Novel Full Chapter 707
“Priest.”
At Persae’s remark, Falkrius finally noticed the blood dripping from his ladle and looked embarrassed.
“Oh! This is all treasure! Thanks, Persae.”
“It’s nothing, Priest.”
“Puhuhu, you can call me comfortably.”
Falkrius set the ladle back inside the pot and stepped forward.
“Our Iactus Soup Club promised to treat you to a meal and, in return, explain our club first. Does anyone know why our club has this name?”
The second-year students of the Blue Dragon Tower looked at one another.
Some knew the legend of Saint Iactus, who had slain a wicked demonic dragon with a single stone. But none could imagine what that had to do with soup.
“Is it the soup Saint Iactus liked to eat?”
“Wahaha! Interesting idea. Close, but not quite. Everyone knows the miracle where Saint Iactus defeated the dragon, but people don’t know the other miracles.”
The pot-bellied priest senior thumped his stomach as he continued.
“It’s a story from the time Saint Iactus visited a village. The village was divided into a western side and an eastern side. The west had a great harvest, but the east suffered a famine and was starving. So Saint Iactus asked the rich people of the west to share their food.”
“I bet they didn’t share.”
“Correct! So Saint Iactus used a trick. He said he would make a delicious soup using nothing but a stone and water. The rich people from the west gathered to watch. As he boiled the soup, Saint Iactus murmured to himself, ‘If only there were a minotaur shoulder cut, this soup would be even better.’”
“?”
Lee Han, who had been nodding along to the typical fable, suddenly paused.
That ingredient was far too extravagant.
“Uh… shouldn’t it normally be carrots or onions or potatoes?”
“Puh, it’s an old story. Maybe they had just hunted a minotaur recently and had plenty of meat. Anyway, when Saint Iactus murmured that, someone brought a minotaur shoulder cut. Then Saint Iactus murmured again! ‘If only we had rock salt from the Fairy Cavern, this soup would taste even better.’”
“……”
“……”
The Blue Dragon Tower students who had been listening with admiration now tilted their heads uneasily.
The ingredients were far too luxurious.
Gainando alone was impressed.
“I use that murmuring strategy a lot too! Until someone gives me mage cards…”
“Really? Wahaha. You might become a hero like Saint Iactus someday. Every time Saint Iactus murmured, the villagers brought another ingredient, and eventually they completed a delicious soup that fed the entire village! Our club’s name commemorates that miracle.”
Asan looked unconvinced.
“Did that really happen?”
Several other students voiced similar doubts.
“It’s one village. How can one side have a good harvest and the other a famine…?”
“And those ingredients seem far too expensive.”
Falkrius paid no attention to the juniors’ questions.
“Wahaha. It’s an old story, so it might have changed a little. But you’re acting just like the Skull Principal! Every time the Skull Principal hears this story, the man always starts nitpicking something.”
“What sort of nitpicking?”
“He claims Saint Iactus originally threatened the villagers with the stone and extorted the ingredients. Puh. What nonsense!”
“……”
For some reason, Lee Han felt that this time the Skull Principal might actually be right.
Falkrius laughed loudly and continued.
“But what you’re really curious about is something else, right? Not the origin of the club name… but what the club does and what privileges it has?”
“Yes!”
Gainando answered with cheerful honesty, and Falkrius burst into laughter.
“Wahaha, that’s right! Our club gathers ingredients from all across Einroguard. We cultivate them, harvest them. We raise livestock and butcher them. You could say we collect anything that can become food. Since our club has such a long history, we also own quite a few fields and ranches. Thanks to that, our members never go hungry.”
“!”
Even the students who had shown little interest suddenly changed expressions.
No matter how well Lee Han cooked their meals, Einroguard always burned through food quickly, and hunger returned without pause.
If joining the Kitchen Club meant eating far more abundantly than now—
Lee Han whispered to the friend beside him in amazement.
“That’s impressive. I guess a long club history makes things like that possible. A lot of people will want to join.”
“…Why are you telling me that, Wardanaz?”
Adenart looked at Lee Han with a faintly displeased expression beneath the otherwise blank face.
“Oh. Sorry. You were just standing next to me.”
“……”
Adenart looked at Lee Han with slight suspicion.
For some time now Adenart had suspected that Wardanaz thought of Adenart as some sort of glutton like a certain half-sibling.
Recently that suspicion had grown stronger.
“Me! I’ll join!”
Gainando shot a hand up and shouted. Afraid of losing to Gainando, several other students raised their hands as ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) well.
“No! I—!”
“I’m in the top ten in alchemy!”
“I’ve even helped Wardanaz cook before!”
“Puhuhu. Thank you all for applying! But our club doesn’t accept just anyone!”
Gainando immediately swung a wand and attacked the other students.
The others, who had expected it, retaliated with their own wands.
“I’m the one joining!”
“You bastard, the guy who eats the most food from Wardanaz should step aside!”
Falkrius swung the kitchen knife he was holding.
WHOOSH—
The students who had been firing magic collapsed forward.
“Savages! This may be Einroguard, but that doesn’t mean club recruitment has to be done the Einroguard way!”
THUD!
Falkrius set down a massive cauldron. Water sloshed inside.
“Grab the handle next to the pot!”
“Like this?”
“Yes.”
