This Is How You Work Efficiently

Too long a break and you ended up with nothing to do.

It was time to start cooking, and since I had nothing better to occupy myself with, I went to help.

The food stall was piled high with ingredients.

Potatoes, green and yellow vegetables, chunks of meat.

To fill everyone's stomachs, this much was probably necessary.

The chef and his assistants had already begun their prep work, peeling away without pause.

The moment the chef spotted me, he welcomed me with a smile.

"Ah, you're a lifesaver…"

"More hands make lighter work in situations like this."

"It's nothing like the restaurant. Having to prepare everything all at once is brutal."

"In a restaurant, you cook after the orders come in. So I just peel these and chop them up, right?"

"Please."

I rolled up my sleeves and pulled out my own knife.

Then I grabbed a carrot and started peeling.

Azu and the others' meals were usually prepared by Yohane.

Compared to making money, cooking was lower priority, but it was a hobby of his.

He wasn't quite as fast as the chef, but he kept pace with the two experienced assistants without falling behind.

Elza had cooking experience, so her handiwork was smooth.

Azu and Alexia were struggling a bit.

"Alexia-san, you're peeling too thick."

"You're one to talk, Azu. Yours are all different shapes."

"You two, stop competing over the weirdest things."

"Ahaha. Don't worry, once you get the hang of it, they'll come out nice."

"I can control fire perfectly, and yet…"

There was something about working with your hands that loosened your tongue.

Maybe when the task was simple, even if your hands were busy, your mind felt idle.

"You peel all the skins first?"

"When you're doing something like this, it's better to batch the same task all at once."

A good opportunity to teach them about working efficiently, I figured.

That said, it was the kind of thing anyone would arrive at on their own once they tried to get more done in less time.

I shifted my posture while prepping so I was facing Azu.

Azu hurriedly straightened up, but with a knife in her right hand and a carrot in her left, it didn't have quite the effect she intended.

"Peeling and chopping. You can see there are two steps here, right?"

"Um, yes. Because you peel first, then chop."

"Exactly. Watch me do it. I'll demonstrate."

I took out a fresh carrot and peeled it.

Then I minced it finely and dropped the pieces into a strainer.

"Both use the same knife, but peeling and chopping are quite different motions. You can tell, right?"

"Now that you mention it, that's true."

"I see."

Azu nodded along.

Elza and Alexia were peeking over to watch.

Their hands were still moving, so I let them be.

"Humans are funny creatures. When you keep doing the same task, your hands get faster. It's the same as the training you do every day, Azu. But never mind that. What matters is not breaking your rhythm. If you switch to a different task in between, your rhythm breaks and you waste time. Every time."

I grabbed a carrot, peeled it.

Repeated that over and over.

A mountain of peeled carrots quickly piled up.

"So you keep repeating the same task until it's done, then move on to the next one. That way, there's no wasted time from switching tasks."

Following my instructions, Azu adjusted her approach.

Her pace picked up compared to when she'd started.

No matter how strong she got, she was still her age when it came to things like this.

Education was part of my responsibility. I needed to teach her to use her head.

"Another important concept is division of labor. We all pitched in together this time, but if someone's better at peeling and someone else is better at chopping, it's more efficient to split up the work. For example, if Elza and I handled the peeling while Alexia and Azu did the chopping, we'd have finished much faster."

Now I moved on to chopping the peeled carrots.

We finished the rest of the vegetables the same way.

By the second half, Azu had gotten noticeably better at peeling.

And it was best not to let Alexia near the peeling at all.

"This can't be happening…"

"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, you know?"

Elza was consoling Alexia. I'd leave that to the professional.

Meanwhile, a large stockpot was filled halfway with water and set over the fire.

In a proper dining hall it would be different, but when preparing meals for a crowd at a food stall like this, the menu inevitably included soup.

With limited ingredients, individual dishes just couldn't be made in large enough quantities.

The mountain of ingredients looked impressive, but relative to the number of people being fed, it was barely enough.

Soup, though, warmed you up, and paired with bread, it filled the belly.

Today's menu was a hearty vegetable soup and a stir-fried meat and potato dish. White bread on the side.

Quite a generous spread.

The soup was seasoned with nothing but salt and the natural sweetness of the vegetables, but the main dish was rich enough in flavor that it balanced out nicely.

I left the soup to Azu and Elza.

The meat and potatoes had already been prepped by the chef and his team.

Quartered potatoes were arranged in a wide, flat pan and placed over the fire.

The seasoning was apparently a secret sauce.

"Leave this part to me."

Alexia said, conjuring fire with magic.

"Great heat. This'll turn out well."

Once the potatoes were cooked through, the meat that had been soaking in the secret sauce went into the pan, sauce and all.

The smell alone was enough to make your stomach growl.

When the meat changed color, a sprinkle of parsley finished it off.

Overcook it and the meat would toughen up.

"You're taking it off the heat already?"

"We seared it on high heat all at once. The residual heat will finish cooking it through."

"I see."

By the time the food was ready, it was exactly noon. But cooking was only half the job; serving came next.

Yohane, exhausted, sat down on a rock.

His arms were aching from all that prep work.

The other three, who'd been doing the exact same tasks, carried on helping like it was nothing.

He'd leave the rest to them.

"How peaceful…"

The sky was a clear, pristine blue without a single cloud.