17 Chapter 17: Shokugeki

*Creak*

Opening the door back to Tuli's house, Lacht then silently went inside and put the basket of bread on the table before casting a spell to heat the bacon, eggs, and sausages.

'They are still not awake?!'

*Sigh*

'I have to do everything around here...'

Walking up the stairs, Lacht then immediately went to Throd's room.

"Heal!"

Walking outside again, Lacht then went to Eisen's room to the left of Throd's room.

"Heal!"

Exiting Eisen's room, Lacht then finally entered Tuli's room silently.

"Heal!"

'...'

Opening Frieren's door, Lacht silently looked at the now awake Frieren who was currently reading his grimoire with interest before looking at him with curiosity.

"Oh Lacht what does the-"

*SLAM*

Lacht immediately slammed the door mid-sentence, before hastily walking down the stairs and sitting on the kitchen table.

*Creak*

*Groan*

*Yawn*

A series of grunts and noises were heard from upstairs revealing Throd, Tuli, and Eisen calmly walking down the stairs.

*Sniff*

"Wow, that smells good!"

Eisen who has the keenest sense of smell in the group immediately looked at Lacht who was patiently waiting at the table.

Following Eisen, Tuli, and Throd immediately looked at Lacht who cooked them breakfast and gratefully thanked Lacht.

"Thank you for healing us Lacht, we would've missed breakfast if it wasn't for you"

Nodding towards Tuli and Throd, Lacht then immediately took a piece of sourdough bread from the basket and started eating it with his two hands.

*Chomp*

'Need's more butter and sugar...'

*Chew*

'The flour is also not properly milled...'

*Chew*

'I wonder if they sell cheese in the cities..'

*Chomp*

Seeing that Lacht started eating, Throd and the others took up a seat and prayed to the goddess.

After a minute of prayer, they started to eat their breakfast.

*Clink*

*Clank*

"Lacht did you cook the eggs, bacon sausages?"

"Yes, but if Tuli had more ingredients, I would've made something more special..."

Hearing Lacht's bold claims, Tuli then immediately smiled menacingly at him

"Oh, so you saying that my cooking skills a mediocre compared to yours?

Feeling that he had maybe made a mistake, Lacht then nervously looked at Tuli who was now making a menacing aura.

"No no! Tuli of course not! Your cooking is the best! I would eat it every day!"

"He is lying!" Frieren who was at the stairs emotionlessly shouted.

"Oh-oh?"

'Frieren... You snitch!"

Glaring at Lacht with burning embers in her eyes, Tuli then side-eyed Throd, Frieren, and Eisen, before her eyes finally stopped at Lacht.

"You will be the judge!"

"I will give you two hours to prepare your ingredients and after two hours we will return here and make our dishes!"

"Whoever wins gets one absolute request from the other!"

"Is that a deal Lacht?"

Looking at the overly escalated situation, Lacht couldn't sigh inwardly before looking at Frieren with betrayal in his eyes.

"Hmph"

Seeing that Frieren completely ignored him, Lacht then had no choice but to comply with Tuli's request.

"Fine..."

Finishing his bread, Lacht then immediately jumped down from his chair before going outside and walking back to the village to buy some ingredients.

Inside of Tuli's house, seeing Lacht just suddenly leave without hesitation Throd and the others made a poker face before looking at the now more furious Tuli.

"May the Goddess have mercy on Lacht."

Inside the village of Igelwide, Lacht is currently walking towards the flea market of the village.

'Let's see apples, bananas, cabbages, carrots, pumpkins, pork, chicken a lot of assortment of items is being sold here..'

'I only got 4 strahl silver coins and 54 bronze coins left... What should I cook? it would be nice to have some cheese but it seems the villagers don't seem to know the concept of it...'

'Maybe only the main cities know what cheese is...'

*Sigh*

'I should probably make it using mana...'

Walking down an aisle, he was able to see a red-colored fruit that is sometimes mistaken as a vegetable.

"Ma'am, can I have a kilogram of tomatoes?"

The old female vegetable merchant looked at Lacht in confusion.

"What's a kilogram?"

'...'

