Chapter 24 - The Cube

"What is this?" I muttered as I picked up the black cube which felt just like a normal cube, despite there being veins everywhere.

"Alisha doesn't know." Alisha said as she looked at the cube on my hand with curious eyes.

"Hmm, should we ask Iris?" I muttered before Alisha nodded as I placed the mysterious cube onto my magic bag and continued our short walk to Iris's home.

We soon arrived at the doorstep of her home and knocked on it before we heard a loud scream.

"Ah-sorry, welcome back, you two!" Iris said as she opened the door, all sweaty as she wore some kind of workout clothes with a soft mat near the wooden couch.

"Did we disturb you?" I asked as we entered the house.

"No, not at all. I was just doing my daily exercise to keep my body healthy." She said as we sat down on the couch.

"Is that so?" I asked before she nodded as she rolled the mat and placed it beside the wall.

"Have you two eaten dinner yet?" She asked.

Well, do skewers count as dinner? Maybe not.

"Not yet, we just ate a few skewers on our way." I said as she nodded.

"Well then, let me prepare dinner real quick, you two seem to have something on your minds right now, do tell me once I come back." She said as Alisha and I nodded before she went to the kitchen.

While waiting for her, I took out the cube and rested on Alisha's lap as I inspected the individual details of the cube.

The cube was extremely weird as it does not trigger any kind of information from my grimoire memory.

Also, grimoire memory is what I call certain information that suddenly comes randomly into my mind such as the wind spells and the basic spear grips, in case you didn't know.

Anyways, back to the cube, the cube had these weird patterns that look similar to what mechas look like in my previous world.

The veins were also weirder as it was pulsating as if it was alive, it shines blue before dimming out the next second before repeating the process.

The cube itself had no extraordinary details other than those two, the cube was just a metallic cube painted in black.

While I was inspecting the cube, Iris came back holding two large plates in both of her hands.

"Is that rice?" I asked as she placed both the plates onto the table, with one plate full of what seemed to be rice wrapped in seaweed with meat from what seemed to fish.

"Oh, so you know about it as expected of a grimoire!" Iris said as she went to a small cabinet and took out a few plates along with spoons and forks, all of which are made of wood.

"How did you manage to find fish by the way?" I asked as I politely took two plates before placing them on our side.

"Well, a new package arrived from the Seafood Town this morning, so I decided to make Sakago" Iris said as she sat down and grabbed one piece of sakago before she started munching on it with a face that screamed delicious which tempted me to take a piece before taking a small bite on it.

In an instant, the taste of what seems to be soy sauce struck onto my tastebuds, which took me by surprise as I had not dipped the food onto any kind of sauce.

Suddenly, I felt a gaze coming from my side, naturally, the gaze belonged from Alisha who had a troubled face.

"What's wrong?" I asked before she looked at the plate full of sakago.

"You don't know how to eat this?" I asked as she nodded shyly which was very adorable.

"I'll help you then." I said as I took one piece before placing it in front of her.

"Open your mouth." I said before she opened her mouth as wide as she could.

Her looks right now can only be described as cute as her face was screaming shy, I waited a while before deciding to place the sakago slowly on her tongue after which she munched on it before gulping it whole.

"Althea, meanie!" She pouted, it seems like she found out that I played with her, well it's not like she also didn't play with me using her "I don't know" trap.

I know more than enough from our days of being together that she knows how to eat properly.

After that, we continued eating to our maximum before falling dead on the couch, well the two of them are resting on the couch while I am resting on Alisha's soft and comfortable lap.

"Well then, should we discuss what was on your minds a while ago?" Iris said as she stretched her arms up in the air before sitting properly.

"Mhm." I nodded as I slowly got up from heaven and sat properly at the couch before taking out the cube from my magic bag.

"Do you know anything about this?" I asked as I placed the cube on the table with Iris staring at it intently.

"It seems like an ancient artifact, where did you two find this?" Iris asked as she took the cube and inspected it from every side.

"Well, it fell from the sky, that's for sure." I said as Alisha, who was uninterested, slowly fell asleep on my lap prompting me to caress her soft cheeks and combing her silky hair.

"This is interesting, I think Father may know something about this. Want to ask him tomorrow?" Iris asked as she placed the cube on the table.

"Sure." I said as I took back the cube and stored it back on my magic bag.

"Well then, for now, you can sleep wherever you like in the house, there are plenty of rooms but it seems like Alisha might prefer your lap for now." Iris said as she giggled.

"Mhm, we'll sleep here for now. Well then, see you tomorrow?" I said before Iris nodded and left for another room.

After seeing Iris leave, I looked at Alisha's face for a while before slowly falling asleep on top of her head.

Author: Sakago is a random name I made that derives from the Japanese words, Sakana (fish) and gohan (rice).

I know I could have used sushi instead but it's another world!