I stepped into the kitchen and immediately went to work, striking a match to spark the charcoal inside the heavy iron stove. A warm, crackling orange glow soon illuminated the room, chasing away the evening chill.
Evelyn leaned against the wooden doorframe, her twin jade-green eyes fixed entirely on my movements. She watched with a breathless, childlike curiosity as I began searching through my pantry.
I had a few common, local dishes in mind, but the moment my hand reached for the basics… a carton of eggs and a block of aged cheese, Evelyn's high intelligence and her massive database of plundered knight memories immediately kicked into overdrive.
"Big sister, are you making an omelet?" she chimed out, a knowing grin on her face.
I let out a soft huff and pulled my hand back, dismissing the idea entirely. I wanted her very first human meal to be a genuine surprise. I reached deeper into the cellar and pulled out a different set of ingredients: a jar of salted pork fat, dried herbs, and a jar of canned beans.
Evelyn didn't even skip a beat.
"Big sister, you're making baked beans."
Frustrated but amused, I shoved the beans aside and pivoted to a completely different shelf, grabbing a jar of preserved shredded beef and a container of rich bone broth.
Evelyn's eyes sparkled, her hands clapping together in anticipation.
"Big sister... you're making a classic beef stew! The knights in the barracks used to eat that after winter deployments. I love that."
I paused, looking at the beef and broth in my hands. It was uncanny. Even though she had never physically tasted or seen these dishes with her own eyes, the collective consciousness of the army she had devoured allowed her to instantly deduce every standard culinary combination in the kingdom. If I wanted to give her a truly special experience, I had to cook something that absolutely did not exist in the Bureau's records… something completely foreign to the stolen minds of the Capital Knights.
Suddenly, a profound spark of inspiration hit me. I recalled the deep, locked-away memories of my past life, long before I became the mutilated Crimson Phantom of this world. I remembered a famous, comforting dish from my old home:
Kaldereta,
A beef stew, second to my favorites, a rich, savory, and slightly spicy beef stew common in the Philippines. It used beef, a rich tomato-and-liver sauce base, potatoes, carrots, and melted cheese to create a flavor profile that no knight in this fantasy kingdom had ever experienced in their entire lives. Evelyn's database would be completely blank.
With a small, triumphant flap of my dark blood wings that rustled the frills of my Victorian maid dress, I straightened my posture. I gave Evelyn a mysterious, teasing glance with my single jade-green eye, letting her know that her stolen intellect had finally met its match. This wasn't going to be a basic soldier's ration… I was about to introduce the future Luminous Knight to the taste of a completely different world.
I moved around the kitchen with newfound purpose, gathering the specific ingredients my mother from my past life had taught me to use. Since I didn't have fresh meat on hand, I grabbed a hefty jar of canned beef, followed by fresh onions, garlic, a can of whole tomatoes, a small tin of preserved liver, and a bottle of cooking oil.
Evelyn leaned forward, her brow furrowing deeply as she studied the bizarre combination on the counter. The collective memories of the Capital Knights were completely failing her right now.
"Big sister… what are you making? There isn't a single recipe in the kingdom's military archives that uses liver and tomatoes like this."
I turned my head toward her, raised my left hand, and placed a single finger over my lips, flashing her a playful shush gesture. I gave her a knowing wink with my single jade-green eye, letting her know the menu was a strict secret.
Turning back to the iron stove, I heated the oil in a heavy clay pot and tossed in the chopped onions and garlic. The kitchen was instantly filled with a rich, aromatic fragrance that made Evelyn's stomach let out another eager growl. Once the aromatics were perfectly translucent, I slid the canned beef into the pot, letting it sear and absorb the flavors.
True Kaldereta usually required bone-in beef to get that deep, gelatinous richness, but the preserved chunks I had would still work beautifully under the circumstances.
While the beef sizzled, I popped open the can of whole tomatoes and poured them into a clean wooden bowl. Using the back of a heavy spoon, I crushed them vigorously until they formed a thick, rustic tomato paste, then poured the vibrant red mixture directly over the beef, adding a splash of clean water to let it simmer.
Finally, I opened the tin of liver. Evelyn watched with an increasingly bewildered expression as I thoroughly mashed the liver into a smooth, savory paste and stirred it directly into the bubbling red broth. In the culinary traditions of this world, liver was strictly a peasant ration or a sausage filler… the knights inside her head had absolutely no concept of using it as a secret weapon to thicken and enrich a gourmet tomato stew.
As the pot began to bubble, throwing off a deeply savory, complex scent that was entirely foreign to the capital, I slowly stirred the mixture with a wooden paddle. Evelyn just stood there, her head tilted to the side and her lips pursed in absolute bafflement, completely unable to deduce the masterpiece unfolding right in front of her.
I carefully lifted the heavy clay pot off the iron stove, using a thick cloth to shield my hand, and carried it straight into the dining room. The rich, steaming aroma of the Kaldereta completely filled the small space, a savory and complex scent that had never once drifted through a Caria City home before.
As I set the pot down onto the wooden table and began arranging two deep ceramic bowls, I looked over at Evelyn. Her twin jade-green eyes were completely glued to the bubbling, deep red stew. A tiny, unmistakable bead of drool was actually escaping the corner of her mouth.
"I don't have a single memory of what this is, but my stomach is telling me it's the most delicious thing on the planet."
I ladled generous, steaming portions of the thick beef and rich tomato-liver sauce into our respective bowls. As I sat down in my frilly Victorian maid dress, my deep-rooted Filipino instincts suddenly screamed at me to scoop a massive mountain of warm, fluffy white rice onto the plate to soak up that perfect, savory sauce. But I had to stifle a silent sigh… rice simply didn't exist in this fantasy world. We would have to eat it straight from the bowl.
I picked up my spoon and took a hearty bite of the stew in one go, the familiar, nostalgic warmth of my past life washing over my senses and easing the tension in my shoulders.
Beside me, Evelyn tentatively dipped her spoon into the red broth, blew on it softly, and took her very first bite of real human food.
The moment the flavors hit her tongue, she froze. Her eyes went incredibly wide, her bioluminescent hair tips suddenly flaring into a bright, ecstatic turquoise pulse. The sheer depth of the savory beef, the slight tang of the crushed tomatoes, and the smooth, velvety richness of the secret liver paste completely overwhelmed her senses. It was a spectacular explosion of flavor that completely shattered all the standard, bland military ration memories floating around in her head.
"Oh my goddess… What is this dish, big sister?! The flavors... they're so deep and heavy, but it's so comforting! How did you even come up with this?" Evelyn gasped, swallowing the bite and staring down at her bowl like she was looking at a miracle.
Hearing her praise my cooking, my jagged Glasgow smile crinkled with genuine, quiet pride beneath the dim dining room light. I lifted my single arm, placed my finger over my lips again, and gave her another playful, mysterious shush gesture. I let out a soft, silent chuckle, keeping the name of the dish a sacred secret between me and my past. I was officially the only person in this entire world who held the blueprint to this masterpiece.
Evelyn didn't press for answers. She simply let out a happy, entirely human sigh and eagerly dug back in, thoroughly satisfying her hunger. Watching her eat with such pure joy, completely content and safe in our home, I knew her first day on the surface couldn't have ended any better.