Alex's POV:
"HEY! AOI! THEY FINISHED THE MAIN COURSE! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT! WE NEED THE DESSERTS, NOW! ARE THEY DONE YET?" The supreme royal chef shouted in a panic.
"THAT QUICK?! UGH! I'M ALMOST DONE WITH THE LAST BATCH! JUST START SERVING THE FINISHED CREAM PUDDINGS OVER THERE, AND TRY TO STALL FOR AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE?!"
"Can't we just serve the cheesecakes?" One of the lower-assistant chef's asked.
"YOU IDIOT! THEY STILL NEED TO COOL FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER HOUR! NOW GO, GO, GO!" The royal supreme chef, not to be confused with the supreme royal chef, shouted, as he handed the man a platter of pudding and rushed him out the door.
By the time the lower-assistant chef, alongside the servants who were actually supposed to be the ones' serving the food, and not the low-ranked cook who'd been pushed into it, returned asking for the rest of the pudding I just finished making.
Letting out a sigh of relief and wiping the sweat of his face after hearing my words, the royal supreme chef started shouting again.
"WHAT ARE YOU SIGHING FOR?! GO! THE EMPERIAL FAMILY IS WAITING!" He shouted, handing the nervous wreck another platter as he pushed him out of the kitchen again.
As strange as it might seem for one of the two highest ranking cooks not to know the difference between a cook and the catering staff, it's not all that surprising considering where we are right now. The Nishi Emperor of the last generation, had been a bit of an eccentric with delusions of grandeur, inventing all sorts of fancy new titles, that were more ornamental in nature. On top of that, he seemed to be lacking a bit in creativity, as many of them are just the same titles, but with the words being switched around a bit. Along with these titles came a matching number of different uniforms, causing no end to the confusion as most people, even though they have practically the same job, are unable to keep track of what the others job is just at a glance.
Fortunately for me, I had the displeasure of having to navigate this confusing social structure due to a mistake I made forever ago when I first joined the boss's empire. So, I can at least distinguish between the most important figures.
"Phew! Finally! I'm done for the day!" I said, wiping off the fake sweat from this itchy mask.
"Hm? Oh, right! Sous chef Aoi! The I want a word with you in private!" The royal supreme chef said, as he gestured for me to follow him towards a private room next door.
After my master and uncle pranked my boss with his absurd new aircraft, I was dragged to the southeastern vassal state of Nishi to rescue one of my juniors who had been held captive somewhere in the royal palace. Wishing to avoid making an international incident, if possible, we had disguised ourselves as servants in order to do some reconnaissance. Of course, knowing master, she has probably already figured it all out, and is just having me do this as a way to get back at me for stealing her secret recipes, while at the same time giving my juniors some experience.
I had quickly gotten a job as a chef, by using some wind magic to waft the smell of my food into the guards' quarters next door whenever I was given cooking duty, in hopes of getting noticed by someone. Fortunately, it worked, as I was soon asked to cook for the guards as well, before again being scouted by a passing official who caught a whiff of my food and before long, I had managed to crawl my way into the royal kitchen. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring the other two with me when I moved into the inner palace as a lower-assistant chef, the lowest ranking job in the kitchen.
I spent a few days washing dishes and giving suggestions to the other cooks in passing. Once I got promoted into a position where I actually got to cook food again, I began speedrunning my way through the overly complicated culinary hierarchy, getting a new confusingly titled promotion on a near daily basis. Thanks to the meals from my master's forbidden cookbook, in just a little over half a month, I had clawed my way up from a slave to the unnecessarily long titled position of 'Great Master Sous chef of Confectionaries', second in command of all desserts and sweets related foods.
It's honestly astounding how good of a cook my master could be if she just figured out that good food is supposed to taste good. My master has always been more about practicality than pleasure, so although she has an entire encyclopedia of the tastiest foods the magic continent has to offer memorized, she will almost always opt for making the healthiest meal that she possibly can, almost always resulting in a disgusting slop that is more medicine than it is food. After I saw what a single meal did to my three juniors during what I'll refer to as the food stand incident, it kind of makes me thank my lucky stars my standards were so low when she picked me up.
The only silver lining about that Walpurgisnacht would be the fact that the rumors of me trying to poison people in broad daylight got overshadowed by the fact that a crazed madman had beaten up a sage and stolen Walpurgis.
"So, you're probably wondering why I wanted to talk in private!" The elderly royal supreme chef said as he sat down on the chair in front of me.
"Hm? Uh, yeah! I mean, yes sir!" I said, putting on a nervous act.
"Hehe! No need to be so tense lad! Just relax, and tell me why you wanted to see me?"
"Hm? Uhm, sir? You were the one who asked to see me. Am I getting fired?"
"Hm? Wait, I did? Oh, right! I did! Sorry lad! Now, I want you to… Wait, what was it again?"
The royal supreme chef, who is basically the head of all sweet production within the inner royal palace, is essentially one of the two highest ranking individuals within the royal kitchen, being equal to the supreme royal chef in terms of authority, who is in charge of the regular meals of the inner palace.
