Act 3: Cooking

Act 3:
Cooking

 

FOUR MONTHS after my summoning, I heard that as a result of saving all those knights from the Third Order, the research institute was to receive a special reward from the palace. We were also presented with a gift of gratitude from the family of the knight commander of the Knights of the Third Order, since he happened to be the beloved third son of a noble in the borderlands. Additionally, the Third Order bought all those extra potions I made that we couldn’t sell on the market.

Thanks to all that, our institute had a plentiful budget.

“So, is there anything you’d like?” Johan asked me one day when I came into his office to bring him some tea.

I was taken aback, and it took me a moment to think it over. “Hmm… A bath and a kitchen.”

“A bath I can understand. But why a kitchen?”

“Uh, because I like to cook.” This was true, but there was a little more to it.

Basically, the cooking in this world was abysmal. It was like most of the meals relied on the flavors of the ingredients to do all the work, and there was hardly any seasoning. They used salt and vinegar in some meals, but that just didn’t do anything for me. I ate at the dining hall for people employed at the royal palace just like everyone else, but it was uniformly awful. Like, “I went on a diet without even meaning to” levels of bad.

I never thought of myself as a picky eater before, but after being summoned to the kingdom, I became keenly aware that I was a Japanese person who was particular about her food.

So while cooking had never been my forte—even though I loved food—I figured anything I made had to taste better than the slop they served here. But to do anything about this problem, I needed a kitchen first.

“You can cook?” Johan asked.

“Well enough.”

Johan tilted his head in what seemed like actual surprise. I didn’t think this was some kind of revelation.

Do I just not look like someone who can cook?

I gave him a questioning look and he gathered himself to explain. It turned out the nobles and wealthy merchants of this kingdom employed their own personal chefs, so noble women never cooked. Of course, the wives from commoner families did.

“Well, I’m a commoner,” I said.

“Ah, that’s right.” He smiled wryly, seemingly having forgotten this fact.

As the head researcher at the institute, Johan knew I had been summoned to the kingdom. He had learned it from that blue-haired official when my employment at the institute was arranged. Very occasionally, Johan liked to ask me about my life back in Japan, such as what my position had been and what kind of life I had lived. I always told him that I was a run-of-the-mill commoner who worked at a run-of-the-mill company.

“You don’t seem like a commoner, if you ask me.”

“I think I come off exactly like one, though.”

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. Few commoners in the kingdom have such a sophisticated education.”

According to Johan, commoners didn’t go to school. The Royal Academy Jude had attended was for the children of nobility. The only exceptions were children from commoner families who possessed skills in Magic; they were allowed to attend on a scholarship basis.

Johan didn’t know what to make of the compulsory education I described in Japan—a system where even commoners received a thorough schooling.

Once I had answered his questions on the topic, we went our separate ways. However, two days later, a craftsman came to the institute.

At the time Johan asked me what I wanted, I answered honestly, but I was kind of half joking. It never occurred to me he would actually have a room with a bath and a kitchen constructed. I was a bit naive, truth be told.

Construction proceeded at such frightening speed that I had to wonder if there had already been plans underway when he initially asked me. It seemed the bath and the kitchen were completed in no time at all. It might not even have been finished faster back home in Japan.

With that, the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora expanded.

The kitchen was substantial, and next to it was a dining hall large enough for all the researchers to eat in at once. We even employed a chef to go along with it. Everyone was pleased to have these new facilities for the research institute, since they meant we would no longer have to trudge all the way to the royal palace employee dining hall. My shut-in colleagues were especially happy.

 

“What are you going to make today?” Johan asked from behind me.

“Herb-roasted chicken and salad,” I said as I chopped lettuce into tiny shreds in a corner of our new kitchen.

We may have had a chef, but I liked to come in and cook in my free time. I mean, the reason I asked for a kitchen in the first place was because I couldn’t stand the kingdom’s cuisine, after all.

