Upstart Pastry Chef ~Territory Management of a Genius Pâtisserie~

Chapter 12: The Cabbage, The Sword, and Special Training

“Tina, right now I’m going to show you my serious effort.”

My voice reverberates in the kitchen. There’s a knife in my hand, and a cabbage on the cutting board.

Obtaining an ability requires an improvement in proficiency. Then, what is a proficiency? It is the amount of experience of conducting an action related to an ability.

My aptitude is sword-aptitude and magic-aptitude. These two are have S ranks and, following closely, are archery, cooking, and blacksmith with A ranks. Other than those are nothing important, there are some Bs but the rest are below C. If compared to an ordinary person who’ll have the the capacities below D with 1-2 C, I must have been really blessed.

I was surprised to have a Cooking Ability as well, with Cooking Ability II on top of that.

A Cooking Ability doesn’t mean any food I make will taste delicious unconditionally. It’s just the ability to correct the nimbleness of my fingers and to see through the condition and flavor of the ingredients. It’s only an assistance to prepare the food at most, but I’m happy with it. I won’t be happy if it’s a Skill that’ll change the taste of my food unnaturally.

“Right now, I’m going to master the swords, because I can’t win against Jorg with spear.”

“Swords?”

I’m tempering myself thoroughly by using a highly versatile Sword Ability. Being able to use sword skills is useful in many things.

“Um, excuse me, Kurt-sama, you’re going to temper yourself in swords right now, right?”

“Naturally.”

As I say that, Tina stares at the knife I’m holding and tilts her neck.

A sword proficiency requires using a sword. Then, with my all-seeing eyes as the side effect of my Recovery Magic, I saw the slim chance.

Supposedly, when someone equips something he thinks of as a sword, the width of his proficiency improvement towards the cutting target will change. That proficiency improvement is caused by the occurrence of an action with stronger emotion than the standard. That emotional strength will become the positive correction.

For example, even if I practice swinging while holding a wooden sword (bokutou

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), if I think of it as a wooden stick rather than a blade, I won’t improve as a whole. Cutting something will also overwhelmingly increase my proficiency improvement width, more than swinging practice. On top of it, if I cut something organic, my improvement width will increase almost twice compared to cutting inorganic matter, without actually decreasing the emotional strength. It even results in raising the emotional value.

“Tina, for the sake of getting stronger in swords, the promptest method is to cross real swords.”

Crossing swords in a fight with real weapons is the most suitable method to improve the proficiency. If I use a real sword, I will have that compulsory awareness towards the sword. I undoubtedly has to practice with an organic matter to move beyond slashing. Moreover, the knowledge that I’m taking a life will largely move my emotion.

“But, Kurt-sama, you’re currently in the kitchen, holding a kitchen knife, you know? Can you do the real sword fight with that?”

“It’s the case of doing frontal attack in a true crossing swords. In my case, real swords fight is impossible, hence this other method.”

“The other method? By not using swords?”

“I’m using the sword properly, though? To a cook, the knife is sword and the pot is shield.”

I regard the knife in my hand as a sword. The all-seeing eyes made me realize that I firmly recognize the knife as sword. I also have a reason why I chose cabbage.

“Look at my sword dance. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Small, pleasant sound of chopping against the cutting board keeps resounding.

In my previous world, I was working as a pâtissier in a high class restaurant, being responsible for the desserts that worked as the finishing touch of the course.

The restaurant I worked at regarded the desserts as the most important thing. A pâtissier is responsible for the dessert that came out at the end of the course, the number one thing that would leave impression to the customers. Becoming that kind of pâtissier means I had to be the most skillful one in the restaurant. Also, if I didn’t understand the restaurant’s dish, I wouldn’t be able to make the ultimate marriage of the dish and the dessert. Therefore, the pâtissier had to be able to cook all the restaurant’s dish to perfection. That’s the reason why I mastered cooking dishes other than sweets as well.

Being reincarnated doesn’t change my skill. I carved the movement etched into my soul to this body, again and again.

“Amazing, Kurt-sama, you’re so fast. I can’t even see the knife.” Tina’s eyes becomes round.

I wield the knife to slash three times a second, finely chopping the cabbage. On top of that, with my Cooking Ability, my movement becomes really precise to the point that I can accelerate to slash five times a second if I try.

“This is my power.”

Let’s review the proficient system. I will become more proficient from cutting something than practice swinging. Additionally, using organic target will make the efficacy skyrocket.

I repeat the five-slash-per-second speed from this overwhelmingly efficient organic cutting. In other words, I slash 100 times in 20 seconds, 18,000 times in an hour. I can continue doing this for two hours, or 36,000 times.

I can usually do sword swinging practice only 100 times a day more or less. The tenfold efficiency from cutting an organic matter that results in 36,000 swings means that in just a day, I’ve rivaled a year disciplined training of an ordinary person.

