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William was not wrong.

The steak was objectively delicious.

The salt and pepper were perfectly infused.

With every chew, juices burst forth.

It had that commonly described chewy, mushy texture.

Because of that texture, Karem wasn’t a fan of rare steak. However, even considering that, the steak was undeniably tasty.

But the problem was, it was rare.

In other words, it meant the defense had failed.

Chewy-chewy—

“Ahh, if only it had been cooked medium, I could have enjoyed it a bit more,” Karem grumbled, trying to chew the rare steak with all his might.

Let me just reiterate, he didn’t dislike rare steak. He just preferred it medium-rare or well-done.

Honestly, as long as it wasn’t blue rare, which was essentially raw meat with just a colored surface, he didn’t mind.

In any case, if seasoned right and properly cooked, beef is delicious.

“What? Medium? You’re a chef, yet don’t know how to eat meat?”

“It’s a preference. Please respect that.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve developed a distaste for undercooked meat just like your brother?”

Karem shook his head vigorously, as if it were impossible for a chef to not know how to eat meat.

“Rare steak is still thoroughly cooked meat.”

Among the various levels of steak doneness, only blue rare steak was meat that was barely cooked on the surface.

The rest were all well-cooked to different degrees. The pink inner meat is just protein that hasn’t been altered much by heat, and what people commonly mislabel as blood is just meat juice.

Blood was all drained away during the slaughtering process.

“I just dislike this mushy texture,” Karem admitted.

“Mushy?! This is chewy. But honestly, the juices that come out with each bite are truly delicious.”

“Who taught you and who’s eating? You should know this much…”

How much mammoth meat was sacrificed for him?

Though it probably had a lot to do with how often it was grilled whenever there was downtime.

Karem, who was about to eat a little more, shook his head and put down his cutlery. He still felt hungry, but not for it anymore.

“More than that, I just thought about it. This is a total failure.”

“Just now, you were saying you were experimenting. Isn’t this already quite delicious? Wouldn’t you call it a success? What was your intention?”

“No, no… just hold on a second.”

Karem pressed his spoon against the steak like a knife and applied force. Fresh, transparent, red juice erupted from the unbroken cracks.

“So, what exactly did you do just now?”

“If things went as I thought, applying pressure with the spoon should have made the steak cut as smoothly as butter.”

“You didn’t even stew it, so what’s that about?”

No matter how good a cook you are, that was a bit of an exaggeration.

In that sense, William chuckled dryly and waved his fork.

Of course, it wasn’t an exaggeration at all. Considering the protein properties that become firm under high temperatures, cooking it at low temperatures for a long time naturally makes the texture tender.

Plus, there were reasons like indirect heat and boiling that added to it.

The problem was that Karem had only experienced it and didn’t know the principles behind it.

In his previous life as Garam, he was sincere about cooking, but he wasn’t so dedicated as to grasp every scientific principle that emerged during food preparation.

There were things he did know.

But the defense didn’t.

As Karem scratched his head in frustration, the sound of wheels rolling outside the kitchen grew louder.

Clunk—drumroll—

“Prince Robin. Junior Karem. Have the tutoring sessions ended?”

“Yes. Well, yeah.”

Mary entered, pushing a cart filled with tableware.

“Speaking of which, is that steak?”

Mary’s expression was slightly tilted in confusion.

“It seems a bit small for the two of you.”

“Oh, this is just an experimental piece.”

Mary instinctively grew cautious. An experimental piece? What were they trying to make this time? Whenever cooking was involved, her bad habit of reacting without thinking kicked in again.

Parking the cart right in front of the sink, Mary approached the two with a gaze full of questions. The closer she got, the more question marks filled her mind.

On the plate lay a perfectly cooked, half-eaten serving of rare steak.

No matter how you looked at it, the facts remained unchanged.

It was just an utterly ordinary steak.

“Mary, what are you doing right now?”

“Shh.”

“What—”

“Be quiet. I’m observing.”

“Observing? Observing what?”

Then there was only one answer left.

As Mary’s body rose, her eyes quickly scanned the kitchen, landing on an unfamiliar, cube-like structure that didn’t fit in at all, specifically the aging device Karem had brought in yesterday.

“You referred to that as an aging device, right? Looks like what you are experimenting with might be that steak. So have you succeeded?”

“No. I was just griping about having failed.”

“Failing? I can’t understand. Isn’t this well-cooked rare steak? Is it the rarity that’s the issue?”

“Well, they said it should be tender enough to cut with a spoon and all. I don’t know what that’s about.”

William, who couldn’t possibly know the cooking techniques of another world, ate a piece of steak without enthusiasm.

“For someone like me who skipped lunch, it looks good regardless.”

Although it meant the intended stew was a failure.

At least he got to eat steak.

However, that didn’t mean he felt full.

William had never heard anyone say he ate little, not even Alicia, the little ogre of Winterhome.

“Well, I could just ask for something else after eating this.”

With that thought casually in mind, William continued to slice and chew the steak based on the demands of his still-empty stomach.

“…Did you say you skipped lunch?”

But right now, someone there couldn’t let that calm thought go uncontested.

Karem flinched at Mary’s utterly serious voice, while William remained absorbed in his steak, chewing away at the cutlery.

“I originally planned to eat the stew that was finished in class for lunch, but it tasted so bad I just couldn’t bring myself to have it.”

“That stew must be that thing in the oven.”

“Right. Karem said you’d clean it up by yourself if I left it.”

“You guessed accurately. But what’s important now isn’t that.”

Mary distanced herself slightly from the pile of dirty dishes in the sink. The serious house fairy quickly walked over to the cooking range and lifted the lid of the only pot it contained.

Clatter—

Since some time had passed, steam wasn’t rising anymore.