This man is one of the few nascent souls whose age actually reflects his looks, as he is nearly a thousand years old and probably the oldest man in the whole palace. Given this fact, it is not too surprising that the old timer is showing signs of dementia. If anything, it is surprising he didn't get it over a century ago.
As for why he brought me here to talk in private, assuming it's not another one of his episodes, I think I already know what is about to happen.
"Oh, right! I was going to ask if you have thought about maybe taking my position as head of deserts?"
"WH-WHAT?!"
"Hm? Who are you and why are you in my bedroom? Wait, this isn't! What was I doing? Oh, yeah! So, whoever you are, you might be surprised to know that this young handsome face is actually quite old!" He said, pointing at the face that looked more like a mass of wrinkles than a face.
"Hehe! Oh, really? I would never have guessed!" I said, trying not to be rude.
"Ah, yes! I have been working here at the inner palace for five, uh, hu-undred or so, now! Though, I definitely have quite a few more centuries ahead of my foot, so don't you worry about me lad! However, all this work is killing my back, and I can feel my body starting to grow weaker from all the stress as of late. So, I was thinking about retiring and wanted to ask you if you might want to take her out for a walk while I was away?"
"Uhm? What?" I asked, as I felt like I just heard master speaking there for a second.
"So, can you take over for me when I'm gone?"
"Uh, sure?"
So, if I didn't just agree to walk his pet just now, I think I just got a promotion to royal supreme chef. It's kind of hard to follow what people with dementia are trying to say sometimes, but fortunately, I have some experience with my insane master, who I am starting to suspect might have somehow developed some dementia of her own.
After accepting the proposition, I went to confirm with the supreme royal chef, who was originally the apprentice of the royal supreme chef back in the day if my sources are correct, to confirm my promotion. Letting out a sigh of relief as I left the kitchen to rest up for tomorrow, as I will finally reach my goal of getting the biggest paycheck a royal chef can have.
"Wait, that wasn't the goal!" I muttered while lying in my bed, remembering why I wanted this position in the first place.
Shortly after I became Sous chef, everything became so hectic that I got carried away. I sat up and started going over the plan in my head again.
The plan was to get some position of power within the inner palace. Try to use that position to give my juniors a way in. Then continue the search.
As head of all sweet production around the palace, I'd say that step one has been accomplished. With this position, a lot more doors just opened up. Granted, the top of the kitchen staff might not sound like much in terms of the overall hierarchy, but it'll work for what I have in mind. It's high enough that I won't be stopped by a random guard on patrol, but not so impressive everyone will start staring at me while walking down the street. I also get some minor authority within certain areas of the palace.
With this position, though, I can't outright decide on my own, I can recommend people I want to hire for the royal kitchen, giving me a chance to invite my junior into the inner section of the palace. On top of that, this job will not only allow me to interact more with those of the upper class who wish to praise of complain to the chef, but it will also make it much easier to traverse the palace without drawing too much attention.
For practical reasons, there are multiple kitchens located all around the inner palace. There are plenty of officials, concubines, and royals who might spontaneously request I make something for them, and depending on what that something is, it might require me to do so within a certain proximity for various reasons. Like for example, if I made ice-cream for someone on the other side of the palace on a blazing hot summer day, it might melt before reaching its destination, and of course, most highborn wouldn't lower themselves to walk all the way to the kitchen just for the convenience of the chef. There are ways of preserving the ice-cream though, using ice magic, qi techniques, spirit magic, etc. But magicians aren't too common, most ice spirits wouldn't be willing to work as portable freezers, and cultivators hardly ever develop qi techniques for anything so trivial. That's why they just built plenty of small kitchen spaces all over, which are mostly used to make small meals and confectionaries, and as the royal supreme chef, I might get called to any of these at random. So, no one will question me if I suddenly decide to go for a stroll around the palace, making it easier for me to scout out the area without seeming too suspicious.
As time consuming as this was, with this position, finding my little junior should go a lot faster now. Though, since I'd prefer not to become a eunuch, as a man, I can't straight up enter the area reserved for the royal harem, where I'm assuming she is currently, but I could sneak in unnoticed under the veil of night. However, doing so could be risky. Since everyone has a 6th sense, if I let my guard down for even a moment, I could be spotted. Hence, I'd prefer to at least have some clue where to look before jumping in.
"I heard she can be a bit of a glutton too, so if I'm lucky, I could get some clues if she suddenly requests something from me on her own."
*Sigh*
"Let's just hope she has a sweet tooth!" I muttered as I laid back in bed, drifting off to sleep.
The next day.
"Hey, have you heard! They apparently caught two assassins in the outer palace!"
"The outer palace? Why would you bring up something that happened there?"
"Well, they say it was inquisitor Muneto who caught them!"
"Oh my gosh! Really?"
"Oh, I think I heard of that too! Wasn't it a guard and a slave this time! Lord Muneto is such a perceptive man! I wonder if he'd ever…!"
*Sigh*
I sighed to myself as I realized who the women, I was eavesdropping on were talking about. Now, not only did the number of rescue targets increase, but I also have to try sneaking around that annoying inquisitor again.
"Can I never catch a break?"