I was afraid the specially appointed chef would be put out when I asked to cook my own meals, but thankfully, she amiably offered me a corner of the kitchen to work in. Though, she watched me like a hawk whenever I came in. I suspected she was an ambitious sort of person.

The first time she asked for a bite of my cooking, she was left stunned for a moment, then wound up eating a whole portion in total silence. After, she asked me to teach her the recipe. Ever since, I had let her follow along every time I made something new.

It was a good thing I did, because soon the food at the research institute dining hall became so delicious that no one even considered going to the dining hall in the palace. With the quality of the cooking now so high, I didn’t often feel the need to make anything for myself either. The chef kept begging me for new recipes, though, so at this point I was cooking once a week just to treat her.

“Something the matter?” I asked Johan as I prepared the chicken.

Both he and the chef had been loitering around, studying my actions, since I started cooking.

Keep staring and you’re going to burn a hole through the chicken yourselves, I thought.

Come to think of it, Johan always came to watch me cook if he was at the institute when I started.

“I was just thinking how delicious that looked,” he said.

“Ah, thank you.”

“What flavors are you using this time?”

“For seasoning, just salt and pepper. I’m leaving the rest to the herbs.”

“I see.”

I glanced over and found him solely focused on the chicken. Just like I thought. “Do you want some?” I asked. “Oh… Though I think I saw you having lunch already.”

“Hm… That’s true, I did, but…”

I glanced again; he wore a slightly awkward look on his face. Despite that, he didn’t move to leave, so he must have really wanted a taste.

Was it the smell of the herbs? I sprinkled freshly picked basil and rosemary from the garden on the chicken to finish, so it did smell amazing. I even used the herbs in the salad.

I plated the roasted chicken with a salad and homemade dressing to the side. Originally, I had pulled out two plates—one for me and one for the chef—but I grabbed a small third to dish out another portion. The chef cheerfully carried the plates to the dining hall and set them on the table nearest to the kitchen. I followed after her with a basket of bread.

“There’s some for you too, if you’d like,” I pointed out the seat with the smaller dish to Johan, who had trailed behind me.

He happily took his seat. “Your cooking is delicious as always.” He smiled warmly, enhancing his already fine features.

I was just glad he liked it. He had already eaten lunch, so I didn’t give him that big of a portion, but it seemed like he would have happily taken more. He ate it all, even soaking up the leftover juices and herbs with a piece of bread.

“I’m still surprised that herbs can be used like this in cooking,” Johan said.

“Really? Where I come from, we use them all the time.”

While in my world, basil, rosemary, and other herbs were frequently employed as seasonings, here, herbs were mainly prescribed for medicinal use and rarely if ever showed up in food.

“They’re also supposed to help prevent food poisoning and aid digestion,” I added.

“Is that so?”

“Oh, yes. There’s even a traditional type of medicinal cooking meant to prevent sickness.” That cuisine was actually from China, but I talked about it like it came from my country so the chef wouldn’t figure out I was talking about another world entirely. Though for all I knew, the chef had already figured out I wasn’t born here. But just in case.

Johan was extremely interested in hearing more about the relationship between food and herbs, so he kept asking questions. Normally, he stayed cooped up in his office handling administrative stuff, but at times like these I realized he really was a researcher at heart.

He did occasionally ask me about things I didn’t know the answer to, but then I would hypothesize and he could describe his own observations as well. It was nice and all to talk this way, but since it mostly came down to herbs, I felt a bit bad because the chef wound up being left out.

 

***

 

“Sei.” Jude approached me one day while I was making sandwiches for my latest new recipe demonstration for the chef.

“What’s up?”

“Johan sent a message—he needs you to deliver this document to him at the barracks of the Knights of the Third Order.”

“I’m kind of busy right now. Can you do it?”

“No, for some reason he asked for you specifically.”

“Huh, I wonder why. Does he need me right now, or can it wait? I’m almost done.”

“I think you have time to finish.”

“Okay, I’ll go after. The barracks of the Third Order, right?”

