Rekka had gone with the maids band and was cooking there while Melinda and Alice were sitting with me. Ossan was here too. I could hear the cheers coming from the kitchen, since many of the maids were young in age, Rekka had made a huge impact on them. his enthusiasm was getting to them. It was just like him. Even when we were traveling in that hell, not a day went by when I wasn't having fun. it was like he could have fun and let loose anywhere any time and it would also affect everyone around him. Such charisma, I had only seen in Melinda.
Ossan was putting his hand on his temple, well the maids were making a ruckus and as dutiful and stoic as he was, even he couldn't control the flow Rekka was making. I gestured to him to let it go. This house needed someone like him.
"Maybe I should join them too…" Melinda was making a goofy expression.
"No you're not, let the young have fun. with you there everyone will act stiffly." Melinda pouted a little but took my word and sat again, Alice seemed to be interested too, by now I had already explained what else had happened since the time she was in bed.
Her first shock was that Rekka hadn't even taken any rest after the fight, so we can easily call him a war veteran in terms of recovery ability. He was superior to even me and Melinda, maybe he can even rival the beast kin too…. I really want to know how he trained his body to be like that. Although I think his explanation might be something way deep and horrible for me to comprehend. That was just the life that he lived until we met him. I still remember the time he said that his gums and teeth were incredibly resilient since he ate grass as sharp as blades for some time. To Think there was nothing to eat and he had to resort to such a way to survive…
His explanation where he said that the grass contained water and thus his need to drink water also subsided. It felt so harsh to hear that even my hardened warrior's heart felt weak… and he had to eat like that for a long time too... ahh... can I ever say that me and Melinda lived a life as hard as that? without proper food you can't even grow stronger, it was such a mystery that Rekka is alive... then again, I guess that was why the cursed sword was so fond of him, the one who over came death and any kind of possible pain for a living being to bear.
After hearing about the aftermath of the fight, Alice was grumpy again so I said.
"You know you're stronger than him at one point and I can assure you that you can beat him if I taught you a way." I was always called a schemer. I would fight rashly until the climax and in the nick of time I would attack the weakest point. That's how I fought. I even analyzed how Rekka went around and handled himself well; it wasn't for scheming, it was just that it was really fun to observe him. like everything he was doing, his every other step could barely be predicted by me. Still, I saw one point. It was this afternoon I saw Rekka was observing Alice. I had thought at first that was the case but the thing was completely different.
He was looking at Alice's changed attitude. when she would become timid; she could become really eye-catching but it was rarely seen. She would always be riled up so Rekka would surely let his guard down if he was fascinated by her from that sudden timidness. He was already crushing on Leila, being Leila's Sister and all, Alice shared many features with her too.
"Tell me!" Alice jumped at my proposal. I was doing this so I could see some funny things in the future. On the other hand Melinda gave me a thumbs up. Perceptive as ever, Melinda really got me.
"No matter what he has been through, no matter what he is like, as a man, Rekka is still quite immature, as for you Alice, if you used more of your individuality as a girl.. I am sure you can over take him in a fight.." hearing me Alice got into thought, even though I didn't think she would settle down so easily. I gave Melinda a thumbs up. On the other hand Ossan was touching his temple again, I mean he is straight forward, so it is really hard to accept my schemes sometimes. come to think of it, I was teaching a kid about seducing her opponent.
But if I could see Alice and Rekka getting along… I for sure would love to see that happen.
as my thoughts went on, Rekka suddenly came out from the kitchen . He had what he called French fries on a plate. The aroma of it hit our noses and I remembered the first time I had eaten one of those. Really as simple as it was, it was delicious to eat. He went straight to Melinda.
"OOH! Is it for me..!!" Melinda got happy. Hey I also wanted a first bite. How did she get over me? Melinda could do some overhead things sometime. I was already jealous of how Rekka was taking after Melinda; he had the same hunting vibe as Melinda. The maids in the mansion would be in his hands before long at this rate… really I wonder how Melinda got Rekka to follow her teachings so much… Before long, he might get addicted to girls… ah… a second Melinda might be my worst nightmare...
