08 - Hobby

Even Finn, who rarely expressed any emotion, was surprised and excited when he saw the big box with vegetables and a few pieces of meat for us to celebrate.

When my mother heard that I had received a total of 4 copper coins on the day and that this meal was the fruit of my new job, she cracked a smile as proud as the one my father had shown me when we were in the store.

“Congratulations, Kael.” She said with a happy smile as she gave me a light hug.

The sincerity she was showing was very comforting...

That evening I decided not to train any spells and just do something else and enjoy their company.

The problem was that while I was waiting for my mother to cook, I realized that I had been wrong.

Looking around and seeing Milla playing with some corn cob dolls, Finn staring into the void, and my father dozing off, I finally realized how boring this world was.

Unlike my previous world where I always had something to entertain me, to keep my mind occupied with any brainrot video from tiktok, in this world there was none of that!

I'd spent the last few days just focusing on magic and having a lot of fun with it, but now that I wanted to do something that wasn't magic, I realized that there was nothing interesting...

'I'll need to find myself a hobby...'

There were a few possible hobbies I could have.

The first thing that crossed my mind was physical exercise.

This would have been impossible for me to do in the last few days, but considering that I could now earn more money and start eating properly, it wouldn't be impossible to use some of that nutrition to build up some muscles.

The problem is how this would conflict with my magical development...

For example, when I ate those loaves of bread in the afternoon, my Mana recovery speed accelerated a lot, since I had more nutrients in my body.

If I started exercising and muscle development also started requiring nutrients to the point of slowing down my Mana recovery, what should I do?

'I guess as long as I eat enough it won't be a problem, right? It's not like all the food I eat will be used to increase my magical regeneration infinitely... I'll probably need to eat even more to balance the two, but with enough money it won't be impossible.

Between using my nutrients to learn magic or to develop my physique, I would choose magic without a second thought.

Sure, having a healthy body is essential, but focusing on muscles to the detriment of magic wouldn't be my focus.

Realizing that this hobby would have to be left for the future, at least until I had stabilized financially to the point where I wouldn't have to worry about the cost of an even bigger meal, I decided to look for another hobby.

Going into the kitchen, I noticed my mother cooking on a wood-burning stove.

In her pot was a soup with several different vegetables cooking, while next to it was another pot with the meat we'd bought, frying.

As soon as Lise saw me enter the kitchen, she said in a gentle voice, “Hey Kael, the food will be ready soon.”

Looking at how the meat was frying in the pan and how I could see the details of the entire surface of the meat in contact with the hot metal, an idea popped into my head.

'Maybe learning to cook would be a good hobby?' I thought in surprise.

My level of cooking in my past life was a complete disaster, to the point that when I started earning a lot of money I just hired a cook and let him prepare my meals.

But with how useful my new eyes were, able to see everything in such detail as if I had slow motion and super zoom cameras on my face, maybe now it wouldn't be so hard to learn to cook?

“Is it okay if I learn to cook with you, Mom?” I asked a little uncertainly.

Unlike my father, who I interacted with all day at the store, I had much less contact with my mother in the last week that I had lived in this world.

At my question, my mother turned to me in surprise and nodded. “Sure... no problem Kael.” She said as she pointed to the pot of soup.

“Did you know that this soup is a tradition in our family? My mother taught me to make it when I was a girl, saying that a well-prepared broth strengthens not only the body, but also the spirit.” She said as she used the wooden spoon to stir the broth.

“Those vegetables you brought are perfect for this. When my mother used to make this soup, she used to say that vegetables were like planting seeds inside us, helping us to grow strong and healthy, even when things were difficult...”

As she explained the history of this soup, she also began to tell me the details of each ingredient, how the spices she had reacted with the food and how this affected the flavor that came from it.

The spices in this world were different from my previous world.

Although there was also salt here, several other spices were new, both with completely new names and with flavors and effects quite different from what I had experienced in my previous world.

It was cute to see how proudly she talked about cooking and the things she had learned from her mother.

Even though she was a peasant, Lise showed me several times that she put a lot of effort into learning more than was necessary.

After we talked for more than 30 minutes, she finally asked me. “Why the sudden interest in learning to cook with me, Kael?”

Considering how happy she was to talk about the things she liked with me, her good mood infected me and I also became a little more open to the conversation. “I had nothing else to do.” I said as I shrugged my shoulders. “When I went into the kitchen I realized that my eyes could see the food in great detail, so I thought it might be fun to cook since I might have an advantage.”

Her eyes widened when she heard this and she stared intently at the pot of meat.

While we were talking, I used the wooden spoon to stir the meat from time to time, changing the position of it on the pan before any part of the meat got toasted or dried out, trying my best to keep the external texture of the meat as uniform as possible.

Apparently she hadn't noticed this, but looking at the meat more closely now, my mother was even more surprised by the result.

“That meat is perfectly roasted!” She said as she brought her face even closer to the meat in amazement. “Gee Kael, I don't think anyone has ever thought of using their eyes to cook...”

Thinking that our family's eyes only appeared in men and that normally the task of cooking in those days fell only to women, it was understandable that no one had ever used those eyes for something like this.

Taking one of the pieces of meat and cutting it in half, not only was she surprised, but I was too after seeing that the meat was perfectly done!

By not letting any of the sides of the meat roast more than they should, the inside of the meat was slightly reddish with the edges of all sides more roasted.

Adding a pinch of Cinaurea, an orange powder that she explained was used to make food slightly spicy and sweet, my mother cut the meat into two pieces and gave me one to try, while she put the other in her mouth.

Cinaurea was an expensive spice, something she only used on food during important meals or special events, and when the meat arrived in my mouth I could understand why.

Biting into the meat in my mouth and feeling the taste spread across my taste buds was divine.

I'm sure the food wasn't even that tasty, but after not eating meat for so long, to taste meat that was not only seasoned with something expensive, but also had my help in the preparation, made it taste even better.

I had to restrain myself from grabbing another piece of meat and eating it straight up.

“This meat is wonderful, Kael!” She said excitedly. “I've always had a hard time finding the right spot for meat, but you managed to do it so perfectly on the first try!”

Smiling, I was happy with her compliment. Even though this wasn't something I'd really worked hard to get good at, it was nice to see such a positive reaction to something I'd helped prepare.

'Maybe that's why so many people are so interested in cooking? To see such satisfying reactions from those who eat our food? ' I thought, getting excited to see the rest of the family's reaction to it.