Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase01 (section)

===Part 3===

The cottage built from tropical logs was a lot like a rental villa, so unlike a normal hotel, it had a kitchen. Night had fallen and they were all feeling hungry. There were restaurants and food stands out on the beach and they could order room service from the Media Summoner, but all of that would come with the delightfully happy tourist markup. Their funds would not last forever, so Teleria ended up in the kitchen.

“(If we order a dinner to be delivered here, who knows what kind of unwanted ‘substances’ they’ll add in!)”

“?”

Ayato gave her a puzzled look while she wore a frilly white apron over her uniform, but she was not about to explain.

Mamilis must have had a lot of trust in her because the Dark Elf’s long ears were twitching as she made a bold statement.

“Teleria can cook anything, can’t she?”

“She can. Which has helped me out immensely.”

She supposedly had trouble with fire magic, but she looked right at home operating the stove with her sorcery gun. The household level magic must have been simple enough for her to manage.

“Come to think of it, Coach, I’ve never seen you cook.”

“I would always go to the dining hall or use the microwave. Anyone can cook if all it takes is placing the ingredients in a box and turning the dial.”

“Microwave?”

“That was a tool they had in the Academy Towers.”

The Academy Towers was an educational institution on the Static Continent. Some saw it as a collection of geniuses and others as a cage for eccentrics. Neither assessment was exactly wrong, but one was a lot more accurate than the other. It was the peak of magical research. It was said an endless supply of new magical methods bubbled up from there like water from a spring, but it was also a tower of disaster that had created all sorts of ruinous human knowledge.

Ayato and Teleria’s blue blazers were the uniforms of that school.

Henrietta gave them an exasperated look.

“This dangerous individual certainly fits the stereotype of the eccentrics that place is known for, but not Teleria. It’s hard to believe such a sensible person wound up there.”

“You might want to see the place for yourself before jumping to conclusions about it.”

“But I heard it is like a cursed box, so simply peeking inside will drive you mad.”

Unfortunately, that description was somewhat accurate, so he had no rebuttal.

Instead, he shrugged.

“Anyway, that just means this girl earned a spot in the Academy Towers through something other than eccentricity. It is high time you appreciated Miss Teleria’s skill.”

“Teleria’s a genius girl?”

“Be careful, Miss Mamilis, because that questioning tone makes it sound like you are doubting her intelligence.”

“Yeah, but…”

Mamilis did not hesitate to stare at the blonde girl standing in the kitchen. Teleria was humming and chopping something up with a knife and she did not have the look of a “genius girl”.

But looks could be deceiving.

“I cannot use a sorcery gun, so she always stands in harm’s way for me. That requires the skill to both protect me and herself from whatever danger we face. And I have rarely if ever seen someone control water magic better than her.”

“Now that you mention it.”

Mamilis preferred suppression tactics using her full-auto shotgun with fire magic. That was a cost-effective combination because it allowed even a rookie to do fairly well just by continuing to fire, but that was because she lacked the fine control needed to protect someone while she fought.

“Magical combat requires heavy use of the mind and body. So a powerful fighter must be smart too.”

On the other hand, Ayato could no longer use a sorcery gun.

That meant he could no longer display his intelligence that way.

“By the way, Miss Henrietta was right about me finding a place in the Academy Towers through something other than being a genius. I might look smart because of all the strategizing, Sorcery Hacking, and other intellectual work I do, but do not let the flashy appearances fool you.”

“If you are aware how dumb you really are, then work to improve yourself, dangerous individual.”

“If personal effort is enough to change someone, you can hardly call them a true eccentric.”

And.

Dark Elf Mamilis’s eyes widened when she saw the dishes lined up on the table.

“Wow, what is this? A white stew?”

“It’s just meat simmered in milk. That is similar to a stew, but the meat is the main dish, not the broth. It is common in tropical dishes for the strong-flavored ingredients to be lightly cooked with some spices before being simmered in coconut milk. Really, you can think of it as a relative of honey chicken, so it may be more like a white sauce than a soup. Drinking all of it would mean a lot of fat and sugar, so consider yourself warned.”

“You sure know a lot about the local cuisine.”

“Eh? Ha ha ha. No, no. Not at all, Henrietta! There was a collection of local recipes hanging from a string on the kitchen wall, so I used that!”

Instead of a bread or rice based diet, this used doughy steamed dumplings made from potato starch. There was plenty of water here, but the island may not have been able to grow any grains due to the high temperature.

Anyway, it was time to eat.

Henrietta’s classiness as a knight was evident at times like this. The way she held her knife and fork exuded fine manners.

“Hm. I was so sick of chicken I thought I never wanted to see it again, but it tastes so much different with these seasonings. I still have so much to learn.”

“Oh, that’s not chicken. It’s fruit bat.”

“?”

“You know, a bat. With wings.”

Henrietta Split Destrius very classily spat out the food in her mouth. Ayato looked unsure how to respond since he was sitting directly across from her. He knew he could not let it anger him, so this called for a more philosophical stance.

“Would it bring me happiness to view this as a long-distance version of feeding me mouth-to-mouth? Yes, instead of viewing it as a tragic accident, I can create a psychological cushion by viewing it as an avant-garde version of blowing a kiss.”

“Coach, I really think you should just sadly wipe off your face. Here’s a towel.”

Henrietta had not heard a word they said.

“Ugh, cough, you…bat!?”

“Yes, the texture makes it a lot easier to eat than snake or frog. It doesn’t fall apart as you chew it.”

“Dark Elf, I don’t care if those are only hypothetical alternatives! Just stop! My life is over if I can no longer trust what I’m eating!!”

Now, it was a mystery why Mamilis knew what it was like to eat snake and frog since she had lived on that urban sky city just like Henrietta. Perhaps all Dark Elves were forest dwellers deep down.

Teleria handed Henrietta a cup of ice water.

“Well, if you don’t like that, how about some seafood instead?”

“I know you worked hard to cook this and I do apologize, but thank you. By the way, what kind of fish is in this?”

“Eh? It’s not fish. That’s a boiled octopus and vegetable marinade.”

Henrietta crashed backwards in her chair. Evidently, the urban Striker could not stand eating slippery and slimy octopuses or squids either.

“Uh, ughhh.”

“You sure are a picky eater. Did you always get to eat what you wanted while growing up in a rich noble family?”

Mamilis was from the same sky city, but she had grown up as a commoner and was reacting very differently now. She was munching on the food without any problem. The Dark Elf’s analysis was biased, but the knight could not argue back since she indeed could not bring herself to eat this food. Still on the floor, she glared up at Ayato in a dejected way.

“From now on, I will only consume water and potatoes. Dangerous individual, that revolver boy’s decursing will be complete tomorrow, correct? And then we will have no more reason to stay on this island, correct!?”

“That is the soonest possible result and it assumes everything goes well. They might have trouble and need to try different springs. But the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute are decursing experts, so let’s hope they are successful before you grow sick of your potato diet.”

She might as well have been a bug flipped on its back.

She covered her face with her hands and started to sob, so she may have been feeling homesick already.