Chapter 71: Kitchen Training

Lus braved a quick glance to Fresa as Chef Savannah stared the kitchen staff down. His Nemarian friend looked a little queasy, her light purple scales losing some of their color. He wasn't worried about himself enduring whatever training the Chef was going to put them through, but he did have concerns about Fresa making it out in one piece given her delicate upbringing. But he didn't have time to waste fretting about her.

"We are going to go through three rounds of training in the kitchen this morning. Meal prep, cooking standards, and then clean up. I want everyone to take this seriously because how you do during this will determine which cooking shift you are put on. The better the performance, the better the meal assignment. Any questions?" Savannah paused for a moment, letting what she'd said sink in before she moved on. "Great. Station assignments have been randomized, so I don't want to hear any complaints."

She nodded to Crrn who stepped forward and spun to face the others.

"Lus will be on the produce prep, Fresa at mixing, Majo on marinade and sauces, and Pltr on meat," he declared. "Instructions are at each station. Chef Savannah and I will be watching you carefully and giving advice as needed. Let's see what you can do."

Lusac walked over to where he saw the heavy duty cutting boards waiting with Fresa only a step behind him since the mixing stand was right next to his. The other two cooks were at a separate counter across the room, leaving plenty of space for Crrn and Savannah to do their patrols.

Cutting was probably one of Lusac's weaker points when it came to cooking, but he didn't think he would fare better at the other sections either. Honestly, he didn't know much about prep since he normally did all his cooking in one go. At most, he found time to cut up some vegetables to freeze or maybe section off some meat, but this was looking to be a little more intense.

A holoscreen popped up as Lus stepped up to the counter displaying a long list of foods that needed to be cut including the size and amount of each.

"You'll have one hour to complete your tasks. You'll be graded on accuracy and efficiency. Make sure to be exact. We want to put only the best food forward," Chef Savannah declared. "Begin."

Lus started at the top of the list, pulling the bowl of garoots to the side of the cutting boards. He grabbed the peeler that was laying handily on the station already and began removing the skins. He almost dove right into slicing up the skinless, deep orange veggies, but a System notification stopped him.

[Wash first]

He sighed and ran the garoots under a stream of cool water, removing bits of skin and dirt. He then plopped them on the cutting board and removed the tops before carefully slicing them into thin, even slices.

The slerry slices came next, then prootas that needed peeling and cubing. He did pretty well with all the familiar produce. Then his eyes froze on the next line on the list.

"What's a rubaggeta?" he whispered aloud before he could stop himself.

[Rubaggeta: white and purple root vegetable with a subtle, sweet flavor and crunchy texture]

With the helpful hint from his [Chef's Intuition], he found the box of round-ish vegetables with white and purple skin and fluffy green tops.

Lus read the instructions again. Clean, peel, and thinly slice the rubagetta.

He nodded and set to work, surprised at how easily the skin came off the strangely shaped roots.

Finally, he had just one more item on the list. Clean and trim sprouts.

Thankfully, he had already done this for his audition and it went quickly. He was just placing the last one in the new bowl when a beep sounded throughout the room, signaling the end. 

Lus glanced around and saw everyone stepping away from their stations, leaving whatever they'd been working on undone.

"Crrn, go over positions for cooking while I grade the results," Chef Savannah commanded.

The Kremel motioned everyone to join him by the large, intermediate nitrobox. The screen turned on, revealing a map of the kitchen on one half and a recipe card on the other.

"We're going to be making this recipe for the employee lunch today. You've already done the prepwork, but now we're going to actually put it all together. We'll be doing it the standard way, so here is everyone's assignments." The Sous Chef pressed a point on the screen and names populated it, giving everyone a different station than before. "Lus, you'll be on cooking the meat, Fresa on sauteeing the vegetables, Majo on sauce and bread, Pltr on fruit salad and organizing everything into heating bins for the golem to take outside to the eating area. Questions?"

