Takahashi Yuuki just wanted to perfect a cafeteria sandwich with a squeeze of his beloved mayonnaise. Instead, he found himself yanked into a world made entirely of food—bread mountains, juice rivers, vegetable trees—and a sky gone gray with despair.
In the Sandwich Kingdom, cooking has become a crime. Under the tyrannical Unified Cooking Ordinance, only forty-seven approved recipes are allowed, enforced by ruthless Taste Auditors who drag violators off to the dungeon. Joy has vanished from the
The Magical Chef of Sandwich Kingdom - Calorie Counting and the Nullification of Emotion — The Despair of Being Unable to Communicate, and the One Fool Who Still Won't Give Up
Morning light poured softly over Gratine's plaza.
The toast-colored castle walls—walls that looked like stacked loaves of baked bread—were bathed in the glow of the just-risen sun, taking on a faint warmth. The sky, gray until yesterday, had turned a pale blue. For the first time in twelve years, it was a real, clear day.
A single makeshift table sat on the stone paving of the plaza. On it rested a plate with the last remnants of the Rainbow Friendship Sandwich. The sandwich they had all made together last night, eaten together, and cried over together.
"...Yeah, this one's seriously insane."
Takahashi Yuuki—black short hair, brown eyes, a seventeen-year-old with burn scars all over his fingertips—stood before the plate with his arms crossed, muttering. His eyes, gazing at the sandwich, were red. They'd been red since last night. He'd cried too much.
Beside him, Caramel Hime gently pressed a hand to her eyes, her golden hair swaying softly. Her amber eyes were faintly moist, and she clutched a small bottle of her special caramel sauce tightly.
"It really is... abolished, isn't it. The Unified Cooking Decree."
Her voice trembled slightly.
Momo sat flat on the stone paving, her pink short bob hanging low. She gripped the edge of her apron tightly, as if to hide the way her star-shaped orange eyes were gradually welling up.
"I was gonna absolutely not cry, y'know."
"You're crying right now."
"I'm not crying! Stuff is just leaking from my eyes!!"
"Same thing."
And a little ways off—clad in dark brown armor, disheveled long hair falling over his shoulders—stood Toast Hakushaku. Faint burn marks on his face. His once-cold gray eyes now quietly surveyed the plaza. From the castle town's rainbow market street, the scent of cooking had begun to drift in for the first time in ages. The smell of sautéed onions. The sweet aroma of freshly baked bread. Somewhere, someone was making their favorite food for the first time in twelve years.
The Count gently inhaled that scent through his nose.
"...I see."
That was all. But deep within that voice, something worth twelve years was packed tight.
Yuuki looked at the Count's profile. The face that until yesterday had worn nothing but a cold sneer was now quiet. Just quiet. And somehow, that alone made something warm stir deep in his chest.
(That Count, of all people...)
Just as he was sinking into sentiment—
"...Um, hey."
A small voice came from around his shoulder.
It was the spirit Reshipi. A tiny, semi-transparent body bobbing in the morning light. Normally it glowed faintly white, but today its sparkle seemed somehow weaker.
"I've been trying to say something."
"Yeah?"
"I was trying to say it, but everyone was crying, so I couldn't."
"Uh-huh."
"I couldn't say it, and couldn't say it, but I had to say it."
Momo looked up.
"Hey, I've got a really bad feeling about this."
"The reason I couldn't say it wasn't just yesterday... actually, it's been since the day before."
"Since the day before!?"
Reshipi trembled. Its light grew even fainter.
"A dimensional rift is open."
Silence.
The air in the plaza froze in an instant.
Caramel Hime dropped the small bottle of caramel sauce she'd been holding with a soft thud.
Momo stood up, planted both hands on her hips, and gave Reshipi an absolutely incredulous look.
A strange noise escaped Yuuki's throat.
"...Huh? What... what did you just say?"
"A dimensional rift. Above Gratine, a black crack... it's been there since the day before yesterday. The whole time."
"Since the day before yesterday!!!"
