Arthur and Kailan had fought so fiercely that the outskirts had been turned upside down...
Or so I thought.
As it turned out, the incident that looked like the area had been eroded by alien plants was Eilenna’s doing.
Back then, once the fight had more or less settled down, I took a quick look around,
and Eilenna alone was collapsed atop a tree so tall it was suspicious.
I couldn’t climb up and bring her down myself, so the elves went swish, swish up the tree and carried her down.
“Uh... huh? Jinwoo? Why are you here... Hiiik!”
“What’s with her?”
Eilenna opened her eyes from the light jolt of being brought down by the elves.
Since I had no bad memories with her, I approached her out of concern.
But she stared at me with bewildered eyes, then her face turned red and she quickly ran off home.
What is there about me to be embarrassed over? That hurts a little...
In any case, three days had passed since that incident.
Since Arthur and Kailan had come all this way, they decided to wait for me and return together.
I still had homework to finish here.
But that homework, too, ended today.
“Elpina...”
“Y-yes, Chef.”
“Congratulations. You have survived.”
“El-kkiyahhoo!!”
I took one bite of the risotto Elpina had made and decided to give her a passing mark.
And then, around her neck went the “Kang Jinwoo Handmade Apron.”
Elpina was so happy that she bounced up and down, swinging the apron around.
“Hey, hey! I told you not to jump in the kitchen!”
“Hehe. Chef, you’re leaving now anyway, so there’s no need to mind you anymore!”
Elhaha—!
With Elpina, the final graduate, behind me, my “El’s Kitchen” also came to an end.
Although the training period had been less than ten days, cooking, by its nature, was all about direction.
Secondary elements like flavor and technique would be built up by their lives, day after day.
Iseria also received a passing mark without fail.
In fact, Iseria had been the first to pass.
As they say, even a dog at a village school for three years can recite poetry; compared to the other apprentice elves, she followed along noticeably well.
Once Elpina’s wild excitement finally calmed down, all the graduates of El’s Kitchen lined up before me.
Until just a moment ago, they had been giggling and chattering among themselves, but it seemed reality had finally sunk in.
That today was the last day they would cook with me in this kitchen.
“Khup, kh-heup...!”
“P-Pina! Don’t cry. It’s a happy... day!”
“I’m not crying! It’s just the onions, the onions are too spicy...”
As if she wasn’t now skilled enough with a knife to cut onions without her eyes stinging.
Apprentice elves—no. Since they had all passed now... Elchefs.
As proper Elchefs, they could slice onions while minimizing the juices.
Therefore, the tears flowing from the Elchefs’ eyes right now were the most basic of the basics in cooking. They were like salt.
Salt, the foundation of cooking.
Gratitude and respect toward me, the one who had taught them that foundation.
Their hearts were so full of those feelings that they spilled over and flowed as tears...!
“Kh-heuk, I’m someone who hardly ever cries, but...”
Even so, tears did not come.
If the teacher starts bawling at a time like this too, it ruins the picture a bit.
I crossed my arms and faced the Elchefs with the most composed attitude I could muster.
““Thank you for everything, damn it!!””
“Mm!!”
Chaaaak—!
The Elchefs bowed their heads all at once, and I calmly accepted their greeting.
Kang Jinwoo’s “El’s Kitchen,” complete!
***
“Jinwoo, you’re back. By the way, you really aren’t hurt anywhere, are you?”
“Yes, Your Grace. I’ve told you again and again, I’m really fine.”
“Sir Jinwoo... by any chance, when you’re walking down the road and sense someone behind you, then turn around only to find no one there, or feel like the furniture and tools in your room have been moved little by little... does that happen?”
“No, I’m seriously fine.”
After finishing the graduation ceremony for El’s Kitchen, I entered the meeting room where Arthur and Kailan were.
The final compensation plan for the “Kang Jinwoo Kidnapping Incident” was soon to be decided.
But these people had worried so much that my ears were about to grow calluses.
No matter how many times I said I was fine, they just wouldn’t listen...
Arthur and Kailan had stayed in Noirudel for the past few days as guests.
There were some elves who were not pleased that people they had crossed blades with were being accepted as guests, but,
“Any elf with a complaint, please raise your hand.”
“Hieek...”
they all vanished under Elioren, who had turned dark from wanting to normalize the incident as quickly as possible.
“I’ve seen the other elves before, but this is my first time seeing the High Elder.”
“The same goes for me, Your Grace.”
I hadn’t even known there was a position called High Elder.
In creative works, there were things like “high elves” or councils of elders made up of old elves.
Was it because I had been busy? I hadn’t even imagined such a thing actually existed.
The High Elder, “Trea,” who could communicate with the World Tree, was said to normally have no involvement in state affairs.
Elves, too, were ultimately mortals.
