TLNOTE : SUPER SORRY, I FORGOT TO POST THIS CHAPTER!!!!!!!
Extra: Behind the Dragon’s Attack
In the western part of the Gilbert Kingdom, in the town of Heremia, there’s a 43-year-old woman named Karina McKinney who runs a restaurant.
Karina, known for her cheerful and friendly personality, operates a popular eatery famous for its wide variety of creative dishes and daily specials that keep regular customers from getting bored.
Her restaurant is closed every Saturday and the first Wednesday of each month. On these days off, Karina conducts cooking classes. At just 1,000 Zeny per lesson, it’s an affordable cooking school.
While there aren’t many young participants, the cooking class mainly attracts housewives in their 30s to 50s who join for hobby or social reasons.
Since Karina herself runs the class more as a hobby than for profit, she doesn’t mind that most participants are housewives, though she’d be happy to see younger people join too.
About three months ago, a 16-year-old girl started attending Karina’s cooking class.
The girl’s name is Yufia Queensroad. She has beautiful long silver hair and features so perfectly formed that even Karina, a woman herself, is left breathless by her beauty.
Yufia is a student at Crawford Magic Academy, a school of magic located near the neighboring town of Heremia, where Karina’s restaurant is situated.
Karina has an acquaintance who works as kitchen staff in the cafeteria of Crawford Magic Academy. According to this woman, Yufia is so famous within the magic academy that even the cafeteria staff know her.
Apparently, Yufia is the daughter of a prestigious magical family and currently the most outstanding student at the magic academy.
Coming from a renowned magical family, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Yufia lives in a different world from Karina. She could easily dine at high-end restaurants every day or hire a personal chef at home. If she had other options, she probably wouldn’t ever visit Karina’s restaurant in her lifetime.
When Karina once frankly asked Yufia, “Why did you want to come here?”, she simply answered, “I want to become good at cooking…”
When Karina further inquired, “Why do you want to be good at cooking?”, Yufia replied, “Because… I’d be happy if I could make delicious food.”
Karina wanted to probe deeper but, not wanting to bother her with too many questions, she just smiled and said, “I see.”
Other participants in the cooking class describe Yufia as “unfriendly,” “cold,” and “looking down on us commoners.”
Indeed, Yufia always maintains a expressionless face, speaks very little, and has never been seen chatting with anyone during the cooking class. Combined with her exquisitely beautiful features, it’s understandable that she might come across as cold.
However, Karina felt that Yufia wasn’t the kind of person others described her to be.
This was because Yufia always worked hard on her cooking, and never ignored anyone who spoke to her.
Whenever Karina gave advice to Yufia during cooking, she always listened earnestly. Her knife skills, which were far from impressive when she first started attending, improved with each lesson – proof that she was putting her heart into the classes.
To Karina, Yufia seemed like a pure-hearted, earnest girl who was just a bit shy around people – a kind and adorable child.
Three months after Yufia started attending the cooking class, as Karina was wondering how she could become closer to Yufia…
One day, Yufia, who usually could only attend on Saturdays when the academy was closed, surprisingly showed up for the first Wednesday class of the month. It seemed her usually late-running classes at the academy had ended early that day, and Karina was delighted that Yufia had decided to use her unexpected free time to attend the class.
Amidst the usual bustle of housewife participants, the cooking class that day focused on making cream stew.
As usual, Karina first wrote the ingredients and cooking steps on the blackboard and explained them. Then the participants cooked using the prepared ingredients. Under Karina’s guidance, they finished by tasting their creations or packing them in take-home containers.
After chatting with the participants for a while, Karina bid farewell to each of them as they left.
Just as she thought she had seen off the last participant, Karina heard a voice from behind.
“Um… Ms. Karina?”
“Oh! Yufia, dear. Thank you for coming today!”
It seemed Yufia had stayed behind in the shop, and Karina greeted her with a smile.
“Ah… Thank you for always having me.”
“Oh, no need for that!”
Karina shook her head vigorously as Yufia bowed deeply.
“Oh, did you stay behind because you wanted to talk to me about something? I’m sorry I didn’t notice right away!”
“No, not at all… It’s just, I have a question…”
“A question?”
“Well, it’s about a recipe request…”
— A recipe request. In Karina’s cooking class, participants could always request recipes they wanted to learn. It seemed Yufia had a dish she wanted to request.
“A request!? How wonderful! What kind of dish would you like?”
Karina asked Yufia excitedly, her eyes sparkling.
“Um… I was hoping we could do stuffed cabbage rolls again…”
“Eh, stuffed cabbage rolls? Weren’t you here when we did that recently?”
“I guess it’s not possible… I’m sorry, we just did it recently, didn’t we…”
“No, no! It’s absolutely fine! I’m so happy you made a request! But why stuffed cabbage rolls again?”
As Karina asked curiously, Yufia seemed to be searching for the right words to explain.
