How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 451

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Food is something you buy and eat.

That’s my philosophy. Humanly speaking, apart from wanting to practice survival cooking skills that I’d like to know how to do myself, for maintaining an ordinary daily life, there’s no choice but to buy and eat food.

‘I’m nervous.’

Today was the time to change that philosophy for my friends. It’s been… well, anyway, several months since I last stood in front of a fire. After my last cooking disaster, I lost some enthusiasm and bought every meal. Actually, I didn’t have much appetite either, and since I inherited my father’s decent energy efficiency, I often substituted one of my two daily meals with salad, so even if I hadn’t been buying food, I probably wouldn’t have had much occasion to stand in front of a fire for complex cooking.

I properly set up my workspace before adding the sugar.

We currently have three measuring spoons available. One is 15ml, another is 10ml, and the third is 5ml. I brought over a new long-legged tripod and set it up. I’ll fix it at this height and slowly boil from now on. According to what I heard somewhere, beginners shouldn’t use high heat. Then when exactly do you use high heat—of course you’d use it when you want to boil something quickly, but I wonder if there’s any other necessity, and I want to boil this quickly right now but I wonder if I shouldn’t use it then—though I have my doubts, there’s nothing wrong with following advice. Leo frowned and tilted his head.

“Isn’t the tripod too high?”

“I heard somewhere not to use high heat.”

“…You heard? Who said that?”

“Just some people I don’t know. Here.”

I placed the tin plate on top of the tripod and scooped two spoonfuls of sugar with the largest measuring spoon. White powder spilled to the side. For some reason, my friends were watching this tensely. I used a glass rod to level the sugar piled on the measuring spoon and poured it onto the plate. Then I slowly stirred the sugar with the glass rod.

“Good. The first measurement was perfect.”

Then Elias’s eyes lit up as he grabbed another measuring spoon and shouted.

“Now how many grams of sodium bicarbonate do we need to add? I’ll scoop it for you.”

Instead of answering, I took a deep breath. Then Leo looked at me with confused eyes. I gestured to him, furrowed my brow, and asked accusingly.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

“No, it’s just that you’ve been acting like you accomplished some great feat with every little thing…”

“Lucas seems suspicious somehow.”

Ulrike hit the nail on the head with her sharp observation. I smiled at Ulrike and shook my head, then looked at Leo and said firmly.

“It means I’m putting care into every step.”

“What are you talking about? So how many grams of sodium bicarbonate do we need?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t…”

Silence flows. Leo, who had been looking at me with half-open eyes, suddenly opened them wide. Everyone was staring at me with round eyes. Elias, who had his mouth hanging open, slammed the measuring spoon on the table and shouted.

“Huh?!”

“Oh, ooh… oh?”

Ulrike looked at me, Elias, Leo, Narke, and Julia each once with a bewildered expression. Elias seemed to think he should eat some sugar while being surprised, so he scooped sugar with the measuring spoon, dumped it in his mouth, and started looking at me with worried eyes again. I don’t want to be worried about by a friend who’s eating sugar at a time like this. I held up my hands to block my friends’ protests.

“Wait. I’ll explain.”

But my defense didn’t work on Leo. He looked back and forth between Cheringen and Narke with an incredulous expression—probably thinking they were the ‘relatively’ sensible ones—and pointed to the measuring spoon and rod I had used earlier.

“No, if this is how it’s going to be, what’s the point of measuring?! Why did you level the sugar earlier?!”

“That’s what I’m saying. When you’re nervous, you end up following procedures.”

“You’re the one who did it, so what do you mean ‘that’s what I’m saying’? You’re not usually like this!”

“I’ve always been like this… Listen carefully. I have a plan.”

No matter what I said, Leo shook his head and pointed to the sugar powder sitting nicely on the plate.

“Before that, when are you going to lower the tripod height? Will this even melt?”

“It’ll melt eventually.”

Leo held his forehead and stepped back. Ulrike muttered with a confused expression.

