“Let’s add a little bit of spices to it–Which negative emotion do you think goes best with a steak?”

  I asked my girls for their thoughts. I assumed that using a certain amount of negative emotion as spice could potentially change the curse that would come out of this, but it was my first experience with cooking a curse. It was all very experimental.

  “Mmh… Maybe… Anger…? The… Fire… Makes… Things… Look… Mad…”

  Poppy came up with an idea first, and everyone else seemed to agree with the sentiment that the little show I had put on by producing some big flames had made the cooking process look ‘angry’. I suppose fire was a common symbol for wrath and the like.

  I have often heard that fire mages who are too in-tune with their element tend to be quite quick to grow irritated–Inversely, they also have a tendency to mellow out rapidly. Akin to a fire being suddenly put out by a bucket of water.

  In any case, I wonder which sort of anger to use… My harvesting of negative emotion isn’t neatly cut into just a handful of categories. Each of the ‘core’ negative emotions had several… Sub-types of sorts, I guess you could say. Some of those variants, I only had in small portions.

  I even knew that there were negative emotions that I had yet to actually collect, even once. Thanks to my abilities, I had a rather good feel for that sort of thing. I was well aware that there were ‘rare’ negative emotions for me to gather. The problem was that to get someone to experience these things, I would need to really break my back tormenting them in a certain manner, or find someone already experiencing them.

  Before, both options would have been difficult. The latter sounded simpler, but before acquiring ‘Remember Me?’, I would have had no other choice but to somehow become the target for those emotions, and it was actually quite difficult. Especially when introducing myself to them could easily just cause them to feel something else–Usually fear–And simply direct that at me instead of anything else.

  With ‘Remember Me?’ I could bypass all that trouble, so I presumed that I should soon receive some of those rarer emotions.

  In any case, I decided to just go with the basics for now, sprinkling simple anger onto the steak.

  Soon enough, the dish was complete. A steak accompanied by some fresh thyme.

  “What do you girls think?”

  “Delicious… Looking…”

  “Can… Spirits… Eat… This…?”

  That was a good question. Ghosts shouldn’t be able to eat regular food, but this was something that I had prepared inside of a mindscape, using ingredients that had spawned out of thin air… Well, they had not been created from nothing, but it was still far from being normal food.

  I looked at the steak I had put inside a plate and tried cutting it. This surprisingly worked just fine.

  I tried eating a small piece myself first. It felt just like eating a steak, like when I was a human at first, but when I tried to swallow, the piece just broke apart into the negative energy that had been used to create it in the first place.

  The energy wasn’t returned to me, but I guess that I felt slightly energised? Somewhat?

  In any case, it was perfectly fine to eat, so I picked another piece.

  “Alright, Girls. Say ‘aaah’ for me”

  Mara, aren’t they a bit old for this? Apart from Ophelie, maybe…

  Nonsense, there is no such thing as a little sister being too old to be fed by me. They’ll always be the little sisters. Ergo, they’ll always be my cute little ghosts who deserve cuddling and attention.

  …This reminds me of when Leton would get sick. He’s always been so frail and fragile. The smallest cold seemed like it would kill him. He couldn’t move from bed, and the fever would make him delirious… It was up to me to make sure he was fine and ate properly.

  Mara…?

  I collected myself before I snapped the fork in my hand, giving a piece of the steak to everyone. The effects of the food were more noticeable on my little sisters. It felt somewhat similar to when they went for a trip into the furnace to receive some negative emotions and be empowered.

  The food did this on a much lower scale, but it still did it.

  Interesting…

  Once the steak was all gone, I opened the system panel listing my curses, and indeed, there was a new one there.

  Minor Curse Of Endurance Loss - Reduces the target's endurance by a set amount. The curse remains upon the target for twenty-four hours. Curse can not be recast on the same target if the target is still bearing the curse

  …It’s… Not that bad, I suppose? I was frankly expecting worse from such a simplistic dish. Seems like this kitchen can produce some good stuff, huh?

  Now. My curses pretty much require being applied through physical contact. Considering the fact that it was a ‘minor’ curse, the effect was probably not that pronounced, but it was still leagues above what I had come up with before acquiring the kitchen.

  Now that this recipe has been made into a curse, it has been added to the cookbook. Also, it has unlocked a bit more information for me to share concerning the kitchen!

  Ah… Was it waiting for me to cook something?

  Indeed. You must know that meals can only be turned into curses and added to the cookbook every so often. You are not permitted to create a slew of new curses back to back–It’s the same reasoning as usual. It is to be more challenging…

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  In any case, there is something important that you must know. A particular recipe can only result in one curse. If you were to recreate the dish you just made, nothing would happen–However, you can make variants of that same dish

  By intentionally making variants of a recipe you have already turned into a curse, you ensure that the variants will be, well, variants of the original curse.

  For example, if the variant you cook is considered to be an upgrade from the original, you will probably get an enhanced version of the same curse. Either one that is a direct upgrade from the previous, or the same curse with additional effects

  If the variant is considered distinct enough, you will instead be likely to receive a curse that functions in the same manner, but instead of targeting endurance, will target something else

  Of course, if the ingredients and spices used are rare or otherwise geared toward something specific. The result could be a bit unpredictable

  Mmh… So, you’re telling me that from now on, steak recipes are nearly guaranteed to result in curses that will take away something from my target?