Gainando tilted his head and grabbed the side of the pot.
But the water inside remained completely calm.
The senior who had been laughing loudly a moment ago suddenly changed expression and looked at Gainando with utter contempt.
“Trash.”
“…What? Se–senior. Why are you like this? What did I do wrong?”
“Get lost! Don’t speak to me again. You’re polluting my ears!”
Falkrius cast a spell and shoved Gainando aside.
“Next! Grab it!”
“I–I grabbed it.”
When the next student took hold, a single tiny bubble rose in the water before disappearing.
Falkrius gave the same contemptuous look.
“You look like someone who has never cooked for anyone in your life. Trash! Get lost!”
“……”
“……”
The warm atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Every volunteer who stepped forward failed and was driven away.
Behind Falkrius, the Kitchen Club students nodded with satisfied expressions.
“As expected of Senior Falkrius.”
“He shows no mercy to those without qualifications.”
The admission procedure of the Iactus Soup Club was simple.
Grab the Iactus Cauldron and make the water inside boil.
Of course, boiling that water was not easy.
Once inside that cauldron, no magic or external means worked.
Only the wizard’s own life history could make the water boil.
Had the person cooked for others?
Or had the wizard lived comfortably without ever dirtying those hands?
Wizards who had lived lazily without serving others could never pass this test.
“Rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected… Oh. Not bad?”
When Yonair’s turn came, Falkrius stopped sneering and looked pleasantly surprised.
The water in the pot was bubbling moderately.
For someone from the Blue Dragon Tower, producing that kind of result was not easy.
“Interested in our club?”
“Could I look at some other clubs first before deciding?”
“Puhuhu, of course. Look around as much as you want!”
Falkrius the priest was extremely generous toward juniors who actually qualified.
When Yonair said he wanted to explore other clubs before deciding, Falkrius readily accepted.
Seeing that, Lee Han felt slightly reassured.
‘He has common sense. Like Senior Diret.’
The senior had the authority to recruit, but didn’t seem to abuse it.
“Rejected, rejected! Rejected!! Rejected!!! You lazy pigs!”
Falkrius eliminated another batch of students.
Then it was Lee Han’s turn.
“Grab it!”
“Yes.”
The water in the pot began to bubble.
Falkrius looked at Lee Han with interest.
At that moment—
The water suddenly transformed into steam and erupted upward.
FWHOOOSH!
“……”
“……”
Not only Falkrius and Lee Han, but even the Kitchen Club members behind them could only blink.
Just now…
What exactly happened?
“…Accepted! Accepted! To think I’d meet a junior like you in my lifetime. This must be Saint Iactus’s miracle!”
Falkrius grabbed Lee Han by both shoulders and shook him enthusiastically back and forth.
Lee Han spoke while being shaken.
“Se–Senior. I–I also want to lo–look at o–other clubs be–before deciding.”
“Hm?”
When the shaking stopped, Lee Han could finally speak normally.
“I’d like to check other clubs—”
“What are you talking about? No. You’re joining immediately.”
Watching Falkrius shout for someone to bring the paperwork at once, Lee Han thought to himself.
‘Hmm. I was mistaken.’
The man wasn’t reasonable.
He was simply insane.
*****
When Falkrius and the Kitchen Club members left in high spirits, delighted at having found a treasure of a junior, the other club seniors who remained coughed awkwardly.
“That was a rare sight. Falkrius the priest getting that excited is unusual.”
“Honestly, I never thought someone from the Blue Dragon Tower would join the Kitchen Club this year.”
Persae nodded.
Even thinking about it again, it was unbelievable that someone could pass that test like that.
How much cooking had that junior done for others?
“It’s good for both the Kitchen Club and that junior.”
“You shouldn’t just let him recruit people like that! You’ll regret not stopping him!”
Gainando grumbled.
The seniors clicked their tongues.
“Jealous because he couldn’t get in.”
“To think someone like that is his friend.”
“Now then. I’ll explain the Jousting Club.”
After the Kitchen Club finished, Persae began speaking.
The clubs gathered today planned to explain themselves one by one.
“Before the explanation—did anyone here charge through a pack of monsters on horseback and break through to the desert last year? It would’ve been during Professor Thunderstep’s test.”
All the second-years looked at Lee Han.
Lee Han, who had been thinking hard about how to somehow get rid of the Kitchen Club membership form, belatedly noticed something strange and lifted his head.
“What’s going on?”
“A senior is looking for you. Lee Han.”
“Senior Falkrius?”
“No. Senior Persae over there.”
“!”
As it looked like Lee Han might be recruited into the Jousting Club right after the Kitchen Club, the other club seniors felt a sudden instinctive anxiety.
A senior from the Library Club broke the order and spoke.
“Wait. Let me ask something first. Is there a junior here who killed a Rock Drake in the library last year?”
“We caught it together.”
Despite Lee Han’s answer, all his friends looked at Lee Han. The senior ignored Lee Han’s words and took the friends’ reactions as the real answer.
“Then is the junior who built a fortress in the library and held out also here?”
“That was also together—”
“I see. Call Falkrius back.”
The Library Club senior pulled out a wand and hid it behind the back while shouting.
Seeing that, the other club seniors slowly drew their wands as well.
How dare that man just snatch away a junior from another club?