“So this is the mindset you cook with.”

“Right. Cooking is patience.”

“What do you know to talk about patience…”

Leo kept scolding me. I wonder how many times His Royal Highness has cooked in his life. Of course, I also have a cooking experience that I couldn’t even present a business card for anywhere, but I’m better than Leo. And really, how many people in the world memorize recipes like dalgona? There probably aren’t many. At least I know to boil sugar and add sodium bicarbonate, so thinking of it as fortunate lessens my worries. I raised my hand to Leo again.

“I don’t want to hear that from you. At least I know better than you do.”

“This is ridiculous…”

“I’ll explain while it melts. I can’t say I’m confident. But no matter how much I don’t know how much sodium bicarbonate to add, this is worth trying. And before that, let me ask one thing. Guys.”

“Yeah?”

“Can’t we just boil sugar in a mortar and pestle?”

It’s a bit difficult to stir sugar that’s still in powder form with a glass rod that looks like it would break with one squeeze of a fist. Can’t we just grind it with a mortar and heat it directly over fire? Leo was looking at me with an expression like he wanted to give me advice. Elias clapped his hands and cheered.

“Wow, that seems like something that would get us scolded by the teacher, so I’ve never tried it. I’m curious…”

“Is there seriously no one who agrees?”

Thanks to Leo widening his eyes and cutting off Elias’s words, I withdrew my plan. Ulrike was about to shout “let’s try it” but quietly turned her head away. Leo was kind enough to put his hand on my shoulder and advise.

“Lucas. If you want to make the mortar ochre-colored, go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

I nodded and stirred the sugar without complaint. It gradually began turning into liquid. I looked at it and said seriously.

“Getting back to the main point, there’s still a way out. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from practicing a few times, it’s this. Anyone who’s touched cooking that involves water would know, but messing up the water control a bit doesn’t cause big problems.”

“It seems like it would cause big problems…”

Ulrike answered cautiously. I understand her, but I thought a little differently. Common sense is very important, but if I don’t have the ability to follow common sense, I need to create personal solutions suited to my level.

“Even if water overflows, it’s not a big problem. Why? Because you can just boil it down until it reduces. Similarly, no problem if there’s no water. If there’s none, you add it, and if you add too much and it overflows, you boil it down again.”

Repeating this process does make the soybean paste soup taste like starch—presumably from potatoes—but it looks decent enough on the surface. I stirred the sugar faster and continued.

“So should you add too much or too little? My conclusion is this. If you’re not confident about water control, it’s better to start with a little less.”

You might end up with a salty stew instead of soup, so that’s not easy either, but it’s better than overflowing. The pot gets a bit burnt, but you can just buy new tools. Narke snickered and quickly turned her head. Since my friends were looking at me with somewhat distrustful eyes, I persuaded them once more.

“Guys. I’ve boiled soup before. When soup becomes a river, to fix the river, we have to boil it down until the water evaporates. But in this process, vegetables melt and become part of the soup.”

“Ugh.”

“But to fix soup that’s been boiled down to just sodium remaining in a salty stew… well, something like that, you just add water later. So if you’re not confident with water, it’s right to start with too little.”

As I was giving this long speech, Leo, who had been listening with a dubious expression while leaning his arms on the table, gestured with his chin.

“So what exactly are you trying to say?”

“By the same logic, we should add sodium bicarbonate little by little too.”

I dipped the smallest measuring spoon deep into the sodium bicarbonate bottle and shook it into the completely melted sugar.

“Wow.”

Nothing changed dramatically, but Ulrike’s eyes widened. My friends’ attention focused on the tin plate containing the sugar. Ulrike, who had taken the front seat and was staring intently at the plate, clapped her hands and laughed.

“Wow, it’s puffing up as Lucas stirs it!”

“It smells good.”

Cheringen, who had been leaning against the wall with only one corner of his mouth raised, said. Ulrike grinned and nodded vigorously.

