Ch.59Ruide’s Cooking Class (1)

# Ruide looked surprised that more people than expected had stayed behind.

‘Did they think they’d get more points if they stayed?’

“I’m not giving any more points.”

Ruide said this just to be safe.

“Are you trying to twist things and drive us out that way?”

Damon crossed his arms and spoke with contempt.

“I’m not lying. If you leave now, you get 10 points, but if you stay, you only get 3 points. I don’t plan to give any more after this either.”

Ruide spoke while focusing intently on Damon, who didn’t budge, but several others stood up and bowed their heads.

Ruide nodded, thinking this was sufficient. He looked around the classroom.

‘There’s Hersy, my sister, Damon… and Sophia too. Aren’t she and Hersy on bad terms?’

Setting that aside, something was bothering Ruide.

‘Why are there so many people from the Swordsmanship Club still here?’

About 20 people remained, and more than 10 of them were from the Swordsmanship Club.

While they had initially attended because of Amelia, staying was their own choice. They were genuinely interested in Ruide’s cooking class.

Given a knight’s frequent need to camp outdoors, cooking was a valuable survival skill worth learning!

Unaware of this, Ruide gave Amelia a disgruntled look. Amelia looked back at him with clear eyes and raised her hand.

“Professor, how will the class be conducted?”

“…As I said earlier, we’ll be cooking. But it will be a bit different from ordinary cooking.”

Ruide spread his hands.

The board popped out three-dimensionally.

The students quietly gasped in amazement.

The magic board was an artifact belonging to the 2nd Magic.

Yet Ruide, with a simple gesture, transformed it from 2nd Magic to 3rd Magic, turning something two-dimensional into three-dimensional.

It looked more impressive than any hierarchical magic.

“We’ll be cooking differently from conventional wisdom.”

The three-dimensional board displayed various shapes like a hologram.

Pigs, cows, various vegetables.

Some were familiar, but others looked strange, making people wonder if they were even edible.

“We’ll be using new ingredients-“

Ruide spoke while subtly watching Amelia’s reaction.

“And we’ll be using new recipes. Of course, the use of detoxification magic is strictly prohibited.”

Ruide enjoyed eating.

Isn’t it one of the three elements of happiness?

But in this world, food culture hadn’t developed properly because of that cursed detoxification magic.

The situation for commoners seemed slightly better, but it was still much the same. They barely went beyond sprinkling some salt on their food.

Doing it himself would be troublesome.

Even if he could manage the cooking, where would he get the ingredients?

In other words, this class was going to be used to fulfill his completely selfish desires.

For that purpose, eliminating detoxification magic was essential.

Of course, there was immediate pushback.

“Not using detoxification magic?”

‘So that’s why you came, you villain.’

Ruide narrowed his eyes at Amelia’s ominous, nagging expression.

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous, Professor Ruide?”

Amelia smiled sweetly. But Ruide could read the “Do you want to die?” sentiment hidden behind that smile.

…It was quite a common occurrence. Since his time at Windsor Castle, Ruide had wanted to eat food without detoxification magic, and Amelia had consistently interfered.

“That’s why there’s a prerequisite. Of course, ingredients without detoxification magic are dangerous. The world might even end.”

Persuasion begins with acknowledgment. But Ruide couldn’t resist mocking his older sister.

“It seems you finally understand what I’ve been saying. That’s right. If my brother catches even a cold, someone must be punished. It’s only natural that humanity would bear that punishment.”

Amelia smiled with satisfaction.

Ruide briefly pondered what to do with this pure fool.

“That’s why we’ll gather the ingredients ourselves.”

“…?”

“Nobles can trust each other, right? Surely you wouldn’t bring just anything for your brother to eat.”

Ruide had trapped Amelia.

If she refused, she would be a sister who couldn’t trust her brother; if she agreed, she would be a fool who couldn’t understand things the first time.

Naturally, Amelia, a severe brother-complex sufferer, wouldn’t choose the former.

“…Well, that’s true.”

“Yes. That’s why I only invited nobles. Because nobles trust nobles.”

“Oh…”

The nobles in the room immediately understood.

Detoxification magic was like “cooking” in modern terms.

Since primitive times, humans learned through experience that they would get sick if they didn’t cook their food, so they used fire.

In this world, that was simply replaced with magic.

As a result, eating something without detoxification magic in this world was treated similarly to chewing raw meat.

Ruide’s solution wasn’t “We don’t need detoxification magic!” but rather “Can’t you trust fellow nobles?” to draw attention away from the issue.

“Indeed, if the person who obtained the ingredients is a noble, there’s no need for detoxification magic.”

“That makes sense.”

As a result, people accepted it without much resistance.

‘That’s a relief.’

“Now I’ll tell you what ingredients you need to bring for the next class.”

Ruide displayed each ingredient and explained its characteristics.

What started as a comfortable atmosphere gradually turned to bewilderment as the number of ingredients increased.

“W-wait a moment.”

Hersy raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“…What is cabbage?”

“It looks like this.”

Ruide pointed to a model shaped like cabbage.

Of course, Hersy wasn’t asking about its appearance.

“Where can we find it…?”

Ruide answered as if it were an obvious question.

“You’ll have to figure that out yourselves.”

**

“This is what we can find in the market.”

The students of “Ruide’s Cooking Class” were in a meeting.

Among them, Hersy played an excellent role.

“I used Minerva’s resources to find these. You can trust me. We can’t find anything more in the market.”

“You’ve worked hard, Hersy.”

Amelia smiled brightly at Hersy, who blushed.

“It’s… nothing.”

