by Hiro Ainana
This person was the former director of the orphanage, an old woman with surprisingly good manners for someone from the poorer parts of town.
“How might I be of service today?”
Somewhat perplexed, the former director eyed Miss Sara and the temple knights behind me.
“No need to be alarmed. These kind people came from the Tenion Temple to visit.”
I gave a simple explanation, then left the rest to Miss Sara.
“A sympathy call, is it? We are certainly most grateful to have you.”
“Please, no need to be so formal. I’ve only come in the hopes of healing anyone who might be sick or injured. Could I ask you to show me around?” Miss Sara smiled warmly at the former director.
“Well, you see…” Faltering, the former director looked back toward me.
“What’s wrong?” Sara watched us a bit doubtfully.
“You see, there are no sick or injured here.”
“Whyever not…? Have they been quarantined elsewhere?”
Misunderstanding, Sara drew closer to the former director with a grave expression.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that Sir Pendragon has…”
“He what?”
Sara’s intensity was clearly overwhelming the director.
“He used magic potions to cure ’em all!”
“Miss Mia used magic to heal ’em, too!”
A group of children hiding in my shadow chimed in in the former director’s place.
“Magic potions?!”
“He gave out something that expensive?!”
The two temple knights exclaimed behind me.
“Is this true?”
“It is indeed. From the mortally wounded to those rendered immobile by broken bones, dozens of people were healed thanks to the hereditary knight Pendragon’s generous gift of his potions.”
To hear the former director tell it, I sounded like a real saint.
I had wanted to heal them, of course, but I also wanted to test out the effectiveness of my various magic concoctions.
The treatment for such diverse ailments varied depending on the symptoms, so the information I’d gleaned was promising for the future. In particular, I found that just about any venereal disease (which were quite common) could be cured as long as it wasn’t in the very late stages.
“On top of that, he is even training apprentices so that we might be self-sufficient in the future.”
“Goodness, how very wonderful!”
The admiring gazes from the former director and Miss Sara made me a little uncomfortable.
I hadn’t really been thinking so far ahead. I just wanted some help making special potions.
Fortunately, a loud voice resounding off the walls of the barracks rescued me from this awkward situation.
“There you aaare! Masterrr!”
Arisa came barreling toward me, her lilac hair loose and disheveled.
She was wearing a pink dress and a wine-red cardigan, and she had something white clasped in her hands.
The sparkle in her violet eyes was even more brilliant than usual.
“Violet hair?”
“I hope she doesn’t curse us…”
Again, the temple knights muttered behind me upon seeing her.
While Arisa normally wore a blond wig while traveling, she could go out and about with her natural color in Muno Castle, where fewer people held such prejudices.
“You mustn’t look down on others based on superstition.” Sara reprimanded the knights again.
“Look, look! It’s onigiri! Here, I’ll give you one, master!”
Arisa gleefully handed me a ball of white rice.
“Where did you get white rice?”
I raised my eyebrows at Arisa as I accepted the food.
“In the relief supplies from the duke’s army! So obviously I had the head chef Miss Gert cook some up, and I ran off to find you so you could have one!”
Arisa was wheezing, her face flushed from excitement.
She must have sprinted here from the castle, despite being terrible at exercising. I was surprised she could track me down like that.
“Thank you, Arisa.”
“Hee-hee! They do say that happiness is meant to be shared!”
My thanks brought a satisfied grin to Arisa’s face, and without further ado, she bit into the other rice ball in her hand.
“Yummyyy?”
“Pochi wants a bite, too, sir!”
Tama and Pochi gazed at Arisa pitifully.
“I’m sorry. I only brought two. There are more in the kitchen, so we’ll go get them later, all right?”
“Aye!”
“Yes, sir!”
As I listened to the trio’s exchange, I discreetly slipped the rice ball into my fluttering sleeve and deposited it in Storage.
I was excited about having onigiri for the first time in so long, but not so much that I would forget myself and chow down in the middle of Miss Sara’s tour.
Still, I wasn’t a jerk who would tell Arisa and rain on her parade. There wouldn’t be time tonight, but maybe the next morning I could make some Japanese food to complement the rice and give it to her.
After that, we paid a visit to the Tenion Temple in the city, then toured around to inspect the in-progress gabo fields in the slum quarters and the tenement construction sites.
That evening, dinner was served in the nobles’ dining room in Muno Castle.
The participants from Muno Barony were the baron; his daughters, Lady Soluna and Lady Karina; Magistrate Nina; and myself, which made five. The Ougoch Duchy participants were Miss Sara, a priest, the handsome civil official, and eight temple knights: eleven in total.
I was sitting at the far end of the Muno Barony side, next to Miss Karina.
Because there were more people from the Ougoch Duchy than would fit on one side, the young temple knights were seated near me.
“Now then, let us toast to the peace and prosperity of the Ougoch Duchy and the Tenion Temple.”
Baron Muno raised his glass, and a rare feast for the barony began.
In the Shiga Kingdom, this generally took the form of courses that were presented one at a time, as in French dining.
