"It used to take 80k a month just for logging and calculations, but I picked up the slack. Learned the ropes from some books, did a few crash courses with Master, and now—Finance manager of the guild by February."
"Pretty impressive. Especially for your age." Erza praised.
Kazu nodded and paused when he looked at her. "Uh... Why did you bring...so much equipment? Are you preparing to open a restaurant?"
He looked at the pile behind Erza, which was larger than the collective equipment the other three had brought.
Gray and Cana also paused, looking at her. They had forgotten about that.
"I like to be thoroughly prepared for everything. So, I brought it."
Kazu blinked. "Uh... Pretty Good habit... What was I talking about again?" He looked at Cana.
Cana blinked. "Yeah... You were talking about your current wage and, before that, how much time it will take to gather the funds for buying a house."
Kazu nodded. "Right. So, I became the finance manager of the guild. I earn half a million per month."
'I love my instinct magic. Without it, this would have been impossible.'
"Damn. I have never seen you working. When do you work?" Gray asked. 'All he does is train. Does he do it after going home?'
"It doesn't take much time. 1-2 hours per week. So, I do it generally in breaks after a meal or just on the way home." Kazu shrugged.
"While walking?"
"While walking." Kazu nodded. 'I could walk without even needing to be aware of the surroundings. Instinct magic.'
"You were talking about how much time it will take to buy a house." Cana reminded him about the original question.
Kazu nodded.
"I was saying that on average, a wizard from our guild earns 200k on a mission if Solo. And in a week, they take 2 missions. So around 1.6 million a month. Now, if you are smart about it, you could easily save 1 million a month, as food and other expenses don't cost much. So, it will take about 5-10 years to gather that much."
'I am not even talking about S-rank missions, which have a minimum reward of 5 million. You could buy a house in a few months, if not a few weeks.'
"Oh... That isn't that long, is it?" Cana nodded in realisation. Her mood lifted with each second.
The trio were lost in their own thoughts, thinking about buying a house in the future.
"Should we start the competition? We decided on making fried rice, right?" Kazu broke them out of their thoughts.
Cana smirked. "Yup. We both will show you that experience doesn't matter." She said while putting her hand on Erza's shoulder, who nodded with Cana.
"Just a reminder, but this is an individual competition. So that we can roast you individually." Gray deadpanned.
"Heh, will see."
--- 30 Minutes later ---
"So..." Cana said while looking at the 4 plates of fried rice in front of her.
The other three had the same in front of them. They sat on the floor as Kazu didn't have a dining table in his house.
"Who's going to go first?" Kazu completed her statement.
"How about we all try the same person's fried rice at the same time and rate it out of 10?" Gray suggested.
The others agreed.
Erza slapped her palm on the floor. "Let's start with mine."
"Alright, bring it." Cana grabbed her spoon like she was preparing for war.
Then, they took a bite of it.
"Hmm, it's good. Though not as good as the tavern's cook. I will give 5." Kazu was the first one to rate.
Erza nodded. "Indeed. I have much left to learn. I myself will give myself a 5"
Cana and Gray looked at them in disbelief.
"Five?! Erza, you put sugar in fried rice. And those veggies are making crunch crunch sounds in my mouth. Clearly, undercooked." Gray said with disgust.
Cana nodded vigorously with him.
"I confused the salt with sugar. Also, those looked cooked to me... That's why I said, I still have so much to learn." Erza sheepishly said while rubbing her head.
"Sugar, salt—it's seasoning. You guys are too sensitive." Kazu shrugged.
Cana visibly recoiled. "Wait a sec... This guy's been cooking for five years and thinks sugar rice is fine?" She glanced at the plate containing Kazu's fried rice.
It looked pretty harmless.
Gray also looked at that plate. "I think we should try yours first—"
"NO." Cana interrupted.
Her shout made Gray and Erza flinch. "How about we go with mine next?" Cana suggested, trembling.
"Fine."
The others complied and did that.
"Not bad. 5," Gray said.
"Pretty good. 9." Kazu nodded in approval.
