Upstart Pastry Chef ~Territory Management of a Genius Pâtisserie~

Chapter 13: Commoner’s Snack

My sword training first began three days ago. My skill has exceeded Sword Ability II.

Commonly speaking, a genius one will need several years of intensive training to reach the first limit. The Ability will go from I to II, II to III, increasing the number. The important proficiency will exponentially increase.

However, I have an overwhelming talent and a [The Fool’s Desire] Skill which I obtained from ten years of relentless training. Through a secret plan involving my cooking ability and my love towards Tina, that becomes a possibility.

…..Still, it pains my heart that Tina has come to think of me as running as an eccentric. Persuading her is tough.

“Kurt-sama, what should we do with this cabbage mountain?” Tina asks while preparing the water inside the pot, then put the scraps of beef jerky inside for today’s lunch. The beef jerky will become a delicious stock.

“I’m thinking about it.”

In order to save the cabbages, Tina peel them one leaf at a time, but they still become fine chops. Albeit so, the cabbage still piles up to another mountain.

By the way, I have a reason to keep using the cabbages like this. In the neighboring village, they grow cabbages but the harvest this year is abnormally great. If I let them rot, they’re just going to be fertilizer.

Due to that situation, they can only be bartered for a low amount of wheat compared to last year. I bought them in massive quantity, planning to distribute them to the villagers.

“We’ll distribute cabbage snacks for the workers. I’ve gained insights from spending these past three days on a special training to beat Jorg. I can just show up and deliver them myself.”

There’s no point to merely deliver the cabbages, so I prepared a recipe to teach the delicious way of eating them. I’m practicing that recipe today.

“I’m glad. I think everyone will rejoice upon finally seeing Kurt-sama again.” Tina smiles while adding more firewood to the hearth. As she does, the fire flares up instantly. Tina’s fluffy tail furs bristles up.

“Kyaa, what’s this? It suddenly flares.”

When I look at Tina, I can tell that mana has poured from Tina into the hearth. “Tina, calm down and take a deep breath. I’ve taught you how to use mana earlier. Look at the fire closely, you’re connected to it with mana.”

“Ah, I understand. It’s true, I was thinking to flare the fire.”

“It shouldn’t be like this normally. Tina’s attribute is Fire. When you’re carrying mana, you can awaken your magic attribute as you get in touch with a suitable one. Tina has awakened today, congratulations.”

“Wow, really?! It seems to be handy in handling fire!” Tina, while saying that, uses her mana at the hearth to turn up and diminish the fire. It’s a wonderfully convenient power.

“You are strong. You should be able to cook something even without firewood.”

“I’ll try it… Ah, it’s a success. Kurt-sama, I can prepare a warm meal even without chopping woods!” Tina swings her tail happily with sparkles in her eyes.

Wood chopping is a hard labor and makes scrubbing the stone hearth troublesome. It’s wonderful that we can settle that problem with mana.

“Yeah, it’s splendid. But I’m jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Yeah. I have the Earth attribute, but I haven’t awakened my attribute magic yet.”

With my all-seeing eyes, I know that I have earth attribute. However, there’s no indication at all that my attribute magic will awaken, even though I work on the fields everyday. …I have a mixed feeling. Somewhere, I have to find a place where I’m even more in tune with the earth.

“Kurt-sama will definitely be fine! It’ll awaken someday.”

“I hope so. I think it’ll become necessary sooner or later. Tina, that soup we prepare for lunch. Can you use your mana so we can deliver them today? We should eat them there too.”

“I don’t mind at all. I’m looking forward to Kurt-sama’s meal.”

And so we head over to the reclaimed land, bringing the mountain of chopped cabbage.

We arrive at the reclaimed land. I carry an enormous stone plate on my back and a pot filled generously with soup by hand, while Tina brings the basket with all of those cabbages.

I thought of a way to use all of those cabbages; it’s a simple meal made from small amount of wheat, cabbage, and stock. However, there’s a special mention for that effect.

“Everyone, how are you?!” I greet those bunch of workers.

Salt, the leader of the reclamation workers, opened his mouth, “Hey, Young Master. You’ve come here.”

