– CHAPTER FOURTEEN –

  SPECIAL: COCHINILLO ASADO

  The interior of the Jump Kairos Trip looked exactly as it had when they had first landed in the distant realm.

  Wwwyye rubbed her eyes, still disoriented from the flash of light.

  "We did it! We completed the mission!" she cheered.

  Astyam took off his glasses, cleaned them, and put them back on, as if trying to confirm his lenses weren't deceiving him.

  "We’re back! It worked!" he exclaimed, spraying the nasal mist into his nose.

  Americ-Ana touched her own face, then checked her hands and legs, as if making sure it had all truly happened.

  "Wow! What an incredible journey! We did it! I did it! We did it!"

  Poppandacorn was focused, holding each of their wrists to make sure everyone’s heartbeats were normal. With a simple touch on the skin, the plush robot could check if they were okay, whether they had a fever or were feeling cold.

  "Are you feeling any dizziness or nausea? How many fingers am I holding up? Let me see your pupil," Poppandacorn was diagnosing.

  Then, the robotic voice from inside the Jump Kairos Trip announced:

  "Attention, everyone! Data updated. Please check the display."

  They all gathered around the computer screen, positioned in front of the middle seat. Written on it was:

  *Destination: completed.

  *Mission: completed.

  *Time: as expected.

  *Status: riddle deciphered.

  "We did it. Everything checks out," noted Astyam.

  Then, the robotic voice of the Jump Kairos Trip spoke again:

  "Attention, academics! Bonus round unlocked. Congratulations on completing the mission. All requirements have been met. Bonus round unlocked. Plotting course. Plotting course."

  They all flinched.

  "Where could we be going now?" they wondered.

  Poppandacorn issued the alert:

  "Attention! Please sit down and fasten your seatbelts. Course deviation detected in the Jump Kairos Trip."

  Everyone took their seats and buckled up.

  "Wherever we’re going now, I’m just happy we completed this mission," said Americ-Ana.

  "Me too. We managed to solve two problems: the kingdom’s problem and the riddle," commented Wwwyye, removing her pink top hat and scratching her head.

  "Do you think the others made it? Were they faster than us? Maybe they’re already back at the KING MatNat History Museum?" Astyam spoke so fast he choked on his own saliva.

  "Easy now. Let’s just enjoy what we’ve accomplished. We’ll think about the others later," replied Wwwyye, stretching out on the seat.

  "Whatever happens, I think it’s important we hold on to the exact moment we deciphered the riddle," said Americ-Ana.

  "Yes!" agreed Wwwyye. "Did you see when the sphere appeared out of nowhere and started talking? That was insane! We witnessed the precise moment when all of human history was reshaped. When the king received the sphere that commands all 72 demons. We just witnessed something historic."

  "Now that it’s all over, the riddle makes more sense," noted Astyam. "When it said ‘when the beard rests between the owl and the rooster,’ it was referring to the moment the king sleeps."

  "Exactly!" agreed Americ-Ana. "When we entered the king’s chamber, we were in the right place at the right time, fulfilling the part of the riddle that said ‘the mystery that dwells at the beginning of the night and the end of the day.’"

  "That part was really referring to the sphere itself, because the KING MatNat sphere is the great mystery of the riddle. And then, the mystery revealed itself to all of us," concluded Wwwyye.

  Then, the capsule seemed to go through another turbulence, followed by a flash of light.

  Before they could make sense of it, they all felt their bodies being propelled forward.

  Within seconds, the capsule had landed. The door opened, revealing a square.

  They all stepped out of the Jump Kairos Trip.

  At the center of that square stood a bronze statue of a man riding a horse.

  While the three admired the statue, Poppandacorn began taking pictures, camera flashes going off in quick bursts.

  In the distance, they saw a man with tousled hair and a weathered face, wearing a long coat made of thick fabric. He waved at the four of them and motioned for them to follow.

  Americ-Ana, with Poppandacorn in her arms, Wwwyye, and Astyam followed the man.

  They walked toward an archway that led to a stone staircase.

  From there, they followed a narrow cobblestone street, flanked by old brick buildings with windows framed by wrought-iron balconies.

  After nearly two minutes of walking, the man stopped in front of a building with a dark red fa?ade, a golden sign, and ornate wooden trim.

  Located at number 17, the sign read: SOBRINO DE BOTíN.

  The four caught up with the man, who said:

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "I was waiting for you."

  Americ-Ana, Wwwyye, and Astyam glanced at one another, hesitant. Poppandacorn, his eyes glowing, recorded everything.

  "This place..." began Wwwyye.

  "One of the oldest in the world," the man finished with a smile. "And one of the liveliest as well."

  "Who are you?" asked Astyam, frowning.

