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Talent.

All students who enter Lua Academy have talent.

Whether big or small, only students with talent incomparable to ordinary people enter Lua Academy.

Of course, as I just said, there are differences in talent even among Lua Academy students.

If the smallest talent is at the level of a genius, there are also talents that go beyond that and can carve their names in history.

And Kana witnessed such talent firsthand.

Arin. The first friend she made in the same class.

When she accomplished the task given during the swordsmanship class, which was absolutely impossible at present, Kana felt the wall of talent.

It’s easy to cut a stone smaller than a sword with a sword, but it’s very difficult to cut a stone larger than a sword.
Moreover, if it’s a stone several times the size of the sword, with the body of a teenager that hasn’t fully grown, using a mass-produced sword, it’s even more so.

It was literally an impossible task.

Although there might have been some progress during the one month period Professor Aria mentioned, it was a task that could only be said to be impossible on the same day.

Therefore, when Arin cut the boulder that felt like a mountain, Kana experienced the wall.
And when she saw that wall with her own eyes, Kana felt a small but persistent emotion growing in her heart.

It wasn’t jealousy towards Arin. To begin with, Kana didn’t have the slightest thought of envying her.

If we were to define that emotion, it would be self-blame. Yes, self-blame would be the most fitting word.

If you ask what she was blaming herself for, it was self-blame for her own weakness.

Self-blame for falling behind others because she lacked talent, because she lacked talent in ‘swordsmanship’.

Of course, she came to learn cooking and learned swordsmanship for that purpose, but nevertheless, being so weak that she couldn’t keep up with other students during class time was causing Kana tremendous pressure.

Moreover, Kana could pride herself on having more practical experience than others, but her skills weren’t keeping up with that, which made the pressure even more intense.

The extent of that pressure was so great that she was sitting on the stairs outside the main building, sighing deeply, not even realizing that class had started.

“Sigh…”

She had told her parents that she would work hard, that she would try her best to the point of death, but what on earth was she doing here?

Kana muttered inwardly as she scribbled on the ground with her hand. She rubbed her fingers on the stone floor, pressing hard to try to neutralize this feeling with pain, but of course, nothing changed.

It just made her fingers hurt.

And it was a natural sequence for Kana to sigh again at that.

Kana buried her face between her legs that she was hugging, soothing her aching insides along with a sigh.

“I don’t want to fall behind…”

She doesn’t want to fall behind, but her talent isn’t supporting her. Moreover, she’s not very interested in swords and doesn’t want to put in effort, so there was no hope.

Kana rubbed her face, doing a dry face wash at her frustratingly answerless future.

What on earth should she do?

“I want to become strong…”

Throwing out a question that had become boring from too much muttering by now, Kana looked up at the sky and.

“What are you doing here?”
“…?”

She raised a question mark at the red hair blocking her view.

Though it was clearly a blue sky without a single cloud, there was red hair shining uniquely among that sky and grey eyes looking down at her.

And the moment she recognized that it was a person and further realized it was Yeonhwa, Kana was startled and fell flat on her back.

“M-M-Master?!!”
“Yes, it’s me. What kind of worry do you have to be sighing like that and making such a sad face?”

Yeonhwa supported Kana’s back with her foot as she fell backwards, then helped her up before plopping down beside her. As that appearance was undoubtedly herself, Kana covered her mouth with her hand for a moment while calming her startled mind.

It wasn’t for any great reason.

It was just because a question arose whether she, whom Kana had thought to make her cooking master, she who had defeated the demons yesterday, could perhaps solve this kind of worry of hers.

After all, the ‘swordsmanship skills’ she had shown yesterday were truly amazing.

But even with such thoughts, normally Kana wouldn’t have shared her worries.

If any worry was solely her own, Kana was the type to put it in a box in her heart and carry it.

But what change of heart was it?

It could have been because of Yeonhwa’s confident expression as if she could solve anything, or it could have been because she had harbored the worry for too long and a small gap had formed in her heart.

But whatever the reason, Kana glanced at her who had sat down beside her, and eventually, slowly but surely, opened her mouth.

“Well… I felt it in the swordsmanship class… that I’m significantly weaker than the other kids. But I have neither talent nor interest in swords, so I think I’m really hopeless…”
“Hmm.”
“So when I saw Master’s swordsmanship yesterday, I was amazed! I thought I wanted to become like that too. But since I don’t have talent after all…”
“No talent, you say. Is that all?”
“What do you mean… ‘is that all’?”

Although she hesitated, she shared her worry, but at Yeonhwa’s response, raising her eyebrows and asking back, Kana tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.

No, she actually didn’t understand. What does she mean, ‘is that all’? Does that mean there should be some bigger worry?

If that was the case, Kana thought it was quite bad-natured, but the next moment, she realized that Yeonhwa’s question didn’t mean that from the words she uttered along with a sigh.

“From what I see, there aren’t many kids as talented as you. What kind of worry is that?”
“Huh? Wh-what do you mean…!”

