"Is that beef?" Mum peered at the plate the waiter placed in front of me. "Some sort of ribs?"

"Sicel braised beef short ribs, madame," replied the waiter, twirling his arm with a flourish as if presenting a magic trick. "Slow-cooked for four hours with our best red wine." Then he bowed and retreated, still facing us, only turning around about a meter and a half away.

"They really like to ramp up the fanciness level, huh?" Sawyer looked up at the crystal chandeliers above our table. "I was kinda expecting him to throw petals as he exited.”

"A newly opened restaurant," I said with a shrug. "Naturally, they'd want to make the best impression to build an upscale clientele. I noticed the flowers and wreaths by their entrance when I passed by here a week ago and thought I'd bring you guys here. Restaurants usually have the best service when they have just opened, so we take advantage of it, including their 'Grand Opening' promo. Most deteriorate after some time has passed while jacking up prices."

"But not Dolly's," Sawyer said, wagging her finger.

"Of course not. Dolly's is the exception. We only get better and better, like that line graph that shoots up to infinity. I forgot what's that called."

Before Sawyer could joke about math, Mom said, "Herald, I notice that you always order braised beef." She was still fixated on my plate. "Is it your favorite? I'd have to dig among your Grandma's notes for her recipe, but I'm sure I could make that for you. It's only the slow-cooking part that's time-consuming."

"And that's why I order it in restaurants," I explained. "I choose food that takes hours to prepare because I feel like it's worth the money, especially in a place like this, compared to, let's say...a salad? Or any food with truffles on it to instantly make it expensive."

"You and your issue truffles," Sawyer said, rolling her eyes.

"But I can make you braised beef, dear," Mum said, completely missing my point. "I'm sure Grandma will be happy, as she peers down from the heavens above, to see you eating one of her recipes. Come visit us at Swamphenshire."

"Sure, Mum, I'd like that," I said, not bothering to explain what I meant earlier. I could tell Mum just wanted to be motherly and have us gather as a family, which rarely happened these days. "I'll bring Nelly along. She mentioned to me last time she missed your cooking." I have to tell Nelly about this later in case Mum would ask her because she certainly didn't say that to me.

We chatted about various things while waiting for the rest of our order to arrive. Sawyer and I ensured that the topics didn't wander too close about our old house so Mum wouldn't think of going there.

Not that she'd likely want to. In Mum's mind, the house was already lost to the different families who lived there over the years. But I was sure she'd be delighted to see it resurrected like a phoenix. Even better than a phoenix, which only returns to its original state because we had the house renovated with a new second floor.

"And we also met Boady's cousin," Sawyer said. "Remember Boady, Mum? And that old PC Café is still there. It's no longer old because they fixed up the place, and it's no longer a PC Café."

I glared at Sawyer. This might accidentally lead Mum to wonder about the neighborhood we used to live in.

However, Sawyer still went on about Eclairs and Vanguard Gaming. She was obviously leading Mum to pester me about finding a wife now that I had stepped down as the head of the family company and had free time to date—that was a required topic for mothers to bring up.

However, Sawyer had to do it tangentially because of our unspoken rule not to bother with each other's private lives, which was easy enough. She only had to mention a prospective partner for me and let Mum pick up the crumbs. Or the whole loaf of bread.

"Eclairs? What a wonderful name." Mum leaned forward, clearly very interested in this mysterious woman Sawyer revealed. "A childhood friend? I thought you hadn’t contacted your old friends for years. It's nice that you're reconnecting with them. Who knows, this rekindling of connection might lead to—"

"No, Mum," I interjected. "She's not a childhood friend." I clarified who Eclairs was, and Mum did remember about Boady even though a decade and a half had passed. The money I got from him buying my Nornyr Online account helped our family's financial struggles.

"Boady's cousin?" Mum gasped. "Then the more reason you should get to know her more. Their family sounds like wonderful people. Unfortunately, I haven't talked to them. I recall seeing them in church. Or was that them? Bodersons?"

Sawyer hid the huge grin on her face by sipping from her glass of wine. I narrowed my eyes at her. She probably thought this was a safe topic because Mum would zero in on Eclairs.

"Perhaps I should meet see this lovely lady," said Mum. "Since Boady isn't here, I can thank her for—"

Sawyer's eyes widened, realizing her mistake. "You know what you should see, Mum? Gadwall High! Herald told me that they renovated our old school."

"That's right, I nearly forgot," Mum said, latching on to the new topic. "Herald, dear, weren't you supposed to give a speech at Gadwall? How did it go?"