“Right. He wants you to bring it to the knight commander’s office.”

“Will do!”

When I arrived at the knight commander’s office, the guard posted outside the door let me in right away. Johan must have told him to expect me. Inside, the room was furnished with a full lounge suite and an elegant desk. I found Johan and another man, who I assumed was the knight commander, seated in ornate chairs.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” I said.

“It’s quite all right. Thank you for bringing this,” Johan smiled as I handed over the document.

“Well, I’ll get back to the institute, then.” I was hoping that was all he needed, so I turned to go.

However, Johan stopped me. “Wait.”

I looked at him quizzically. He urged me to sit next to him. But why? I glanced at the knight commander, and he encouraged me to do the same.

Having no other recourse, I sat next to Johan as he began to speak.

“This is the girl I was talking about,” Johan said.

“I see, so you’re the one,” said the man. “My name is Albert Hawke. I’m the knight commander of the Knights of the Third Order.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Sei.” I didn’t give him my family name, since only nobles had those in this world. I learned that the first time I introduced myself to Johan. “Takanashi” was an unfamiliar surname to the residents of this kingdom and would undoubtedly cause headaches if people started asking questions about where it came from, so I generally opted not to tell people.

The knight commander sat diagonally from me as I took him in. He had slightly wavy blond hair, and his blue-gray eyes had a cold, steely cast.

He seemed to be about the same age as Johan, though he was more well built, as you’d expect of a knight. Though…Johan was pretty tall, too, and he also seemed sturdy. But it was something like, the thickness of their muscles was different?

The point is, this knight commander was probably the most beautiful man I’d met since my arrival.

“Do you remember what happened during the Third Order’s latest expedition?” Johan asked me suddenly while I was wondering why he had bothered to introduce me to this person.

“What expedition?”

“The one that suffered a salamander attack.”

“Oh, that.” If he had just mentioned the salamander part in the first place instead of calling it an “expedition,” I would’ve known what he meant!

He meant the incident where a great number of knights were terribly wounded in the Ghoshe Forest just west of the capital. No one I knew talked about it anymore, so I had pretty much forgotten about it. I definitely didn’t remember the knights were from the Third Order.

“Do you recall giving a high-grade HP potion to someone?”

“Ah, yes.”

“This is your man.”

Ack. Another thing I forgot—the one I saved with a high-grade HP potion had the worst injuries of them all. His terrible burns were so hard to look at, I hadn’t taken in that much of his face. But now that I was trying to remember the incident, I recalled a nearby knight calling him “knight commander.”

So he was the one who nearly died that day.

Seconds after Albert drank my potion, his charred black flesh fell away; tender new skin had regrown beneath it. I didn’t linger to see him any more fully healed, as I went right back to rushing around, doling out potions.

Now that I could at last see him again, I noted that his skin was smooth and unblemished; there was no hint of burn scars.

The potions of this other world really are astounding, to have healed him so perfectly, I thought.

His other wounds must have healed nicely, too. The researcher in me really wanted to document the efficacy of my high-grade potion, but I couldn’t exactly ask him to take off his clothes and show me or anything.

“Thank you,” Albert said. “It’s because of you that I’m still here today.”

Whoops. I must have been staring at his face while pondering how I might convince him to let me study his recovery, because now he was faintly blushing. Cute guys blushing had a ruinous effect on me. My heart skipped a beat.

“It was nothing…” My noncommittal answer caused Johan to snort next to me. When I glared at him, he covered his mouth as he held back laughter. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing.”

It didn’t look like “nothing” to me, especially as he continued trying to suppress his laughter. Albert eyed Johan’s strange behavior with suspicion as well. Or maybe it wasn’t suspicion but offense? Or embarrassment?

Wait, embarrassment?

Albert furrowed his brow; his displeasure was subtle, but I think he was about to tell Johan to knock it off.

Before he could, Johan recovered himself and artfully changed the subject. “Oh, that reminds me. You were after high-grade HP potion ingredients, weren’t you, Sei?”

