"Oh! It looks so, so delicious!" exclaid Marceline, resting her arms on the table as she sniffed the air.
The aroma coming from the pan was a strong sll of basil with a hint of tomato and ground beef. This aroma was already perating every corner of the apartnt.
The won sitting at the table salivated as I approached with the pot, and my heart was pounding in my chest.
"I asked the skeleton to cut the noodles, but are they too thin?" I asked myself, swallowing hard as I placed the pot on the wooden table.
Rosella’s cheeks were flushed with anxiety.
Still, she tried to maintain her composure in front of my mother and sister.
"It slls really good," Rosella comnted coldly.
"Wow, Bran~, I didn’t know you could cook..." Fumiko tasted it with a smirk. She obviously wanted to embarrass in front of Rosella.
"I was going to be ho all day with nothing to do, so I thought it would be nice to cook sothing different... Once I started, the ideas just ca to ." I explained as I lifted a spoonful of noodles from the pot and placed it on a large white plate.
Of the three won sitting at the table, the first one I served was obviously my mother.
Fumiko looked at the noodles on the plate and bowed her head to take a closer look.
"What... is that? It looks like pastry dough, but..."
"It’s noodles with tomato sauce!" I exclaid and picked up two atballs that were also in the pot. "And these atballs I call atballs!"
Rosella laughed softly. "What creative nas!"
Marceline looked at with her eyebrows lowered and muttered loudly, "He even nad sothing that’s famous... How self-centered."
My mother couldn’t help but laugh at Marceline’s comnt, which reminded that atballs already existed in this world. My face turned red with embarrassnt, and I served the rest of the dishes without saying another word.
However, it was all worth it when each of them took their first bite.
"Mmmph! Zat’s delishus!"
"I’ve ner had atbals this good!"
"I cod cry righ now!"
Fumiko, Marceline, and Rosella, respectively, said with their mouths full of food and imdiately went for their second bite.
I didn’t even have ti to thank them for the complints, because in a few seconds, the three of them held out their clean plates to and shouted:
"I want another one!"
If at any point during the day I had thought that the effort of cooking all that was a waste, seeing those red cheeks and eyes shining with happiness made it all worthwhile.
It was for monts like this that I wanted to live in my past life, and that desire had now awakened in my new life.
"Until I find out what made transmigrate here and how I can get back, I’m going to make Brandon Shibutani Oneal’s life the best it can be!" I thought as I rested my head on my pillow that night.
Thinking about it made finally make the decision I needed to make.
*
The next morning, I woke up to a knock on the door. However, it wasn’t my door, but my upstairs neighbor’s.
The walls of this old building were so thin, and the structure so rickety that any loud noise easily carried to the other apartnts.
"Jonathan, you’re going to be late for work again!"
"Urghh... I’m already up..." The owner of the room above mine muttered, but I didn’t hear the floor creak like it did when he walked.
"Co on, I’m serious, Jonathan!"
" too, too..."
Finally, I didn’t just hear the floor creak under the man’s weight, I also could see the wood sinking a little.
It wasn’t that Jonathan was fat or anything, because until a few years ago he worked with my father at the port, but rather that the floor was made of only two layers of boards.
"I’ll need to look for other apartnts as soon as I tell Mrs. Carter," I decided aloud and got up from my bed.
After practically crawling to the bathroom, I plunged my face into the basin of water to finally wake up. I also took the opportunity to wet my hands and run them through my hair. Then I grabbed a towel and wet it in the sa basin.
I rubbed the towel on my neck, behind my ears, and under my arms. Showering more than once a day would be essential in this world because of the pollution in big cities like Lovikalen, but since that wasn’t possible, I preferred to just clean up a little in the morning and shower before bed.
When I put toothpaste on my toothbrush and was about to put it in my mouth, I heard a knock on the door again. This ti, it wasn’t upstairs.
"Brandon, is that you?" Marceline asked in a sly voice.
