Chapter 85: This Tastes Best By Far!
Rose pushed the pizza slice closer to Fredrinn’s mouth, the melted cheese stretching into a thin, golden strand that threatened to snap and fall at any moment.
Without hesitation, Fredrinn leaned in, taking a large bite. He chewed slowly, his eyes closing in pure, unadulterated satisfaction as the rich flavors exploded across his palate once more.
The dish was just as divine as the first bite.
A soft, contented "Hmm" escaped his lips.
Rose beamed, her face lighting up with a radiant, crescent-moon smile as she watched his reaction.
Across the table, Vivienne let a faint, relieved smile touch her own lips, taking subtle comfort in seeing her cooking appreciated so thoroughly.
"How does it taste, hubby?" Rose asked cooingly, her voice dripping with sweet, childlike innocence.
To an outsider, she looked like a picture of sweet devotion. But after witnessing the lethal blade of her claws nearly sever a woman’s spine just moments prior, not a single survivor in the cafeteria found her cute.
Rather than endearing, she appeared terrifyingly unstable—a bizarre, unpredictable creature who showered her man with warmth while viewing the rest of humanity as disposable bugs.
Which, truth be told, wasn’t far off from reality.
"It tastes amazing, Rose," Fredrinn chuckled smoothly, reaching out to gently ruffle her dark hair.
Rose giggled, nuzzling her head into his palm like an affectionate cat, taking care to keep her curved, dark horns clear of his fingers.
Yet, despite her enjoyment, her mind flashed back to the System notification. She pulled up the floating screen in her mind, her brow furrowing in confusion.
’Why wasn’t the quest marked as complete?!’
He had explicitly said it was amazing!
A pout formed on her lips as her chaotic mind struggled to process the nuance.
’He said it’s amazing... but he didn’t say it’s better than her cooking... but I’m feeding him her cooking to begin with... this is so confusing...’ Rose scratched her head in genuine bewilderment, deciding to just push the rest of the slice into Fredrinn’s mouth.
Fredrinn accepted the food without a shred of embarrassment, knowing full well that conventional human meals held little nutritional value for a demon like Rose.
The only items on the table she might remotely digest were the tuna in the sandwich and the fried chicken leg.
Having successfully fed him the slice, Rose lowered her eyes to examine her plate, hunting for the next item to offer.
Off to the side, Jenny watched the entire display with a bitter, twisted grimace.
She couldn’t even articulate the profound level of irritation she felt toward Rose.
It wasn’t driven by any logical reason; it was raw, instinctual dislike.
All Jenny knew was that she utterly despised the demon woman—even more than she had disliked Andrea.
"The fried chicken tastes way better, Fredrinn. You should try it," Jenny said casually.
She sank her teeth into a crispy chicken leg, letting out an exaggerated "Mmhm" as the rich, savory juices burst into her mouth.
Completely ignoring Rose’s presence—and utterly disregarding the near-death experience Vivienne had just suffered due to Rose’s possessive jealousy—Jenny leaned over and thrust her half-eaten chicken leg directly toward Fredrinn’s mouth.
Rose froze.
Slowly, like a rusty, creaking door in a horror film, her head turned to stare at the woman who dared to feed her husband.
Before Rose’s instincts could trigger an attack, Fredrinn quickly leaned forward and bit into the offered chicken.
Aadav, sitting nearby, nearly dropped his tuna sandwich in shock.
It was bad enough that he felt a burning pang of envy over the sheer amount of attention Fredrinn received from two stunning women.
But more than that, he couldn’t believe Jenny was actively playing with fire.
Had she lost her mind?! Risking her life just to feed the guy a piece of fried chicken?!
However, the surrounding crowd was overreacting. Rose didn’t fly into a murderous rage this time.
Instead, she sat deathly quiet, calmly shifting her target from the meat dish to the toasted sandwich resting on her plate.
"It’s really good indeed..." Fredrinn managed to say, but before he could finish his sentence, Rose firmly shoved Jenny’s hand aside.
Rose blinked with big, innocent eyes, looking up into his face as she pressed the toasted sandwich directly against his lips.
"Hubby, this tastes better than anything you’ve eaten before... right?" she cooed softly. Her smile was sweet, but to Fredrinn, it felt like staring directly into the cold eyes of the Grim Reaper.
Fredrinn swallowed hard, a cold sweat threatening to break on the back of his neck.
He quickly took a firm bite of the sandwich, nodding enthusiastically as he made his declaration... before even chewing it whole.
"Yes! Absolutely—this one tastes the best by far. You should try a bite too, you know?"
The invisible alarm bells screaming in his instincts instantly fell silent. Fredrinn let out a subtle, massive sigh of relief.
Rose grinned brightly and immediately took a bite from the exact same spot Fredrinn had eaten from, swinging her legs back and forth under the table in pure bliss.
At that exact second, deep within her consciousness, a clear bell chimed.
[ Congratulations, Host! Quest: Brains Before Brawns has been completed! ]
[ Reward Granted: Significant increase in Intelligence. Drastic enhancement of emotional comprehension, logical reasoning, and social awareness. ]
Rose went completely still for a fraction of a second. As the rewards integrated into her neural pathways, her childlike, borderline-foolish smile relaxed into a composed, elegant expression.
Her posture straightened subtly, her demeanor refining in real-time as her newly heightened intellect processed the world around her.
She cast a cool, calculated glance toward Jenny and Vivienne, reading their body language with effortless clarity.
Simultaneously, a separate notification resonated inside Fredrinn’s mind.
[ Skill: Seed Leech has activated passively! ]
[ Significant increase in Intelligence. Drastic enhancement of emotional comprehension, logical reasoning, and social awareness acquired. ]
A sudden wave of cool, pristine clarity washed through Fredrinn’s brain.
The mental fog and chaotic clutter that had accumulated ever since the apocalypse began—and intensified after taking in Rose—seemed to instantly burn away, leaving his thoughts crisp, razor-sharp, and centered.
He exhaled softly, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders.
He couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at the sheer irony of the situation: he had spent all morning thinking Rose was the one who desperately needed a brain upgrade, completely oblivious to the fact that his own mind had been running on fumes...