Chapter 4: Too Strong, but in a Support Role
“LUKE! It’s coming this way!”
“I hear you!” Luke swings his massive sword down on the big-eared monster hopping toward us, splitting it open from the top of its head to its chest. It perishes and turns into a puff of smoke, leaving a small crystal lying on the ground.
Ganzi picks it up. He holds it up to the sun to appraise it. “Another little one. Oh, well. That’s what you get from a killer rabbit.” He nimbly drops the stone into his chest pocket.
The Evenfall Lions are real veterans. They act in perfect harmony when monsters appear, beating them without issue. Kazuya and I watch from a safe position behind Molozov.
Luke is extremely strong. He can swing a sword as tall as he is with ease. That alone is amazing, but he also moves quickly without leaving any opening for his opponent. Leila and Ganzi are good fighters, too, but they nearly always assist from offside, leaving Luke to stop the monsters for good.
It’s like… Luke is the only one who’s on a different level. He whooshes his great sword through the air to shake the blood off, then slips it into the holster on his back. So cool!
“The grove up ahead looks like a good spot to rest. Shall we take a lunch break there?” Leila asks wearily. The other members answer in the affirmative. Leila doesn’t seem that strong, and I’m picking up that she’s already tired. She’s out of breath and her face is flushed. Maybe from alcohol? She keeps a bottle of booze permanently in one hand, which she constantly swigs from.
Still, she stays in the lead while the party hunts monsters and collects rare medicinal herbs on our walk through the forest. When a small spring comes into view—presumably the grove she mentioned earlier—we happily and hungrily agree to her suggestion to break here for lunch.
“Here, I brought food for us!” I take out lunchboxes from the backpack Kazuya was carrying. I got up early this morning and made more of the same quiche, haha!
“Whoa! A lunchbox! Now we’re talking!” Ganzi is the first to come over, and I pass him a box wrapped in a large leaf. He grins like a little kid when he opens it.
“What is this? Pie? No… I don’t know, I’ve never seen it before.” He cocks his head at the slice of quiche I carved earlier. “But it smells great… Wait, how are we going to divide it up between all of us?” He looks genuinely worried.
“No worries! I made enough for everyone.” I take another box from Kazuya’s backpack, then another, then another.
For some reason, Ganzi’s eyes go wide at me. No, at the backpack. Actually, everyone’s staring in astonishment. Why? I take out the last lunchbox and pass it to Kazuya.
“H-how did you fit all those in that rucksack?” Ganzi demands. “It’s way too small to hold all that food!”
Oh, they’re surprised by how much the backpack holds.
Kazuya turns to him. “What’s the big deal? I told you I know storage magic.”
“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t think you could store this much! How high is your skill level?!”
The scale of his surprise gives us pause. I catch Kazuya’s eye and lean close to whisper.
“Do they seem too surprised to you?”
“Yeah, they’re too stunned. Does that mean my skill is high? Is it because God promised to give us a lot of skills?”
Ganzi interrupts our private conference by saying in an awed tone, “You must be destined to help him after all.”
I turn to ask, “Destined to help who?” But Ganzi is wearing his usual happy-go-lucky smile. Maybe I imagined it.
“I, for one, am glad you’re skilled rather than not,” Leila laughs with joy. “You’re something else, Kazuya!”
“He really is! Well done!” Luke says energetically. “You’re a brilliant merchant, Kazuya. Do you come from a long line of merchants?”
No one digs too deeply. I’m happy they’re praising Kazuya, but he might be feeling modest because he changes the subject with an “Enough, it’s all good, let’s eat up.”
He’s such a shy guy.
“It’s nice to have a cook at mealtime. Normally, we just nibble on biscuits and salted meat.” Ganzi stuffs his mouth with quiche. “Whoa! This is beyond good! What do you call this?! It’s mouth-watering! Leila, try a bite.” Even though Ganzi has his quiche in hand, he leans over and takes a bite out of Leila’s quiche, too. What a greedy-guts.
Everyone is tucking into the quiche with gusto. I’m ecstatic they’re all enjoying it.
Molozov, who was slowly and silently chewing his food, stands up abruptly. “Not only is the potato delectable, but the saltiness of the cheese brings out its heavenly taste. Though the dish is nearly indescribable, I declare it is ambrosial with a perfect blend of flavors. Truly a magnificent achievement!” He shouts.
The rest of us stare at him in shock. The thing is, Molozov has been quiet all this time. I thought of him as a big, taciturn bear of a man. I dunno what made him snap, but, um, I have to say I appreciate all the compliments.
“M-Molozov, what’s going on?” Leila asks timidly.
Molozov sits back down, looking startled by his own behavior. “Sorry. I got a little overexcited.” He returns to eating quiche.
…I wonder if he’s a little eccentric.
“Er, I know how you feel. Sakurako’s food is exquisite. Maybe it’s not just delicious, but has some other charm, too?” Ganzi says, frowning.
Luke turns to him. “What do you mean?”
“Look at this. I scratched my elbow on a branch while we were walking earlier, but it’s healed already.”
“It has? You mean because of this food?! It has a special power?!” This time it’s Leila who yells in excitement.
I’m confused. Kazuya says to me under his breath, “Remember that cooking spell that worked for you and not me? Will you try casting it on this quiche?”
“That spell? Okay.” I do as I’m told. “‘Sizzle sizzle, bubble bubble, tap, tap, tap’.”
A silent voice echoes in my head: Potato and cheese quiche. It has the following effects: physical recovery (small), energy recovery (small), and confession (small).
“Oh, I just heard a voice say the quiche has the effects of physical recovery (small), energy recovery (small), and confession (small).”
Leila grabs my hand, grinning. “Wow, Sakurako! You can make dishes with effects! And three! Your cooking skill level must be quite high?”
“Is it? Huh. Heh heh.” All this praise is making me feel a little bashful. I can’t believe that cooking, which I only picked up to help me be popular, is proving useful in this situation!
“It’s amazing is what it is. What was the last effect, again? I don’t know if I’ve heard of that one.” Ganzi cocks his head.
Yeah, I wonder what a confession effect is, too.
Kazuya explains. “It probably makes people say something about the food. I ate this yesterday, and I was itching to say something. That’s probably why Molozov…”
We all turn to look at Molozov.
Morozov ducks his eyes, embarrassed by his uncharacteristic eloquence.
Leila giggles like it’s hilarious. “That’s what that was about. I bet the effect only works on people with a low resistance to magic, like Molozov. Next time we need to crack his steely shell to find something out, we should feed him Sakurako’s food!”
The mood stays buoyant throughout the rest of the meal. It’s so lively, I wonder if it’s because of one or more of the effects. Why would there be effects in the first place?
W-wait, is it because I want people to tell me their impressions of my cooking? Like, yes, of course I want people to say my food is delicious! But I’m ashamed of creating an effect that forces people to do so!
“I have to say, Sakurako and Kazuya, you two are a strange pair,” Leila says. “Kazuya’s storage magic is, to put it mildly, better than a beginner’s, and Sakurako’s cooking skills are sky-high. Normally, cooks would have to study and eat cuisines of many different countries to be able to cook like you do.”
That’s something to think about. In our previous world, even a schoolgirl can eat food from all over the world whenever she wants, and books and the internet let me learn a lot about foreign cooking. Is that why?
“I knew it. You two are…” Leila says under her breath. She spots me looking at her and lifts her head to turn to me with a smile. “This is superb, Sakurako! Honestly the best!” She polishes off the remainder of her quiche.
I’m curious about what she was going to say. I get the feeling she changed the subject. Regardless, our fun lunch wraps up without incident.