  Precisely

  I see…

  Not the most exciting kind of curse, but definitely a useful kind. A superior variation of the ‘Minor Curse Of Endurance Loss’ would be incredible to have, especially if its limitations were removed and I could just let my fists rain down on them to eat through their endurance.

  What about the limit on cooking curses? How long is it?

  It depends on the particular dish that was cooked. For a minor curse like this one… It should be about five days

  Five days for a minor curse? And I assume that the time increases in an exponential manner?

  It does…

  Well. I suppose it was to be expected. That special system of mine doesn’t seem very willing to give me good stuff without downsides… That’s fine, it can do that since it came accompanied by Nara.

  You can practice recipes in the meantime, though, and also get more familiar with the equipment–This thing over there is a wood-fired oven, for example. You can make bread in there

  Mmh… All of this is awakening my inner chef.

  It had been a while since I had handled any cooking, and it was still just as enjoyable as I remembered… It didn’t seem like I lost my expertise either, so I should be capable of baking impressive cakes like before–I myself have never really liked cakes very much, I always preferred fruit pies, but Leton was more of a cake enjoyer…

  “...Do you girls like cakes?”

  ___

  “This… I never would have suspected that you have such a place under your residence, Mister Nebulo…”

  “Oh, it is nothing much. Other nobles have much larger secret areas. The skill of space distortion is actually something passed down in the royal family. Receiving items capable of bending space is a sign of trust and respect for nobility”

  “Really? Is it really fine if I know this?”

  “Of course, the only people who don’t know are those of lesser status than nobles. All of the other nation leaders are well aware. It is only a secret for show… While we are here, do tell me about your nightmares. Have they been getting better?”

  “Ah, yes, thank you for this, Mister Nebulo. Without you, I never would have been able to meet Miss Binibelle. Not only did she figure out how to nearly completely rid me of the nightmares, but she is an incredible teacher as well!”

  “That is good to hear… But if they aren’t completely gone, then it means…”

  Leton Nebulo did not finish his sentence, but sighed in the most bizarre manner Jupo had ever heard. An odd mix between relief and distress.

  The apprentice mage-blade wanted to speak up, but stopped himself. It wouldn’t be proper to pry into the inner thoughts of a noble.

  They continued to walk in silence, passing by and through several large rooms with impressively high ceilings. Some of the more typical giant species would be able to stand upright just fine within them.

  The ambience of the rooms was loud, steel squeaked and slammed constantly, puffs of smoke and steam would burst out at seemingly random intervals, all sorts of carefully-enclosed wires ran along the walls, organised so perfectly that it was almost uncanny.

  This place was like an inverted reflection of what Jupo had believed was Leton’s workshop, but what he had seen previously had just been the tip of the iceberg.

  Below the Nebulo residence, a spatially distorted space housed an entire factory filled with enormous machines, the mage couldn’t even begin to comprehend the purposes of, automatons of various shapes and sizes worked without stop to build… More automatons, but also other items, some of which somewhat resembled cannons.

  Jupo had seen a few of those blackpowdered-power things in the past. Objects capable of unleashing incredible force without needing any energy-infused items, or even the intervention of anyone greatly skilled.

  Cannons could be built and operated by most mundane people, and that was where their main strength lay.

  In warfare, the powerful individuals, the sort of people who were said to be capable of eradicating armies with a single spell or the swing of their blade, never truly participated.

  War was waged between mundane armies and a handful of ‘lesser’ champions at best. The real deal was only sent in when things were truly serious… Which was bizarre to Jupo, wasn’t war extremely serious to begin with?

  Leton Nebulo seemed to agree with this belief. Here, he was building soldiers and heavy weaponry. Soldiers whose lives could be sacrificed because they were not alive to begin with.

  The specifics of what the ‘Father of Machines’ intended to build were unclear, but today, he had asked if Jupo could help him. Naturally, the apprentice was happy to help the man who was the reason why a great healer had quickly come to regenerate his lost limb.

  “I myself am lacking when it comes to offensive magic. I only manage to do things with mana when it comes to my mechanical creations–So I require your assistance to test the mana resistance of some of the automatons”

  “Do you not have tools to do this for you, Mister Nebulo?”

  “Of course, I do… But I thought that it would do you good to be able to cast spells freely. You’re always stuck learning and learning inside the city. I know you don’t mind because of your instructor’s… Great teaching methods”

  “However, it is best to test yourself every once in a while, no?”

  Jupo bowed slightly.

  “I thank your generosity, Mister Nebulo”

  “Heh… It literally costs me nothing, let’s not talk about generosity…”

  They arrived at a sort of small office tucked away from the rest of the facility, the door only opened when Leton showed his eye to some sort of strange device. He swung by to grab a key that was needed to unlock the area they were headed for.

  Whilst inside that rather comfy office, where somehow, the loud sounds of the factory were absent… He spotted several paintings hanging from the wall.

  One seemed to be of the entire Nebulo family, and the rest were portraits of the different members of the family.

  They were all in pristine condition, but for some reason, the one most prominent was not of the whole family together, but that of Leton’s sister.

  Jupo looked down at what was engraved into the bottom of the frame.

  Mara Nebulo