Chapter 107

Chapter 107

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 107The cooking process wasn't that difficult.

To begin with, Cacciatora(Coniglio alla Cacciatora)

was also a dish hunters made to simply eat the game they caught, and the recipe in my memory wasn't particularly difficult either.

“Marie, you can use simple magic, right?”

“What? O-of course! Anyone who uses mana learns simple magic as a basic skill.”

“Then can you make your own bowl and pot?”

“A bowl and pot...? Yes, that's not difficult.”

Normally, a proper expedition party would carry at least simple cooking tools, and I also had basic camping gear inside my Cube. But I judged that this would be far better if I wanted to impress the instructor.

Marie quickly began digging into the ground, found clay beneath the surface, shaped it into bowls, then instantly fired them at high temperature.

“...

Magic sure is convenient.”

“Eugene, you were an aura user, right? Well, there are world-famous heroes who use both aura and mana, so maybe you'll awaken mana later too?”

“That could happen.”

Though I didn't know whether Eugene had any talent for magic.

Well, I had some thoughts of my own about that too.

“Ah, do you know how to prepare ingredients?”

“Uh... just the basics? ““Then could I ask you to wash the vegetables and prepare them simply?”

“...

Yes!”

While she washed and trimmed the vegetables with magic, I decided to handle the rabbit.

It was my first time dressing a rabbit, but perhaps because I had the Smart Lens display the preparation method before my eyes?

Or because I'd done all sorts of things by now?

Fortunately, I was able to dress the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit smoothly without getting stuck anywhere...

If I remember right, the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit's feet had an ability that boosted luck?

After cutting off both feet, I put one in the Cube and gave the other to Marie.

“Hm? What's this... Kyaaaah?! W-what is this!”

“A rabbit's foot.”

“I obviously know it's a foot!! Why are you throwing that at me?!”

Apparently the rabbit's foot suddenly landing in front of her had startled her that badly, because she shouted at me accusingly with tears in her eyes.

“...

Because it's a lucky item?”

“What? A lucky item... ah, you mean that thing about rabbit feet bringing good luck?”

When I nodded, Marie bit her lip and glared at me.

“Still... you could have at least wiped the blood off first. You threw it at me out of nowhere, so of course I was surprised!”

“Ah... sorry.”

True, anyone would be startled if someone suddenly threw a bloody rabbit's foot at them.

Lately, there had been so few normal people around me that I'd forgotten such basic common sense.

“Seriously, please be more careful next time.”

Feeling sorry as she wiped her tears with the sleeve of her uniform, I nodded.

If it had been Se-ah, she would've asked whether it was expensive, and if it had been Haru, she would've thanked me for giving her something valuable.

Hm... maybe because it had been so long since I'd seen a reaction like this, I felt strangely taken aback...

As expected, that was the normal reaction.

I decided to just focus on cooking.

After blanching the prepared chicken in boiling water for about a minute, I crushed the rock salt and pepper brought by Marie's mice by hand and seasoned it.

Then I browned it nicely and was supposed to add wine and vegetables to the rendered fat and reduce it... but since we couldn't use wine, I decided to reduce it with water instead.

As a result.

“I-it looks delicious?”

“Right?”

A delicious-looking braised roasted rabbit... no, Coniglio alla Cacciatora

was complete.

“Now we just have to take this back.”

“Right. We did come a little deep into the mountain to catch the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit, but since we're heading downhill, it shouldn't take long.”

I said that and put the food into the Cube to preserve it.

“Then shall we head down?”

“Ah, yes!”

Marie made another golem so we could move smoothly.

As we descended the mountain together and talked about various things, something suddenly occurred to me, so I decided to ask.

“By the way, may I ask why you suggested teaming up with me today? I've never seen you approach someone else first before.”

“What? Huh? Ah, ahh...! Y-you mean that?”

Even though it wasn't such a serious question, she visibly panicked.

“W-well... that is...!”

Judging by the fact that I couldn't sense fear, it didn't seem like she was panicking because I'd caught her trying to deceive me.

“Um... I-I was moved by what you said during the speech, Eugene. It felt like my eyes, which had been closed, suddenly opened. Or maybe I became interested in wanting to get closer to you. A-anyway, something like that happened!”

Ah, I think I understood.

The first requirement for unlocking Marie Nate's event, a high level of charm, had probably already been cleared thanks to my trait 【Bad Boy】, and on top of that, she'd been moved by my speech?

Then it was obvious.

“You want to become friends. Something like that.”

“...

What?”

Come to think of it, I really hadn't seen Marie Nate talking to other people in class all that often.

At most, I'd only seen her fiddling with the hand of the doll she always hugged while using her phone.

Maybe she'd naturally never felt the need for something called a friend until this opportunity made her realize it.

“You were moved by my speech. So you want to become friends. Isn't that it?”

“Y-yes! That's...! Eugene, you're pretty sharp, aren't you?”

“As vice class president, it's only natural to keep an eye on the students in class.”

At this point, wasn't I a pretty excellent vice class president?

While thinking that, just as we were getting close to where the instructor was waiting.

“Marie, wait.”

“Yes?”

Walking ahead of Marie, I stopped her and signaled for her to keep quiet.

“I think there's something nearby.”

“Nearby? But there's nothing...”──Rustle!

“Kyaah!”

Suddenly, a person appeared above our heads.

“Don't move! We are the Green Forest Divine Cult's──Boss?”

“...

Jin-woo? What are you doing here?”

“Huh? Uh... cooking activity?”

