Randolph Marianne, a cook from the Demon Continent.
He calls himself a cook, but that's just how he likes to be known.
In reality, most people in the world prefer to call him by another name – Randolph, the fifth-ranked of the Seven Great Powers, the [Death God].
However, despite being one of the Seven Great Powers, Randolph doesn't enjoy fighting and killing.
Rather than getting caught up in endless battles, he would rather dedicate his life to cooking.
Therefore, after yet another fight with attackers trying to take his [Death God] title, Randolph finally couldn't stand the tiring life. He went into hiding and ran to his hometown, the Dragon King Kingdom, where he opened a restaurant.
As one of the Seven Great Powers, Randolph had some savings. He easily opened the restaurant and sold his family's recipes.
However, since he came to the Dragon King Kingdom and opened this restaurant, he has hardly made any money from it.
The restaurant had very few customers, and eventually Randolph had to work part-time to make up for the losses.
Even when customers like Shirou and his friends came for the first time, they wouldn't come back. The amount of debt just kept growing.
Over time, Randolph got used to people disliking his food.
He was always prepared to be criticized when he served a dish.
However, this was the first time that a customer had eaten his food and then thrown it up in front of him.
Randolph was deeply hurt.
He had been working hard all along. He believed that his passion for cooking and his determination to open this restaurant meant that he wouldn't lose to anyone.
But it turned out like this.
Randolph couldn't help but doubt himself, wondering if he was really cut out for this kind of work.
It's fair to say that after seeing Eris eat his food and then throw it up, Randolph was starting to wonder if he should keep going.
Maybe he should just listen to Shagal and become a knight in the Dragon King Knights.
Yes, the man named Shagal might look like a local gangster, but he was actually the leader of the Dragon King Kingdom's strongest Dragon King Knights.
He had already figured out that Randolph was the [Death God], one of the Seven Great Powers. So, he was doing everything he could to get Randolph to join the Dragon King Knights and serve the Dragon King Kingdom.
Randolph had always refused.
He didn't want his life to get involved in fighting again.
However, after another cooking failure, Randolph realized that maybe he wasn't meant to be a cook after all. Maybe killing was the only thing he was really good at.
While Randolph was having all these complicated thoughts, he never expected that Shirou would suddenly ask him for the recipe for Dragon Meat Seven Star Fry, and say that he wanted to improve it.
Randolph hesitated at Shirou's request.
It wasn't that he didn't want to share the recipe.
Dragon Meat Seven Star Fry was Randolph's family recipe, but it was hundreds of years old and basically out of touch with modern food.
Randolph was basically making it exactly according to the recipe, but almost no one in this day and age wanted to eat it.
And most importantly, the ingredients for Dragon Meat Seven Star Fry were extremely rare and almost impossible for ordinary people to get.
Because it was real dragon meat, cut from Dragon King that Randolph hunted in the Dragon King Mountains every so often.
Only someone like the [Death God] Randolph could get such expensive ingredients.
Even if ordinary people got the recipe for Dragon Meat Seven Star Fry, they wouldn't be able to make it.
A few seconds passed while he was thinking.
Seeing that Randolph hadn't responded, Shirou couldn't help but say, "If you really don't want to share the recipe, you can cook it and I can help you improve the steps."
"This… why would you do that? Isn't my cooking terrible?"
Randolph looked at Shirou, confused. He didn't understand why this human boy cared so much about his cooking.
Shirou didn't hesitate to answer right away, "Because you have a lot of passion for cooking, right? I can tell that you're a good cook."
"..."
Shirou actually praised him as a good cook.
Not only was Randolph stunned, but also Eris, Ruijerd, and even Shagal in the distance.
They couldn't understand why Shirou would give such high praise to Randolph, who made food that made people throw up. It was unbelievable.
"Hey, kid, don't lie through your teeth!"
Shagal knew a lot about Randolph's cooking, and he really wanted Randolph to give up cooking and join the Dragon King Kingdom's Knights, so he argued right away, "No one can eat his cooking! What's the point of you trying to flatter him!"