The difference, though, was that the Shiga Kingdom’s traditional order of courses was soup, appetizers, salad, seafood, bread, a meat dish, and dessert.
I had helped out with the recipes and preparation, but I left the rest to the skillful hands of Gert and her chefs.
No doubt they had prepared an exquisite feast for us.
First, deep soup bowls arrived in front of each person.
“Hey, Heath. Is it just me, or is salt soup for a lord’s supper rather…?”
“Quiet, Ina. It’s inevitable in a barony with a food shortage.”
“I suppose. And I do smell something good back there, so I’m sure the later dishes will be more impressive.”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on Lady Knight whispering with Guy Knight next to me.
Rather reluctantly, the two of them dipped their spoons into the transparent broth.
The moment they put the spoons to their mouths, they froze completely.
“…Delicious! What is this?”
“Don’t talk to me. Let me enjoy my soup.”
In contrast with Lady Knight’s surprised cry, Guy Knight maintained a stoic expression as he reverently brought the next spoonful to his mouth.
Similar reactions were occurring elsewhere.
The maids were hiding smiles at the feedback from the dinner guests, and I stealthily gave them a thumbs-up.
“Never in my life have I tasted such a soup. Whatever is this dish called, pray tell?”
“Go ahead and tell her, Sir Pendragon.”
Surprised, Miss Sara asked a question that Miss Nina deflected toward me.
“This is called a consommé soup. It may look simple, but it’s actually a remarkable blend of flavors from different ingredients.”
My an
swer sounded like I was parroting some gourmet critic.
Chef Gert of Muno Castle had helped me reproduce this soup based on my vague memories. It was supposed to be more of an amber color, but it came out clear. I must have missed a step somewhere.
Maybe that was because we used Mia’s magic to reduce the cooking time, or maybe I shouldn’t have used “Transmutation” to extract the flavors. But it didn’t cause any problems other than disguising it as salt soup, so I wasn’t terribly concerned about making it look right.
“Hey, do you think we can get seconds?”
“I’m sure we could, but as for whether we should…”
I overheard the young knights talking again.
Lady Knight especially seemed to have taken a liking to the soup, as she flagged down one of the waitresses standing against the wall and requested another helping.
As far as I could tell, this encouraged the other guests: Several more people asked for seconds, and this continued until the soup ran out.
Next came hors d’oeuvres consisting of sasakama and cheese, with fried potatoes and potato chips on the side. The unique texture of the chips was very well received. The combination of sasakama and cheese was especially popular with beer drinkers.
After the appetizer came the salad, which consisted of decorative, thin slices of celery over leafy greens with strips of daikon radish arranged to look like a feather on top.
I heard someone asking a waitress about the dressings that came with the salad.
We had mayonnaise and tartar sauce, which were very popular at Muno Castle, and a sweet-and-sour orange sauce that was commonly used in the Shiga Kingdom.
The more reserved adults chose the orange sauce, but most people requested that the servants pour a little of each kind over their salads.
“This white stuff is great. I’ve never found vegetables so tasty before.”
“What is this vegetable anyway? The transparent white one. I’ve never had a texture like this.”
“Mmm, it has a little kick that goes well with the white sauce.”
The knights continued chatting as they ate the salad.
“Radish, you say?!” exclaimed Sir Keon, a temple knight, after a short exchange with a maid.
When I’d first suggested the daikon salad, Chef Gert did warn me that some people in the old capital despised radishes.
“That was daikon radish? But I ate all of it…!”
“The rumor that eating radishes summons orcs is only a superstition, y’know.”
“But…daikon, though!”
“I mean, I’ve never eaten it before, but it was delicious. Didn’t you like it, Ina?”
“Well… It was good, but…”
Judging by the knights’ conversation, superstitious people had an intense dislike for daikon.
Nobody made any complaints, but the reaction was stronger than I’d expected, so perhaps it’d be best to shelve the radishes for any future dinner guests from the old capital.
We hadn’t caught any really good fish this time, so instead we tried making tempura for the seafood portion of the meal. Shrimp was the main focus of this course, with three kinds of vegetable tempura as well.
Normal tempura sauce accompanied it. Salt is a fine topping and all, but this time I wanted to try making a particular variety.
“What is this lumpy yellow stuff?”
“I don’t know, but I bet it’s delicious.”
Clearly, we’d won the trust of the knights. I was a little proud.
I watched the other guests’ reactions as I brought a piece of shrimp to my mouth.
For my first bite, I used the tempura sauce sparingly.
The sweetness tickled my tongue lightly along with the crunchy coating.
As my teeth came down on it, they reached the slightly chewy body of the shrimp for a tantalizing sensation.
I bit through the shrimp and began chewing.
The different textures mixed in my mouth, with the sauce adding to the flavors blending on my tongue.
Absolute bliss.
I doused the second piece thoroughly in the tempura sauce, enjoying the thick coating.
Some people might have frowned upon that, but I thought this deep, thick flavor was one of the true charms of tempura.
I was relieved that the tempura made with the local analogue to beefsteak leaves went over well. Deep down, I’d been worried that someone might be enraged that we would dare to make them eat such a thing.