“Leave the rest to us. Finding and acquiring things is a knight’s duty.”

“My sister is an idiot.”

“……”

Ruide cut her off abruptly.

He was sitting in the corner with a baguette in his mouth.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for a professor to attend student meetings.”

Amelia spoke primly.

“Class is over. And it’s more inappropriate for the Swordsmanship Club to visit the Magic Department’s main building.”

He was truly a cheeky brother who never backed down. The corner of Amelia’s mouth twitched slightly.

‘It would be troublesome if they came to the wrong place.’

Ruide wasn’t a bad professor who would tell them to find things without giving any information.

“Ask if you don’t know something.”

Hersy looked at the troubled students and spoke carefully.

“…Ruide. Shouldn’t there be some professorial authority?”

“I’ll do what I want.”

Ruide stated proudly.

Without any excuses, that fundamental statement somehow made sense.

“As I said earlier, we’ll do this freely. No one should feel stressed.”

After saying this, Ruide put the baguette back in his mouth. It was so hard that he needed to keep it in his mouth for 10 minutes before he could eat it.

“Really, you’re impossible.”

Amelia sighed softly and patted Ruide’s head.

She had attended the class to make sure no one disrespected Ruide, but it seemed he didn’t want that kind of thing.

“Let’s gather the ingredients first.”

Hersy said in a bright voice.

“What’s left are rice cakes, fish cakes, red pepper powder, and fish sauce.”

For reference, these were all things they had never seen or heard of before.

Honestly, it was quite overwhelming.

“The others are one thing, but I’m not sure how to get fish sauce.”

Ruide had revealed the general composition and shape of the ingredients.

But fish sauce was only described as a black liquid. There were no clues.

“I’ll make that for you.”

Ruide said confidently.

‘I’ll figure something out through experimentation.’

He didn’t know how to make fish sauce.

But Ruide believed in his genius brain.

If he locked himself in the workshop and tried alchemy, wouldn’t he come up with something similar?

“Since rice cakes are made by shaping flour…”

“Oh, I think I can get that.”

Gilbert spoke up.

He was from the empire’s frontier.

“In Garin Territory, flour is a staple food. I don’t know much since I’ve only trained with the sword, but there are a few people from the same territory here on the island, so I’ll ask them.”

The empire’s land mass was truly vast.

As a result, food cultures varied greatly depending on the region.

Hersy smiled gently.

“That’s good. We just need to find fish cakes and red pepper powder.”

The procurement of ingredients, which had seemed impossible, was gradually coming together.

Ruide’s eyes lit up.

‘Finally, I can eat tteokbokki.’

And that wasn’t all!

He felt extremely happy thinking that from now on, he could just ask them to get whatever he wanted to eat.

“Ruide, what exactly is a fish cake?”

“It’s made the same way as rice cakes. But with fish meat added.”

“If it’s fish, the Swordsmanship Club will catch it.”

Amelia said confidently.

“Catching fish can be good training.”

“Captain, is this another competition?”

“That’s right, Rai. Let’s have a proper match this time.”

“Good. Let’s dry up all the fish in the island.”

“…I don’t think we need that many.”

“There’s nothing bad about having too much, Lady Hersy. Don’t worry about the fish cakes.”

“Now all that’s left is… red pepper powder. The method to make it is simple.”

Hersy looked at the paper where she had noted the possible sources for various ingredients.

Most were outrageous, but this red pepper powder was even more so.

“Tears of Pianence… Ruide, is this really edible?”

“Yes.”

“…This is a torture device used to make spies from other kingdoms talk. You’re saying we should grind this and use it in cooking?”

Ruide replied with a blank face.

“Hersy, don’t you trust me?”

Hersy waved her hands in embarrassment.

“N-no, that’s not it at all. …Alright. I just need to get it, right?”

But the “Tears of Pianence” was an extremely difficult ingredient to obtain.

It was a legendary poisonous herb said to make anyone talk when fed to them.

Reportedly, the moment you eat it, you feel an eternal burning pain in your throat.

Hersy wondered where Ruide had acquired this knowledge.

A woman who tries to know too much loses her charm. Hersy decided to find a way to get it somehow.

“Hmm, since we need to grind it, we’ll probably need quite a lot.”

“I’ll provide enough gold coins.”

“Oh, no. The Tears of Pianence are banned from distribution. To get them, we’d probably need to inquire with the imperial family… the imperial family?”

Hersy blinked.

Come to think of it, there was someone from the imperial family right here.

Damon. Hersy looked for him.

But Damon was nowhere to be seen.

“Speaking of which… where is Damon?”

**

“As expected, my rival is no pushover. However, it would be a mistake to think I couldn’t even procure this.”

Damon crossed his arms and looked at the huge carriage with an arrogant face.

He had just cleaned out the imperial treasury of all the “Tears of Pianence.”

Emperor Lucius would surely be furious, but that didn’t matter.

“Y-young master…! What is all this?”

“It’s called red pepper powder, commoner.”

Damon’s red eyes stared at the magical device.

“Now, let’s begin-“

Whirrrrr!

With the sound of a massive magical engine, the peppers began to be ground at high speed.

Soon after, red powder began to fall.

“Hurry and collect it! It’s a heavenly ingredient! Each particle is worth more than your lives-!”

“Yes!”

The imperial servants diligently filled sacks with the powder.

The powder flew through the air, making them cough.

“Ugh, my eyes are burning.”

“Cough, cough.”

“I’m dying, I’m dying.”

Meanwhile, blood trickled from Damon’s lips.

He was desperately trying not to cough because it would be undignified.

“Achoo!”

But even Damon couldn’t overcome his instincts.