Chapter 167: CH 166

“And there ye guys have it. Startin’ from today, this person will be yer instructor.”

“Thank you for having me.”

Voices of unrest leaked from everybody in the room.

We were currently a cooking facility that belonged to the Ministry of Cooking in the Empire.

The facility was clean, spacious, equipped with a number of large kitchens, and there appeared to be a cold storeroom somewhere in the back.

A small figure stood in front of all of the chefs that were gathered here.

I was sending my support over from the corner of the room.

(Alea, do your best)

As a result of the cooking competition, we all wanted to work on improving the Empire’s official cuisine alongside the other chefs, but she ended up being at the center of it and was now taking the lead in advancing it.

The other members that participated in the cooking competition were assigned to lots of different roles and are running around doing various jobs, while Alea was given the role of guiding other young, budding chefs.

“Head chef, are you serious?”

“About what?”

“Even though you guys lost to them in the cooking competition, having such a young child teach us is a bit…….”

“Haaah, ye got a problem with that!?”

When one of the young chefs tried to voice their complaint, the head chef rebutted with a threat.

The young chef was overwhelmed by the intensity and was stunned for a moment, but he stubbornly refused to give up.

“We may be young, but we’re still proud to be considered an official chef for the Empire, so for you to invite a small child to come and teach us is…….”

“Did none of ye all watch the cookin’ competition or somethin’?”

“We saw it. We watched it, but instead of losing in terms of skill, you only lost to a mere concept, didn’t you?”

The young chef had a point.

If we were talking about taste, the head chef and the rest didn’t lose in that aspect.

Rather, if the match was based on taste alone, they probably would’ve won.

“Yer right about that.”

“Right? When it comes to the cuisine in the Empire, we have far more knowledge of it than this foreign girl ever could have. There’s nothing that she can teach us.”

The last voice that rang out came from the entrance of the doorway.

“Y-Your Majesty Dorothea……!? And Philine-sama too.”

When the Empress and the Imperial Princess entered the room, starting with the head chef, the rest of the cooks all lowered their heads to acknowledge them.

“Good. I don’t like such pointless things. Let’s continue from where you left off.”

“Everybody, please feel free to relax yourselves.”

“You said that there’s nothing to learn from this kid, but you’re wrong. Let me correct you again.”

Dorothea said, putting lots of weight in her words, before continuing.

“When it comes to improving the Empire’s current cuisine for the banquet, I’m leaving that in the hands of the head chef and other veterans of the field. What I’m expecting from the rest of you is something different.”

“And what might that be?”

The young chef asked in response.

“I want you to introduce new dishes to the Empire. Alea, who’s standing right before you, is the treasured daughter of Rei Taylor. She has deep knowledge when it comes to coming up with new dishes.”

All of the chefs focused their gazes once again towards Alea.

As for Alea, she was standing tall with her arms crossed and her chin up while wearing a proud look on her face.

“If that’s the case, how come we don’t have Rei-san come and teach us then?”

“Rei has other things to attend to. What are you trying to say? Are you telling me you’re dissatisfied with how I’m running the show?”

“N-No, that’s not……”

Well, the chefs were undoubtedly unhappy with this, but right now, we just didn’t have that many people on hand from Bauer, so hopefully, they could accept this arrangement.

“I place my pride in you as chefs. However, for the sake of the Empire’s future, won’t you show me your willingness to learn? Philine and I will participate as well.”

“Your Majesty!?”

Upon hearing Dorothea’s words, the chefs all wavered.

As for Dorothea, she paid no attention to the other cooks and walked over to Alea.

“Alea. You did a great job the other day. I’m counting on you for today.”

“Please leave it to me.”

After saying her piece, Dorothea and Philine both lowered their heads to a young girl who wasn’t even half of their height.

That gesture alone stirred yet another buzz among the chefs.

“I understand. However, you can’t wear that here.”

“Hm? Is there an issue?”

“There are a lot of them. In what world do you have to wear armor to cook?”

“Hmm, then I’ll take it off.”

As soon as she said that, Dorothea touched the Imperial Crest that was embedded on her armor.

The jet-black armor that she always wore suddenly disappeared.

Most likely, Dorothea’s jet-black armor was just a magical tool.

She herself might not have been able to use magic, but there’s a loophole around it.