"8." Erza said.
"Whoa. I was going with 8 myself. That will be 30 points out of 40." Cana said proudly, lifting her head.
Gray then looked at one of the two remaining plates. "Who's next. Me or Kazu?"
"You." Cana said before anyone else could.
"So, you want to end it with a bad taste?" Gray ignored the deadpan look Kazu shot him.
"Uh..." Cana's face looked conflicted. She furrowed her brows.
"I don't think it will be that bad," Erza said and taking a spoonful of the fried rice in her mouth.
Her whole body stiffened. Erza's face went pale.
Cana's eyes widened in horror at looking at her.
"I don't want to try that." She said while scotting away from her plate.
"Jeez. Such a baby." Gray shook his head and took a spoonful himself.
His face didn't betray any emotion. Still having an icy expression.
"Bro, I could try to make bad rice, and it still wouldn't come out this cursed. What's your secret technique?" Gray looked at Kazu in half-admiration, half-disgust.
Kazu looked at him for a few seconds. "I don't know how I should feel about this. I told you before that it's edible."
"Definitely not. This is not what you call edible. Erza's fried rice could be borderline considered edible." Gray shook his head, denying it.
Kazu snorted. "Hmph. You guys are just being picky eaters." 'I thought it was just Yui. Guess, even 10-year-olds are like this. I will just ask the master's opinion on this. He must be mature.'
Kazu, for a second, didn't believe that his food wasn't edible. In fact, he could make it slightly better to rival Erza's rice, but he doesn't want to spend that much effort.
'I can at least cook better than mom.' He thought while recalling this life's mother.
Yui never had an opportunity to try it due to being an infant at that time, and the only one who had tasted his mother's cooking other than him was his father. The man never showed any signs of disliking the food when he ate.
He even praised the food sometimes. So, Kazu had grown up with a unique sense of taste.
After reincarnation, his body was different, and he grew up with it, so his previous life's taste sense is just a dream at this point—Very vague.
Kazu watched as Gray, with the cold efficiency of a war criminal, force-fed Cana a spoonful of his rice.
'Dunno if I should laugh or be annoyed by that.' Kazu thought while looking at Cana's expression after eating it.
"The ratings?" Kazu asked.
"I don't think there's any point. I don't think anybody made worse than you." Gray said with a smirk.
Kazu's eyes twitched, but he didn't retort. He agreed with Gray. 'Can he not be blunt about this?'
Next was Gray's turn.
"Damn. This is better than what that cook makes. Why do you even eat there with this level of cooking?" Kazu begrudgingly said.
Gray shrugged. "Too much work."
"This is… the best meal of my life." Erza's eyes were misty with emotion.
"..." Gray was speechless. Erza wasn't saying just for the sake of saying. She was completely sincere, eating as if she really was having the best meal of her life.
The room became immediately awkward.
"Not bad. You are just a tiny bit better than me." Cana broke the atmosphere.
Gray smirked. "It will be more believable if you didn't eat like a pig."
Cana blushed. "I—I am just eating it to give relief to my tastebud. Yeah, that."
Kazu felt like an invisible arrow had pierced his heart.
"I am not that bad. You are picky." He quietly muttered.
Just like that, the cooking competition ended with Gray unanimously winning.
No Kazus were harmed in the process.
---Next Morning---
"A Mission outside the city!?" Cana shouted so loudly that the entire cavern heard her.
A lot of eyes turned towards her, but she ignored them.
"Indeed. I want you 4 to go on this mission. You are now old enough and strong enough to attempt this. It's a pretty straightforward mission. This will be a valuable experience for you kids." Makarov said with a smile.
"What's the mission about?" Gray casually asked.
"A girl ran away from home. You need to bring her back. As you could expect, the employer is her family."
Kazu looked at the paper with mission details. "Well, it doesn't seem hard." He shrugged, agreeing.
'It's just bringing back what seems like a spoiled girl from a rich family.'
***
Join my Patreon to support me and get up to 20 advanced chapters:
- DESIRE96
(search it up)
Check out my other works.