D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

When Kat woke up the next morning after another good nights rest, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting. She’d chatted with Elmony and Kamiko and headed off to bed quite content with everything. Hugging Kamiko was a great idea, and she wouldn’t hear anything against that.

When the pair headed up for breakfast, that’s where the surprise began. The dining table had been nearly doubled in size somehow and now had a veritable feast prepared for them. A thin redish dome covered the table while Elmony sat off to the side in the same outfit as yesterday but now had the addition of a chef’s hat that instead of puffing out at the top, seemed to be topped with a ram horn on its side.

Laid out across the table was a large spread. Most of the items were all fruit or vegetable related with one meat dish and one that MIGHT have been a meat dish, even after Kat tried tasting it later one, she wasn’t sure. The main bulk of the fruits had the skin taken off of them before they were carved into a variety of shapes. The apples looked like tulips, the pears had been turned into drums and… the tomatoes looked like severed heads but Kat wasn’t a big fan of fresh tomato anyway.

The vegetables were more varied, having been chopped and mixed together before being distributed. Elmony seemed to have used all the various colours to make a portrait of Kamiko, though Kat didn’t recognise what was used on the hair. Cucumber slices were used for the eyes, with cauliflower shaving used for the pale skin. The dress was green instead of white. Perhaps just to make use of the peas and beans that made it up.

The meat dish by comparison was actually kind of disappointing. It was just finely sliced lamb laid out in a circle with a pot of gravy in the centre of it. *I don’t know why that’s at the breakfast table though. Then again, demons don’t need to eat all that much so I guess having ’breakfast foods’ or ’lunch foods’ just isn’t something they do.* Their was a second, similar looking plate on the other side but the ’meat’ was white. Didn’t look like tofu or chicken and Kat didn’t want to ask.

The final centre piece was a large mound of gelatine that had been carved into a flower, with the excess material spread around the outside to give it the appearance of a water lily floating on a lake. It was raised above the rest on a fine glass serving dish that had grooves running through the centre and was dyed red from the gelatine and the light directly above the table.

”Woah. This… this is impressive. How come you went out of your way to do all this?” asked Kat

”Nah this is normal.” Grinned Kamiko as she took her seat and waited for the barrier to drop.

Kat however looked over at Elmony for a further answer. ”She’s right actually. This is the sort of thing I normally do for a meal. I know the rest of the family tend to stick to plants to I do as well, but I like a bit of meat on the regular.

”I took up cooking when I was very young. Mum actually convinced me as a way to get used to handling blades in a safe environment after she found me trying to turn one of the dead branches from the backyard into a… well knowing me at that age it was probably supposed to be a sword or an exe, but at best I could maybe do an awkward looking spear with a questionably sharp tip.

”Anyway, Mum gave me the permission to use a knife when cooking and I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t very good at the start, and if I’m honest it took me two decades to start appreciating cooking but now I mostly use it to train control.”

”Control?” asked Kat

Kamiko jumped in. ”Wait, El, can you please drop the barrier first. I’m happy for you to keep chatting, both of you. But I at least am hungry.”

Elmony nodded towards the barrier and her eyes glowed for a split second. The barrier started to groan for just a second before a large crack split it in two and then it shattered. The pieces were quickly directed to fly out of the door and into the garden. ”There you go. Foods up.” Said Elmony ”Now. About how I use cooking…

”Well, some of it is fancy knife work during preparation, if I’m entirely honest most of that is just repetition. I could do it in my sleep. It’s good when you start out don’t get me wrong, but the long term benefits are practically non-existent unless you are doing extreme like trying to cut millimetre fine slices of various foods. Which, I did actually attempt for a while and I can soundly say I recommend it to nobody.

”It becomes more a test of patience and frustration management. Not to mention that you need a really good knife to even attempt it. You just… you don’t get anywhere training like that. Instead, I recommend people do what I later started.”

Elmony gestured out at the table and picked up one of the tomatoes before taking a big bite. It looked just as disturbing as Kat imagined it wood. Elmony gave a wry grin and Kamiko stared very intently at her current plate of jelly, making sure to avoid looking towards Elmony at all.

”Carving. That’s what I started. I found that… with a bit of creativity and a lot of practice you can bring sculptures to life when prepping food. I like it because I have to balance speed and control. If I want it to look good, I can’t just rush through it all, I need to take my time and make sure that my cuts are precise.

”On the other hand though, it’s still food. I can’t leave it out forever. Sure we have some demonic tricks on the plates that I could make use of to preserve the food in optimal condition but I treat that as sort of cheating and make sure to only use the plates that aren’t enchanted.

”That means that if I get too hung up on the details, I risk ruining the meal. That’s unacceptable. Granted, wasting food isn’t a big sin to me, but it still takes a good deal of effort to get to the plating stage, and if I’ve spent twenty minutes getting everything done I don’t want to repeat that again.”

”Wow you did all this in twenty minutes?” said Kat, shock evident in her voice.

Elmony nodded. ”Yeah, but remember I’m much more powerful then you are. I can perform plenty of actions in just a few seconds. I might not be able to speed up the cooking, but preparation takes almost no time if I’m willing to overcharge myself with a bit of energy.”

”Ah of course” said Kat as she took a seat. Elmony had gravitated towards the meat and tomatoes, and Kat found herself trying the strange pink vegetable? It was somewhat squishy, reminiscent of tough steak, but she found the edges of it melted very quickly in her mouth. It had an overall slightly sour flavour with a hint of a taste somewhat reminiscent of baked apples.

”So, um… how much does a demon need to eat? I keep needing less and less food it seems but I haven’t exactly tested it.” Asked Kat.

Elmony winced. ”Honestly that’s something Mum should probably help you figure out. I mean, the obvious answer is it depends. Spending a day sitting in a chair is very different to spending a day fighting for your life. You need more food for one then the other, though I guess if you’re doing hard puzzles and extended your time with energy maybe that could take a bit too…

”Anyway, ignore that. The bottom line is, it’s all very different. Demons require such vastly different amounts of food even those of the same category like Succubi. For example, I expect I’ll eat whatever food you guys don’t. Maybe leave some jelly for the others because it’s a favourite in this household of Kamiko doesn’t eat it all.”

Kamiko just gave a big grin as she ate the next spoonful, before Elmony continued. ”Yeah yeah, you’re just as bad as the rest of them. I dunno why you guys like it that much. It’s good sure, but not that good. Anyway Kat. You really do just need to work it out yourself. I run pretty hot and burn through my food rather quickly for my Rank. Gluttony demons are so much worse. They could eat more food in an hour then even I can in a week.

”You… well I have no idea. Your regeneration might mean you need more food, or it could mean you need less. Really I think you’ll have to talk to Mum.” Said Elmony with a slight smile.

*Well, that’s good to know I guess? I suspect I don’t eat much but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.. I’m still trying to work out if I like the taste of whatever this pink food is.*