“Yes, but don’t those have to come from the forest?” I was relieved he had managed to dodge Albert’s ire.

Earlier in the month, I had pestered Johan for those precise ingredients. We grew a modest amount of the necessary herbs, but we were running low due to a certain someone’s recent excessive picking.

I still wanted to make boatloads of potions in order to increase my Pharmaceuticals skill, but unfortunately, these herbs were tricky to cultivate, so Johan forbade me from using any more than I already had. I tried asking him about buying the herbs from elsewhere, but since they were so hard to grow, they were prohibitively expensive. So much so, in fact, that it was beyond our means to purchase them in bulk even with our currently ample budget.

Notably, these herbs also grew in the forest outside the palace, but while harvesting those wild plants wouldn’t cost financial resources, it would take tons of human ones. Not to mention, monsters lived in the forest, and it was exceedingly dangerous for a researcher to venture out there on their own.

“That’s right,” Johan answered. “Your herbs grow in the southern forest. How about you go and pick some for us?”

“I’d really prefer not to get attacked by monsters, though.”

“The Knights of the Third Order are willing to protect you.”

“Huh?”

“As thanks for all of the potions you made.”

I reflexively glanced at Albert, just to be sure Johan wasn’t pulling my leg. The knight commander’s earlier dour expression had shifted to something much gentler. It seemed true enough that he was willing to act as my escort so I could go collect more herbs. However…

“But we’ve already received something in thanks from them,” I protested. Not only had we been given a special reward from the palace, we had been presented with gifts from Albert’s family as well. I couldn’t let him go out of his way to give me yet another thing.

Johan grinned. “Well, you see, the knight commander wanted to do something for you personally.”

“Hey!” Albert tried to cut him off in a panic.

It was too late, though. Johan had already said it. Still, was it okay to employ knights as a personal favor?

“What does he mean, ‘personally’?” I tilted my head at the knight commander.

Albert coughed as if I had picked up on some untoward implication in Johan’s words. He still seemed to feel a bit stiff as he explained, “We are planning another expedition to rout the monsters in the southern forest. I meant to ask if you wished to join us.”

“I see.” Well, if they were already planning to go, I didn’t see any problem with going along. And it was true that I wanted those herbs. I bowed. “If you don’t think it would be any trouble, then I would love to accompany you.”

Albert nodded in agreement, seemingly pleased.

With that, we got to business discussing all the practical details, such as when this expedition was going to be and so forth. Before I realized it, we had talked into the evening.

 

***

 

So it was that I joined the Knights of the Third Order on their journey to the Saul Forest.

The Third Order routinely went on monster-slaying expeditions in the areas surrounding the capital. Where the Ghoshe Forest sat to the west, the Saul Forest was in the south.

Once, such expeditions had been more rare, but in recent years, monster-slaying had become nearly routine. The capital would quickly be overwhelmed if the knights didn’t make a point to face monsters and beat back the miasma as often as possible. Now that the Saint had been summoned, they hoped the situation would gradually improve over time.

They’re all counting on you, Aira!

This expedition was a bit unusual in that researchers from the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora were accompanying the knights. Although the primary objective of the trip was monster-slaying, once my colleagues heard I was going, they insisted on joining, too. They weren’t about to pass up a chance to collect herbs growing in the forest, especially as there might be some we didn’t yet have in the garden. This was going to be a first for all of us.

Some researchers wanted time to survey the wild vegetation as well, but Johan rejected their proposal outright, as protecting exploring researchers would distract the knights from their main objective. It was absurd enough to have researchers, who were all but useless in a fight, accompanying knights on this deadly expedition. The trip was only possible thanks to the indulgence of the Order.

Since so many researchers wanted to go picking, I actually considered skipping the trip entirely to stay back in the institute—I loved the idea of a leisurely day spent on potion production. But Johan told me I was obligated to go, seeing as I was the one who wanted the herbs the most.

