After a few hours of cooking, lunch was prepared... though it ended up being more like dinner than lunch considering how long it took.
Although Ryuu and Artemis started off making pasta, I thought it wasn't enough. And since Tia was here, we both decided to make a bit more.
Since it would probably be rare that we were all here together in the future at the same time... and since we hadn't really had a proper celebration of our now expanded family yet, we decided to go a bit overboard on the food.
Tia made a bunch of fried potato crepes and other fried pastries.
Ryuu had Artemis help her make some traditional elven desserts...
And I, uh... definitely didn't cheat with my crafting skill to make pizza, cake, and other yummy foods from Earth. Definitely not...
But anyway, as the sun began to set, the stage was set for our first proper celebration as the Hestia Familia.
I'd gone ahead and moved everything to the courtyard on a large table as well as set around a bunch of chairs so we could lounge and chat through the night.
After all, we couldn't just end the celebration with a dinner, right?
I finished organizing the last few chairs around the courtyard and straightened, proud of my work.
At that time, Welf walked over and sighed. "You know, you could have asked me to help, Bell. Now you just made me look like a slacker..."
I laughed and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Welf. We delegate things around here, and you've been delegated equipment duty. Leave organizing the normal stuff like this to me."
Welf shrugged and said, "Alright then, Captain."
I paused and said, "You too, huh? Is there a reason why everyone's been calling me Captain?"
Welf chuckled and said, "Well, it's true isn't it?"
"Yeah, but still..."
At that time, Lili walked over and said, "It's because the others are calling you that, Mister Bell."
"Oh, hey Lili... And really now?" I leaned against the chair and hummed. "...Ah. And I'm guessing my lovely daughters caught onto it and started insisting on me being called that?"
Lili nodded. "Yep!"
Welf chuckled. "You got it there, Captain."
I sighed. "Well... as long as you don't start calling me a pirate or anything..."
Welf laughed. "Well. Considering what we did to the Ishtar Familia..."
Lili started to nod. "True... Mister Bell and Mister Welf acted very much like pirates then. Pillaging all the women, stealing all the treasure..."
"Hey now, I resent that characterization." I crossed my arms and said, "I am very much a protagonist and a hero, not a pirate."
Welf laughed.
Lili gave me a skeptical look.
I ignored both of them and took a look around the courtyard.
Fina, Bella, and Pyrrha were playing in a corner of the courtyard, putting some finishing touches on a bunch of ribbon bracelets.
...I had a vague sense that those ribbons were anything but ordinary cute gifts made by children, but I decided to set that vague sense aside for the moment.
Anyway, Tia, Ryuu, and Artemis were setting up the plates and arranging things to look pretty.
Iris, Silva, and Oriana were helping with that in rearranging the foods to be in a proper buffet style format.
Meanwhile, Emma, Primo, and Karen were standing beneath a tree and having an animated discussion about... Super powers? An adventurer who reset his level? Cheats?
Huh?
...Maybe I was just hearing things. Yeah, let's just say it's that.
But anyway, it looked like everything was going well.
Welf glanced off towards the entrance and said, "Oh hey. I think we've got a visitor, Bro."
"Hm?" I glanced over and saw a vaguely familiar young woman who looked Japanese... and was definitely dressed in Japanese samurai gear. And then I saw the beautiful blonde fox lady wearing a red kimono shyly following her and remembered who they were.
"Oh yeah, Haruhime said she'd be back after sorting things out with her friends and stuff... I guess that's good timing?"
Welf blinked and then chuckled. "You would remember the name of a beautiful young woman..."
"I remember the names of everyone in my family, thank you very much. And if you keep talking like that, Bro, I might have to report back to Faefae..."
Welf flinched and said, "Just teasing. Please don't."
"No promises... And keep an eye on him for me, Lili."
Lili nodded, a serious expression on her face. "Understood, Mister Bell."
Welf groaned. "Come on, Lili. You don't really have to be so serious about it... Please?"
"Lili owes Mister Bell a big debt... and Mister Bell is nice. So Lili will do what Mister Bell asks."
"...I'm totally outnumbered here as the other guy, aren't I...?"
I ignored their little banter and headed towards the front gate, waving. "Heya. Welcome back, Haruhime and... Makoto?"