For a mortal mind to receive the words of the World Tree supposedly required strength beyond imagination.
So, in order to reduce that burden as much as possible, she was said to rest or sleep whenever she was not communicating with the World Tree.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the High Elder was at the heart of Noirudel.
And such an elf would soon enter this meeting room.
All because of the small ball set rolling by one human chef, which had now grown far too large.
It had been the impulsive act of Iseria, Veilla, and Seiran, not the fault of the elven race as a whole.
Therefore, it was a matter that could have been settled internally with the Sildiel family, to which they belonged...
but the problem grew larger when Kailan, Duke of Silvaerin in the northern Empire, personally came to rescue me.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
They had kidnapped me because my cooking was delicious. As a chef, it was an awkward motive—I couldn’t tell whether I should be happy or angry.
Still, a crime was a crime, and they had to pay for it.
“So about the compensation... are you truly fine with that much, Jinwoo?”
“That is right, Sir Jinwoo. I believe it would be acceptable for you to demand a little more.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
On the first night Arthur and Kailan came to rescue me, we finished discussing the compensation.
They seemed to be respecting my opinion as much as possible since I was the person involved, but apparently they felt my demands were lacking.
It was fine. Well... it wasn’t as though I was going to fleece the elves and live in wealth and glory.
To begin with, these guys had no material desire, so they didn’t have gold, jewels, or anything like that.
Their society still relied on barter and mutual aid without currency, so what I could receive was limited.
Creak—
Just as I finished organizing my thoughts on compensation, the door to the meeting room opened.
And five elves quietly entered.
Iseria, Veilla, and Seiran, the perpetrators of the incident.
Elioren, who was there for the compensation discussion, and even High Elder Trea.
Elioren and Trea sat across from us, while the other three stood behind them.
Amid the awkward silence, Trea was the first to speak.
“First, we would once again like to apologize for the unfortunate incident caused by the wrongdoing of us elves.”
““We apologize.””
“Ah, yes...”
The five elves all bowed their heads to me at once.
Unlike the graduation ceremony earlier, this felt somehow ambiguous and uncomfortable.
As for me, I had spent over ten days in Noirudel, had already received all the apologies, and bore no ill will toward Trea.
After hearing my dazed reply, Trea continued.
“We would like to ask what punishment and compensation Sir Jinwoo and Sir Kailan Silvaerin desire.”
“You said Noirudel’s highest punishment is exile, correct?”
“Yes. That is correct. However, these three elves have already learned the taste of the human world, and if we exile them, they may once again cause harm to Sir Jinwoo, so...”
Before deciding on today’s final compensation plan, I asked about Noirudel’s highest punishment.
The answer was none other than exile.
For elves, who considered serving and tending the World Tree the highest virtue, the meaning of exile was special.
Like castrating someone with strong lust, or cutting off the wrist of a first-rate swordsman.
It was an extremely cruel punishment that stripped away the very purpose of life.
“Then shouldn’t they just execute them?”
That thought flashed through my mind for an instant, but after living in Noirudel,
I had seen that the elves sincerely loved the World Tree and followed it blindly.
They relied on it so much mentally that, as a joke, if the World Tree told them to die, they would.
In other words, they were a race with the insane mindset of, “If I can become fertilizer for the World Tree, I don’t mind dying!”
Since they were that kind of race, I could certainly understand why exile was heavier than execution.
But the three who had kidnapped me—
Iseria, Veilla, and Seiran—were exceptional cases.
They were elves whose reverence for the World Tree had faded and who had tasted human civilization—more precisely, my cooking.
It was questionable whether exile would be effective on such elves, and there was also concern over secondary harm.
Well, if a problem occurred in Noirudel, it would have been a problem between elves.
But this time, the other party was a human, so it was difficult to simply exile them.
It was a situation that required multifaceted consideration in many respects.
Duke Kailan gave me a look, yielding the right to speak first.
I understood the cue and first spoke of the punishment I had decided on.
“First... fifty years. Please forbid those three elves from leaving the country for fifty years, and have them perform labor from morning until evening.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The reason I specifically chose fifty years was that by the time that much time passed, I’d probably be dead and gone anyway.
Well, it was possible I might live long because of some activation of [Mana Market] and [Hand Taste] or whatever.
But the probability of something like that happening was so slim, and it would be an exception.
As for labor, I just threw it in.
For elves, being banned from leaving the country for fifty years basically meant living normally for fifty years.
They had committed a crime, so it was better for there to be some kind of punishment.
That way, they’d feel more guilt, and through that, they might be reformed.
After confirming that Trea had written down my words, I continued.
“Also, please have those elves cook. I’ll provide the list.”
“Yes. Underst— Pardon? Cook?”
“Yes. Cook. That is correct.”
