Chapter 284: Cooking Chaos

Anyway, with the team selection done, it was time to check the given ingredients and decide what to cook.

Our team gathered together, took out the treasure note with the ingredient names, and spread it open.

‘Various vegetables, beef, butter, baguette. And seasonings and spices…’

There were a few duplicate ingredients, but even so, it was incredibly abundant.

With this much, there were actually very few dishes we couldn’t make.

“I don’t know much about cooking, but this has everything we need, right, Yeppeuni?”

“…Are you doing that on purpose?”

“If you’re asking whether I specifically picked you to ask just to use the nickname ‘Yeppeuni’ one more time, then no. It’s just that you’re the only one among us who has any knowledge about cooking.”

This protagonist from another novel must be fully aware.

Explaining it this way only makes suspicion grow instead of disappearing.

In short, he’s definitely messing with me right now.

So if I lose my composure and get angry, he’ll just enjoy it even more.

I felt heat rising to my face, but I forced myself to stay calm and replied in a composed voice.

“…I’ll say it again. It’s not me who knows about cooking—it’s Yor.”

“Ah, right, that’s true. Yor, with this much, are the ingredients enough?”

The protagonist from another novel then asked the baby dragon the same question.

Yor tilted his head and let out a cat-like sound, “Yaong yaong,” nodding in agreement.

I was worried the sly protagonist from another novel would tease me by saying something like, ‘Yeppeuni, what did Yor just say?’ but…

“Then what dish can we make with these ingredients?”

Maybe my calm response dampened Reysir’s playful mood.

Unexpectedly, instead of addressing me again, Reysir continued the conversation with Yor.

「Many」

“Many…? So you mean that since all the basic ingredients are here, there are a lot of dishes we can make?”

“Yaong.”

“Then let me change the question. Can you recommend a dish that beginners like us can easily make with these ingredients?”

「Tomato Beef Stew」

As expected, my baby dragon was wise.

Stew can be made in large batches at once.

Like curry, you just prep the ingredients, throw them all into one pot, and as long as you get the seasoning right, it turns out edible.

I think it’s the most suitable dish for this situation.

“Anyone have any objections?”

Reysir asked as he glanced around at the team members.

Maybe because none of them knew how to cook, not a single person spoke up to suggest something else.

“Then since the dish is decided, let’s go get our ingredients quickly.”

Even though Reysir and Yor hadn’t talked that long, the opposing team was already showing Bjorn their treasure note and carrying the listed ingredients in baskets.

Ppret had secured nearly twenty ingredients by himself, so it seemed they had already decided what to make.

“Take just enough ingredients. It’s a hassle to deal with too much leftovers.”

As we approached, Bjorn gave us this advice.

The seasonings and spices were in set packages, so we could just grab the whole tray and use them.

But the rest of the ingredients were the problem.

“If we think one per person… nine each? No, the professor and the familiars need to eat too, so should we take twelve each?”

“Some people might not like carrots, so maybe we can take a little less.”

“Meat—everyone likes it. So, for the amount we skip on carrots, we can take more meat…”

Svein, Vigdis, and Liolikin spoke in turn.

I can let the comment about someone disliking carrots slide, but I couldn’t ignore the other two.

If we took ingredients as they said, the balance would be off, and we’d end up making an enormous amount of food that we couldn’t handle.

Not to mention wasting a lot of time prepping and simmering.

“Wouldn’t that be too much? I mean, we’re all supposed to share, but we also have to eat the other team’s cooking.”

Fortunately, the original protagonist stepped in to stop those ignorant of cooking.

However…

“So let’s cut it in half.”

That was just as bad.

I was looking at the seasonings and spices with Yor when I couldn’t help but interrupt.

“That’s still too much! Think logically. Can one person really eat an entire potato, onion, carrot, celery, tomato, bell pepper, and so on, plus meat, in a single meal? The whole concept of a single serving is wrong from the start!”

“Then… cut that in half again…?”

“It’s not just about reducing the total amount. You have to think about balance.”

“Hearing that makes it even more confusing… Can’t you just put together the right amount, Yeppeuni?”

I guess it had to come to this.

‘Liolikin and Bjorn are big, so they eat a lot. If I make exactly six servings, it might not be enough. Then maybe I should prepare seven to eight servings?’

In my past life, I mainly—no, most of the time I cooked for myself and ate alone.

But even then, to manage ingredients and avoid wasting time, I used to buy a week’s worth of groceries, prep them, and store them as meal kits.

Or I’d make large batches, portion them out, and freeze them to eat over time.

Drawing on that experience, I quickly placed the right amount of ingredients into the basket.

The protagonist from another novel made an odd expression.

“Didn’t you say you can’t cook?”

