Creative And Resourceful Hamburg Steak - Part Two

Rir was a genius. Her name just hadn’t spread yet.

Five years ago, invited by her childhood friend Gungrave, she joined the mercenary band. Rir was an orphan, and she decided to go along with everyone who had survived the slums together.

Rir possessed a talent for magical engineering. She was proud of it herself. Back in their slum days, she had helped her companions by making all sorts of things, and even now in the mercenary band, she worked behind the scenes.

However, Rir lacked the talent for true magic—the kind she had secretly wished for.

Magic and magical engineering were different.

Both magic and magical engineering utilized the mana drifting in the air. The difference from magic was whether it could be applied directly to people, or only to inanimate objects.

Magical engineering interfered with the shape of matter to alter it, or inscribed characters called magi-spells to physically imbue objects with magical power.

In short, one could manipulate the shape of objects and instill them with power.

However, it couldn’t be done without direct physical contact, and unlike a mage, she had zero combat capabilities. She could only work as an engineer.

Her childhood friends were kind, and none of her comrades looked down on the magi-engineers.

Yet during joint operations, they were sometimes belittled by other units.

Rir and her subordinates had no choice but to grit their teeth and endure it.

It was right around then that a peculiar person joined their ranks.

A person named Shuri. He had a strange appearance and a strange atmosphere about him.

At first, she was on guard. But his food was delicious, and he was a kind person.

She realized he wasn’t a bad guy after all.

When they won the battle, Rir, Gungrave, and the other unit commanders were listening to Shuri’s request.

Shuri asked to receive not just money, but also provisions and seasonings as their battle reward.

Until then, they had only accepted money, but Shuri was desperate.

Seeing that, Gungrave agreed, successfully negotiating with the grumbling lord to obtain what was requested.

When everyone asked why, Gungrave said,

“Until now, we blindly asked for money alone. But looking at Shuri made me realize something.

Getting only money doesn’t fill our stomachs. Food expenses aren’t cheap either. So, if we secure food and seasonings separately from gold, we can cut down our necessary expenses by that much. We can also manage to live comfortably until we’re hired for the next battle.

Well, knowing him, he probably had thoughts after seeing our food management.“

He seemed to trust Shuri completely.

When previously asked about their dietary situation, she had told him they only ate salt soup and charred fish.

Shuri was shocked and spoke frantically.

First, living on nothing but salt soup would ruin their health, apparently. It would break their bodies down and destroy their physical condition.

And charred fish—that was said to be the absolute worst. If they ate nothing but burnt things, they could die of an incurable, severe illness.

Everyone was rendered speechless. Left unchecked, Rir and the others could have died.

From then on, they left the food situation to Shuri. They were able to eat soups with various flavors and ingredients. It was delicious, and their physical condition improved. At first she thought the flavor was weak, but once she got used to it, she could clearly taste the ingredients themselves. Sweet, bitter, salty, and sour. She could feel them all. It all felt wonderful.

Looking back, she thought the salt soup had been far too intense. Rir and the others’ palates were on the verge of being ruined.

What Shuri said was true.

Gungrave was convinced as well.

“Food is what becomes human strength. I finally realized that people can’t move on gold alone…”

Rir felt the same way.

Even though they obtained money and made all kinds of things, their stomachs didn’t get full.

That very Shuri came to rely on Rir.

On that day, which decided Rir’s destiny.

“So, Rir-san, please lend me a hand.”

“Mm.”

That day, Shuri came to Rir’s tent.

He was looking around curiously, taking everything in.

Apparently, on Gungrave’s referral, Shuri wanted her to make something for him.

A pot, perhaps? A kitchen knife?

“So, the details. Specify.”

She didn’t know what it was, but she wanted to pinpoint exactly what he needed.

A sharp knife, or a rustproof ladle, maybe.

If she wanted to make those, it would be simple.

“First, it’s something like this.”

However, Shuri’s request went completely beyond Rir’s expectations.

Lending him paper and charcoal, he drew a square box of a shape she had never seen before.

How could a thing like this have anything to do with cooking?

“Here, make it so I can adjust the heat output like this, and I’ll place a pot on top of this metal fixture over the fire.”

“?”

She didn’t quite understand at first, but she quickly realized.

‘I see, it’s a matter of the ignition source.’

Indeed, if there were a tool to light a fire easily, cooking would be simple.

“So, I want you to make it possible to adjust the heat level right here.”

“I see.”

Heat adjustment? What did heat control have to do with cooking?

Wasn’t it best to just make soup over a roaring fire and eat it piping hot?

“What is this?”

Then, Shuri pointed to the ignition material and asked.

It was Rir’s proud creation—paper that burned instantly when mana was applied.