Nobody said anything, and Crrn dismissed them to their next station. As before, a holoscreen popped up with Lus's specific instructions at the stove where he would be cooking. Fresa was close by as well, looking more confident now that it wasn't just standing around and chatting.

"You'll have forty-five minutes to get this put together," Chef Savannah announced. "Time starts now."

The clock on the screen began counting down, and Lus launched into action, eager to make up for what he was sure the others would consider less-than-perfect cutting skills.

He started by reading through the instructions. He had to cook the beautifully chopped chunks of raw kechin and season them with a pre-mixed bowl of spices. Because the bowl was so large, he decided to get two pans going, so he set them both on the stove, then grabbed the bottle of elsha oil, frowning at how light it was.

Peering through the clear container, he realized that it was empty. There must be more in the pantry, he thought, turning to head that way.

He nearly ran headlong into Fresa, who was on her way back from the pantry with a strange pot unlike any he'd ever seen before. It looked like a large, metal bowl with handles. She dodged around him without a word, focused on her task.

"Sorry," Lus muttered, dropping his gaze from the pot and hurrying to the pantry. He returned with the oil and poured it in the pans, then turned on the heat and waited.

When he felt like the oil was hot enough, he poured kechin into both pans, filling them as full as he dared and enjoying the sizzle. He still had at least half the meat left and he glanced at the clock, hoping he'd have time to cook it all.

He turned his attention back to the pans, stirring the meat around until it was all coated in the oil, then shook some of the seasoning mix out of the bowl over the meat. He didn't have any way to measure, so he just tried to estimate the right amount.

He continued stirring, breathing in the delicious scent of the cooking meat and wondering what was in the seasoning mix.

[Check the temperature]

He had gotten so caught up in cooking, he'd nearly forgotten that he still had a lot of kechin to cook. He scrambled around the station until he found a thermometer and quickly inserted it into a few of the pieces of meat.

Once he was sure that everything was up to temp, he dumped the finished kechin into a large bowl. Then it was time to pour more oil into the pans and let them reheat, repeating the entire process.

Lus had just moved the second batch of kechin to the bowl and poured the last of the raw meat into one pan when the timer went off, blaring through the kitchen.

He turned off the burner and stepped back from the stove, glancing at Fresa who stood by her final pan of veggies. Sweat glistened on her scales as she sighed. Lusac understood the sentiment.

"Good job everyone. Let's finish up whatever's cooking or baking while Sinsha takes the food out," Crrn suggested. As he spoke, the double doors opened to reveal a finely carved golem. It was made out of dark, red-tinted wood, and every part of it was smooth and sleek, obviously one of the more expensive models available, and nothing like the worn out golem used on the Argo.

Quietly it approached the counter where the auto heating bins waited and placed lids on all of them before stacking them in a precarious tower that Lus was sure would tip over at any moment. With skill unlike anything Lusac had seen even from the most advanced system users, Sinsha picked up the stack and carried it outside the kitchen, the stack not even wobbling as it walked.

"Lus, your kechin," Fresa said, reminding him that he was still actively cooking. Shaking out of his mesmerment from the golem, he returned to the stove and ensured the last of the meat cooking thoroughly. Chef Savannah then directed them to take all the leftovers and seal them up for freezing.

After they all finished with that, they returned to the line in the now messy kitchen.

"Our final task is cleaning up," Chef Savannah announced, but she was interrupted by Pltr raising her hand.

"Isn't that what the golems are for?" she asked.

Chef Savannah smirked. "Typically, yes. But part of being a good chef is knowing how to properly maintain a kitchen without the help of a golem. Today everyone will participate in the clean up so you all learn the standards. After that, however, clean up will be relegated to the golem, assuming that is," she glanced around with that same sadistic smile, "everyone manages to produce food at the quality I require. On days when that standard is not met, you will all be responsible for paying the price by cleaning and doing the dishes. Understood?"

