Heaven's Greatest Professor

Jenni sat with a victorious smile on her lips. Although she couldn't find the dimension cube, he promised her that he would make ten of those desserts before he left for the expedition. All she had to do was help him with some shopping, which would take a couple of hours at most.

She rested on the couch with a silly grin as Warden went to refresh himself in the washroom. He asked her to wait for a few minutes, but, gods, this man took his time in the washroom like a woman. Thankfully, he came out after half an hour, fully clothed in an easy tunic and leather pants.

"I'm famished," he muttered. "Let me cook something real quick." Jenni was about to argue that her time was limited, even if it wasn't, but his next words stole the argument from her lips. "Did you have breakfast yet?"

"I... ate some leftovers," she said. "Well, wait a few minutes, I'll make us something fresh." With that, he got to the kitchen and began cutting herbs and vegetables, while igniting a stove to steam rice. He worked with perfect efficiency, which spoke volumes of his control. Well, cooking is nothing special compared to what it takes to lay runes on something. But still, Jenni didn't know how to cook.

Well, she could do simple stuff like tea, rice, toasting an egg, and such, but nothing like what this man does even with ordinary ingredients. "How have you mastered so many arts?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Many?" Warden said, not lifting his head from the vegetables. "I'm only good at four things, which can hardly be called many."

"Four things?" Jenni perked her eyebrow. "One is Runes, second is cooking, what are the other two?"

"Spear," Warden said. "But you use a sword?" Jenni argued. "Well, that's why I needed your father's help to smith me a spear," Warden said. "I broke my spear." Jenni was unsure what to say. "And what is the other thing?"

Warden smiled softly. "I need to find that out..." Jenni snorted. "If you don't want to say it, just say it; do you think I'll be jealous of you?"

Warden finally lifted his head to shoot her a look. "Well, I'm a little jealous of how easily you can cook and make those heavenly desserts, but only a tiny bit," she admitted. Warden laughed. "Huh, I thought you'd be more jealous of my runesmithing skills."

"As if, I just need time to reach Master rank in runesmithing; why would I be jealous of that?"

"You know cooking is far easier than runesmithing, right?" Warden said.

Jenni could only agree to that. She knew it was easier, but whenever she cooked something, it felt like she was labouring.

"I don't like how the job of cooking fell onto women," she said, letting hot air out of her nostrils. "That's why I specifically didn't put my mind into learning it."

"A childish reason," Warden said.

Jenni looked like she was about to argue; unfortunately, she couldn't find good reasoning to win the argument. Why was it so hard to win against him?

"But it's your life," Warden continued, "you can do whatever the hell you want." And why the hell is he so sensible too? Jenni swore. If only the guy wasn't a sadist and then, perhaps. . . Forget it!

What the hell am I thinking? There's no way. . .

"My reasons for learning cooking are simple," Warden said. "I just wanted to eat delicious food, and of course, to feed it to my loved ones as well." Jenni looked at his merry expression as he cooked and had nothing more to say.

"You know I may have considered opening a diner," he said with a ridiculed laugh. "But there are many things left for me to do."

"And what are they?" Jenni found herself asking. No, she wasn't curious about him. Since he was talking and acting so nicely, she was just trying to keep the conversation going. She bet his goal was generic like many elite rankers. . .

to achieve greater heights on the path, perhaps become transcendent. . .

Well, there was no fault in those dreams; her own dream was similar to that, after all. Yet Warden became contemplative when she asked him the question, and his palms stopped working.

"I guess it's to find my way back home," he mumbled and got back to work.

"Home?" Jenni repeated. "You're not from the empire?" The master runesmith and chef shook his head.

"Really?" Curiosity grew in her without her knowing. "How did you end up here?"

"Circumstances, I guess," he answered vaguely. It didn't take a genius to know he didn't want to talk about it, but Jenni felt like pushing more on the topic.

"I thought you're some noble lord. . . umm. . ."

"Really?" Warden asked, lifting his head to meet her gaze, a sardonic smile on his lips. "What gives that impression? Is it how I act?"

"I mean your white hair, and eyes," she said, studying his figure. "Your figure, and the aura you radiate when you're on duty…"

"My hair is grey, not white," Warden said, shaking his head. "My eyes too. And I don't think it's natural; it mutated with my power. As for my stature, there were countless common fellows… Hell, even those savage orcs have a similar stature. As for the aura, it can be cultivated."

Jenni picked up on the vagueness but didn't question it. "When you explained them, it makes sense, but for any outsider, you do look like someone of upper standing, like you know of your standing and how to act like it."

Warden grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You still haven't mentioned how you mastered all that so early?"

"I may not be as young as I look," Warden said mysteriously.

"Even considering that your age will at most be forty," she said, doing a quick calculation in her mind.

"That's quite a time, don't you think, to master Runes," Warden said. "And getting into some other hobby?"