Chapter 9

“Where did you get that from?”

A huge tuna and a whole one at that.

It’s estimated weight was the equivalent of five large men.

Its size’s legendary, the kind of fish that all skilled fishermen would go out and try to catch.

The eyes were black, the fins were taut, and the body surface had a wet glow.

It was fresh.

“I was off duty yesterday, so I was out fishing in the far seas. I was quick to get a bite, but because of the weight, it took me five hours of desperate struggle to catch it. I apologize to you all for being a little late to the occasion.”

“Elma… you…”

From the onset, they were blasted out of the atmosphere, leaving everyone at a loss for words.

But Juliana seemed to be in a state of euphoria.

‘That was not a reason to get excited.’

Lucas wanted to say to his mother.

Despite the greatly slowed down surroundings, the taciturn maidservant proceeded with her preparations in a nonchalant manner.

After rolling the tuna onto the cooking table with a dull thud, she plucked up the hem of her maid’s uniform and bowed her head daintily.

“Elma, the maid of honor. It is my pleasure to pay tribute to Chef Georges Ramadier, who has given me the honor of serving you with these heartfelt creations. May the taste buds of the nobility be satisfied.”

“Kye, you are forgiven. I’ll be looking forward to your loyalty and skill. ……!”

“…… to put safety first.”

They couldn’t help but notice that Lucas’s words were bleeding his true thoughts.

“I’m not kidding…”

Georges, who had been watching the series of exchanges, was stunned as expected.

“In my 30 years as a chef, I’ve never seen a giant tuna like that. …But I see. If it’s a fish, as long as it’s fresh, you can serve it as is, and it’ll be “delicious.” He thought.

In Luden and Montaigne, fish were not served as sashimi, but dishes like marinades and carpaccio dressed in vinegar or oil were preferred. It would be delicious just lightly seared and sprinkled with salt.

With a fish that big, it was easy to redo it if things go wrong, and to use only the best parts of the fish from such a large body was a pretty impressive performance.

(……)

But he was not going to lose, either.

He wasn’t good at power struggles, but cooking was what he was good at.

He was no stranger to the gourmet world of Montaigne, where he had wowed nobility.

Georges fixed his chef’s hat, got fired up, and began to cook.

As befits the early summer, he was making a cold potato soup.

Potatoes were the national dish of Luden.

He intended to show the people Luden, who can only eat them by steaming them, the true essence of Montaigne’s culinary culture.

Two types of pre-selected onions were sautéed in a generous amount of butter, and then evenly sliced potato pieces were added next.

He used a heating method that brought out the ingredients’ sweetness without burning them, a secret broth that slowly deepened with chicken and savory vegetables—finally a top-quality sherry as a secret ingredient.

All of these techniques and flavors were of the highest caliber and could only be achieved through his extensive experience he gained in Montaigne.

The gallery gasped at the brilliance of the handiwork and the faint scent that had begun to tickle their appetite.

–But it was short-lived.

“Over there, the brown vest-clad clown. And then there’s the guard with the brand new breastplate. Yes, that’s you. Could you please move a little further to the right? It’s not safe.”

People shouted in bewilderment at the mysterious command that was unleashed from the kitchen to the left.

There was a long distance between the cooking area and the audience.

As soon as they moved from place to place, dubiously consumed by the strange power emanating from the maid, it happened.

“Then we’ll take it apart.”

–Zen!

The moment Elma pushed up the bridge of her glasses and raised her large-bladed knife – more like a sword – a tremendous wind arose!

“Yikes!”

The wind ruffled the women’s clothes and furiously rustled the hair on the men’s heads. Some of them turned into streaks and cracked the cobblestones.

Behind Elma, the water from the fountain that should have been reaching straight up into the sky collapsed as if it had been cut by a sword.

A moment later, Zabaah! and the surroundings fell silent in exchange for the water falling.

“What happened to…?”

Bishu! But Elma’s knife work was so fast that they couldn’t even tell if it was the sound of the blade being raised or the wind roaring.

But instead of saying that she was going to dismantle it, the tuna was lying in front of Elma with its head and body connected.

People let out a murmur of bewilderment.

“Hey, Lucas? Did Elma, well, I mean, did she just create the wind? The fish appears to be intact.”

“No, that was probably – the blade lines were so sharp that the tuna didn’t even know it was cut.”

“Oh, my God!”

Shocked, Juliana’s mother tongue slipped out of her mouth.

But Lucas had been right in his assessment and after a moment

–Gura……

It was as if the tuna was remembering the passage of time and was shifting its shape.

Lucas blinked, and in the next moment, the tuna was divided into head and body, bones, organs, and flesh, beautifully arranged in block shapes.

”What is this!”

Juliana’s shout, oddly enough, spoke for all the people present.

However, Elma’s momentum did not stop there.

