kscans

Chapter 124 - The Princess's Request

The next morning, I woke up in our home base.

Just when I thought yesterday's mess was resolved, a new problem had appeared: a mandatory quest from the guild. Escort duty for the coronation.

How did it come to this? It was probably pointless to think about it.

After a breakfast of bread and soup, we decided to head to the guild. I wasn't thrilled, but refusing a request from the royal family took a certain kind of courage I didn't have.

I asked the receptionist for an explanation.

"The request is for escort duty during the coronation ceremony. The ceremony will be held this evening, followed immediately by a banquet. Your escort duties will last until the ceremony is over. Your post will be in the throne room. Also, there is one other request from Princess Yorune-sama. She would like you, Shinsuke-san, to prepare at least one dish to be served at the banquet."

The final request was completely outrageous.

Bewildered, I asked, "Why do I have to cook?"

The receptionist consulted a piece of paper. "Umm… the reason is that the dish called oden you served at the orphanage was very well-received, so she would like you to serve another one of your dishes if you have any."

To think that something I did for the kids at the orphanage would turn into such a big deal. At this point, I might as well just roll with it. Fine, I'll do it.

I told the receptionist I would accept.

Tina and I wandered through the capital's market, looking for food. To cook anything, I first needed ingredients. However, the variety of vegetables—or rather, herbs—was limited.

There was frozen fish, but the fish dishes here were all similar to Western cuisine. The staples of Japanese fish cuisine, sushi and sashimi, were raw. This world had advanced blacksmithing and craftsmanship, but its culinary arts seemed a bit underdeveloped.

I was worried about things like parasites in raw food, so that was out.

As I was mulling it over, Tina said, "Shinsuke, what about that shop over there?"

She was pointing to a shop with a large display of mushrooms.

Mushrooms, huh? Do they grow in the rocky mountains around here? Or are they imported from the Church? Either way, they could be used in some kind of dish.

We entered the shop. The variety of mushrooms was impressive: shiitake, eringi, nameko, maitake, button mushrooms, and porcini.

All quite well-known mushrooms. I asked the shopkeeper, "Excuse me, where did you get all these mushrooms?"

"Hm? They grow all around here," he answered gruffly. "Adventurers eat them all the time between jobs."

I thought they only grew in mountains with plenty of trees and plants. I guess I should just chalk it up to the logic of another world. As I looked over the mushrooms, an idea came to me.

"Shopkeeper," I said, "I'll take this, this, this, and this too."

I picked up some shiitake, eringi, maitake, and porcini.

The shopkeeper calculated the price. "That'll be twenty small silver coins in total."

It was surprisingly cheap.

After we left the shop, Tina asked, "Are you going to make some kind of hot pot with these mushrooms?"

Tina had eaten mushroom dishes from Earth before, so the question made sense.

"It's a hot pot, but not a very famous one in Japan," I replied. "But this world is, in a way, like an older era of Earth, so it should be perfect. I need to buy a few more things, so could you help me?"

Tina nodded.

After that, we bought a lot: flour, soy sauce, salt, leeks, cabbage, carrots, and daikon radish. All that was left was to see if it tasted good.

We put these ingredients, along with some katsuobushi I'd brought from Earth, into a bag and headed back home.

I put water in a pot and brought it to a boil. In the meantime, I chopped the cabbage, carrots, and daikon into bite-sized pieces. In an iron bowl, I mixed flour and water. I kneaded it until it was neither too hard nor too soft, then formed the dough into earlobe-sized dumplings, making several of them.

Into the boiling water, I added soy sauce and katsuobushi, seasoned it with a pinch of salt, and tasted it. It was missing a little something without mirin, but it would have to do.

I added the herbs and let it simmer for about five minutes. Then, I dropped the earlobe-sized dumplings into the pot. After a while, they floated to the surface.

To finish, I added the various mushrooms and let it simmer a bit longer. And with that, it was done.

It was a dish few people in modern Japan know: Suitoun, a type of water-dumpling soup.

I put some in a small bowl and brought it to Tina in the dining room.

"Is this the dish you're serving at the banquet?" she asked, her tone skeptical.

I couldn't blame her; the colors weren't exactly suited for nobles and royals. I silently handed her a spoon. She took a bite.

The flavor was light, and the herbs had absorbed the taste of the broth perfectly. The dumplings were not only flavorful but also had a pleasant texture—not too hard, not too soft—and released more of the broth with every chew. On top of the soy sauce and katsuobushi, the various extracts from the mushrooms had melted into the broth, giving it a deep richness despite its light taste. Tina ate with single-minded focus.

"So? How is it?" I asked.

"It's good, isn't it?" she replied, looking slightly embarrassed. "If you can just do something about the presentation, it'll be more than acceptable."

She was blushing because she'd been eating with more gusto than usual.

It was just before noon. I needed to get this dish approved by the castle chefs.

"Do you think it's okay to go to the royal castle now?" I asked.

"It should be fine," Tina replied after finishing her bowl. "We have a request for guard duty. We also have the writ from the guild. They'll let us in if we show it."

In that case, we decided to get ready and go at once.

We arrived at the castle gate a little past noon.

When we showed our writ to the gatekeeper, he said, "We've been expecting you. Please, come in."

His attitude was far too polite for mere adventurers on an escort mission. Had someone said something to him? I decided not to overthink it.

We headed for the kitchens. As expected, they were spacious and bustling with several cooks.