  "My name is Francisco. Francisco Goya. I used to work here... washing dishes."

  The silence lasted just long enough to bridge astonishment and enchantment.

  Then, Goya opened the door like a host from another time.

  Inside, the restaurant looked like a painting: ancient stones, portraits of saints, crystal goblets, and the scent of a wood-fired oven.

  "Jean! Madame Botín!" Goya called out.

  Soon, a man in a white apron and a woman in an embroidered dress came to greet them with kindness and surprise.

  "A table for my special guests," said Goya. "They’ve come from far away. Very far."

  They sat down. No menus were handed out. Jean simply wrote, as if he already knew: Cochinillo Asado for everyone.

  While the ancient oven roared in the background, Goya leaned back and began to speak:

  "Art, to me, has always been noise. A noise hidden in the shadows." He gestured with his fingers, as if shaping something in the air. "I painted what no one wanted to see: pain, nightmares, the eyes of the absurd. You know... the painting that still consumes me to this day? ‘Saturn Devouring His Son.’"

  Jean Botín brought the plates: crispy pieces of suckling pig on steaming platters.

  Goya smiled, raised his glass, and said:

  "I’ll do the dishes later. Word of someone who started back here, behind the sink."

  Everyone laughed.

  The platters arrived like relics: golden crusts, tender meat, the aroma of garlic and wine hanging in the air.

  The Cochinillo Asado, slowly roasted in the oven from 1725, was served with small potatoes, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

  Jean Botín explained in a measured voice:

  "This oven has never gone out. For nearly three hundred years, it’s burned with the same flame. The flavor… it comes from the wood. From time itself."

  Wwwyye held her fork as if she were touching a work of art.

  Astyam took the first bite and closed his eyes, as if listening to a symphony.

  Americ-Ana observed everything, as if she needed to record every detail with her mind.

  "This is surreal..." she murmured. "It’s as if... the food remembers where it came from."

  "The food remembers, yes," said Goya, plunging his fork into the meat. "It remembers the blood, the sweat, the fear, and the joy. Like art. Like dreams."

  Poppandacorn’s LED eyes rotated, analyzing scent molecules and composition.

  Goya leaned slightly over the table, his elbows resting on it.

  "You know... many think I was just a court painter. But what truly defined me was what haunted me. What made me create The Disasters of War, The Pilgrimage of San Isidro, and those eyeless faces of women dancing in the dark."

  Goya pulled a small folded piece of paper from his pocket. It was a charcoal sketch: a human figure without a mouth, surrounded by monsters.

  "I saw this," said Goya, calmly. "When everyone else smiled, I saw this. One doesn’t paint what is beautiful. One paints what must be seen."

  Silence fell, solemn and respectful.

  Each one chewed carefully, as if every fiber of the meat were steeped in Goya’s words.

  Everything there was sacred.

  Americ-Ana looked around. She felt strangely safe in that ancient place.

  The wood in the beams seemed to know secrets.

  The oven, in the back, whispered things only time could understand.

  "I don’t know if I’ll ever paint," said Astyam, almost unaware he was speaking aloud, "but if I do, I want to paint memory."

  Goya smiled.

  "Then you are already an artist."

  The glasses were empty, the plates nearly clean.

  Goya set his napkin beside the plate and rose with a calm gesture.

  "Excuse me. I..." Goya gave a small theatrical bow, "...am going to do the dishes."

  Everyone laughed again.

  Goya really did collect each plate, carefully, as if he were carrying pieces of the past.

  He walked behind the table, his footsteps echoing between stone and wood.

  And then... he vanished into the shadow of the hallway.

  The three were still watching Goya disappear when Poppandacorn asked:

  "What are you thinking about, Mommy?"

  "Me? Oh, nothing. Silly thoughts," replied Americ-Ana, hiding her smile in the cloth napkin.

  "Come on. Tell us. What are you thinking?" Wwwyye pressed.

  "Yeah, tell us. Now I’m curious too," added Astyam.

  "Okay," said Americ-Ana, blushing. "It’s just... a little scene ran through my mind. A few days ago I was in a kitchen... frying bacon for a pig."

  "WHAT? BACON FOR A PIG???" said Wwwyye and Astyam at the same time, staring at each other in shock.

  "Yes. Bacon for a pig to eat. He didn’t just eat bacon. He also ate sausage, salami, ham… all cooked in pork fat," explained Americ-Ana. "And now here I am, in another era, in another time, on the other side of the world, with Francisco Goya himself washing the plate I just ate from. The plate I ate roasted pig on!"

  Americ-Ana burst into loud laughter.

  Astyam laughed so hard his glasses fell into the water glass.

  Wwwyye was already out of breath, her face red from laughing. She took a sip of grape juice to recover.

