Morning light spilled across the room as Reinhard woke up smiling, still thinking about how much better yesterday had gone than he’d expected.
Today he had one job.
Mushroom soup.
He had watched four cooking videos before bed. Four. As far as he was concerned, that made him basically a professional.
He stepped into the hallway and found Lily still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She stopped when she saw him already dressed. "You’re awake before noon?"
"I always wake up early for important things."
"Since when?"
"Since today. It’s a new tradition."
He walked past her and opened the refrigerator. There were a few vegetables, the last of the milk, and a little meat, but no mushrooms. He checked the shelves again. "We don’t have any mushrooms."
He headed for the door, and Lily stepped into his path. "Where are you going?"
"To buy mushrooms."
"You woke up early just to buy mushrooms?"
"I promised to make her favorite meal."
Lily crossed her arms. "I just didn’t think you’d actually keep that promise."
Reinhard smiled. "This time I will. I’m done making promises I don’t keep."
Lily stared after him as he left. "...You are so weird."
...
The grocery store was only a few blocks away. Reinhard found the produce section, picked up a pack of mushrooms, and compared it to the picture on his phone.
An old woman shopping nearby leaned over. "Are you all right, dear?"
"They don’t look like the ones in the video."
She patted his arm. "They never do."
Reinhard decided that was wisdom. He bought three packs, just in case, along with everything else the videos had mentioned, and by the time he got home, he had enough ingredients to fail at least twice.
...
Twenty minutes later, Lily wandered into the kitchen and stopped dead. Ingredients covered the counter, mushroom pieces of wildly different sizes were scattered across the cutting board, and the pot on the stove was rattling its lid as though something inside wanted to escape.
She looked at Reinhard. "You don’t know what you’re doing."
"I know exactly what I’m doing."
Smoke curled out from under the lid.
"It just looks bad right now," Reinhard said. "It’ll get better."
"I have half a mind to..." Lily lunged for the spoon. "Move."
Reinhard held it out of reach. "No."
"You’re making it worse!"
She grabbed for it again, and he dodged her. "If I wanted someone else to make it, I would’ve bought it from a restaurant."
Lily stopped. "...Okay, that’s kind of sweet. But you’re still making something terrible."
"Will you stop saying that?"
"It’s true," she said, finally snatching the spoon out of his hand.
"I need that to cook for my wife."
"You need to be banned from cooking forever."
"The video didn’t have any smoke in it," Reinhard admitted. "I thought I was adding a personal touch."
Lily stared at him.
"Practice makes perfect," Reinhard said.
She sighed and handed the spoon back. "Fine. I chop, you stir, and you don’t touch anything else."
She started cutting fresh mushrooms while Reinhard stirred, and after a moment, he asked, "Did Emily always like this soup?"
The knife slowed. "Mom used to make it."
"And Emily loved it?"
"She’d always ask for seconds." Lily smiled faintly. "When we were little, we’d fight over the leftovers. Then Emily would give us this look, and we’d give up."
Reinhard smiled. "So she was terrifying."
"When she wanted to be."
"Good. I like her already."
"Just stir."
An hour later, the soup was finally ready. Lily tasted it, and her expression changed. She walked to the sink, spat it out, and rinsed her mouth.
Reinhard watched her. "That bad?"
"We can’t feed this to her."
He tasted it himself. "Hmm."
"Well?"
"It’s got character."
"It’s got problems."
Reinhard looked toward the living room. "I think Emily will like it."
Lily blinked. "Why?"
"Because I actually tried," he said, filling a bowl and walking out.
Lily stared after him, and then her eyes went wide. "...Wait. WAIT!"
...
Emily looked up as Reinhard came over. "Reinhard? What’s that?"
He knelt beside her chair and held out the bowl. "Yuna told me you like mushroom soup, so I made some. With Lily’s help."
Emily tilted her head. "Lily actually helped you?"
"All families argue."
"She calls you names."
"Sibling love."
"She hates being in the same room as you."
"That’s a misunderstanding. She loves being around me," Reinhard said with a smile. "She just shows it through violence."
Emily’s lips twitched, and she looked down at the bowl. "You... made this?"
"I did. It isn’t my best work."
"I can tell." She looked up at him, and her expression softened. "And you’re still bringing it to me anyway. You went through all this trouble, so I want to try it."
At that exact moment, Lily skidded into the doorway. "DON’T EAT THAT!"
Too late. Emily had already taken a bite.
Lily grabbed Reinhard by both shoulders. "Are you crazy?!"
"It’s fine."
"It is not fine! I tasted it!"