No, what kind of cooking activity involved dropping from the sky while shouting something like Green Forest Divine Cult?

“No, you bastard! I told you to go together── huh? Eugene?”

“Se-ah?”

The two people I'd thought were the strongest combination in this class appeared.

But for some reason, both of them looked extremely anxious.

“Uh... aren't these people from your club, Eugene?”

“They are, but what the hell is this...”

Wait. Green Forest? Cooking ‘activity’?

Don't tell me...

“You two. Were you planning to steal other people's food instead of cooking?”

When I voiced the theory that came to mind just in case, Jin-woo flinched in surprise and suddenly avoided my gaze.

“S-steal?! Boss, what are you talking about! R-right, Se-ah?”

“Why are you asking me?! You're the one who made a fuss about pilfering other people's food and didn't gather any ingredients!”

“I didn't know you'd say you couldn't cook without a recipe book!”...

The situation was starting to become clear.

Jin-woo had assumed Se-ah would naturally be good not only at searching but at cooking too, so he'd even gone down on his knees to form a team with her, but Se-ah turned out to be the type who couldn't cook on her own without a recipe.

As a result, they'd accomplished nothing until near the end, then apparently came up with a plan to use Se-ah's ability to find people and steal their food.

“...

Somehow, that plan suits you.”

“Hehe. Right?”

Even though I hadn't meant it as a compliment, the bastard scratched his head and looked pleased.

Perhaps sensing something strange about that reaction, Marie looked at Jin-woo oddly.

“If you steal someone else's food and submit it, wouldn't you actually lose points...? I don't think it's such a good idea.”

“No, if you think about it, it's actually the most rational method.”

“What?!”

Marie looked shocked, as though she'd never expected those words to come out of my mouth.

“This is a ‘survival’ cooking class, after all. In a situation where you need to survive, stealing someone else's food and eating it is also part of survival. The instructor would probably recognize it.”

“Oh... I mean! R-right? I knew Boss would understand my plan!”

No one would believe him after his earlier reaction anyway...

Still, now that we'd run into each other like this, there was no helping it.

“So, are you planning to steal our food? If so, we plan to stop you with everything we've got.”

I asked while loosening the joints in my neck and fingers, and Jin-woo waved his hands frantically as he backed away.

“No, no, what are you talking about? Picking a fight with Boss in a survival class isn't survival, it's suicide.”...

Is that so?

“For now, we'll get going. No matter how I think about it, I can't imagine us successfully stealing food from Boss's team...”

“I agree. Rather than stealing Eugene's food, we'd probably score better by picking wild berries or edible greens instead.”

Se-ah also shook her head as though she had no intention of fighting and headed toward Jin-woo.

“Let's ambush someone else.”

“...

Let's do that. Then who should we ambush?”

“For now... huh? I sensed Young-je's mana over there.”

“Hm? Glasses's mana? Stealing Glasses's food would be insanely funny. What do you think?”

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We can't take a penalty like this! I'd be too angry to sleep!”

As the two disappeared while talking like that, I imagined Young-je being attacked shortly afterward and felt sorry for him.

Well, he could stop them if he was able... but facing an assassin and a spatial mage in the mountains?

If I were Young-je, I'd just run away.

“Let's go.”

“Ah... yes.”

After calling out to Marie, who had been staring blankly at the place where the two disappeared, and snapping her back to her senses, we continued down the mountain.

Come to think of it, what kind of food did Young-je's team make?

I was starting to wonder what food Se-ah and Jin-woo would bring back later.

______________

“Delicious!!! Perfect!! so good!”

The instructor who took the first bite of our food burst into tears and jumped into the air.

“To gather ingredients of this caliber in the wild and create a dish of this quality! Oh God, is this truly possibleeee!”

Then the instructor grabbed the rabbit leg with his bare hand and thrust it toward the sky.

“This familiar weight... don't tell me, did you catch and cook the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit?! That legendary ingredient!!!”

I wondered why he was lifting the meat toward the sky, but apparently he was checking its weight.

“Correct.”

At my answer, he immediately began tearing into the leg and swallowing it.

“Hwooooh! This heavy weight and chewiness. And yet the tender bounce that tears apart without resistance, along with the bursting juices—how perfect! Full marks! Han Eugene, Marie Nate! Full maaaarks!”

Hasn't the instructor's character changed too much...

Anyway.──In the end, we received good marks befitting all the effort we'd put in.

Compared to that, the two who attempted to steal someone else's food...

“Jin-woo Vivald. And Kim Se-ah. Is this... food?”

The dish Jin-woo and Se-ah submitted was so mangled that its original form was difficult to recognize. It looked as though fruits from the abyss had been stomped on, then mixed with mud and clumped together.

Apparently the food had been damaged during their battle with Young-je's team.

“I-it should taste good?”

When Jin-woo carefully protested, the instructor sighed and set the abyssal mud sphere down on the ground.

“From what I can see, some of what appear to be fruits are also classified as poisonous. This is... a deduction.”

“P-poison?”

“...

Young-je poisoned the food.”...

Who could have known.

That Young-je had prepared trap food in anticipation of being attacked.

“Ah, to think the happiness I felt from the Ten-Thousand-Geun Rabbit would drop this much. My tongue is even numb now, so further evaluation is impossible....

Jin-woo Vivald! Kim Se-ah! Lowest score!!!”

“Jin-woo, you damn bastaaaard!”

“...

Ha. Haha. Hahahaha.”

In the end, the two finished the class by having their own karma come back to bite them.