Arata: “This makes 100.”

Rose: “I thought I was going to die…”

After several hours of intense training, Rose successfully (or rather, miraculously?) performed her 100th consecutive parry.

When she confirmed the words 『Instantaneous Slash』 in the list of awards, she collapsed on the spot as if her tension had snapped.

Arata: “I did hold back, you know?”

Rose: “Each strike was so sharp! I was terrified you’d hit me… Wait, you did hit me, didn’t you⁉”

Arata: “It’s easier for me to do it that way.”

Rose, possibly out of exhaustion, forgets her role-play and speaks in her natural tone. Her words were fraught with tension.

But Arata had his own rationale for his actions. Lackluster attacks would cause laxity and result in unnecessary mistakes. Moreover, this award collection also aimed to improve parrying success rate, besides obtaining skill points.

Arata: “With the total successful parries alone this time, you’ve crossed 1000, and you’ve probably secured about 5000 skill points.”

Rose: “Eh?”

Rose reopened her status screen and jumped to the skill acquisition screen to find she had 5200 SP.

Rose: “…Total successful times?”

Arata: “There are two types of awards that can be won through parrying: 『Total Successful Times』 and 『Consecutive Successful Times』”

Rose: “Wait! This award for achieving 1000 total successful parries, 『Still Mind』 alone gives an extra 1000SP⁉”

Arata: “That’s great. Now you can use your SP extravagantly.”

Rose: “I’ve had enough‼”

Like a whining child, Rose flopped down on the spot, sprawled out.

This was another reason for Arata’s unusually sharp attacks: to keep Rose’s motivation for consecutive successful parries without giving her the chance to confirm her award acquisition.

Arata: (Well, I didn’t really think she could do it)

Arata figured that if Rose could acquire the award for 50 consecutive successful parries, 『Miracle Maker』 or for 20 successful parries, 『Single-minded』 would be good enough.

–100 consecutive successful parries.

It’s easy to say, but among the obtainable awards, the difficulty of 『Instantaneous Slash』 ranks high.

The condition for a successful parry is to perform actions like 『Horizontal Slash』 or 『Guard』 within 0.25 seconds of an attack’s hit determination.

Even if a friend helps, one will likely falter before reaching 100 successful times. Thus, most either get hit before counting to 100, or end up with a normal 『Guard』 determination.

Knowing this, Arata thought highly of Rose’s award acquisition in just a few hours.

Award collecting is nothing but austerity.

Concentration.

Patience.

Spirit.

To acquire just one award, one might keep hunting the same monster for weeks.

And at the end of this mental grind, there lies “emptiness.”

After 30 minutes, an hour… endlessly repeating the same action, one might lose track of what they’re doing.

The motivation to “complete” becomes a wish for it “to end,” and eventually, one might stray to another award.

But Rose’s motivation never waned.

At the beginning, she did complain about unsuccessful parries, but once she got the hang of it, she just kept swinging her rapier silently.

Rose has a lot of deficiencies in her skills and knowledge. However, when it comes to perseverance, she had plenty of potential as a gamer.

 

＊＊＊

 

–In the evening

Due to Rose’s desire to earn a cooking award, she was put in charge of dinner.

Rose: “I’ll be in your care.”

Chef Richard: “Yes. I, Richard, the chef, will give my utmost advice so that lady Rose can create the most fantastic dish.”

Chef Richard bowed lightly to Rose.

And so, in a corner of the mansion’s kitchen, the cooking for award acquisition began.

The dish they were making this time was 『Potage Soup』.

It was a simple soup, the main ingredients being only potatoes and onions.

This dish was chosen because its cooking process is relatively simple, and the chances of failure are low.

However, Rose, a beginner who has never properly used a knife, let alone the 【Cooking】 skill she had acquired but never used, didn’t have the technique to prepare a meal for dozens of servants, nor the time to do so.

Therefore, she would only cook for herself, Arata, and Richard.

