The Returned Holiday.
Dayton let out a sigh and shook his head.
“It feels cramped now that you all are in.”
“What are you talking about? I’m not even fat!”
Sorbi, who was brushing Luke’s hair, complained as if she heard something she shouldn’t have.
Dayton waved his hand dismissively, saying that’s not what he meant.
“Luke, what do you think?”
In response to Sorbi’s question, Luke replied.
“Certainly, it does feel cramped now that everyone is here.”
“Luke, even you…!”
Luke spoke quickly, as if to reassure the sulking Sorbi, who looked betrayed.
“No, this is just about how Dayton’s house is small, so don’t be shocked.”
“Is that so?”
Sorbi sighed and muttered, “Well, gaining about 1kg isn’t that much anyway,” but decided to ignore it.
“Stop criticizing my house, girls.”
Luke, Sorbi, and Kirke had gathered at Dayton’s house for Luke’s cooking.
This was because Yerna’s house didn’t even have a proper environment for cooking.
In fact, Yerna hadn’t even thought about trying to cook anything worthy of the name, and even when trying to follow a recipe by herself, the vague expressions in the book left Luke utterly confused, making it impossible for her to do it alone.
Tablespoons, teaspoons, simmering, boiling…
Luke couldn’t grasp what these vague terms meant.
The size of a spoon isn’t even standardized internationally, so he had no idea why they were being used as units.
What temperature constitutes simmering, and what temperature is boiling?
Was it a problem that the recipes were written for the level of a child?
Because of that, the recipes were filled with metaphorical sentences that wouldn’t pose a problem even for a “child,” making it incredibly hard for Luke to understand those without specific measurements.
That’s why the existence of a ‘cooking teacher’ was necessary.
“Alright, all set! Go cook!”
“Thanks, Sorbi.”
Luke expressed his gratitude to Sorbi, who had tied his hair back to avoid getting in the way while cooking.
While he could tie it himself, he never had to deal with the horns that got in the way of moving his hands behind his head, so he had to rely on Sorbi’s help.
It must have been a bothersome task, but Sorbi smiled and said casually.
“Thank you! Now, call me sister!”
“…I’ll pass, I heard that enough last time.”
Luke recalled the incident from the day he received a gift of a cellphone.
He was almost ashamed to know that every Forest Keeper had heard that embarrassing phrase at least once.
There was no way he could say it again while sober.
Luke moved slightly away from Sorbi, as if to escape, and approached Dayton.
“Ahem, I’m ready. Dayton.”
“Good. Wear this.”
Dayton handed Luke an apron.
It was a child’s apron.
“Is this Diana’s?”
“Yeah. She sometimes helps with meal preparation too.”
Luke looked at Diana in surprise, who was nestled in Kirke’s arms, smiling brightly.
Is that little girl already helping with meals? That’s quite impressive.
On another note, he felt more confident thinking that if a little kid can cook, there’s no way he couldn’t.
Finally, after tying the apron, Luke looked up at Dayton and said.
“I’m all dressed. Now let’s make some food.”
Dayton checked to see if Luke had properly put on the apron, then exhaled, saying,
“As I mentioned last time, seafood cream pasta is a no-go.”
“Why not?”
Luke couldn’t hide his disappointment, expressing how much he wanted to try making it.
However, Dayton shook his head firmly, as if not budging an inch.
“It’s too difficult a dish for you to handle. Seafood is too tricky for a novice like you.”
Making seafood cream pasta as a first attempt? That’s quite ambitious.
When told to stick to something manageable, seafood cream pasta is crossing the line.
“But it was really delicious…”
“Hey, you asked for something you could do, right?”
“….”
He had no response to that.
Well, it was true that he was a beginner at cooking.
In the old days when the three of them went on adventures to fend against the enemy, Luke was merely a Flintstone.
Renie was good at cooking, and Kail excelled at preparation.
Thus, Luke had little to do except starting fires with magic.
Looking back, becoming an 8th Circle Mage and being reduced to just starting fires was somewhat astounding for a final adventure.
