บท 27: Let Me Cook

Ok, I'm going to be honest here… I improvised quite a bit with the cooking.

I decided to just go ahead and make a stew since that would be the easiest for me to make in my current situation.

There were quite a lot of things that were different so I just had to go with either my gut feeling or just winging it while I was making the food.

Like heck… There was no pepper or salt, so I just opened the packs and mixed in foods that had the taste of salt or pepper to get the taste I wanted.

Then I had to taste a little bit of each sealed food to decide what might go well together before throwing them into the pot. The ones that I didn't think would fit got tossed into the freezer instead.

For some reason, Amber was really interested in watching me cook.

I closed the lid on the pot to let the stew simmer, though I was also going by my own gut feeling for how long I should do that.

I intended to taste test it every ten minutes or so to make sure I didn't create some kind of chemical hazard.

Give me some credit ok? I'm working with ingredients that I am seeing for the first time here! Not blowing this up is already deserving of an accomplishment if you ask me!

"You know… I said that I suspected you to be a daughter of some noble family before, but I take that back. No noble daughter would even know how to do whatever you just did."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Do what? Cook?"

"Yeah… There's absolutely no way a noble daughter would even know how to do all that. Or more like they would never have bothered to learn without a good reason."

I leaned against the wall, "You keep saying these noble families and what not and I have no idea what they're like. Seriously though, from what I know, there weren't any noble families anymore so what are they?"

"Huh… That's quite interesting. It's actually a long story to be honest, happened like… Hmmm… Several centuries after humans went into space I think? Ah fuck, I don't even remember most of the stuff. You're better off looking for this info in an Archive."

I snapped my fingers, "That's right! I was intending to go and look for one on the station but I got so caught up in the Merc thing that I forgot. I tried to look for a place to search up this info online but… I don't know where to start."

Apparently, the popular search engines that used to be so widespread back in my original World do not seem to exist here. So it's not like I could just go to that site and pop in a search.

"Oh what? You mean to read the information yourself? Haven't heard someone say that in ages."

I blinked, "What's the difference between this and going to an archive?"

"Well an Archive would just let you insert the knowledge into your brain for a price. The process is almost instantaneous too so for something like this, you could just go get it from an Archive right away."

"Wait, wait… What do you mean to insert the knowledge into my brain?"

"Exactly what it means?"

"Do you mean I can just go to an archive, ask about the noble families and then somehow I just know everything about them without having to read or anything?"

"Yes? Oh, the amount of information you get depends on how much you pay of course. If it's just the superficial, everyday information that everyone knows, of course you wouldn't need to pay a lot for it."

I frowned, "Is it no longer common to study something by reading about it?"

Amber made a face, "Oh sure, that's still a thing… For the people who can't afford it, that is."

"Are schools no longer a thing then?"

"They are, just that they are simply extensions of Archives where children get implanted with the basic knowledge and then they can choose what professions to learn about from there."

What the heck is this kind of dystopian setting? That actually sounds kind of depressing…

Everything that society deemed necessary for you to know would simply be pumped into your brain without requiring you to interact with anyone else…

The thought must have appeared on my face because Amber immediately continued, "Ah, I know that look. You're thinking something like children would grow up with no social skills because of that, right? Well it's the opposite actually. You see, just because the knowledge is implanted in your head, it doesn't mean you know how to use it, so you still need to spend time to understand and apply what has been implanted in you. Also, it doesn't mean you can't forget about the knowledge implanted in you."

"Wouldn't this also open up to people implanting nefarious ideals inside your head?"

"Oh that actually happened before, back when this tech was more widespread and anyone could just use it anytime they wanted. After that happened, they limited its use to within Archives and it's quite strictly regulated."

I see… I guess there's both pros and cons to this I guess.

I pointed to my Codex, "But this means that I can still search up any information I want through the internet or something right?"

"Sure~ Just hop on to the GalaNet to search what you want there."

Gala what?

I blinked at her before opening up my Codex again to type in what she had told me. Sure enough, I was brought to a webpage that looked really similar to the search engine I was familiar with before.

Typing in "Noble families" into the search bar gave me a whole ton of results, with a number of them showing human noble families and also supposedly other civilizations' nobles.

I put that aside for later reading, seems like I've found something that I could occupy my own time with.

I'd still like to visit an archive to see how it works at least, since I'm also curious about this knowledge implantation process.

I heard some bubbling sounds and I was reminded of my cooking and I went towards the pot to inspect it.

Hmmm… It smells ok… But the looks of it… Well… It could be better I guess? It's basically a brown slop…

I scooped up some of the stew and poured it onto a saucer, giving it a sniff to double check that it was probably edible before bringing it to my mouth.

The moment the liquid touched my tongue…

Hey… It's actually pretty good.

And I think it's ready too, so let's just go ahead and serve this right now.

I switched off the induction stove and grabbed two bowls to pour some of the stew into them, one for myself and one for Amber.

She watched me with an amused smile as I handed one of the bowls to her, "So… This is your masterpiece?"

"I wouldn't call it that, I still have some ways to go but I can guarantee you that this is better than that thing they call ramen. In fact, give me some time to learn and I'll make you some real ramen."

She shrugged, "Sure, sure. Let's just see how your little soup tastes like first."

Amber tucked her hair behind her ear before bringing the bowl up to her lips to take a sip.

She slurped up some of the stew before her eyes suddenly widened.

Without warning, she threw her head back and gulped down the rest of the contents of the bowl in several large mouthfuls before turning to me with wide eyes.

"MORE!!"

I placed a hand on my hips, "Ah ah, not so fast. Admit that what I served you is better than that--"

"You just made the best food I have ever tasted in my entire life! Please marry me Tera! I will do anything for you if you let me drink this stew for the rest of my life!!"

…

Ok… I wasn't going to make you go that far but I'll take that as a compliment…

I handed over the bowl that I had originally wanted for myself to switch for her empty one.

Instead of gulping it down like the last one, she savoured it with small sips like she was enjoying some kind of fine wine.

I went ahead to refill the bowl for myself and sat beside her to enjoy my first cooking in this universe.

Hmm… Yep, it's actually not bad, though I guess it might be just a tad bit salty. I should have used more water for the broth but it's still not bad.

Hey, maybe I can search up on that GalaNet to see if there's some recipes or something that I can try? That's also worth a shot too.

But in the meantime… Both Amber and I just enjoyed the stew I made in comfortable silence in each other's company.