Chapter 107

Chapter 107

Surging Strength (1)

“My lord, I heard the news. You sent Lady Yuri the recipe?”

Hutton, the chef of the Clementine family, asked Zeras, who was sitting at the dining table and eating.

At this, Zeras, having just finished his meal, wiped his mouth with a napkin, placed it on the table, and opened his mouth.

“Ah, yes, I did.”

“...Forgive the impertinent question, but has Lady Yuri finally found someone? The servants are in an uproar. They are wondering whether wedding arrangements will be made soon...”

“Haha, it would be good if that could happen... but I do not even hope for that much yet.”

Zeras said this with a hearty laugh.

It was not that he could not understand Hutton’s words.

The Clementine family’s nourishing dish, this dish that used “Magma Bear,” had a time-honored tradition.

To tell one story, the current family head, Zeras Clementine, had once happened to learn of the existence of this nourishing dish during his childhood.

Young Zeras, who had been terribly cheeky and full of dissatisfaction with the world, had once asked his father, who was family head at the time, in other words, Yuri’s grandfather, about it.

He asked what sort of food this was.

The family head’s answer was extremely concise.

“On the day I ate that, you were conceived.”

Zeras at the time did not understand those words, but later, on the first night of his own wedding, he came to fully understand what they meant.

Likewise, on the day Zeras ate the nourishing dish, Yuri was conceived.

Even if one wishes to have a child, even if one carries out the deed, it is by no means easy to have a child exactly as desired.

In that sense, this was like a miracle.

That was the tradition and history contained in the Clementine family’s nourishing dish.

In that sense, Hutton was deeply worried.

It had been the family head’s order, so he had followed it for the time being, but he had not imagined the recipe would be sent to Yuri, who did not yet have a marriage partner, let alone a fiancé.

He was curious about Zeras’s intention.

Zeras knew this too, so he opened his mouth again in order to resolve Hutton’s doubts.

“Think of it as a lesson. In any case, if she cannot make the dish properly, it will not have much effect, will it? It is a little awkward for me to say this myself, but... you know my daughter’s cooking skills well too.”

This was no more than “preliminary study” for Yuri, who would become one man’s bride in the not-too-distant future.

After all, someday it would become a dish she would have to make personally for her husband.

The reason he had sent the whole Magma Bear instead of only one part of the ingredient was also for her “practice.”

In any case, Magma Bear was highly nutritious as an ingredient on its own, so he thought it would be enough to soothe Zeto’s hollowed-out body.

Leaving the taste aside, in the end, was not the devotion in a dish made personally what mattered?

Zeras judged, from the brief look he had taken of Zeto, that he would surely take such things into account.

“...That is true, but.”

However, even after Zeras’s explanation, Hutton still looked reluctant.

Zeras’s words were not entirely wrong.

In truth, the Clementine family’s nourishing dish was an extremely unique dish, so not only was it difficult to complete properly, but if various elements that could not be fully written in the recipe were missing, one had to assume it would be difficult to see the effect.

It would end up merely as highly nutritious food.

On top of that, Hutton knew very well that Yuri was far removed from cooking.

But there was one fact Zeras had overlooked.

Long ago, Yuri had once entered the kitchen and spoken with Hutton.

The current Yuri had grown into a graceful figure worthy of the title “Blazing Flower,” but back then, she had been a little girl with a small body, carrying a teddy bear that fit perfectly in her arms.

“Hutton! I want to try making that too!”

At the time, Hutton was frying an extremely ordinary fried egg.

Hutton smiled and said, “Then shall we have the fried egg Young Lady makes served at today’s table?”

Thus began Yuri’s fried egg making.

He taught her the method.

Although it was clumsy, the fried egg was quickly completed.

However, Yuri looked at it and said its shape and doneness were far too different from Hutton’s, so she would make it again.

Hutton let her be.

As a man with three children, he knew that children around that age had a strong tendency to want to solve problems themselves without receiving help from others.

Once again, the sound of an egg being tapped came, and Yuri’s fried egg making began.