"No, don't eat it just yet, I asked you to bring me something. Remember? did you bring it…?" Rekka said, removing the fries from Melinda's hands. It was oddly satisfying to see her getting rejected. I laughed inwardly seeing as the fries were snatched from her hands.
By now Alice also had smelt the yummy French fries and since she didn't have any until now, she was curious to see what it was, but because of the things that happened, she still couldn't move on but she had a big appetite so I was sure she would eat some soon. actually Rekka and Alice both had a big appetite that was similar in both of them.
"Yes.. but how are we going to eat them with these??" As Melinda presented some things from her storage, they all looked like many types of herbs and all of them were not used for foods too, they were mostly used to make medicines and other healing materials but Rekka took them and made a big plate with miasma, then made a lid that had a hole in it. it was always a wonder to see him making things just like that.
"Hmm okay now, Granny listen, be very careful, make hot wind. Can you do that? Most of these aren't dried out, so we can't use them like this." explained Rekka. It was like Melinda was getting a lecture from Rekka since she couldn't cook. Melinda did have to be careful not to turn those into charcoal.
"Hmm okay~" Melinda was always confident even more so in front of Rekka, so she looked ready with her sleeves folded as if she would win the war in one move.
"Okay then let me see you use it to make hot air on your hand."
"Hmm okay…. How is it?" a sphere of air was spinning in Melinda's hand. Rekka used one of his fingers to see how hot it was and his finger came out from the sphere looking red like it was burnt to a crisp with fire... we all got shocked by it. Even Melinda panicked, on the Other hand, Rekka just snapped his fingers and I could see that the damage was healed. Wow, that boy was getting inhuman every single day...
"This wouldn't work hmm control it Granny I thought you were a high rank magician."
"Yeah yeah! I know I am the best…!" Melinda seemed to be in pressure.
"Okay try again..." Rekka gave her courage by showing a resolute smile… sometimes he can be the best cheer leader there is. Although making the strongest human mage nervous was also something that should have been impossible...
"Hmm....!" This time the sphere was a little bigger. Rekka put his finger in there and the finger came out alright, this time Melinda seemed to be focusing very hard. looking at that look on Melinda's face, I thought that Humanity's strongest mage was getting pressured, just what kind of grandson did we get?
"Okay then hold….." saying that Rekka took the wind sphere with his hand. it was as if he was holding it as a material itself then he inserted the ball in the whole of the lid. As Rekka put his finger in there to close the gap, by the end of 10 minutes he put his finger out and showed us the spices. they had all been dried and a spicy smell was coming from them. so their whole scent changed just from drying them like that?
As he brought out something from his Storage and put the spices in the rock-like thing, it started vibrating like it was moving inside. I knew that some dwarfs used these kinds of things to make many materials. After all that, what Rekka brought out from the stone pot was some powder-like mixture. The whole spices had been mixed into a powder but there was something different. The mixture was giving out a unique scent, then he sprinkled some of it on the fries.
"Here, taste it Granny." Rekka said with a smirk, a winning smirk. Melinda took one of them fries and took a bite. Her expression changed in a second as if she had a delicious meal. Just as Rekka started giving it out to everyone.
"Come on, everyone, have one, I am still making, so you guys will have to taste for now."
I took a fry and Ossan, Ceciel and Sylvya also took one. Some maids that were here with Rekka also took one piece and started tasting.
Mmhm! The sound of enjoying a new and great flavor. It was nothing like before, the whole thing's taste had changed rapidly! Just what wonder powder did he make…? it was out of my imagination at this point. the crunchy outside and the soft inside of the fires complemented with these new spices.... I was sent to a new world of flavors, I could see Melinda shedding a tear at the corner of my eye...