One of them, a rather stern-looking man, approached us. "You're the adventurers who accepted the request. I am the head chef here. I've heard the details from the general. However, even if it is by Her Highness's order, we cannot allow a crude dish to be served."

His words were harsh, but understandable. For those who had been cooking in the castle for a long time, today was a special day. Causing them embarrassment was absolutely out of the question.

"I understand completely," I said.

With ingredients and tools in hand, I began to cook. About thirty minutes later, the Suitoun was complete.

I put a small portion in a bowl and handed it to the head chef. "Please, try it."

I placed it on the counter without another word.

The head chef took a bite without a word. He continued to eat in silence until the bowl was empty.

"The taste is not bad. It's excellent. However, the plating is too sloppy. Forgive my asking, but are you unfamiliar with proper presentation?"

To this question, I replied with one word: "Regrettably."

In these situations, it's sometimes better to be direct and honest rather than make excuses. It can even make a better impression. It was a basic rule I had learned during my job-hunting days on Earth.

The head chef thought for a moment. "Hmm. In that case, would you be willing to leave the plating to us? Of course, we will report to Her Highness that you are the one who created this dish."

He made the proposal with a stern expression.

I closed my eyes. "I'll be in your care."

I bowed my head.

After that, I gave him a detailed explanation of the proper amounts for each seasoning. The foundation of flavor is in the proportions; neglect that, and it's bound to taste bad. It was common sense.

Once I finished my explanation, we left.

In the kitchen, after we were gone, one of the cooks who had been watching the whole time remarked, "I can't believe an adventurer could make a dish like this. Honestly, I was expecting him to serve something rough."

The other cooks felt the same. Adventurers had an image of eating whatever they could just to fill their stomachs. That's because when camping outdoors, the cooking conditions are so limited that people assume they just eat whatever's convenient.

It was no wonder they felt more humiliation than surprise when they heard that the princess had commissioned an adventurer to cook. But this adventurer was different. He had presented a dish they had never seen before, one that brought out the best in its ingredients. His explanation of the recipe showed he hadn't forgotten the fundamentals, to the point that some of them felt ashamed for looking down on him.

Amidst this, the head chef mused, "Hmm. I knew soy sauce was a delicious seasoning, but this katsuobushi… I had no idea that drying that fish could produce such a deep flavor. The world is still a vast place."

He gazed at the katsuobushi the adventurer had left behind. When he had asked where he'd gotten such an ingredient, the adventurer had replied, 'The children at the orphanage are making it now.' In a way, he had done them a great service.

That orphanage was a facility run by the princess herself. It had fallen on hard times after the previous incident, but the existence of this katsuobushi would undoubtedly raise the orphanage's profile.

The head chef swore to himself that he would definitely go and buy some as soon as it was ready.

After leaving the kitchen, we headed to our designated location within the castle: the knights' briefing room. They were going over the procedures and placements for the coronation ceremony. When we entered, we were met with intense stares. It was understandable; they would never allow outsiders to be part of the escort for the princess's once-in-a-lifetime event. Their pride was even greater than that of the cooks.

Amidst the tension, a figure at the back of the room spoke. "All of you, do not cause any trouble."

It was General Goltor, who issued the warning with a stern face and sharp eyes.

The knights stopped staring at us and turned their gaze to the general. Was it because they didn't want to look at us anymore? That was fine by me. Being stared at like that was unnerving.

The briefing began. It wasn't particularly complicated. The layout of the throne and its surroundings, the deployment outside the castle, and the security patrol routes for the subsequent banquet. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But regarding the deployment, I raised my hand. "General, may I ask a question?"

"I know what you want to say," the general said. "You want to know why you've been assigned to guard the throne, correct?"

I nodded. The throne room was the most important place for the coronation. Only those with the utmost trust could be assigned to guard it. And yet, Tina and I had been given that post.

The knights were also clearly not happy about it.

"There are two reasons," the general explained, his face serious. "First, I am confident that you two, who contributed so much in the last battle, are capable of handling the position. Second, it is a direct order from the princess."

His expression was anything but joking.

The first reason was somewhat understandable. We had earned their trust through our abilities. But the second reason was baffling. The knights' discontent was only growing, but we had been given the blessing of both the princess and the general.

To say anything now would be to pick a fight with royalty and a hero. Everyone fell silent.

"If there are no other questions, this meeting is adjourned," the general announced. "You are free until you receive your orders. However, you are forbidden from leaving the castle."

The meeting ended, and everyone filed out.

As we were about to leave, the general stopped us. "Shinsuke-dono, Tina-jou. I have something to discuss with you two privately. Please come to the reception room."

He instructed a maid to guide us.

The room we were led to was neither extravagant nor overly simple.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked.

"There's nothing to talk about," the general replied. "If you walk around the castle now, the knights might start some trouble. Please wait here until the coronation begins."

With that, he left the room.

Honestly, I was relieved. Seeing the looks on the knights' faces, it was clear we weren't welcome. I was grateful for his consideration.

Silence filled the space.

I found myself reflecting on my life. I'd been fired from my company, returned home, found a book in the storehouse, went to another world, and planned to live a normal, yet different, life as a hunter and adventurer. But then I lost to a minotaur named Sidoor, and on my journey to get stronger for a rematch, I somehow got caught up in a national crisis.

How did it come to this?

As I was lost in thought, Tina spoke, placing a hand on my right shoulder. "I suppose it's payback for living so selfishly."