In a huge mixing bowl, she blended flour, milk, oil, and salt, kneaded them together in a blindingly fast motion, and rolled them into crusts one by one.

It was so quick that the spuds came out of her hands! The bread balls that popped out of the mixing bowl looked like bullets flying out of the barrel of a gun, one after another.

She also chopped up the cabbage at inhuman speed, sprinkled it with salt and lemon to soften it, and crushed the hard bread into fine crumbs.

When things are crushed in an instant, it’s not a “gurgle” or something like that; it’s a “juju” sound……! This was when mankind learned that the sound of the “I’m going to have to do this” had been invented.

She then cut the tuna into fist-sized pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped them in the flour and egg mixture, and sprinkled them with the earlier breadcrumbs.

When they saw the oil start to heat up in a huge pot that looked like a hellish cauldron, people finally understood.

Fried tuna–!

Bye! In a single sweep of her arm, she threw in a large number of tuna and fried them while she was busy mashing eggs and dousing them in a whitish sauce made of egg and vinegar.

Simultaneously, she was baking what appeared to be a large quantity of bread on a rolled iron plate.

“What’s that? It’s pretty flat for a loaf of bread.”

“That’s naan. I read in a book that it’s a type of bread widely consumed on the southern continent.”

Lucas’s question was answered by Juliana, who was well versed in endemic history.

Unintentionally, only Gerda and Irene, who were waiting nearby, noticed that the conversation had become a pun, and both of them quietly fell on their faces.

Editor: I have no idea what pun they are talking about… To learn Japanese and support the author to find out.

In the meantime, the tuna was finished being fried.

Lucas thought that she was going to scoop it out of the oil, but at the same time, the naan seemed to have been finished baking as well.

If you prioritize one, the other will be burnt in the meantime.

Now, what to do–

That was no longer cooking.

Nearly a hundred people present gasped as if they were watching a game or something.

But the bespectacled maid made another unexpected move here.

Holding the big knife in one hand while clutching a saber in the other—she leaned forward, crossed them quietly in front of her chest.

In the next moment.

“Ha!”

With a dignified shout, she whirled around.

A black maid’s outfit, a white apron, fluttered, leaving an afterimage behind.

Simultaneously, the crispy fried tuna and the browned and grilled naan danced in the air as if they were blown upwards by the wind.

“The flew up at the same time–?”

The gallery was a daze.

Beyond their line of sight, Fis and naan, whose weight and trajectory was perfectly calculated, lined up nicely at a certain place in the air.

‘There.’

–Zen!

“Fish and naan, torn through in one fell swoop ……!”

The saber roared and whirled, slicing every object that floated in the air in half.

Food. Immediate. Cut.

That was too brilliant a move.

What was more, the girl quickly threw down her spatula, grabbed a large spoon instead, scooped up the chopped cabbage, and “threw” it at the naan as it began to fall.

The chunks of cabbage, which had been struck with tremendous speed, covered with wind pressure, cracked open the cross-section of the naan into a bag-like shape.

Then, as if to say that it had found a safe haven, it behaved itself and settled into the Nan.

And then the fish, which the girl had struck with her saber-like a baseball bat, jumped into the air in pursuit.

“Silly…!”

In the blink of an eye, a fried tuna and chopped cabbage naan sandwich were being formed.

Only Lucas, with his excellent kinetic vision, understood the process and cleared his throat in astonishment.

Abnormal physical strength.

The swordsmanship displayed was too brilliant.

The ability to cut even a single strand of hair.

It was a skill reminiscent of the legendary madman who once wiped out an army of 1,000 men by himself.

“This is the girl I want.”

As someone who had been in the Order and sometimes led it, Lucas couldn’t help but snicker.

This was the first time he had ever craved a woman, not just sexually, but from a professional perspective.

Despite the excitement and heat of the surroundings, Elma slams a “bullet” of tartar sauce this time, just in time for Nan to fall.

–And pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!

With a distinctive sound, she quickly unfolded a clean cloth to catch the sandwiches as they fell in unison this time, making sure that the tartar sauce didn’t overload and settled in the center of the nan sandwich.

“There…”

Finally, the sandwiches were laid out on the countertop with a quietness that makes it hard to believe what occurred during the previous onslaught.

“It is done.”

The maid took the naan, which was still giving off steam, as she pushed up the bridge of her glasses.

“Oh….”

Someone gulped and cleared their throat.

It was too brilliant a skill.

It was a beautiful product.

And – obviously – it’s enough for about a hundred people.

The gallery, who had been focusing only on the girl’s unusual cooking process all along, suddenly thought.

Could it be?

This amount of food, even though it was intended for noble people…

“Their Royal Highnesses Prince Juliana and Prince Lucas, and all those present here today. –I hope you will enjoy them, one for each of you.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

As soon as Elma bowed, the servants all raised their fists in unison and roared in excitement.