With this, lighting fires was easy. It actively contributed to battles, too.

The drawback was that only mages and magi-engineers could use it.

“Ignition material. Paper that burns when mana is applied.”

“Please adapt this.”

“?”

Adapt it?

When asked, Shuri proposed something astonishing.

First, make it out of paper. When a pot was placed on top of a magi-spell drawn in a circle, he wanted it to float.

Float it? Levitation technology existed, but it could only output enough power to float a large rock at best. No one thought such a thing was useful, so few people used it.

And once floated, he wanted fire emitted beneath it.

Her eyes went wide. Floating it while igniting a fire. Drawing a magi-spell imbued with two distinct effects.

She had never thought of that. Adding another effect once something was levitated. She saw that just floating it wasn’t enough. It had to be moved or controlled. Otherwise, floating alone was useless.

Then, he wanted her to add heat adjustment using a smaller circular magi-spell.

There was no need for users to apply mana directly like mages or magi-engineers. By adding a touch-responsive function, a mechanism to draw in mana through that touch, and a control feature, even people who couldn’t use mana could operate the magic item simply by touching it.

Furthermore, he wanted it to turn off automatically if left unattended for a certain duration. A time frame of about one hour.

On top of that, making the paper waterproof, ensuring it flattened out immediately even if rolled up—ideas kept springing forth continuously.

Shuri was incredible.

Rir had thought of herself as a genius, but she was dead wrong.

Shuri was the true genius. Rir couldn’t even compare to him.

Receiving the requests, she immediately set out to craft it.

When a magi-engineer drew a magi-spell, they used a specialized brush to apply mana, engraving special characters to manifest power.

However, adding dual effects, linked operations, and control mechanisms was a first for her.

Even so, Rir didn’t hesitate, trusting her own knowledge and ingenuity.

That’s right, there was no need to force a magi-spell into a single character.

Normally, a magi-spell used on a magic item was finished with a single inscribed character.

However, this time was different. It had to carry a complex circuit and functionality.

Not just a single character, but stringing together magi-spells corresponding to every single function, stabilizing the whole array, while adding a mana-conveying feature and a volume-adjusting mechanism…

As a result, circular patterns tightly packed with magi-spells were drawn. That went for both the pot stand and all four control dials.

“You’re amazing, Rir-san!”

“Naturally.”

Shuri praised her in astonishment.

Rir was also deeply satisfied to have crafted such a masterpiece. Puffing out her chest.

“Then, let’s have you be the very first to taste my new dish.”

“Oh.”

A new dish? She looked forward to it.

What Shuri pulled out was beef, flour, fish sauce, green onions, and a radish substitute.

Ugh, she thought.

Rir was bad with meat. Fish was fine, but she couldn’t stand the smell of meat.

It was, how should she put it, raw and gamey…

However, Shuri suddenly began hacking away at the beef with a kitchen knife.

Honestly, it looked gruesome and scary.

In no time at all, the beef was mashed beyond recognition. You could barely tell it was meat.

Then he gathered it into one spot and dumped chopped green onions into the fish sauce. Green-onion-marinated fish sauce?

He also diced and chopped the radish relentlessly. Mashing it up.

She wanted to run away. She didn’t want to eat such gruesome cooking.

Then, gathering the radish into one place, he turned his attention to the meat.

Mixing in a little flour, he shaped it into a round patty between his hands.

Watching the meat move mysteriously between his hands as it gradually formed a neat round shape was interesting.

Then, he tossed the meat into a pot. Sprinkling salt and spices, he seared it.

Somehow, it smelled wonderful. There was neither the usual gamey odor nor the raw smell.

Flipping it over revealed a beautiful color.

That was when she noticed. The fire from the magic-circle ignition source was low.

I see, instead of searing it all at once over high heat, he was cooking it thoroughly over medium heat.

That was why it could be cooked so appetizingly.

Placing the cooked round meat onto a plate, he topped it with the chopped radish and the green-onion fish sauce mixture.

Rather than a soup, it was something like a sauce.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Mm!”

Even so, the aroma was incredible.

The spices and meat scent blended together into something almost violent. Eat me, it tempted her.

Without her usual revulsion, she cut off an edge with her fork, coated it with the radish and sauce, and carried it to her mouth.

This was… enlightenment.

The fat of the meat was sweet, and the texture was tender, melting inside her mouth.

From where it melted, more fat overflowed, tasting sweet.

That sweetness was balanced by the salt, while the spices added an extra layer of deliciousness.

The inherent richness, sweetness, spice, aroma, and scent of the meat. They were all deeply comforting.

What was truly amazing was the sauce.

On its own, the meat would have become heavy and greasy, yet Rir’s mouth felt refreshed.

