Chapter 69 – A Vampire is a Better Cook Than You (1/2)

With our confirmations in order, it was probably best to move on and go our separate ways.

Fixing up my outfit, I turned my attention back to my new familiar.

”Alright, looks like everything went well. Now then...”

Gurgle

Sarah put her hands on her belly, but rather than be embarrassed by the noise it made, she just looked depressed.

”...Are you hungry?”

”I am. The food in this world is all pretty terrible though, so I'm always hungry.”

That explained the look she had on her face. Or rather did that mean she skipped out on meals a lot? Maybe that was connected to how sunken her cheeks were?

”sigh Well, I guess I can make you something if you want.”

”I'll take it if you're offering.”

The way she despondently answered made me want to take back my words, but you can't unring a bell, so I just swallowed my complaints.

Aside from that, since there was a good chance that we would be forced to have more dealings with each other in the future, it was probably best to at least make a reasonable attempt to get onto her good side. If I could make her feel like she owed me on top of that, all the better.

As long as she didn't become obsessive like Claret. I couldn't handle a second like that.

”Lets go back to the fountain room first.”

While I could theoretically cook anywhere, there was a distinct lack of freely available water in the middle of a dungeon floor, so we quickly made our way back to one after pulling out her sword from a nearly bisected tree. Thankfully that woman didn't have any trouble keeping up a brisk pace that would've put Usain Bolt to shame and we quickly arrived at our destination before I removed my bag to take out some ingredients.

”So do you have any requests?”

”Well, I doubt you can make it with how shitty this world is, but...”

The way she worded her sentence made me wonder if she was trying some sort of unsubtle psychological warfare on me, or was just plain bad at being pleasant.

”I'd love it if you can make schteev. My dad use to make it all the time.”

”Never heard of it. What is it made from?”

”sigh Well, it's a soup mainly made from beetroots, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onion and tomatoes. My dad liked to put in slices of beef and parsley into it as well. It was soooooo good, how it warmed you up and filled your belly, and I couldn't get enough of that sour flavour! Ah, just thinking about it...”

”Okay, okay, I think I got it.”

While the name was different, the food she described sounded similar to a dish I had once read up on, but never actually made: borscht. I could vaguely remember how it was made as well, though only just.

I arbitrarily removed the ingredients Sarah had mentioned, along with a steak of obsidian bear meat I had picked up earlier in the dungeon. I didn't know how it tastes, but it was probably close enough to beef. At the very least, there was no way I could recreate the food she had in her memories that closely, so such a difference wouldn't matter much.

Dicing up an onion while heating a large pot, I threw the pieces inside with some oil to let it fry for a bit while I worked on the rest of the ingredients. Next went the thinly sliced bear meat until it got a nice layer of browning on each side before I dumped some water into the pot. I brought that to a simmer and then threw in the rest of the vegetables, then a bit more water to cover it.

Raising the magical flame further, I slowly stirred the contents with telekinesis as I casually watched the pot, occasionally removing the scum off of the top.

As the scent of the cooking food slowly wafted, Sarah's complete disinterest slowly changed as she sniffed the air like an animal. Step by step she moved closer to the pot until her face was over it, and I started to worry that the drool dripping down her chin would fall into the pot.

Doing my best to work around her big-headed obstruction, I added some salt and pepper, along with some arbitrary herbs crushed between my palms.

Very soon, the soup was done. There were a bunch more things I wanted to do to get it into a better state, but those would've taken a few hours to do. Between the immediacy of the need for the along due to my already hungry recipient with the fact that I didn't want to actually put that much effort into this woman's meal stopped me from actually bothering to do so.

The motives being balanced at about 10/90.

After shooing Sarah from the pot and arbitrarily telekinesising over some of the soup into a hastily made stone bowl, I handed the food over to her.

It took me a few second to realize I hadn't given her any utensils to eat with, but by then, she had already tipped the bowl over and started pouring its contents into her gaping maw.

”fuha fuha! Ah, it's so good! It's nothing like the crap the stores sell in the city!”