"Ah I mean, can I get twelve pieces of tomatoes and eight potatoes please"

"Oh I see, I thought you were saying a new word all of a sudden, just give me a moment."

Putting the tomatoes and potatoes in a simple sack, the old lady then gave it to him.

"Um, how much is it Ma'am"

Lacht started sifting through his pocket and immediately asked the old lady

"It's free, Lacht"

Hearing the name out of nowhere, Lacht then curiously looked at the old lady.

"But ma'am I insist! Please tell me how much, I don't want to make you lose money..."

Watching Lacht's sincere gesture, the old lady then lightly smiled.

"If it wasn't for you healing my husband's leg, then we wouldn't be able to get as much harvest as we used to... just think of it as your reward"

Seeing the sack in his hands, Lacht then started to feel guilty.

"But ma'am at least let me pay half of the price!"

*Sigh*

Seeing that Lacht wasn't going to budge, the old lady sighed to herself before looking at Lacht's guilty face.

"Fine, only 12 bronze coins..."

Picking out a silver coin from his pocket, Lacht then immediately threw the coin towards the counter before suddenly running away.

*Swoosh*

"Oy! You brat! You overpay-"

Seeing the silver coin landing on her counter the old lady was about to rebuke Lacht but he was already long gone.

*Sigh*

Putting the silver coin on her cabinet, the old lady then smiled to herself.

"Was that Big Brother Lacht, Granny Versi?"

A long blonde-haired girl who was carrying a crate of fruits asked curiously.

"Yes, Julie he even gave me a silver coin for giving him tomatoes and potatoes for free..."

"Ah, Big Brother Lacht is always like that... He always repays kind acts twice as much"

Putting the crates close to the counter, Julie then started explaining Lacht's character.

Hearing her granddaughter talk about Lacht so much, she couldn't help ask why.

"Why do always call Lacht, big brother Julie? From what I know you're almost the same age as him."

Chuckling in glee, Julie then looked at Granny Versi with pride written on her face.

"It's because Big Brother Lacht is more mature than all of us and that he always treats us like we are his little sisters and brothers, we just can't help ourselves to call him Big Brother!"

"I see..."

Granny Vesri looked at the direction Lacht ran off to before inwardly thinking.

'Lacht has already become popular... Julie is going to have a hard time trying to steal his heart...'

In another street of the village, Lacht is currently looking for a bar to look for yeast.

'Found it'

"Fergus Inn and Bar"

*Creak*

Opening the door to the inn, Lacht then immediately walked towards the beer counter and climbed up the chair.

"What can I get you Lacht?"

A dark-haired middle-aged man with a simple mustache wearing a sleeveless tuxedo asked Lacht what he wanted.

"Mr. Fergus, do you have any yeast that I can buy?"

"You mean the yeast that we use to make beer, bread, and ale?"

"Yes"

Cleaning his glass cups with a towel in thought, Fergus crouched down the counter and immediately gave him a vial of yeast made from the fermentation of beer and ale.

Looking at the vial, Lacht also asked another question.

"Do you also have honey?"

Hearing Lacht ask for honey, Fergus then immediately crouched to his counter before finally pulling out a glass bottle of honey and placing it on the counter.

*Tap*

Looking at the two glass containers, Lacht then looked Fergus dead in the eye.

"How much?"

"It's yours"

Fergus immediately waved his hands in denial and then walked behind him towards the beer cellar.

"..."

Seeing the two glass containers, Lacht then grabbed his remaining silver and bronze coins in his pocket and silently put them on the bar counter before picking up the two ingredients and leaving the inn.

*Creak*

*Shut*

Hearing the entrance of his inn and bar opening and closing Fergu immediately walked out of the beer cellar looking back at his counter, Fergus was able to see silver and bronze coins being neatly organized before sighing to himself.

"This stubborn brat..."

In the streets of the village, Lacht is currently thinking of the recipe that he would use for his food war against Tuli.

"Sadly Tuli forgot to mention that I can't use magic or mana when cooking"

Walking back to his home, after ten minutes of walking Lacht then immediately opened the door to finally see, Throd, Eisen, and Frieren not daring to move an inch from the kitchen table before quietly looking at Lacht who just arrived with a new batch of ingredients.

'What happened when I was gone?'