‘There was no support in the Demon Realm, and only 8th Circle Mages could create fire in such an environment…’
Due to the severely altered mana and dimensions, it was a situation fundamentally different from the material plane where humans lived, making it challenging to use magic.
How many trial and errors were needed to mentally calculate completely different constellations and planetary arrangements?
As a side note, Luke discovered the formulas for spatial coordinates based on his experiences back then.
However, the book he compiled met with lukewarm reactions at the Mage Tower.
Not because it was wrong, but because the others couldn’t comprehend the theory.
It would take 300 years for it to be officially recognized as ‘correct’, but even now, that theory and concept firmly remains at the core of modern magic, despite many enhancements over time.
However, at that moment, Luke appeared to genuinely feel disappointed about not being able to eat the pasta.
He really seemed to want that seafood cream pasta.
Dayton tried to soothe Luke, saying,
“Still, you like meat, right? Right?”
At the mention of meat, Luke’s ears perked up.
If that could make a sound, it would be something like a twitch.
“Of course.”
Meat, which requires a chewing motion, was something the past Luke would have disliked, but now it was different.
His well-formed set of teeth allowed him to enjoy chewing without any discomfort.
When young, he didn’t realize how natural it was, but having lost it once made it stand out painfully.
Thus, there was no reason to dislike the sensation of chewing something.
Luke was just happy to chew.
The taste would be the best.
Looking at Dayton with eager eyes, he heard Dayton clear his throat.
“So today, we’re going to make Roast Beef.”
“Roasted beef, huh?”
Oven-roasted meat.
It was quite simple, really.
Well, since it’s roasted in the oven, it wouldn’t be hard to do even in Yerna’s house.
There aren’t any cooking tools for starting fires, but there is an oven in Yerna’s house.
However, since Yerna stubbornly only relied on raw ingredients out of laziness, the oven was pretty much unused.
So for now, it serves mostly as a storage cabinet.
“Right. Anything left over can go into sandwiches. You should have plenty of vegetables at Yerna’s place, right?”
“That’s right. It’s all vegetables.”
“What about those canned goods?”
Dayton remarked with slight annoyance.
“Of course… Ah, they recently changed the flavor. That slightly spicy one is really delicious!”
Dayton shivered a bit.
Still, it’s just canned food.
Better not expect breakfast after getting married, huh?
Dayton thought, ‘Well, it doesn’t really matter, I can do it myself,’ and handed Luke vegetables like potatoes and carrots.
“Do you have things like these at home?”
“Of course. They’re packed in a box.”
“Then we won’t have to worry about this. Oh, and later, I’ll teach you how to buy meat.”
“Wow, thank you! That would be a huge help.”
“Right?”
Luke smiled back at Dayton, who whispered, ‘So, you have to talk well about me to Yerna.’
He had never spoken ill of anyone so far.
Of course, he hadn’t said anything good either.
“Of course.”
However, starting today, he thought he might add a bit of help to Dayton.
“You must be sad that Yerna isn’t here, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Dayton slightly closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
Well, it was impolite to call Yerna for cooking meat, and one of the Forest Keepers had to keep watch, so that’s why Yerna wasn’t here.
That’s right.
Kirke and Sorbi were here as her substitutes.
“Anyway. What you need to do now is peel these potatoes and carrots.”
“Leave it to me.”
Peeling wasn’t hard at all.
Receiving the potatoes and carrots, Luke immediately took out a knife.
It appeared to be an ordinary kitchen knife.
‘Wow, this is quite sharp and sturdy. No basic blessings or enchantments, and yet it has this level of quality.’
For a simple household knife to have this kind of strength, Luke had knowledge of swords.
In the past noble society, swordsmanship was a basis of culture, and Luke was a Mage at the forefront of warfare.
Naturally, his swordsmanship could meet with a fair Swordmaster.
The sound of slicing was rather intimidating.
With this sharpness and strength, there wouldn’t be anything he couldn’t slice in the kitchen.
If he used a bit of magic, he could easily harm something too…
“Hey, put that knife down; that one’s what you’ll be using.”
Dayton held out a small vegetable peeler to Luke.
