It was around the time when the orphanage was still being reconstructed that Maria was summoned to the backyard of the orphanage, where she met with Ristia.
“You’re going to run a cafeteria from the orphanage?”
“Yup, sure am~!” Ristia answered with a broad smile, but Maria looked doubtful.
“What’s wrong? Are you against a cafeteria in the orphanage?”
“...No, I think it’ll work to everyone’s benefit, but whenever a man touches my body without warning, um... it brings up bad memories.”
Forced into volunteering her services at a young age by the former director, Maria had a fear of being touched by men. That was why she thought she would make for a pretty lousy waitress, but... seeing Maria like that, Ristia hugged her small body tight.
“It’ll be alright. I planned on having you in charge of cooking, not being a waitress.”
“...Me, in charge of cooking? But I can only cook the bare minimum.”
“But you were in charge of cooking here at the orphanage, right?”
“Technically, yes, but... my ingredients were limited, and I was only allowed to use the bare minimum of firewood, so I don’t have much in my repertoire.”
“That shouldn’t be an issue, then. I’ll make sure to teach you juuust right.”
“...You, Director Ristia? Cooking?”
Director Ristia had never betrayed the expectations of Maria or the other children. That being said, going past any and all of their expectations was an everyday occurrence.
“...I’m not too sure how this will work out, though.”
“Oh, it’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
“...Well, if you insist, Director Ristia.”
“Ehehe. Now then, let’s get cracking on your cooking lessons~!” Ristia made a one-eighty, turning her back to face Maria as she opened her arms wide. Immediately after, an adorable house manifested right in front of Ristia.
“...Huh? What is that?”
“This is my kitchen. Always handy to have around, so I never leave home without it~”
“...Oh, I see.”
You normally don’t just carry a kitchen around with you. That was the quip that made the most sense, but Maria refrained from making it. After all, she knew that even if she did make comments to pick her argument apart, there would be no end to it.
“Okay, I’ll just be going inside now,” Maria said before opening the door and entering the room.
“Oh, mind taking your shoes off there?”
“...My shoes? Well, no, I don’t mind.” Maria took her shoes off as she was told and entered the room. There, lined up in perfect order, were cooking utensils that Maria had never seen before.
“...And here we go again with all the strange and amazing-looking stuff.”
“That there is a refrigerator, and this is a flash freezer. That is a centrifuge, and... uh, if I explain any of that to you now, you won’t be able to process it, I guess. Let’s start things off by cooking something up.”
“...Yes, let’s do that instead, please.” She wasn’t letting her guard down around any of the magic items in Ristia’s possession.
If I ask for an explanation and get shocked at what each and every thing does, it’ll be nightfall before we’re through, Maria thought, opting to glance over things.
“Right, let’s see, then... Ah, yes. I’ll teach you how to make shrimp au gratin.”
“...I don’t know what an ‘au gratin’ is, but I’ll watch and learn nonetheless.”
“Good. Then, first, we’ll take this fresh shrimp I pulled out... and after we prep them...”
The things she called “shrimp” were sliced up in an instant.
“Next, we’ll peel and chop our onions and place them in a frying pan coated with butter.”
The onions were also chopped into thin slices in an instant, and it took a mere ten seconds until a sweet aroma drifted out of the frying pan. Maria held her temple, speechless.
“...Um, Director Ristia, I’m not sure what just happened.”
“Huh? Then let’s try one more time... There.”
Once a whizzing sound echoed, out appeared another frying pan. And inside of it, it already had all of the same ingredients sizzling.
“No, um, what I meant was... I wasn’t able to see what just happened.”
“Oh. Okay, okay. I get you. Sorry about that,” Director Ristia apologized with an adorable smile, this time slowly and carefully showing how she peeled the shrimp. “By the way, it’s important that you take out the digestive tract inside~”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, I see.”
“Oh, and another note, the onions... You know what onions are, right?”
“Yes, I’m good on that. But moving on... what’s this ‘butter’ stuff?”
“Butter is when you take milk like this, and...” Director Ristia took a bottle filled with milk and started shaking it up, side to side.
How is something this cute allowed to exist? ...Huh? But upon closer inspection of the hand she’s shaking around, it looks like it’s producing afterimages... No, that was just my imagination, right? Just how much force is she putting into shaking that thing? Maria thought, amazed.
“And just like that, using centrifugal force, we separate it, add salt to the fresh cream we just made, and whip it up.”
The completed butter sat atop the plate on the table. It wasn’t there a second ago, but the bottle that was supposed to have been in Director Ristia’s hand was gone as well, so this was most likely the current state of the bottle’s contents.
“That is butter?”
“Mm-hmm, it’s yummy when you spread it on bread~ ...Now, say ‘aaah.’” Ristia scooped up some butter on her finger and presented that finger to Maria. Maria hesitated for a second, but she put her lips around Director Ristia’s finger.
Oh, it has a pretty unusual taste... Still, Director Ristia’s finger sure is slender and soft.
“...Mm! All that licking on my finger is ticklish~”
“O-Oh, I’m sorry!” Maria drew her my mouth away from Director Ristia’s finger in a panic.
“Ehehe, I’m glad that you seem to like it. Alright, time for the rest of the lesson.”
“Y-Yes, please go on.” Maria’s heart was racing just a little bit for whatever reason as she received the rest of her lesson from Director Ristia.
At first, there were a lot of instances of Maria getting confused over the cooking demonstrations being finished before she even had a chance to pay attention, but Ristia gradually became accustomed to all this, and her teaching methods improved over time. As such, Maria started to gain more and more of a repertoire, and she eventually developed until she was a good enough cook to be considered Ristia’s righthand woman. However, the thing that pleased Maria the most was that she was able to cook together with Director Ristia, the sunshine in her life.
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Hiironoame
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I’m a light novel author based out of Osaka. Hiironoame means “crimson rain,” but it’s a name I picked with the image of raindrops against the sunset and definitely not a downpour of blood.
...No, I’m serious, okay?
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Siso
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I’m an illustrator based out of Kansai. Thank you for appreciating my work.