Chef Richard: “Once the ingredients are boiled, they are made into a paste and mixed with milk. So, it’s easier to strain if you cut the ingredients finely.”

Rose: “Like this?”

Arata, who lacks cooking experience, doesn’t interfere with the process.

In-game cooking is simplified: all you need to do is cut the required ingredients with items like a 『Knife』, put them in the pot, and the dish is ready.

However, this world is different from the game.

Making a single dish requires following cooking procedures closely, and naturally, it takes time.

Rose uses the knife gingerly and starts cutting the ingredients.

Arata watches her anxiously, while Richard looks on with amusement.

Chef Richard: “Then, put these in the pot.”

Rose: “Do we not add water to boil it?”

Chef Richard: “First, apply heat and start sautéing the ingredients. This will add a savory flavor when it’s done.”

Rose carefully applied heat to the ingredients, making sure they didn’t burn.

As for Arata, he was listening to Richard’s advice while observing Rose’s cooking.

For Arata, who was interested in cooking, the tips and points spoken by Richard, a chef, were enlightening.

After a while, when the onions turned caramel color, water was added to the pot under Richard’s instructions.

Rose: “Has it been cooked enough?”

Chef Richard: “It’s sufficient. Now, let’s strain this.”

They put a sieve on top of the bowl and added the boiled ingredients to it.

Then, using a spatula, they carefully strained it.

Chef Richard: “We will return this to the pot and heat it with the milk.”

Rose: “It’s starting to smell good.”

Finally, they serve it in a soup dish and garnish it with salt, pepper, and oil.

And then—

Rose: “It’s done!”

At last, the potage soup was ready.

Rose: “How is it?”

Chef Richard: “It’s a fine serving, my lady.”

Arata: “It’s delicious.”

Rose: “I did it!”

The potage soup, where one can feel the sweetness of the onions and the flavor of the potatoes, was excellent.

The result was more than satisfactory, not like a beginner’s work.

At this point, Arata started to wonder.

Arata: “Isn’t this too good?”

The potage soup that Rose made was as good as a professional’s.

But in the cooking videos she posted when she was alive, she demonstrated a level of cooking so poor that the hamburger she was trying to make ended up being dark matter.

Could she really cook this well?

Rose’s cooking skill level was 3.

When the completed 『Potage Soup』. was appraised, the rarity as an item was 3.

In the game, a skill was needed to perform a 【Cooking】 action.

However, in this world, a skill is not necessarily required for  【Cooking】.

Arata thought back on his 【Swordsmanship】.

Right after he was reincarnated in this world, he was consciously slashing with the edge of the blade, but at some point, he didn’t need to do that anymore.

Upon further thought, he realized that his handling of the sword had greatly improved since he acquired the 【Swordsmanship】 skill.

Arata: (As a game system, an assist for the trajectory of swinging a sword… Could something similar be working with skills in this world?)

What Arata further questioned was the existence of 【Magic】.

In the game, magic was activated by 『extending the hand forward』 in a predetermined posture and 『voicing the name of the magic』.

But what about magic in this world?

Arata: (I can use magic even without chanting, if I want to. And I can also understand the feeling of my MP decreasing)

When Arata obtained the  【Cooking】 skill, no skill points were consumed.

And perhaps, the inhabitants of this world are not consuming skill points, but are establishing skills through experience, Arata speculated.

Arata: (If so, the fact that reincarnated people can consume skill points and grant abilities to themselves means, what exactly…)

What does it mean to have physical abilities that exceed one’s limits due to status?

What does it mean to be able to acquire supernatural abilities called skills by consuming skill points?

To disguise the discomfort that he couldn’t shake off, Arata carried the potage soup to his mouth.

The perfected taste contained something other than Rose’s effort, as if something alien had been mixed in.

 

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

 

Originally, the plan was for Rose to mess up and eventually create dark matter… but in the end, I couldn’t disrespect the ingredients.