As we tasted, there was 1 fry left. Of course no one took it since someone had not tasted it yet.
From everyone's viewpoint, Alice was looking stoic but I know she was dying to try it. Just when I thought I needed to do something, Rekka went towards Alice and said,
"You got beef with me but with my food too…?" Alice shook her head as if saying definitely not. Ooh I see, she is trying to keep quite hmm that's good! when she's timid, she could pass out for even looking like a helpless cute girl, men are suckers for those types of women!
Then Rekka took the fry and pushed it inside Alice's mouth and walked away. For Some reason I felt as if Rekka was acting a little differently toward Alice, usually he is more polite and introvertive with girls… in Alice's case though, it was as if Rekka looked at her as someone clearly under him…
(Rekka could hardly say that he was feeling more and more guilty over his conscience since he was starting to see Alice more like Leila, falling for two sisters at once felt more degenerate than he could ever stomach after all. So the only way to cope with this was to deal with Alice as little as he could. At least until he could confront Leila.)
On the other hand Alice had squinted to a corner and made herself small but I could see she was shaking… is she shaking because of the taste or… maybe something else… I wonder if she was mad?
But the truly smug look, the smirk that Rekka had after looking at everyone's face was really something else… Can someone be that much proud of themselves? While I thought about that, I remembered that Melinda was the same, every time she did something unthinkable, her face would give out a grin unbecoming of a woman… the smug look that Rekka had… nobody could say a word to counter it… was the second coming of Melinda really that close?
…..
That's how our testing period ended. After an hour Leila came, she had someone with her, I didn't know The girl, she was acting rather stiffly.
"Hi there Master….. This is Pamela. She is also a guild employee. I heard Rekka invited her too, so I brought her with me."
"Ooh I see, are you his friend then..?" I asked the girl. Rekka did mention that he had made a friend on his own as if boasting that he could do stuff without our help all the time. Well he did many things by himself all the time, we don't even have time to help him that's just how he is.
"Ye..ss… I am. honoured ..to.. Meet you great Guru.."
OOh yeah people did call me that hmm but this girl may have been just a commoner, so this behaviour should have been expected. Rekka you should have thought of this. I don't think anyone but him can ease her. by the way she is shaking just looking at me, I wonder how her night would be?
"Ooh so you're our Grandson's friend? I heard a lot about you. I wanna know everything you guys talked about!!" Melinda came with her usual energy and took Pamela away. I guess she can handle it better than me.
"Ohh! My. I had heard from Systy that his cooking was good but the Aroma that I am smelling. I think we are underestimating his cooking skills quite a bit.`` Leila's comment was not an exaggeration, from some time ago since Rekka returned to the kitchen, I could really smell some mouth watering dishes being prepared. my apatite was increasing by the minute.
"Hmm, that's true... even in the wild, somehow he cooked foods that were delicious even with monster meat which were very hard to cook, but I guess if he did get some good ingredients, he can cook like a real chef…"
"Master, he can do unusual stuff, yesterday he solved a problem in our guild. you know it was quite obvious like the result was just in front of us but we just could never figure it out. Thanks to Rekka we finally were able to solve the guilds issue with accountants." Leila seemed to let out a sigh of admiration. I did hear from Rekka that he could make something that would allow people to do arithmetic's even if they had no prior knowledge of it.
"That's true, he can be like that sometimes as well….." I talked to Leila while everyone started to set the table. Rekka had said that this type of food should be eaten as snacks but everyone had said that it would be good to have dinner with it too, so they all had been preparing dinner.
"Hey, can anyone use Ice and wind magic!?" The room had become quite crowded when Rekka had come out of the kitchen. He was wearing an apron and a chef's hat. He looked good like a kid chef but his face was professional as ever. Could anyone believe that nearly a month ago he was slaughtering world ending monsters left and right? The wild turned domestic vibe that he had now seemed as if a bad boy had turned to become a docile and good one. even his skin was sparkling, it seems the maids were really taking good care of him.
