I Will Stop This Crazy Vegetarianism(2)

The sound of footsteps reaching my ears.

Not the sound of students rushing in droves, but the restrained footsteps of about a dozen people; I abruptly stopped my hands that were cooking.

“Looks like they’ve finally arrived.”

Focusing my ears, I hear Mira walking in through the door exclusively for professors, explaining about the cafeteria.

Just in case, but wondering if it might not be, I checked outside from under the waiting board and clearly saw the group of observers.

Only then did I speak to Myu, who was cooking with Isolde and Morgan tethered behind her.

“Myu, I’m going to go greet those observers, so stay here. And you two pigs, if you get caught secretly eating ingredients, you’re dead.”

“Yes, Mother. Leave it to me!”

Myu, looking exactly like me as Yeonhwa, responded with a fighting spirit.

I smiled at her and opened the booth door to step out. The voices of the two who I had called pigs were making a fuss behind me, but it wasn’t something to worry about much.

Creak──

“So everyone, today in this cafeteria… Oh.”

As I opened the booth door and came out into the cafeteria, Mira’s ongoing words stopped, and the gazes of the observer group focused on me.

The students outside were just starting to enter the cafeteria, and inside the cafeteria, there were only Riana, Shati, and Pina eating at a table in the corner, so the observers’ gazes were monopolized by me.

And I, without being flustered by the gazes gathered on me, took off the chef’s hat I was wearing, held it in one hand, and lightly bowed at the waist.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Yeonhwa, the chef in charge of the observers’ meals today.”

As Yeonhwa’s body wasn’t accustomed to being polite, it twitched a few times, but fortunately, this awkwardness of mine was covered up by Mira intervening in between.

“This is Yeonhwa-san, who can be called our academy’s best chef. I can proudly say her cooking skills are the pinnacle of the Puhara Kingdom, so please order whatever food you desire. Now, to the tables over there.”

Mira naturally stepped in front of me and gave additional introductions about me. Then Mira pointed to the tables prepared in advance for the observers and guided them.

The observers started to sit at the tables, chatting pleasantly, as Mira guided them to the tables set with cutlery and menus.

“As expected of Lua Academy. They’ve paid attention to even each individual cafeteria table.”

“And to think a chef the principal boasts about like that will be in charge of our cooking, I’m looking forward to it.”

“Shall we all sit down quickly? I’m feeling quite hungry after having such a good show after a long time.”

Chirping incessantly like sparrows, the observers filled the seats from the inside in order, and as if their throats were dry, they took a sip of the water placed on the table and picked up their menus.

The menu probably only had unfamiliar dishes written on it, as it was my cooking, but I had attached pictures and explanations next to them in advance for that reason, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

“These all look delicious.”

“Oh, to think there were such dishes.”

“Hmm…”

As expected, they seemed to be seeing the dishes for the first time, but thanks to the pictures, there didn’t seem to be any problem understanding as no unnecessary questions came.

And as I was standing with my hands behind my back waiting for the observers’ orders, Mira suddenly approached quietly beside me and whispered.

“Is the food preparation going well? After all, since all the classes they observed were flashy, if it’s not properly prepared…”

“Don’t worry. The preparation is perfect.”

I answered without hesitation to Mira, who was asking while rubbing her solar plexus as if her stomach hurt from the previous and the class before that.

The food preparation is perfect. From the start, as long as it was Yeonhwa’s body, there wasn’t even a worry that the cooking might go wrong, so there couldn’t be any problems.

At my confident answer, Mira finally seemed to feel relieved and let out a sigh of relief.

I glanced once at Mira like that, once at the observers who were still looking at the menu and pondering, and then slightly turned my eyes to look at the other students entering the cafeteria like a tide.

‘With Isolde and Morgan there, there shouldn’t be any problems, right?’

While I was standing here, students gradually entered the cafeteria and came to buy meal tickets for my booth and place orders in order.

Although I couldn’t show that there were two Yeonhwas, including me and Myu, so I couldn’t cook right away, it should be fine since Isolde and Morgan would take orders instead.

