After everyone finished eating and waited for the command to end dinner—Kenshin surprised everyone again. He approached the middle of the table—and dirty plates disappeared, replaced by a huge cake on a small stand with the inscription "Welcome to the family—Nakayama Kasumi."
Seeing the unknown but appetizing-looking thing and elegant text—Kasumi almost lost the power of speech. Kenshin meanwhile took a knife and cut the best piece with lots of cream and chocolate—and fresh strawberries.
"Try it—dear. This whole event is for you." Kenshin said with a smile and handed the small plate to Kasumi.
The girl with special awe took the offered plate and at first didn't know how to approach this unusual treat. From the strawberries on top she concluded it was something sweet—but had no idea what it was.
Seeing a barely noticeable hint of a small dessert spoon—Kasumi finally "scooped" a piece of cake with fluffy white cream and brought it to her mouth.
"Ah! God—how delicious…" Kasumi purred—causing abundant salivation in everyone. Especially in impatient sweet-toothed Aya.
"Kenshin—please give me!" Aya whimpered like a little girl—adding even more humor to the situation. All her sons at that moment felt strange and were gladly ready to give mother their portion—just so she was satisfied.
Kenshin had predicted the behavior of the family's main sweet tooth in advance—so already held a plate with Aya's portion in his hands.
"Aaaaaah!" Aya moaned as soon as she licked the white cream with her tongue. "Lord—what is this? Why so delicious?!" she chirped and scooped another piece.
After visual examples of this product's unusualness—everyone desperately wanted to try, and Kenshin had to wield three knives with telekinesis. After a dozen seconds everyone got their portion—and the room filled with blissful sighs of surprise.
"Mmm—really very tasty. What kind of dish is this?" Natsumi asked—quite surprised by such incredible taste. Usually she was cold to various delicacies or sweets—but now couldn't restrain herself and moaned quietly.
"This is cake. A very tasty treat from my homeland." Kenshin said with a smile.
As soon as everyone heard the word "homeland"—they instantly focused. No one had ever heard Kenshin mention his origins even slightly. Everyone guessed their beloved husband and father came from far away—but no one knew details.
But to everyone's regret—Kenshin didn't go into details. Asking him about such things wasn't proper for sons—and the girls were busy with the tasty treat.
As drinks—Kenshin ordered everyone a glass of good blue sage tea—to combine pleasant with useful. He was quite surprised when he discovered this incredibly valuable drink in the menu and was glad he no longer had to think about where to plant blue sage—since the territory near the mountains was no longer safe.
After everyone finished—Kenshin announced the end of dinner and wished everyone good night. The sons thanked father for the food and moved in an organized group toward their "barracks."
All three girls with pleased faces walked toward their new bedrooms. As soon as they got upstairs—Kenshin told each to choose a room—and he himself occupied the largest bedroom.
"Choose a room? But… But I thought we'd sleep all together…" Aya muttered in surprise.
"Dear—we're becoming too many, and it'll be much more convenient for you and Natsumi to sleep on a spacious bed. Remember how inconvenient it was when I slept with you two pregnant?" Kenshin said tenderly and kissed his first wife.
"Um… Natsumi?" Aya whispered—trying to find approval from her friend.
"Fuuuuh… Aya—dear—he's right. Though I don't like this idea—but it'll be much better for the future children. We need good sleep—and with these two—" she glanced at Kenshin and Kasumi—"we won't see good sleep."
Aya looked into Kenshin's loving eyes and resigned herself to the new rule. Kenshin spent several more minutes explaining that any wife could easily come to him and stay the night—but not all at once. This night Kenshin slept with Kasumi—without the slightest objection from Natsumi and Aya. She was the reason for the celebration and the only one without a big belly.
Then everyone went to their rooms—and Kenshin with Kasumi lay in bed, she suddenly hugged him and asked: "Kenshin—tell me where you're from. Everything connected with you is incredibly mysterious and incomprehensible. Strange abilities—strange house—strange food—you're like a god descended from heaven…"
"And you're the most curious girl…" Kenshin whispered and kissed Kasumi's lips.
"Fine—I'll satisfy your curiosity a little. First—of course I'm not a god. Second—you're right—I really am not from this world."
As soon as Kasumi heard the last words—she took a deep breath. She was stunned by this news. One thing was vaguely suspecting—and another was learning it was true.
"But… But how did you get here? Who are you really? What is your world like?" Kasumi chattered without stopping—unable to restrain her natural curiosity.
"Shh…" he whispered and placed a finger on her plump lips. "I don't know myself how I got here—but really want to find out. Who am I really? Well… I'm the same person as you. And my world… It's similar to yours—but there's absolutely no chakra there, and only ordinary people live in it."
"No chakra? So there are no wars and endless killings in your world?" Kasumi muttered in surprise. Before she couldn't even imagine what would happen if all chakra suddenly disappeared from the world. Now—thinking about it—she immediately suggested a beautiful world without killings and bloody wars.
"Um—not quite. In my world there were many wars even more bloody than yours…" Kenshin whispered with a sigh—remembering the two world wars that together took at least a hundred million lives.
"What? But how?.. How can people without chakra arrange an even more bloody war than ours?" Kasumi said in surprise. She refused to believe ordinary people could kill many people. In her opinion—a weaker army just needed to sit in a fortress for several months and wait until the invaders ran out of patience and resources.
"We have something worse than chakra. Technological weapons." he said—and Kasumi immediately began imagining bows with better tension or non-dulling swords, but even then couldn't understand what the problem was defending against such weapons.