“Well… Um… Because I’d be happy if… if someone told me it was delicious again…”
“Huh? Who?”
“Um, well…”
Yufia seemed a bit flustered by Karina’s puzzled inquiry, but after a short pause, she continued:
“…After you taught us how to make stuffed cabbage rolls last time, I tried making them myself at the academy dormitory… I ended up making too many while practicing, so I took them to the academy as a packed lunch…”
Karina listened to Yufia, who was speaking slowly and haltingly, nodding gently with a kind smile.
“…That day, my friend who was having lunch with me ate that stuffed cabbage… I hadn’t made it perfectly, it was still practice… I didn’t want him to eat it yet, but even though I tried to stop him, he ate it… Then, he said it was ‘delicious’ and ate it all… …That made me… very… very happy… So, I want… I want him to eat an even better one… next time.”
While speaking, Yufia’s expression remained unchanging, but somehow she seemed to look happy.
“…I see. It must have been very delicious indeed.”
“If that’s true… I-I’m glad…”
Though it wasn’t apparent from her expression, Yufia seemed embarrassed. Seeing this, Karina smiled happily.
“Alright, I understand. Then, let’s make stuffed cabbage again sometime this month! This time, I’ll put my heart into it and make it even more delicious than before!”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course!”
“Th-Thank you… Karina-san.”
As Karina smiled like a blooming flower, Yufia bowed deeply once again–…….
–The next day.
“–Karina-san, today’s special stuffed cabbage is exceptionally delicious!”
! Image
“Ah, this is exquisite!”
“Fufu, thank you. I put a bit more effort into making it.”
On the afternoon after the regular day off, Karina’s shop was bustling with regular customers as usual. To improve the stuffed cabbage as requested by Yufia, today’s daily special was stuffed cabbage.
“By the way, did you hear? Yesterday, the magic academy in the neighboring town was attacked by a dragon!”
“And apparently, a descendant of that Sieg Fried single-handedly defeated it! Even though they’re still a student, the bloodline of heroes is truly reliable!”
It seemed that a major incident had occurred behind the scenes of Yufia and Karina’s interaction yesterday, and the topic dominated the conversation in the shop. Apparently, a magic academy near the neighboring town had been attacked by a dragon, and one of the students had repelled it.
Both the dragon attacking people in town and a descendant of a great hero defeating it were big news that excited people.
“…”
While overhearing the conversations of the regular customers, Karina thought of Yufia’s face.
“(It’s good that Yufia-chan was safe because she happened to be here yesterday… Oh? But Yufia-chan is the strongest magician at the magic academy, so if she had been there, would Yufia-chan have defeated the dragon…? That quiet Yufia-chan… I can’t quite imagine it, fufu)”
Karina chuckled, letting out a small laugh.
“Ah, come to think of it…” Karina suddenly remembered her conversation with Yufia yesterday.
— [My friend who was having lunch with me ate that stuffed cabbage…] [Then, he said it was delicious and ate it all…] [It made me very happy… So, I want… I want him to eat an even better one next time] –.
Perhaps…Karina thought, lightly placing her hand on her cheek in a pondering gesture.
“(… I wonder if the person Yufia-chan was talking about could be the one who defeated the dragon…?)”
Entertaining such thoughts, Karina shook her head left and right as if to admonish herself.
“–Oh my… How nosy of me. Really.”
Smiling like that, Karina cheerfully resumed preparing the stuffed cabbage–.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
Afterword
Hello, I’m nkmr. Thank you for picking up this work.
This work, “C-level magic student who thinks he is SSS class,” received an award in the 9th Overlap Web Novel Awards contest held in 2023.
I’ve been posting this work on the web site “Let’s Become a Novelist” since 2018, and I’m truly happy that it’s been published as a book after about six years.
As a bit of behind-the-scenes trivia, this work was born from what’s called a “contrarian” idea.
At the time, stories like “Actually having the strongest power but hiding it to avoid standing out” or “Having the strongest ability but dominating while believing one’s abilities are ordinary” were popular on Let’s Become a Novelist. Seeing these works filling the site’s ranking page, my contrarian spirit at the time was ignited, and this work was born with the idea, “What if I write about a weak protagonist who believes they’re strong instead!”
Although there were long periods when I couldn’t write, this work was supported by readers who always waited for me no matter how long the updates stopped. No matter how many words I use, it’s difficult to fully express my gratitude to all the readers, but once again, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you. Thank you very much.
Also, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone involved in the selection of this work for the Overlap Web Novel Award, to my editor, Mr. O, who volunteered to be in charge of this complicated work and kindly supported me, a novice in book publishing, to the illustrator Aratsuki-sama who beautifully illustrated the characters of this work, and to all those involved in the publication of this work, including cover design and proofreading.
I will continue to do my best to deliver the most interesting works to you all in the future.
nkmr
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