However, William’s stew, which was still warm, was now starting to cling together as it cooled down.

Perhaps because of that, it looked even more appetizing than before.

“Oh my God.”

Of course, it only looked that way.

The taste of its contents remained unchanged.

It still tasted like nothing.

Mary, who tasted William’s beef stew, trembled and dropped her spoon. Her gaze filled with horror quickly darted between the two.

“You filled your stomach with this kind of thing?!”

“This kind of thing? That seems a bit harsh.”

William frowned, pausing to finish the last piece of steak on his plate.

Of course, it was clear that a stew that tastes like nothing was an abnormal dish. He knew that. But hearing it so bluntly, his feelings weren’t great.

“I can’t accept this!”

William’s feelings?

The displeasure in Karem’s gaze?

The house fairy Mary didn’t care. If she had, she wouldn’t have gotten the forced vacation the week before last.

Mary absolutely could not tolerate this. Skipping lunch, skipping meals. She was as shocked as a grandmother hearing that someone was hungry.

If they had eaten anything decent afterward, maybe she wouldn’t have been this thoroughly aghast.

Yet that what they ate was a disgrace that insulted the very concept of cooking, and not a shred of joy existed? That was unacceptable.

Mary’s tightly clenched fists were filled with the will to fatten up the contractor’s lord’s second son.

As William blinked at the scene, he carefully set down his fork and knife and whispered quietly to Karem.

“Is your house fairy always like this?”

“Sounds precisely like the Third Prince. And yes. She’s usually a bit on edge when it comes to work. Just accept it as it is.”

“No, it’s totally different from what she said at first that was so rude.”

“She probably means no malice.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Mary could not allow this devastating fact.

The Mage Tower was an area recognized by the contractor Catherine, pretty much not her domain.

In such a domain, William had entered while starving.

Even just having shared a piece of steak while eating that flavorless stew he’d made himself?

“Is there something you want to eat? As quickly as possible, if you please.”

William glanced at Mary, who had just started washing away the mountain of dirty dishes, while he stroked his still soft chin.

“Honestly, there is something I want to eat.”

“Anything. Just say it.”

“I want to eat that stuff Alicia was bragging about all over town.”

William scrunched his eyebrows in thought.

“That sweet and nutty paste you spread on bread…nu, nu, Noodle?”

Out of nowhere, a word he hadn’t expected to hear made Karem squeeze his eyes shut, barely holding back a laugh.

“Cough! Ahem! You mean Nutella?”

And with that certainty, William clicked his fingers.

It wasn’t too difficult of a request.

Unless he needed to make it from scratch from raw ingredients.

Just in case, the Nutella he had prepared beforehand was still resting calmly in the refrigerator. Originally, he had planned on asking Mary to make it, but he had no choice now.

Karem shook his head.

“Uh, why all of a sudden?”

“Still, that’s dessert or a snack. I’ll serve it after you eat your meal.”

“Can’t I just spread it on toast to fill up?”

“Do you wish to become all chubby like the First Prince from months ago?”

“…Uh, is that really something that makes you gain that much weight?”

Of course, comparing Nutella, which was basically a nut paste, to mayonnaise, which was a mass of fat, would do Nutella an injustice.

However, even if the sugar and nuts were shockingly high in the stuff, replacing cocoa with Amadeus wouldn’t turn it into a non-fattening product.

If eaten in large scoops like a proper meal rather than just as a snack, it was obvious what outcomes to expect for the person indulging.

“Right now, I’m craving fried chicken. With that sweet and spicy sauce. Nutella on toast can be dessert.”

“Fried chicken?”

“Why? Didn’t you say to just say what I wanted?”

As Karem joint stared at Mary who was looking puzzled, it became clear that it wouldn’t be difficult.

“Do we have any brined chicken in the warehouse?”

“It hasn’t been prepared yet. If I start now…it might not match the time. It takes a decent amount of time.”

“Then there’s only one way left.”

“Is there a plan?”

“Just fry only the meat.”

“Only the meat? That makes sense.”

Unless they fried the whole chicken with the bones, it wouldn’t take that long to fry just the meat off.

Clank—clank—clank—

“Well then, Junior Karem, please wait a moment. I’ll quickly finish this washing up and go get the ingredients.”

Karem met Mary’s eyes, dressed plainly, looking perplexed.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Mary, did you forget something important? Truly can’t remember?”

“…I, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Mary averted her gaze slightly. She couldn’t possibly be unaware.

The day of the coming-of-age ceremony.

She had completely ruined the pleasant atmosphere by being clueless.

Maybe if she were a first-timer, it could have been forgiven.

But it was already the second time.

Mary had been punished this time with a vacation for two weeks, not just a holiday.

The meal and snack preparation for the tower’s wizards.

She, the house fairy, who had been excluded from all matters directly related to cooking in the kitchen, couldn’t not know.

And Mary was indeed a brownie.

“…But you see, Prince William is an outsider, so to strictly consider it, he isn’t included in the contractor’s restrictions—” “I’ll handle the ingredients myself.”

“Please! Junior Karem! How could you do this?!”

“No way. If I do that, Catherine will scold me too. Hey, let go of my arm.”

“Please, anything but that!”

“Uh, uh. This is going to tear my clothes, isn’t it? No, when will your house fairy’s cleaning be done?”

“That’s something I can handle easily. So please—”

A tangled mess of both sides.

William gently stroked his belly while observing and paused. Although it casually passed through, it was a conversation he couldn’t ignore.

‘…Didn’t that just call Atanitas by name?’

William’s eyes caught Karem, who took off a ring he had never seen before and put it in his pocket.

He couldn’t wait for the moment he’d have to ask about this later.

 

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