"Hehe. I never expected to meet you here, Professor Noah."
Dr. Stylish chose a chair and sat down, keeping his eyes on Noah.
"It seems we'll be colleagues from now on. I look forward to working with you."
Noah simply closed his eyes and rested, making it clear he had no intention of responding.
Dr. Stylish did not take offense to it.
They had not dealt with each other often, but he had always been extremely interested in Noah's talent.
A handsome blond man entered next.
Seeing that five people had already arrived, he gave them an apologetic smile.
"It appears I'm the last one here. My apologies. My name is Run. I hope we'll work well together."
That should have been everyone.
Just as Honest had said, five people had been recruited besides Noah.
Including him, there were six members, and with Esdeath as their captain, the entire special police unit known as the Jaegers consisted of seven people.
Still, their captain had yet to appear.
What was she planning?
Once all six members were seated, Bols unexpectedly stood and began preparing coffee.
He returned to the table with the pot and cups, serving everyone and receiving a round of grateful thanks.
Noah took a sip while quietly observing the others.
'So she's here too.'
Seryu Ubiquitous, the former disciple of Imperial Guard Captain Ogre.
Guy had previously rescued her from Night Raid, and after that, she had seemingly disappeared from public view.
Now it appeared she had become Dr. Stylish's subordinate.
Her "changes" were extensive.
She looked perfectly normal from the outside, but the body beneath her skin could barely be described as human anymore.
Click.
The door opened once again.
A masked figure entered and immediately released a vicious wave of bloodlust without restraint.
Everyone in the room instinctively rose and became alert.
Everyone except Noah.
He looked at the disguised Esdeath and found the mask almost insultingly lazy.
Even with her face covered, there were not many women with a figure like hers, and the long ice-blue hair made her identity even more obvious.
Was she genuinely trying to hide who she was?
Noah sighed inwardly.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
"All of you are full of openings!"
The masked Esdeath attacked the moment she finished speaking.
An afterimage remained where she had been standing, while her actual body appeared in front of Wave.
One long leg, covered by a military boot, shot toward his face.
Wave stood there in shock and apparently forgot he was supposed to dodge.
Since Noah did not want the idiot to be kicked across the room and crash into him, he grabbed Wave by the back of his collar and pulled him away.
The heel stopped less than a centimeter from Wave's face, frightening him badly enough that his legs almost gave out.
Esdeath noticed Noah's interference and gave a quiet snort.
She immediately dropped low and swept Wave's legs out from under him, sending his whole body sideways before he crashed heavily onto the floor.
"That's one."
Without pausing, Esdeath moved behind Bols.
Bols turned and raised both arms.
He managed to block her kick, but despite his enormous build, the impact still forced him several meters backward.
"Your body is well trained."
After that brief assessment, Esdeath turned her attention to Run.
Run reacted quickly and avoided several attacks in succession.
'Good reflexes,' Esdeath thought.
The first person to counterattack was Seryu.
Her right hand transformed into a chainsaw and came down toward the back of Esdeath's head.
"Human modification? Interesting."
Esdeath avoided the chainsaw, caught Seryu by the collar, and threw her over one shoulder.
The impact smashed a deep depression into the floor.
Seryu grunted but remained conscious.
Most of her body had already been modified, so an attack that would have crippled or killed an ordinary person did little lasting damage to her.
Dr. Stylish had moved safely to the side before the fighting began.
He was not suited to direct combat, and he was also carefully evaluating Seryu's performance.
After all, she was one of his proudest creations.
Esdeath clearly had no intention of stopping.
When she turned toward Noah, he reluctantly stood to meet her.
He deflected her fist and drove his shoulder into her side, bringing her forward momentum to a halt.
Esdeath immediately raised her knee toward him, but Noah saw it coming and placed his palm against the front of her knee joint before the strike could build any force.
A faint chill began leaking from her body.
Noah knew that if this continued, the woman would get carried away and start fighting seriously!
He formed a thin blade of wind and cut the mask cleanly in half.
The two pieces fell away from her face.
Esdeath paused.
With her identity exposed, the little game was over.
Noah was fairly certain she glared at him.
"G-General Esdeath!" Bols called out, alerting the few people who had still not understood.
As an Imperial soldier, he had seen Esdeath many times and recognized her from the beginning.
Dr. Stylish and Run had also guessed almost immediately.
Only Wave and Seryu had failed to realize who she was.
Esdeath gave a light laugh. "I thought an ordinary welcome would be boring, so I decided to play a small prank. Did you enjoy it?"
Wave sat dejectedly on the floor. "I'm already used to being treated roughly."
Seryu, however, looked thrilled.
"Thank you for the lesson!"
Being able to experience the strength of the Empire's strongest firsthand was a valuable opportunity!
As another woman, Seryu had already begun seeing Esdeath as someone she wanted to emulate.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. Now, each of you should collect your formal uniform from the wardrobe. We'll go meet His Majesty, and afterward, we'll hold a welcome party."