"Whether food is good or not doesn't depend on how much heart the cook puts into it. At least in my opinion, Randolph's cooking is full of passion and soul, which means he's a great cook."
"Passion? Soul? What nonsense are you talking about?"
Shagal was completely confused by Shirou's words. He had no idea what the boy was doing.
He looked helplessly at Ruijerd and Eris next to Shirou and said, "You two tell me what you think? Is this kid talking nonsense?! No one can eat Randolph's cooking!"
"I have no opinion."
Ruijerd shook his head. As a demon, he had eaten worse food, so he wouldn't complain just because the food tasted bad.
So Shagal could only look at Eris, hoping that the girl who had just thrown up would say something bad.
But he didn't expect it.
Eris said without hesitation, "Shirou is always right! If he says Randolph is a good cook, then he must be a good cook!"
"Little girl, you..."
Shagal was speechless.
He never expected that anyone in the world would actually like Randolph's cooking.
"..."
At the same time, after seeing this scene and realizing that someone was actually willing to speak up for his cooking, Randolph was deeply moved.
He looked at Shirou as if he were his savior, and said without hesitation, "I'll go get the recipe for Dragon Meat Seven Star Fry. Wait here."
After saying that, the skull-faced man ran out without even pausing for a moment.
Soon after, Shirou and the others saw the man come back with a yellowed cookbook.
Shirou opened the cookbook and saw that it was indeed a very old record, and that many of the records were unclear, and even some of the steps were missing.
"I was right, this dish is too complicated to make, and it's beyond your ability."
Shirou held the cookbook and said, "Dragon meat is very different from other meats, and it's very difficult to cook. If you don't use special methods, you'll get results like this."
"You mean there's something wrong with the cookbook?"
Randolph asked, doubtful. He couldn't trust Shirou, the boy he had just met, so quickly, and he was suspicious.
But Shirou didn't hesitate to say, "Maybe, even if there's nothing wrong with the records, the cooking environment a hundred years ago was very different from now, and you'll definitely make mistakes copying it. So now there are only two ways, either replace the dragon meat with other meat to solve the problem that the ingredients themselves are too difficult to cook, or change the cooking method and add some steps in the process."
"This..."
Randolph didn't expect Shirou to actually give him advice seriously, and he gradually began to trust him. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Then let's change the cooking method. Dragon meat has been a tradition of our store for hundreds of years, and it can't be changed."
"Okay."
Since Randolph had made a decision, Shirou led Randolph into the kitchen without any hesitation.
Eris and the others outside didn't see what happened next.
So they didn't know what happened in the kitchen.
They only knew that after a few hours, when Shirou came out with Randolph again, Randolph had another plate of food in his hand.
"Please, try it."
In this short time, Randolph seemed to have been greatly stimulated. He was very careful as he followed Shirou and gave the food to Eris and Ruijerd to taste.
They were still a little scared because of the last dish.
But considering that Shirou had helped make this new dish, they tried a bite.
The next second, Eris and Ruijerd's eyes widened, as if they had tasted something incredible, and they looked shocked.
"Delicious... it's so delicious!"
Eris said excitedly, and then ate all the food without even thinking.
Ruijerd didn't say anything, but his actions of constantly putting the fried meat in his mouth proved his attitude.
"How is this possible? Hey, are you kidding me?!"
Shagal was undoubtedly the most confused person there. He couldn't understand what had happened at all.
Why had Randolph's cooking changed so dramatically in such a short time?
He even suspected that this was just an act, a trick that Randolph had come up with to get rid of him.
However, Shirou had also prepared a portion for him in advance, and handed the Seven Star Dragon Fry to Shagal.
Shagal was very hesitant, but to find out what was going on, he decisively put the fried meat in his mouth.
"!!!"
The next second, Shagal felt like he had flown into the sky. He felt like he had turned into a Dragon King, flying freely in the boundless sky.
The instant explosion of taste buds made all his senses clear.
It was the ultimate deliciousness!
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