Frontier Chef: My Cooking Skills Are Broken-Chapter 32: Claim

Ezra opened his mouth but nothing useful came out, which was becoming a pattern in this office.

Leyla came around the desk, which was the only way anything was getting past those stacks, and picked the hearth paper off the floor.

She folded it back together and stuck it between his teeth alongside the custody paper and patted his cheek.

"There," she said. "See? No Harkenian custom. Now we’re even and you solved your problems."

"I didn’t even sign anything," he said through the paper. "This has got to be illegal."

"An official of the registrar’s office witnessed the filing in person." She gestured at herself with the quill. "That’s me, by the way."

"You wrote it, stamped it, and witnessed it yourself."

"Efficient, isn’t it?"

The bone spear punctured through the wooden door before he could respond.

"Ossa! Ossalaka!"

The tip wiggled, pulled back, and stabbed through again an inch to the left. Leyla’s voice went somewhere between a scream and a panic attack.

"If it breaks the door, I’m fining you for a hundred notes."

Ezra turned around and paused because his arms were still busy holding the girl.

He shrugged because what the hell was he supposed to do.

"Ugh. You are so annoying—"

Patches charged through the lower half of the door and scrambled across the stone floor, pieces of wood flying behind it. It raised its spear high and wagged its tail like it had done something heroic.

Leyla was standing on her chair with the ledger raised over her head like a weapon.

"It’s two feet tall," Ezra said.

"And I’m five feet. It’s way too close to my numbers."

’Fair point.’

Ezra started walking out the door, stopping only because Leyla was scribbling again.

"I’ll fix the door," he said.

She probably meant it when she said she would fine him.

"Hold on." Leyla was still scribbling something.

"Look lady, I get that you’re doing your job but just... leave it on a tab or something."

She ripped a paper and jumped onto the floor. "In case my brother doesn’t believe you."

Leyla stuck a third folded paper into his mouth and he let her.

Not like he could stop her anyway.

"Come on, Patches. Let’s go before she guts us both."

Patches growled under its snout and barked "ossa" before deciding it was threatening enough and walked out first, disappearing to whatever its nose had found.

Ezra was out of the corridor and into the commons before Leyla could say anything else.

The girl was still asleep on his back. Her arms had tightened during the commotion, not enough to choke but enough that he could feel every finger pressing into his collarbone like she’d been dreaming of free falling.

A new crowd had gathered around the commons where scorch marks and debris still littered the streets. These Harkenians were older, none the wiser as they were just as curious about the ruckus.

Every single one of them ended up staring at the guy carrying a feral child on his back with three pieces of paper in his mouth.

The smith looked up from his forge. He’d been hammering against what looked like the hilt of a spear. It wasn’t like what the guards held. This one was obsidian, still warm from magma.

It was definitely strange, considering even Ezra knew that obsidian was way too brittle for poles let alone a spear.

The smith didn’t say anything to him. In fact he didn’t even look at Ezra. His eyes went straight to the girl’s bare feet hanging at Ezra’s sides, black-soled and cracked, and stayed there long after Ezra walked past.

The girl shifted on his back and she murmured something about "falling" and "clouds".

"What’d you say?"

Her arms tightened around his neck. Ezra assumed she was having a nightmare until her fingers locked tight.

"Hhk—"

’She’s fucking choking me. This is how I’m going to go out. To a damn kid.’

Her legs locked around his waist and she squeezed even more. Ezra’s tongue came out in a stupid way and people gasped. She was choking him out in the middle of the commons like it was a reasonable thing to do.

"What—the—fuck—"

"Where am I?" She growled.

"You’re on my back, you bi—" The Harkenians were watching. "I mean, idiot!"

She didn’t let go. Instead, she adjusted her grip from choking to holding, which was slightly better in the way that drowning in shallow water was slightly better than drowning in deep water.

"Why am I on your back?"

"Because you wouldn’t wake up and I had errands."

"Put me down."

"Could have said that the first time."

He reached over his shoulder to pry her off and she sunk her teeth into the flesh between his finger and thumb.

"OW—okay. You win."

She climbed higher on his back and found his shoulders as a seat fitting for her comfort and was proud about it too.

’She wanted off but she climbed even higher. The sand must be making all these people crazy in the head.’

The kitchen was ahead with its open front and hanging pots. Everything was exactly as he’d left it. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about thieves.

Even Theron’s split helmet was still sitting on the counter where Ezra had put it.

The symbols on the counter glowed brighter as he walked closer to the kitchen.

[ To claim a hearth, speak with voice activation, ’Claim’ ]

’I know, give me a minute.’

He walked in and the girl’s grip loosened.

She slid off his back on her own and landed by the coal pit with her bare feet on the warm stone.

She looked around the kitchen like she was checking exits. There was in fact, only one, and it opened to the entire commons.

Ezra pulled the papers from his teeth. All of them were damp and the ink on the custody paper had smeared at the edges but the stamp was still legible.

He set the custody paper on the counter without reading it because it would only confirm his current situation.

The hearth claim he flattened with his palm. He was confident the System didn’t need any external confirmation other than his voice. That much had been apparent so far with everything that had happened in the span of a week or so.

That left him with the last paper: whatever Leyla had written for him.

In case my brother doesn’t believe you.

He unfolded the paper.

She is in danger. Protect her.

Ezra folded the paper and held it tight in his palm.

"What’d it say?" the girl asked. Now she wanted to be wide awake.

"Prick. It said prick."

"You’re a bad liar," she said.

"I’ve heard that before."

He put his palm flat on the stone beside the custody paper. The symbols glowed brighter than ever before, the warmth resonating with the Ember Arts from within.

"Claim."

[ Voice activation confirmed ] 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

[ Hearth claimed: Harken Settlement Kitchen ]

The symbols flared bright enough to fill the kitchen with golden light. The girl shielded her eyes and the Harkenians outside the open front stepped back from the glow.

Then the symbols started rotating in spirals. The entire kitchen rumbled, as if an old engine was turning over for the first time in years. It stopped all at once.

The symbols locked in place, four symbols at that.

A spoon.

A fork.

A sword.

And in the fourth corner, a shield.

[ Ping! ]

[ Would you like to activate the Hearth System? ]