Breakfast is absolute torture. Not because Salt decided to grace me with more pranks and trick. If anything, it was the lack of them causing me to be on edge, keeping an eye out for one of them. I guess whatever she had planned didn’t work, or that I was just jumping at shadows here. I shouldn’t be acting this way, I’m a grown man and these are mostly harmless pranks anyway.

I gotta say, at least the food’s amazing. That little girl is a lot better at cooking than what I’d expect from someone her age. I wonder how she got so good? My only wish is for the social experience to be as good as the meal though.

Salt’s chatting up with the soldiers still stationed here. I guess the main reason that the king left them behind, is due to their familiarity to the kids. Unfortunately, that just leaves me with Pepper, who’s not really the talkative type. Instead, she’s more focused on mowing down the grub in front of her, while also throwing angry glances at me.

“What?” She finally says to me, once she get a lot gulped down. “You slow or something?”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You keep staring.” I didn’t realize that, it must’ve been a case of spacing out. “You know, like when a baby sees something it’s never seen before.” Well, I can’t say I’ve heard of that before. I guess I can expect some new sayings around here that don’t exist back on Earth.

“Sorry.” I apologize, but if she’s broken the ice a bit, then I can take advantage of it. “So, what are you planning after breakfast?”

“Training.” Did I hear her right? I’m pretty sure she’s already trained this morning. “And then after lunch, more training.” She’s listing things off on her fingers, and I’m certain she said training at least two more times in there. At least there’s a planned sauna visit wedged in there.

“Sounds a bit overkill.” First off, that can’t possibly be the best way to get stronger. It’s also kind of a lame way to live, if you ask me.

“Well, it’s not like there’s much better to do here.” She gets up from her seat. “And I need to get stronger.”

“For what? I kind of doubt your dad’s gonna just let you out in combat.” Not to mention, how much danger is there really in this world at this point. I guess I don’t know what’s going on with Saffron and the king right now. If it’s so dangerous, was she wrong about having ushered in an era of peace for the world?

“…” She doesn’t respond to that question at all. Looks like I’ve hit a nerve, as she silently ignores me and leaves. Great, now I’m awkwardly sitting here alone now. Well, not for long, but the company I get is hardly much better.

“Alan~” Salt slides up next to me, talking a playful tone that gets my anxiety going. “Do you want to play?” Tsk, hearing the word play come out of this little devil’s mouth. It’s hardly as innocent as the words might imply. Nor is it something that anyone who isn’t a masochist would want.

“No.” I tell her plainly. “I’m not taking part in any more of your dumb tricks.”

“Aww.” Her reaction shows that was exactly what she had planned. “But, there’s no one else to play with. The rest of the soldiers have work to do, and Pepper’s busy too.”

“…” I audibly sigh at hearing that. As much as it goes against my common sense, maybe it can’t be that bad. “What did you have in mind?”

“Yay!” The little girl does a small jump of joy, and gives me a hug. Not the world’s biggest fan of her treating me like someone she’s known for years, when it’s only been literal days since I first met her. And that’s excluding the bitterness relating to said first meeting. “Follow me now.”

The girl pulls me by the arm, rather harshly at that, to what I can assume to be her room. My biggest comment to this is, well my room certainly wasn’t this big when I was her age. When we get inside, it’s kind of what I expected from a 12 year old girl.

“Sit here.” She points over to a stool, next to a small table. Clearly, this is for teatime, but that chair is definitely not built for someone of my stature. When I sit down, it’s a little uncomfortable, and I feel like I’m about to break the thing any second. Then, she gets the tea ready for the both of us, and it turns out we’re not just pretending to sip on play cups. What more, I wasn’t expecting her to pull out a flame from her hand, in order to boil the kettle.

“You can use magic?” I ask her, sounding very impressed. Sure, according to Saffron, most people can indeed use magic. I just figured that it was something that needed at least a little training, and that girl didn’t look like the type to try.

“Of course.” Her tone indicates that it should be an obvious thing. Guess it should be, considering she’s the daughter of a king.

It doesn’t take long for the tea to start bubbling. I thought this process she was doing was a bit inefficient, but her ability seemed to know no bound. Salt put down the flame on the table, followed by the kettle on top of it. Incredible, that she doesn’t need it to be connect to her body in order to keep it up. That girl’s must’ve had a lot of practice.

“So, your magic is fire. Does that mean your sister is the same?” I guess I never asked how magic manifests within people here. If not everyone has it inherently, then would that make it somehow genetic? Or would the lack of magic, be a type of disability one has here. Like how we have people born blind, or without one of their limbs.

“My daddy says she has ice magic.” Interesting, so that’s the opposite, at least from what I know about those elements. “Or is it technically water?” She murmurs to herself. Strange, since I would’ve thought she knew her sister rather well. “I’m not sure, I’ve never seen her use magic.”

I’m surprised to hear something like that. Especially seeing how much Pepper liked to trained. Surely, training some magic would benefit more than just muscle and swordsmanship. Perhaps she’s not a fan of the element she was born with? Well, if that’s the case, then it’s a terrible waste.

“It’s ready now.” That flame of hers goes out. Wow, so she even has a set timer on that thing. Salt pours out a cup for the two of us. I take mine with one lump of sugar, she takes the rest and just dumps them into her cup. Well, I guess she likes sweets a lot more than her name would suggest.

“Thank you.” I say, as I blow to cool the drink. Cautiously, considering the girl I’m with, I slowly take a sip. Huh, this is actually really good. When did she find the time to get so good at this stuff?

“Heh.” She giggles at me, at first I thought there was another trick I wasn’t aware of, but her next words turn that around. “I like you.”

“Eh?” That’s the only response I have for her. Honestly, with all this messing around, I’m surprised that’s how she apparently feels about me. Unless there’s going to be a joke here.

“You’re a lot of fun to be with.” She tells me. “Everyone here is nice, but they don’t react to my pranks like you.” Well, she had me in the first half. Honestly though, given that the others are soldiers, I would hope that they’re trained to not overreact to her. Maybe I could use some of that training.

“But, you got your sister.” I say to her. “I’m sure she’s better to hang around with than me.”

“Oh she is.” Well, she could’ve at least tried not to make it sound so sure. “But, she hasn’t been the same since mommy died.” That’s a downer to hear. Obviously, since I haven’t seen any queen around here the entire time. It didn’t take much for me to know the truth. I just didn’t’ want to bring it up, because I’m sure that her memory hurts them.

In fact, even if she’s the one that brought it up. I can see how much it affected her. Salt’s usual happy-go-lucky attitude is gone, replaced with that somber look of hers.

“Forgive me.” I say, taking a moment to allow the girl to brace herself. “But, when did she pass away?”

“It was a few years ago, but I don’t know how, or why it happened.” She looks like she’s about to cry, just from recounting it. Well, I’m glad she had the strength to tell me. So, I give her a head pat for the answer.

“It’s okay, I understand.” This is probably the first time I’ve not felt any animosity towards her.

“Okay then.” She smiles, and I gotta say, that’s one quick turn around from feeling sad. In fact, if someone walked in right now, they wouldn’t know that she shed some tears. “Well, we should go check on Pepper.”

“Um.” That’s not really something I want to do. Now that I don’t absolutely hate one of them, spending time with the one that I do dislike is far from my idea of fun. “Isn’t she kind of busy?”

“That’s okay, I like to watch her train sometimes.” Something about that mischievous smile of hers doesn’t fill me with any joy. But, I’m not about to be left alone in a little girl’s room, as she leaves without saying anything else.