Cooking was undeniably an essential part of life. I mean, you can’t live without eating and drinking, right? What really makes it richer is cooking.
Honestly, one could survive without cooking. There must have been times when people lived off raw vegetables and meat. But can you really call that a human life?
Why is it that humans, dwarves, elves, and so many other races can be grouped together under the category of ‘person’? It’s because they live like true humans, not like beasts.
However, just like people have different food preferences, races have varied culinary tastes too. Here, the girls had two choices. One was to cater to the Commander’s palate.
And the other was to capture the Commander’s taste with their own cooking. They may seem similar, but they’re entirely different approaches. Naturally, Yuren chose the latter.
“Recently, the Commander has been struggling a lot. His energy must be low. So, I need to make a dish that boosts his vitality.”
In Yuren’s mind, the only food that could restore energy was meat. Sure, for Yuren, cooking meant just gathering and eating meat, but she felt that it wasn’t enough.
“Plus, it seems like the Commander is avoiding me for some reason.”
If the somewhat dull Yuren noticed this, it meant that Hans was blatantly avoiding her. Thankfully, Yuren brushed it off as her overthinking. The Commander wouldn’t avoid her.
Putting aside such pointless thoughts, Yuren wandered the nearby forest in search of meat. Excessive hunting of wild animals was prohibited. Overhunting would destroy the forest’s resources.
This wasn’t a ban put in place by Hans alone; it was a rule enforced by other nations as well. There’s a reason poaching is prohibited. But at the moment, Hans had permitted it. After all, they needed the ingredients.
“Hey, isn’t that a decent wild boar?”
“I found that first!”
“Ruby?”
She spotted a wild boar moving not far away, snuffling about. Yuren licked her lips and prepared to catch the boar—if only a massive hammer hadn’t come crashing down in front of her.
But Yuren didn’t flinch; she merely turned her head toward the direction the hammer swung. There stood Ruby, her eyes sparkling. Yuren smirked and said,
“It doesn’t matter who saw it first. What’s important is who catches it first.”
“…Tch!”
“What kind of talk is that for a former Commander?”
“I’m tired of being bound by titles!”
“Agreed.”
No bloodshed allowed. That wasn’t just the rule of the cooking competition; it was something Hans had emphatically stated. Nobody wanted to be on his bad side for ignoring his words.
So, there was only one way.
Without arguing about who should go first, Ruby and Yuren kicked off, charging ahead. Surprisingly, the wild boar didn’t run away. More accurately, it was too overwhelmed by their momentum to escape.
The poor boar could only hope for a quick end to its suffering. And of course, it was Yuren who reached the boar first.
Ruby gritted her teeth. No matter how hard she trained, was she really still unable to defeat that monster? Yet, she hadn’t given up. The moment you give up, everything is over.
‘I learned all that through the Commander!’
She lost her mother to her father and experienced despair when her homeland hunted her down. Still, that girl decided to shoulder it all. Emulating her mother’s mannerisms…
It was a kind of engraving. As time passes, emotions inevitably dull. That’s why a catalyst was necessary. She needed to remember her mother while vowing never to abandon her revenge.
Such an engraving was essential. However, there was someone who made even that revenge fade away. Ruby had learned much from the Commander. No matter how desperate the situation, one must never give up, keeping the unyielding flame alive.
At that moment, flames ignited fiercely on Ruby’s hammer. Ruby swung the hammer down to the ground. BOOM! With a tremendous sound, the poor boar was engulfed in flames.
Yuren stood there, blankly staring at the disaster before her. The blazing fire represented Ruby’s determination and left the forest completely unaffected, consuming only the boar and turning it to ash.
“Uh… what the heck is going on right now?”
At Yuren’s words, Ruby raised her middle finger with a grin.
“If I can’t have it, then neither can you!!”
She was still unable to keep pace. But if she gave up now, her opponent would secure the ingredients first. So, Ruby chose. If she couldn’t have it, her opponent wouldn’t have it either!
That was the unwavering will to never give up!
……If Hans saw this, it would’ve been something to applaud.
*
“Real cooking is done with fruits.”
While Yuren and Ruby prepared their meat dishes, Clara was busy making secret elven recipes learned from her mother. Clara felt a bit worried about her relationship with the elves, but…
She quickly changed her mind. The Commander wasn’t petty enough to nitpick over each dish. If anything, he was more of a big brother. After all, he even invited elves to the Racial Alliance meeting.
Thanks to that, Clara now felt a sense of uncharacteristic responsibility. If she ended up getting scrutinized for her food, she wouldn’t be able to face the Commander. Thus, she prepared diligently.
“Clara, I’m handing you this recipe.”
“This is…”
“It’s my secret elven recipe that I’ve written down till now.”
“Is it okay for the judge to give something like this?!”
“Recipes don’t matter. What’s crucial is your skill.”
“……Right, that’s annoyingly true.”
No matter how good the recipe was, gathering the ingredients and cooking them depended solely on one’s own skills. And most of the recipes Kluna handed over were nearly useless.
The ingredients couldn’t be found here, or the cooking tools required traditional elven equipment. Well, practically all of them. Yet, Clara didn’t give up.
She had learned a lot about cooking by standing by her mother’s side all this time. Even without the right tools or ingredients, she knew how to substitute with something else.
“Sure, if I just blindly trust the recipe, I’d be in big trouble.”
Clara quickly grasped the implication. It was more of a challenge to see if she could absorb this with her skill. Clara’s competitive spirit surged. Alright, let’s see what I can do.
“Oh, sorry, but could you spare me that root?”
“Bayard? What’re you doing here?”
“I have my own dish in preparation.”
It was hardly an unusual request. Unlike dwarves or dragons, who primarily focused on meat, beastmen balanced their meals with a mix of meat and vegetables. Of course, meat was the main focus.
But there were vegetable dishes that could be quite tasty even for elves. Still, that was a separate matter. This herb was essential for Clara when she cooked.
“Sorry, but this one’s mine.”
“Then where can I find it?”
“Look around here, and you might find some. It’s not common but not impossible to get either.”
“Thanks. And, be careful….”
Bayard surprisingly backed off easily, but that last comment lingered in Clara’s mind. What did he mean by that? Just then, a spark flew in from somewhere and precisely hit the herb.
“Huh?”
She couldn’t even react. The moment the spark touched it, the herb completely burned away. Strangely, not a single burn mark was on her hands. The implications were quite clear.
Clara’s gaze turned towards the direction from which the spark came. Unsurprisingly, there stood two women. One was quite large, and the other looked like a little girl.
“Why the hell is this bitch just showing up out of the blue and causing chaos?”
“I’m sorry! There was a slight miscalculation!”
“A miscalculation? Did you just say miscalculation?”
How on earth can one miscalculate and only scorch the ingredient without touching anything else? Knowing it was nonsense, Clara had no choice but to let her anger consume her.
“Okay, I get the anger, but we don’t have time for this right now.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Think about it. The others are probably getting ahead by now.”
“That’s, true, I guess?”
“This puts us at a disadvantage. We need to restart from the beginning. Don’t you think?”
“…….”
It was Yuren’s absurdity that surpassed Ruby’s nonsense, but to Clara, who was already furious, such reasoning held no meaning. Her deliberation was brief, yet her conclusion mirrored that.
If I can’t do it…
Then neither can you!