"You just haven’t experienced greatness before."
"You have no taste!"
"So you’re saying you can’t cook either?"
"W-What?"
"You helped me make it."
Lily’s eye twitched. "It turned out like that because you sabotaged it from the start!"
Reinhard scratched his cheek. "I could have waited until we fixed it." He looked at Emily. "But I kind of wanted her to taste my failures too."
Lily’s grip loosened. "Why?"
"It’s a memory I wanted to share with her. The same way you all have your memories of this soup."
Lily stared at him. "...You’re unbelievable."
Emily’s shoulders began to shake.
"Sis?" Lily said.
A laugh escaped Emily. She covered her mouth, but it didn’t help, and the laughter kept coming until she had to lean against the arm of her chair.
Reinhard smiled. "Looks like she found our conversation funny."
Lily stared at Emily in disbelief. "Are you okay? Did the soup make you delirious?"
Emily shook her head, still catching her breath. "The soup..." She looked at Reinhard. "It was terrible."
Lily threw up her hands. "Thank you!"
"But it was good."
Lily froze.
Reinhard pointed triumphantly. "See?"
"She literally said it was terrible!"
"She said ’good’ second. The second one counts more."
"That’s not how anything works!"
Reinhard chuckled and gently wiped a tear from the corner of Emily’s eye. "I’m glad you liked it. And thank you for trying it."
Emily smiled. "When someone puts in that much effort, it should be rewarded."
His expression softened. "You really are the best."
Emily’s cheeks turned pink, and Lily looked back and forth between them. "...Who are you people?"
...
By nighttime, the apartment had gone quiet. Reinhard sat alone in the living room, still thinking about Emily’s laugh. Yesterday, she had hidden it behind her hands, and today, she hadn’t.
He smiled. "I think I can make her laugh even more." He leaned back. "Now, what should I do tomorrow? Fix my cooking, find a job, or start dealing with this apartment’s problems?"
He had barely finished speaking when something strange flickered at the edge of his vision. Then a screen appear, making him blink.
Reinhard reached toward it, and his fingers passed straight through the light. "...Huh?"
He looked around the empty room, then back at the glowing words, and his confusion quickly turned to curiosity as a slow grin spread across his face. "Don’t tell me..."
[Akasha Investment System Activated.]
His eyes widened. "Investment?" His grin grew. "Seriously?"
[Scanning Host.]
[Scanning Environment.]
[Searching For The Highest Value Investment.]
[Target Located.]
[Emily Ashcroft.]
Reinhard looked at his wife’s name glowing in the dark, and he couldn’t stop smiling. "Of course. Even the System agrees she’s the best investment in the house."
More information appeared.
[Current Value: E]
[Investment Potential: SSS]
[Investment Difficulty: SSS-Rank]
His eyebrows shot up. "From E to SSS?" He glanced toward the hallway. "She has that much potential?" His smile widened. "As expected of my wife."
[Estimated Return: Legendary.]
His eyes lit up, and he sat forward. "Legendary? Now we’re talking."
Another line appeared.
[Assessment: Extreme Potential / Severely Depreciated State.]
His smile faded slightly. "Severely depreciated..."
The System didn’t mean Emily was only worth an E. It meant that whatever had happened to her had dragged her value far below what she could become.
"So that’s why you chose her," he said quietly.
[Calculating Recommended First Investment...]
[Calculation Complete.]
[First Investment Opportunity Available.]
[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]
[Current Value: E.]
[Objective: Make Emily willingly accept your gift and thank you.]
[Difficulty Grade: C.]
[Success Probability: 40%.]
Reinhard stared at it. "That’s my first investment?"
The System wasn’t asking him to buy something expensive or defeat a monster. It wanted Emily to willingly accept a gift from him and actually be grateful for it, and after everything the old Reinhard had done to her, that might be harder than any monster.
He looked at the probability again. "Forty percent." His smile returned. "Not bad."
[Warning.]
[The moment this investment is accepted, your future will become intertwined with hers, and all of her problems will become yours.]
[This investment cannot be canceled.]
Reinhard read the warning twice, and then he chuckled. "So if I accept, her problems become my problems?" He glanced toward the hallway. "Sounds like marriage to me."
His expression softened. "Besides, she took care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself." He reached toward the screen. "So I’ll do the same for her. She’s worth investing in."
[Proceed? YES / NO]
Reinhard pressed YES, and the screen flashed.
He leaned back with a satisfied smile, his eyes gleaming as he looked over the glowing interface. "All right. Let’s see what a C-grade investment gets me."