“I’ve never cooked, but I’ve eaten tomato beef stew before. Anyone can estimate the approximate amount and ratio of ingredients.”

“I wouldn’t know…”

“That’s because you never thought about it.”

“Hahaha! I guess so? I really never thought about that while eating.”

“Start thinking from now on.”

“Yeah, I should.”

My excuse seemed plausible enough; he didn’t seem suspicious.

I can keep dodging like this in the future.

“Um, uh… Yeppeu…ni-senpai…? How big should I cut the ingredients?”

When we brought the ingredients to the prep station, Svein asked with a face like he’d bitten into a bitter persimmon.

He seemed quite displeased to call me by that nickname.

But the one who should really be upset is me, having to be called ‘Yeppeuni’ by a betrayer from the original story.

“…Just cut them to the size of the chunks in the stew you’ve eaten before. And I’ll say it again: it’s not me who knows how to cook—it’s Yor. So if you have questions, ask Yor.”

Considering that ingredients shrink as they cook, they should be cut a bit bigger.

But explaining that would make it obvious I know how to cook, and I wanted to save time, so I answered that way on purpose.

Then,

“Myoyaong! Myoyaong! Nyo, nyo, nyo!!”

“Ka… no. Uh, Yeppeuni…? What is Yor saying now?”

Even Vigdis started calling me by that problematic nickname.

I suppressed the urge to squeeze my eyes shut and turned my head.

I saw a tomato on the cutting board.

She must have been planning to cut it.

“He says you shouldn’t just cut tomatoes. You need to score them in a cross, blanch them lightly to peel the skin, and then mash them.”

“Ah! So ‘myoyaong, nyo nyo nyo’ meant that!”

“That’s what it meant.”

I’m guessing he just said ‘tomato’ and ‘no,’ but whatever.

That’s not important right now.

“Reysir! Stop for a second.”

“Huh? Why?”

“You need to remove the fibers from the celery before cutting it.”

“Fibers…? That’s good for you, isn’t it?”

“It is, but if you don’t remove them, the texture will be tough and stringy, and threads might get stuck in your mouth or teeth. It’s better to take them off.”

“How?”

“Like this—bring the knife along the edge of the stalk…”

I explained and demonstrated how to remove celery fibers to Reysir.

He let out a “Heeh…” and made another odd expression.

“Just so you don’t misunderstand, I learned this from Yor too. A while ago, Yor said he wanted to take care of my health and made celery smoothie, so I helped with that…”

For the record, that’s a lie.

Yor has never made me a celery smoothie.

“How did Yor know something like that?”

“He reads a lot of books… and he’s a genius?”

“Ah, I see. But if you were the one prepping the celery, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say you made it following Yor’s orders, rather than helping him?”

“Yor was the one who put the ingredients in the blender and turned it on, so he made it.”

“Ah, uh, okay…”

***

After managing to dodge that, I turned my attention to Liolikin.

And I found another problem.

“Liolikin. Isn’t that meat too big?”

“Hmm..? But in our house’s stew, the meat is this size…”

“Still, cut it to about half that. It’ll take too long to cook pieces that big, and the other ingredients will get mushy in the meantime.”

“Yess…”

“Wait, how exactly are you holding the knife?”

“Just… cutting…?”

Watching Liolikin cut, no one could say he was doing it well.

He was gripping the handle tightly like he was holding a hammer, cutting the meat with force rather than the blade’s sharpness.

Meanwhile, his left hand, which should be holding the ingredient steady, had its fingers spread wide open.

“Amazing you haven’t cut yourself yet.”

“Ehehe…”

“That’s not a compliment. Hold the knife like this, gently wrapping it, and when securing the ingredient, curl your fingers like this…”

“Like this?”

“Well, at least your fingers won’t get cut off.”

“Eek…!”

After successfully saving Liolikin’s fingers, I thought I could finally catch a breath.

“Yeppeuni! How’s my cutting? Am I doing it right?”

The protagonist from another novel called me over to ask about knife technique.

I looked up at the sky for a moment, let out a sigh, and then decided to just gather Svein and Vigdis as well and hold a lesson.

“The hand holding the ingredient looks just like a cat’s paw. Is that because a cat taught you?”

Unlike the others who listened quietly and went back to their spots, the protagonist from another novel insisted on adding unnecessary commentary.

“Who said anything about a cat?!”

“Obviously Yor.”

“……”

“You learned it from Yor and taught us, right?”

“R-right…”

“Then why did you snap just now? Did you think I meant you were a cat, Yeppeuni?”

“……Just get back to prepping the ingredients.”

I waved my hand dismissively and glanced at the other team.

As expected, Ppret was being called all over the place, offering help.

Watching him, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of camaraderie.