Right, it was designed to only peel things.
“What is this?”
Upon receiving the peeler, Luke tilted his head slightly at its strange shape.
“Oh, you don’t know how to use it?”
“That’s right.”
“Here, let me show you how.”
Dayton wrapped his hand around Luke’s and skillfully peeled the potato.
Luke found the sensation quite novel and fun.
That was a sensation you couldn’t get with a knife.
“Oh! This is quite interesting!”
It was very safe since the blade wasn’t exposed.
Whoever designed this was undeniably a remarkable person.
“How about it, you think you can do it?”
“Of course!”
As Luke began enthusiastically peeling with the vegetable peeler, Dayton wiped his sweat, letting out a sigh of relief.
If Luke got hurt, it would be him who’d get scolded by Yerna.
——–
Seasoned and roasted with the vegetables, the roast beef was incredibly delicious.
“You made this, Luke? This is really good!”
Sorbi exclaimed with surprise while devouring the meat.
Dayton shook his head and replied.
“No, this is actually made by me. I thought I should show Luke an example.”
“He’s right. All I did was peel the skin off the potatoes and carrots; Dayton did the rest.”
This left Sorbi appearing extremely disappointed.
“Oh.”
“Why?”
“I thought it was all Luke’s work, so I said it was delicious. Now it sounds like a compliment to you. No wonder it tasted so good.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult? Make up your mind.”
Even as he said this, Dayton folded his arms, trying to look shy while averting his gaze.
“It’s tasty. So, Luke, what do you think?”
“….”
Luke almost forgot table manners and exclaimed how good it was.
The taste of the hot, freshly roasted beef that he blew on to cool and cut into his mouth was something you couldn’t possibly experience in school meals.
Seeing Luke chewing silently, Kirke remarked.
“Looks like it really does taste good.”
“Right! Whatever my brother makes is always delicious!”
Diana smiled brightly and gave a thumbs up to Dayton.
Luke nodded, sending a glance at Dayton, who then glanced down at them, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.
“Yeah, but you guys aren’t leaving anything for me.”
Dayton noted that there wasn’t enough room for him to sit at the dining table in the living room, where the roast beef was almost entirely gone.
At his slightly exasperated comment, Sorbi replied nonchalantly.
“But you can always eat this kind of thing anytime.”
“I don’t do it every day.”
Diana chimed in, agreeing with that statement.
Her brother doesn’t do it every day.
Then Kirke suddenly mentioned.
“But if we’re going to eat what Luke makes later, we should stop here.”
“You’ve already eaten everything, haven’t you?”
“Hmph.”
Dayton cleared the now-empty dishes and said to Luke,
“Anyway, see? Got it? Let’s make it next.”
“Alright, please guide me well!”
It was indeed very delicious.
If he could learn to make such things, wouldn’t that be quite welcome?
——-
“…Why on earth is this burnt? Is the oven broken?”
“….”
Was it a problem due to adjusting the heat in a rush because he was eager to eat?
He had thought the fire control of circle magic was perfect…
Yet it burned like this.
‘I wonder if I adjusted the fire based on the demon realm’s conditions.’
Since those creatures inherently have high resistance to magic, it was natural that controlling it that way wouldn’t work.
Why couldn’t he think of that?
-….
Even Py, seeing this, seemed at a loss for words.
Luke, suppressing his embarrassment, raised his voice intentionally.
“Everyone makes mistakes the first time! Now, let’s prepare the next one.”
“Are we not showing this to anyone else?”
“That’s a secret between you and me… So, please do finish it?”
“Are you serving leftovers… Alright, I got it.”
There was no way he could present this to guests.
After Dayton trimmed away the burnt parts, he grumbled but ended up eating it all.
Since what Luke had made was quite a small portion, removing the burnt sections left almost nothing to eat.
But how did it even get burnt like that?
Well, at least the cooked parts tasted fine since it was still meat.
Eventually, the roast beef made later was quite good and tasty.
“Indeed, patience is a virtue.”
“What did you say?”
“Oh, it was nothing.”
From now on, Luke vowed never to use magic while cooking again.