The sauce lacked the usual fishy odor, presenting a clean acidity, while the crunchy texture of the radish, its overflowing juices, and refreshing sharpness eliminated the heavy greasiness splendidly.

This was ridiculously delicious.

“Mm-! Mm, mm!”

Faced with such overwhelming taste, noises escaped her mouth.

Seeing that, Shuri smiled happily.

Somehow, Rir got to eat delicious food, and Shuri looked happy too.

She felt true happiness.

Rir was still inexperienced. There was no way her name could have spread.

After eating the dish called hamburg steak, Rir asked Shuri.

How did he know so many things?

“Well, now. I suppose it’s thanks to the efforts of the predecessors before me. Of course, I made an effort too. Trying this and that, failing, and then succeeding. It’s what you call creative resourcefulness. I’m quick to fumble, so I had a tough time of it,”

He said with a wry smile.

She understood. What Rir lacked was creative resourcefulness.

Simply being able to “make” things wasn’t enough. She had to learn to “create.”

Afterward, while reflecting on Shuri’s words and requests, Rir came up with a new invention.

“So, you want me to take a look at this?”

She had Gungrave look at it in secret.

First was a portable catapult.

Catapults were massive engines that launched boulders over long distances to shatter castle walls or attack massed defenders—a siege weapon.

She had made it portable.

Usage was simple.

Place a stone on top of the paper.

Then, touch the activation array.

Doing so caused the stone to fly in a high arc.

It wasn’t huge like a catapult; it was made of paper small enough for a single infantryman to carry on their back while running.

Traditional catapults had two modes—one for transport and one for attack—suffering from the flaw of having to be reassembled each time.

However, this could be unrolled, placed down, touched, and used immediately. Its convenience was beyond comparison.

Another was the flame-burst stone.

It looked like an ordinary stone, but upon chanting the keyword and touching the activation array before throwing it, it exploded after three seconds.

A burst of flame erupted, swallowing everything within a one-meter radius.

The downside was that if one wasn’t careful, it would catch oneself or allies in the blast.

Requires training, she added as a note.

Lastly was the timed ignition stone.

Touching it, stating the keyword and duration would cause the stone to emit flames at that specific time.

It could be set for up to two hours in advance.

The downside was that it lacked high power. It was simply a stone that burned fiercely.

Even so, Gungrave was astonished and delighted.

“With this, we won’t need expensive catapults! The flame-burst stones will also serve as a powerful weapon for our infantry, and the timed ignition stones are perfect for covert operations! As expected of you, Rir!”

Yet she felt a bit guilty.

All these ideas had come from Shuri, after all.

Even so, she wouldn’t lose.

Creative resourcefulness. Rir would continue to invent from here on.

Rir Blanche would come to be considered a historical figure and hero so prominent that virtually no one had not heard her name.

The weapons she invented overturned numerous battle situations, sometimes possessing enough power to decide the outcome of an entire war.

Famous among them was the Siege of Yanan-Gan.

During this battle, through the three weapons she invented, the supposedly impregnable Yanan-Gan Castle fell in a mere three days.

The catapults were mass-produced to rain stones like torrents of water,

the flame-burst stones demonstrated terrifying power in close-quarters combat,

and the timed ignition stones allowed for devastating night raids to be launched.

From the enemy’s perspective, it could be described as nothing short of a nightmare.

Inventions continued even after this battle, leading some historians and archaeologists to opine that her existence brought the era of war to an end ten years earlier.

However, after the founding of the Unified Empire, she declined the appointment of State Magi-Engineering Artisan.

Ministers who did not know her were bewildered, but her old companions who knew her well nodded in understanding and saw her off.

After declining the title of State Magi-Engineering Artisan, she founded a private magi-engineering academy. In modern times, this became Blanche Magi-Engineering Academy, an institution boasting the largest facilities and environment on the continent.

She worked to elevate the status and technical standards of magi-engineering artisans. She made the world understand the importance of magi-engineers and magi-artisans, who until then had been disparaged as mere handymen.

However, this academy separated weapon construction into specialized fields, with most departments focusing on the production, research, and study of daily-use magic items that enriched and simplified everyday life.

The theories she established—moving away from single-character magi-spells to linked magi-programs that manifested multiple effects, along with voice-activated keywords and contact-activated magi-switches—came to be utilized for peaceful purposes.

The words constantly passed down as the spirit of the academy:

“Creative Resourcefulness” would continue to be transmitted forever.

As a side note, historical records also note that Rir Blanche was an unparalleled lover of hamburg steaks.

That was surely because it was the food that marked her turning point.

It was the meal through which she learned creative resourcefulness.

It was said that watching her eat hamburg steaks with such pure happiness brought warmth to everyone around her.