CH 435

Mountain of veggies.

“Are you normally able to make use as of many Magic Beasts as Teacher Neil does?”

“Well… I wonder?… Ah, that reminds me, Teacher Neil has been taking care of the small Magic Beasts the students secretly brought into the academy if they weren’t sent home. He took care of them together with the students in the research building, so it’s probably still the case.”

After seeing Teacher Neil off, I inadvertently asked a question, and Miria told me so.

Some of the nobles have small Magical Beasts as pets, and there are always a few students who secretly bring them into the dormitory every year.

Therefore, Teacher Neil regularly checks every year, with the help of that monkey.

Originally, he would start checking only a few days after students boarded the dormitory, but he happened to come across Sei by a coincidence with his monkey, so I unluckily got caught when he strengthened the check.

At first, I thought: “Waah, I got caught! It’s already over…” but now that I have entered the special dormitory in which I can cook brazenly, it turned out pretty well, didn’t it?

I quickly put on the apron, wrapped a spare cloth like a bandana around my head, and tied it tightly.

“Well then, let’s get cooking!”

Today, the safest choice is a pot-au-feu.

Since all the Sacred Beasts are gluttons, I prepared two stockpots and prepared an according amount of ingredients. Suzaku-sama and Miria helped mi with that.

Kurogane and Mashiro cleaned the tables in the cafeteria space under Sei’s supervision, and prepared chairs for the number of people that we have.

“Fufu, I used to make food for my Lord, whom others often tried to poison. He said that he couldn’t eat anything made by anyone else…”

Fufu, Suzaku-sama smiled proudly with nostalgia, but she seemed a bit sorrowful too.

I’m sure that she isn’t talking about Sei, but her past master.

“Ah~ something like that did happen. We told him that we could taste the food for poison for him, but he wouldn’t let us do it.”

Byakko-sama picked up a knife and peeled a potato while saying that.

Eh, Byakko-sama is unexpectedly skilled too…

“This kind of thing, well we can still manage, but seasoning stuff…”

“Yeah, indeed. Seasoning is…”

The two let out a sigh.

“We can cut and peel vegetables, simply grilling meat or fish on fire is also fine. However, everyone somehow gets dicey when it comes to seasoning the food…”

“Yes, the amount is also either too much or too little… cooking is difficult. I admire you, Cristea-sama.”

“Ehh…!?”

Watching you prep the food, you’re not doing anything that weird… I think you’re doing a good job for someone who doesn’t usually cook, but…

“Cristea-sama? Would this amount be enough?”

As I was absentmindedly thinking, I got startled by the sound of Suzaku-sama’s voice.

“Ah, ye… s?”

A large basket full of chopped carrots was piled up in front of Suzaku-sama.

“Ou! How about this?”

“Eh, yes… ehhh?”

This was another pile of neatly peeled and cut potatoes.

“I, is this… perhaps everything that had arrived today…?”

“Indeed, it is. Everyone will eat at least this much, no?”

“Ou! I will eat all that there is!”

Nonono.

It might be the case for the Sacred Beasts, though.

You haven’t eaten this much until now, no?

Besides, magical power is your main source of energy, so food is only like a snack for you, right?

Wouldn’t just a little be enough?

… I mean, cooking this much food with this amount of people every day would be too difficult!

“… I don’t think I will be using this much, so I will keep everything except what I need on me.”

Having said that, I put the surplus carrots and potatoes into my Inventory.

“Eh…? Just this much?”

“No way! Even though I did my best so I could eat a lot!”

I glared at the two who stated their objections.

“Listen here, those were ingredients that were supposed to last us for a few days. They were not ingredients for one meal!”

“That can’t be…”

“Ehh~? It’s fine to make more. I’m telling you that all of it will get eaten!”

Geez, how much do you plan on eating?

“Nope. By the way, this includes Seiryou-sama and Genbu-sama’s portion.”

“N, no way!”

“You must be joking, Missy! My share is going to decrease! Those guys are shut-ins, so they don’t need to eat!”

T, these two…!

“Ow!!”

“Oh my.”

When I looked closely at the chunk of ice that fell on the floor, it was in the shape of a turtle.

“This is…?”

“Ah~… that’s Genbu’s doing, this… sorry, I said too much.”

Byakko-sama apologized while touching his head.

“…?”

“Cristea-sama, that was Genbu protesting this stupid tiger. Genbu, I was also wrong. I’m sorry.”

Right after her apology, the turtle-shaped chunk of ice melted.

I wonder if he accepted the apology?

“Umm, Byakko-sama… are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. It wouldn’t end just with that size if I angered him even more.”

Eh, you are saying that an even larger block of ice could have been dropped on your head…!?

… I will try not to offend Genbu-sama as much as possible.