I looked at the aftermath of the people eating my fish while holding my own plate of it with mixed feelings.
I didn't even notice when Ries had slipped in and taken her own plate of it but she had joined Amber, Lea and Mara over in the corner to nibble on the fish.
I'm not even exaggerating when I say 'nibble' because that's literally what they were doing. They were literally taking small bites out of the fish they were holding in their hands. It's almost like they were handling something precious in their hands and didn't dare to hold it too hard in case it broke.
Then there's Steiner who has been sitting in the corner of the room while hugging his knees ever since he finished the fish I made.
I would also just like to say that I made one extra piece so the other chefs and the manager could share as well but Steiner was completely against the idea and stopped that from happening.
That wasn't to say that he was trying to claim he won or anything like that because he freely admitted that he was completely outmatched and I was the clear winner.
The reason why he insisted that no one ate it was apparently because my fish would have completely shattered the other chef's motivation to cook completely and it might even ruin their lives.
I'm pretty sure he was exaggerating the last part but I guess it might lead to some dissatisfaction or even conflict should they realise their organic food they were serving weren't as good as they thought them to be.
Thus, he pushed the last piece of fish to me to finish instead.
And the other girls were literally just taking their own time enjoying their own piece of fish so I just decided to eat both myself.
The other chefs got to eat the organic fish Steiner 'cooked' since no one else wanted to eat them. Which apparently was a blessing to them since they don't usually get to eat organic food despite working here.
The manager came over to me while everyone was still occupied, "Honoured guest… May I ask if Head Chef Steiner actually made an agreement that you could take our entire stock of organics if you won?"
"Oh, he told you then? Yes he did."
The manager blanched, "If… If it's not too much to ask… May I request that honoured guest not take up that offer? It would result in quite a big loss for the establishment and it would be hard to explain…"
"I'm guessing you'll get in trouble for it?"
"In all honesty, yes. There's currently some thugs going around stealing any organic ingredients they can get their hands on and the higher ups might believe we were a victim of their heist as well if we report a sudden drop in our stock."
Oh yeah, that was still going on… I honestly kind of forgot…
Hey, I got myself a cat girl mechanic as a part of my crew now, do you think I would spend more brain power remembering some thugs or more on the cat girl?
Exactly.
I shrugged, "I don't intend to take everything so you don't need to worry, I'm not that shameless. I'll just take enough to stock my ship for a few days."
The manager visibly relaxed, "That would be acceptable. Thank you for your consideration, honoured guest. I'm afraid I will have to leave for now as I have other duties to attend to. Please give me a call if you require anything else."
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He gave me a deep bow before leaving the kitchen, which also left me as the only one who was still functioning since the others were either lost in eating or moping in the corner.
Deciding that it was time for the head chef to stop moping, I went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
He did not respond to the first tap and I had to call his name before he turned to look at me.
"What is it, girl?"
"I just wanna ask when you're gonna show me to the storage for your organic food and stuff."
He sighed, "You coming alone or what?"
I looked at the girls who were not even halfway done with their fish yet before turning back to him.
"Yeah… I can go and take a look first if you don't mind. I think they'll be more demanding than me if they knew what the conditions of winning against your head chef were so you can tell me how much is too much."
"Sure, sure… Let's just get this done with so I can go back to reevaluating my life…"
Geez bro, it ain't that bad right? I mean… It's not too late for you to learn how to cook properly yet…
He turned and led me to another door at the back of the kitchen which had a security console beside it.
The head chef swiped an access card before inputting a code on the screen that popped up after he did so, prompting the heavy door to slide open with a low hiss.
The door turned out to lead to an elevator and I stepped in after him.
He had to insert another keycard and let a console scan him before the door closed and the lift started to descend.
It only took about a second or two before the lift came to a stop, letting me know that we're most likely either on the ground floor or the floor below the ground floor.
The door opened up to reveal a dimly lit corridor with several doors along the side. I'm guessing this must be where they store their organic food stuff.
Quite a lot of security I see.
Steiner trudged down the corridor until he reached the second last door, tapping on the console beside it to open it up.
I realised that the room was basically a walk-in freezer with shelves upon shelves of what appears to be organic food packed and wrapped in individual containers.
I frowned a little at the sight of it, "Is everything bought all wrapped up like this?"
He looked at me with dull eyes, "What do you mean?"
I went towards one of the containers and pulled out a pack of potatoes that have already been peeled and sliced up before being packed in a vacuum sealed bag.
"I mean does everything here all come wrapped up like this? Is there anything that is fresh? Like you know, actual potatoes that aren't packed like that?"
"Ah… I know what you're talking about… Unfortunately it's not profitable for us to use those since they're pretty expensive and they don't last as long as these ones. And… As you already know… Only packaged ones can be fed into the machine to be… Ugghh… I'm such a sham…"
Steiner turned around and placed his head against the wall, looking completely defeated.
Ok, ok… I can tell that the memory is triggering you so I won't bring it up anymore. I'll just look around myself then…
This was obviously not what I thought I would get when I heard about their organic ingredients but since the packaged fish turned out well, I guess these could work as well.
It just feels a bit weird that I'm not holding the actual thing but packaged ones though. For some reason… It feels a little wrong though I don't know how to explain it.
I went ahead to grab an empty box and started picking stuff that I recognised and felt I could use first. There were actually quite a number of alien stuff here with weird names which I don't recognise so I didn't touch those.
Just as the box was nearing half full, I realised something.
"Err… Chef Steiner? Where are the meats?"
It's all just fruits and vegetables here and I would assume they would be storing the meat elsewhere. Although I don't think they'll even need to worry about cross contamination since everything looks like it's wrapped up in their packages anyway.
He turned away from the wall to look at me with the same dead eyes, "They're in another room… Follow me."
I picked up the box and followed him out, hearing the door slide shut behind me with various locks sliding into place.
He went further down the corridor until we reached the second last door where I realised there was another lift at the end too, probably for deliveries or something.
Steiner then opened the door and I stepped inside and sure enough, this room was the meat room.
The head chef went straight back to facing the wall again the moment we stepped in while making groaning noises.
Interestingly… There's both packaged and fresh meat in this room. And what I mean by that is actual animal carcasses hung up on meat hooks on the end of the room.
That's interesting, I recognise some of the carcasses though several of them were clearly alien creatures.
I stepped over to the meat hooks since I was curious what they were, until I noticed something chilling at the very back.
Is that a fucking dead person?!!