by Hiro Ainana
“Hmph! This is an important banquet. I’m not letting some noble mess things up on a lark!” the head chef bellowed.
“I-it’ll be all right!” The maidservant who guided me here piped up with an exaggerated gesture. “Sir Ipasa of the Lloyd family personally vouched for the taste!”
This made him pause. “…What? The Lloyd family…?”
As it turned out, Sir Ipasa came from a line of famous gourmets. This seemed to be enough to satisfy the chef.
“All right. Open up the back kitchen. We’re not helping him, but he can use whatever ingredients he wants.”
“But Chef, wouldn’t it be better to have a few sous—”
“Fool! If this noble’s main course fails and we have no backup dish, it’ll bring shame on the duke! We’ll make our main dish as planned. Surely this noble can call on his own vassals to help him.”
The head chef and second-in-command wrapped up their conversation, and the latter approached me with the maidservant to apologetically sum up what I’d just heard with my “Keen Hearing” skill.
The head chef, clearly not a fan of taking orders, must have delegated the task of negotiating with “the noble” to his assistant.
“I understand. As long as there are ingredients and cookware I can use, I can supply my own assistants.”
At that, the assistant head chef looked as if I’d taken a huge weight off his shoulders.
I guess middle management is tough in any world.
“Could I trouble you to deliver this letter for me?”
“Certainly, sir.”
Before setting out to secure the ingredients, I asked the maidservant to contact Arisa and the others back at Count Worgoch’s mansion. She gave a signal, and a maid standing in the hallway quickly took the letter and hurried away with it.
“Thank you for waiting. Allow me to bring you to the ingredient storehouse.”
Along the way, the maidservant explained that her role was to be the aide of a lesser noblewoman, and that she therefore ranked higher than ordinary maids. According to her, it was a popular job in the duchy, thanks to the perks it provided of teaching courtly manners and helping in the search for potential marriage partners. And here I assumed it was just a synonym for maid.
I showed the authorization slip that the assistant head chef gave me to the guard in front of the ingredient storehouse, and he stepped aside to let us in.
“Whoa, this is impressive.”
I wasn’t just being polite; I was genuinely impressed. Even on earth, I had never seen so many ingredients and spices in one place. There were dozens of varieties of soy sauce alone, all with different flavors or places of origin.
The maidservant brought me a small dish for tasting, and I sampled them one by one, noting the differences with my menu’s memo pad feature.
Unlike in the Shiga Kingdom, where I’d seen only ordinary tallow, there were several varieties of vegetable oil here.
We went through the room-temperature, refrigerated, and finally frozen storage, collecting the ingredients one by one.
They even had the likes of green beans, sweet potatoes, and lotus root, none of which I had seen on my journey so far. These seemed to be available in the marketplace of the old capital, too, so I’d have to stock up during our stay.
Wait, is that tofu? If I made tofu hamburg steaks, even Mia should be able to eat them.
My mind was full of possibilities as I finished collecting the necessary ingredients and spices. As I started to carry them back toward the kitchen, the maidservant quickly summoned someone to take them for me.
“You must let the help take care of manual labor like that,” she scolded me lightly.
…I’m sorry. I’m still new to all this nobility stuff.
Because I’d never heard of some of these ingredients, I decided to taste the different oils while I was preparing to cook.
The kitchen was chock-full of incredibly useful magic cooking tools. Once I realized the stove was a bit wonky, I did a little magic plumbing to clear the channels, like I always did.
If they were letting me use all of this handy equipment, it was the least I could do.
“Mm, this lotus root tempura is wonderfully delicious.”
“The sweet potato is very good, too… I think I liked the pumpkin better, though.”
“Wouldn’t white fish make delicious tempura, too?”
When I had the maidservant do some taste testing for me, I soon noticed a gaggle of maids and pageboys watching enviously. I let them know they could help, too, as long as they didn’t get in the way of my work.
Many of them turned out to have surprisingly discriminating palates, so this ended up being a good call.
Eggplant tempura, for instance, was surprisingly poorly received, while they loved the thinly sliced carrot tempura for some reason.
But eggplant tempura is so good…
“Master! We brought the goods!”
“Satou.”
“Sorry for taking so long, master.”
At the chorus of lively voices, I turned to see Arisa, Mia, and Lulu entering the kitchen.
“Pochi and Tama gathered the green shiso.”
“Pickled ginger.”
“I couldn’t find the ‘pike conger’ eel you requested, so Arisa told us to buy garden eel, fanged eel, and sweet eel.”
“Thanks, that’s a huge help.”
After thanking them, I sorted through the ingredients they brought.
The pickled ginger was a light pink, not the red kind I was expecting. They must not color it with red shiso here.
I decided to make it into tempura instead of using it as a garnish. I’d only ever seen pickled ginger tempura in Kansai tempura shops, but I found it surprisingly addictive. Maybe it’d be a big hit in this world.
“Lulu, could you help me with prep?”
“Of course!”
“Arisa and Mia, you two charge the magic tools.”
“Okeydoke.”
“Mm.”
Everyone went into action.