Whether because she was young or because her hands were unskilled, it was not easy for her to make a fried egg with a shape as proper as Hutton’s.

In the end, Hutton’s fried eggs went up on the dining table.

When Yuri returned after eating, she was still holed up in the kitchen making fried eggs.

That was when Hutton saw Yuri’s, a Clementine’s, “tenacity.”

From day until night, Yuri’s hands did not stop, and finally Yuri shouted.

“Perfect...!”

The girl shouted so and wore a bright smile.

She had eventually made a fried egg that was well-shaped like Hutton’s, with even the doneness close to perfect.

Though this only applied to an extremely simple “fried egg”... Hutton was a very skilled chef.

A young girl, through tenacity alone, had caught up to a nearly perfect fried egg.

That day, Yuri completely emptied the family’s supply of eggs.

Looking at the countless eggshells piled up in the kitchen, Yuri placed a short finger to her lips and said to Hutton.

“Shh...! This is a secret from Father, okay?”

At the girl’s whisper, Hutton could only laugh helplessly.

Thanks to that, he had to hurry out to the market at dawn the next day and buy eggs.

In any case, the secret was kept, and Zeras could not know of it.

He merely praised Hutton.

He asked what on earth Hutton had done while playing with her, for such an energetic child to sleep so obediently.

“Is this what they mean by an experienced hand...?”

He murmured things like that.

Hutton bowed his head to Zeras, who was smiling as usual and saying the meal had been satisfying, then squeezed his eyes shut.

Still, would it not be all right this time because the ingredients were limited? Would it not be all right if she could not remember the taste of the nourishing dish she had eaten once before?

Just this once, may she fail to complete the dish perfectly.

Please, may news that the young lady of Clementine had advanced far too quickly not reach his ears.

He sincerely prayed so.

***

As if to make Hutton’s wish meaningless, such words burst from Yuri’s mouth in the kitchen.

“...Perfect...!”

Yuri shouted that after tasting a bite of the dish she had completed.

At this level, it was very similar to the nourishing dish she had eaten before.

Yuri wore a proud smile and soon looked around.

The kitchen was a complete mess.

It had been long since dawn had broken, and Lucia had collapsed over the table and fallen asleep some time ago, saying she was full and sleepy.

It was almost time to go to the academy.

Yuri had stayed up all night and had reason to be tired, yet she was simply overjoyed at the thought that she could now serve Zeto “decent” food.

As Yuri cleaned the kitchen, she fell into thought.

She seemed to have somehow resolved the cooking.

Lucia’s “tasting” still remained, but she intended to ask as soon as Lucia woke up.

Now the only thing left was inviting Zeto to her room.

But this did not seem easy.

Bringing a man into the female dormitory was a problem, and so was the line she would use.

“...I was thinking of making food for Zeto...”

Yuri shyly muttered to herself, then soon shook her head.

She had thought Lucia was sleeping, so no one would hear, but unfortunately, Lucia was already awake.

Only, because she was far too full and thought Yuri might make her eat another dish, she was pretending to sleep.

“What... is going on here...?”

The friend Yuri wanted to cook for was none other than Zeto.

But Zeto had definitely gone on a date with Eisel, had he not?

This was a fact Yuri knew as well.

Lucia was terribly confused, but she decided to continue pretending to sleep.

***

I was tired, but I managed to arrive for class without being late.

Today’s class was an outdoor class held on the mountain behind the academy.

This class, called joint combat training, seemed to be a class meant to prepare for future subjugation battles.

Students had to coordinate with their group members and inflict meaningful damage on Edward.

This time too, Edward formed the groups arbitrarily.

The group I belonged to challenged Edward first, and thanks to Yuri and me, we were able to end the battle quite quickly.

Well, that was only because Edward had not used his specialty, illusion magic.

Following my plan, Yuri first poured out flame magic, using the smoke stirred up by the heat of the flames to block Edward’s sight.

The other members of the group also tried to cause confusion by blindly firing magic or arrows toward Edward, who should have been trapped in the smoke.

At that moment, after grasping Edward’s exact location with Perception, I cast Chapter One.

