CH 64

Thirty minutes after the strongest possible lineup was assembled together, the hamburger was finally ready yet again.

“It’s a barely finished hamburger.”

“Yeah, it looks barely passable for a hamburger steak.”

“I guess you made some sort of progress.”

“Ne, is that a compliment? Am I getting complimented right now?”

The hamburger steak that Fujise made was a little more misshapen and blackened than a normal one, but it was still good enough to be called a hamburger steak by anyone who’d look at it.

Compared to her first attempt, I guess this could be called progress?

Tojoin-san and Rinke seemed to have been underwhelmed by this result after their perfect assistance.

But it seems that only Sei-chan seemed to be very impressed with her current skills.

Sei-chan was the only one who tried to teach Fujise to cook alone, so she knew how hard it was to make any sort of progress regarding that.

And I’ve even experienced it firsthand by bravely eating her cooking and passing out immediately after.

I guess I’m kinda impressed that she can actually cook somewhat edible food.

“Uuu, It’s kinda awkward compared to everyone else though.”

Fujise is right, it’s still way off compared to Sei-chan and the other hamburger steaks.

The shape and color are completely different. I haven’t eaten it, but I’m pretty sure that the taste will probably be different too.

“Fujise-san, you’ve grown a lot since the beginning of this session. At first it felt as if you were doing alchemy instead of cooking. Changing food into a new and unknown residue. I guess you could say it somehow deteriorated.”

“It’s a mystery as to how you manage to create that substance in the first place.”

“Well done, Shiho. You made a dish worth eating.”

“Ne, Is that a compliment?”

Other than Sei-chan, I don’t think anyone else is particularly praising her that well.

Sei-chan’s praise is also quite cruel though.

It’s like praising a small child about how she washed her hands by herself.

Well… I guess it is like that seeing how her cooking skills were.

I still can’t believe she managed to make that hamburger steak after creating that dark matter of a dish.

Even with the lineup of Sei-chan and Rinke, I thought it would still be impossible for her to make a proper dish.

This was because Shiho was always portrayed as a character that was devastatingly incapable of cooking, even in the original story.

She was the only character capable of creating dark matter as well as the only character that was sentenced to only observe during the school culinary class.

That was also part of why I thought their attempts would absolutely fail.

“It’s edible right? RIGHT?! Hisamura-kun, have a taste.”

“U-Uh… okay.”

Fujise handed me a plate with her Hamburger Steak.

It’s just a misshapen hamburger steak. So it can’t taste that bad, right?

It smells a little burnt but not inedible…

Yeah, this is scary as hell…

There’s no way I won’t feel anything at all by eating food from a person who can somehow make dark matter out of absolutely nothing.

I glanced at Sei-chan and the others briefly.

Sei-chan was staring at the hamburger steak that I was about to eat with a bated breath.

Rinke and Tojoin-san were also looking at it with a curious look.

There was nothing strange about the softness of the food, which I made into bite-sized pieces with the chopsticks provided to me.

Lets be prepared… TO TAKE A BITE!

“Ahh, Delicious!”

“Really?”

Fujise reacted to my unintentional comment with a twinkle in her eye.

“Yeah, I think it’s pretty good. It’s a little burnt on some parts, but it’s basically normal.”

“Good…!”

I took a second bite to tell her what I think about it.

My thoughts? Eh, it’s just a normal hamburger steak.

As you can see, it’s a little burnt, but it’s still totally edible compared to her previous attempt.

After the others saw that I didn’t get poisoned, they also came in to take a bite from the dish.

“It’s true. I can eat it just fine.”

“Yeah, I can eat it just fine too.”

“A-AMAZING! I can’t…! I didn’t faint!! You did great, Shiho!”

“It feels like I’m getting more compliments than before, but something feels different about it… Especially you Sei-chan, why are you surprised that you didn’t pass out after eating it?”

On the other hand, if you were to faint after eating a dish, what kind of poison did she use to make that happen?

It’s really some kind of alchemical trick to somehow make Sei-chan pass out after having just one bite without ever using any kind of poison in it.

“What do you think changed the most in terms of Shiho’s skills this time round? When you last tried it out with me, no matter how many times you tried, you couldn’t make it look or taste this normal at all.”

“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it, Sei-chan? But yes, the easiest thing for me to understand was that the recipe was written on a piece of paper.”

“You mean Hisamura’s idea helped you out?”

“Eh? Really?”

Was the idea I gave the most suitable for Fujise?

That? Compared to all these good cooks teaching her together?

“Yes, I was able to do this by following what was written on the paper steadily. I was happy that Sei-chan and Tojoin-san taught me how to do it, but I guess it was a little difficult to understand because it was all said and done verbally.”

“I was just verbally explaining what was written on the paper.”

“I used to be like that.”

Tojoin-san and Sei-chan couldn’t help but chuckle at her words.

Well, I guess it’d be easier or harder depending on the person themself.

“But then, in the future, won’t you be able to cook most of the dishes by just following the recipes properly?”

“AHH, really? Maybe I can finally cook by myself now…!”

“Is it really that simple? If that’s the case, then what have I been doing all these years…?”

Sei-chan, who had worked hard to teach Fujise how to cook, looked a little depressed as she said that.

But is it really that simple?

Fujise is devastatingly bad at cooking, but can she really learn to do it just by simply following a recipe?

“Well, Fujise-san, why don’t you make something different while we watch this time. Is there anything you’d like to make?”

“I want something that will fit in my bento. I want to make a bento for Shigemoto-kun!”

“How can you say that whilst also being taught by me, that’s pretty impressive.”

Fujise and Tojoin-san are complete love rivals.

This time, Fujise is sending salt to Tojoin-san, who is completely in love with Yuuichi.

Well, that’s the punishment game though. I guess it can’t be helped. Does Fujise also say things that make her aware of her rivals from time to time?

Fujise has a very gentle appearance, but surprisingly, she’s also the type who speaks her mind very clearly.

I don’t think she could fight a woman of Tojoin’s caliber without that though.

“Fufu, don’t worry. Even if Tojoin-san and I each made our own bento and brought them at the same time, Shigemoto-kun would still finish both of them.”

“Fufu, you’re right. I’m sure Yuuichi’s appetite can handle it, but if you bring him that dark matter from earlier, I’ll definitely stop him no matter how hard he tries to eat it.”

“Ugh… I’ll try not to do that.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine. When it comes to bento ingredients… Well, how about Kaarage? It’s relatively simple to make and easy to pack in your lunch.”

“YES! Please help me out!”

So the next step was for Fujise to make fried chicken without the help of anyone else.

They looked up the recipe on Fujise’s phone, and for clarity, it was printed out on a piece of paper and placed right in front of her for easy viewing.

I don’t think Fujise, who used to make dark matter just a few minutes prior, would be able to cook if she followed a recipe to the dot though…