The boy's face lit up with excitement and eagerness as he asked again, his purple eyes sparkling with curiosity, "Are you here to join this course too?"
Perry jumped at the sudden voice, looking up to examine the boy. He was slightly taller than Perry, with a face dotted with innocent freckles and soft, slightly curly hair. His purple eyes shone with a childlike glow, as if he'd just seen something incredibly precious, and his cheeks were flushed with excitement.
"Who are you?" Perry asked, puzzled.
The boy, realizing his suddenness, grew a bit bashful, lowering his head and scratching his hair, his voice softening. "I'm Fido, the only student in the chef course here." He introduced himself a little shyly, then cautiously asked, "Are you here to take the chef course?"
"Yes." Perry nodded, and he finally noticed that Fido wasn't wearing the usual wizard's robes but a pristine chef's uniform, setting him apart from the other students in robes. It seemed that he was indeed the "chef course student" that the bullies had mentioned.
Fido's eyes instantly brightened at Perry's response, and he couldn't help but cheer softly, "That's great!" He then leaned closer to Perry and whispered, "It's been ages since anyone joined this course. Chef Oliver said that if there were no new students this time, he'd cancel it. You're my lifesaver!" He quickly pulled out a form from his pocket and handed it to Perry. "Here you go—this is the course application form."
Perry took the form, noting the densely written pages filled with questions and promises, giving it an official look. "Thank you." He smiled slightly, somewhat overwhelmed by Fido's enthusiasm.
Fido nodded, finally seeming relieved, and eagerly continued, "As long as you fill out the form, you can submit it tomorrow. Oh, and remember to bring the money, Chef Oliver is quite fond of money." He winked, giving Perry a friendly reminder.
Fido chuckled and asked, "Oh,I forget to ask, what's your name?"
"Henry." Perry introduced himself simply.
"Henry? That name sounds familiar…" Fido scratched his head, frowning slightly but soon shrugged it off. "Oh well, I can't remember anyway. By the way, I still have homework to do. I actually just came back to grab something from the classroom but ended up hiding from that big guy Samuel. I only dared to come back now."
"Samuel? The tall guy with the orange-red hair?" Perry recalled the bully he had encountered earlier, frowning slightly.
"Yeah, that guy keeps bothering me, demanding that I cook for him even though I don't have the authority, and he keeps pressuring me to go to the underground kitchen." Fido sighed helplessly, looking thoroughly frustrated and uneasy.
"Underground kitchen?" Perry grasped the word sharply, and a trace of doubt and curiosity emerged in his mind. He clearly remembered that Rufus had mentioned this place, but unfortunately, he was not able to ask Arno for more details because of time constraints.
"Well, the underground kitchen is definitely not a good place." Fido's face darkened instantly, his lips pursed tightly, and his expression showed obvious disgust and rejection. He lowered his eyes and whispered, "I hate that place."
Perry saw this, and his curiosity became more intense. He asked tentatively: "Can you tell me in detail? What kind of place is that?"
"Sorry," Fido glanced at his pocket watch and seemed a little anxious. "I'm really in a hurry. Chef Oliver just told me the list of ingredients needed for tomorrow this morning. I have to go and find some ingredients that need to be found at night, otherwise I will be scolded by the chef tomorrow." He hurriedly opened the door of the classroom, walked straight to the table in the classroom, and picked up the list with fine and dense handwriting.
Out of curiosity, Perry couldn't help but follow him in. Unexpectedly, although this classroom is not big, the kitchen is very tidy. Various kitchen utensils were neatly arranged on the shelves, including spatulas, knives and forks, and even the smallest scrapers were sorted by size. There was no smell of oil smoke in the air, and even every corner was cleaned and shiny, as if shining with a faint luster.
"It's really clean here," Perry exclaimed in a low voice. He opened a cabinet and saw all kinds of knives placed inside, arranged neatly from large to small. The blade of each knife was gleaming, reflecting the sharpness and brand newness of the knife. He looked at these sharp knives and couldn't help but admire Oliver's strictness and meticulousness.
