The Little Witch’s Daily Struggle – Chapter 262

**Chapter 262: The Cause of “Dark Cuisine”**

“Parul, how is it? Is it delicious?” Older Brother Jayad looked at me expectantly, with a hint of unease.

“Older Brother Jayad, haven’t you tasted it yourself?” I asked, frowning.

“Well, I tasted it while it was cooking, and it didn’t have enough flavor, so I added more spices. But it doesn’t seem to have achieved the effect of what Parul made that day,” Older Brother Jayad said, implying he hadn’t actually tasted it after he finished cooking.

“Then what exactly did you put in?” I picked up the ladle and stirred the cooking pot, scooping out quite a few spices, some in leaf shapes, and others small, round fruits.

Holy crap, what’s with this quantity? Spices are expensive! I felt like I had scooped out spices worth several silver coins with just one grab.

“Uh, basil, thyme, rosemary, dried chili, olive leaf, cardamom, black pepper…” Older Brother Jayad began listing the ingredients. After reciting a long string, he continued, “I put in all the spices Parul has, because Parul said the more spices, the tastier it is.”

“Brother, many of those spices are used for brewing potions, not for cooking. Are you trying to make stew or braised meat?” I said with a headache.

Besides, braised meat should be delicious too. Adding more spices shouldn’t result in this strange taste. How did he manage it? I couldn’t figure it out.

“Never mind, you try it yourself then,” I said helplessly. A hundred words of explanation were not as good as him trying this masterpiece himself. And indeed…

“It’s so bad!” Older Brother Jayad frowned completely after eating just one piece of meat. He couldn’t even swallow it and spat it out. “Impossible! It wasn’t this horrible before, why?”

Yes, I also wanted to know why. So I carefully examined what was in this pot of food and seriously asked Older Brother Jayad about the usage and dosage. I roughly recreated his cooking process and guessed several reasons.

First, he must have put in the ingredients randomly. He added wild chili, black pepper, and dried chili, making the entire pot numb and spicy. Was he trying to make Sichuan cuisine?

That’s not even the worst part. Without even knowing the taste, he also added my potion-brewing ingredients. Without confirming the taste, I wouldn’t dare use these strange spices from another world that I’ve never even heard of, let alone whether they are poisonous or not.

In potionry, most spices can be used as additives and main ingredients. Some of them inherently possess spiritual energy, some have exorcism effects, and they are also used as ritual materials. Their flavors are also incredibly varied.

Then, Older Brother Jayad’s excessive dosage is also a reason. These ingredients already have peculiar flavors, and he doubled or tripled them. The result is a mixture of various odd tastes.

This also has something to do with Older Brother Jayad’s eating habits. He used to often steal dried cured meat and salted fish. These foods are very salty, which led him to develop a preference for strong flavors.

Now, perhaps due to the sweat from his Holy Knight training, his body instinctively craves more salt. This is why he found the stew bland before.

This then leads to a third problem, an objective issue unrelated to Older Brother Jayad: salt. Fine salt is very expensive and difficult to buy. We use coarse salt, which comes in chunks. Iberian is surrounded by the sea on three sides, with abundant sunshine, producing plenty of coarse sea salt.

This salt is very salty and dissolves poorly in water. It’s usually used for curing meat and salted fish, and then the salty meat is used to season other dishes. Direct use requires pounding it into a finer form, but even then, it’s hard to dissolve in water.

Older Brother Jayad must have added salt once and it didn’t dissolve, so he tasted it and found it bland. He then added another chunk of salt, and only then did it slowly dissolve while stewing. The two chunks combined made the broth extremely salty.

Moreover, coarse sea salt is bitter and contains many impurities. When dissolved excessively into the soup, combined with that pile of spices from before, the result is a dish that is bitter, numb, and bizarre—completely inedible.

“This… I didn’t expect cooking to be so complicated,” Older Brother Jayad said, troubled. In the past, he would just boil things in water. He couldn’t afford salt, let alone understand the properties of spices. It’s normal that he wouldn’t know how to use them.

“It’s okay, Older Brother Jayad hasn’t learned yet. Once you’re familiar with it, you should be able to cook delicious food,” I comforted him with a smile.

Although I felt that the dish becoming so unpalatable was more than just a problem of adding ingredients. How Older Brother Jayad specifically cooked it was a complete mystery, capable of producing such a chemically disastrous taste.

“So what about this pot? Are we going to waste a perfectly good piece of meat?” Older Brother Jayad said, looking at the stew with reluctance, but he couldn’t eat it himself.

Besides, this pile of spices was clearly much more expensive than the meat. This pot of meat was only twenty or thirty copper coins. What a wasteful brother!

“It’s fine, I can finish it. Heh heh, and I’ll make you another dish, Older Brother Jayad,” Parul said with forced cheerfulness, but my heart was bleeding. There was actually food I found disgusting.

In the end, I put the stew back on the stove, discarding all the broth and spices. I re-boiled it with clean water and then grilled a steak for Older Brother Jayad.

After being boiled in water, the stew finally tasted a bit more normal, and Older Brother Jayad had a meal he could eat. Then, we sat at the table peacefully and talked about what happened today.

I first told him about the results of my investigation at the police station today, and Older Brother Jayad also told me about his training results. He finally learned the most basic skill, Holy Light.

The so-called Holy Light is the ability to directly summon Holy Light remotely onto another person’s body. Undead and evil creatures will be burned, while normal creatures will be healed.

Then, Older Brother Jayad demonstrated it on me. A very warm light emanated, making me feel refreshed and happy. Even the depression I felt earlier due to the cooking incident vanished.

Unexpectedly, I could still be identified as a normal creature, not an evil one. It seems I haven’t mutated to the point of fundamentally changing.

“But Miss Leo Man said she has something to do. After another day of learning tomorrow, she’s going to the Royal Capital. She mentioned she’s representing the Grand Tutor to attend some meeting, and we don’t know when she’ll be back,” Older Brother Jayad said.

That was quite sudden. She’d only been teaching for a few days, less than a week. Older Brother Jayad wouldn’t be able to learn much in such a short time.

“Then, Older Brother Jayad, you must pester her tomorrow and ask her to teach you how to control your sanity first. There’s also something else I’d like you to ask her,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll remember. What is it you want me to ask?” Older Brother Jayad nodded.

“You can ask her if mutation has any specific meaning or reason, especially what the growth of eyes symbolizes. Older Brother Jayad, do you feel anything special about these new eyes growing on your body?” I asked.

“Eyes? I don’t feel anything special. Besides having extra vision, there’s no difference,” Older Brother Jayad said.

“Oh, right, there’s also one more thing. The little Veia upstairs said she wants you to go to her room at midnight tonight. What do you think?” I remembered Veia’s matter.