The Military Chef of a Ruined World

“What is your current situation!”

What they heard was clearly a foreign language. But those words were being understood perfectly through the mind.

The Russian awakened answered those words even while feeling bewildered.

“We are the last survivors in this land! We noticed the Legion approaching and brought our entire force with us!”

Even so, their bewilderment was not so easily resolved.

It was only natural.

[Absolute Taste] had now established itself as a common skill shared by all awakened. But that skill had ultimately originated from a chef.

Even though it was undoubtedly a powerful ability, there was one restriction attached to it.

[For the user alone, it becomes possible to draw out a minor [Characteristic] contained within the dish.]

The condition for that skill to activate was none other than ‘cooking.’

Of course, even that alone was more than enough.

The [Stat-Boosting Potions] that raised the awakened’s stats were treated as cooking. Even being able to receive only the stat-increasing effect was already powerful enough.

But...... in the end, its true effect came from being able to handle a variety of dishes.

The awakened of a faction without a [Chef] could not cook monsters.

The alien mana inside the monsters’ bodies was something that had never originally been prepared for humans. If they consumed it without having it purified by a [Chef], they could end up ceasing to be human.

The effect would activate even with ordinary cooking, but it amounted to nothing more than making the food slightly more filling or allowing its nutrients to be absorbed more richly.

Of course, even that alone could greatly reduce the problem of insufficient food, so from the perspective of the awakened who benefited from it, it was recognized as an extraordinary ability.

'How can an ordinary awakened.......'

'Use Mental Language, something only the highest-ranking monsters should be capable of handling.'

Naturally, they did not understand the true power of Absolute Taste.

They did not understand what happened when someone ate [Cooking].

'As expected of a force capable of manipulating the System and emitting light imbued with that kind of power.'

That was why, from what they could see.

'Does that mean every single one of them is no different from a boss monster?'

The Legion could only appear to be a force in which every single soldier possessed abilities equal to those highest-ranking monsters.

The fact that they were now certain the light that had helped them not long ago had come from those people only added even more certainty to that misunderstanding.

“We understand the situation!”

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Whether they knew that the Russians were looking at them with such thoughts or not, the Legion members hurriedly shouted toward them.

“If everyone here is your entire force, then there’s no problem. We’ll support you like this, so follow our lead and move south!”

“What is the destination!”

“Beyond the border, the former lands of China have been secured by the awakened! If you evacuate as far as there, there should be no problem with your safety, so we’ll discuss the details after we arrive!”

At those words, hope began to rise within the Russian awakened.

'If we had tried to escape on our own, we would have been wiped out before making it even halfway.'

'But if we’re with them......!'

Although the situation involved a certain degree of misunderstanding, from what they could see, those Legion members were powerful people wielding abilities they could not understand.

And those very people had declared that they would stay together with them.

'We can escape!'

The doubts that had been in their hearts began to turn into a single certainty.

***

And so, the escape of the two awakened forces began.

POP-POP-POP-POP......!

The Legion guided the Russian awakened into the inside of their formation.

Although they had fought while rotating their forces to some extent, these were people who had continued fighting to hold the defensive line even back in Oymyakon. Their fatigue had reached its limit in the process of breaking through the monsters and reaching this place.

Normally, this would have been around the point when problems began to occur, but the situation changed when the Legion’s armored equipment protected them.

The exhausted awakened could now focus on providing fire support from within safe protection.

And.

-Thank you, humans of a foreign land.

Into the midst of that formation, a pale-skinned giant entered together with them.

“That giant is......?”

“Wait! Please, hear me out before you misunderstand.”

When the Legion members looked toward that enormous woman, a huge elderly man hurried over and stood between her and the Legion members before shouting.

“As you can see, she is not human. But she is absolutely not our enemy!”

Vasily shouted earnestly.

All they knew was the Legion’s promise that they would come find them. They did not know exactly what kind of stance the Legion took toward other races.

“In fact, if not for her, we would never have been able to survive in this land until now. She is different from ordinary monsters!”

That was why Vasily had no choice but to remain wary even while joining up with those Legion members.

'If they say they cannot accept the Witch.......'

For the sake of survival, it might be right for his guild members to act together with the Legion.

But at least Vasily himself might not be able to go with them.

And at the very moment Vasily tightly gripped his weapon at that thought.

-You still worry about pointless things, little one.

“Witch?”

The Witch gave a faint laugh, placed a hand on Vasily’s shoulder, and moved his body aside from where he had been blocking the way.

