The Gourmet Innkeeper: Cooking Monsters in a Fantasy World-Chapter 298: Origin Stories

He didn’t know why he never even questioned if she was truly his ’sister’. Maybe he just did not want to hear otherwise.

"Hmmmn," she mumbled. "I was an egg, but I hew huh voice. Daddy, too."

Finn told himself maybe it was a bird beastkin or something. But something was nagging in his gut—the people she was talking about were his parents, too!

"What did they say?"

She lifted her head and blinked, looking at him, a bit confused. "I tow you. Weewee is ma neyum."

At this, Finn realized that that was all she knew. He turned to the side in thought, realizing that Pang hadn’t touched his food yet—gasp—and was instead staring at the girl!

Pang looked at her. "She gives an aura similar to mine."

"What?"

What does that mean? Spirit?

"Well, not exactly the same, but there are similarities. I do not know either, la!"

"Does this mean she can’t get out of the barrier, either?" he asked. This concerned Finn. How sad would his sister be to just be stuck here? While he could do his best to expand its scope, she was a child—no matter how she denied it—

He remembered the time he asked Pang: Why him?

Why would the system choose him, Finn, a random orphan, to manage such a magical thing—in another world, no less?

He said that he did not know, and that it was just...given.

He had a feeling that a lot of the explanations would have to do with his sister who, unfortunately, was only four years old and didn’t seem to know much yet.

And his parents...four years ago...where were they?

But...their bodies were found. The seven-year-old him identified their corpses himself.

Just the memory of the time jumbled Finn’s mind and emotions, and he paled so much it looked like he was losing blood.

Before he could fall into a pit, however, he felt a soft hand over his. He lifted his head and saw Syl looking at him in concern.

He calmed down and shook his head with a smile, motioning that he was alright.

There was no need to overthink things. He’d find out eventually. What was important now...was the family in front of him.

...

Fortunately, after a nice meal, the sassy toddler seemed to have softened up to him. She could now transfer from being carried by Syl to him, though she said she liked Syl more because she was softer and more fragrant.

"I wike hugging Sew," she said, and Finn nodded.

"Me, too."

The siblings bonded like this.

Syl: "..."

Anyway, the four headed to the gardens, which were now—courtesy of Tumble—fenced, at least within the barrier.

Basically, the rear side of the inn was fenced, only accessible to the staff. They also fenced the area nearer the barrier, but they left just enough space for people to squeeze in if they were in danger and they came from that side.

The rest of the sides would just be delineated by posts, because they knew many people would rush here in danger, and they did not want to block their path, especially when in danger.

The entire area was quite big because he really invested space in his farm. The entire place was lush with different colors of the plants (there were even the colorful trees with purple leaves that he saw when he first arrived here). It seemed like the pink-haired toddler was also impressed.

"Waaa..."

She wiggled in his arms and he gently let her down so she could walk. Athie, amazingly, was there too and happened to be in her path. A moment later, the two kids were playing around, holding hands.

The garden was well laid out. There were a few main paths that separated a sector, and each sector had gridiron placements with some walking paths in between, which could be turf or gravel.

Syl chuckled and followed after them naturally, while he stayed at the side to watch. He turned to see that Gideon was there. He flinched. "When did you get here?"

"Just now," he said with that usual stoic expression on his face. Finn, however, knew him well enough to know there was something else.

He was just staring at them with a sad face. Or, specifically, at Lily and Athie.

"Gideon?"

"Ah, yes,"

"You okay?"

Gideon didn’t speak for a while and Finn wasn’t expecting him to say anything if he didn’t like it.

"My late daughter... was around that age when she died," Gideon admitted, knowing that the boss would worry if he didn’t explain.

Finn’s eyes widened. "I... I’m sorry to hear that."

"It’s fine, you need to know this too," he said. "I don’t think you understand the seriousness of the Aphelion Month."

Finn stared at him, patiently waiting for him to speak.

"They died during the previous Aphelion month. This is when the barriers are its weakest and hundreds of thousands or millions of monsters could escape the barriers.

Even strong monsters of the fortified stage—thousands of them per region—would appear and reach the depths of the safe zone."

"Counting down, there should only be a few years until the next one."

Which made him worry especially for this place.

Finn’s expression was extremely solemn. It wasn’t that he wasn’t planning on training. He had been doing so more than cooking now.

What he didn’t want was to have such heavy pressure on him.

"Even the Capital Cities experienced losses during this time, and those were deep into the safe zones. The border towns, if they were a bit less prepared, would suffer extreme losses.

"How do you think your inn, out here in the open, could fare?"

Finn was quiet, and Gideon continued to speak.

"If you wish to really protect this place and your sister..." he paused, "Then you would have to reach a height that cannot be defeated even by a hundred top monsters."

...

The conversation could not continue because the two kids suddenly ran to the barrier! And there were monsters right outside!

Finn and Gideon rushed to them, but then they paused when they just saw Athie summoning strong winds, barraging the monster with his powers, soon taking it down.

"..."

The baby girl looked impressed and clapped her hands, and then she mimicked the boy’s movements, and then let out weird energy balls instead.

"!!!?"