I answered Trea’s question firmly when she asked again.
Iseria, Veilla, and Seiran, who had been standing behind her awkwardly in repentance, looked surprised.
It was understandable. They had surely thought they would be doing farm work for fifty years, but cooking?
However, I had thought this through.
Thud—
I placed the list of dishes I had prepared in advance on the meeting room table.
Among famous overseas vegan recipe books, there was one called The Plant.
When I had briefly taken an interest in vegan food, I had read it while running it through a translator.
The list now placed on the meeting room table contained various vegan recipes from that book.
It was also a compilation densely filled with vegan recipes I had already known.
At the sudden appearance of the recipe book, not only the elves, but Arthur and Kailan were flustered as well.
I hadn’t told them about this beforehand, so it was natural they were surprised.
“It contains recipes that most elves should be able to eat without much preference or aversion. Roughly... one hundred of them.”
“Yes... And what should we have them do with this recipe book?”
“Until those three can perfectly make every dish in this book, have them cook at dawn and at night, during the times when they are not performing labor. And for each dish they pass, reduce their sentence by one year.”
“Pardon? Reduce their sentence?”
Everyone was left dumbfounded by my unconventional punishment proposal.
But when you dug into it, it wasn’t such a merciful suggestion.
Iseria, who was standing behind them, kept glancing at the recipe book.
She read the recipe written on the slightly scattered papers, then made the face of someone confronted with a difficult math problem.
As her reaction suggested, it would take a considerable amount of time to perfectly make all of those dishes.
Including Korean jang, tofu, kimchi, and various fermented foods,
there were dishes that took a long time and involved a great deal of trial and error.
There were also extremely high-difficulty recipes that even Iseria, who had encountered many foods through me, could never have imagined, such as “vegan sashimi” and “vegan nuggets.”
There were many reasons I made such a proposal.
“Attachment is the problem, really.”
First, while spending time with Iseria, Veilla, and Seiran, I had grown far too attached to them.
Since my own feelings, which mattered most, had forgiven them, I did not want a cruel punishment either.
I wanted to show them how difficult cooking was, and make them feel ashamed on their own.
To make them realize that kidnapping me because they wanted to enjoy my cooking for free had been an act that disregarded all the effort I poured into it.
And while we were at it, their cooking skills would improve. If Noirdel’s food culture advanced, wouldn’t that be good for everyone?
There wouldn’t be any more victims like me, either.
And the elves would be able to make delicious food with their own power.
Perhaps they had realized my grand, hidden intention, because emotion shimmered in the eyes of the five elves before me.
“Lord Jinu. Just what are you…”
“Jinu, no. Chef!! I was truly wrong. Only now do I understand, deep in my heart.”
“Kuh, human. You really are… art to the very end.”
“I’m not confident in my cooking, but I’ll try my best…!”
“Great Jinu, now I understand.”
How have you lived like that?
Ignoring the song that automatically played in my ears, I calmed them down.
“Ahem, yes. Everyone, please calm down.”
“No, Jinu. Did you not say you would forgive them this drastically?”
“Lord Jinu. Are you serious?”
“My heart is always 200% sincere.”
Arthur and Kailan, who were sitting beside me, also made a fuss.
Amid the unsettled atmosphere, Tereua drew everyone’s attention.
“Lord Jinu. What would you like to do about compensation? It is not really our place to say this, but please do not hesitate to tell us.”
“That is right, Lord Jinu. As both father and head of the family, my negligence was great, and yet you have named such a merciful punishment that I feel ashamed.”
“Ah, don’t worry. I’ll make sure to receive proper compensation.”
At my declaration, everyone’s gazes gathered on me.
“Noirdel has no currency, and its standards of value are different from the Empire’s. So it’s closer to a debt, but… I’d like to receive a blank check that I can use whenever I want.”
“Yes. Considering the trouble we have caused you, Lord Jinu, we can give you as much as you wish. What terms would you like for the blank check?”
“We can discuss the details later. And…”
My first demand was a blank check.
I wondered if I would have any particular use for it, but there really wasn’t anything I could squeeze out of Noirdel.
That was why I thought it would be useful to leave it in the form of a debt like this.
I caught my breath for a moment, then stated my second demand.
A desire I had kept secret even from Arthur and Kailan, as a chef.
“The World Tree. Let me taste it.”
Clatter—
At my words, everyone present froze.
Trea even dropped the pen she had been using to take notes onto the floor.
The other elves, too, were looking at me with expressions of shock and horror.
Only Iseria had gone red in the face, staring down at the floor full of embarrassment.
‘Why is she acting like that?’
In any case, it seemed I needed to drive the point home one more time.
“I will eat the World Tree…!”
You were the ones who told me not to hold back.
A price… has to be paid, doesn’t it?