Chapter 3

A few days after I had a conversation with Beth, whom I purposely invited to taste my new food creations, I was standing in front of my class with a whiteboard full of my doodles about the cooking theory that I teach my students, who had listened carefully to my lessons for several days.

"All right, everyone! Until then, class for today. Don't forget to repeat what we just learned today at home. Have you all understood the material I taught you today? "

"Yes, Teacher Marleen! We've got it all figured out. Thank you for today's lesson!"

"Good. Now, all of you go home. Enjoy your vacation and see you at the next meeting!"

My students obediently obeyed my orders and immediately packed up to return to their respective homes. While I was still standing near the table where I was teaching my students in class, my mind started to drift, thinking about the events of several years ago. At that time, I had given up on remembering the faces and names of my students.

I even asked Beth for advice to help me overcome the problem I have been facing since I opened my own cooking school, namely remembering the names of my students who, for some reason, I can't remember well. And Beth, in all her wisdom, advised me to put a name tag on each of my students so that I could easily identify them without having to tire of memorizing their names.

"At least you don't have to memorize their names, and you don't lose your prestige as a teacher. Such a win-win solution, right?"

"Are you trying to tell me that I didn't have the authority as a teacher and owner of a cooking class all this time?"

Beth shook her head when she heard my reaction to her suggestion. "That's not what I said earlier, Marleen. Please focus on my previous sentence and not the last one. Also, my purpose in giving advice like this is to lighten your load while you are teaching in class. So you don't have to ask your students' names every time they ask you a question. problems or anything they want to ask you during class. In my shop, I always ask my workers to wear name tags so I don't get the wrong word when calling them."

"Why don't you tell me that you also often forget people's names?" I asked her sarcastically, as I rolled my eyes and put one of the cheese balls that I made at my best friend's request into my mouth, enjoying the taste of cheese that felt right in my mouth.

"If you work with more than 50 employees like me, you will understand how important it is to ask your employees to wear name tags whenever they work for you."

I nodded my head, remembering Beth's words when she asked me to follow her suggestion that I give each of my students a name tag. And I have to admit that what she suggested to me at that time was right. Since I gave all my students their name tags and asked them to wear them during class, my burden was much lighter. Thanks to her, now I can focus more on teaching without having to worry about remembering the names of my students, and thanks to that, I have more time to create new foods.

"Teacher Marleen."

"Yes, what's wrong?"

I took a glance at my student, who had just woken me from my daydream. From the name tag, I could see her name was Shanon, which became the identity of the only student who was standing near me right now. Her appearance immediately caught my attention, thanks to her face that makes her look so cute with her tiny body. Her shoulder-length hair was made into two pigtails, making her look very cute. Especially when I saw her smile, which even looked as cute as her current appearance, to the point that I failed to focus when I saw her still smiling at me.

If only the cute girl in front of my eyes right now was not my student, but a strange woman I met on one of the streets I used to walk every time I bought groceries for my class (and, of course, for myself), I would have mustered up all the courage I had to approach her before asking her out on a date with me. Unfortunately, I can't possibly do that, because the truth is that she is not a foreign woman I just met on the street, but one of my students who still has not come home after I finished today's class, and it looks like she will be asking me for help in the near future regarding the difficulties she learned during that class.

"Could Teacher Marleen teach me the recipe that Teacher Marleen just taught me today? I've tried it many times and followed the steps that Teacher Marleen taught in class earlier, but the results are not what Teacher Marleen showed in the class earlier."

Bingo! As I expected earlier, she was asking me to help her master what she learned in my class today.

"No problem. Then, which table is yours? Let me first check what the problem is with the food recipe you learned today, and after that, I will help you learn the recipe we learned today."

Without giving an answer, she immediately took my hand, leading me to her table, and I immediately smiled wryly when I saw the results of her cooking, which she was showing me right now. I felt like I wanted to take back my words that had said 'no problem' when she asked for my help to teach her the food recipe that I had just taught in class today after seeing firsthand the results of the dishes she made with her food magic.

It turned out that the only thing about the student I had not yet returned home with was just her cute appearance; the food was far from cute like her appearance.

