Chapter 679 - Attention

"Hm, ya know quite a bit about cooking. Are you a chef yourself?" The man in front of him asked curiously, and Eisen slowly shook his head, "Not specifically, no, although I do dabble in it a little." Eisen explained.

Well, technically what Eisen said wasn't directly false, but it was so far away from the truth that it might be seen as a lie anyway. After all, he literally taught the current God of Cooking, there's no way that Eisen would get awa with saying he 'dabbled in it a little'. But as he didn't particularly want to reveal this right now while having this nice conversation, he figured he should try to be more humble about it.

Eisen wasn't particularly a fan of the treatment that he's been getting anyway. Sure, he knew he was skilled, seriously saying that he wasn't to stay humble would be an insult to everyone else that dedicated their life to their craft. Well, this time around it was a different situation, since he was aware that it wasn't really the truth.

Either way, even if Eisen was skilled... the fact that some literal gods were looking up to him for some reason felt weird, and uncomfortable. He had suddenly become a King, an immortal being, and someone that had to take part in literally saving the world from complete and utter chaos that would be caused by a deranged maniac.

It was a bit too much for Eisen a lot of the time, which was actually another reason why Eisen chose to go to these Divine Realms now of all times. He knew that it would sound horrible if he said this to anyone else, so he didn't, but he needed some time for himself. 

He loved his friends and family, obviously, they were as important to him as his own life, but constantly feeling that sort of pressure that he wasn't made for truly overwhelmed him.

Eisen was the kind of person that was always content in living a quiet life. What Eisen imagined himself as when he first heard that he was supposed to guide some players in this world was that he would be able to properly settle down in a possibly far-off place where he could work to his heart's content until his life in the other world ended. Maybe a player would hear rumors about him from a nearby village, and trying to further their own craft would seek him out for a quest or two, maybe some special new tools or materials.

This old man wanted to be 'the' old man. The one that many popular franchises had. The teacher that subtly guided the hero... Eisen never wanted to be a 'hero' himself. He didn't want any ballads to be sung about him, a small whisper in a bar every once in a while was fine for him.

Eisen just wanted to live out the rest of his life in peace, but now... That was impossible.

"You good? Your food's gonna get cold at this rate." The chef in front of Eisen pointed out, and the old man slowly raised his head to look at him again, and with an awkward smile said, "Right, sorry about that. I guess I'll just dig in, then."

Eisen pressed his fork into the meat and cut off a piece with the sharp, serrated knife in his hand. He brought the meat to his mouth, and the moment that it touched his tongue, Eisen's mouth was filled with juices. As if there had been more of them compressed inside of the meat.

But in the end, that was probably just the old man's saliva that he suddenly started overproducing due to the immense, wonderful flavor of this meat. He could tell that it would usually be quite tough, the texture simply hinted at that fact no matter how well a job one did during the preparation. Of course, this wasn't a completely unique taste. The preparation-methods weren't anything complex either, they were basic methods that were executed to a level that one could only call 'perfection'. They truly deserved to be here in this divine realm, in the workshop of the God of Cooking himself.

And just as Eisen was thinking this, he cut off another piece off the meat, before the stool that stood next to the one that the chef offered to the old man was pulled back a little, and a man sat down on it.

"Ah, Sirdigan Cuisine. One of my favorites." The man said with a smile on his face, "If you could give me a plate of that as well, that would be quite nice of you." 

The two chefs looked at each other for a moment before staring at the man that sat down next to Eisen so bluntly, before masterfully preparing a plate for that person as well. He took a bite of the meat, and with a loud humming of pleasure, he spoke, "As amazing as I remember. Great job, you two."

Meanwhile, as this man was complimenting the chefs that now reacted as if their whole life only now received any sort of meaning in their afterlife, Eisen simply continued to eat.

"Don't you think so as well?" The man asked as he looked at Eisen, who slowly turned his head to the side. Eisen was happy that he had gotten the chance to take a small break from everything with this dish, but it was apparent that this was not really the case anymore, considering who it was that sat down next to him.

