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Hunger turns to starvation,
Food brings salvation,
Glorify those who prepare abundant fruition
Or face terrible ruination.
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"Io! My name is Kairo, nice to meet you!!!" Kairo shouted.
He was wincing in anticipation from giving it his all. Peeking with one eye, he saw the maid bearing an intense look. She then raised an eyebrow, confused.
"Ya know how ta cook, boy?!" she shouted with ferocity. She had a carefree accent reminiscent of a rustic origin, much like his but more apparent.
"Only a bit, ma'am! I help my parents when they cook!... sometimes," Kairo was a bit intimidated by how loud she talked that he grew timid.
"Hmm... should be good enough. Wear this hairnet properly," she chucked a hairnet at him, which he caught. "And wash your hands. Now, chop the ingredients on the cutting board. I want the onions diced, garlic minced, and tomatoes sliced. Now, chop chop!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Kairo saluted without hesitation, following her commands, making sure to wash his hands first. "Why did I accept this task...?" he asked himself begrudgingly in his head as he walked up to the cutting board.
Kairo could hear her moving around with the pans on the active stove, the sizzling was enticing to hear, but he didn't want to take a peek because he was worried that she might yell at him for not focusing on chopping.
And so, he did as he was told, the onions were diced, the cloves of garlic were minced, and the tomatoes were sliced. Right as he was done with the last of the ingredients, the tall maid approached him from the side and examined his work.
"Hmm... amateur work. Your knife is crying from being used so sloppily!" she roared. "I'm not about ta put that lousy bunch in my food, ya hear?!"
"Yes, ma'am! I'm sorry ma'am!"
"Wrong answer!! I don't want ta hear apologies, I want ta hear ya getting me new ingredients!!"
"Alright, ma'am! Looking for onions, garlic, and tomatoes!"
"Good."
Kairo was completely being swept up in her tempo like he was caught in a whirlpool. He was at the mercy of this outrageous woman. But if she was the one who cooked all the food he just ate, she had his full respect, and that was why he was following her orders as much as he could, even if she wasn't being too kind about it.
As he procured the same amount of ingredients that were present before, he saw the wild maid tossing the pan in a consistent rhythm when suddenly, a huge flame rose from it.
"Holy balls! Is that supposed to do that? Is the mansion going to burn down?" Kairo asked frantically as the sudden blaze died down as quickly as it appeared.
To which the maid replied with a simple, "No!" before continuing her tossing.
After a brief moment of simply looking at each other, Kairo replied, "No to what?"
"The latter! Gah! Man the stew! Just keep stirring it slowly, sunwise!" she pointed at a tall silver pot on another active stove.
"Huh? Sunwise?"
"Stir it in this direction!" she gestured, stirring in a clockwise direction with her free hand.
"As you command, ma'am!" Kairo saluted once again and turned his head to where the maid pointed.
The pot was too tall for him, he wouldn't be able to stir it with the ladle like this. He looked for a stool or a stepping ladder.
After looking around, he found a short wooden stool and used it to be able to stir the stew easier. The first thing he noticed was how aromatic the stew was. There were a lot of dark meat and potatoes in it and the broth was a thick brown with hints of a thin, red liquid, which he assumed was oil.
He tried his hardest not to drool.
He was surprised to see some bones and other boney parts of animals swimming in the broth.
And so, he stirred. He kept stirring as he observed the maid whizzing about in the kitchen.
She may be brusque with the way she yells at him, but Kairo thought she moved gracefully in the kitchen, even with the maid uniform that looked difficult to move around in. Her movements risked no accidents nor wasted any energy. He found it hypnotizing to watch her work so efficiently and confidently like clockwork.
"She must be a master— no, a complete beast, and this is her lair..." Kairo thought in awe.