At Yeonhwa’s words asking if she had talent and if that was really a worry, Kana was about to shout not to say such nonsense, but seeing her face that seemed to be speaking only the truth, she shut her mouth tight.

Does she really have talent? But if she had talent, she wouldn’t be falling behind other children in swordsmanship class, would she?

Like Arin, for instance.

She thought about it again just in case, but it was still nonsense. She had no talent in swordsmanship.

Therefore, Kana was about to tell her that she had no talent in swords, but before Kana could finish speaking, Yeonhwa cut her off and interjected.

“Master, I really don’t have…”
“You don’t have talent in swords? Of course, why would a chef be good with swords in the first place?”

A chef wouldn’t be good with swords. Saying this, Yeonhwa showed the kitchen knife hanging at her waist, ahead of Kana who was about to open her mouth.

“You’re trying to become a chef, not a swordsman, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
“Then why are you holding a sword and disappointing yourself when a chef should be holding a kitchen knife?”

With a face that truly couldn’t comprehend, Yeonhwa scratched her head.

For some reason, the point of the conversation hasn’t been matching since earlier. Kana thought this as she looked at Yeonhwa.

The reason was probably because Yeonhwa’s and her own viewpoints were different. And because the viewpoints were different, Kana shouted at Yeonhwa’s words whose meaning she couldn’t understand.

“B-but you can’t use cooking in battle!”
“Huh…? What are you talking about?”

You can’t use cooking in battle. At those words, Yeonhwa frowned for a moment and growled.

Realizing she had misspoken at that reaction, Kana hurriedly covered her mouth, but the dragon’s reverse scale had already been touched.

Yeonhwa grabbed Kana by the scruff of her neck with an angry expression never seen before, and all Kana could do in response to that rough handling was to be dragged along obediently without even struggling.

The place Yeonhwa dragged Kana to was behind an empty training ground not far from the stairs near the main building.

“Hmm, this should be about the same size? I think this is about the size of the boulder you mentioned.”
“Ah, yes. That’s almost exactly the same size.”

Unlike when she had dragged Kana here looking quite angry, Yeonhwa now asked in a calm tone as if she had never been angry, and Kana nodded and answered.

What Yeonhwa pointed to was a rock deeply embedded in the ground. As it was a rock of similar size to the boulder used in the swordsmanship class, Yeonhwa stood in front of the rock with Kana.

Then Yeonhwa alternately stroked her kitchen knife and the rock in front of her, and slowly raised the kitchen knife while speaking.

“It’s annoying to teach twice, so learn by watching with your eyes. Lay out the cutting board, hold the kitchen knife, and prepare the ingredients. Got it?”
“…”

…What is she talking about?

Kana just blinked at words she could hear but couldn’t understand the meaning of.

And seeing Kana like this, Yeonhwa seemed to think there was no point in explaining further as she wouldn’t understand, so instead of speaking more, she moved her hand holding the kitchen knife.

Even more slowly than when she raised the kitchen knife. With leisurely movements as if showing something to a young child.

And.

“…Ah.”

As her hand moved, Kana opened her eyes wide at the sensation enveloping her body, which she had felt once before.

A sensation as if the ground she was standing on was no longer ground.

A sensation as if a sharp guillotine was floating above her head.

Lastly, this was something she felt for the first time, but a sensation as if the rock in front of her was being recognized not as a rock but as a cooking ingredient.

When she directly experienced these sensations with her body again, Kana could finally understand all at once what Yeonhwa had said.

At the same time, she understood why Yeonhwa had gotten angry at her words that cooking couldn’t be used in battle.

Because what Yeonhwa was showing in front of her eyes right now was.

“『Cross-cutting』”

Neither more nor less than the sight of cooking a rock.

Swish──

Along with the low murmur, the rock fell to the ground quartered.

As it looked just like a potato that had been sliced and prepared, Kana carefully approached and stroked the cross-section of the rock that Yeonhwa had cut.

“It’s smooth…!”

The rock’s cross-section, smooth like a steel plate without any bumps. Kana turned to look at Yeonhwa with eyes full of admiration at the rock that had been perfectly cross-cut as Yeonhwa had muttered.

“Master…!!”
“Agh, so annoying. Anyway, you understand now that cooking can be used in battle too, right? You have the best talent for this in this academy, so come learn it properly.”
“Yes! I’ll definitely come! Absolutely!!!”

Yeonhwa pushing away Kana while muttering curses at Kana’s burdensome gaze.

But even such handling felt only grateful because Yeonhwa had cleanly solved her worries.

To think she had solved so simply a worry that she had been harboring for so long and hadn’t been able to resolve until now.

Feeling grateful to the point of tears, Kana bounced up and down.

But of course.

“Oh, by the way, is it okay for you not to be in class right now? It’s probably been about 30 minutes since class started?”
“…Pardon?”

It didn’t even take 10 seconds for that feeling of emotion and gratitude to shatter.