"I couldn't say it!!"
"The day before yesterday was when we were fighting Mold General!! It's been there since around then the whole time!?"
"Everyone looked so busy!!"
Momo pressed a hand to her forehead.
"No wait. You could've said it a minute ago. You could've said it just now. Why now!!!!"
Caramel Hime picked up the small bottle from the stone paving and spoke in a calm voice.
"...Um, Yuuki-san. What do you make of this?"
"What do I make of this, you say!?"
Toast Hakushaku crossed his arms and looked at Reshipi. He was calm. But his eyes weren't smiling.
"What lies beyond the rift?"
Reshipi answered, trembling.
"...The Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Lord Void. Due to Toast Hakushaku's change of heart—I mean, the fact that you changed your heart was truly wonderful, but—as a result of the Count's negative emotions disappearing, the residual dark power that had remained in the world lost its place to go... and that took concrete form as a dimensional rift."
"Don't end it with 'I think.'"
"...I think."
"You ended it with 'I think'!!!"
That was the moment.
Gratine's sky groaned.
It wasn't a tearing sound. It was quieter—the sound of the world itself cracking. Yuuki looked up at the sky.
Across the morning's pale blue, a black line ran.
One. Two. Three. Like someone had clawed at the sky, dark fissures spread. The plaza's residents looked up, and a murmur rippled outward. Yuuki's fingertips grew hot—his Taste Magic was reacting. But to what, he still didn't know.
The edge of the rift split open with a crack.
What emerged from it—was quiet.
It wasn't a flashy entrance. No explosion, no roar. Just something in the shape of a person descending slowly from the rift in the sky.
Nearly twice Yuuki's height. Clad in pitch-black garments. It should have had human skin, yet light didn't reflect off it. It had eyes—or should have—yet nothing was reflected in its pupils. It had no expression. Not anger, not sorrow, not a cold sneer, not disgust. Just... nothing.
Reshipi trembled.
"The Demon Lord Void's Four Heavenly Kings... Fushokuou Nekuro. I haven't been able to confirm the details yet, though."
"You're saying it when you haven't even confirmed it yet!?"
Fushokuou Nekuro landed silently on the plaza's stone paving. There wasn't even a footstep.
Yuuki stepped forward.
(It's fine. I moved the Count's heart, and Mold General's too, with cooking. This time will be the same.)
The confidence he'd built up through the previous arc burned steady deep in his chest. No matter who the opponent was, if they had a heart, his cooking would reach them. That was Yuuki's way of fighting.
He picked up a piece of the Friendship Sandwich left on the table, plate and all. The rainbow glow had faded, but warmth still reached his palm.
"Hey, just try this. It's seriously insane!"
With a completely straight face, Yuuki held out the Friendship Sandwich to Nekuro.
Nekuro took it.
Slowly, one bite.
The plaza went silent.
Nekuro opened its mouth.
"Carbohydrates derived from wheat flour, 43 grams. Protein, 18 grams. Fat, 12 grams. Estimated calories, 346 kilocalories. Nutritional balance—acceptable."
It was a flat voice. Not a millimeter of emotion in it.
Yuuki's eyes went blank.
(...Huh?)
Momo said a small "What?"
Caramel Hime gripped the bottle of caramel sauce in her hand tighter.
"Hold on," Yuuki said. "Try eating it again."
"Processed."
"No, not processed—savor it. Feel that it's delicious."
"Unknown."
"Be moved by it!!"
"Unmeasurable."
It was like being punched three times in a row. Inside Yuuki's head, something began to spin quietly.
Momo quickly pulled a peach candy from her apron pocket. The culmination of the candy-making skills she'd honed for years in the Fruit Kingdom of Citralia—a single piece embodying all of it. The kind of candy that, the moment it melted in your mouth, spread the sweet memory of an orchard.
"Hey hey, try this!!"
Nekuro took it. Put it in its mouth.
"Excess sugar. Intake not recommended."
Momo's smile froze in 0.3 seconds.
