Chapter 4: The kitchen.

Closing the cracked door and looking into the cabin, the table was the first thing in sight. The green jade table, one of the most remarkable things on this mountain, is placed in the middle of the room, being the first thing you see with six green chairs surrounding the table with a dragon emblem embedded into them.

Besides that, there was nothing else remarkable about the room. The four walls surrounding the table looked quite plain, only made of wood found in the mountain forest. If anything, there were spider webs that were in the corners. The yellow crystal was proving light in onto of the table. Other than that, there were no designs, no other appliances in the room, just two other doors. One was leading to the kitchen on the right side of the room, and the other was leading to the chief's sleeping quarters, which was on the left side of the room.

Moving around the table, Nil goes toward the right side of the room. Touching the metal handle, Nil's hand was welcomed with a warmth coming from the other side of the door. The grip feels hotter because it is hotter. The reasoning behind this is because metal absorbs the radiation heat, but the air doesn't as quickly.

Opening the door, however, Nil was welcomed by a cluster of smells. The heat radiating from the kitchen made Nil's face feel a bit hot as if the front more part of his face was a little heavier; however, it didn't take long for him to get used to this.

Coming into the kitchen was full of life, blue flames that seemed to be blasting out of control. Red flames that seemed as they were just getting born into this world. Bubbling, whistling, burning, sizzling, and so on are just a couple of the sounds from the kitchen.

"Boy, hurry and help me prepare! Afterward, you are to help me without me telling you how. If you can do so, then tomorrow I will allow you to be the Chef de Cuisine. Now get moving!" A man's voice overlapped everything else in this kitchen as if he was the king in this domain.

The tall man appeared looming over his domain among the multiple stoves, fireplace oven, and stations shaped in a square formation. The brick-made fireplace oven was placed in the middle splitting the square formation. On both sides of the brick-made fireplace oven were two stations with a wooden counter covering over them. Going more onto the left side, the tall man was currently at work.

His belly seemed over showed his work. However, that didn't stop his inability to perform the creations that followed.

His giant-like hands were gruff, yet everything they did held a sort of melody to them. For example, his right hand would play a dance as various spices were poured into a pan. The left hand holding a dull fire type-knife would simultaneously be cutting the meat on the wooden counter—each piece of meat coming out 2cm in length and width.

His brown eyes race across the kitchen, only paying attention to each station for a couple of seconds, having his black hair in a ponytail keeping it away from his face, while no sweat could be seen coming down his face.

Coming through the door hanging on a huck was Nil's Volnay Chefs coat, bright white and cut sleeves to the elbow. Even though that's the case, the sleeves were still a little oversized on Nil as they reached to his forearm. Nil grabbed the sleeves and adjusted them to his elbow as he walked over to an island that was separated from the square formation.

Waiting for him was a wooden stool standing by the island; because of Nil's small figure, he could not yet reach the iland by just standing, but instead needed some assistance. Laying onto the counter of the island was multiple whole vegetables ready to be cut up. Nil grabbed a plain knife that had no type of elements attached to it, just being plain metal.

"Bang"

The door swung open, hitting the wall stopping its force alongside it.

"Boris, stop slamming my door open! It's no wonder my door outside has a crack on it! Even a Nil, who is currently six years old, knows better." The Chef briefly stopped his work as he was irritated, pointing his giant finger toward Nil. However, this only lasted for a brief second before he began to work on his creations again.

"Gaufrid, don't be that way! This boar was hard to open the door with, and as for the outside door. I already told you that I didn't do that. So why must you blame me for something so trivial?" Boris walked over to Nil, holding the boar with one arm. Laying it over so casually on the iland that Nil was working on.

Having the boar laid right next to the vegetables, Nil could fully notice the beauty in it. The muscles that were bulging out of its body, the scars that covered it all over. Along with the tuff, skin felt like rubber, with a few hairs that felt like a cactus.

"Make us something good." Boris left with a smile and a little drool that could be seen. Nil personally believes that Boris lives solely just for food.

"Of course! Boy, let's get back to work!" Gaufrid walked over to Nil, grabbing the boar in the same style as Boris did, as he laid it down on a station that's located at the end of the square formation that's more isolated, with a sink right next to it.

Typically speaking, the iland is where you would put the finished meals to bring outside. However, Nil normally prepped the food here, which currently he was cutting vegetables. He took a slight look over at Gaufrid, watching as he took the white sleeves of his chef coat, taking it all the way to his shoulder.

Gaufrid then grabbed a much sharper knife than what he was using earlier to begin the butchering, however, Nil didn't know what element was attached to it. Like a painter without any worries scribbling his artwork across the canvas, Gaufrid worked in the same manner. The knife slowly went against the boar's skin, as the chef first started with the stomach. Nil could tell that he had some resistance now and then. However, Nil thought it was just how tuff skin the boar has.

"Remember, I said to get to work!" Gaufrid, without even a look, could tell that Nil was watching; however, it only made him smile a bit.

Nil looked away and hurried back to work chopping away at the vegetables. After a couple of minutes, Nil finally finished cutting up a dozen or so vegetables. Unfortunately, Gaufrid is still at work with the boar, so that means that Nil has to take over the kitchen in the meantime.

Not that he minds, but Nil is nowhere as proficient as Gaufrid.