He saw her use various other tools in the kitchen. Roasting meat by having it skewered with a metal rod and rotating it periodically over a fire in a fireplace situated on one side of the kitchen, tossing different colored rice on the numerous wok, checking in on him with the stew, taste testing the dishes, grabbing herbs and spices from the racks and grounding them up with a ceramic mortar and pestle, and so on.
He saw how she chopped the ingredients faster than him, and with the way she handled the knife, it looked sharper than when he was wielding it.
What he had to painstakingly slice five times in a sawing motion, she did in only one and made it look effortless. In her possession, the knife cut through the ingredients like they were thin paper. The ingredients didn't look crushed and they virtually had the same size.
It was incredible to see a professional at work. More than the heat of the kitchen, he could feel the intense skill gap between them. He felt like he had a lot to learn.
More than twenty minutes had passed and he was still stirring. His arms were getting tired and sluggish. He didn't know that cooking could be this much of a workout.
"Ma'am, should I really be stirring for this long? Or have you forgotten about me?" Kairo said as he panted and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.
"Ah?? Ya calling me an old lady who forgets easily? In my own kitchen?! Ah??!" she said in an increasingly aggressive tone.
"Of course not, that was definitely not what I said!" he argued. "I'm simply worried that I might be doing this wrong."
"Hmph. Believe in me," she said with a trustworthy air about her as she continued her work in silence. Kairo didn't reply, he simply looked at her with admiration. "But if you're really tired, ya can rest for a bit outside and let that simmer."
"Yes, ma'am..." he said with a whimper. He finally got to stop and rest his arms.
"But," Kairo halted in his tracks as she uttered, "Once ya step outside of the kitchen, you're not coming back in, that would be a sign of quitting. A true chef never leaves the kitchen for a measly break until the food's ready ta be served," she said calmly, which made it more cutting because he was already used to her loud voice.
Kairo paused for a while.
The kitchen was now silent, save for the sounds of frying, boiling, and metal clanking. After a while, Kairo went back to his station, redoing his hairnet.
"If you're gonna say that, then I don't have a choice but to go right back in. I'm not giving up, ma'am!"
"Heh," the wild maid smiled. "Tiraga."
"Huh?" Kairo turned back to her as he was stirring. He saw her smiling as if she was amused by something.
"The name's Tiraga. That's what you're calling me from now on."
Kairo smiled back. "Yes, ma'am!"
Tiraga chopped him on the head with her hand. "I told ya ta call me 'Tiraga'!!"
With a lump on his head, Kairo responded, "I think I'm now too scared to do so!"
The two continued their work in the kitchen. Kairo was kept in stirring duty for an unknown reason, while Tiraga did all of the other preparations for lunch. It was nearly lunchtime and Tiraga just finished with all of her work, but Kairo hadn't been told to stop stirring, so he kept at it.
"Help me with the plates and bowls, then with serving these dishes."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"I said, 'Tiraga', boy!" she chopped him on the head again.
"Yes, ma'am!" he repeated, but with more whimpering and a reluctant smile.
"What's your name anyway, boy?"
"Kairo."
"I see. Well, Kairo, help me with these. Let go of that, you've done enough stirring for today, I'll handle it."
"Huh? Aren't we going to serve this at lunch too?"
"Hah???! Are you questioning my commands?!"
"No, ma'am!"
"Alright, well, get going then!" she handed him steaming, full plates of scrumptious sides and main dishes. "Don't snack on them while ya move them, or I'll smack ya in the head. And keep your hairnet on!!"
"Yes, ma'am...!"
As he went back from the dining hall to the kitchen, he was given more plates and bowls to move to the dining hall table. Every time he came back to the kitchen, there was another batch of food ready to be handed to him.
"Just how much stuff did she cook?" even though he was complaining, he was happy to be of service.
It didn't feel right to merely lie around the whole day. It felt nice to be active around the mansion. Also, he would get to eat some of these later anyway.