“Hey, don’t stray too far,” Jude warned me when I set out to harvest some herbs I spotted a little off the path. I quickly picked them and hurried back to Jude, but he only had more lecturing for me. “This place is more peaceful than the western woods, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any monsters. Make sure you tell me before you go anywhere.”

“Sorry. I will.”

The monsters in Saul were supposed to be weaker, but that didn’t mean they were absent—or that they weren’t still monsters. I knew I had to be careful, but after growing up in Japan, where I never had to be wary of my surroundings, it was hard not to just walk off to grab something I wanted without a second thought.

I heard Albert chuckle behind us. “I’ve got my eye on her. She’ll be all right so long as she stays within range.”

We had broken up into three different teams of knights and researchers. The knights had determined it to be the most effective strategy, and the knight commander himself was part of our team.

Apparently, since the monsters of the southern forest were so comparatively weak, Albert didn’t usually join the expeditions to it. However, I’d heard gossip from another knight that he came along this time specifically because of us. I knew this was supposed to be his way of saying thanks, but I still couldn’t help feeling like we were just being a big pain in the butt.

“Thank you,” I said. “We must be pretty deep in the forest now, huh? I guess we’re lucky that we haven’t seen any monsters.” I was pretty sure it must’ve been at least two hours since we entered, but not a single monster had appeared. Was this normal?

When I asked Albert, he admitted it wasn’t. “No… Normally, we would have encountered several of them by now.”

“Really?”

“Yes. In fact, this absence is rather unusual.” He furrowed his brow as he thought about it, then went to consult with his knights.

Huh, I wonder where they all went. It doesn’t feel like the calm before the storm… But I sure hope a strong monster like a salamander doesn’t suddenly attack us, I thought as I collected herbs along the path toward the rendezvous point.

I didn’t trouble myself with those thoughts for long. Once we joined up with the other groups in the clearing, we were going to have lunch.

 

“Delicious!” voices here and there declared as they ate.

I was quietly pleased; I had helped to make it.

Originally, the knights planned to prepare our meals, but considering the sorry state of this world’s cuisine, there was no way I could sit on my hands and not pitch in. The soup I flavored with herbs was a big hit.

“I hear high praise for the meals at the research institute’s dining hall. Are you the one in charge of cooking there?” Albert asked as he examined the soup in his spoon.

Albert had peppered me with questions even while I was cooking, such as what the name of each herb was and why I was adding them to the pot. He reminded me of Johan in that way, who always hovered behind me doing exactly the same thing.

One of the researchers told me that Johan and Albert had been best friends ever since they were little. Maybe that explained why they behaved so similarly.

“No, I only provide the recipes—the chef is in charge of all the preparation,” I answered.

“I can’t believe you lot get to enjoy such delicious meals all the time. It makes me wish I could, too.” He smiled as he took another bite. The look on his face made me happy as well.

However, I felt a bit nervous. After this morning’s expedition, the knights and researchers had developed a sense of camaraderie. Everyone sat where they liked, and spoke to whom they pleased, and the knight commander himself sat right next to me. On my other side was one of the other team commanders. Even with the intergroup mixing, I was the only researcher lumped together with these men of high military rank—Jude had scooted away despite my efforts to rope him in.

Jude better watch his back! I’ll remember this…

Another knight piped up then. “I heard you put some herbs into the soup, and I can’t help but notice that my body feels warmer than usual. Did one of the herbs have that kind of effect?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. I added…”

After I answered him, I got more and more questions about cooking with herbs. Of particular interest to the knights were herbs that might enhance snacks like sausages, which they ate while drinking alcohol.

The lively conversations about cooking continued all through lunch. In the afternoon, we went out for another round of exploration, and when evening came, we returned to the palace.

As so many people went on the expedition this time, we decided to assemble at the Third Order’s practice field when we got back. We were all exhausted, but because there were no casualties, the researchers were huddled together in small groups, chattering like they had just come back from a field trip.

