Cooking Swordmaster

Chapter 8: How to Cook an Amazing Steak (1)

Köinzell’s day was longer than anyone else’s at the academy.

He woke up before sunrise to prepare ingredients for meals for hundreds of people.

In the dead of night, he secretly practiced cooking.

Köinzell, who had not even a shred of talent.

At some point, he began to secretly observe the knight candidates training with him.

How great would it be if he could swing a sword so skillfully…

If only he could have such strong stamina…

He would even sell this worthless soul if he could.

But nothing changed, and time passed endlessly.

The other trainees were growing every day, to the extent that it was noticeable even with a brief glance away.

– Great! My stamina increased by 3 in this status update!

– Awesome! Your hard work on stamina training is paying off.

– But how did you manage to raise your swordsmanship level by two in just a month? Teach me some tricks!

The gap widened, and soon the people swinging swords beside him had changed.

And what came back were mocking, sneering laughs.

Such looks had become very familiar to him.

Köinzell worked in the kitchen at dawn and late at night, but during the day, he trained with the other knight candidates.

To increase his level and stats, cooking was necessary. No matter how much he swung his sword, he couldn’t gain even a handful of experience points.

Yet, to remain a knight candidate, he had to attend training.

He was accustomed to tasks that yielded no rewards.

However, something had changed in the past few days.

Since receiving the duel challenge from Julius Conrad, the gazes directed at Köinzell had increased severalfold.

“Is that the infamous loser Köinzell?”

“He looks frail even at a glance. Maybe he didn’t even get proper meals as a kid.”

“They say he’s a fallen noble, but has anyone heard of the Gstaad family?”

“No idea. The empire is pretty big. They must be tucked away in some corner.”

“I heard from the personnel office that he sold off the little remaining land to care for his sick parents and now has nothing left.”

“Maybe he sold off his talent too. Rumor has it he hasn’t even killed a single goblin in the three years since he joined.”

“Kekeke. What’s that about?”

“Ahaha!”

But Köinzell changed after he took up the kitchen knife.

There was no hesitation in his sword swings, and his breathing was stable.

His once dim eyes now burned with incredible enthusiasm.

The first to notice this was Instructor Ian, who was in charge of the rookies at the Stanis Knight Training Academy.

After watching Köinzell swing his sword for a while, he spoke up.

“Köinzell.”

“Yes! Trainee knight number 50, Köinzell sir!”

“…You’ve improved a lot. Yes. The important thing is the focus and breathing. Always keep the mindset not to lose sight of the target.”

“Understood.”

Köinzell was startled when he looked at Instructor Ian’s face.

Ian’s eyes were red.

He was known for being notoriously harsh on the trainee knights, earning the nickname ‘Demon Instructor’.

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“Köinzell… Follow me for a moment.”

“Yes.”

Once they reached a place away from others’ eyes, Ian spoke.

“The swordsmanship you just displayed was at least at a basic 4-star level.”

Feigning surprise, Köinzell widened his eyes.

“Are you surprised? It means your efforts are finally paying off.”

With those words, Instructor Ian embraced Köinzell tightly.

“You fool! As an instructor, I knew that contrary to the rumors, you were training more seriously than anyone else. I knew that, realizing your shortcomings, you were swinging your sword alone until dawn after the day’s training was over… But…”

The shoulder where Instructor Ian’s face rested became damp.

Was it raining?

Köinzell could feel the intense warmth of Instructor Ian’s body all over him.

Despite wearing the mask of a demon, Ian had a softer and more affectionate nature than anyone.

“Why on earth hasn’t your level gone up! I’ve always been worried that you might not have even a shred of talent. I am an instructor who raises trainee knights. I teach that efforts will eventually be rewarded. But you! Why is it that you, who works harder than anyone else, receive no rewards at all!”

“…”

Köinzell couldn’t say anything.

He thought the gazes directed at him were full of sneers and mockery.

But was Instructor Ian looking at me with such eyes?

“But your swordsmanship has changed so much in the past few days that I hardly recognize it. Finally, your frozen time has started to flow. Do you know what that means?”

“…”

“It means that we weren’t wrong, you fool!”

“Instructor…”

For a while, the two of them silently looked at each other.

But they had more conversation than ever before.

Ian sat down on a flat rock and patted the spot next to him.

He meant for Köinzell to sit beside him.

When Köinzell sat down, Ian began to speak.

“Köinzell.”

“Yes, trainee knight number 50, Köinzell sir.”

“Let’s put aside such formalities for a moment.”

“…Understood, instructor.”

“No, let’s also drop the ‘instructor’. Let’s just talk as brothers who have lived together for three years. Is that really okay with you?”

Köinzell knew exactly what Instructor Ian was talking about.

The duel with Julius Conrad that was scheduled to take place in four weeks.

The wall between the second-ranked trainee knight of the Chevalier Class and the fiftieth-ranked trainee knight of the Rookie Class was immense.

“You don’t necessarily have to fight. If you don’t accept the duel, that’s enough. You might become the target of a bit of mockery, but you’re used to that, aren’t you? And…”

Instructor Ian gently touched Köinzell’s shoulder.

By now, solid muscles had formed there.

“There will be a surprise in this status update. Because your level, which hasn’t changed for three years, has finally risen.”

That was part of the plan Köinzell had devised.

After proving that he had changed at this status update, he would challenge the promotion test.

And become a knight within a year.

Of course, he didn’t intend to stop there. He was confident that if he used the opportunity given to him, he could soon reach the level of a ‘Swordmaster’.

But there was one variable that had come into play.