*Sizzle*

'It seems Tuli has already started...'

Just as he was about to enter the kitchen, he was suddenly greeted by a knife, inches away from his face.

'!'

"You're two minutes late!" Tuli angrily shouted while holding a knife to Lacht's face.

"But Tuli there were so many people buying in the flea market!"

Retracting her knife from Lacht's face, Tuli then quickly finished her cooking before looking at Lacht and immediately removing her covered food from the kitchen and placing it on the kitchen table for the judges to see.

"You have 30 minutes to finish your cooking"

*Shut*

'30 minutes....'

Putting the ingredients he bought at the village at the kitchen counter, Lacht then immediately cast a spell to create a kilogram of cheese.

*Plop*

Seeing the cheese suddenly appear in front of him, Lacht then started using mana and magic to create his pizza and fries.

Pouring the two cups of flour, and half a teaspoon of salt into a wooden bowl, Lacht then started mixing it gently for one minute. before in another bowl, he got a small amount of hot water from the wooden faucet and quickly added the honey, sugar, and yeast on it before mixing it with a wooden spoon.

'I have to wait for five minutes for the yeast to be activated.'

Taking a cutting board and knife from the kitchen drawers, Lacht then started to cut the sausages and potatoes lengthwise, before putting three pieces of bacon on a hot preheated frying pan.

While waiting for his bacon to cook, Lacht then made the one-kilogram block of mozzarella cheese that he made from scratch, float into the air before shredding it with a slashing spell and putting it on a small plate for later use.

'It's been five minutes now"

Taking the wooden bowl he waited for the yeast to grow and looked at it carefully

'It's frothing.'

Seeing that his yeast was ready, Lacht then poured the honey and sugar water into the flour mixture before using mana to knead it on a well-floured surface for six minutes before placing it in another wooden bowl that was laced with a drip of beef fat.

"Heal!"

Using his healing spell to further accelerate the rising process, Lacht after seeing the dough rise in size, immediately punched and kneaded it into a circular shape.

While he was making the dough, he then manipulated his mana to pick up the golden brown bacon from the frying and quickly sliced it into bite-sized pieces.

Seeing that the pizza dough was almost finished, Lacht then immediately floated the tomatoes into the skies and meticulously blended them into a smooth puree before calmly putting some of the sauce onto the pizza while leaving the rest in a small wooden bowl.

'Now all that's left is to add the toppings...'

Willing his mana throughout the kitchen to grab the toppings of mozzarella cheese, bacon, and slices of pepperoni he then started placing them on the pizza.

"Now the fries..."

Putting the cut unskinned potatoes in the sky, Lacht then immediately encased the batch of salted fries with beef on a circle of barriers before blasting it fire a moderate amount of fire.

"While that's cooking, I should also cook the pizza..."

Doing the same process he did with the fries, he then carefully made the pizza float into the air before encasing it in a circle of barriers and igniting it with fire.

*Sizzle*

Hearing the fries and pizza make cooking noises, Lacht then carefully observed each of them with caution until ten minutes later the fries and pizza were cooked into a perfect golden brown.

'It's finished'

Separating the beef fat from the fries, Lacht then immediately floated the pizza and fries into their separate plates before making them float all over again and bringing them towards the kitchen table where Frieren, Eisen, Throd, and Tuli were curiously looking at the floating giant-sized pizza landing on their table and a singular plate salted french fries while on the side seems to be a puree made of red tomatoes.

Tuli seeing Lacht's cooking, couldn't believe her eyes before quickly asking him a question

"Where did you learn to cook this dish?"

"From a recipe book."

Tuli then immediately looked at Frieren who was at the right side of the kitchen table, and nodded.

"It's the truth."

Looking at the food Lacht has made, Tuli and the others couldn't help but gulp in anticipation.

"So, Tuli what did you cook?"

Lacht who was curious about Tuli's dish immediately looked around the kitchen table and was able to find a simple omurice with a ketchup heart-shaped pattern written on top of it.

'Omurice?! I missed eating omurice... I didn't know they existed here!'

Lacht then surprisingly looked at his childhood food in longing, before patiently looking at Frieren, Eisen, and Throd.

"Dig in!"

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