I frowned, confused as to why Marceline was still there at that ti of the morning. Was it earlier than I thought?
I opened the door and saw her rubbing the side of one of her eyes, barely standing with Rosella leaning on her back as if she were a backpack.
"Good morning," I said, smiling at the scene.
When Rosella heard my voice, she slowly raised her head until our eyes t. Her eyes widened and her face turned red. It wasn’t surprising that this happened, because both she and Marceline were wearing short nightgowns.
Marceline was my sister, so she was used to seeing her like this so mornings and didn’t mind, but it was completely different for Rosella.
"Bra-Bran-Brandon!?" Rosella exclaid, taking a step back until her back hit the wall.
"Good morning to you too, Rosella." I said, trying not to laugh, and put my toothbrush in my mouth. "Wait a mimmut an’ I’ll lem use the bafroom!"
"Okay~..." Marceline said as I closed the door.
When I finished brushing my teeth and left the bathroom, only Marceline was outside. Confused, I asked,
"What about Rosella? Where did she go?"
Marceline looked both ways down the hallway, finally noticing the guest’s absence.
"Oh no..." Marceline muttered, scratching the back of her neck. "She asked to accompany her to the bathroom. She must have gone back to bed." Marceline shrugged.
"Co on, you should take better care of your new friend."
"I-I know! That’s why I’m going to take advantage of the fact that it’s Saturday and take her to so nice places in town today! And she told what happened yesterday at the grocery store on the corner. You need to take care of her when you’re with her too!"
I nodded twice. "I know, I know. But don’t forget to be careful. She could still be targeted by—"
Marceline interrupted . "You don’t need to warn . She’s my friend now too." Marceline said in a serious tone and closed the bathroom door.
Confused, I scratched my chin and only then realized that there were a few strands of hair there. "Argh... Now I need to buy a razor."
After a quick breakfast, I got dressed to leave the house. Since I was going to Central Police Station to inform Paladina of my decision, I knew I couldn’t wear just any clothes.
So, I put on a white shirt with a black vest over it and a blazer. I polished my shoes with the last bit of polish I had and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was the only visible problem now.
"My hair is too long," I concluded after holding the end of my bangs and realizing that it easily passed above my eyebrows. "Since I’m out of money, I won’t be able to see Mr. Dalfodi this month either. At night, I’ll ask Marceline to trim the ends."
Mr. Dalfodi was the barber who had been cutting my hair for as long as I could rember. He always told stories about my brother, so I had my hair cut by him whenever possible.
A little gel solved the problem with my hair for the ti being, and soon I left for the police station. I didn’t invite Rosella to co with because she already had plans with Marceline.
I had already taken the cable car to the Central District the day before, so I walked this ti. I couldn’t afford to use the cable cars whenever I needed to. For that, I would need to get a higher, steady salary.
I wasn’t the only one who thought so, but also everyone in the poorest neighborhoods of Lovikalen. At that ti, big cities like Lovikalen were rare, so public transportation was still poor and expensive.
Another way to travel besides cable cars was by carriage, but there were few coachn you could trust. The fare at the beginning of the trip was one price, but at the end they could charge more for detours along the way. It was a kind of extortion, and that’s why coachn only did this to people who looked poor enough that they wouldn’t cause them any trouble.
What I said about poor people being the least benefited, even by the poor themselves, was a big problem not only in the Tower of Babel, but also throughout the Kingdom of Durtch. Perhaps even worldwide.
For this reason, as long as it wasn’t a trip to another city, I would rather simply walk through Lovikalen than deal with the coachn’s mafia.
When more than an hour had passed since I left ho, I finally arrived at the Central Police Station. I took a deep breath after reading the stone plaque above the double doors and took a step forward.
That’s when the door opened and I had a feeling of déjà vu, except instead of a fugitive jumping at , I saw a familiar, calm face.
"Brandon?" asked Kyle Barlow as he adjusted his glasses.
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