"I applied to cook, not clean," Fresa muttered under her breath.

Lus held back a smile. He'd done his fair share of cleaning up while covering the breakfast shift on the Argo, so this didn't sound all too bad. Normally he had to do it alone, so splitting the work between four of them made this sound like a piece of cake.

"Glad we are all on board. Lus and Fresa will do dishes, Majo and Pltr will handle scrubbing the counters, stove, and ovens. No time limit this time, but the longer you take, the less likely it is that you'll get lunch," Chef Savannah warned. "The other employees will be going to eat in thirty minutes."

Pltr looked like she might explode from anger, and Fresa and Majo were both clearly boiling just under the scales, but Lusac didn't think it would take that long to clean if everyone would just put a little work into it. They couldn't be that tired already. Cooking wasn't that hard.

"Go ahead and get started," the head chef said, motioning them away.

Lus was quick to reach the sink and start the water running. It got hot fast, but he left it to run while he gathered up the dirty dishes strewn across the counters.

"You handle what's already there," he informed Fresa as he walked away. She was clearly unimpressed, but Lus ignored it to focus on getting the task done.

When he returned with a pile of dirty pans, she had only just begun to scrub the first of the cutting boards, her hands hesitant in their motions. Lusac shook his head as he deposited the pans and pulled the first load of dishes into his sink.

A little elbow grease later, he'd finished all of his pile while Fresa was only a quarter of the way through hers. He'd even intentionally given himself more of the dishes, but somehow this suckling couldn't even manage to pull part of her share.

With a sigh, Lus looked over his shoulder to see that the other two were both still hard at work with their cleaning, but the counters were looking mighty shiny. Of course it was Fresa who was going to hold them all up.

"Let me help with that," Lusac said as he reached to pull some items from her pile.

"I can handle it," she snarled, swatting his hand away.

"None of us get out of here until this is done. I'm not going to stand here waiting an hour for you to finish with something that should already be done," he said.

"We're a team, Fresa," Majo added from the nearest counter. "All that matters is we get this done."

Fresa-Ersht continued to glare at Lusac, but she didn't stop him when he pulled half her pile to his sink and started washing them. The embarrassment must have encouraged her to hurry a little more since they both finished their remaining dishes around the same time.

Lusac turned the water off and looked around to see that Majo and Pltr were standing at the center of the kitchen, waiting for Chef Savannah to finish her inspection of their work. Crrn came over to the sinks.

"I'm going to check a few of these just to be sure you guys were thorough," he explained. "Wait with the others."

Lus and Fresa joined their two new friends at the center of the kitchen, all of them nervously watching as their superiors went over the kitchen.

"I'm not quite sure how this is training. It feels more like they threw us right into the job," Majo whispered.

"Learn by doing," Lusac replied.

The other two didn't say anything as Chef Savannah came over to them, her face impossible to read.

She shook her head slowly. "I'm disappointed, though I should have expected this." She motioned to the counters. "This isn't even close to clean. You'll have to try again."

"B-but," Majo stammered. He stopped when Chef Savannah turned her fierce gaze to him. "Yes, Chef," he said, ducking his head.

"Some of these dishes still have bits of food on them," Crrn added in from over by the sinks. "Why don't we let Majo and Pltr have a go at dishes and put Lus and Fresa on counters to see if they can finish it off properly."

"Good idea, Crrn. Get to work everyone. The other employees are already eating, and from what I've heard, it's going fast. In fact, Crrn and I are going to go get our share now while there's still something available to eat." Chef Savannah nodded to her sous chef, and together they left the kitchen and their underlyings behind.

Pltr had plenty to say about that, but she murmured it so quietly, no one else could understand it. She and Majo went to the sinks to sift through dishes and determine which ones needed to be rewashed. If Lus had to guess, most of them came from his companion's side, not his.

Fresa was simmering with frustration as she and Lus went to pick up rags and buckets of clean water.

