Frontier Chef: My Cooking Skills Are Broken-Chapter 30: Brunch

The knife didn’t want to come out.

Ezra braced his foot against the wall and pulled without much of a budge. The blade had gone through the helmet’s crown and into volcanic stone behind it.

He pulled again and the knife came free with a sound that made the girl flinch from outside the kitchen.

’First time she’s flinched at anything.’

The helmet clattered to the counter, split down the center; Theron’s helmet. It was reinforced metal, probably strong enough to take the hit of any Ossalaka club. And Ezra had put a bread knife through it.

He turned the helmet over in his hands. The crack ran clean from the crown to the jaw guard. The inside was lined with padding with a tube that sat where the mouth would go.

’So that’s how they stay cool in the heat.’

He set it aside next to the knife and started cleaning.

The root slices he’d been cooking that morning were charcoal now. The symbols in the marble were still glowing underneath the mess, pulsing in a rhythm that didn’t match his heartbeat.

The stores in the back room were untouched. Well, most of the kitchen was fine besides the wall. Which was mainly his fault anyway.

Theron’s spear hadn’t reached that far and Ezra’s fire hadn’t either.

He grabbed what was left of the roots and brought them to the counter.

The girl was standing at the edge of the kitchen’s open front, sweeping her eyes left and right, then right to left.

Patches sat next to her, gnawing on the bone spear. It had run out of jerky.

That meant two mouths to feed.

"You coming in or not?"

The girl waited another second before giving up. She walked the perimeter of the kitchen with her eyes on everything and her hands behind her back, stopping at the coal pit, then the hanging pots, then the back room entrance.

"You need chairs," she said. "How am I supposed to eat without chairs?"

’She some kind of health inspector?’

Ezra sliced roots in thin batches, the same way he did earlier for the Harkenians. Now that he’d already cut up a dozen or so, this one took less than five seconds. The girl could barely keep up with the chops swinging up and down.

"I just opened up this morning," Ezra said, placing each slice onto the still-warm counter.

The counter was higher than her forehead. She had to lean on her toes to even see what he was doing at all. Her purple eyes peeped over the edge and Ezra paused for a moment.

"Back up, or your eyebrows say bye-bye."

She did, but not before mouthing a word he couldn’t quite make out.

Something like prick.

He added more flame to aid the sizzle, and the symbols brightened when his palms went flat. The heat traveled through the counter faster than it had that morning.

More than twice the heat from before.

He didn’t know why.

’System.’

The golden text he’d been ignoring since the back room finally had permission to deliver.

[ You have three new notifications, would you like to view? ]

’I have a question, hurry up.’

[ You have leveled up: 6 ]

> Stat allocation available. (3) unspent points.

[ Skill upgraded: Culling Arts Lv. 1 → Lv. 2 ]

’That fight with Theron counted? Or was it the roots? Both?’

[ Both ]

[ Quest assigned: Restore the Hearth ]

’Why not.’

[ Quest accepted ]

> Objective: Prepare a meal using a Frontier Chef’s kitchen at full capacity.

> Reward: 15,000 Frontier Tokens

> Failure: The hearth goes cold.

’So that’s what it is, a hearth. What does it do?’

The symbols pulsed once, brighter.

[ A hearth amplifies the host’s cooking prowess and their respective Arts ]

’Makes sense.’

[ Additionally, a Frontier Chef may claim one hearth at a time, with limits increasing per threshold breakthroughs ]

[ To claim a hearth, speak with voice activation, ’Claim’ ]

The little girl whispered something to Patches and pointed at Ezra.

"What did you say," Ezra said. He definitely heard prick.

They completely ignored him.

[ Bzzt ]

[ Voice activation failed: ’What did you say’ is not a valid option ]

The roots were sizzling now. Ezra flipped them over and waited for the underside to brown up.

The little girl was back at the edge again, a new look in her purple eyes. She reached for a slice still sizzling on the heated stone, and her fingers were an inch from the surface when Ezra caught her wrist.

He didn’t even need to think about it.

That much was apparent in her sudden shock.

She tried to pull away but his palm was still over her wrist and his grip was nothing but instinct. The bones were light under his fingers. Any more force and something would’ve snapped.

She lunged for his arm, all teeth and he pulled away before she chomped air that would’ve been his skin a second ago.

"Good thing you let go," she said, proud about it too. "I would’ve screamed." She put something down her throat and swallowed, choked it back up and chewed before swallowing again.

It was a vegetable chip. When the hell did she get it?

Sure enough, one of the chips was missing from the counter.

’The guard wasn’t kidding—this girl is feral. But she’s quick about it too, and frail at that.

Hollow, even.’

"Give me more," the girl snapped.

Ezra handed her the other two finished chips, and she snatched them away quicker than any twelve year old had any right to.

"Slow down. Nobody’s taking it from you." He paused. "Well, not anymore."

She didn’t slow down at all. In fact, she chewed faster.

’Not sure which is worse. The screaming or the biting. Neither one is ideal.’

So he cooked her three more.

She ate those too. Patches got one because it had won a brief struggle on the floor with the girl.

Ezra was betting on the furball winning.

[ Event Summary ]

> Crafted: Meal (★) x2

> +150 Frontier Tokens

[ Wallet ]

> 9,650 Frontier Tokens

The girl finished eating and sat beside the counter where Ezra and Neve sat an hour ago.

"What’s your name, gremlin?"

She didn’t answer, didn’t even look up from the ground.

"Where are you from?"

She pulled her knees to her chest.

"Do you talk to anyone besides me?"

"Nope."

’At least that’s honest.’

"Don’t worry, I’ll find the Harken CPS somewhere around here."

Ezra cleaned the rest of the counter and put the roots back in the store room. When he came back she was still there, chin on her knees. She was snoring faintly with her arms wrapped around her legs, shifting to the right with every breath.

Muscle memory, probably.

Even Patches was snoring now near her bare feet, which brought him to his next concern; the heat didn’t bother her at all.

By now, it was late afternoon. None of the Harkenians paid attention to the girl or Ezra. Not even the smith who was hammering away at whatever he had a grudge against.

[ Ping! ]

[ Side-quest assigned: Befriend the gremlin ]

’No fucking way.’

[ Side-quest accepted ]

> Objective: Befriend the little girl.

> Reward: 75,000 Frontier Tokens

> Failure: Bad karma.

The girl fully tilted right and crumbled on the floor, snoring louder than before.

"I’ll do it for the money, I guess. Wait, it already accepted?!"