Chapter 107
The cooking process wasn’t that difficult.
After all, Coniglio alla Cacciatora was originally created by hunters to make a quick meal of their catch, and the recipe from memory wasn’t that difficult.
“Mari, I’m sure you could use some simple magic.”
“What? Well, of course I can, simple magic is basic for anyone who uses magic.”
“Then can you make a simple bowl and pot?”
“Bowls and pots……? Yeah, that’s not hard.”
Normally, a proper expedition would have some simple cooking utensils, and I had some simple camping gear in my cube, but I figured that if I wanted to please my instructor, I’d better do better.
In no time at all, she’s digging through the floor, finding clay inside, molding it into a bowl and baking it to a high temperature in a matter of moments.
“……Magic comes in handy.”
“Eugene is an Aura user, right? Well, some of the world’s heroes use both Aura and Mana at the same time, so maybe Eugene can awaken his Mana later?”
“That’s possible.”
Although I’m not sure if Eugene has any talent for magic.
Well, I had my own thoughts on that.
“Oh, and do you know how to tinker with ingredients?”
“Uh…… basic stuff?”
“Well, can I just ask you to wash the vegetables and give them a quick trim?”
“Sure ……!”
While she washed and trimmed the vegetables with her magic, I decided to give the rabbit a quick trim.
It was my first time handling a rabbit, but was it because the smart lens showed me how to do it?
Or was it because I’ve done it so many times before?
Fortunately, I was able to handle the rabbit smoothly and without any blockages.
……Surely the bunny’s feet had some sort of lucky charm, right?
After cutting off both feet, I put one in the cube and gave the other to Mari.
“Huh? What’s this…… kaaaaaak?! What, what is this!”
“Rabbit feet.”
“Of course I know it’s a foot! Why are you throwing this at me?!”
She was so surprised by the rabbit’s paw that suddenly landed in front of her that she shouted at me with tears in her eyes.
“Because it’s a ……lucky item?”
“What? Lucky item…… Oh, you mean like a rabbit’s foot brings you good luck?”
I nod and Mari glares at me, biting her lip.
“But…… at least wipe the blood off it, you scared me when you threw it at me!”
“Oh……sorry.”
Surely anyone would be surprised to be thrown a bloody rabbit’s foot.
With so few sane people around these days, I had forgotten that simple common sense.
“Seriously, please be careful next time.”
I nodded, feeling sorry for her as she wiped her tears with the sleeve of her uniform.
If it was Se-ah, I would have asked if it was expensive, and if it was Haru, she would have thanked me for giving her something valuable.
Hmm……I hadn’t seen that reaction in a long time.
……Again, that’s a normal reaction.
I decided to focus on cooking.
I blanched the trimmed rabbit in boiling water for a minute or so, then seasoned it with rock salt and pepper.
I then fried it until golden brown and simmered it in the fat with wine and vegetables, but since wine was not available…… I decided to use water instead.
The result.
“Ma, it looks delicious.”
“Isn’t it?”
The result was Coniglio alla Cacciatora, a delicious braised rabbit…….
“I guess that’s all we need to take with us.”
“Right. We went a little too far into the woods for the rabbit, but we’ll go down from the mountains, so we’ll be there in no time.”
I said, stuffing the food into the cube to preserve it.
“Let’s head down, then.”
“Ah, yes!”
Mari reformed her golem to make the trip smoother.
As we descended, we chatted about various things, and I suddenly remembered a question.
“By the way, can I ask why you offered to team up with me today? I don’t usually see you talking to others first.”
“What? Uh, ah, ah, ah……you mean that?”
She’s visibly flustered, even though it’s not such a serious question.
“That, that’s…… so……!”
I don’t think she’s panicking because she’s been caught fooling me, judging by her lack of fear.
“That……I was touched by Eugene’s words during his speech, and I felt like my eyes were opened, or should I say, I was interested in getting to know you a little better, ah, anyway, that’s why I did it!”
Ah, I get it.
The first stage of Mari’s event, the high level of attraction, had already been broken through by the characteristic [bad guy], and on top of that, she was moved by my speech?
If so, it’s obvious.
“I want to get to know you, or something.”
“It’s ……?”
Apparently, I hadn’t seen Mari talk to anyone else in the class that much.
At most, I’d seen her on her cell phone, pecking at the hand of the doll she was always holding.
Maybe she didn’t naturally feel the need for friends, but this was the first time she did.
“I was moved by your speech. That’s why I want to be your friend, isn’t it?”
“Oh, that’s right, that……! Eugene has some pretty sharp edges, doesn’t he?”
“As a vice class president, it’s natural to look out for the kids in the class.”
Wouldn’t I make a great vice class president?
Thinking about it, we were just about to reach the place where the instructor would be waiting for us.
“Mari, wait.”
“What?”
Walking ahead of Mari, I stopped her and sent her a hand signal to keep her voice down.
“I think there’s something around here.”
“Around? But nothing…….”
───Rustle!
“Crack!”
Suddenly, a person appears above our heads.
“Freeze! We’re the Green Forest Sect’s──Boss?”
“……Jin-woo? What are you doing here?”
