Chapter 960 How food connects everything
After a long discussion and sharing of thoughts, ideas, changing and drawing of various inner elements and outlining the engine that we will use to make our entire island floatable, we were now having a lunch break.
"It\'s nothing special, teacher. We take a few vegetables, mix them with a bunch of spices, the ones you\'re eating are special ones that we bought just this morning, and then you throw everything together, prepare them at a good temperature, mix them, add a few more things and, well, that\'s it."
Half of the people that came here had come here for my food, and, I couldn\'t just let them go without feeding them.
\'I want them to come back to all the meetings we will have here for the rest of the time we have before the festival. And, if not anything else, this food should be their motivation to come here.\'
I made everything with special care for a reason, even used good and fresh ingredients to make most of the things and, since we had all the front area to ourselves, we had a lot of space for cooking…
"It\'s not as simple as you make it sound… though, I understand why Lady Clio praises you so much."
Everyone knew I was a good cook.
After the midterm cooking exam where Sir Quesnel used the sensory sharing ability to allow everyone else to experience my snow globe, even Sir Jez knew how well I could cook.
But, even though this wasn\'t his first time eating something I made, he couldn\'t help his delighted expression as he took each bite from Rare steak with a lot of blood.
It was a simple dish that I made. Quite nicely presented one as well so he liked it.
"Haha, it\'s nothing special. If anything, I\'m happy everyone\'s eating well."
The talk that we had over the project had gone on for a long time so everyone was tired.
\'Keeping that in mind, I made some fresh salad for everyone with a cool sauce to start things off with a few of my classmates\' help.\'
They found it fun learning from me, and the rest had fun watching me make the salad, the sauces, as well as the things that we prepared for afterwards.
"Uriel?"
"You\'re not needed here! Go and get some rest, alright?"
She was still serving the rest of the students even though she had not eaten herself.
She even helped in the cooking process and she was telling me to rest when there was still the serving and remaking process left… this girl.
\'What am I going to do with her?\'
Ultimately, we ended up making a lot of soup, a lot of meat, a lot of baked, friend, grilled vegetables, and some more things.
Which took us a good hour, but with Sir Jez\'s various artifacts, his magic, and help from all the others, it was quite easy making food for 333 students.
\'He\'s a (tier-9) mage so he\'s on the same level as the elder mages, and since he\'s more than 300 years old, he also has a lot more experience than a few other elders.\'
Still, he\'s an academy teacher before he\'s a (tier-9) mage, and just that one fact makes him a lot more important than just being a mage, a master, or a creator.
"So, Ball, anything you need my help with?"
Ball and Miss Mia were taking care of the utensil present on one side while the students were eating on the other side.
We had to make a looooot of food for all the mouths, big and small, present here.
The big mouths, the royals with their peculiar tastes, the nobles that don\'t eat food of common people, and the unique moths that couldn\'t eat the same food as the humans.
\'It was not easy to make the things that every one of them would enjoy, that\'s why we started with a salad, added a soup, then a few kinds of vegetables, then a few different kinds of protein, a few different kind of fibres and lastly, for sweet, we made ice cream balls of various types.\'
For those who cannot feel fulfilled without eating a few thousand calories, there was a dense ice cream, for those who cannot have milky things, there was different kind, for those who cannot have the ice cream itself, they were having flavoured ice that was edible in their kind.
\'It wasn\'t easy… it wouldn\'t have been possible without magic and the artifacts we have here actually.\'
These special things made things much more convenient than one who hasn\'t experienced this world could understand.
"Everyone looks happy at least."
I was just talking to myself while watching everyone eat with their friends, with their classmates, and even with people they didn\'t really interact much with.
"Don\'t they?"
But then, Captain Alpha appeared out of nowhere with a dish of ice cream.
"Isn\'t that your fifth one already?"
"Seventh, haha. It\'s too good."
He wasn\'t a sweet tooth or anything, but he had a sweet spot for mint-orange flavour.
It was a unique combination, but hey… there are a lot of people that don\'t understand the greatness of mint chocolate.
An added freshness of mint on the already amazing orange flavour was not that bad a choice.
"You can\'t use magic, Lucifer, but I\'ve not seen someone cast better magic than you, you know?"
This scene before us… one side students serving other students without any hate or prejudice, and on the other side, hundreds of people eating with their friends and classmates that they had never even talked to before.
The smile as they eat the food, the surprise and joy, the excitement as they discover something new between the flavours and emotions that bloom from within their hearts…
"Don\'t exaggerate it, Captain Alpha. It\'s nothing special."
Yes I like seeing people enjoying what I make, but I like the cooking part itself more.
\'Creation…\'
I just like making things.
\'I\'ve not had the chance to do it in my previous lifetime, but now that I can do it, I just want to make stuff.\'
Be it food, artifacts, magic engineering devices, enchantments, whatever it may be… I like the process more.
And that makes me more of a selfish person than someone that deserves such high praise.
"No really. You know I\'m not from around here, right? I don\'t know how those masters and grandmaster cooks make things.
I\'ve only seen Master Axion make something like you do, but his cooking and yours have a lot of differences.
He makes grand things, but you… on the other hand…"
There was envy in his eyes.
"You cook for people around you. And what you make touches the emotions of the ones who eat it… if not magic, what do I call it?"
He has changed a lot since the first time we met in the class…
Unlike the person that had beat Rein\'s score during the entrance exam, unlike the person that knew how to manipulate everyone around him with his amazing speaking abilities, and unlike the person that was strong and smart, and wanted to make some kind of elite team of his own… the Captain Alpha right now is a pretty different person.
"Call it hypnosis, alright? It\'s nothing special."
Cooking is also an art, but whatever kind of art we are talking about, physical or emotional, is an Art only because people make it.
"Go and help them if you\'re done eating. Too much sweetness at once isn\'t good, even for you."
Seven dishes was plenty. I\'ll have to tell the people on the ice cream counter to not give him any more than that.
"If you\'ll please excuse me now."
With a light bow, I walked to the other side, towards the centre of the sitting arrangements to see if anyone needed anything.
\'We still have to finish the things regarding the structural design. Finishing the blueprint today is the goal, and we have to finish it before we go and meet up with the Headmaster.\'
There were still a lot of things that he needed to explain, especially his sudden disappearance at the end moment.
\'When will this day end, Lucy?\'
[{ *You want me to tell you the time? I\'m sure that\'s not what you meant, right master?* }]
\'Obviously…\'
Well, the fact that she understood that much showed just how much she had grown up.
\'What do you think about this scene? Do you think my food really has magic or something?\'
[{ *Obviously it has magic, Master.* }]
\'Hmm?\'
[{ *All foods are a kind of connection point, and the food that the students of the academy, your class, and your group receive from you are all a special kind of connection point.* }]
\'You mean my cooking connects them with me?\'
[{ *I\'m just saying your cooking connects everyone with whether they have to connect with at that time, haha.* }]
\'…\'
It was actually a bigger compliment than Captain Alpha calling it magic.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
Coming from Lucy herself, I couldn\'t even label it as empty flattery or something.
\'Thanks…\'
She didn\'t praise or compliment me often. The whole complimenting and praising stuff was not something even the Master did when we were together.
\'It was rare…\'
And unlike someone that I still doubted, a compliment from her was precious to me.
[{ Master~. Can I go and eat as well~? }]
Lucy was a good friend and a good partner, but… nothing can take my adorable little butterfly\'s place~.
\'Not even a playful secret glance from my Miss Uriel.\'