"I can!" Shouted out Melinda with her hand up in the air.
"Hmm but Granny, you will have to eat dinner later then.."
"what … b-but I wanna eat now…" Melinda said like a child, looks like Rekka knew that would happen but then some of our maids took a hand up but Rekka said they will have to be good at ice and wind magic and have quite some mana, alas many could use it, but they were not good enough at it. Or didn't have much mana.
"How about me?" asked Leila standing up. Leila here was quite enthusiastic about it. I know for certain that my pupil had really put in a lot of work to groom herself today…
"Hmm …. But Leila is my guest. I can't have you work.." that was true too, what a dilemma.
"Don't worry, I like to see you work too. You did say you would show me your cooking." answered Leila with a smile forming on her face.
"Hmm, okay that's true too, at least we can have dinner together then!" For some reason, the whole room seemed to let out sighs and I think that Leila is oddly close to Rekka…. I thought she hated men…. So she really did groom herself for him...?
Boy, he will become a player someday…
Leila on the other hand said yes with a victory sign. What? Leila you were in the line too? I had no idea… at this rate Melinda ranting about managing older girls might be coming true….? most of her lessons with Rekka back at the Edge of the world was about how to woo older girls... sigh....
I never thought Leila would become interested in Rekka… well she did like gentle people moreover Rekka is cute too, so she shouldn't have any problem with Rekka. Later in the years Rekka will grow up to be a fine looking man.. I guess women even older than him would be interested in him. B-but… he is still young… Does he already think about this stuff? Well Melinda did drill him with enough pervy ideas to even make the sleazy nobles fall out.
As they both left for the kitchen, the cooking seemed to have finished.
Then one by one, the dishes were brought out on the table. There were many varieties, some were called burgers and then Pizza, it seemed even these were differently prepared. As I looked at the main Item fried chicken and French fries, for some reason, I felt this was certainly not normal chicken....? or rather? aren't these just birds? Also there were three kinds of sauces on the side of every one, white, yellow and red. there are so many varieties, his cooking repertoire was... really something...
There were some vegetable salads too, each one of them looked great and had a very delicious smell, not just that, everything looked delicious too. The appetizing way it was presented had a great way to increase your appetite too.
Some maids that were serving showed us how we can eat and mix the sauces to our taste so we can have different ways for eating each dish.
"Was all this really just for a snack." I was saying that because it was nothing but a grand feast.
"No Master, Master Rekka said since it was a dinner plan, he made some extra dishes and desserts too. he also switched some of the recipes to make different types of Pizza and burgers." Said Mai who was currently Rekka's personal maid. She was the one directing everyone of the maids for now since the head maid and butler were also eating with us. They were apprehensive about it but Rekka said when he would be cooking no other supervisor would be needed, so why not just eat with us, well we were all friends so it wasn't a problem.
"Oh my god! this is heavenly food!!!"
"Yes!! , how can he make such things...:" Melinda cried out because the dishes were absolutely delicious. Even Alice couldn't stop but gave compliments. The juices from the burger made our hands and mouth messy but the sheer taste and the flavour of the meat that I had never witnessed in my life… It made my mind go blank as I took one bite after another. not only the taste, the flavour the smell of the food, how it was presented for the appeal of the eye.
Soon everyone at the table was eating silently. The food was just that good, everyone ate with content smiles. The burger patties were juicy and the sauces each had a distinct flavour of its own . There was something white, it was like a sauce too but it was not called a sauce. Mai said that it was Mayonnaise or something. And fried chicken… How could he make chicken taste this good…? then again, this wasn't even chicken.
How can someone have so much variety in them? he might really be a god of cooking..!
As such silly thoughts went around in my mind, I also savored each one of the flavours. they all were out of this world. But our surprises were not over. There were still desserts waiting for us. so we would only start to get more and more surprises and this night everyone in our mansion would remember it as the Night of flavors.