“Huh? Uh……cooking activities?”
I mean, what kind of culinary activity makes you fall out of the sky and spout words like “green forest sect”?
“Se-ah?”
The two people who I thought were the strongest combination in the class looked very nervous for some reason.
“Uh…… these guys. Aren’t they from Eugene’s club?”
“Yeah, they are, but what the hell…….”
Wait. Greenery? A cooking ‘activity’?
No way…….
“You guys. Were you planning on taking someone else’s without cooking?”
As I voice the hypothesis in my head, Jin-woo suddenly averts his gaze.
“Take, take away, what do you mean, boss? Isn’t that right, Se-ah?”
“No, why do you ask me that, you’re the one who didn’t find the ingredients while you were fussing over people’s food!”
“Because I didn’t think you’d say you can’t cook because you don’t have a recipe book!”
……I start to get the picture.
Jin-woo had teamed up with Se-ah, even to the point of getting down on his knees, thinking that she would be good at searching and cooking, but in reality, Se-ah is the type of person who can’t cook without a recipe.
As a result they were nearing the end of the time so they came up with a plan to use Se-ah’s ability to find people and steal their food.
“……It suits you, it’s a good plan.”
“Hehe. Right?”
He scratched his head and liked it, even though I didn’t mean it as a compliment.
Mari looked at Jin-woo with a strange look in her eyes.
“Won’t you get some points deducted for taking someone else’s dish and submitting it like that……? I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“No, if you think about it, it’s the most reasonable way.”
“What?!”
Mari gasps, as if she didn’t expect those words to come out of my mouth.
“It’s a ‘survival’ cooking class, after all, and if you’re in a situation where you need to survive, part of survival is taking someone else’s food and eating it, I’m sure the instructor would approve.”
“Oh, no……! I thought boss would see through my plan, didn’t you?”
I don’t think he’d believe me if I already reacted like that…….But since we’re meeting like this, I guess I have no choice.
“So you’re planning to take away our food, because if so, we’re going to do everything in our power to stop you.”
Jin-woo takes a step back, rubbing his hands together to loosen the joints in his neck and fingers.
“No, no, what do you mean, if I pick a fight with the boss in survival class, that’s not survival, that’s suicide.”
……isn’t it?
“Well, we’ll go for now because no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I can take on the boss and take away his food…….”
“I agree, we might get more points for picking berries or some kind of herb than for taking Eugene’s food.”
Se-ah shakes her head, not in the mood for a fight, and turns to Jin-woo.
“Let’s just go after the others.”
“……So, who do you want to run over then?”
“Well, for now…… Huh? I could feel Young-jae’s magic power from over there.”
“Huh? Glasses? If I steal the food from glasses, it’ll be honey jam. What should I do?”
“Even if I can’t eat it, I can’t lose points like this! I can’t sleep because of the injustice!”
As they talked and walked away, I felt sympathy for Young-jae, who was about to be attacked.
Well, I should stop them if I could, but……against assassins and space mages in the mountains?
If I were Young-jae, I’d run for it.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah……yeah.”
I called Mari, who had been staring at the spot where the two had left, to come to her senses, and continued down the mountain.
Come to think of it, I wonder what Young-jae was cooking.
I was beginning to wonder what Se-ah and Jin-woo would bring later.
* * *
“Mimi (美味)!!! Perfect!! So good!”
The first instructor to eat our food jumped up and down with tears in his eyes.
“To get ingredients of this quality from the wild, and to cook something of this quality, by the gods, is this even possible!”
He then grabs a rabbit leg with his bare hands and stretches it toward the sky.
I wondered why he was stretching the meat toward the sky, but it was to check its weight.
“Exactly.”
At my answer, he didn’t hesitate, just tore off a leg and started swallowing it.
“Hooooo! Heavy and chewy but how perfect is the elasticity that breaks effortlessly and the juiciness that bursts out! Full marks Eugene Han and Mari! Full marks!”
I think you’ve changed your character too much…….
Anyway,
──In the end, we were able to get a good score for our efforts.
In comparison, the two people who tried to steal someone else’s dish…….
“Jin-woo Bevalt and Kim Se-ah what is this…… dish?”
The food submitted by Jin-woo and Se-ah was unrecognizable in its original form, looking like a mixture of abyssal fruits trampled underfoot and mixed with mud.
Apparently, the food had been damaged during the battle with Young-jae.
“It should taste good, right?”
As Jin-woo cautiously spoke up in response, the instructor sighed and placed the abyssal mud sphere on the ground.
“Apparently, what appears to be fruit is mixed in with what is classified as poison. This is …… demerit points.”
“Poison?”
“……Mr. Young-jae released the poison in his cooking.”
……Who knew?
I hadn’t realized that Young-jae had prepared a trap dish for an attack.
“Ah, to think that my happy mood has been reduced to this. Even my tongue is paralyzed and I can’t evaluate anymore…….Jin-woo Bevalt! Kim Se-ah! The lowest score!!!”
“Jin-woo, you bastard!”
“……Ha. Haha. Hahahaha.”
In the end, the class ended with the two of them getting their karma back.
