章節 51: Peace disturbed

The last sentence stopped Gray's footstep. Mother is visiting? Soon?

He was about to call her back for more details, but decided against the idea. Well, I guess Sato can treat it as a 'meet the parents' session.

Gray went ahead to shoo the housemaids out of the room after passing on his mother's message. Thinking about what he wanted to cook for Sato, he decided on a classic dish that he made for him in the past, the Mushroom Risotto.

Gray reviewed the recipe in his head, envisioning the cooking steps before starting to cook.

In a saucepan, Gray warmed chicken broth over low heat. As that was going on, he placed 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. This was used to stir and cook the mushrooms, until it turned soft.

Gray added another tablespoon of olive oil into the skillet, and stired in the freshly diced shallots. He cooked it for a minute before adding rice, stirring it to coat the rice with oil. When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, Gray poured in dry white wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed. He did the same with 1/2 a cup of chicken broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed.

Gray continued to add 1/2 a cup of chicken broth at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente. This was when Gray removed it from the heat. Gray then sequentially placed mushrooms with their liquid, butter, finely chopped chives, and freshly grated parmesan. Seasoning it with salt and pepper to taste. The whole process took around an hour to finish.

Gray seperated the risotto into two plates before taking it to the table outside. Sato turned his head when he smelled food. The aroma was extremely tantalising and it made his mouth water.

"I didn't even realise you were gone." Sato felt bad that he did not do the cooking for Gray.

"You were busy with your work. Moreover, you are too sore to cook. I'm more than happy to prepare you a dish." Gray explained to the guilty boy.

"Okay. Thank you for the meal though! It smells so good!"

"Dig in then. No need to stand on ceromony." With Gray's words, Sato dug in. The constant brain power needed to write the report, resulted in Sato becoming extremely hungry. Moreover, the food was well seasoned and tasted really good. Nothing could stop him from engulfing it all up.

"So delicious!" Sato praised. Within a short 10 minutes, Sato had already finished his food while Gray was only halfway done.

Sato looked at Gray with a soft look on his face. What did he do to deserve this kind of treatment? His life had been one whole unfortunate event. Yet, it had taken a turn when his boss showed up.

Gray noticed the boy deep in thought. He reached out to rub the boy's soft black hair. Sato did not reject it, instead enjoy his touch. The duo's peace was ruined when Gray's phone rang. Unperturbed, Gray took his time to wipe his mouth, before answering the call. He turned the speaker on.

"Afternoon Sir." A deep voice came out from the speaker.

"Yes, Cyrus?" The person speaking was Colonel Cyrus. From Sato's memory, he was in charge of data management.

"Sir, is it appropriate to talk about work right now?" Colonel Cyrus asked carefully.

"Go ahead." Gray answered.

"At 0900 in the morning, a trojan had breached our military firewall and started to delete some of the Confidential Level files." Cyrus started briefing the issue to Gray, "The trojan then wanted to bypass our secondary firewall where we manage to stop it's movement. However, the problem is that the trojan is extremely slippery. Our man is unable to neutralise it."

Gray showed a deep frown on his handsome face as he was deep in thought. Yet, it made him look even more manly.

The conversation was played out loud for Sato to hear. He knew this was a rather big problem. The database that Gray was in charge of is responsible for the majority of the current active soldier's personal information. If they were to let the trojan run rampant, it would cause huge loses and mishaps in their data pool.

"Alright. Monitor the trojan as of now. I will make a trip over to the office right now." Gray spoke after thinking it through for a minute. He ended the call, looking at the young man in front of him apologetically.

"Sato, I gotta head back to the office now."

"Oh. That's alright, Gray. Work comes first. This matter is of grave importance to the nation." Sato waved his hand about. He knew Gray felt guilty about leaving.

"Ok. I will be back as soon as possible." Gray nodded, placing his hand on Sato's shoulder. He subsequently left with firm footsteps, striding through and towards the front door. Butler Potter was already waiting with a black wool long jacket held in his arm. Potter fitted it on Gray before opening the door for his master.

Gray's Gale X was already brought out of the garage for him by Butler Hank. He got into the vehicle and quietly speeded off into the distance. The whole process could be simply described in one word, Smooth.

After Gray left, Sato decided to carry on with his report. He was focused and determined to finish it all by today. His energy replenished and mind was focused. Sato was unstoppable.

....

"Taking into account the Enthalpy of Fusion of mercury, the metal is able to retain it's solid form in the solution. Thus, the proposed process is theoretically plausible." Sato wrote up his conclusion for his Physics report. He had spent the subsequent 4 hours of his afternoon writing up his remaining body paragraphs and conclusion.

" Finished! "Sato stood up stretched his body. He bent backwards and forwards several times before sitting down again. Only then did he notice that the housemaids had already cleared away the plate and dish from the table.

Checking his report through one last time, Sato went ahead to submit his report online to his Physics professor. He had finished the report 2 days before the deadline.