The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Scarr
Read at Watashi Wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 018 – Maou’s Cooking 2 [B]
“Excuse me — eh, oooh, these are—!”
“Hey Galtia.”
“Hm, you’ve come.”
We waited a bit for Galtia after lining up the dishes in Ssulal’s room. Galtia arrived and happily beamed as he spotted the array of dishes lined up on the table.
Ssulal saw Galtia and welcomed him in with a smile, just like I did.
“It’s a little late, but we’re holding Galtia’s welcome party today, so both of us cooked a lot of dishes…That’s why, eat a lot, okay?”
“Oh, of course I will. Thanks.”
“Ah, but you don’t have to force yourself to eat it, okay!”
“Ahn? What does that mean?”
“Ah, Aah-, don’t worry about that. The food will be less delectable if it’s cold, so let’s just eat quickly.”
“…You’re right. Well, all of it looks amazing, so I look forward to it.”
Galtia felt a little skeptical at Ssulal’s uncertain words, so I went ahead and recommended dishes as a follow-up.
“Even so… I never imagined that a maou would hold a welcome party for me. I’m happy about it, though.”
“…Aah, Ssulal also did the same when I first came.”
“Hee, is that so? As expected, Ssulal is not so maou-like.”
“…It’s not a big deal… I feel a tad cringed, so don’t praise me too much.”
Ssulal looked away as if she was embarrassed by this. Galtia and I laughed as we witnessed that.
…If only we didn’t have to worry about the dishes, it would be a good story…
Ssulal’s dish looked and smelled perfect, just like last time. There was also no problem with her cooking methods. That was why, we wouldn’t know until he ate it. Maybe he would think it was delicious, but that possibility was small. The reason for this lied in my trembling right hand.
Galtia sat down in front of the dishes while humming. Apparently, he was really looking forward to this meal. Their appearance was perfect after all, so it was no wonder he had such thoughts.
In case of an emergency, I would simply serve him the food I’d cooked. Even I wasn’t evil enough to be persistent in feeding him food that could make his consciousness fly away. I didn’t mind if it wasn’t good. Anyway, let him eat for the time being. It should be okay since he wouldn’t die because of this either.
…Even if we tried to look at it from a different perspective, this was totally a human experimentation.
“Well then… clasp my hands together… time to eat!”
“!”
“!”
After politely clasping his hand together to give his gratitude for the meal, Galtia immediately picked up a nearby dish; while we looked on from the sidelines with a tense expression.
“First of all, I’ll begin with ika curry. It smells fragrant and looks delicious as well.”1
Galtia picked up his spoon and carried the ika curry into his mouth without hesitation. Now then, what will happen next?
“…”
The moment the ika curry entered Galtia’s mouth, all his movements froze.
“Aaah… so it is no good after all…”
“……Delicious.”
“…Hah?”
Hmn? What did he just say… eh, delicious?
The moment I was taken aback, Galtia shouted out.
“ITS DEEEEELLLLLICCCCCIOOOUUUSSSSS!!!!”
“Eh, really?!”
Unwittingly, Ssulal also became visibly pleased. It seemed that even the person who made it herself also didn’t think it would turn out to be that good.
Galtia still held onto the ika curry that Ssulal made while he continued singing praises for the dish.
“Aaah… it’s delicious! How can it be this delicious… which of you made this?”
“It, it was me…”
“Ssulal! Don’t tell me you aren’t actually a maou but the greatest chef in the world instead?”
“Eehh?!”
“Was it that delicious to you…”
Looking at Galtia, who earnestly complimented the dish and ate it so deliciously, I also picked up a dish.
Now that I thought about it, it was clearly a bit strange. Since the ingredients and the cooking procedure of our dishes were mostly the same, there was no way it could’ve been that bad. Therefore, this should be the actual ability of Ssulal.
Looking at Ssulal, she was so cheerful seeing her cooking was finally successful… Really, if you had such an ability, why didn’t you succeed when you tested it out with me.
Anyway, I’m happy it turned out well. And I was glad to be of some help to her.
“Well then, we should also eat.”
“Eeh, you’re right.”
Then Ssulal and I reached out for the food and brought it to our mouths.
At that moment—
“—-??!!”
My sight slowly turned pure white.
It felt like something came out of my body.
I felt like I was floating about, and as I looked down, I saw my own body.
—I was undergoing an out-of-body experience.
“—!”
Once it ended, my consciousness gradually returned.
What was that just now…
It seemed that Ssulal beside me also experienced the same phenomenon, for I observed her patting her body all over to check whether there were any abnormalities.
So another mysterious coincidence occurred… Hey, but this really wasn’t the time to think about that!
“Galtia! Pause for a moment!”
“Aah? What’s up?”
“Stop eating that dish! I don’t know what will become of your body!”
“That’s right! You don’t have to eat it anymore!”
Ssulal, who was a tick late on regaining herself, was now stopping Galtia together with me.
However, Galtia put on a reluctant expression as he heard that.
“Eeh-… that’s quite a cruel thing to request of me. You ask me to stop eating such delectable food? …Ah, you meant your portion might also get eaten. Sorry, sorry, you must’ve wanted it so badly as well since it was so delicious.”
“No, I don’t want any though?!”
“Eh… what’s going on?”
