Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 214: Episode : A Feast for the Spires

Roxy stared at the top of the warrior’s white-blonde head.

She blinked once. Twice.

Okay, Roxy thought, her brain doing a quick tactical reset.

This is weird. This is very, very weird. Ten minutes ago she wanted to stab me for stealing her boyfriend. Now she’s acting like I’m a religious icon.

"Kaia!" Nimue hissed, swimming forward and trying to physically shove the General’s shoulder. "Get up! You are embarrassing yourself! You are a High Commander! You don’t bow to... to the new girl just because she has nice skin!"

Kaia didn’t budge. She was like a statue anchored to the seabed. She simply turned her head, fixed Nimue with a look that could freeze magma, and growled.

"Touch me again, Princess, and I will forget your rank."

Nimue squeaked and hid behind Roxy.

Roxy cleared her throat. She decided to treat this exactly like she treated the Wolf Twins when they got too rowdy: clear instructions and immediate employment.

"Okay, enough," Roxy announced, floating back to regain her personal space. "Kaia, rise."

Kaia arose as she looked at Roxy with wide, dilated pupils, waiting for a command.

"You want to serve?" Roxy asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Her eyes raked Kaia’s form already thinking of what work to assign her.

She might as well have fun.

"My blade is yours," Kaia vowed, tapping the bone dagger at her hip. "My legion is yours. My life is—"

"Great, I don’t need your life," Roxy interrupted, pointing the ladle at the bubbling cauldron. "I need crowd control. This kitchen is a disaster waiting to happen. We have hot vents, sharp knives, and hungry servants. I need you to secure the perimeter."

Kaia blinked. She looked at the pot of boiling crab and then at the terrified servants who were currently fighting over a potato peeling.

"You want me to... guard the soup?" Kaia asked slowly.

"It’s not soup," Roxy corrected. "It’s a Seafood Boil. And yes. Nobody eats until I say so. If anyone tries to sneak a taste, you... I don’t know, glare at them."

Kaia’s face hardened into a mask of terrifying determination. She drew her bone dagger.

"I will secure the perimeter," Kaia declared. She spun around to face the kitchen staff. "BACK! BACK, YOU SCAVENGERS! THE QUEEN’S BOIL IS SACRED!"

The servants screamed and scattered to the walls.

Roxy sighed, satisfied. "Well, she’s enthusiastic."

"She’s unhinged," Nimue muttered, floating beside Roxy. "Roxy, be careful. She has a sharp bite to her mouth."

Roxy swam back to the workstation feeling better now. "And right now, I need efficiency. Hand me the thickening starch."

***

The final stage of the cooking process was the trickiest part of underwater cuisine.

On land, you just poured butter and spices over the food. Underwater, if you poured liquid sauce, it would just float away and dilute into the ocean, leaving you with wet, flavorless food which was ironic, considering they were surrounded by water.

But Roxy had consulted the God of Cuisine, and she had a plan.

"The glaze needs to be hydrophobic," Roxy mumbled, checking the temperature of the reduction sauce she was making in a smaller iron pot.

She had used the rendered fat from the sausage and mixed it with a dense, gelatinous starch harvested from the deep-sea tubers. As she whisked it with the Cajun spices, the mixture didn’t dissolve. Instead, it thickened into a heavy, dark red paste that looked like molten lava.

It was sticky. It was dense. It refused to mix with the surrounding seawater.

"Okay, everyone gather in a line!" Roxy shouted.

The servants, terrified of Kaia but mesmerized by the smell, formed a line.

Roxy demonstrated the technique. She used tongs to pull a massive red crab leg from the boiling cauldron. Steam bubbles clung to the shell.

She dunked the hot crab leg into the pot of thick, spicy glaze. The red paste coated the shell instantly, clinging to it like varnish.

"Bowl!" Roxy commanded.

A servant held out a deep clam shell, serving as nature’s Tupperware.

Roxy dropped the glazed crab, a corn cob, prawns, shrimps, and two potatoes into the shell. She poured an extra dollop of the thick sauce over it. The sauce settled over the food, heavy and undisturbed by the water.

The servant closed the clam shell tight, sealing the heat and the flavor inside.

"Perfect," Roxy grinned. "Next!"

For the next hour, the kitchen was busy. Kaia patrolled the line, slapping the hands of anyone who tried to open a clam shell before it was served. Nimue, getting caught up in the rhythm, started organizing the finished shells onto large trays made of woven kelp.

"This is..." Nimue paused, holding a warm shell against her chest. "This is actually fun. We are like a unit."

"It’s more than that, Nimue" Roxy corrected, wiping her hands on a cloth.

She looked at the mountain of food they had prepared. There were enough clam-bowls for the entire High Council.

"Alright," Roxy untied her apron which was just a large leaf. She adjusted her silk wrap and smoothed her hair. "Pack the Royal Tray. We are going to Court."

Roxy led the way, gliding through the coral corridors with her head held high. She didn’t carry a weapon, but she didn’t need to.

To her right swam Princess Nimue, to her left swam General Kaia, fully armed, looking ready to murder anyone who looked at Roxy the wrong way.

Behind them, a train of twenty servants carried the steaming trays of seafood.

The smell, even sealed in the shells, leaked out just enough to drive the population wild. Guards abandoned their posts to sniff the water. Nobles poked their heads out of their spires.

"What is that scent?" a Duchess whispered as they passed.

"It is the Queen," another whispered. "She brings something sweet and new."

Roxy ignored them, keeping her eyes forward. She had a quest to complete, an Influence meter to fill, and a Mother-in-Law to impress.

They reached the massive double doors of the Throne Room.

The guards crossed their tridents.

"Halt," one guard started. "The Matriarch is in Council with the—"

Kaia swam forward. She didn’t say a word. She just stared at the guard with her dead, grey eyes and slowly moved her hand to her dagger.

The guard swallowed hard. "Uh... proceed."

The doors groaned open.

The Throne Room was tense. Nerissa was in the middle of a heated debate with the Council of Tides regarding a border dispute with the clans. Caspian sat at her right hand, looking bored and exhausted.

The sudden intrusion made everyone freeze.

Roxy swam into the center of the room. She signaled for the servants to fan out, placing the trays on the low coral tables in front of the nobles.

Nerissa stopped mid-sentence. Her black eyes landed on Roxy, then on Kaia (who was looking uncharacteristically subservient), and finally on the steaming clam shell in Roxy’s hands.

Caspian sat up straighter, his nose twitching. "Roxy?"

Roxy glided up to the dais. She hovered before the massive throne. She simply nodded, a gesture of respect between equals.

She held out the largest, most ornate shell.

"Mother," Roxy said, her voice clear and ringing through the silent hall. "I saw that the Council ran long. A ruling stomach makes for poor decisions."

Well here goes my efforts to impress the fishes!

She smiled, a sweet, disarming expression that hid the cunning calculation behind it.

"I have come to deliver a nutritious meal to you."