A distant Southern Continent, the Kingdom of Hutton, the royal capital Ikelite.

Ten o'clock on an April spring morning, the sky above Ikelite was dyed a soft blue, and the air was even more bright and fresh with the scent of flowers.

Located to the east of the Ikelite Academy, across two wide and clean streets, shops stood in rows, bustling with activity.

A small restaurant exuded a rich aroma of breakfast, the scent of oatmeal and cheese gently permeating the air.

This was a two-story building of tea-colored wood. The shop's signboard was inscribed with the Hutton Kingdom script: "Cat Boss Restaurant." The roof curved broadly and naturally, and the eaves extended far out. Whenever a breeze passed, the wind chimes under the eaves would emit a pleasant sound.

Accompanied by a series of "jingle jingle" sounds, the restaurant door was pushed open from time to time, with customers coming and going. The first floor was simply and cleverly divided into several areas, including a counter near the entrance and passages leading to the kitchen and the second floor.

At this time, the restaurant was not in the peak breakfast hours, and there were few customers. In the kitchen, two women wearing aprons were preparing ingredients at the workbench, with green leafy vegetables, fruits, and various seasonings neatly arranged.

Their cooperation was so tacit that they didn't need words. On one side was the rhythm of knives dancing on the cutting board, crisp and powerful; on the other, the art of seasonings and ingredients intertwining.

Talia was responsible for cutting, and each cut was just right, producing vegetable slices of uniform size, which she pushed to the side.

Asina, on the other hand, was responsible for blending and processing, preserving the flavor of the ingredients while giving them new life.

On this morning, Asina, as the vice president of the student council, had no official duties.

In her final semester of her third year, she had already completed all her course credits and her graduation project, and only needed to wait for the time to apply for graduation.

She was now the new head chef of the Cat Boss Restaurant, having declined the Ikelite Academy's offer to stay on as a teacher, and had no plans to continue studying for a fourth year. She would formally become the Cat Boss's disciple after graduation.

During this time, she had become an invaluable friend and partner with Miss Tata, who helped the Cat Boss run the shop.

Miss Tata always gave her the most accurate evaluations, helping her improve her dishes.

And the most important thing was that no matter how many meals she made, Miss Tata could eat them all.

She didn't have to worry about her being too full to continue giving her guidance, nor did she have to worry about wasting food.

So since meeting Tata, Asina felt that her cooking skills had improved by leaps and bounds. She also began to cook for Tata day and night, and Tata was very happy. To speed up Asina's cooking, she personally became her sous chef.

The only thing Asina was a little worried about was whether Tata was eating too much.

Although Tata still looked the same, not having gained any weight, if she continued to eat like this, she might see Tata's little tummy in the summer.

Talia was still immersed in a series of skilled procedures to prepare the ingredients.

However, she suddenly paused.

The blade in her hand rested quietly on the cutting board, and her gaze shifted from the cut vegetables, slowly lifting her head to look to the side of the kitchen.

Outside the window, the spring sunlight filled the windowsill, and the leaves swayed gently in the breeze.

"..."

Talia's eyes did not seem to focus on this peaceful scene, but cast far away, immersed in some deep thought.

Her face looked particularly troubled at this moment, her eyes shimmering with complex light.

Asina noticed this change and stopped her work, looking at Talia with concern.

"Tata, what's wrong?"

Asina felt that Tata suddenly seemed to have something on her mind.

Talia shook her head.

"It's nothing, don't worry."

Actually, she didn't know if it was a mistake or reality.

She always felt that somewhere in the world, a new Great Demon had appeared, and one that had some connection with her, which caused her, as a member of the Demon King's family, to have such a strange feeling.

On closer inspection, the ruins of the Great Demon trials had been almost completely destroyed, and even if there were any remaining, they were probably under human control.

People would not allow powerful demons to complete their trials and become Great Demons.

Unless—there were still demons she was familiar with who had survived, mingled with humans, recently found an opportunity to sneak into the Great Demon trials, collected the final imprint, and successfully become Great Demons.

But no matter how she thought about it, Talia couldn't figure out which demon it could be.

A hundred years ago, not to mention powerful demons, even talented demons had died off.

Now, even if they became Great Demons, besides unlocking the upper limit of their talent magic, there was no other use.

Because without a Demon King and an ancestral land, they couldn't even get a title, and could only become a "nameless Great Demon."

If one had to say, Great Demons had one more use, which was to be worthy of the Demon King's descendants.

According to demon tradition, the betrothed of a member of the Demon King's family needed to be at least a Great Demon.

But whether it was demons, Great Demons, or humans, she had no interest in anyone who pursued her.

Now, even if a new Great Demon was born, and one related to her, it wouldn't be specifically to propose marriage to her, only to cause rumors to fly around the demon world.

She would always realize in a daze that there had been no demon kingdom for a hundred years, and that she had long since hidden her identity. The demon race and the Northern Continent were about to become irrelevant to her.

If there was anything she regretted.

It was that she didn't know the whereabouts of her close friend, the Guardian Antanas.

Now that her life was getting better, she would always feel a little lonely because Antanas was not by her side.

"Tata, who are you thinking about?"

Asina noticed that Tata had been a little absent-minded since just now, so she finished her work before slowly asking.

"I was thinking about a close friend. I haven't been in contact with her for a long time."

Talia nodded and replied.

She now felt that Asina was also her friend. It was hard to imagine that one day she would make friends with humans, treat each other sincerely, work together every day, live together, and chat together.

"Then you can ask Ranch to help you find her. He's very good at this kind of civil request work."

Asina recalled that since the new semester started, the student council was missing Ranch and Hyberian, and the workload felt like it had increased a lot.

"I think I'll pass."

Tata shook her head. Asina didn't know that this was not a civil matter at all.

Antanas was an ancient Great Demon, and they had lost contact for a hundred years. Even Talia herself could not describe Antanas's specific appearance.

She couldn't possibly say to Ranch, "When you go to the Northern Continent, please bring back a Great Demon named Antanas for me." And then he would bring Antanas to the door of the shop like a souvenir after his trip.

That was not how dreams were made.

Moreover, she was not ready at all. If Antanas suddenly saw her completely turned into a human, living peacefully with humans, she was afraid she would want to kill herself.

Talia thought for a while and continued to cut vegetables with peace of mind.

"By the way, Asina, you'll have your mid-term break in a while. Can I leave for a few days?"

Talia remembered that Ikelite Academy would have a seven-day mid-term break in May and June. At that time, Asina should be able to stay in the shop every day, and student council president Monaster would also come to the shop to help Asina.

"No problem, are you planning to travel?"

Asina nodded.

"No, I want to go back to the Southern Van Tine Territory. There's something I've been concerned about. I just thought of it, so I'm going to take a look."

When Talia heard Asina mention Ranch, she couldn't help but think of the time at the station on the border of the Southern Van Tine Territory when Ranch's family's butler, Hans, saw them off. He said that Ranch had painted a painting, and it was a pity that she couldn't see it.

She became more and more curious about what kind of painting it was.

It just so happened that the Cat Boss Restaurant's business was on the right track recently. There was a good opportunity next month, so she planned to return to the Southern Van Tine Territory to the Wilford family to see Ranch's painting.

Currently added updates/total chapters owed: 21/36

(End of chapter)