But since they were still unreliable except in battle, I turned only my eyeballs to look towards the booth, worrying inwardly in case they made a mistake, and I could finally feel relieved at the scene I saw when a student with a meal ticket placed an order.

“I’d like one honey cube steak hamburger please.”

“Yeah? Got it.”

“Huh? Wait, Assistant Morgan? Why are you here?”

“Right now, Yeonhwa is over there taking care of the observers. So I’m taking orders instead. Since Yeonhwa is over there, it’ll take some time for the food to come out, so could you tell the other kids too?”

“Ah, I see. Okay! I’ll let them know.”

Perhaps because she had seen me and Myu taking orders usually, Morgan was quite skillfully taking orders and even answering questions from students who were curious.

At her handling of the situation that was unthinkable for the Morgan who used to despise humans in the past, I shed tears of emotion inwardly while sweating coldly, and couldn’t take my eyes off the back of the student running to deliver the news to other students who were about to order.

‘I really educated them well.’

I had worked hard to educate, monitor, and personally set an example in case they might cause murders in the human realm, but to think it would have this much effect.

Who wouldn’t shed tears when all the effort so far has borne such excellent fruit? Surely, anyone who didn’t shed tears here must be someone who’s not even human, with dried-up emotions.

However, this moment of emotion was soon to be shattered by the voice of one person.

“You said your name was Yeonhwa-san, right?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Is there something you wanted to say?”

When I turned my gaze at the voice calling me, I saw Rimia with her head slightly tilted, holding a menu.

And when I looked at her, Rimia showed me the menu she was holding and asked:

“The foods shown here. Most of them look like meat dishes, but are there any dishes made only with vegetables or grains?”

“Huh? Why such dishes?”

“Well, in our elf race, consuming meat is strictly taboo. So elves don’t eat meat.”

At Rimia’s words asking for dishes made only with vegetables and grains, not meat dishes, which could sound like a difficult customer if viewed in a certain way, when I asked for the reason, Rimia simply answered with the word elf race.

In the elf race, consuming meat is taboo.

And I couldn’t help but express doubt at these words of Rimia.

“But Riana eats meat dishes just fine…?”

After all, Riana, who is an elf like Rimia, ate meat dishes without any problem.

The story that elves only eat vegetables was written in many books from the previous world, but it wasn’t particularly specified in the settings of Hyeong-hyeong-saek, and Riana, who is an elf, ate meat dishes without any problem.

Moreover, Riana liked meat so much that meat dishes were the main part of her usual diet, and even today she had ordered a meat dish. But elves are vegetarians?

That’s why I expressed doubt about Rimia’s words, and.

“…What did you say?”

Only Rimia’s chilling question froze the air in the cafeteria.

This might be a big problem?

---

Riana was now seriously contemplating life and death for the first time in her life.

The contemplation had started from the moment her mother, Rimia, entered the cafeteria. And the content of the contemplation was whether she should throw this tteokgalbi she was eating in the trash and run away or not.

‘If I think about it simply, running away is the right thing to do, but…’

In fact, if she were to draw a conclusion, running away unconditionally would be the right thing to do.

As an elf, if she were caught by her mother, the queen of elves, for eating meat, it might not end with just being scolded.

But even if she were to run away, the place to throw away food was near the back door where Rimia was, and it was impossible to go out through the front door as students were pouring in like water.

Moreover, the cafeteria only had ventilation fans and no windows, so the possibility of sneaking away was close to 0.

In other words, the only path left for Riana was to sit still and wait for her death.

“…I can’t do that.”

But of course, who would sit still and die just because someone told them to sit still and die?

Riana began to turn her head at a speed she had never experienced before, and.

-…What did you say?

The moment she heard her mother Rimia’s voice overflowing with killing intent from far behind her, she came to a conclusion.

The only conclusion that could break through this situation and the final option that Riana newly discovered.

That was.

“To Mother…”

She must feed her meat.

Riana’s eyes shone with determination.