Fido heard Perry's sigh and smiled: "Chef Oliver has a serious obsession with cleanliness. The kitchen utensils must be cleaned immediately after use, and everything must be neatly arranged." He pointed to the chef's hat hanging on the wall and continued, "The most important thing is that you must wear a chef's hat when you enter here, otherwise you will definitely be severely punished by Chef Oliver. You know that teachers are generally quite strict."
At this point, Fido seemed to be afraid of scaring Perry, and hurriedly added: "But Chef Oliver is really amazing. I can master the basic knife skills in just two months of learning. You can also learn a lot of cooking skills. It's just..." He paused, with a hint of helplessness on his face, "Chefs can be a little willful."
Perry smiled and said that he didn't mind these details. He looked around, and it seemed to be a new experience to be able to study in such a professional kitchen.
"You still have to look for ingredients this night?" Perry asked puzzled.
"Chef Oliver wrote me a list and told me to prepare these things tomorrow." Fido showed Perry the list helplessly. There were five ingredients listed on it, but the names were quite unfamiliar.
Perry looked at the list and silently called the system in his heart: "System, what are these?"
The system's blue orb floated in front of the list and answered concisely: [These are common ingredients. There are three kinds of vegetables, one kind of seafood and one kind of meat. The host can find them in the market in the town. ]
"I can help you find the ingredients." Perry didn't feel tired at this time, and he also wanted to take this opportunity to learn more about the "underground kitchen".
"Really?" Fido's eyes lit up, and he was obviously ecstatic to have a helper.
"But there is a condition, you have to tell me something about the underground kitchen." Perry said with a smile, intending to take the opportunity to collect intelligence.
"No problem! Let's go, I know where these ingredients are, but I'm still a little scared to go alone at night, it's good to have you accompany me!" Fido happily agreed and took Perry out of the classroom.
The two walked for more than 20 minutes. Perry noticed that many magic apprentices looked at them with curious eyes. After all, their attire was particularly different from a group of students wearing magic robes. Perry gradually felt a little tired. He wiped his sweat and asked in confusion: "Why don't we just use magic to teleport to the destination?"
"I don't know magic!" Fido smiled innocently, not realizing that he had said something that surprised Perry. "I have always walked, Henry, do you know magic?"
Perry was silent for a moment. He didn't expect that there were still people in this academy who didn't know magic. He even doubted for a while how Fido survived in this magic academy.
They finally came to the telephone booth that Perry had used before. Fido pushed open the door of the phone booth and waved to Perry, signaling him to go in: "This is a magical phone booth, it's not just for making calls. As long as you dial the right number, it can teleport us directly to the nearby town! Once there, we can go directly into the forest."
Perry was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses and asked: "Forest? Aren't we going to the market to buy ingredients? Isn't it a bit... inconvenient to go to the forest to find ingredients?"
Fido chuckled at this, as if he found Perry's idea funny, and replied as a matter of course: "Go to the market? Those things are very expensive! The forest near the town is rich in products and completely free, why not go there to find them?" There was a sense of self-confidence in his words, as if it was natural to get ingredients from the forest.
Perry was shocked. Although he had gone to the wild to collect food, was it more dangerous? Besides, the forest was not a completely safe place, right? He looked at Fido worriedly and found that he was wearing a thin chef's uniform and didn't even bring a self-defense weapon. He couldn't help but remind him: "But, if you go into the forest... is it really okay without some self-defense weapons? You're going in empty-handed?"
Fido smiled nonchalantly, took out a small fruit knife from the pocket of his chef's uniform, waved it, and said with a relaxed look: "This is my weapon. As long as I take it, I'll be fine! And I'm really strong."
Perry glanced at the fruit knife that didn't look sharp and Fido's thin body, and couldn't help but doubt it. He thought, this little bit of weaponry is too simple, what use can it be in the face of possible wild animals or dangers? However, Fido looked nonchalant, as if there was no need to worry about this matter.
Maybe, Perry thought secretly, Fido is very familiar with this forest and knows which area is relatively safe? Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought just a fruit knife. Even so, Perry was still a little nervous, but infected by Fido's confidence, he could only choose to temporarily trust the other party's judgment.