Idle Talk 20

Syl’s Delight
“Whoooaaa~~~~!”

The noodle dishes we had asked Takumi-san for have finally arrriiiived!

“They… they all look so delicious~”
“Yes, truly they do~”
“Wah! M-Marianora-sama, please don’t sneak up on me like that~~~!”

While I was completely absorbed in staring at Takumi-san’s food, Marianora-sama’s voice suddenly came from right beside me, making me jump in panic.

“My, my, Sylphreel, aren’t you overreacting a bit?”
“No, no! Anyone would jump if someone suddenly talked right next to them!”
“Sylphreel, pay more attention to your surroundings. Your focus is scattered.”
“Indeed. You should be able to anticipate something this simple.”
“Uwaaah!”

Just when I thought I’d gotten some distance from Marianora-sama, voices came again from right beside me.
And this time, from both sides!

“Salamanteel! Nomoodle! Why are you two teleporting into the room!? There’s a door, you know! Please come in through that~~~”
“This way’s faster.”
“Of course. Something delicious is waiting.”

Everyone is keeping close tabs on Takumi-san’s movements, huh~

“Hey, hey, let’s eat already.”

Salamanteel was leaning over the table, practically drooling as he stared at the noodle dishes, eyes glued to them.

“I want to eat quickly too~”

Marianora-sama’s eyes were sparkling as well.
Ah, and Nomoodle was quietly staring at the food with fascination.

“For now… shall we just eat?”

We wouldn’t get any discussion done like this, so we decided to enjoy the food first.

“This one is called udon, right? And this one is pasta, and there are four kinds! Sylphreel, Sylphreel! I want to try every single one of them!”
“Me too, me too!”
“Of course, me as well.”
“Naturally, me too~”

And so, we decided to divide all four kinds of pasta evenly.
There were four of us, after all. So each dish was split into four plates, but… —

“Hey, Sylphreel, isn’t the meat-sauce pasta on the right side bigger?”
“They’re the same.”
“No way, yours is definitely more.”
“If you’re going to say that, then your carbonara on the left plate looks bigger!”

Dividing food is surprisingly difficult.
Just making sure nothing spilled off the plate took all my concentration, so plating things beautifully like Takumi-san was completely impossible.

“My, my~”
“Takumi-san does it effortlessly, but… this is quite difficult.”

Marianora-sama and Nomoodle were struggling too.
Honestly, we probably never should have tried dividing it ourselves.

“It doesn’t look very pretty, but the flavor won’t change!”
“From now on, we should leave this kind of task to our retainers.”
“I agree. It seems we’re all unsuited for this kind of delicate work.”

After we finally finished dividing everything, the three of them all had the expression of, “Never again.”
I guess none of us have any talent at all for cooking-related things… though dividing food might not technically count as cooking.
We don’t even pour our own tea, we leave all that to retainers, so I suppose this was inevitable~

“Haah… it just makes me realize again how skilled and amazing Takumi-san really is~”
“I agree wholeheartedly~”
“Me too.”
“Yes, truly.”

“We took so long… the food must have gotten cold—huh? Wait, it hasn’t.”
“I adjusted the flow of time so the state of the dishes wouldn’t change~”

Just when we were about to eat before anything else went wrong, we realized the dishes were still piping hot.
Marianora-sama had apparently applied time-stopping magic to keep everything fresh.

“As expected of Marianora-sama!”
“Hehe, warm dishes should stay warm, and cold dishes should stay cold. That is very important~”

Salamanteel praised Marianora-sama, and she smiled proudly.

“Thank you for helping us, Marianora-sama.”
“Time is my domain, after all. Something like this is nothing~”

We can use our own domain abilities as naturally as breathing.
For Marianora-sama, this was trivial.
But for me, who governs wind, it’s an area I’m not good at.

Wait… if that’s the case, then cooking should fall under Salamanteel.
And plating under Marianora-sama, since it’s part of creation… so why did she struggle?
Does that mean plating isn’t part of true ‘creation’?
Meaning domain doesn’t matter?
Meaning… our actual personal dexterity shows?

In that case—am I… clumsy?

… If I think any harder about this, I’ll regret it, so let’s forget it!
What matters most right now is enjoying Takumi-san’s cooking!

“Well then, shall we begin?”

With Marianora-sama’s signal, each of us started with the noodle dish we preferred.

“Aaah~~~ it’s so delicious~”
“Why is it? After struggling so much earlier, it tastes even better than usual~”
“Every dish is exquisite.”
“How can Takumi-san’s cooking always be this good~”

The udon was smooth and wonderful, and each pasta had its own unique and delicious flavor~

“Ahh, it’s already gone~~~”
“I finished mine too… I want more~”
“I could eat Takumi-san’s food forever~”
“… Haa~ it’s over already~”

I stared sadly at my now-empty plate.

“Ah! We didn’t use our ‘request rights’ this time, so we can just ask him again for something we want to eat!”

“““!”””

The moment they heard that, Marianora-sama and the others, whose expressions had drooped in disappointment, instantly brightened like flowers blooming.

“We’ve had a meal already, so next should be something sweet, don’t you think?”
“No, no, it should definitely be another main dish! Takumi-san makes way more meal-type dishes!”
“Both options are tempting~”

They immediately launched into discussions about what to request next.
That just shows how captivated they all are by Takumi-san’s cooking.

“Oh! How about that children’s plate from Creta? That dish with lots of different items! And it had that sweet pudding too, right?”
“That’s it!”
“That one!”
“Yes, that!”

A dish perfect for those who want to try a bit of everything came to mind, so I suggested it, and the three of them agreed with shining eyes.

Later, when we asked Takumi-san about it, he accepted with a little laugh.
At that time he said, “If you all are the ones eating it, it wouldn’t be a ‘kids’ plate’ but an ‘adult plate’ instead.”
Apparently the dish changes names depending on who eats it.

Either way, I’m already excited!

What do you think about this chapter?