  But then, the three looked at each other again. Wwwyye couldn’t hold it in. She ended up spitting the juice all over the table.

  Poppandacorn said:

  "Look! I’m a pig eating pork."

  He had pig ears and a snout.

  "Please, stop, Poppandacorn! My stomach already hurts from laughing," said Astyam, who had started hiccuping from laughter.

  They were all red from laughing so hard.

  Until suddenly, a voice sliced through their laughter like a knife.

  "Well, well, well. If it isn’t the freak club."

  Americ-Ana recognized the voice instantly.

  It was Thor Bloodpure.

  "The little anime weirdo. The deformed nerd. And the... and the... and the..."

  "Immigrant, Donnie. There’s no worse curse word than that," said Jessie, finishing Donnie’s sentence.

  The three of them had just walked into Sobrino de Botín.

  "That filthy, depraved, green-haired half-breed isn’t here to stop me from getting revenge on you, anime freak," said Donnie.

  "Who you gonna call?" Thor sneered.

  Astyam stepped forward and asked:

  "How did you manage to finish the mission and solve the riddle? Judging by your IQs, you should’ve ended up as lion food."

  "You useless cripple," growled Thor, lunging at Astyam and striking him in the left eye.

  Poppandacorn immediately activated the mode,

  "DANGER. RED ALERT,"

  And pushed the three of them out of the way.

  Thor, Donnie, and Jessie stood up to strike back.

  Wwwyye stood, took off her top hat, and clenched her fist.

  That was when they all heard someone say:

  "Mr. Bloodpure. Miss Hornes. Mr. Bjelke. Stop now. It's not worth getting your hands dirty."

  The man with the birthmark on the right side of his face and the deep wrinkle between his eyes, the one Americ-Ana had seen at the Geburah Pyramid, approached slowly.

  "I could file a complaint against this Poppandacorn for assaulting human beings. He would be sent to a scrapyard and destroyed as quickly as possible. But I won’t bother wasting my time, because, after all, your days in THE-IMPERIUM are numbered. You don’t belong here, and you know it very well. I hope you enjoyed the Cochinillo Asado," said Patron Uvo, approaching Americ-Ana.

  "Excuse me, sir, but he was only defending us. We were attacked first," replied Wwwyye.

  Patron Uvo turned to Wwwyye and made a move to open his mouth in response, but was interrupted.

  "My goodness! What happened here?" Nioh Nemmesis had arrived, accompanied by the others who had completed the mission.

  Patron Uvo turned once more to Americ-Ana. He pointed his finger at her and said:

  "Enjoy it while you can."

  Immediately, Americ-Ana’s gaze dropped to his fingers. Patron Uvo was wearing a ring with the insignia of a dolphin.

  He noticed that Americ-Ana had fixed her eyes on the ring. Instantly, he withdrew his hand, turned his back, and vanished into the restaurant.

  Thor, Donnie, and Jessie followed him.

  Americ-Ana watched them as they vanished. Each of them was also wearing a ring with the same dolphin insignia.

  "What happened? Are you hurt?" Nioh Nemmesis approached, asking Astyam.

  Soon, the others began gathering to see what was going on.

  "It’s nothing. I’m fine," replied Astyam, getting up and leaving Sobrino de Botín in the blink of an eye.

  "Let’s go," said Americ-Ana, looking at Wwwyye and Poppandacorn.

  As soon as they caught up to Astyam, Wwwyye said:

  "I’m sure Patron Uvo helped those three idiots with their missions. Each of them was alone. They could never complete something that hard without outside help."

  "Astyam, are you okay?" asked Americ-Ana.

  "Wound detected. Wound detected. First aid. Medical mode activated. I can analyze the injury and provide care," said Poppandacorn, flashing red lights.

  "I’m fine! Just leave me alone for a moment!" replied Astyam sharply, quickening his pace and heading even faster back toward the Jump Kairos Trip.

  "Astyam! Wait!" Americ-Ana began to say.

  "No. Let him go ahead and be alone for a while," said Wwwyye, pulling on Americ-Ana’s arm. "He’s probably got his pride hurt because of the punch. You know how boys are, right? Let him cool off a bit."

  Americ-Ana, with Poppandacorn in her arms, and Wwwyye walked in silence.

  They slowed their pace. It took them three times as long to reach the Jump Kairos Trip.

  When they arrived, Astyam was already seated, his seatbelt fastened.

  Over his left eye was a bandage he had applied himself.

  Americ-Ana, Wwwyye, and Poppandacorn sat down quietly.

  The Jump Kairos Trip closed its door, followed by another flash of light and turbulence.

  Before they knew it, they were already back at the KING MatNat History Museum.