"...Not... recommended?"
"Excessive sugar lowers metabolic efficiency."
"Metabolic efficiency—at my candy!!!!"
Caramel Hime stepped forward. Her hands were trembling slightly, but as if to hide it, she pulled the small bottle from her pocket and hurriedly drizzled the remaining special caramel sauce onto a fresh piece of sandwich—only for half the sauce to spill onto the stone paving from nerves.
"This is... a warm-up exercise."
"I don't think you spill sauce during a warm-up."
"It's part of the warm-up."
Insisting with a completely straight face, she somehow managed to get the sauce onto the sandwich and held it out to Nekuro.
"This is accompanied by a special caramel sauce imbued with the magic of sweetness. I made it with care for the ingredients. Please..."
Nekuro put it in its mouth.
"Additional sauce confirmed. Sugar concentration—increased. Flavor data—update complete."
"Flavor data!!!!!"
Something inside Yuuki's head snapped.
"Not data! There's taste! There's definitely taste! Hime made it with all her heart!"
"..."
"Can't you feel it!?"
"Emotional parameters—nonexistent."
Those words fell quietly onto the plaza.
Emotional parameters, nonexistent.
Momo's fists were clenched. Momo never hid her anger at times like this. But now, there was nowhere to direct it, so she just bit her lip.
Caramel Hime looked down once. Then she quietly raised her face again. In those amber eyes, there was no resignation. Just something complicated, wavering.
Yuuki looked into Nekuro's eyes.
Eyes that didn't reflect light. Eyes that reflected nothing. The Count had had a cold sneer. Mold General had had negative emotions. But in Nekuro's eyes—there was truly nothing. No pain. No anger. Not even hatred. Just... blankness.
(What do I have to do... to reach it?)
In that instant, Nekuro moved.
It spread its arms to the sides. Just that single motion. But from Nekuro's body, an ash-black aura began to seep out—the power of corrosion. Similar to what Mold General had wielded, but colder. A quieter presence of destruction. The edges of the stone paving began to discolor. Part of the food-made castle wall turned gray.
The plaza's residents screamed. The sound of retreating footsteps spread across the plaza.
"Get back!!"
The instant Yuuki shouted—faster than that, someone stepped forward.
A pitch-black mantle. Dark brown armor. A tall figure, over six feet, planted itself between the residents and Nekuro.
It was Toast Hakushaku.
He thrust both hands forward, deploying a barrier of magic. A wall of dark-tinged light held back the corrosive aura. It creaked under the strain, but it was unmistakably protecting the people.
From the plaza, voices rose. Small voices. But they were unmistakably voices.
"The Count is... protecting us."
"That man..."
The residents' eyes turned toward the Count. The eyes of people who had feared that name for twelve years. But now, there was no fear in those gazes.
There was gratitude.
The Count's shoulders moved slightly. He must have noticed. The first gaze directed at him that wasn't contempt.
Yuuki looked at his profile. A face trying to maintain composure. But the tips of his ears were just a little red.
(That Count, of all people...)
Just as something warm kindled deep in his chest, Caramel Hime let out a small breath beside him. Her golden hair caught the morning sun and glimmered. Her profile was quietly watching over the Count. With a calm, slightly dazzled expression.
Yuuki glanced at that profile for just a moment.
He thought, somehow, that it was beautiful.
(—Wait, this is not the time to be thinking about that!!)
He shook his head and turned back to Nekuro.
Nekuro looked at the barrier and tilted its head slightly.
"Inefficient defensive form. Energy consumption rate—excessive."
"Shut up!!!"
But inside Yuuki's head, he was thinking at full speed.
He'd reached the Count's heart. Mold General had vanished too. But—
(Emotional parameters, nonexistent.)
Those words spun around and around in his head.
The activation condition for Taste Magic was "sincere feelings toward the one who eats." But didn't that presuppose the other party had a heart? Didn't it presuppose it could reach their heart? The Count had wounded memories. A love for cooking. He'd been able to pry that door open. But
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.