“Right. It really smells delicious. More savory than when we just boiled sugar with water.”

“Really? Then that’s good.”

“I want to taste it quickly.”

Bubbles began rising vigorously. Is this how it’s supposed to be? I quickly mixed the sugar and sodium bicarbonate mass, and when the sweet smell made my nose tingle, I removed the alcohol lamp. I put on the thick gloves Ulrike had brought and picked up the tin plate with the melted sugar.

“Where’s the plate?”

“Here, Luca!”

Elias quickly held out a petri dish. I scraped the dalgona from the tin plate with the measuring spoon and dropped it onto the petri dish.

Thud—

A brown mass full of bubbles fell onto the plate. Elias looked at it and muttered.

“Isn’t that a meteorite?”

“A meteorite, really.”

It could look like this. Actually, even I thought it looked a bit strange, so I couldn’t defend this dalgona any further and decided to focus on the taste. Regardless of how it looks, as long as we can press it down and break it to eat, that’s enough, right? I handed Elias the presser coated with sodium bicarbonate. My friends’ attention focused on the meteorite-shaped dalgona.

“Three.”

Elias took a deep breath and raised the presser high while counting.

“Two.”

While he was unnecessarily doing a countdown, I picked up the glass rod I was holding. The smell is sweet. Now that I’ve relaxed a bit, let me taste it. I dabbed the warm dalgona on the tip of the glass rod onto my finger and carefully brought my tongue to it.

‘Ah.’

What is this? Cyanide?

The moment I made a face and checked the glass rod again, I heard a strange sound.

“One…”

Crack—

“Aaaaah!”

“…!”

The moment the dalgona was pressed with the presser, the petri dish split in half due to the heat. Elias grabbed his cheek and shouted.

“Isn’t this tempered glass?! It’s just regular glass?!”

“Who makes petri dishes with tempered glass?! Who brought this here?”

“Nooo, this is…!”

When Leo pushed Elias aside and questioned the friends, Ulrike was wailing while covering her face like Elias. Cheringen was still standing far away with a bewildered smile, and Narke, as if she had been reading my mind, had been biting her lips hard and was now lying on the floor. I swallowed my saliva and thought quickly.

‘Actually, this worked out well.’

Since everyone’s messing up together, my cooking skills won’t stand out, which is good. I said I’d add just a little soda, and I did add just a little, so what’s this? This bitter taste must be from the sodium bicarbonate. Sugar can’t be this bitter. In the middle of this chaos, Leo, who keenly observed my expression, suddenly snatched away the glass rod and ate the dalgona stuck to the end. Then he spat it right back out.

“Ugh…”

‘Why go that far?’

Not my problem. While my friends were distracted in various ways, I threw the petri dish that had become one with the dalgona into the trash. Then I brought over a low tripod, placed a new tin plate on top, and poured sugar.

I now realized where my failure lay. I clapped my hands as if nothing had happened and spoke seriously again.

“Now I completely understand. Let’s try again.”

* * *

I intended to do that, but Leo stopped me with wide eyes, so Leo did it.

No, to be precise, since his right arm wasn’t in good condition, I made it following his instructions.

“How can you put in 5ml just because there’s no 1ml measuring spoon in the lab? You need to put in even less than that. If you want to just make it puff up without bringing out the inherent bitter taste of sodium bicarbonate, that’s the right way. Right?”

“Haha, I thought so. When I thought about it with my experience from magic potion experiments, I had a feeling you shouldn’t put in too much of that!”

Ulrike laughed and agreed with Leo’s words. How many times do I have to say that I put in what I thought was a small amount? I chuckled and replied.

“…Right. You can stop talking about it now, guys.”

I’m Korean, yet I’m being instructed. I think it’s because these guys have too much interest in science. It’s unfair to be paying the price like this for not being interested in everything that happened on the internet.