This time, we chose nine types of tempura: shiitake-like mushrooms, pumpkin, carrots, green beans, shrimp, green shiso, pickled ginger, lotus root, and fanged eel, which was closest in taste to conger eel.
I wanted to add eggplants and sweet potatoes, too, but since they weren’t very well received in the taste tests, I decided to hold off this time.
For the base of the special tempura sauce, I used Gururian-made mirin and a light soy sauce from a famous artisan in the royal capital. To that, I added a pinch of high-quality Sutoandell white sugar and a few drops of pure Shigan sake from the old capital. Including dashi, too, seemed to detract from the flavor of the sauce, so I used only a small amount. The result was a light but agreeable flavor.
Next, I fried the tempura with a special mixture of a few different kinds of vegetable oil, with sesame oil from Zetts County as the base.
Once I’d cooked up all the delicious-looking tempura, I arranged it on a tray to drain the excess oil.
Then it was Doctor Mia’s turn.
“Mia, you’re up.”
“Mm… Steam Loop: Tempura Jouki Junkan: Tempura.”
When Mia chanted the spell, the extra oil was removed from the tempura coating.
I’d designed this cooking spell in my spare time back on the ship specifically for this purpose, making the tempura both healthier and crunchier to boot. Taking out too much oil resulted in a loss of flavor, so it took a long time to find the perfect balance for maximum crispiness.
“Thank you, Mia. It’s going to be two hundred percent more delicious now.”
“Reward?”
Mia offered her head expectantly, and I stuck my hand under her hood to pat her on top of her silky hair, but that made Arisa and Lulu envious. I’d have to do the same for them later.
“Sa… Sir Pendragon! I’ve come to help you!”
Suddenly, Miss Karina came charging into the kitchen. Thanks to inertia, it took her mystical breasts a
moment to come to a halt after the rest of her stopped moving. As always, it was a sight to behold.
“Guilty.”
“Grr, damn those supernatural boobs…”
I bonked Mia and Arisa gently on the head to reprove them before speaking to Miss Karina.
“Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”
“But of course! I’m perfectly healthy! Now, let us combine our powers for the greater good of all people!”
Miss Karina’s eyes sparkled, and her fists were clenched with eagerness, but alas, the cooking was already done.
“I will do whatever it takes! Anything at all!”
At those promising words, I was tempted to shift my gaze back toward her bosom, but I managed to control myself.
“Sorry, but—”
“In that case, I have an important task that only you can carry out, Lady Karina.”
Before Arisa could say we were already finished, I clamped a hand over her mouth. I didn’t want to let Karina’s enthusiasm go to waste.
The young noble awaited my assignment rather nervously.
“I’d like you to sample this tempura and tell me if there’s anything wrong with the texture or flavor, please.”
“Understood. I’d be happy to assist!”
Relieved, Miss Karina let out the breath she’d been holding and brought the shrimp to her mouth with an intense expression. Her glistening lips parted, and her perfect white teeth bit tentatively into the shrimp tempura.
With each movement of her jaw, her serious countenance softened into a blissful smile.
“How is it?”
“It passes with flying colors, Satou! Without question, the most delicious shrimp tempura I’ve ever eaten in my life!”
Miss Karina beamed as she responded. She didn’t even seem to realize that she’d called me by my name for once.
Her reaction indicated success, and the waiters and waitresses gathered around. Clearly my turn was just about up.
I plated the tempura on gorgeously colored dishes and entrusted them to the waitstaff. Normally, I would’ve liked to grate some daikon on top, but I refrained thanks to a notion among the people of the old capital that daikon was unlucky. From here, all I could do was entrust my fate to the heavens (and the tastes of the nobles) and start cleaning up.
After a while, my “Keen Hearing” skill alerted me to delighted cries from the upper-class nobles, so by all appearances, I’d succeeded.
Most of all, I was just happy they appreciated my cooking.
The waitstaff streamed back into the kitchen with brilliant smiles.
“Sir Knight! You’re a huge hit! The guests all send their highest compliments!”
They were as happy for me as if I were one of them, which improved my mood further.
I thanked the waitstaff for letting me know and apologized to the head chef for causing a fuss in his kitchen.
Of course, I had to thank my kids for their hard work, too.
“Good work, everyone.”
“Whew, I’m staaarving!”
“Mm, hungry.”
“Hee-hee. We did work quite a bit.”
I thought I’d made plenty of extra tempura for them to “taste test,” but evidently it wasn’t enough.
Scanning the kitchen, I saw whole piles of vegetable scraps.
“Is it all right if I use some of these vegetables?”
“Certainly.”
After checking with one of the chefs, who had just come in to make rice, I gathered some of the vegetables.
“What are you going to make?” Arisa curiously inquired.
“Oh, nothing big.”
It really wasn’t anything special, so I tried not to get her expectations too high.
I diced onions and carrots, panfried them lightly, mixed them with some cut greens, rolled them in the tempura batter, and tossed them into the oil.
“Oh! Vegetable fritters!”
“That’s right. Arisa, could you take these bowls and see if you can get some rice for us?”
“Okeydoke! Mia, help me carry them?”
