Chapter 35
After the cooking competition, Maison Monbel grew noisy again.
Count Kleber's eyes lit up at the idea of turning the cooking competition into a regular event, and I had to meet that bastard again—the one I'd thought I'd never have to see after paying off the debt—and discuss business with him.
Viscount Servan was seen less often at social gatherings for a while, but apparently his chef, Oldren, received favorable reviews from several nobles.
That was because he'd put up a surprisingly good fight despite losing.
Even if a chef loses, if he makes a proper showing, more opportunities will come.
Apart from his master's careless mouth, Oldren was genuinely skilled.
At that level, there was nothing for one head chef to say to another.
The problem was me.
Inquiries began coming in about whether they could see the fire show again.
“Fuck, these lunatics. Do they have any idea how dangerous that is?”
Of course, the more dangerous it was, the more money it made.
Which only made it more irritating.
In business, anything dangerous and profitable always corrupts people.
At first, I said I wouldn't do it, then depending on how much they offered, that became “maybe, under certain conditions,” and eventually evolved into “we need a dedicated stage.”
I thought of myself as some sort of zombie eaten away by capitalism, and I didn't trust myself.
Still, I decided to take my days off.
I closed the ledger, ignored reservation inquiries, didn't read the request forms, didn't count the liquor inventory, and didn't touch a pot.
A head chef's job on a day off was to do absolutely nothing.
The problem was that I had almost no ability to do nothing.
Even lying in bed, the next course kept running through my head.
I needed to reorganize the lunch and dinner flow, manage the prep table for The Sea's Duel separately, and whiskey stock was disappearing faster than expected.
On top of that, nobles kept showing interest in staff meals, so I needed to create more variations on the Kitchen Table.
We currently had one kimchi stew base and one fried rice base, but people would get tired of just those two in no time.
In the end, I got out of bed.
“Even resting is work.”
Saying it aloud to myself only made me feel more miserable.
Since I felt I'd only open the ledger again if I stayed in my room, I went out to the garden behind the estate.
The garden at the Monbel estate had once been terribly neglected.
Weeds had grown everywhere, the fountain had dried up, and about half the flower beds had died.
But after the debts were paid and people were hired again, it had slowly come back to life.
It wasn't perfect yet, like the garden of a great noble house, but at least it no longer looked like the graveyard of a ruined family.
As I walked, I spotted peaches growing on a fruit tree at one side of the garden.
“Oh.”
They were ripening beautifully.
Someone must have been tending the tree.
They would probably go to the estate kitchen, be used as Elysia's snack, or become an ingredient in dessert for guests.
In other words, I wasn't supposed to pick and eat them carelessly.
But I was the head chef.
I had a duty to inspect the condition of the ingredients.
I looked around.
There was no one around.
‘Good.’
I reached out and picked a peach.
Its skin was covered in soft fuzz, and the distinctive scent of ripe fruit clung to my fingertips.
It wasn't exactly the same as an Earth peach, but it was fairly close.
I wiped it roughly on my sleeve, then paused.
“That's unhygienic.”
I muttered to myself and looked around again.
There was no one around.
The moment I bit into it, juice burst out.
“Ah.”
It was delicious.
It wasn't insanely sweet, but it was sweet and tart, with a clean fragrance.
It was ripe without being mushy, and had a satisfying bite.
“This would be good in a dessert.”
It would pair well with chilled cream or goat's-milk ice cream, and it might be good thinly sliced and lightly macerated in white wine.
Even on my day off, I was thinking about cooking in the end.
Fuck, my life. So much for taking it easy today.
“What are you doing?”
A voice came from behind me.
I froze with the peach in my mouth.
When I slowly turned around, Elysia was standing there.
She was wearing a light dress for going out.
It had fewer decorations than usual, and her hair was tied a little more casually.
She held a small book in her hand.
Apparently, she had come out to the garden to enjoy her day off as well.
I swallowed the peach in my mouth.
“I was inspecting the ingredients.”
Elysia looked at the peach in my hand.
“With your mouth?”
“It is the most accurate method.”
“Did you have permission?”
“By the authority vested in the head chef...”
“That tree is mine. It's the only one whose fruit makes it into the kitchen, so it's for the people of my family alone.”
“Still, if we developed the menu properly...”
“My late mother planted it. I don't want to sell it.”
“I'm sorry.”
I immediately lowered my head.
Of course, Elysia wasn't the sort of person to scold me over this.
If she'd really scolded me, I could have just laughed, thought, ‘The crazy bitch finally lost it after all this time,’ thrown my resignation in her face, and walked out. But when she pulled a Talulah like that, there was nothing I could say except that I was sorry.
Elysia stared at me for a while, then burst out laughing.
“I'm joking. My mother told me to share them with the retainers, of course. Do you really think I'd make a fuss over one peach?”
“I didn't think you would.”
“I should have some peach, too.”
Elysia approached with a smile.
“Shall I pick you a fresh one?”
“No.”
She looked at the peach in my hand.
It was the peach I'd already bitten into.
“My lady?”
