In the morning, Nozomu was already in the kitchen, mixing something inside a pot over the stove, with Seta Azusake seated at the table, smashing ‘crackers’ shells with his big hands and putting the seeds in a large bowl and the shells in a bucket on the floor near him.
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Taisetsuna arrived at the kitchen with Koyaga and the two Cat-kind sisters, drawn by the strange smell, just as Nozomu left the pot with two wooden spoons moving on their own, and moved to the counter to prepare more pizzas.
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Taisetsuna looked at the pot and sniffed, surprised by such a nice smell coming from such a thick and dark brown mixture that was being mixed by a tiny Wind Tornado above the pot, that was moving the two wooden spoons, "Morning, everyone! Nozo, what are you doing here? The smell is divine!"
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"Well, remember that chocolate I told you about last night? Well, Mister Azusake had in the pantry a huge batch of cocoa butter, and on a big closed bucket on the ground, there was cocoa powder chocolate that he uses to do his secret seasoning. I just mixed in this pot milk and ‘Ergy’ honey, and it’s been cooked for the past hour while being mixed. I think in one hour it will be ready to cover the ‘crackers’ that Mister Azusake is preparing to be roasted. Then, it’s just a matter of letting them dry, and they will be ready to be eaten. I think we can have a big bowl full of ‘Chocolate Crackers’ ready for lunch, as an appetizer."
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Koyaga closed her eyes, smelled the pot and spoke while still sniffing it, "We all know how weirdly fun your food is, Nozomu! Will this have some strange side effects like the pizzas?"
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Nozomu shrugged without even looking back because he was too occupied with the pizzas, predicting that he was already late, "No idea. I didn’t expect pizza to have such a weird effect on Beast-kind, so I don’t really know what to expect from this. It’s probably better to open doors, Miss Koyaga. I heard a bunch of noise outside when I came down, but I didn’t dare to approach the door without pizzas ready."
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"I will open and check the mess, then. Did you wake up that early? I normally get out of bed at sunrise, but you beat me to it this morning!"
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Nozomu put four new small pizzas in the oven and took out four that were ready and placed them over another counter, "I woke up really early, thinking about the chocolate. Since I wasn’t doing anything in bed, I came down to work on it. Mister Azusake came right after me, and he gave me the bucket with the cocoa powder. He made that tiny Wind Tornado over the pot on the stove, that is now mixing the chocolate. Magic sure is useful! I thought I would need to be mixing that by hand!"
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Koyaga left to the main room, with Taisetsuna taking a final glance at the stove, wondering how Nozomu managed to think about all that.
The two Cat-kind sisters approached Nozomu, and he gave them tasks to do instead of only being there, looking. The older girl went to mix the new batch of dough, while the youngest was putting ham and cheese over the pizzas that already had the tomato sauce that Nozomu was spreading over the several thin and flat circular doughs that he was making in a line over the counter.
In the main room, Koyaga was already taking notes of pizza requests from the big line of people that went way past the stable and continued till the entrance of the Church.
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Taisetsuna spoke as she was filling two cups of tea to take to the people that were already seated at the tables, waiting for the pizzas, "The line is even bigger than yesterday, Miss Koyaga! I even saw some people that were here before and a bunch of new faces!"
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A smiling Dog-kind man spoke, with his tail waving, "You have no idea how good those pizzas are, girl! I had an amazing afternoon with my wife yesterday! I came here very early to be sure I had another one today!"
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Taisetsuna turned bright red, and avoided looking at the smiling man, while Koyaga winked at him, "I know perfectly what you are saying! The pizzas sure are amazing! No wonder so many Beast-kind are here! I bet many of the Humans in the line either come because the pizzas are good, or because they are married to a Beast-kind."
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One middle-aged Human man that was behind the Dog-kind raised his hand with a slight smile, "Guilty as charged! My Bovine-kind wife loved the pizza I bought here yesterday, and she almost begged me to get another for today! You know what they say, Miss Koyaga, ‘happy wife, happy life’. Wife says, I obey, no questions asked!"
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A lot of laughter echoed all around, coming from the ones that heard him, and while Taisetsuna was rushing to deliver tea and biscuits to the tables, Koyaga kept on noting down the names and how many pizzas they wanted.
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…
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It was already the middle of the morning when Nozomu, Taisetsuna, the little Takanari Sumomi and the Guild Master were walking to the City’s Magical Circle. Noomu was carrying a wrapped small pizza, Taisetsuna had a small bag with ‘crackers’ enveloped in chocolate, and the little Takanari was happily sucking chocolate in her mouth, with another small bag on her hands, filled with more. Her prize for defeating Nozomu in the Battleship game.