With his protective magic shattered like that, Edward showed a sinister smile and said, “Avoiding sword aura that cannot be seen or sensed is more difficult than one might think. Huhu...”

Sierra judged Edward to be a gloomy fellow, saying he could have dodged it as much as he wished, but had deliberately allowed the attack to hit.

Even when watching the battles of other groups, Edward naturally allowed attacks through whenever he seemed to think they had displayed good combination with their group members, as if giving them a passing grade.

Like that, our group was watching the battles of the remaining groups.

“Do not shoot at me—!!”

Just then, Amon, who had been struck by Lucia’s gust and lifted into the air, shouted in great anger.

Whether Edward was trying to remove Lucia’s weakness, which could be called fear, through this chance, or whether he was teasing Lucia and making her group members suffer, he was focusing on Lucia.

Eisel, who was in the same group, dodged this way and that through the wind magic Lucia was firing wildly, trying somehow to aim for Edward.

But perhaps because it was ultimately individual movement.

Edward was not easily allowing any attacks.

“Using Lucia is not so simple either. Hm, hm.”

Crank, who was watching them while eating bread, gave a quiet evaluation.

Crank was in the same group as me this time too.

Having nothing to throw at Edward, who was wrapped in smoke, he had thrown his shield.

I did not know where Crank was from... but at least in that moment, he could be called “Captain Therasia.”

“Somehow, even though I have been in the same group with Crank twice now, I feel like I have not properly seen him use his shield...”

Since he was in Class A anyway, I was slowly growing curious what level of defensive ability he had as a tank.

In any case... it did not seem like the battle of Eisel’s group, where individual play was running rampant, would end easily.

Edward was teasing them and rousing their anger. Amon’s, especially.

But Yuri, who had stepped away briefly a while ago, had not returned.

I waited, thinking she might come soon, but she showed no sign of coming back.

“I thought we might go eat together after this ended...”

Wondering where she had gone without a word, I sent Perception far outward.

“...There she is.”

I could sense Yuri’s presence on the far side of the forest.

I rose from the tree where I had been sitting and moved my feet toward where Yuri was.

As I drew closer and closer to Yuri, I became able to hear her voice even without focusing my ears.

“Zeto... I was thinking of cooking for you...”

...For some reason, Yuri was calling out to me in a place where I was not.

[ Cooking...? ]

Sierra, beside me, was also puzzled by her voice.

Yuri had not yet entered my sight.

At last, Yuri struck the tree before her with her fist.

—Bang!

“No, that is not it...! Huu... What should I say?”

Even so, perhaps because Yuri was focused, she had still not noticed my presence as I approached her.

Yuri’s voice rang through the middle of the forest again.

“Zeto, are you bleeding again? This will not do. I will cook for... This is not it either... Huu...”

I could not tell what on earth she was doing.

—Thwack!

Around the time I heard her strike the tree once more, I was finally able to bring Yuri into my sight.

Yuri pushed the tree with her left hand as though bracing against a wall and stood there.

Soon, toward the “Zeto” visible only to her eyes between herself and the tree, her mouth opened once again.

“Huu... Zeto, I will cook for you. Come to my room this afternoon.”

Yuri’s rather charismatic... line continued.

—Crack.

At that moment, as I approached Yuri, I stepped on a branch lying on the ground. It was because I was so flustered that I had failed to pay attention to the ground.

“...Who is there.”

Soon, along with Yuri’s murderous voice, her head creaked as it turned.

Immediately after, I was reflected in her eyes, and the murderous expression on her face quickly came apart.

“Z-Zeto...?!”

“...Haha.”

I gave an awkward laugh and scratched my head.

“Did... did you hear everything...?”

Yuri’s body trembled as she lowered her head deeply.

I approached her and responded in a calm voice.

“I am looking forward to your cooking. Then should I come to your room, Miss Yuri?”

At my answer, Yuri soon lifted her head and asked in a shy voice.

“...Really?”

[...Disciple? ]

Sierra also voiced her doubt.

“Of course. I will see you later.”

I smiled and nodded.

This was the only way to break through this embarrassing situation.