held in front of the city with some unknown group. The city lord has set out a lockdown notice due to this. They said anyone trying to leave the city or enter the city will be killed on sigh." 

"Hm? Why can't people run away if there is a war?" Sakura asked.

"Probably to stop any kind of spy trespassing during the war," Astra answered. 

'oh.' Sakura then realized she won't be able to tour the city anymore which made her really sad. 

"Would you like to forcefully stop the war?" Astra asked.

"Nah, this kind of thing must be complicated. Let's just leave it to the city lord to handle." Sakura shook her head. After the mansion incident, she didn't want to get involved with the nobility in the future.

Beating up roadside ruffians and bandits and beating up nobility is very different. 

One of them managed to make her cringe while the other made a mental scar for her that she didn't know if would ever recover. 

"Anyway, let's do some word magic in the garden today." Fortunately, the house came with a nice insolated garden. It's a really big place so Sakura could do some testing of her teleportation anchors here.

She came to the garden and found some benches and tables. Probably for tea time for nobles. Sakura could clearly imagine some noble lady sitting here and elegantly drinking tea while enjoying the sigh. 

For now, this place would be useful for her to read and test the teleportation anchors. Previously she found that creating teleportation anchors isn't really easy. 

"Would you like some tea while you work, master," Astra asked. 

"Sure, make it a little strong." Taking some strong tea in the morning after waking up can be a good way to start the day. 

Astra nodded and went to the kitchen and Sakura started working on the anchors again.