Julius Conrad.

The man who had tormented him more than anyone, treating him like a toy.

If it weren’t for Julius, Köinzell wouldn’t have become a laughingstock to everyone.

This was a knight training academy where, if you had time to tease someone, you should be swinging your sword.

Köinzell thought.

Am I doing this out of mere revenge?

No, it’s not such a simple reason.

Köinzell had always watched from behind as others moved forward.

But now, the situation had changed.

He had a new goal of becoming a Swordmaster.

That was something only achievable by surpassing everyone at the academy.

And now he’s supposed to avoid a duel with number two?

―――I can’t do that.

Köinzell grinned.

“Instructor… No, brother Ian. Thank you for everything. I wouldn’t have been able to endure here without you. So… I’d like you to be the officiator for this duel.”

Reading the strong determination in Köinzell’s eyes, Ian could not refuse his request in the end.

@

This won’t be enough.

Köinzell looked at the parchment on the desk.

It listed tasks he needed to do over the next month, broken down by hour.

Even just following this plan would make Köinzell stronger than anyone in the Rookie Class.

“I’m sorry, but I must win this duel, even for brother Ian who believes in me.”

With a sly smile, Köinzell tore up the training plan.

Defeating Julius.

For that, this level of preparation was insufficient.

The hint came from obtaining the ‘Disarm’ skill.

He learned how to handle salmon from Chef Ainkel. As a result, he gained the Disarm skill, which allowed him to destroy enemies’ weapons and armor.

Wouldn’t the same apply to other cooking techniques?

Although he wasn’t certain, it was definitely worth a try.

Additionally, Ainkel specialized in noodle dishes and oven cooking.

Joffrey, whose desserts were so popular that high-ranking nobles in the capital would line up to buy them.

Gordon Rambolton, who seemed to have lost his passion for cooking but might have created the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’.

Who would’ve thought there’d be three culinary masters so close by?

What would happen if he learned all their techniques?

Just imagining it gave him goosebumps.

Köinzell had only been cutting ingredients to raise his swordsmanship level.

After a week, Joffrey and Ainkel started talking to him more amiably.

By using their goodwill, he might learn skills that couldn’t be obtained just by watching.

Learn as many dishes as possible and increase his skills.

‘…For that, I need the Shoumakyou.’

Even if he gained skills, they were useless if he didn’t know about them.

Of course, he could find out during a status update, but that would be too late.

Thus, the first thing he needed to do was revive the Shoumakyou that had lost its mana and turned into an ordinary pocket watch.

Infusing mana into magical tools was a primary way for novice sorcerers to make a living.

However, since he couldn’t always rely on a sorcerer to infuse mana, the Sorcerer Guild sold ‘mana injectors’ separately.

Using that required magical abilities.

Fortunately, Köinzell possessed a small amount of mana.

‘If I pour all the mana I have, I can operate one Shoumakyou. That’ll be enough.’

But upon secretly checking, he found that the price of a mana injector was beyond imagination.

‘…Crazy! It’s more than my living expenses for a year.’

In the end, he couldn’t obtain a mana injector through normal means.

However, Köinzell had spent three years at the bottom of Stanis Knight Training Academy.

“Uncle John, how have you been?”

“Oh, isn’t it young master Köinzell?”

John was the janitor in charge of the academy. He and Köinzell, who trained early in the morning, often exchanged greetings.

“Could I possibly take a look at the incinerator?”

“Oh… That place is off-limits to unauthorized personnel…”

“Haha. I brought this for you because I thought of you when I went out the other day.”

Köinzell handed over a small box. It was cheap chewing tobacco.

“Oh, thank you as always. Hmm… Just don’t tell anyone.”

“Of course.”

Wealthy nobles often threw away items that made you think, ‘Why would anyone discard this!’

Köinzell, who had nothing but his body, often picked up and used such items.

He recalled seeing a half-broken ‘mana charger’ in the incinerator before.

‘There are many trainee knights with their own sorcerers. How wealthy must they be to throw away perfectly good mana injectors? There’s bound to be one that’s usable.’

Köinzell followed John to the trash incinerator.

There were countless items piled up to chest height.

“They burn the stuff once a year. Alright, let’s go treasure hunting.”

Köinzell began rummaging through the heap of trash, not caring if he got dirty.

It was the kind of work a scavenger among the poor would do.

But he didn’t mind. He had discarded his noble pride more than ten years ago.

As he dug through the heap, he found three ‘mana chargers.’

“This one’s core is broken. And this one… Ugh, it’s sucking out my life force!”

The remaining one seemed somewhat intact.

After telling John to go have a smoke in the corner, Köinzell tried using the mana charger.

It was his first time handling such a device, but he knew how it worked.

He had overheard other sorcerers talking about it.

“Focus your mind and think of the mana charger’s core as a part of your body… Oh, it’s working!”

The mana charger responded to Köinzell’s mana, emitting a dark red glow.

Now, all he had to do was hold it and plug the mana charging cable into the hole at the back of the Shoumakyou.

“Ugh… Argh… Ahhhhh…”

His mind went blank as if his blood was being drained.

The charger was forcibly extracting Köinzell’s meager amount of mana.

“Kuh, khek, uugh…”

Unable to hold back, Köinzell ended up vomiting all the food he had eaten that morning.

The sensation of his mana being forcibly extracted was far worse than he had imagined.

But the revived Shoumakyou displayed his level and stats.

“Heh, hehehe. Hahaha!”

Köinzell laughed amidst the trash heap.

He had gotten a free battery.

Of course, it was a bit tough, but he could endure this much.