Editing Dantalian no Shoka:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

After leaving Graham's workroom, Huey headed together with Dalian to the kitchen.

On the way they passed through the hall of the dinner party.

The main dishes were served out and the party was reaching its peak. Everyone admired the arrangement of the food and exhausted their vocabulary with their high praise.

"I don't like this mood."

Huey muttered while looking at them. They somehow appeared irregular to him.

"There is also negative criticism about Graham's dinner parties. For example, that he uses endangered animals and plants in his cooking. Or there are rumours about human bones found in the garbage of the kitchen... And I guess they know about this, too."

"...what is so fun about eating all these things?"

Dalian asked back in a earnest expression. Huey just shrugged his shoulders.

"Why indeed? There are people living in this world that are thankful for anything rare. Whatever it is."

"...even though there would be countless better ingredients. Such fools. Just eat bread. And if there is no bread, do eat confectionery."

Dalian explained her own opinion with plain words.

Ignoring her, Huey continued,

"Of course there are many not doubting Graham, since he's an influential man in a high position. Even I thought so until now. But if the chef is holding the Phantom Book, then that's different... I hope it's not going to be troublesome."

The black dressed girl didn't answer his muttering.

She glanced wordlessly at the scenery beyond the windows.

A blood-red full moon was silently hanging in the far sky.

Many cooks were at work in the kitchen.

And like one would expect of a mansion owned by a person renowned as a gourmet, the kitchen area was quite large. The ground was well paved with stone tiles, and on it, many servants, kitchen and scullery maids could be found scampering around.

Then there was one person who finished up the giant amount of dishes; the kitchen utensils seemed as if an extension of her body.

This was, without doubt, the chef of this mansion. Her movements were completely unlike that of the others.

The pot danced around in her hands almost as if it had a will of its own and an appetite quickening odour spread out just by her adding spices or sauces. When she took a knife, she cut meat with solid bones or vegetables with vivid movements and dished them up beautifully like a flower bed, despite that she didn't seem to put much power in her grip.

Huey seemed captivated and stood stock still for a while, unable to shift his gaze.

The chef noticed this and looked up.

Surprisingly, the chef was a young woman, seemingly in her mid-twenties.

She finished up the cooking without stocking, put away the knife and then approached Huey and Dalian.

"...so you were the chef of this mansion?"

Huey asked silently. Upon which the chef - Lesley - smiled apologetically.

She was the person who let them ride on a carriage and lead them to the mansion.

"I already expected... you would come."

Lesley answered looking a bit desolate.

"Why?"

Dalian was the one asking back. Lesley looked down on her in nostalgia and said,

"I've changed quite a bit in those thirteen years, but you look the same like when we met, ...Black Biblioprincess. Or was it your mother that time?"

Dalian didn't answer and just gazed at her.

Instead Huey opened his mouth.

"You know 'The Book of the Ultimate Contemplation of Cooking'... don't you, Miss Lesley?"

She answered the question with silence.

"Was it you who accepted the Phantom Book thirteen years ago from my grandfather?" asked Huey.

"Yes, exactly."

Lesley nodded.

"I still remember that day. It was on the day of my father's funeral. He lost his employment all of a sudden and tried to drown his frustration in alcohol. In the end, he died due to a mundane quarrel. If the Lord didn't pick me up, I'm sure I would have died."

Saying so, Lesley suddenly seemed to reconsider and shook her head.

"No, that's not quite true. If I didn't have a talent for cooking... if I hadn't read 'The Book of the Ultimate Contemplation of Cooking', the Lord wouldn't have employed someone like me with an unknown background... what really rescued me was the Phantom Book I borrowed."

Dalian stared in silence at the chef who had a bitter expression.

Huey asked in a kind voice,

"You are aware of the reason we came to meet you, right?"

Lesley smiled.

"The return date has come, hasn't it?"

After saying so readily, she took off her apron, told a kitchen maid something before starting to lead Huey and Dalian.

"Please follow me. The Phantom Book is stored in my room... naturally, I've treated it with great care and didn't do anything that would have brought damage to the book."

"Is Mr. Graham's dinner all right?"

Huey called out to Lesley's back in bewilderment.

She smiled triumphantly and nodded.

"Yes. The dinner of the Lord is almost done. I only need to arrange the last few ingredients."

Lesley kept walking while the duo followed silently behind her.

The room of the chef was underground, not that distant from the kitchen. It was a simple room that one wouldn't expect of a renowned cook. Lesley opened the old solid wood door using an old bronze key.

Dalian muttered suddenly to her back,

"Phantom Books do choose their holders themselves."

Lesley turned around with a wary expression, but Dalian kept looking straight into her face and continued,

"If someone without the qualifications is holding a Phantom Book, then this person gets engulfed in the magical power of the book... I only know very few Phantom Book Readers that held a Phantom Book for thirteen years and didn't drown in this power." 

"...Should I be proud about this?"

Lesley smiled, a bit bothered, before shaking her head.

"But I just prepared dishes like it was written in the book. Naturally, it didn't go all that well from the start. I used several years just to learn the basic techniques. But after I've learned those techniques, I just needed to obtain the best ingredients and draw out the delightfulness... I just continued to prepare the dishes written in the Phantom Book like this."

[[Image:Dantalian_no_Shoka-vol1-p39.jpg|thumb|Huey had noticed that Lesley, holding a knife, wasn't looking at him, but at Dalian.]]

The intonation of her voice slowly weakened while she continued to mutter.

Her face lost every expression and looked empty, almost as if in a state of trance.

"...Where is the Phantom Book, Miss Lesley?"

Huey asked while looking around in the dark underground room.

"Not yet..."

Lesley said smiling artificially.

She took a bottle filled with an unfamiliar spice from a spice-shelf beside the entrance and opened the lid.

"The Lord is not yet satisfied with my cooking. I'm aware of this, for I've not yet made the 'true' cooking written in the Phantom Book...!"

"Lesley?"

Huey called out to her in a serious voice.

She turned around and shook the bottle with natural movements one could get charmed by. The weird-coloured fine powder poured down on Huey's entire body.

"What's this...?!"

Huey put himself on guard with a severe expression. However, without stopping to smile, Lesley said,

"Don't worry, Mr. Huey. This is just a spice I mixed myself. The smell will disappear late at night. But until then, please don't leave this room. If you do, you could get into some serious trouble..."

She said so while stepping back and grabbed the doorknob. She planned to lock in Huey and Dalian.

Huey reflexively took position to chase after her but then stopped, when he saw that the chef suddenly was holding a knife in her hands. He had noticed that Lesley wasn't looking at him, but at Dalian.

"What are you trying to do, Lesley?" Huey asked with a sigh.

"I shouldn't even need to say this."

Lesley slowly closed the door to the underground room.

With the dignified sound of metal, the door was locked with no mercy. The last thing that could be heard inside the darkened underground room was the bright voice of the chef.

"By all means I have to serve this cooking to the Lord! The best cooking I used thirteen years to complete!"