Anyway, since there was no 1ml measuring spoon in the set, I was using the 1ml spoon attached to the back of the reagent spoon to add sodium bicarbonate. Actually, even that was getting tedious, so now I was just poking it with a glass rod and dissolving it in. I glanced at Leo, and he was kind enough to turn a blind eye to my behavior. Leo picked up and ate some dalgona fragments that Elias had broken and said.

“Making it properly makes it better than just boiled sugar. It really is like candy.”

“That’s good. Eat plenty.”

I’m still making proper dalgona with Ulrike. Since Ulrike declared she’d make some for her family members—her mother and servants—we had to make about twenty more. Leo fed me a fragment and said quietly.

“Lucas.”

“What?”

“It’s fortunate that you have financial resources.”

“…”

I wondered whether I should feel bad about this or what, then cleanly admitted it.

“I think so too. Another friend said the same thing.”

Leo nodded and put another fragment in his mouth. Then he asked.

“Lucas. Have you made this before?”

What should I do? This is my first time. I pondered and answered honestly.

“No.”

“Then how did you know you could make it like this?”

“Just because.”

“…”

Leo looked at my face, then shrugged and said.

“Thanks to you, I got to make and eat candy myself. It’s fun.”

“I’ll never make it again, so eat plenty while you can.”

“Mm.”

Leo nodded and focused on eating, then when there was nothing left in his mouth, he spoke again.

“When this is over, Lucas. Want to go to the art classroom before we return?”

At those words, Ulrike next to us widened her eyes. Ulrike began looking back and forth between me and Leo with a confused expression. I wanted to explain something to Ulrike, but before that, I felt bewildered by Leo’s words and stammered.

“Why are you… why are you being like this to me?”

“…No, I’m just asking. I got a chance to meet a painter who’s popular in the salons these days.”

“I won’t draw. It’s not fun.”

If there’s one more thing I realized after cooking, it’s that arts and physical education depend heavily on talent, yet more important than talent is affection. Isn’t that obvious? Even if you have talent and can produce output as skillfully as someone who’s worked hard for years without making a proper effort, it’s torture without affection, and even without talent, if you have the affection to work hard for years, that alone gets you halfway there. I’ve completely lost interest even in fields where I could confidently say I had talent, so what would I do stepping into fields where I have neither talent nor interest? Having already been burned badly in arts and physical education, I was sick of any arts classes. It definitely wasn’t because I couldn’t draw well. So I added to Leo.

“If it were a reading club instead of drawing, I’d be interested.”

“Hmm, but that’s common. Don’t you want to draw with me? We have time left before returning anyway.”

“Especially because it’s with you, absolutely not, you bastard.”

My voice must have been cold because Ulrike made a “huh” sound while looking at me. Leo thought for a moment and nodded.

More than that, this guy isn’t the type to suggest doing something like this first. I asked Leo carefully.

“But why that? Are you really suggesting we do it together because you’re bored?”

“It’s good to build memories too.”

“What’s wrong with you? Did something go wrong after eating candy?”

“…”

“Lucas—! Make me one more!”

Elias waved his hands from the next table and shouted. Whether my casual comment impressed him—spread it out, press the mold, and cut it as is—Elias and Narke were absorbed in cutting according to the mold shapes. Cheringen was just propping his chin and watching them, drawn in by them.

Then, the laboratory door that Ulrike had double-locked burst open.

Bang—!

“Huh…?!”

Ulrike jumped in surprise and turned around. Leo, who was sitting opposite us, stood up from his seat. I also turned around to check the uninvited guest’s face—come to think of it, we’re the uninvited guests, so I don’t know what I’m thinking—.

“Young Master? This is…!”

Someone who appeared to be the head butler had come alone. He looked at Ulrike and spoke in bewilderment. Elias, who had been watching the scene with a serious face, put his hand on Narke’s shoulder and spoke gravely.

“…It can’t be helped. Narke, please erase it quickly.”

‘What?’

Don’t tell me the memory? Leo must have reached the same conclusion as he touched the back of his neck.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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