Ssulal had a confused expression as she eyed Galtia. I also didn’t follow what was happening.
I perplexedly asked Galtia, who really thought I would gorge myself on this meal, a question.
“Why are you okay…?”
“Aah? Are you trying to ask if it’s okay for it to be this scrumptious? …Ah, this should be the dish you’ve made. It tastes mediocre compared to Ssulal’s cooking. Can I eat Ssulal’s dish first?”
“Are you inviting me for a fight?!!!”
“Waaah! Stop!!!”
Ssulal held me back from behind to stop me.
“Really, Galtia. You have to eat Leonhart’s food properly too.”
“Eeeh-… but you see, compared to your dishes… there’s too much of a difference, it makes it hard to swallow his’.”
Galtia was dissatisfied to hear Ssulal’s reminder as he criticized my cooking.
“Damn… curse your distorted sense of taste. Ssulal’s dish isn’t supposed to be edible.”
“Uuh, that’s a terrible evaluation, but I agree… however.”
Ssulal was slightly depressed at my wording. Nonetheless, it seemed that she had something to say, so she approached Galtia and took her dishes away from him before speaking up.
“Ah! Hey…”
“…Ssulal?”
As Galtia and I were still puzzled about Ssulal’s actions, she said to Galtia in a slightly blaming tone.
“Galtia, Leonhart also cooked his best, so even if you don’t think it’s delicious, eat it all properly.”
“…But you see.”
“No buts.”
Ssulal cut him off mid-sentence. She spoke with a powerful tone that didn’t allow room for any objections.
Ssulal then continued to confront Galtia.
“Does Galtia look down at dishes that someone worked so hard to make?”
“Uhh… that’s…”
“How is it? For your welcome party, Leonhart put his work aside to help me cook, and also cooked for you, you know? Are you going to keep pushing it away and say that you don’t want it because this dish is better?”
“…I, see. You’re right…”
Ssulal’s words made Galtia mumble as he weighed over their meaning. Then, as he came to a conclusion, he put an expression that was a little different than usual and — as if sneering at himself—he smiled, and bowed at me with a serious expression.
“Ssulal… no, Leonhart… sorry about that.”
“…I didn’t mind it that much though… you also meant it to be a light joke, right?”
“Even if that was the case, I still insulted the food, and you, who made the food.”
As he said that, he picked up a dish. It was the dish that he’d just compared to Ssulal’s. He brought it to his mouth and swallowed it after thoughtfully savoring the flavours inside.
“Ngu… This chicken banban, it tastes a little spicy. Did you arrange for it to be like that?”
“Aah, I cooked the way I liked it when I ate it in my hometown… You don’t like it?”
“Nah… I see. It’s definitely a taste that was refined through a lot of trial and error. It’s delicious, I’ll eat more of it.”
“Hah, I thought you just said you didn’t want it earlier?”
I grinned and said so to tease Galtia.
However, Galtia smiled without feeling uncomfortable at my words.
“I’ll eat them all. Everything here is something you guys worked hard to make, right? It was twice as tasty as I thought before.”
“…Do whatever you want.”
……What a thing to say, and with such a straight face.
As I bluntly replied, Ssulal clapped her hands to call for a change in this awkward atmosphere.
“Well then, let’s get back to our topic before. Galtia, just tell me if you don’t have enough. I’ll go whip up some more.”
“Ooh, it really doesn’t seem enough… maybe you’d better begin cooking now?”
“Really? Then I’ll be going for a bit. Leonhart, I’m leaving him to you.”
“Aaah.”
Ssulal was in a good mood as she left her private room.
Galtia and I were the only ones left behind.
Thereafter, Galtia looked at me with an expression as if he was convinced about something.
His gaze felt annoying, so I frowned and glared back at him.
“…What is it?”
“Nah… I just feel like I understand a little why you chose to follow Ssulal.”
“…I don’t have any reason for that. Did your head become strange after being scolded?”
“Aah-… now that I think about it, how many years since I was really scolded by someone?”
“Fuhn…”
I ate the food I cooked as I glanced at Galtia who laughed heartily while he ate his food.
We silently ate our meals for a bit, but soon enough, we couldn’t bear the silence and simply started talking about random topics. Not long after, Ssulal also joined us in the middle. She became angry for being left out once again, leaving the both of us holding our stomachs with laughter.
Tsukii Note
Considering Galtia came from a mushi user clan, which was known as gourmet, it was unlikely that he had a distorted sense of taste. So my theory was Ssulal(at least in this fanfic; other fanfic treated it as she actually didn’t possess cooking skill, despite the fact majority of intelligent lifeforms have it, even though they mostly just LV 0 regarding that) actually had LV3 of cooking, but it made her cooking so transcendent that only limited people could actually recognize the taste before knocked out. Said people were likely those who possessed Food Fighter skill, which Galtia happened to possess. Everyone else, including Ssulal herself, didn’t have such skill, and failed to recognize the taste, thus could only conclude it as taste horrible.
Well, the official said it was due to his unusual food palette. note that that thing was different from sense of taste, as he was likely more sensitive than others. it’s just, he prefers the taste of Ssulal’s food compared to the common one.
Also, the Gallery
Ikaman: https://i.ibb.co/wLWpDrZ/Squidman-03.png
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