...
The idea of meeting the Emperor immediately after joining the Jaegers left most of the group stunned.
Before being recruited, more than half of them had come from fairly humble positions in society.
Under ordinary circumstances, being granted an audience with the Emperor would have been almost impossible.
Now, however, they served directly beneath General Esdeath.
Although the Jaegers did not possess much formal authority yet, their status had risen enormously overnight.
The audience itself was mostly a formality, and Esdeath had never liked wasting time on ceremony.
Once she had introduced each member of the Jaegers, the meeting ended almost immediately.
"So, does anyone have suggestions for the party?" Esdeath asked.
"Somewhere fashionable," Dr. Stylish replied.
"Somewhere with good food," Seryu added.
"I'm fine with anything..." Bols said quietly.
Wave hesitated before offering his idea. "Um, I brought quite a lot of seafood from home. How about we make a seafood hot pot?"
"That's it!"
To his surprise, everyone approved immediately.
Transportation in this world was still poorly developed, so eating fresh seafood in the Imperial Capital was considered something of a luxury.
"In that case, I'll need someone to help me," Wave said. "Seafood takes a lot of work to prepare, and it'll take forever if I do everything alone."
The person who raised his hand was not at all who Wave had expected.
Bols lifted one thick, muscular arm.
Wave's lips twitched, though he managed to keep smiling.
'Seriously? Why does the person who knows how to cook have to look like that? Isn't anyone else available?'
Just as he began losing hope, Noah raised his hand as well.
"I'll help."
Esdeath looked genuinely surprised that he had volunteered.
"You know how to cook?"
Noah nodded and held his thumb and index finger close together.
"A little."
...
When Noah entered the kitchen and saw the ingredients covering the worktop, even he was slightly impressed.
"You carried all of this here from your hometown?"
Wave's Endurance was clearly nothing to underestimate.
The ingredients were still fresh.
"That's right, and I guarantee every bit of it is fresh," Wave said proudly, patting his chest.
Bols picked up a kitchen knife.
Combined with his bare upper body and masked face, he looked far less like a cook and far more like a murderer who had wandered in from a horror story.
"Let's begin by preparing the ingredients," he said in a gentle voice.
Wave swallowed nervously.
It was far too easy to imagine Bols treating the ingredients as screaming victims.
"Leave this to me."
Noah aimed one hand at a fish on the cutting board. A current of air swept closely over its body, stripping away every scale at once.
Another invisible cut passed down its middle and divided it cleanly in two.
[Salmon]
・Quality: High
・Freshness: 92%
・Recommended preparation: Sashimi
・Ideal thickness: 3 millimeters
A few more invisible cuts followed.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
The enormous salmon had been skinned and sliced into sashimi, with every piece cut to exactly the same thickness.
The fat glistened beneath the kitchen lights, and the neat arrangement looked more like a work of art than food preparation.
Wave stared in disbelief.
Even Bols fell silent.
"N-Noah, what did you just do?" Wave asked in an exaggerated voice. "Why did the fish suddenly finish cutting itself? What happened?"
Bols remained quiet for a moment before asking uncertainly, "Noah, was that the power of your Teigu?"
"More or less," Noah replied casually.
"What does 'more or less' mean?" Wave muttered, swallowing again.
The flesh of a large salmon was tough, especially the skin, which could even be used to make certain weapons and armor.
Yet in less than three seconds, the entire fish had been turned into sashimi.
Wave had not seen the cuts or even sensed them.
If the fish had been replaced with him, would the result have been exactly the same?
After imagining himself sliced neatly into sashimi, Wave suddenly found that he was not as hungry as before.
"I'll handle the vegetables too."
Noah tossed the vegetables from a large basin into the air.
They separated into perfectly cut pieces before falling into different containers, each type sorted correctly.
"A-amazing..."
Wave had never seen anyone cook like this before.
It looked more like a performance.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
Once he finished the preparation, Noah left the kitchen.
Preparing the ingredients and cleaning up afterward were usually the most time-consuming parts of cooking.
He had already dealt with the largest part of the workload, so now he could simply wait for the food.
It had been quite a while since he last ate seafood, and he was more interested in this meal than he wanted to admit. Helping had also ensured that the final result would be as good as possible.
Wave stared at the kitchen door after Noah left.
"Seriously... what kind of person is he?"
Bols answered in a grave voice, "Earlier, he fought General Esdeath evenly. Neither of them used a Teigu, but I believe it would be best not to become his enemy."
"An enemy? We're companions now, aren't we? I don't think that'll happen."
Wave sounded far less confident than his words suggested.
Those invisible cuts had been terrifying.
That salmon probably never imagined that after dying, it would be turned into sashimi by such an absurd technique.
In that regard alone, it had already surpassed every other fish of its kind.