The pleasant aroma of spices wafted around the airy expanse of the kitchen, steam from the boiling water visible in the orange light of the setting pot set over the fire bubbled away happily, thoroughly soaking and flavoring the vegetables within. Fat from thick cuts of meat dripped off a pan in a meandering fashion. A flurry of activity followed regular yells by the staff, moving around in a frenzy. A chaotic grace, palpable in the atmosphere.
Asuna Yuuki watched, green with envy, as the servants of Yuuki Manor prepared the meals her family would be eating later that night. Oh, how she wished she could be in there, searing a random chicken breast or seasoning some kind of stew.
Instead, she was stuck observing from the outside because apparently nobles who cook are a disgrace to their family. It had been repeated to Asuna many times over the course of her life. She could vividly recall one particular instance.
Asuna had been only four; much before her brain was molded into prioritizing her reputation over her interests. She had snuck into the kitchens, intrigued by the sounds and smells coming from behind the imposing door at the end of the hallway.
When she stepped inside, she was frozen for a minute. It was the moment she fell in love with the art of food. In slow motion, she saw every movement made by every person. She witnessed every stir of a pot with every turn of a spatula. She admired every flicker of the flame that cooked her sustenance.
It was then that she had decided she wanted to live in this kitchen for the rest of her life.
Moments later, a very annoyed Kyouko Yuuki, mother of Asuna, had walked in and dragged her out by the arm. After some very harsh unintelligibilities, her mom finally calmed down enough to make sense.
"You are never to go in the kitchen. Ever," Kyouko had said harshly.
"But, mother-" Asuna had started.
"No. The kitchen is a place for servants, for peasants, for commonwives. You are a noblewoman. You will not step foot in there."
"Why can't I be a commonwife?!" a young Asuna had asked in desperation.
"Because nobles who must cook tarnish the names of their families."
It was the first time Asuna was faced with the reality of the life she lived; every move she made would always be scrutinized, every single mistake she'd ever make would be put under the microscope and could potentially ruin the lives of everyone in her family.
She was young, and she could not understand more than that. But she did understand that since her mother's tirade was around appearances and not the act of cooking itself, she made an impressive conclusion for her age: as long as no one ever saw Asuna in the kitchen, the Yuuki family name would remain dignified.
It was not a perfect solution by any stretch of the imagination; if one could call spending weeks memorizing the servants' and guards' rotational schedules and sneaking out of bed at two in the morning to cook a "solution", but it worked. Asuna got to keep cooking, and Kyouko got to keep her social standing.
It was, however, deeply unsatisfying to Asuna for one particular reason; this nagging issue that had bothered her since day 1 of her under-the-radar cooking operation. She was never able to present her creations to anyone. No one had ever taken a bite of her food and said, "Wow, Asuna, this tastes great!"
It was probably her greatest desire. To hear someone appreciate her food.
But alas, it was not meant to be.
She'd come close. Once. Before her brother had gotten-
"We don't speak of that," she whispered to herself as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, the last traces of gold in the sky disappearing. Kouichirou's name was never taken in her household. Not after what happened a few years ago.
Asuna did a double take when she realized what time it was. She was due in the dining hall in less than an hour and she had to make herself look "presentable". Because apparently, nobility always had to project an aura of readiness and elegance.
Why wasn't this social class the same as any other?
Why couldn't nobility project themselves as human?
Working in the quarry had more than one advantage for Kazuto. While it did help with his cover as a law-abiding-yet-disgruntled Reksinyan, it also had another perk, one that was infinitely more valuable for his life as Kirito.
It gave him an excuse to collect the Hokkendo that was located underneath the rock. Hokkendo was a mostly useless mineral that formed when certain types of rock were repeatedly disturbed (i.e., a commercial mining operation). As such, there was a motherlode of Hokkendo underneath the mine where Kazuto worked.
Hokkendo was not a sturdy enough substance to build with, nor did it have any particularly special qualities about it to produce something with it. It was just a purposeless byproduct of the quarry. The Authority officials couldn't care less what happened with the Hokkendo that the miners often recovered while working.
Kirito, on the other hand, absolutely loved Hokkendo. At first, he too had thought the stuff was good for nothing. But after a mishap involving boiling water and disintegration, Kirito had made a very...interesting...discovery.
Hokkendo made a very, very, good fuse to blow things up. It disintegrated when hot water touched it, and with some calculations, Kirito was able to determine exactly how much rock dissipated each time a drop of water interacted with it. He then factored that into the force of gravity calculations and coupled it with the evaporation rate of boiling water. With this, Kirito was able to fashion a functioning timed fuse without any mechanical components.
And it gave him a huge upper hand.
Asuna sighed as she retreated to her room after dinner. As always, mealtime was a terse affair. Occasional small talk was made, but even before Kouichirou's abrupt departure from the family, the Yuukis were never ones to socialize amongst themselves. No, they might have appeared as outgoing socialites to the upper class with whom Kyouko Yuuki fraternized with often, but their family dynamic was always the same: cold and distant.
It was why Asuna always sought warmth; be it under her blankets at night, under the sun during summer, or by the kitchen's hearth in the dead of night; warmth was a pleasure she was not afforded with her parents, nor at those dreadfully formal galas she was forced to attend.
She sat on the balcony with a shawl draped around her neck as she grasped haphazardly for just a little bit more light. The pitch black darkness seemed to be a little more endearing today. Something in the distance was not just warm; it was hot. Of course, she didn't know this, but as Asuna grabbed at where that sensation was emanating from...
...she was facing west.