"What do you think about my cooking results, Teacher Marleen?"

I gulped when I saw the spring rolls made by Shanon, and even from the smell, I immediately knew that the food that was in front of us right now should not be allowed to enter my stomach or the stomachs of anyone who would eat it. Not to mention the appearance of Shanon's spring rolls that are presented in front of me right now; they're black with a tinge of green around them, which makes me start to wonder if she was paying attention to the lesson I'm giving her today because I remember very well that I didn't teach my students to make spring rolls in the shape I see today.

How could she turn one of my masterpieces into such trash that I'm even sure if I threw her spring roll out into the street, it could blow up an entire city in a matter of minutes? I think it looks like any person who sees this devil creature can now imagine how terrible the food was made by one of my students, whose existence I just realized today. But compared to thinking about it, I was much more concerned with my damaged self-esteem when I saw my student failing to even follow the recipe I was teaching today.

In my heart, I felt so humiliated when I saw the results of the food recipe that he had made with great difficulty earlier, but I began to feel that there was something I didn't want from the food she made earlier, which was far more interesting to me than providing input for the mistakes she made from one of the recipes I taught her today, which even the appearance of it couldn't bear to hold on to for long.

"Wait a minute. When did you finish these, hm, spring rolls?"

"Just now. Why did Teacher Marleen ask that question?"

"Hmm... Can you step back for a bit, Shanon?" I asked her before I immediately shook my head and corrected my words earlier. "My apology, but I need you to step back for a bit."

She nodded her head, although I could clearly see her confused expression when I asked her to do what I told her to do. As soon as she did as I ordered, only then did I take the opportunity to take a deep breath, and start closing my eyes to concentrate on casting my magic.

Slowly, from within my body, I could feel a flow of magic instantly moving around my body. Then I opened my eyes and immediately directed the magic that I cast earlier to create a kind of barrier that moves around the cooking products of one of my students who will soon need it.

And now, all I need to do is wait to see what the next show will be. On the count of three, two, one...

Duar! Duar! Duar!

As I expected, I can now hear an explosion that was actually quite large, but it was suppressed thanks to the shield I just made at the right moment. While looking at the explosions that came from Shanon's cooking earlier that looked like fireworks, I started counting the number of explosions that appeared from my student's cursed creation earlier.

One, two, three,...

Nineteen, twenty.

What?? This is too much for me to handle on this one!

"Teacher Marleen, does that mean I failed again, huh? Does it mean I have no talent to be a food wizard at all?" She asked me with teary eyes, making me feel awkward because I was confused about how to answer her question, which, in fact, was very easy for me to answer if she had not asked it with that look on her face that said to me indirectly that she would cry sooner or later.

Even though I am used to seeing Beth cry in front of me time and time again, why do I feel so weak when Shanon does it? Is it because she's my ideal type, that I suddenly turned super weak when I saw her cry in front of me?

"Why does it still fail? Even though I have tried to do it according to what Teacher Marleen taught me earlier, I keep trying again and again. My other friends just succeeded as soon as they learned what Teacher Marleen taught us about. But why are the results of what I created not the results I expected?"

Slightly hesitant, I put my hand on the top of her head and stroked it gently while half hoping that what I did to her now would lessen her crying. Instead of decreasing, the crying just got louder and louder, until I, who was planning to give an answer to his question earlier, chose to keep my mouth shut again and decided to postpone my plan to tell her anything about the reason behind her failure today.

Instead, I offered something that I once offered to my students from the third and fourth castes when I was still opening classes for both castes before deciding to close them for my own good and also because the number of devotees was very small. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I offered to teach Shanon again, who looked so desperate to be able to master the food recipe I taught in class today, I muttered as I continued my hand that was stroking her soft hair in my hand.

"How about we study together right now? I am sure your ability will increase if we study together. What do you think about it?"

"Right now? Are you sure about it, Teacher Marleen? Is it okay if Teacher Marleen teaches me right now?"

"That is not a problem for me. I will definitely try my best to help you master your cooking skills until you don't blow up your dish anymore. But there will be an additional fee for a private class with me. Do you still want it?"