Chapter 20 – The Zombie Chef

“How is that possible! This is absolutely delicious! Even better than yesterday’s Magical Feast!”

Vasida alternated between bites of meat and rice, her eyes squinting shut with happiness. “Something this good obviously needs to be savored slowly!”

Mo Lan shook her head in amusement.

“You! You were starving last night—you probably couldn’t even taste anything properly. Lady Amisha’s Magical Feast isn’t just for show, you know!”

“But it really is better than anything I’ve ever eaten in my entire life! Especially this egg fried rice—I’ve never seen food prepared this way before!”

Vasida said:

“Oh right, Moira, the egg fried rice recipe—can I teach it to our zombie chef at home? I promise I won’t share it with anyone else!”

“???” Mo Lan felt as though she had just heard something extraordinary. “Sharing it or not isn’t really the issue, it’s just… zombie?”

Vasida scratched her head sheepishly. “Have you ever heard of the Corpse Clan? When an undying corpse develops sentience after enduring long ages, it becomes a member of the Corpse Clan. They’re quite rare.”

“My dad is actually a zombie King that my mom raised. He eventually developed sentience and became a member of the Corpse Clan.”

“The zombies he trains are relatively nimble.”

“I’ve always had a big appetite, and Mom isn’t very good at Culinary Magic, so it was the zombie chefs Dad trained that raised me.”

“Dad was worried about me living on my own someday, so he really did spend all day every day cooking, until he eventually starved himself to death.”

“He said that when I graduate, he’d pack up the household chefs into coffins and send them to me.”

“Before I came to school, I even specially learned zombie maintenance techniques from him!”

“Luckily, I inherited a bit of Dad’s talent in that area…”

Mo Lan didn’t fully understand, but she was profoundly shocked.

Who said witches had weak reproductive capabilities? They could even produce a healthy little witch with a member of the Corpse Clan!

They called them sentient corpses, but fundamentally, wasn’t the physical body still dead?

“…But zombies are still zombies. Even after being trained by a member of the Corpse Clan, their learning ability is still very weak. They can only make simple, basic communal meals.”

“You could say it won’t kill a witch, but it’s definitely far from good.”

“The egg fried rice recipe you taught me has pretty detailed steps, so it could be turned into instructions and issued to the zombie chef. That’s why I wanted him to learn it…”

Poor Vasida had grown up eating the zombie chef’s bland communal meals. Last night at the Magical Feast she’d been too starved to taste anything properly, so today’s few dishes truly were the most exquisite food she had ever experienced.

“You’re saying that as long as the steps are detailed enough, your zombie chef can learn to make a dish?” Mo Lan asked.

“Probably! My dad’s cooking isn’t very good, so the zombies he trained cook just as poorly. But as long as you can issue fixed instructions and they practice repeatedly, they really can learn. They’re probably a bit more flexible than puppets, even.”

Vasida said, “Luckily I also inherited some of my dad’s ability to train zombies, so it should be fine.”

“Alright! If you want to teach them, go ahead! I have some other recipes with rigid, fixed steps that turn out decent food—I can organize them for you later!”

Mo Lan thought of Earth’s automatic stir-fry machines.

Those machines still required you to chop the ingredients and load them in yourself. Vasida’s household zombies could handle the entire process.

“Really? Thank you so much, Moira!” Vasida was overjoyed, looking at Mo Lan as if she were her very lifeline.

“For me, it’s no trouble at all—no need to thank me. I miss Earth, and I suppose I want its civilization to live on too!”

Perhaps because Vasida had shared some things about her family today, Mo Lan also opened up and mentioned things she had never brought up with anyone before.

“Earth?” Vasida asked, puzzled. “What’s that?”

“I’m a soul from another world. Earth is the home planet of my previous life. Egg fried rice is a Earth delicacy,” Mo Lan said.

“A soul from another world?” Vasida exclaimed. “So you’re a soul from another world, Moira! No wonder you always seem so much more composed and knowledgeable than everyone else!”

Mo Lan was almost embarrassed by the praise. Although she carried memories from Earth, as far as Valen was concerned, she was essentially a complete newborn. She didn’t really know more than the other young witches.

“Moira, what’s Earth like? Are there witches?” Vasida asked curiously.

This was the first soul from another world she had ever met!

“Earth…” A look of reminiscence crossed Mo Lan’s eyes as she briefly described some things about Earth.

Vasida listened, utterly captivated. “What a gentle world!”

“Yes!” Whenever Mo Lan thought of Earth, she couldn’t hide her worry.

Vasida noticed her dampened mood and said, “Moira! You’re an Sorceress! An Sorceress with no upper limit to her growth! As long as you keep growing step by step, one day you’ll have the power to save a world!”

“Besides! If you alone aren’t enough, there’s still me, and Sylph, and Lilith!”

“Lady Theresa and her two fellow Sorceresses were enough to bring all the races of Valen to heel. Can’t the four of us Sorceresses together save one little world that doesn’t even have magic?”

“We may value independence and freedom, but when it comes to helping one of our own, we absolutely won’t hesitate!”

Looking at Vasida’s confident expression, Mo Lan felt as though the fog in her heart had parted to reveal sunlight. She said firmly, “I will go back!”

“You can do it!” Vasida pumped her small fist.

“Mm!”

Between talking and eating, they had been so engrossed in conversation that Mo Lan hadn’t noticed she had overeaten.

Adding it up, she had eaten a steak, a bowl of egg fried rice, and a small plate of salad.

That was already well beyond her usual capacity. She couldn’t eat another bite.

She rubbed her belly and leaned back in her chair. “I’m full. The rest is up to you, Vasida!”

Vasida glanced at Mo Lan’s rounded tummy, confirmed she was truly full, and immediately sped up her eating several times over.

Though fast, it was very different from the ravenous wolfing down at last night’s enrollment banquet.

You could tell she was still thoroughly chewing and tasting her food.

Mo Lan now understood—Vasida’s idea of “savoring slowly” was infinitely faster than she had imagined.

The reason she had been eating so slowly before was most likely because she was worried Mo Lan wouldn’t get enough to eat.

The moment Vasida finished, she stood up to clear the dishes.

Mo Lan tried to help, but Vasida pushed her right back into her chair. “I’m basically your culinary apprentice now, right? What kind of apprentice makes their mentor clean up!”

Mo Lan wasn’t falling for it. “I only agreed to write you a recipe so you could teach your zombies. I never said I’d personally teach you every dish. What kind of mentor does that make me?”

“Passing on recipes counts! Don’t tell me that if I can’t figure something out in the recipe, you’d really have the heart not to help me, Moira?” Vasida said, utterly self-assured.

“You!” Mo Lan didn’t hold back either. “Go wash the dishes already! How did I never notice before that you’re so good at pushing your luck?”

That was as good as agreeing to teach her. Humming an off-key tune, Vasida happily went to clear the dishes.