And...... that reaction was not limited to the Witch alone.

“Ah, so that’s what this is about.”

“Understood. If there is anything you need for cooperation, feel free to tell us.”

Even after learning that they were cooperating with a monster, the Legion members nodded and accepted the fact as though it were only natural.

'......?'

Vasily could only be bewildered.

In truth, it could not be helped.

Now, the People’s Council had become Russia’s only awakened guild and force.

But naturally, before that, there had been a time when multiple human factions competed with one another for survival.

Back then, Vasily’s faction had been treated as public enemies for no reason other than the fact that they cooperated with a monster.

The invaders who were responsible for this apocalypse.

Although they belonged to different races, the awakened’s hatred toward those beings grouped together under the single category of ‘monsters’ had been beyond imagination.

But.

-Other than that, I do not mind anything else, but I would appreciate it if you avoided using intense heat around me.

“We’ll be careful.”

They were accepting the Witch of Snow as though it were only natural.

Vasily wondered how such a thing could be possible.......

FWAAAAASH!!!

“......!”

At that moment, an enormously vast surge of dark gray energy swept across the battlefield.

An overwhelming sight in which thousands of monsters vanished in a single strike.

Startled, Vasily looked toward the being that had accomplished such a feat.

The suspicious figure floating in the sky. The alien energy emanating from it...... no matter how he looked at it, clearly suggested that the being was no ordinary human.

And on top of that.

“GRRRAAAARGH!”

“Glory to the Green Mane!”

He had not noticed at first, but when he looked closely at the warriors fighting there on the very front line, some of them had green skin and enormous tusks.

“I told you to restrain your excitement!”

“S-Sorry. Grrk.......”

There was also a being fighting among those green-skinned warriors with a long, monkey-like tail.

Shhk...... SLASH.

And there were blood-reeking figures melting into the shadows of the battlefield and cutting the throats of enemy monsters.

Vasily could only stare at them blankly with his mouth hanging open.

'Other races.'

Because they were all wearing military uniforms, he had not realized it right away.

But many of those Legion members were not human.

“I told you that you worry too much.”

Looking down at Vasily, the Witch of Snow gave a faint laugh and said.

“To begin with...... they were the ones who first offered to have ‘us’ join them.”

When a System window had first appeared before her eyes, the Witch of Snow had clearly seen it.

The man who had been shaping the System from beyond it.

......The desire contained in his gaze.

The fierce greed that sought to make even beings from other worlds their own.

“There is no point worrying about whether other races will be accepted or not. If anything.......”

The Witch shrugged her shoulders as she spoke.

What she had to worry about was the opposite situation.

'......If we tell them that we want to act separately from them, will they really let us go?'

When she remembered the vast ambition of the man she had seen from the other side back then, it was a somewhat frightening thought.

......Well, that too was something to worry about only after they survived this place.

-Al, Ers, Orlan.

For now, they were in a situation where they had to worry about surviving against the monsters swarming toward them.

And so, now under the protection of the Legion, the Witch of Snow closed her eyes and began chanting a spell.

Originally, it was a lengthy incantation she could not have completed while fighting those monsters...... but now that she was being guarded by tanks, the situation was different.

SHWAAAAK!!!

When the Witch finished the spell, the mana condensed within her body exploded, and intense cold swept out in every direction.

The cold, which seemed capable of freezing even the soul, strangely avoided the awakened and froze only those monsters.

'......!'

The number of monsters frozen like that reached several thousand.

Even the Legion members who had been fighting could not help widening their eyes in surprise at the sight.

'That giant...... even though she doesn’t look like she’s in normal condition, she can still wield that much power.'

There was a reason so many Russian awakened had survived.

Even though, judging by appearances, the Witch did not seem to be in anything resembling normal condition, the power she wielded was overwhelmingly strong.

And that was not all.

FWASH!

The Russian awakened were wielding powers similar to those of the Witch of Snow.

Just as the Legion members had learned martial arts, they too were people who had learned techniques originating from another world.

That power seemed to display its greatest efficiency in the environment of this frozen land.

'At this rate.'

Not only the Legion members.

The Russian awakened were convinced as well.

'We can do this!'

The number of enemies swarming toward them was still endless.

But they could break through sufficiently.

No matter how many more came rushing toward them, as they were now, they could surely.......

Slosh.......

Overcome them.

Just as they were convinced of that.

-No.

The monsters that had taken the form of white amorphous masses.

The monsters that had continued increasing their numbers through repeated division began to gather together.

-I cannot let you leave.