"Of course, it's amazing. But Ramsay, what about your manners? Don't just eat a single bite and then let everything else go to waste." Eisen said, forcing a soft smile onto his face, and the lesser God right next to him smirked in response.

"Ah, that is absolutely fine! There's no need to worry about that, there are no particular reasons for us to make all this food anyway! In the end, it's all a waste, right? It won't rot if we're careful with it here anyway, so-"

"It's not about the food rotting, is it? You made an effort to cook this wonderful dish, plated it for us, and allowed us to enjoy it. What's being wasted are your efforts, not just the ingredients." The old man pointed out, and Ramsay slightly smirked as he picked his fork and knife up again, "When he's right, he's right."

And so, the two of them continued to eat, and Eisen was even given some seconds when he asked for it. He could eat as much as he wanted with this body anyway, there would be no repercussions, so he figured he should try and enjoy as much of the food that he could here as possible.

He might pick up a new technique or two if he was careful enough to watch what was going on, or maybe he could even remember a few things. Taste was tightly intertwined with memory, after all.

Just a few minutes later, Eisen set the fork and knife down onto the plate with a smile as he cleaned up his face with a towel real quick.

"Again, that was delicious. Thank you very much." The old man said, and the two chefs slightly smiled back, although they were still too nervous to really figure out what the hell was going on, and why Ramsay was suddenly here, eating at their stall, "No need to thank us! Rather, we must thank you, for eating our food. Th-That's what we make it for, right?" One of the chefs pointed out, before Ramsay loudly laughed in response to that statement.

"How right you are! Cooking is useless without anyone there to enjoy what we make, is that not so? We can't just put it on display like those of other crafts can." The god pointed out, "That's what you taught me, isn't it?"

The chefs stared at Eisen surprised, as the old man stood up from the stool and pushed it up against the stall again, "Of course."

"Well, without the ability to freeze time for a dish, that is." Ramsay laughed sligthly, and Eisen slowly repeated what he said, "Without the ability to freeze time, mhm."

The old man slowly turned around as his chance to be treated like a somewhat normal person again was slowly wasted. Usually, the people in these divine realms always treated Eisen pretty weird, considering that he was a living person that visited the heavens, but these two luckily didn't recognize him, nor did they really seem to care all that much for Eisen's current state of living. That was, of course, that he was living at all.

It seemed like a nice chance, but at the very least Eisen got a few nice moments out of it before Ramsay came and returned all that pressure back onto him.

The two of them made their way through this workshop, through all of these different stalls that were all ready to serve food as if this was some sort of festival. But now that Ramsay was with him and revealed who Eisen was to even those that didn't realize it beforehand, this 'festival' turned into something focused on Ramsay and the old man next to him.

As if they were the main-attraction. Ramsay seemed to be enjoying it, but Eisen really just wanted to leave right now already. Of course, that would be unfair to Ramsay. Eisen did want to speak to him a little more as well, albeit in a more private, quiet setting, where he didn't feel all these stares on his body.

Obviously, Eisen was a rather unique, loud person himself, so he probably didn't have the right to judge Ramsay for being like this, or he couldn't say that he disliked this sort of direct attention, especially given all the things that Eisen did in the past that could honestly act as proof otherwise.

Ramsay and Eisen headed to the front of the workshop, where they sat down in a place where Eisen had a bit more peace and quiet right now. He didn't know what brought him to this mindset all of a sudden, but it certainly was something that he felt quite intensely at the moment. Maybe it already was a memory that the old man unlocked to remember after that first bite of the meat, that made him this melancholic again.

Either way, the old man looked at the figure in front of him and smiled broadly, even if it was an incredibly fake smile that Ramsay probably saw through right away. The lesser God of Cooking looked back at Eisen with a broad smile on his face, and crossed his arms, "Want to cook something together?"