Tiraga's plating was perfect and aesthetic, so he took great care not to ruin it by trying to imitate how gracious Tiraga moved as much as he could. Nearly tripping and breaking all the plates he was holding, he refrained from doing it again. Thankfully Tiraga didn't see that blunder, he would for sure be beaten into a pulp. After making sure no one saw, he tried to forget it ever happened.
The barrage of dishes had ended and after the final batch, Kairo saw Tiraga still stirring the same tall pot he was tasked to stir earlier.
"Uhh, are we not going to serve that?"
"Don't be dumb, of course not! It's not yet finished!" she yelled at him.
"What? I think it smelled tasty enough though..." Kairo said, disappointed that he might not get to taste it after all.
"What're you doing? We're not done yet. Serve the plates and utensils."
"How many, ma'am?"
"Fill the seats of the table."
"Really? That many? Are there going to be a bunch of visitors or a celebration or something? Oh, is it Grisia's birthday?"
"Hah??? If ya think this is worth a festival, you're thinking too small! It's just lunch, nothing too special about it. The servants and the masters of this house eat together, that's why there's a lot. I'll handle the other batches. Now, go, ya scamp! You're eating with Grisia's rascal girl at the first batch."
"Understood, ma'am," he responded with no choice but to keep on smiling while tears were comically falling from his eyes. "I see, so we're gonna eat together with the maids. Maybe Fredrick will come join me and Aisia in the first batch as well?"
Some of the maids were already heading to the dining hall and saw Kairo placing the plates and utensils on the table. They hurried to him to tell him that it was their job to do such things and Kairo should just sit tight as a guest.
"Oh, it's fine. I would like to help around the house. Also, if I stop now, Tiraga will get mad at me," he shivered at the thought of being yelled at and having his head chopped with her hand again. He felt like he had already gotten taller from the multiple lumps on his head as he caressed it.
The maids looked at each other as they were surprised that Kairo knew the name of the maid. "Kairo dear, did the maid in the kitchen tell you her name herself?"
"Yeah? Why?" Kairo tilted his head in confusion while placing the plates.
The three maids looked at each other and giggled.
"That means you've earned her respect! She doesn't let many people call her by her name, but mainly because most of us are too scared or are not arrogant enough to do so," she murmured the last part. "So far, I've only heard Master Grisia and Miss Esmeralda be allowed by her to call her by her name!"
"Oh! Is it really that big of a deal?" he chuckled, but the maids nodded earnestly in unison. "Then I am honored," he said with a soft smile.
Since the maids saw Kairo enjoying the chore, they didn't to bother to stop him. Instead, they helped Kairo set up the dining table.
Most of the preparations were already done by Kairo, the only thing left to do was to arrange the plates and utensils, then to grab some mugs and pitchers for the beverages.
Once they were finished, Kairo went back to the kitchen to see if there was anything else Tiraga wanted him to do. The maids stayed in the dining hall and talked amongst themselves.
"Anything else, ma'am?"
"No. I think that's all. I heard the girls help ya with setting up," she said as she kept stirring the pot.
"From across the hallway? Huh, I guess the doors are open... alright then."
Kairo kept talking to Tiraga until she got curious about who he was and how he got here.
Kairo didn't really go into detail about what happened to his village, he simply told her that something happened to his home, that he met Grisia on his journey to Jamais Kingdom, the things that happened on the way here, and who he had already met in the mansion.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, are you human too, ma'am? I met Agata earlier and you looked a bit similar to her. So, I was wondering if you two were both dark elves."
"Huh? No. I'm a human. Obviously," it was not obvious. She did not look like a human. Her spiky teeth gleamed like the tip of white, sharp daggers as she talked.
"Oh. Alright. I never knew there were humans that looked so different. At first I thought you were a dark elf with red hair," Kairo chuckled. "I guess humans and dark elves don't look too different from each other if that's the case. That must mean individuals simply look different from each other sometimes."
"Yeah, no. I'm a human."
"Hmm? I see." he smiled.