[Eon's POV: ]
"And when you add these herbs when boiling things, they give the soup that unique aroma?"
"Yes. Though, you must be careful with the kind of herbs that you are using. There are some herbs that might ruin the texture of the water and the other ingredients."
"Hmmm."
I was cooking… and teaching at the same time.
"Oh, is it important that you cook this meat with that specific fire magic? Does temperature and pressure matter as well?"
Alf was helping me make the dinner along with Bell, Miss Mia, and a few others. While those who were giving us a hand in the various processes and were asking these questions were learning from me.
"Using magic isn't important but having control over the fire is one of the most crucial elements of cooking anything.
If one can control the fire and temperature, just like a master craftsman, one can forge the most efficient versions of the simplest kind of dishes."
It all started a few weeks ago when these friends that had been with us for a while now expressed their interest in learning cooking from me.
'They were all people that we trusted and knew about as much as we knew each other, so they were also a part of this group.'
They were new, we can say that, but they had made their own place in this little group of ours in their own way.
"Alright, we will move on to the main course now."
"Hmmm. Should we prepare the large pots?"
Gabriel, an elvan archer from Prince Alph's house, was the most hardworking person present among the others that wanted to learn cooking from me as eagerly as the best chefs of the world wanted to learn from Empress Med.
She was one of the rankers from the entrance exams so even after not being any famous individual, she had gained quite a name for herself in the academy.
She was an archer like me so many students compared her to me, but then again, those who had seen both of us using bow and arrows knew very well just how different we were.
'She was a pure archer so she only focused on one aspect of archeryâ€" the basic long range shooting.'
She had one of the best concentration abilities I've seen and she possessed quite a good sense of balance, so her arrows mostly never missed their targets.
'I can tell she was the best of her tribe.'
But we had different styles.
"Oh? You use Aura while cooking as well?"
"It's a special process. I call it (Energy refinement)."
"Oh… interesting."
Just like captain Alpha, she was also part of our cooking class and she was pretty good with the things she made. One can tell she had good experience making the various kinds of things that her kind liked, as well as various kinds of things that her kind usually did not consume.
However, even when it came to cooking, she had this certain type of style…
"Alf, some winds here."
"Yes!"
She was following me around with the others and while she was good with helping around with basic things, she was not accustomed to the kind of cooking techniques that I used.
"Miss Mia?"
It was obvious from these little things.
"Go prepare the tables, and if you can, please go and call the others as well.
Many creatures are sleeping already so we shouldn't disturb them."
They will have to be careful of some of the ferocious ones since they tend to act aggressively when they are in their sleep state.
"Tell Ginger to call Uriel and the others while you're on it as well."
Alf and Bell talked in that low voice and talked about various personal or mundane things, admired this place, and unknowingly got close to one another.
Captain Alpha already knew he liked Miss Luna but since she yet wasn't sure about her feelings about him, she was still testing if she should go ahead with this… or just consider his attraction the kind of attraction all those young boys had towards her beauty.
'They were different from Alf and Bell or Prince Alph and Ezra.'
One of them was unsure of the kind of relationship they wanted while the one that knew what he wanted didn't try as hard as he should.
'Ginger and Jen were much better in that manner.'
They had been together from a young age and now that they had the chance to be closer than ever, they did not waste it.'
She knew she would have to face turbulence for doing something like that, but her strict father loved her unconditionally.
'The two of them will certainly find a way to convince their strict Mom that had always been against their relationship.'
They were a couple now and neither of them were a child that they could control. So, even though she was strict, and even though she could stop them… she wouldn't do it if she loved her dear daughter.
"Alright. Then, shall we have a fun little dinner now?"
Our group had expanded suddenly, but the members we had right now were all as special to us as the initial members or the house captains.
All of them were important parts of their houses or were special people that were part the prodigy list, and also, they loved my cooking.
[{ "Dinner's ready darling." }]
[{ "Ohh! Our game is almost near the end as well~! We will be there soon~." }]
There were a few more couples in this group aside from the ten of us, but we can talk about all of them sometime later.
"Let's go, Miss Mia."
"Oh, yes. I'll be there shortly."
She and Gabriel were writing down some notes from what they had learned today and it had become a usual sight for the rest of us by this point.
"Alright then. Don't be late."
We left them in the area we had made for cooking on one side of the lake, and walked towards the other special area we had made for eating the dinner.
'They will be here soon, so it would be better if we could finish the dinner quickly.'
Though, if that wasn't possible, we will have to reheat the food after our encounter with Them.
'I just hope they don't mind it.'
Many things don't stay the same as they did after reheating.
I personally avoid it, but if there is no way to prevent it… we can't do anything about that, right?