Herald, dear? Mum usually spoke like this, but it did bring Good Grandma Bawu to mind. Unlike Bawu, Mum wasn't a psychopath mad scientist who relished doing abominable experiments. I was ninety percent sure.

In any case, the crisis was averted.

I energetically narrated how I inspired the minds of the younger generation, steering the conversation far away from our house. Mum found it funny that I got the school to rename the school library into ‘Herald Stone Hall’ because of my donation.

"It's amazing to see this city prosper so much in such a short time," Mum said. We enjoyed our dinner, listening to instrumental music played live by a pianist and violinist duo at the restaurant’s center. "I couldn't imagine a five-star restaurant like this in Egret when we left years ago. And eating in one? I would’ve called you crazy if you told me it’d be normal for us in the future."

"Sixteen years is not a short time Mum," Sawyer said. "At least in my perspective. That's half of Herald's age and..." She wiggled her fingers in the air as she calculated. "And I think four-sevenths of mine? Many things can happen in such a time.”

"That's true, Sawyer honey," Mum said, slowly nodding. "It's just...back then, our little monthly get-togethers were always at fast food joints because that's all we can afford—"

"Even fast food is getting expensive nowadays," Sawyer pointed out.

"Not Dolly's," I said with a wink. "Anyway, what were you saying, Mum?"

"Oh, I was reminiscing about when you told us we were going to that, uh...what do you call it?" She snapped her fingers a few times. "That thing…where many people gather at the SE Corp. building?"

"Shareholder meeting?"

"That's it. We were supposed to go to Teddy’s Burgers for lunch, but you told us to dress up because we were attending some event. Imagine my surprise that you weren't pranking us."

“I figured it was a nice change of pace from all the burgers and fried chickens. Not that I hate them, Mum. I ordered wings the other day. But I did want us to try fancier food without breaking the bank.”

“We didn’t have anything in our bank account around that time, dear,” she replied, taking what I said literally.

Goal #23: take my family to a fancy event...or something along those lines—I couldn't recall the exact words I wrote because I completed it quite early on. It was a difficult challenge to fulfill, given our financial circumstances, but I managed to do it even before our restaurant business took off. This was one of the best examples of not thinking like a box that I had ever done.

It was around the time I started investing in the stock market with anything extra I could save from working multiple jobs. And I sucked ass in trading—and I still do, which was why I wasn't actively trading now—losing money as much as I was gaining.

Or perhaps I actually did well, given that I broke even with trading fees included. In contrast, the majority of people in the stock market lose money. Not losing was already winning.

One day, I saw the news on TV about the shareholder's meeting of SE Corp., a company that would later be acquired by AU Corp., the maker of the VR Helms and Mother Core Online. They showcased performances and good food at their shareholder meeting—I’d eventually realize this wasn't the standard. The meetings were usually boring administrative sessions. Only some of the massive corporations did carnival-like fanfares.

My genius plan was to bring Mum and my sisters there. I had a few stocks of SE Corp. in my portfolio, and I thought that would be enough. But I came to know that I didn't own the stocks I had on the online trading platform I was using. They were in the brokerage firm’s name.

It took some effort to buy the actual shares of SE Corp. and be entered into their books as a shareholder. I also did the same for Mum and my sisters, and we attended the next SE Corp. shareholder meeting.

We only had a few shares each to our names. Nevertheless, shareholders were shareholders.

Funnily enough, it became our family tradition to hunt companies that held extravagant shareholder meetings and attend those. The meetings of large food corporations were usually worth it because they’d serve their new food products for the shareholders to sample.

That should go on my top ten ‘unboxlike ideas’. I didn’t have such a list, but perhaps I should start one.

My idea to bait Bawu into a poison challenge would also be there. It was pure luck that my Totem Juggling build was perfect for it, but when I’d reveal it someday, I’d pretend it was my plan all along.

“Herald dear, you should bring Eclairs here,” Mum said. “Such a wonderful restaurant. Ladies do like to be pampered.”

“Eclairs and I are just acquaintances—” I began to say, but Swayer spoke up.

“Not all ladies are like that, Mum,” she loudly interjected.

As expected, Mum faced my sister. “Sawyer honey, how about you go out and meet people while we’re here in Egret.”

Sawyer gave me a wink, signaling that she was diverting Mum’s attention as an apology for earlier. I gave her a thumbs-up in return. Playing an RPG and eating dinner with my family—an overall nostalgic experience and a pleasant break from drinking virtual poisons.