Ever since he had the House-Elf Kitchen, Asakura had never worried about what to eat for lunch. Every day, the House-Elves would prepare various steaming hot foods for him in advance.
The only thing worth discussing was that the House-Elves' culinary preferences seemed not to align with Asakura's Asian palate.
Things like fish and chips, which were hard to make unpalatable no matter how they were cooked, were fine. Most of the other normal dishes were also within Asakura's acceptable range. As for 'highly acclaimed' British delicacies like Stargazy Pie and Jellied Eels, Asakura had explicitly forbidden them.
But the problem was, the House-Elves didn't seem to be from Britain… or rather, they at least didn't belong to the Europe of this world.
So, occasionally, some dishes Asakura had never heard of would appear unexpectedly on his plate when he finished his morning classes and, famished, came to the clubroom intending to enjoy a good lunch.
Although he could ask the House-Elves to take it back and remake it, in such cases, they would often choose some rather extreme ways to punish themselves, leaving themselves bloody and bruised, which made Asakura feel uneasy.
For example, today, a strange sandwich appeared on the plate in front of him.
"You're eating this for lunch?"
Yukinoshita Yukino, who also chose to eat lunch in the clubroom, looked at the contents of Asakura's plate and asked with a subtle, somewhat schadenfreude-filled tone.
"Life always requires the courage to constantly try new possibilities…"
Asakura bravely picked up the sandwich.
Then, a long, thin tail dangled from the filling between the dry bread slices.
And just like that, he lost his appetite.
"Mouse sandwich? Your possibilities are truly subtle."
Yukinoshita Yukino opened her bento box. The simple but seemingly delicious dishes inside made Asakura feel a bit sore.
"It's not a mouse, it's a weasel! This is a weasel sandwich!"
Asakura tried to correct her.
"Well, I apologize… But I still want to ask, is there any fundamental difference between a mouse sandwich and a weasel sandwich?"
Because she rarely gained the upper hand so easily in her verbal sparring with Asakura, Miss Yukino's tone today sounded unexpectedly lighthearted.
"The difference between Muridae and Mustelidae, I guess. Who knows."
Asakura hesitated for a long time before sighing and putting the sandwich back on the plate: "At least it's better than the previous steak hodgepodge…"
"With all due respect..."
Yukinoshita Yukino swallowed the cherry tomato sashimi in her mouth before saying cheerfully, "Steak hodgepodge sounds much more normal than a weasel sandwich."
"Yeah, if I hadn't dug out some animal's claw from the steak hodgepodge."
Asakura said gloomily, "My chefs seem to have mixed up human and half-giant recipes."
"Aren't these foods conjured directly by your magic?"
Yukinoshita Yukino asked curiously.
"How could that be? Wouldn't that violate the law of conservation of mass?"
Asakura said earnestly.
"Oh, thank you for remembering to abide by the objective laws of physics..."
Yukino poked the tamagoyaki with her chopsticks and mumbled, "I thought the law of conservation of mass had become meaningless to you ever since you started turning tables and chairs into snakes…"
"You're welcome."
Asakura replied.
"I'm being sarcastic. Please at least pretend to be a little disappointed, okay?"
The girl held her chopsticks in her mouth, looking at him with dissatisfaction in her eyes.
"You're welcome (sobs)."
"Speaking of which, who are these chefs you mentioned? I don't think I've ever seen them."
"She actually ignored my perfect acting… What a terrifying woman."
"I just feel it's too tiring to retort everything you do."
The girl sighed, "If you can accept boiled broccoli and sweet tamagoyaki, I can share some of my bento with you."
"Then I'd rather eat a weasel sandwich."
Asakura refused without hesitation.
"Hmph."
The girl let out a proud snort from her nose.
"As for the chefs you mentioned… I can only say that not everything in the magical world can be understood with normal eyes..."
Asakura continued the previous topic, "Even if they stood in front of you, you probably wouldn't be able to see them."
After all, appearing and disappearing at will was an essential skill for House-Elves, and according to the system's text description, people in this world didn't seem to be able to see House-Elves, let alone Miss Yukino, who was a pure Muggle.
"If one doesn't understand and doesn't try to understand, then humanity in this world would still be in the stage of eating raw meat..."
The girl argued with Asakura as usual, "After all, Stone Age humans didn't understand thermodynamics."
"That's two different things, isn't it? Even without understanding thermodynamics, one can know that fire can cook food. Even now, I think out of ten people, perhaps not even one understands the structure and principles of a mobile phone, but not understanding doesn't prevent people from using and popularizing smartphones, does it?"
Asakura said leisurely, completely unfazed.
"Then, conversely, if no one understands or tries to understand the structure of a mobile phone, then after the previous generation all passes away, the development of mobile phones will directly stop or even regress."
Yukino said seriously, "All development is built upon the understanding of the past."
"I see, I probably understand your point of view."
Asakura nodded, then seemed to remember something and asked, "So, you read books there every day, is it also for a similar reason?"
"It's not that grand. I just simply want to know more things—the total amount of 'knowledge' in this world is theoretically constant. The more I understand, the less the unknown becomes relative to it."
Yukinoshita Yukino said seriously, "The less unknown there is, the clearer one's plans for the future become, and the less likely one is to fall into confusion. For me, in a sense, this is also a way to see the future by parting the mist."
"But you probably haven't considered… if the knowledge a person learns is a circle, and outside it is an endless ocean of 'knowledge,' the more books you read, the more knowledge you understand, the larger the circle becomes. But because of this, as the circumference of the circle becomes longer, the part that touches the unknown ocean outside also becomes larger… which is to say, the more you learn, the more mysteries there are. And if, within that unknown, there also exist magic, yokai, supernatural creatures, and a series of other things, do you understand what that means?"
Asakura said seriously, "A strong thirst for knowledge is a good thing, but being too confident will only lead to self-destruction. You'd best remember that."