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Every couple of meters while walking to the Magical Circle, Nozomu and Taisetsuna were greeted by some unknown people who wanted to talk to them and meet the two young heroes who went inside a cave full of Goblins to save two Cat-kind sisters.
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After the fourth pinch in her cheek by a Dog-kind middle-aged woman, Takanari asked while sucking chocolate, "Do you mind… chomp… stop doing that? ...chomp … that’s annoying! And also, why don’t you clean your hands before touching people? ...chomp … They smell like manure."
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The woman immediately stopped pinching the little girl and smelled her fingers, frowning, "It smells a bit because I was cleaning fish in my stall, but you didn’t need to say that! That was kind of rude!"
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"What? ...chomp... Coming to me like if I was your kid... chomp… and pinching me was not rude? Politeness goes …chomp… both ways, lady!"
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The Dog-kind woman made an awkward smile, not knowing what to say, and she left to her fish stall again, near the entrance of a weapons shop. Nozomu bent and spoke to the little annoyed girl, "That was mean of you, Takanari. That woman just thought you were cute."
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"...chomp … I thought she was mean for pinching my cheeks so hard… chomp… but I don’t see you… chomp... scolding her! Thanks a lot… chomp… Nozomu!"
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He blinked, surprised by her answer, and stood there, half-frozen and looking at her back as she turned away and followed the Guild Master. Taisetsuna pulled him up by his arm and said, “She was right, you know? Any girl her age would be annoyed by so many people coming to pinch their cheeks. Let’s go, or they will leave us behind."
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Nozomu asked as they rushed to follow the Guild Master that was walking while holding hands with the little Cat-kind girl, "Do you think it has something to do with the chocolates? Because she was so sweet before she started eating them! Now she seems angry!"
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"I am not sure, but you could be right. She sounds like… she lost all shame. Or… like if now she only tells the truth?"
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Nozomu went silent, thinking if the chocolates could explain Takanari’s odd behaviour.
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After a few more minutes and two more stops to talk briefly with people that came to them, they reached their destination, near a curve.
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Nozomu looked at a big open space in front of a strange building. It looked different from all the other buildings around it because it had two floors and was made entirely of dark-looking stones, as if the normal white stones had been under a huge fire years ago. A big metallic door at the main entrance, and huge stained glass windows on the walls that looked brand new. Several columns supported the large top floor, while the lower floor looked smaller.
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The Guild master told them to wait near the columns at each side of the big door, and he went in. Nozomu touched the nearest column, noticing that it had strange engravings and it was made of rotating disks with different images on the two disks at eye’s height, images that were repeated on the other two disks below it.
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The door opened again, and the Guild Master appeared, followed by an old man dressed in a dark long robe. He had long grey hair that went to his waist, and a long grey beard that made him look older than he actually was. His deep light blue eyes noticed the look on Nozomu’s face as he was still caressing the images of the disk, "It seems the images intrigued you, my boy. You have never seen them? Even if you never used Magical Circles, the engravings were already copied into several books."
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Nozomu faced the inquisitive blue eyes and answered with a slight smile, "I am not sure if I ever saw these engravings, but if they are related to a Magical Circle that allows people to travel to other Cities, I think the top two circles are coordinates to this City, and the bottom ones are for where we can travel. Maybe there is a list somewhere, with the codes used."
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"You are not wrong. Inside this building, we do have a book with those codes you talked about, but I have all of them memorized. There is also something that is needed to activate the disks, a key, as you may call it."
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As he was talking, the old man took a strange flat oval object from under his clothes that was tied to a string around his neck and showed it to Nozomu who wondered what that was, "This is kind of weird. It has a rough appearance, but it’s blinking in a faint blue light. Is this a Magical Item?"
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"Yes, there are several that were found inside similar buildings like this one, buried in a deep chamber a few meters underground. Next to the chest that contained this key and several others, there was also a book with metallic pages with the codes written on it, and it was thanks to that book that we learned how to use the Magical Circles, centuries ago."
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Nozomu nodded, looking at the column again and easily finding the place over the top rotative disk that had an engraving deeply carved that indicated it was where the key went. He also noticed that the engravings on the four disks were also blinking in a light blue light at the same time as the key, and spoke in amazement, "I suppose this is also something that a previous civilization left behind. One that existed before ours, and it was cleansed for some reason by God Raluth."
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"That is also what we, Scholars of the Academy of Magic, think. You are intriguing, young man. Many others of your age stood where you are, but none of them lost any time analysing the column, or wanting to know how it was used. All of them just wanted to travel."
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Nozomu caressed one of the engravings of the first rotative disk with a serious look, "I suppose I am more careful than all of them because I wonder how this works. My molecules will be turned into energy and that energy will be sent to another Magical Circle, or a Magical Portal will open and I will be sucked through it?"
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