Sometimes, Leo genuinely wasn't sure whether quitting smoking had been a good thing.
The upside was that he could now openly appear in all kinds of shonen-style worlds without being criticized online for smoking being unhealthy.
The downside was that he had lost both a disguise and a way to ease mental stress.
Still, one thing was certain: even if he ended up sucking on a lollipop, he would never smoke again.
When the dishes were served, Leo finally began to truly understand what a demon-world appetite meant.
The food itself wasn't expensive.
A large basin of stir-fried greens, a pot of stewed meat, and another pot of mixed stew.
Everything followed the philosophy of huge portions and guaranteed fullness.
But Rosh's way of eating was downright ferocious.
One bite of vegetables was followed by a continuous stream of rice. In just a few mouthfuls, an amount of rice equivalent to a full bowl from a braised chicken restaurant disappeared into her stomach. She ate very efficiently.
And extremely fast.
Before long, one entire dish and a whole steamer of rice vanished completely. Yet when Leo looked at her stomach, there was no bulge at all. It was still perfectly flat.
"..."
Leo sharply sucked on his chopsticks and exhaled a puff of imaginary smoke.
He couldn't understand it.
Just like he couldn't understand why sucking on chopsticks could somehow produce a puff of smoke, he also couldn't understand how Rosh could eat an entire steamer of rice and still keep her stomach completely flat.
"I just can't comprehend this."
Leo had originally planned to serve himself a bowl of rice, but watching Rosh chew nonstop somehow made him feel full instead.
He awkwardly put down his chopsticks. As he watched her eat, the red-haired little girl gave him a shy smile, then continued shoveling rice into her mouth while speaking indistinctly.
"Big brother, you should eat too!"
Watching the steamer visibly shrink at a rapid pace, Leo confirmed one thing.
He might not actually be able to afford raising this girl.
If it came to it, returning her might be an option.
That said, it didn't stop him from at least letting her eat her fill.
"Wait a bit. You eat first."
Seeing that Leo truly had no intention of eating, Rosh nodded and sped up even more.
"Okay! Thank you, big brother! I won't hold back!"
Rosh swept through the food like a whirlwind, completely finishing three massive steamers of rice. After that, she ordered three more steamers along with a huge plate of greens. Only then did she finally stop eating, patting her still perfectly flat stomach in satisfaction before smiling at Leo.
"Mm, big brother! I'm full now!"
"Ah… okay."
Leo was already numb from shock. He silently took out a gold coin and placed it on the table—this was the cost of Rosh's meal.
He finally understood why Sharan said the Mage Guild couldn't afford to keep Rosh.
It wasn't that they lacked money. It was that eating like this would literally exhaust the cooks.
"Hehe… sorry. I guess I scared you, big brother."
Rosh smiled shyly, then raised one finger, her expression suddenly turning serious.
"But as compensation, I'll properly teach you the written language of this world!"
"Mm."
Leo nodded, though he had already decided to return her.
But just then, Rosh—hugging her staff—spoke again.
"However, big brother, you wanted to learn magic before, right?"
"Yes. Why?"
Leo looked at her curiously, unsure why she suddenly brought it up.
"Then what kind of magic do you want to learn? Do you want to go on adventures?"
Rosh looked at Leo with curiosity.
She felt that Leo was very strange. He had the feeling of someone who lived in the demon world, yet at the same time he reminded her of Aunt Katie.
That unmistakable feeling of someone being a good person.
"More or less. I have an agreement with others, so I need to master power as quickly as possible, gather enough resources, and then return to another world. So calling it an adventure isn't wrong."
Leo was actually quite anxious.
With his current physical condition, even seeking out women whose company could be bought with money didn't provide enough energy. An entire day yielded only a small amount, and by the time he could return to save Lux, who knew how many years would have passed.
As for women who were powerful and emotionally volatile, those weren't easy to find either.
He had already decided that once the timing was right, he would go after Flame Pinocchio and Frost Krah in this world. Although both women were already insane, their obsessive mental states might truly provide him with a massive amount of energy.
Both were beautiful mages, and both had severe mental issues. In the original storyline, neither of them survived.
So even though it was somewhat despicable, even if he couldn't extract enough energy from them, he would still find a way to restrain them. It was shameful, but still better than letting them be killed without reason.
However, no matter how weak they were, they were still mages of this world. If his own strength wasn't sufficient, then even with plenty of money, forming any kind of connection with them would be difficult.
"I see. So you're in a hurry, big brother?"
"You could say that."
"Then I think I understand why Sharan… why Sister Sharan sent me here."
Rosh nodded, then extended her hand toward Leo.
"Then you must want to quickly grasp the power of magic, right? I can help you! I can help you rapidly turn your magic power into real combat strength!"
A confident expression appeared on Rosh's face.
"And you don't need magic circles, and you don't need to chant spells either. As long as you control your magic power properly, you can directly use magical power!"
She proudly puffed out her chest, presenting her almost nonexistent bust to Leo.
"Oh? What do you mean?"
Leo looked at Rosh's staff, especially its pointed tip, and immediately thought of a class from a game.
A battle mage.
No injections, no pills. No chanting, barely any magic circles. A class that displayed a mage's power through close combat.
And in the next moment, Rosh's actions confirmed his suspicion.
She lightly tapped her staff, and a red sphere appeared beside her.
"Big brother, have you ever heard of Chaser Orbs?"
As she spoke, Rosh suddenly swung her staff, stabbing straight toward Leo's cheek. A powerful sense of danger instantly enveloped his entire body.
But in the next moment, a crisp sound rang out.
Rosh's staff blocked a heavy greatsword that had been slashed toward Leo from behind.
Her voice gradually turned cold.
"If you haven't, then let me show you."