Elysia took it from my hand without a second thought and bit into the opposite side from where I'd bitten.
Juice glistened on her lips.
Elysia chewed the peach, then nodded.
“It's good.”
“Yes. It's in good condition.”
“Is that all you have to say, Kyle?”
“You have juice on your lips.”
Elysia gave a small laugh.
We sat on a bench at one side of the garden.
Before long, the peach lay between us.
We took turns biting it, one bite for me and one for her, until the peach grew smaller.
The sight of a noble young lady and a commoner chef sharing a single piece of fruit in the garden would inspire another strange rumor if anyone from high society saw it.
I didn't give a damn, but Elysia might.
Elysia gazed at the garden for a while.
Monbel had changed completely.
Compared to when I first opened my eyes in this house, it was almost a different place.
Back then, the air had been dead.
The people had lost hope, the kitchen was poor, and Elysia had been preparing the money to go die.
But now peaches ripened in the garden, money circulated through the village, and the estate was busy organizing the next reservations.
When people survive, the scenery around them changes, too.
Elysia spoke quietly.
“Kyle.”
“Yes.”
“I really was going to die that day.”
I didn't answer.
Some things shouldn't be answered right away.
Elysia looked down at the peach.
“I was going to go to the gambling house, bet all the money I had left, and die if I lost. I probably would have lost. I'm not very good at gambling.”
…….
“If that money had vanished, Count Kleber would have seized our family's estate and lands, while Duke Kalden and Count Rosenhart tore apart whatever was left. Whichever side took me, I'd have ended up as a plaything.”
…….
“I thought that if I got lucky and won, I could hold on a little longer, and if I lost, I could simply end it. In truth, I wouldn't have lasted long even if I'd won. It wasn't a debt I could pay off by winning a single gamble.”
“You probably wouldn't have.”
“You're really terrible at comforting people.”
“I'm sorry.”
“No, that's why I like you.”
At those words, I looked at her.
Elysia was smiling faintly.
“If someone had told me then that things would get better, I probably wouldn't have believed them. Monbel was finished, the debt was too large, and there was nothing I could do. But you didn't tell me things would get better.”
“Did I?”
“Yeah. You just said we should sell food.”
That was true.
I'd said we should make money by selling very expensive food.
Even now, it sounded insane.
Elysia, who had believed it, was crazy too, and I, who had actually pulled it off, was a fucking insane bastard in my own right.
And that insanity had saved the family.
“Back then, I thought you were a really strange person.”
“And now?”
“You're still strange.”
“I see.”
“But now I understand. I survived because you were strange.”
I was rendered speechless.
Elysia looked straight at me.
“Thank you so much for saving my life.”
A breeze passed through the garden, making the leaves tremble softly.
I looked at her face, then lowered my gaze to the peach for no particular reason.
These sorts of words were difficult.
Insulting people was easy, and so was pointing out what someone had or hadn't done right.
Calculating the sauce's consistency, the doneness of meat, and whether a customer would pay was difficult, but doable.
But when someone sincerely thanked me, a head chef suddenly had nothing to say.
It had been the same in my previous life.
If a customer said the food was delicious, I could answer.
I could answer if they said they'd had a good time, too.
But when someone said they felt they could go on living thanks to another person, that was frightening.
I took another bite of the peach.
It was to buy time.
“I was only trying to survive, too.”
Elysia smiled.
“I know.”
“I mean it. If you went to the gambling house and ruined yourself, I'd be thrown out without ever receiving my unpaid wages.”
“I know that, too.”
“So you don't have to be so grateful...”
“I'm still grateful. I don't think I can say anything besides that.”
I closed my mouth.
Elysia took the peach back and bit into it.
“At first, I just stopped wanting to die. Then I didn't want to let Monbel go to ruin, and after that, I wanted to make money. And now...”
“And now?”
She paused for a moment.
“I'm curious about tomorrow.”
I looked toward the garden for no reason and simply smiled.
“I'm sorry. I'm not good at this sort of thing, so I don't have anything to say.”
“I know. If you'd suddenly given me some wonderful answer, I'd have thought it was strange. The Kyle I know isn't capable of sweet words like that. He may be good at making sweet desserts, though.”
Elysia took one last small bite of the peach, stood, and stretched.
“Then I'll be going. Stay and rest in the garden a little longer before you come in. If you want more peaches, you can have some.”
“Next time, I'll ask permission before picking one.”
“You can just pick one and eat it.”
“Is that really all right?”
“Yeah.”
Elysia looked toward the garden and said,
“It's not like the Monbel garden is a funeral home anymore.”
I slowly nodded at that.
When I first came to this house, everything had been heading toward an end.
But now it was different.
Peaches ripened in the garden, ingredients for tomorrow piled up in the kitchen, and reservations filled the ledger.
As long as people were alive, they got hungry, and when they got hungry, they ate something.
And when they ate something, they found the will to keep living just a little longer.
I took one last bite of the peach.
It was sweet, a little tart, and juice stained my hand.
It was a good flavor.
Enough to make me feel that I was alive.