Demon's Virtue
chapter-677

Eiro and Clementine stepped into the manor's kitchen. He himself didn't spend all too much time here; though he did enjoy food in general, at the end of the day, he didn't particularly care about what it was that he was actually eating. With his taste buds, most of the time, things tasted so overwhelming that it was hard to really get picky. That's why the food he enjoyed most was actually rather on the plain side, though he knew that it wasn't what other people generally enjoyed.

"Alright. I think for now, let's just try something like this. Rudy loves food and he loves cooking, and he knows so much about food that even some royal chefs have gotten impressed by him. I think maybe something like that might help you a bit. Your relationship with food is not what it should be, so this could sort of help you. Get back some control in that," Eiro suggested. Clementine looked around the room and slowly nodded her head, "Okay... sure. Let's try that... what first?"

"Well, let's try the basics. Let's try and work toward getting you the cooking skill," the demon walked over toward the cooking utensils, quickly grabbing a pair of very simple chef's knives. They had been made by Armodeus, so they were probably the best in the country, though it also meant that they were incredibly sharp and barely lost any of their edge. He was a bit worried, but he knew that Clementine was good with her hands overall, so she should be able to handle this well enough.

Specifically for this, Eiro had gone into the royal castle's kitchen and watched the chefs there for a few hours. 'Ability Absorption' wasn't something that only worked with combat skills. By just watching the chefs, he was able to copy their techniques and muscle memory into his own body. And of course, the rest of it was just knowing what worked well together and which ingredient brought what to the dish, as well as being able to trust your senses to fine-tune things. Obviously, knowing things and trusting his senses were two of the things that Eiro was best at.

"Okay, what do you want to make?" the Demon asked. Clementine looked around the room, quietly shrugging, "I don't know... a stew, maybe?"

"A stew. Sounds good to me. Then come here for now," Eiro said, placing the knives down on the counter, before walking toward the door at the side of the room as his daughter followed. Beyond the door was a storage room that had plenty of different ingredients to offer. Eiro looked at Clementine, "So, for a stew, we need a couple different ingredients. We'd need some beef, onions, carrots, potatoes. And basically whatever else you think might fit."

Clementine nodded her head. She was clearly very hesitant about this. Her heart was beating fast and loud, so she was clearly hesitant. But at least, Eiro knew that she wanted to do this, and he hoped that it wasn't just because he had suggested it to her in the first place. That was something that he still struggled to find out, especially when it came to his children. There were a lot of different reasons to 'want' to do something, and a lot of the time even the person in question didn't truly know the actual reason. And since Eiro's ability to tell truth from lie depended on what the other person believed, there was little that he could do if they believed what they said, even if it wasn't the case. So it was possible that Clementine believed that she wanted to do this to attempt changing her relationship to food, while in reality, she might just want to do it because Eiro had suggested it to her.

The girl walked around the room, grabbing some ingredients that Eiro quickly took into his hands, as he would be the one doing the brunt work. They weren't only going to be cooking for him and Clementine, but instead a large portion for the main members of the household. Since the diet of the monsters that worked here in the manor was a bit more unique, they had a specific diet that they were meant to stick to, so they weren't included in this. However, even so, that was still more than a dozen individuals, and some of those could eat portions a couple times larger than normal, such as Bavet, Krog, and even Eiro himself. Rudy tried to keep his portion sizes down, though being a Goliath, he generally still got quite hungry and ate a lot.

Soon, Eiro and Clementine had picked out all the ingredients and brought them over to their workstation. Eiro grabbed another knife as well; as they were going to need to peel the potatoes and carrots, a regular chef's knife was too large, so he grabbed a simple paring knife instead.

The Demon grabbed the first potato and held it in his hand, waiting for Clementine to do the same, "Alright, hold them like this," Eiro said, watching carefully to make sure that Clementine was safe as she worked, "Good, now, don't push the knife against the potato, but push the potato into the knife. Otherwise it's pretty easy to cut yourself."

"Like this?" Clementine asked, as she cut a large chunk of the potato off. Eiro just nodded and smiled. Though she didn't do it perfectly, it was more than good enough, especially for her first time, "Like that. Just keep steady. Rather do it slowly and be safe, than rush it and hurt yourself."

"Alright..." the girl replied, trying to concentrate as she kept following Eiro's instructions. The Demon was following along as well, making sure that two of his own hands were still in Clementine's view even if she concentrated on her own hands, so that she could look at how he was doing it if she needed to. However, with his other two hands, Eiro was preparing the meat. The beef they picked out was a large chunk with still quite a lot of bones in it, so that they could use the bones for the broth. And of course, Eiro felt like deboning a cut of meat was a bit too much for Clementine for now. Though, she would be cutting it into cubes later herself.

Soon, Clementine seemed to be relaxing a bit as she started concentrating on the work more. She was also getting a lot better quite steadily, though she still hadn't gotten the Cooking skill. Though, that was to be expected. Eiro received it incredibly easily within a few minutes of just cooking some... 'meat' over fire. Though now, he knew that this was the influence of the 'Splinter' that he had within him all along, as well as the curator of the System helping him out in regard to the speed at which he gained new skills. How long it was going to take Clementine really depended on her talent. It could take her a few days of cooking every single day, or a few weeks. Or, she could also get this skill right in the middle of this stew's preparation.

Clementine peeled about three portions worth of potatoes, and at that point, Eiro figured it was fine, and they moved onto carrots instead. They took a short break in the middle when Eiro was done prepping the beef bones, where Eiro and Clementine carried a large pot over onto the wood stove. Usually, Eiro would just use his own flames for the whole thing, but he wanted Clementine to have a bit more influence here, and keeping an eye on the fire would help that. Obviously, Eiro still provided the initial flame and would also make sure that the fire wouldn't go out of control, though he could hide that bit from Clementine if he needed to.

They filled the pot with water and placed the bones inside, where it would hopefully turn into a basic broth by the time they were done chopping everything. It didn't take long for Clementine to become comfortable enough to start talking.

"Do you cook a lot when you're out travelling?" Clementine asked, and Eiro thought for a moment, "Not necessarily. Just basic things, I guess. I don't technically need to eat that often, but I still try to eat at least once or twice a day. Like a ritual, you know? So if I'm in a hurry, I'll just hunt something. A rabbit, a bird. If there's rivers or lakes around, I grab some fish."

"...Did you always eat things like that?" the girl finally asked, after a few moments of silence. Eiro didn't know what he should say. Basically, ever since they had all met Jura, Eiro had been eating regular food. But before then, he would eat anything but regular things. He would eat people. And before then, when he was still a member of the horde, he would stuff himself with either random roots, plants, grass, and if they were all lucky, either a monster of their horde died or they came across some wild animal that hadn't run away yet. Of course, the stronger monsters got their pick first, but Eiro got some scraps now and then, and often chewed on bones until they became soft enough to eat.

And while it wasn't a pretty story, he didn't want to lie to his daughter about this, "...No. Frankly, I used to eat abhorrent things. I don't want to go into detail, but what I ate was rather disgusting. Physically, as well as morally," Eiro explained, before looking back at Clementine, rubbing one of his hands on her back, "But ever since I met you all, I've been eating like a King in comparison."