In between puffs of breath to cool down the solids in her mouth, Sarah gave me some exaggerated compliments. Soon enough, she held the bowl out to me and asked for seconds.

With a sigh, I refilled her bowl before she went back to stuffing her face with the bright red soup. This cycle repeated until half the pot was emptied and the woman was laying on the ground rubbing her belly. Even though her armour, I could see it bulging a bit.

”It's not quite how dad used to make it...”

”Of course it isn't. I just threw everything into a pot and let it cook for a bit. There's no way it would be as good as something someone made all their life, let alone similar to it.”

It was a little uncharacteristic of me, but I couldn't help but interrupt and snap at her. For some reason, just watching her enjoy that meal annoyed me. Most likely, the way we met had left a sour enough impression on me that I couldn't help but let it bleed into my actions now that she wasn't a clear enemy anymore.

”No, but, but it was really good. Way better than anything I could do. It's true dad made it for as long as I could remember. He said it was a family recipe, but you got it closer than I ever could without even had tasted it.”

”It's by chance. I just happened to know a similar recipe, that's all.”

(I hadn't even had a chance to try borscht out in my previous life, and now I'll never know what it even tastes like.)

Going though all the effort of researching a dish that I had grown interested in after showing up in a show I had seen, only to have never actually had tried it after slacking on making it in my previous life felt like a petty, yet real regret.

But after a few seconds, I blinked and realized what I had just thought to myself. Maybe it wasn't that Sarah had left a bad enough impression on me to sour our relationship for the foreseeable future, but I was just feeling jealous watching her enjoy the thing that I had looked forward to having in my previous life. Something that I couldn't experience now with my new body.

Of all the disadvantages to my vampiric body, this was an unexpectedly massive one. Sure, it wasn't potentially fatal, but it was easy to get caught up in the trap of being envious of something that others could enjoy but I couldn't.

It was possible that this was the very reason why I found myself making food for others so much. It was some unconscious attempt to get back a part of what I had lost since my reincarnation, as vain as it was. Maybe it would've been one thing if I didn't know how good normal food could taste, but I did, and it made it hard not to feel envious of people who could enjoy the food I made, and thus I had been trying to recapture a portion of that.

I felt like I could understand how my predecessor felt when she grew obsessed over the envy of the other races raising children and having a family.

Thankfully I didn't share that obsession, but I would probably have to take care and not let food become my own obsession.

”Anyways, I'm going now. Bye.”

Bringing my thoughts back to the occasion, I put away my things, leaving the pot and bowl Sarah had used, and shouldered my bag before turning to leave the fountain room.

”Wait!”

”You can have the pot, if that's what you want to ask.”

It wasn't like I could enjoy it after all.

”Thank you! No, I mean, that's not it!”

The woman's sudden movement towards me had me raise my claws as I turned, but I managed to catch myself to observe her actions instead. Claret quickly jerked towards her as well, but stopped when I gave her a small shake of the head.

In the end, my sudden sense of crisis was unwarranted as she only crawled on her hands and knees to me to grab the hem of my robes. I was getting a bad feeling from the look she was giving me. Too much puppy dog eyes and too little offerings.

”I, I don't have anywhere to go!”

”Don't you have a place here to sleep?”

”I do, but...”

”If it's money, don't you already have a way to earn it here? The fact that you're on this floor means that you don't have trouble earning money by selling the materials here, right?”

”Yea, but...”

Not really interested in what she had to say at this point, I turned to leave again, wherein she promptly threw her arms around my legs, preventing me from taking a step. From the corner of my eye, Claret was looking particularly annoyed and was getting dangerously close to lashing out at Sarah.

”Look, what is it that you want? I'm sure that you don't want to hang around someone you were just trying to kill, right?”

”Well...”

The way she let go and started to fidget in turn once again gave me a bad feeling and made me nervous.

”Can I go with you?”

(Seriously?)

”Why?”

”Well......the schteev you made was amazing.”

I felt like a person who accidentally tamed a wild animal with food and was stuck with trying to figure out how to deal with the animal who wanted to come with them.