I’ll talk about it on another opportunity.

“Wai-, Your Majesty!?”

Once her armor disappeared, everything she was wearing underneath was now suddenly exposed to us, leaving Dorothea in just her underwear.

The person herself didn’t seem to mind at all, but the chefs were mostly men.

Regardless of her actual age, upon laying their eyes on a beautiful woman who looked like she was in her twenties or thirties, the guys all turned their heads at the same time.

Hmm, it was great that they were all being gentlemanly about it.

“Your Majesty, as a woman, your skin isn’t something you should be exposing so recklessly. Hurry up and wear this, please.”

“It’s not like I have a body that’ll cause any trouble if someone else sees it. But, well, I’ll do as you say.”

Dorothea put her arms through the sleeves of the chef’s uniform that Philine brought, and the conversation finally continued again.

“In any case, Philine and I are here to learn how to cook. I didn’t think there was a point to cooking, but after watching the competition from the other day, I thought a bit more about it. I like delicious food.”

“Ohh,” the chefs all raised their voices and cheered.

Well, that was to be expected.

Up until now, the reason why the chefs hadn’t activated their strengths to their full extent was mostly because Dorothea appeared to have no interest in cooking.

Now that she has expressed more positive thinking towards cooking, to the chefs, this was probably great news for them.

“I’m the one who chose Alea to come and teach you all today. I won’t listen to your objections. Learn as best as you can.”

Dorothea used her voice of authority.

The chefs appeared to be reluctant, but in the end, they all agreed to learn from Alea.

“Now then, I will be teaching you all how to cook, but before that, there is something I would like to say.”

“?”

After clearing her throat, Alea stated this in a dignified tone.

“From now on, you will refer to me as ‘Alea-sensei’. You will begin and end your sentences with ‘Alea-sensei’.”

Alea said something strange.

I held my head in my hands.

This was completely mine and Lene’s fault.

Remember when she was still at Bauer Academy, and she was an instructor for us during our gender-reversed cafe?

At that time, for the sake of trying to explain the way of the maid to us, she had to flip some strange sort of internal switch, but it seemed that Alea had also somehow learned of this as well.

Before we came here today, Lene and I had taught Alea about the latest dishes from Frater and Blume, but during that time, Lene slipped back into that bad habit of hers.

Because of that, Alea must’ve assumed she needed to say something like that whenever she’s in charge of teaching other people.

“Is that really necessary?”

“Your Majesty, I said you have to begin and end your sentences with it.”

“Alea-sensei, is that really necessary? Alea-sensei.”

“Having mutual respect for the teacher and for the students is important.”

“Alea-sensei, is that so, Alea-sensei.”

For some reason, Dorothea had an amused look on her face as she listened to Alea’s instructions.

“Now then, let’s begin with Alea-sensei’s cooking lesson. Your response?”

“““Alea-sensei, yes, Alea-sensei.”””

“I can’t hear you!”

“““Yes! Alea-sensei!!”””

“Good. Let’s start with the very basics. Starting with how to steam rice――”

And that’s how the Empire’s young chefs’ cooking lessons began.

“Did you think you could make fondant au chocolat that way? They say that weighing out the ingredients properly is the very essence of making sweets. Chocolate is very valuable, so make sure to measure it properly and precisely!”

“Alea-sensei, yes, Alea-sensei!”

“You can’t cut bread with a regular knife! Use an actual bread knife, and make sure to heat it up with fire right before cutting with it!”

“Alea-sensei, yes, Alea-sensei!”

“Don’t skimp out on using fresh cream when you’re making crème brûlée! It’ll just become pudding!”

“Alea-sensei, yes, Alea-sensei!”

Alea’s lecture, along with her loud and active encouragement, seemed to be proceeding smoothly.

The Empress and Philine were both trying their best to learn everything as well.

Dorothea seemed to be having fun somehow, but Philine wore a more complicated expression on her face.

Sometimes, she’d look at me like she wanted to say something.

What was it?

The lectures lasted several days.

When they finished their last lecture, the students,

“””Alea-sensei…… yes…… Alea-sensei”””

All of them looked like they had the light sucked out of their eyes.

“This is just a thought, but don’t you think Alea has more magical brainwashing capabilities than I do?”

And nobody paid attention to what Dorothea was saying either.