872 God of Cookery or God of Medicine?
“H-how did you know?”
Abraham had initially thought that Mag was only making something out of nothing, but his eyes abruptly widened with incredulity upon hearing this.
Mag was completely right! He had been suffering from the aforementioned symptoms for many years. In the beginning, he didn’t pay this any heed, but during recent times, the symptoms had been progressively worsening, to the extent that there were occasionally nights when he would wake up in agony. Only then did he reluctantly go to a doctor, and even the royal doctors in the palace had seen him for consultations.
The root of the condition lay in his stomach, and healing spells had alleviated a lot of his symptoms, but all of the doctors he saw asked him to do the same thing: eat less! They advised following a diet of plain rice congee for an extended period of time in conjunction with treatment sessions from healers.
However, this kind of treatment was akin to torture to him, so he refused to follow such a protocol without a second thought.
If he couldn’t eat the delicious foods he wanted, then he might as well be dead!
Whenever the pain became too unbearable for him, he’d get a healer to alleviate his symptoms before rushing to the next restaurant. He had been living this way for many years, but he didn’t think that Mag would be able to identify all of his symptoms just by looking at him.
Is Boss Mag a doctor as well? Everyone could tell from Abraham’s expression that Mag was right, and all of them turned to Mag with curiosity and surprise in their eyes.
Mag maintained a calm expression as he replied, “I’m quite familiar with food, so I’ve also done some research into some conditions that can result from overeating. Your symptoms are already quite obvious, and if you don’t address your condition, catastrophic consequences could follow, and in the worst-case scenario, you could even die. I cook delicious food for everyone to enjoy; I don’t want to see my food inflicting harm on anyone.”
Due to the exceptional ingredients used in Mag’s dish, all of them were very beneficial to consume, and they even possessed miraculous effects, such as Mag’s spicy grilled fish that had managed to cure Vivian’s chronic condition.
However, regardless of how beneficial these dishes were to one’s body, excessive consumption would result in negative consequences, especially for someone with chronic digestive conditions.
Chronic gastric ulcers resulted in an extremely fragile stomach wall, and overeating under such circumstances could result in stomach perforation or hemorrhages.
If Abraham were to eat one of every dish on the menu, that was around the amount of food a normal adult human would eat in four or five meals.
He wasn’t going to be directly killing Abraham, but Abraham could quite possibly die because of him. Mag simply couldn’t stand by idly and allow this to happen, even if it were rather uncharacteristic for him to step in.
“Is it really that serious…?” Abraham was also slowly growing rather concerned at the sight of Mag’s serious expression. In the past, many doctors had told him the same thing, but he’d never taken their advice to heart. After all, eating delicious food was so enjoyable; how could it possibly be bad for him?
However, now that the same advice was being relayed by Mag, the most exceptional chef he’d ever seen, those words suddenly seemed to take on a different meaning.
He respected any chef who could cook delicious food, regardless of their identity or status.
Only by gaining an in-depth understanding of food and ingredients could one cook delicious dishes, and this was a skill that normal people didn’t possess.
In recent times, his symptoms had indeed been getting worse, and even healing spells were unable to completely repress them, but he’d never even considered that these issues could have been caused by eating delicious foods.
As such, he was naturally growing quite uneasy. Each person only had one life, and he hadn’t lived enough yet.
Besides, he’d just discovered a treasure vault. Aside from spicy grilled fish, black pepper steak, and braised chicken and rice, there were so many more alluring dishes on that menu; he couldn’t afford to die yet!
“That’s right. I’m sure you’ve heard the same advice from doctors already. I hope you can look after yourself better for your own health so you can taste more delicious dishes in the future,” Mag replied with a smile and a nod. Thankfully, Abraham wasn’t as stubborn as he’d feared.
“Then… alright,” Abraham opened the menu again and carefully inspected it for a while before amending, “I’ll get a fried rice, a sweet tofu pudding, and braised chicken and rice.”
“Sure, please wait for a moment.” Mag nodded before turning back to his kitchen. This was still slightly more than what a normal person would eat for a meal, but it was already a significant decrease for Abraham, so this was a good beginning. On top of that, all three of those dishes were quite nurturing to the stomach, so they would be beneficial to his condition.
“That’s amazing! Boss Mag can diagnose people just by looking at them now?!”
“Chef + doctor = Boss Mag? That’s… incredible!”
“I want Boss Mag to take a look at me now! Recently, I feel a really strong constricted feeling in my head as if it’s being strangled by something.”
“You don’t need Boss Mag to take a look at you for that, old man; just loosen that headband that you’re wearing, and your symptoms will immediately be alleviated.”
“He looked so cool diagnosing customers in his chef’s suit! As expected of the Boss Mag I know and love!”
“Oi, oi, oi, please calm down; you do realize that Boss Mag is also a man, right?!”
“So what? Can’t you see that none of these women have managed to catch his fancy? Maybe Boss Mag likes men… Hehe, I’m going to steal his heart for sure!”
Due to this brief interlude, all of the customers also began to discuss quietly among themselves. After all, everyone had an ailment or two that they couldn’t be bothered to go to a doctor for. Furthermore, normal doctors couldn’t diagnose patients just by looking at them like Mag could, so the demand for Mag as a doctor was steadily beginning to rise.
Is he a doctor as well? Firis was staring at Mag with a shocked expression. Elves cultivated nature magic, so most of them had good aptitude when it came to healing spells. However, even the best elven healers couldn’t pinpoint a patient’s condition just by looking at them.
Boss really is so awesome! Yabemiya was looking at Mag with admiration overflowing from her eyes.
As he listened to the conversations between the customers, an amused smile appeared on Mag’s face, and he suggested, “System, how about you open a clinic for me on the side? That’ll be much more profitable than selling food! All you have to do is supply me with medicine.”
“As a candidate to become the God of Cookery, how can you pursue other occupations before you’ve honed your cooking skills to an acceptable level? On top of that, a true God of Cookery doesn’t need to sell medicine, as his dishes are the best forms of medicine that can bring health and prosperity to his customers!” the system said in a proud voice.
“So you’re saying dishes are medicine? Am I the God of Cookery of the God of Medicine?” Mag raised an eyebrow as he envisioned the following scenario in his mind.
Customer: “Boss Mag, what can I do about my current condition?”
“You’ll be fine. Just take a spicy grilled fish and a Yangzhou fried rice together twice a day and you’ll be cured in no time.”
…
Er…
That was a rather strange scenario to Mag.