That’s not even counting my S-rank sword aptitude. Moreover, with the one-rank boost from The Fool’s Desire, I’ve surpassed the S-rank. I obviously will gain some Abilities.

Furthermore, I have Recovery magic. When I feel tired, I should just use Recovery. I can repeat this one-year worth of intense training set again and again.

“Uhm, Kurt-sama, this is amazing. Really amazing, but can you get stronger from this?”

“Absolutely. Even now, I can feel I’m rapidly growing my swords skills, but...”

“But?”

“The emotional value isn’t enough. There’s no passion.”

“Well, you did cut through cabbages and just cabbages...”

A problem occurred. With the lack of emotional value, I’m swinging back and forth in the line between improving my proficiency and not. I can’t prevent this efficiency decrement. I have to do something about it.

Thinking about it calmly, if this method can get you stronger, all of the cooks and housewives will become proficient in swords. If they don’t, maybe they don’t think of the knife as sword, or the housewives’ proficiency from low emotional value won’t push them past the line.

It’s important to push out the boiling passionate emotion when finely chopping the cabbage. I thought of a way.

“DIE, YOU CABBAGEEEEEEEEE!!”

I load my killing intent to the cabbage finely chopping action. I don’t finely chop the cabbage, I kill it. I finely chop them with that awareness.

“Ku- Kurt-sama?”

Tina looks at me with baffled, frightened look. It’s the first time I saw this face on her.

“As I thought, this is no good, huh?”

The emotional value more or less increases, but I can’t sustain the killing intent. I’m a cook to begin with. There’s a resistance towards thinking of pointing my killing intent to the ingredients.

Think, I have to think.

That’s right, if I have a strong emotion, I can apply it to anything. What I turn towards the food shouldn’t be killing intent, but love, right?

I’m making food for the sake of the people who will eat them. I turn my face towards Tina’s smile. The emotional value increases. I’m cooking the most delicious meal for her sake. There’s no way my spirit won’t raise from that.

...However, the emotional value is still not enough. I’ve reached the line of passing the proficiency, but it’s still far from having that positive correction. The idea of raising my killing intent like before is not good, but the way I turn up my voice is good. Let’s raise the voice full of love.

“Be delicious (oishiku nare)! Be delicious!” Yup, by raising my voice, the emotional value also increases.

For Tina’s sake. Bring even more love, more affection. The heightened emotion helps in proficiency climbing.

“Ah, uhm, Kurt-sama. Can you hear me? Kurt-sama? The Kurt-sama today is really weird...”

“Be delicious! Be delicious!” Let’s wield the knife while wholeheartedly letting my voice out! Tina said something beside me, but I’m so full of concentration that I can’t hear her.

But I still lack one step. A step to reach the highest efficacy. Work it up! My love for Tina isn’t just this level!

Ah, is that it? I can’t only show a smile. An obscure emotion is no good. I must clarify my feelings properly. With that I could form the shape of my feeling for the first time.

Tina, what do I think about you?

“Be delicious! Be delicious!”

Her sweet face and figure, somewhere well-proportioned, her gentle and kind face, her fluffy tail, her beautiful pointy rigid kitsune ears; I really like her outward appearance.

She pretends to be tough, acts like an adult, but sometimes acts really spoiled. Her on the inside is also precious to me.

She loves me, supports me more than anyone else. Tina never ceases to show me her best smile; I’m saved by this gesture of hers.

That’s right. Because she’s that kind of girl, I love Tina with all my heart!

“Be delicious! Be delicious!”

Swelling up to the limit with all about her in my mind, my emotional value finally arrive at its upper limit. The optimal efficacy. Death match with real swords; with the passionate emotion that surpass this stage, I finely cut the cabbage.

“Be delicious! Be delicious!”

After two hours, finally I reach the point of being unable to move my arms. This is my limit. Sweat spurts out all over me. It’s the best two hours with the highest density. I quickly perform the Recovery magic to myself. Let’s do another set.

“Now then, with this kind of... Tina?”

I promptly fix my eyes on Tina beside me. She looks at me, somehow covering his mouth with both hands, with tears overflowing from her eyes.

“Kurt-sama, your mind has finally broken..... Forgive me. I never realized it before it came to this. ....Someday, I will return you to normal, I’ll always be with you and protect you. That’s why, you don’t have anything to worry about, Kurt-sama.”

What on earth is she saying? She said that as if I’ve become crippled.

Even though I just want to firmly obtain swords ability with this special training. .....I’ve obtained the Sword Ability I from these past two hours.

The power of love is truly great.

But, there’s still one problem. What should we do with this mountain of cabbage?

....I thought of a good solution. After completing the first phase of special training, let’s provide the food to the reclamation workers. I’ll use these cabbages and make the best afternoon snack.

I’m itching to put my skill on use. Everyone will definitely be happy.