“Yeah, I’ve taken a rest on my special training, so I come with provisions to see if there’s any problem arise.”

“There’s nothing right now. Oh, still, we’re happy that you come around.”

“I see, it’s good then. I’m going to prepare something here. When it’s time for to rest, can you call everyone here?”

“Understood, I’ll do so.”

Then Salt returns to his fellow workers’ place. I started preparing the provisions for everyone. Piling up the stones, I created a table and placed the stone plate on top of it.

In order to make it perfectly horizontal, I adjust it carefully. Though I say that, there’s no stones with decent size so I cut them cleanly with a stone knife. With my Sword Ability II, it’s easy to do something like that.

“Tina, please heat up this stone plate.”

“Yes, Kurt-sama.”

Tina intensely heats the stone with her fire attribute magic. What I’m making is pastry. Though I said so, it goes to the category of cheap sweets (dagashi), monjayaki.

“Young Master, I’ve gathered everyone.”

“Okay, then let’s start.”

First, I pour Tina’s soup into a wooden bowl… In a stock made from the leftover meat scraps from the previous meat jerky, I adjust the taste by salt. After that, I add wheat flour and cabbage. Then I added the sauce.

The sauce is a concentration made from the cabbages that gets chopped too fine and turn into paste, with meat juice and vegetable scrapes in the suitable amount added into it, then tasted with vinegar, honey, and salt.

Since it’s monjayaki, the batter is runny. That batter is first poured into the heated stone plate in small amount.

I hear the pleasant sizzling sound, the savoriness (umami) of the meat comes from the evaporated soup and sauce, exuding the smell that invites our appetite.

The villagers make gulping sound. When the fire passes to a certain level, I make a hollow circle with wooden spatula, forming a wall of batter. I pour even more batter than earlier to the hollow center. The watery batter should have been oozing everywhere, but thanks to the wall, I could keep the batter on spot.

The batter becomes semi-transparent. There’s a lot of people here; since there’s no need to flip it over, unlike okonomiyaki, I could cook something really, really big on the huge plate in one try.

“I’ve finished cooking. It’s called monjayaki. Since there’s a lot of water and cabbage, we can use just a little of wheat flour.”

When I said that, everyone around me laughed. They get a wooden spoon one by one.

“It’s a bad manner, but it should be eaten by taking directly from the stone plate with the spoon and scoop it to your mouth. First, I’ll show you how.”

In order to show them the example, I take a helping of monja with spoon, place it on my left hand and bring it to my mouth.

The savoriness of meat that generously spreads in the soup with the sweetness of cabbage, then the sourness from the sauce all mix together inside my mouth. The unique soft texture of cooked cabbage tastes good.

“Hafu, hafu, yep, it turns out great. It looks bad but it’s delicious. Now, eat them.”

At first, the villagers look timid as they open their mouth, but as soon as they take a mouthful, the look in their eyes change, and take a portion one after another. As a person starts, the rest of them reaches out and chews on the monjayaki, uncaring if they burn their mouth.

“This is really good!”

“Yeah, somehow the taste lingers.”

“Even though it looks like vomit.”

“Oi, don’t say that or we can’t go on.”

The villagers laugh together. I’m glad that they seem happy about it.

The stone plate was covered by a monstrous size of monjayaki, but it disappear in no time from everyone’s vigorous devouring. There’s a limit to the size of the stone plate, so not everyone can eat at the same time. As soon as they got their share, I cook another helping of monjayaki.

My hands’ movement becomes indiscriminately good. I become exceedingly perceptive in timing the heat and when I mix the flour in, I could easily, no, exactly imagine how it will turn up.

“Ah, that’s right. That’s how it is.”

I get the reason. My Cooking Ability has risen. I’ve been doing a special training in sword, but that’s also cooking. With overflowing love, the emotional value was maxed out. Adding that to practicing day and night, my Cooking Ability has firmly sublimed to level III.

This is a blessing in disguise. A level III is the ability that Rank B or above can reach in a lifetime.

“Now, everyone, eat all of them up. I’m going to use the cabbage to the last bit!”

When I said that, the men are all lifting up their spoon, and…

“YEAH!” comes their enthusiastic reply.