I Am Tired Of Being A Hero-Chapter 177: The ritual

Leave it to Malik to look for the most troublesome meal to make for breakfast, maybe he should not blame Malik since he was the one who decided to make two kinds of kinds of pasta to go with the grilled fish.

There was a recipe that he had seen online that he had been so curious to try. So before after marinating the fish, he added some onions to a basking pan, some paprika, a mixture of some dried basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary dried marjoram, dried thyme, and dried pepper flakes, he added the sun-dried tomatoes from the bottle with their oil, mixed it together and then added a bulb of garlic before covering it with a foil and putting it in the oven for an hour.

Then he focused on the grilled fish. When it was ready, he allowed it to rest and took the caramelized onions from the oven, pressed out the roasted garlic, and added some lemon, parsley, spinach, and coconut milk before adding the fettuccine pasta.

He already had some pasta sauce in the fridge so the spaghetti was ready in minutes as well.

Creating two beautiful lunch boxes, he smiled. And then added the grilled fish, and the two pasta dishes, and helped himself to some fruit salad that Malik was making.

"Hey!"

"Ask Sage to get more for you. Thanks."

Looking at the colorful spread, he felt like something was missing. Snacks. There are always snacks in those lunch boxes in the videos that he watched. He could get some or...

"Sage!"

The teenager who was still yawning while helping himself to sliced grapes appeared in the kitchen.

He passed him twenty dollars, "You know the popular snacks, you and Ash like eating. Get some for me."

Sage blinked at the boxes, "Oh! Are you making the bento box for me?"

"No" It was a simple reply. Ravi ignored what looked like a botched attempt at puppy eyes that Sage was making.

Sage looked at Malik who was making another batch of fruit salad, it was more like mixed fruits than fruit salad. Malik looked up, "Get some ginger cookie snaps for me."

"Sage, are you going to the mall? Get some coconut shavings, that crispy, brown kind, do you think that they would have oat cookies, mine has finished. Get some oat cookies."

"Oat cookies. Is it tasty?" Malik asked and Asher nodded from his smoothie station.

"Very."

"Oh! Then get that for me as well."

"Me too. Get some for me." Lana who was sleeping on the sofa called out. The moment Malik had called them mentally, the two of them still heavy with sleep had rushed over. Lana took to sleeping on the sofa while waiting for the meal to be over.

Sage asked to help but when he had nodded over with the knife, Ravi hurriedly took it for him. He planned to have a wonderful lunch with his boyfriend and not carry a teen to the hospital.

Said Sage was gritting his teeth with every added request on his lips.

"And a book. There is this book I want to buy, Sage can you stop at the bookstore?"

"You lot can bloody go by yourselves."

"Sage." Malik’s voice was as gentle as ever, "Don’t swear in front of the child."

Ravi sighed, he felt a little pity for Sage but he did not forget to add, "I will be leaving in thirty minutes, go get the snacks, I need them for my lunch box, I kept the food at stasis, so don’t worry it would not go cold or soft."

After Sage vanished, he headed upstairs. There was something that he had to do. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he took out the box under his bed and opened it. It was filled with various kinds of equipment, some of the stuff on the Sentinel realm might fetch more than ten thousand points.

Just like this Xeno patch, which allows the Sentinel to learn every language on the planet and be fluent in all of them, or the Camouflage field projectile that creates a temporary cloaking field for one full day.

He had a lot of devices but they were not what he was looking for right now. He sighted them and he took out the three candles. Red, white, and black. Lighting them carefully, he placed them on the ground and drew the talisman.

Then taking out the last paper from the last of the box. It was just the remaining one, he did not feel any sense of loss, it had been so long ago but he felt a little nostalgia, there was a time when he used this paper for everything.

Tyin Sheets, they were called and they can be used to deliver messages to the Netherworld.

Malik might have said those words without full knowledge but Ravi had been worried. Alya was the direct subordinate of King Yama, the same king Yama who was making fruit salad to have with grilled fish.

She did not talk much about him, only that he was the most just judge in the Netherworld.

Ravi knew that just did not mean mercifully. He did not know just a rumor but it was said that it was King Yama, the first of the ten kings that had sentenced the Netherworld Emperor to 10,000 in the mortal world. Ten thousand years and in each reincarnation, he would experience birth, sickness, separation from loved ones, and death over and over again for ten thousand years.

Ravi felt it was hogwash. They might be brothers but one was the Netherworld Emperor, the Netherworld and its seven rivers and six hell’s bent to his will and the other was a judge of the dead, the first of the judges but still, there was no way.

He still felt it was hogwash but Alya was no Netherworld Emperor. She was the white impermanence and she could be replaced anytime by King Yama.

Saving his life, gathering the souls of his friends, searching the lost souls of his friends, and letting him, a living being stay in the Netherworld to mourn, she had done a lot for him, he wanted to return the favor the most he could.

And he could begin by telling her what Malik had said.

After penning it down, he placed the paper in the middle of the talisman circle.

"Lord of Shadows, guardian of the veil of death. Yet is the knowledge of thee, the knowledge of Death. You guide lost souls and maintain the balance, offering this humble cup of tea, a gesture of respect to serve as a bridge to the Netherworld."

He splashed the tea on the talisman circle.

"On this day, I hold communion with you. Receive this message with haste and when my time comes...." Ravi could not finish it, the last part of this ritual that he loved so much.

He sighed and in that instant, the paper in the circle blew up, consuming everything. A cold air emanated briefly before vanishing.