Chương 76: Chapter 36 : Part 1 : An Invitation

△ QUEST COMPLETE △ Visit Emma's Home △ NEW SIDE QUEST △ Host Your First Guest Difficulty: B Objective Invite Emma over for dinner. Until now, Emma had always been the one to come to his apartment to help him. She had assembled his furniture, installed his shelves, prepared his first meals, and answered countless questions about her world. This time, the System was asking him to reverse their roles. In his world, such a situation carried a special meaning.

A knight's quarters were a private place where very few people were ever invited. Officers gathered there to discuss strategy, while close comrades occasionally shared a meal after a military campaign. Opening one's door to someone was always a sign of trust. His apartment was now furnished well enough to welcome a guest. It had a table, several chairs, a functional kitchen, and even a few plants that made the room feel more welcoming. Even so, one question remained. Was he truly ready to receive a guest?

He sat down on the edge of his bed. The System had not given him a deadline. He could wait several days, perhaps even several weeks, before completing the quest. He considered the matter for a few moments, then slowly nodded. Delaying a quest had never been an effective strategy. He took his phone from his pocket and opened the messaging app. His fingers hovered above the keyboard. Inviting someone somehow felt more difficult than accepting an invitation. Aldric: Hello.

Aldric: Would you like to come over for dinner on Friday evening? The message seemed simple, polite, and perfectly clear. He finally pressed send. Aldric stood up to make himself a coffee, but his eyes kept drifting back to the phone resting on the table. He had endured sieges that lasted for weeks without losing his patience. Yet waiting for the reply to a single text message somehow felt much more difficult. A few minutes later, his phone vibrated. Emma had replied. Emma: I'd love to!

Emma: Should I bring anything? Aldric. No. I'll take care of the meal. Emma Then I'm looking forward to it. See you Friday 😊 Aldric studied the small smiling face at the end of the message for a few moments before locking his phone. Over the past several weeks, he had learned that these symbols were used to convey emotions. This one quite clearly expressed happiness. He set his phone back down and slowly looked around his apartment. Hosting a guest probably involved more than simply cooking a meal.

He would need to prepare the table, clean every room, make sure nothing was missing, and ensure that Emma would feel comfortable.

"The preparations begin." The following day, Aldric went straight home after work. As he did every evening, he took off his shoes, lined them up neatly against the wall by the entrance, then hung his jacket on the coat rack. His gaze swept across the living room. In two days, Emma would walk through that door. The thought filled him with a strange sense of satisfaction. △ GUEST PREPARATION △ □ Clean Apartment Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

□ Prepare Dinner □ Drinks □ Comfortable Atmosphere Aldric carefully reread the list. The first three tasks seemed perfectly clear. Cleaning his apartment would present no difficulty. Preparing dinner would require some planning, but he now had enough experience to follow a recipe without assistance. As for the drinks, he simply had to buy whatever Emma liked. The final line, however, held all of his attention.

"What is a comfortable atmosphere?" An atmosphere could not be touched, moved, or put away. It did not appear on any apartment floor plan and did not seem to belong to any specific category. Yet the System considered it just as important as the meal or the cleanliness of the apartment. He took out his phone and opened his browser: Ho w do you create a comfortable atmosphere at home? The answers appeared"Choose warm lighting."" Play soft music."" Light a few candles."" Add cushions and blankets.""

Keep your home well ventilated." Aldric opened several more articles. The advice changed from one website to another, but none of them actually explained what an atmosphere was. Some focused on decoration. Others recommended scented candles or diffusers. A third insisted on the importance of plants. He eventually locked his phone.

"The definitions remain imprecise." Since he still did not understand the fourth task, he decided to begin with the first one. Cleaning. At least that relied on objective criteria. He walked over to the bookshelf. Everything already appeared to be properly arranged. Even so, after observing it for a few seconds, he noticed that one novel protruded slightly farther than the others. He pushed it back until the row was perfectly aligned, then stepped back to inspect the result from another angle.

Satisfied, he turned his attention to the living room table. The four chairs surrounded it neatly. He opened a drawer, took out a measuring tape, and measured the distance between each chair and the edge of the table. The first was fifty-nine centimeters away. The second measured sixty-one. He adjusted each chair until all four were exactly sixty centimeters from the table. Once he had finished, he rolled up the measuring tape and put it back in its drawer. His gaze then swept across the kitchen.

The countertop was already spotless, but that did not stop him from wiping the entire surface once more with a damp cloth. He then dried every remaining drop of water with a kitchen towel before opening the drawer where the others were stored. They had all been folded correctly. Just not identically. Aldric took every towel out of the drawer. He unfolded them all, then folded them again from scratch. Each rectangle now had exactly the same width, length, and thickness.

He stacked them neatly before closing the drawer. His inspection continued with the spice rack. The salt stood beside the paprika, the curry was placed between the pepper and the oregano, while several jars were scattered around. Then an idea came to him. Alphabetical order. He emptied the shelf, wiped away the dust, then returned each jar to its place in alphabetical order.

"Much more efficient." He then made another round of the apartment. He straightened a cushion that had slumped to one side, folded the blanket draped over the sofa, and adjusted the picture frames until they all appeared perfectly level. Nothing truly looked untidy, yet every detail still seemed capable of being improved. Finally, he walked over to the window. Several of the articles had mentioned the importance of fresh air, so he opened the windows. A cool breeze immediately drifted through the living room.

He looked around his apartment one last time. The books were perfectly aligned. The chairs were evenly spaced. The kitchen towels were neatly folded. The spices were organized. The living room had probably never been this tidy. Even so, when he thought back to the last item on the list, a faint doubt remained. He still had no idea what exactly a comfortable atmosphere was, and he had the feeling that this mysterious fourth task would be by far the most difficult one to complete.

△ APARTMENT PREPARATION △ 98%"Why not one hundred?" The knight crossed his arms. Two percent might seem insignificant. Yet everything his training had taught him was that an incomplete mission remained an incomplete mission. There had to be a mistake somewhere. He walked into the kitchen. The towels were folded, but he had begun to distrust appearances. He took them all out of the drawer, unfolded them, then folded them again with even greater precision.

Every edge was perfectly aligned, every crease carefully pressed flat with the palm of his hand. △ APARTMENT PREPARATION △ 98% Still nothing. His attention then shifted to the spice rack. He had arranged everything in alphabetical order. The method had seemed perfectly logical. Even so, perhaps another organization would be considered more efficient. This time, he grouped the spices according to their use. The herbs on one side, the stronger spices on the other, and the most commonly used seasonings in the center.

The result seemed more coherent. △ APARTMENT PREPARATION △ 98% Aldric studied the jars for a few moments before putting them back exactly as they had been before.

"That theory was also incorrect." He could no longer find a single improvement to make. Yet the final two percent remained completely beyond his reach. His eyes returned to the last line on the list: Comfortable Atmosphere.

"I'm beginning to understand why this quest is rated Difficulty B..."