Next, the main dish: fried cutlets from long-haired cows.
Instead of large slabs of meat, these were bite-size pieces that we’d tried flavoring in various ways.
There were three normal pieces, one coated in red pepper powder, and one fried with cheese.
I had made sure to color each coating so that the guests could tell them apart. A thick tonkatsu sauce accompanied them. This was an exquisite condiment that we’d only recently perfected.
“These are crispy and delicious, too!”
“Mmf, spicy!”
“Spicy? This reddish one, you mean?”
“It’s spicy, but it’s good. And cheese comes out of the yellowish one! That was a surprise.”
“C’mon, don’t spoil it for me. I could really get addicted to this combination of crunchiness and thick cheese.”
If the knights’ exchange was any indication, they were thoroughly enjoying the meal now.
I thought that having two fried dishes in a row might be too heavy, but just as Miss Gert and the other chefs had assured me, it was fine.
Unfortunately for them, there were no seconds for the fried foods. Long-haired cow beef was pretty rare.
“Oh my! So the final dish is pancakes?!”
“Ho-ho, these are all the rage in the royal capital, I hear!”
Miss Sara couldn’t withhold a little exclamation of joy when she saw the pancakes decorated with fresh cream. The handsome official next to her looked pleased as well.
“Is this the same white stuff as earlier?”
“I dunno if that sauce would go very well with pancakes…”
“I mean, I’ve never had pancakes before, have you?”
Even lower-class nobles don’t eat pancakes, then? Maybe eggs are expensive or something?
“Delicious… This is incredibly good!”
“No kidding. It’s even better than the ones I had in the royal capital. And look, there are two cakes, with sliced fruit in the middle!”
“I wonder how they make the white stuff on top? Wish I could bring some back with me.”
“It’s so sweet and delicious. I bet they could make some truly incredible desserts if they worked together with the famous confectioners of Gururian City.”
Happily, the last dish seemed to be a hit as well.
I’d definitely like to try that dessert Guy Knight mentioned.
I added eat cake in Gururian City to my planning memo for the duchy.
Thus, the dinner ended with contented sighs and countless compliments from the guests.
After that, at the invitation of Baron Muno, most of the men moved on to a drinking party in the salon, while the women went with his eldest daughter, Soluna, to have tea in the parlor.
After an hour or so, the get-together in the salon was becoming a little rowdy.
“Sir Pendragon! You should come and serve the Lloyd family!”
“I beg your pardon, Lord Ipasa. I wouldn’t go poaching the third noble of the Muno Barony if I were you, unless you want to learn why they call me Iron-Blooded Nina…”
They nicknamed me the “third noble” because there were only three people in the whole territory with a noble title.
This was the fourth time that the gourmand Lord Ipasa had attempted to recruit me as a vassal and the third time that Miss Nina had interfered.
As I smiled blandly at the pair’s conversation, I felt a tug on my shoulder from the seat behind me.
“Are you listening, Sir Pendragon?”
“Yes, of course
.”
“Most people will go their whole lives without meeting a demon, ya know. The only difference between you and me is that you were lucky enough to fight one. You got that?”
You call that “lucky”? Wish I could give you the rest of my luck, then.
I didn’t actually say that, of course. We Japanese people are especially good at this sort of thing, if I do say so myself.
“Yes, you’re quite right.”
“No, I don’t think you do—”
“You’ve had too much to drink, Sir Keon.”
“Right this way, Sir Pendragon.”
Two other temple knights stepped in to rescue me from the drunken Sir Keon.
Another young temple knight, Sir So-and-So, led me to the corner of the room, where the handsome official and Baron Muno were engaged in a rousing discussion about heroes.
“…and have you heard this theory? According to that same book, the ancestral king Yamato continued traveling around for the betterment of the world even after abdicating, and then he unearthed corruption in several territories as the duke of Mitsukuni!”
“Yes, so I have heard.”
“Ooh! You are one of the leading hero researchers, after all! Still, it’s impressive that you would know a story only passed around among commoners!”
“You flatter me greatly. Truly, the ‘Depths of Celivera’ story has become so famous that most people believe that the ancestral king Yamato exorcised the Corpse King and the Origin Vampire before falling in battle against the Ogre King. It is a great shame that only commoners know the tale of the travels that took place after.”
“Indeed. Nobles and knights prefer stories of pulse-pounding battles, alas.”
…I didn’t know how much of this was true, but it sounded to me like the ancestral king Yamato lived a pretty exciting and dramatic life.
As the two of them fell silent for a moment, I took this opportunity to interject.
“Would you mind terribly if I listen in?”
“Oh heavens, what an honor to share tales of legend with the hero of Muno City!”
The handsome official was pretty drunk. His manner of speaking was getting stranger by the minute.
Wait, who are you calling a “hero”?
“I pride myself on my knowledge of the ancestral king Yamato, rivaled only by his lordship the baron here. Please, ask me anything.”
I didn’t actually have any questions; I just wanted to hear cool stories about a hero.