Chapter 15: Eve of Heaven Elzoma—3
When Shika told me she’d take care of the food, I thought she’d make something more like an Iceborns’ liking. However, I was completely dumbfounded when I saw a hotpot (Nabe*) prepared on the dining table—glistening with sparkles and looking unimaginably rich. The thin-sliced meat floating in the hot broth served with mushrooms made it excitedly delicious. I could feel the aroma tingling my nose and my tongue was desperately eager—holding me back from drooling.
Besides, the extra meat that I gave her, was grilled magnificently—atop soya sauce nonetheless. It appeared unimaginably tender as well.
This was enough to beat any fine cuisine I’d tasted until now. I wondered how she managed to end up making all this stuff—was she programmed like this?
"I don’t know what exactly happened to me. But when I started cooking, everything I did seemed an instinct. As if I knew tons of recipes and knew what exactly to make with the given ingredients. Top of that, there were additional cooking materials on the... umm the place you called kitchen or so, and it was surprising how I knew how to use them properly."
She said, seeming a bit surprised at her skills. By the way, when I was giving Zariel a tour of this house, she turned back to her usual appearance.
"Well, that explains why there’s soya sauce." I mumbled, taking a small portion to eat, "Perhaps the built-in functions of this house had influenced you to prepare everything like a Japanese."
"Is that so? Wait, does that mean the food isn’t to your liking? I’m sorry! I thought..."
"No, no! That’s not what I meant. It’s totally to my liking. I was just surprised to see all of the familiar stuff. That’s all."
"Hump! Who cares what influenced Shika to make all of these." Then Zariel interjected, leaving me no time to apologize to Shika. "The food looks amiably delicious! That matters alone, nothing else. Now if you excuse me..."