"This is ridiculous. This has nothing to do with learning to cook," Fresa-Ersht said as she got to scrubbing alongside Lus.

"I don't know about that. Like Chef Savannah said, we need to know all aspects of keeping a kitchen," Lusac replied. "I know that back on the merchant ship I cooked on, I had to do my share of cleaning around the kitchen after meals. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a golem to do it all."

"Well I don't intend to ever waste my time cooking in a place that won't even provide a basic necessity like cleaning golems," Fresa bit back.

Lusac rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, suckling."

"Don't call me that."

"You called yourself that only yesterday."

"Yeah, I said it. You don't get to address me that way," Fresa informed him.

Lus held in another eyeroll. Learning Fresa-Ersht's secret turned out to be the worst thing he could have done for their budding friendship. Now that he knew she was a politician's daughter, she expected him to treat her like one, and that was not something he was eager to do.

"Okay. Fine. Sorry," he said. "Let's just get this done so we can get some food. I'm hungry."

Fresa didn't say anything more to him as she wiped up at the counters which seemed immaculate in Lus's opinion. How was he supposed to clean these better when they were already pristine? He couldn't help but wonder if Chef Savannah was just doing this to force everyone to take a turn at each cleaning position, but regardless, he kept wiping away the imaginary grime.

"I don't know what Crrn was talking about. All of these dishes are clean," Majo said. "Why do we have to rewash them?"

"She's just being mean," Pltr added. "This is a waste of our skills."

"Come on, guys. Just get it done. It's really not a big deal to clean a little," Lusac said. He had moved on to cleaning the stove tops, where he did find a little grease that the previous two had missed.

"I'm not doing this anymore. This is already clean. I'm going to get food," Fresa declared.

"Me too. I'm not going to keep wasting my time," Majo agreed.

"I'm in," Pltr said as she turned off the water.

Lus stopped for a minute as he thought about what to do. He was hungry, and it did seem wasteful to keep scrubbing counters that had nothing to be scrubbed away, but if the others left him behind, he might have a chance to explore more of the mansion and see what he could find out about the artifact.

"You guys go. I'm going to finish up," he said, internally wincing at how morally superior he sounded.

"Suck up," Majo said. He led the way out of the kitchen, but just as they exited the double doors, they reentered.

"C-chef Savannah," Pltr stuttered as the head chef and sous chef rejoined them all in the kitchen. "We thought you went to get food."

"I decided to make sure the cleaning was going to get done first," she said coolly. "Lus, stop what you're doing and join us over here."

Mentally cursing their bad luck, he did as he was told and stood next to Majo.

"Lus, since you followed orders, you can go get lunch. These three can finish up," Chef Savannah said.

"I don't mind helping," Lusac replied. Getting special treatment was going to make the others dislike him, and being singled out was bad for his cover.

"Go," she commanded, and his Runner training had him following it before he could think on it.

As the doors behind him shut, he heard Chef Savannah start tearing into the others with a bitterly angry voice, and he winced a little. At least he would have a little time to explore the mansion by himself now. He had only made it down part of the hallway when his [Sixth Sense] triggered ahead of him.

Figuring it was one of Fresa's guards staying close by, he kept walking as if nothing happened. As he passed where the guard was standing, a hand latched on to him, covering his mouth to keep his cry of surprise from escaping.

Lusac threw his elbow into the [Invisible] being, and they released him with a gasp. Even though his hand-to-hand fighting wasn't anything spectacular, he raised his fists in preparation. He knew exactly where his attacker was, but he didn't dare strike and reveal that he could sense the unseen person.

A door opened, and Lus's [Sixth Sense] triggered stronger, warning him of another. Spinning to face the new attacker, the old one jumped forward and grappled him again. As Lusac struggled against the hold, the other one joined their friend in securing Lus. A hand was over his mouth, keeping him from shouting for help as they dragged him away.