Compared to the young sorcerers who remained students—essentially never lifting fingers for domestic tasks, having never selected the school elective Culinary Arts, knowing only to dump ingredients wholesale into large iron pots with reasonable yet chaotic seasonings, creating massive stews—Glenn presented overwhelming culinary dominance. With previous life experience and having reviewed Dragon Kingdom recipes in this existence due to Hermione and Hagrid's requirements, he achieved complete mastery.
Those few young sorcerers who had elected Culinary Arts, initially permitting Glenn to join the cooking group out of politeness with attitudes of "letting this child attempt wouldn't harm anything," had completely transformed their perspectives. They directly began assisting Glenn while observing and requesting instruction regarding his culinary techniques and experience, elevating Glenn to nearly identical status as their elective course instructor.
Glenn didn't reject the young sorcerers' guidance requests. For him, multitasking while cooking presented no difficulty—explaining his current actions and mental processes to the young sorcerers constituted merely casual conversation.
Consequently, when those establishing perimeter barriers returned to the camp center, they witnessed a peculiar scene.
Tents stood fully erected. Several individuals who should have occupied positions before the makeshift stoves surrounded both sides of the cooking area, with tent group members gathered in outer circles, craning necks inquisitively. At their center stood Glenn, skillfully manipulating a large wok while simultaneously employing magic to regulate flame intensity beneath another covered pot undergoing braising, speaking continuously throughout.
"What situation is this? Hermione, do you comprehend?"
Lin Yu silently directed his gaze toward the sole person present who might possibly understand current circumstances. Hermione tilted her head, lightly touching her index finger to her lips, contemplating momentarily before smiling and responding:
"I suspect Glenn conquered everyone here with his heavenly culinary skills and delectable dishes!"
"...You're certainly direct and generous with praise."
"Brother Yu, if you had consumed food from our region for years before tasting Glenn's cooking, you'd express identical sentiments. Besides, Glenn's dishes truly taste exceptional."
Hermione shrugged. If time permitted, she would have preferred dragging Glenn to kitchens daily at Hogwarts to prepare their three meals.
Unfortunately, studying and training already consumed most of their time. Adding this non-essential activity proved genuinely impossible, forcing Hermione to abandon the notion. The pair only visited Hagrid's hut on weekend evenings, with Glenn as head chef and Hermione and Hagrid as assistants, for Glenn to personally create tables of delicious Dragon Kingdom cuisine.
During those occasions, Hermione would invite her closest friends—Parvati, Lavender, Ginny, Luna, Hannah, and Glenn's few companions (they should qualify as friends, surely?)—Neville and Draco to Hagrid's hut for shared dinners.
Crowding numerous people into Hagrid's modest wooden hut, joyfully enjoying meals together, proved quite delightful.
The sole drawback involved being consistently expelled from kitchens when assisting Glenn.
"I merely added the tiniest amount... just that minuscule quantity of salt. Why such disgust toward me?"
"Had I not personally sampled that soup pot before serving, I might have genuinely believed you accidentally added minimal salt."
"Yet you cannot simply ban me from kitchens because of that!"
"Hermione, if you didn't create mishaps every single cooking instance, perhaps I wouldn't act thus. The problem remains that whenever you assist me, without exception, you completely ruin some food preparation. Crucially, it constitutes random occurrence—meaning which dish suffers destruction."
"Well, Hagrid bears responsibility too! You specified one spoonful, so I added precisely one spoonful—neither more nor less."
"Mm, perhaps my terminology lacked precision. I intended teaspoon, not tablespoon."
"Exactly! Had you employed descriptive terms like 'how many milliliters' or 'how many grams' for direction, none of these incidents would have occurred! You should definitely accept responsibility!"
"Then what about four Saturday evenings ago when you mistook salt for sugar?"
"Ah, well..."
At the dinner table, Glenn and Hermione bickered regarding their minor culinary conflicts. Their opinions remained perpetually unified—except concerning such trivial detail disagreements.
Lin Yu, sharing their table, had grown accustomed to these exchanges. He'd witnessed such scenes regularly when these youngsters resided at Great-Aunt's home.
However, other diners harbored different perspectives.
Essentially everyone silently devoured the steaming, aromatic dishes Glenn had freshly prepared while attentively listening to this young couple's disputes.
When had dining included complimentary entertainment? This beast-hunting expedition proved genuinely worthwhile.
Munch munch... These Dragon Kingdom dishes from Glenn's hands truly possessed unique flavors. Considering this, what had they consumed during previous field assignments...
Everyone present, confidently dispatched by North China Academy of Sorcery to execute this mission, obviously possessed extensive field duty experience, yet their current thoughts achieved unanimous alignment.
Next expedition absolutely required bringing master chefs who studied Culinary Arts!
Food constituted life's foundation—eating excellently and sufficiently would help maintain optimal conditions!
The young sorcerers secretly established this resolution, while team members who had elected Culinary Arts vaguely sensed surrounding attitude shifts, becoming increasingly determined regarding advancement in this discipline.
XXX, you cannot continue slacking in class—you must revitalize yourself!
Next session absolutely prohibits sleeping/skipping/requesting leave!
Glenn vaguely perceived subtle atmospheric changes, remaining unaware that today's actions would transform Culinary Arts into an enormously popular course at Dragon Kingdom sorcery schools. He currently struggled managing Hermione's logical assault during her embarrassed fury, lacking attention for surrounding matters.
This oversight meant he failed to notice that above everyone's heads, upon thick branches concealed by layered lush foliage, perched a peculiar crow with blood-red eyes.
Emitting a bizarre, hoarse cry, the red-eyed crow spread its wings and launched skyward, vanishing into the night.
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