To my surprise, they weren’t discussing the rare herbs they managed to procure but rather the monsters they encountered along the way, as well as the knights who slew them. Yet even after lunch, not a single monster had appeared before my group. One of the knights had even joked, “Maybe they’re just hiding in the bushes, trembling with fear before the knight commander’s might.”

Albert was considered strong enough to take one or two monsters all by himself—just as you’d expect of the leader of a knightly order. Even so, it was unheard of not to encounter any monsters at all.

Unlike us, the other groups had each run into several monsters. Some of the researchers got a chance to fight alongside the knights in a supporting role, blasting the monsters with Battle skill Magic. The researchers even claimed they had fun, as they hadn’t gotten to slay any monsters since their time at the Royal Academy.

“When I heard we were joining a monster-slaying expedition, I prepared myself for much worse. Yet we mowed them down easy as anything. What a letdown,” said one researcher.

“I know what you mean,” said another. “It went surprisingly smoothly, given how long it’s been since I last had to face any monsters.”

“You too? I felt like it went even easier than when I was at the Academy.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

One of the knights nearby joined in on their animated conversation. “You guys thought that was easy, too?”

“Huh?”

“We were just saying how strange it was that our movements felt lighter than usual.”

According to the knight, at first, the knights each thought they were having an unusually good day, but after a discussion with their fellows on fighting techniques, they realized that everyone’s physical abilities seemed to have increased.

“I wonder what the reason is,” a researcher mumbled, which caused others to start chiming in with their
ideas.

They all quickly settled on a reason, though.

“Could it have been the food?” someone suggested.

“That’s it!”

Everyone concluded the soup they had for lunch was the only thing significantly different from usual.

Those herbs I added to the soup became a subject of keen interest. The researchers were used to eating seasoned dishes at this point, but such a lunch was new to the knights. The researchers were now intensely interested in getting back to the institute as soon as possible to begin investigating this potential new discovery.

Despite our exhaustion, at the “all clear” signal that told us we were released to go home, my colleagues were once more bursting with energy. They were buzzing with ideas all the way back home.

One week later, in order to research the cause of the change in the knights’ physical abilities, we began our experiments. We cooked under different conditions, ate the results, and analyzed the outcome. That meant that not only were we eating a hearty breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night snack, we were munching practically all day long.

Pretty soon, we didn’t have enough mouths to finish off the amount of experimental food we were producing, so we begged the Knights of the Third Order to help us, seeing as we were on such cordial terms with them now. The knights were only too happy to take us up on the offer, especially after having heard so much about our dining hall’s delectable fare.

In the end, we deduced that when someone ate food prepared by an individual with Cooking skills, their physical abilities increased. Furthermore, Cooking skills operated a bit like Pharmaceutical skills, in that a person who possessed them imbued magic into their cooking. To our delight, we found most of the dining hall chefs possessed the skill. It went without saying that the chef at the research institute possessed them, too.

 

Sei Takanashi – Level 55/Saint

HP: 4,867/4,867

MP: 6,067/6,067

Battle Skills

Holy Magic: Level ∞

Production Skills

Pharmaceuticals: Level 28
Cooking: Level 5

 

It turned out that I had skill levels in Cooking, too, which was likely the root of everyone’s physical ability boost during our expedition.

Despite eating at the dining hall every day, we researchers had never noticed the buff, since our work didn’t require much strenuous effort. However, the knights figured it out right away due to the physical nature of their work.

To be honest, I thought there might be another reason why the researchers just never noticed it. Given the skill-level factor, it seemed possible to me that my make-potions-fifty-percent-more-effective-than-usual curse also applied when I cooked. If I had a hand in the preparation, my food was bound to have a greater physical effect than that of a chef of equal skill. That very well might have been the reason my forest soup’s power had been so obvious to everyone.

When I mentioned this theory to Johan, he blanched and forbade me from cooking in a public place ever again—at least, not without a good reason.