“Mm.”
Arisa followed the smell of fresh rice over to the young chef, who agreed to share some with us.
I cut each fritter into quarters and put them on the piping hot rice, then topped them with the tempura sauce, which I’d boiled to make it a little thicker. With that, the kakiage don was complete.
“Mm, tasty!”
“Yum.”
“It’s so crispy and hot… It’s wonderful.”
“Delicious! I think I might enjoy this even more than ordinary tempura.”
The four girls dug into their bowls with gusto. My three were using chopsticks, but Miss Karina used a fork and spoon.
After watching them fondly for a moment, I put together an extra bowl.
“Here you are.” I handed it to the maidservant.
“For me? Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. You’ve been a great help today, so please allow me to thank you with this.”
At first, I’d figured such a meal might be too inelegant for someone who worked closely with nobility, but I could tell she wanted to try it and decided to offer.
Next, I made two more bowls for the head chef and his assistant.
I’d need to use this kitchen again for the evening party three days from now. A little late-night snack might help my standing with them a little.
“Thank you for letting me use your kitchen today.”
“Bah, I should never have doubted you, you—”
“I’m terribly sorry if we seemed mistrustful of your abilities, Sir Knight. His Grace the duke has sent along his compliments as well.”
The assistant head chef was quick to interrupt the head chef before he could be too impolite.
At the same time, he offered up a tray, which held a letter praising the tempura and inviting me to join the dinner guests for a light gathering in the salon after the meal.
“Incidentally, what is that you have there?”
“Oh, this is a simple dish called vegetable fritters. It isn’t made with such high-quality ingredients as what we put together for the nobility, but you are more than welcome to it if you like.”
“Hey, it looks damn tasty! Thanks, bud.”
The two chefs accepted the bowls I offered them and ate with apparent enjoyment.
The envy of the other chefs around us was plain to see. I felt bad, but I didn’t have enough batter left for everyone.
“Sir Pendragon! Your tempura is a work of art! That crispy coating on the crunchy shrimp was exquisite!”
“No, no, Marquis Lloyd. The pickled ginger tempura reigned supreme. Nothing else could possibly compete.”
“I beg to differ, Count Hohen. Shrimp is the ultimate tempura. That vivid taste and texture were so unlike boiled or roasted shrimp…”
The famed gourmets Marquis Lloyd and Count Hohen were extolling the virtues of tempura to me with such fervor that spit threatened to fly from their mouths.
They had caught me the second I entered the salon, before I even had a chance to greet the duke.
Miss Karina, who never fared well in social situations, had excused herself on the grounds of feeling poorly and returned to the count’s mansion with the others.
“Marquis Lloyd, Count Hohen, I am in complete agreement that tempura is delicious, but please give Sir Pendragon some space. At the very least, he ought to be allowed to greet the duke first.”
“As you wish, Sir Worgoch.”
“Indeed, you make a fair point. Sir Pendragon, let us discuss tempura later.”
The former Count Worgoch was the eldest man present. Thanks to his intervention, I was able to go and say hello to the duke.
I felt the eyes of the upper crust following me as I approached.
The nobles present were the pillars of the Ougoch Duchy, all ranked viscount or higher—mostly the heads or former heads of major families. The exact breakdown was one marquis, three counts, and eight vis
counts.
Miss Ringrande’s father, the next duke, and her younger brother, next in line after her father, were off in Eluette Marquisate. According to Miss Ringrande herself, they would be returning to the old capital within the next few days.
Even Tolma was present, greeting me with a friendly wave and a casual compliment to my cooking. His elder brother, Viscount Siemmen, didn’t seem to be around; Tolma was probably here in his brother’s place.
At any rate, as a transplant from a different world, I was still having a hard time adjusting to all of these ranks besides “king.”
An important aspect of the noble rankings here was the corresponding permission level to use City Cores, so all the people here besides Duke Ougoch, the lord, were probably vassals who had been granted some degree of that power.
And yet only a king could grant any title higher than baronet. How confusing.
I wish my “Shigan Language” skill had translated lord as junior king and king as super king or something.
Shaking off these absentminded notions, I kneeled in front of Duke Ougoch to thank him for his invitation.
“…Sir Pendragon. Your cooking was truly delicious, and—”
“Wasn’t it?”
With a powerful glare, the duke silenced Miss Ringrande, who was sitting beside him.
“—I am sure the meal at the evening party will be just as pleasing. I shall put out a public call for capable men to send to Muno Barony; in the event that no one comes forward, only then shall I order some to do so.”
“Are you certain? I haven’t yet completed my end of the bargain.”
“I insist. Think of it as compensation for tonight’s dinner. If you can impress the nobles at the evening party just as much, then I will permit you to solicit donations and investments for the barony as well.”
Wow, this was turning into a bigger deal than I bargained for.
I found it hard to believe that simple tempura was enough to warrant all that, but maybe it was the result of my maxed-out “Cooking” skill.
“Grandfather, those are rewards for Baron Muno, aren’t they? Shouldn’t you reward Satou himself, too?”
“Hmm, a fair point… What might you desire?”