The First Member
The first candidate. “Number One, please enter.”
With that, the selection process officially began. The judges were myself, Elena, and the princess. Elena’s assistant professor served as the supporting staff. The format was simple: staff would escort one cadet in at a time for the interview.
“Please introduce yourself.”
Elena took charge of moderating. I mostly kept my mouth shut and focused on scoring. Soon, Candidate Number One began their self-introduction, explaining their motivation for applying and why they absolutely had to be chosen. Nothing particularly interesting. I marked an X next to their name.
“Number Two, please enter.”
The next one walked in. To my disbelief, it was one of the guys who openly disliked me. I remembered his face from the previous presentation—he’d been sitting in the front row, muttering complaints the entire time.
“Disqualified.”
I rejected him immediately. The cadet, who had been in the middle of pulling out his chair, froze and stared at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“W-what do you mean…?”
“I said you’re disqualified.”
I waved my hand dismissively with a completely blank face, confirming it once more. You. Out.
The cadet glared at me with clear anger in his eyes.
“Number Two, what are you doing? Did you not hear that you’ve been disqualified?”
The princess shot him a chilling glare and issued the order to leave. The cadet hurriedly bowed in apology and backed out of the room in a panic.
Once he was gone, the princess let out a small snort of laughter.
“I could tell just from the look in your eyes. You really hate that guy, don’t you?”
“Yes. He’s one of the people who frequently badmouthed me.”
He was the type who looked down on and mocked me simply because I was a commoner. It wasn’t just once or twice—he constantly clung to Max and spread rumors about me. I had no idea why someone like him had the nerve to show up here, but it didn’t matter. I simply returned kindness with greater kindness, and hostility with even stronger hostility.
“Number Three, please enter.”
Anyway, the interviews continued. From Number Three to Number Twenty-One, however, there wasn’t a single impressive candidate. They were all just average cadets.
“Number Twenty-Two, please enter.”
That was when a familiar face walked in. Number Twenty-Two—Charlotte.
“P-Princess… it’s an honor to meet you.”
Charlotte, with her signature round glasses and curly green hair. The way she stuttered due to her severe social anxiety was exactly how I remembered her.
Once seated, Charlotte began her self-introduction.
“I-I am the only daughter of the V-Verdian family… C-Charlotte Verdian…”
“……”
The princess and Elena watched her with indifferent expressions. It seemed her timid nature didn’t sit well with them.
Nevertheless, Charlotte continued.
“F-For a long time, I’ve been t-tending to my family’s garden… Even though my father has fallen ill and we no longer receive orders for garden design… our circumstances are difficult, but…”
In short, even as her family declined, she had worked hard to hone her skills and entered the academy through her own merit. She added that she could use the ‘Creation’ spell formula related to plants—the unique trait passed down through the Verdian bloodline.
Elena immediately showed interest.
“The Verdian family… Now I remember. The special trait that creates nature itself. I failed to recognize a valuable person.”
“H-Hehe… Th-Thank you.”
To a magic fanatic like Elena, Charlotte’s ability to create plants must have seemed incredibly special. After all, her spell formula was a one-of-a-kind trait.
“Hmm. Then what is your reason for applying?”
Having roughly grasped Charlotte’s background, Elena moved on to the next question—her motivation for joining the expedition.
Once again, Charlotte stuttered heavily as she explained.
“Th-The Dwarf… s-snowy mountains and… the f-forest of r-rocks…”
In summary, she wanted to study the nature of the dwarves. She hoped to diversify the landscaping themes for her family’s revival.
“Hmm. We’re going there for official duties, yet your reason is extremely personal.”
Elena pointed out that Charlotte’s motivation was too self-serving. Charlotte shrank back, lowering her head in shame.
“But that’s exactly why I like it. There’s sincerity in it.”
Elena smiled warmly as she said so. Charlotte scratched the back of her head, her face turning bright red.
Next, Elena asked her to explain why she absolutely had to be chosen.
Charlotte pulled a small pot out of the backpack she had brought with her.
“O-Our family has a d-delicious d-dish!”
“……?”
She then took out a water container. She drew a spell formula on the floor that generated high heat and placed the pot on top. After pouring water into it, she brought out a seasoning bottle. It looked exactly like soy sauce.
Glug glug…
Charlotte poured the soy-sauce-like seasoning into the water. Once it began to boil vigorously, she used her spell to summon plants—cabbage, bok choy, mushrooms, and the like.
Wait, is this shabu-shabu?
What I thought was just random preparation turned out to be Charlotte attempting to make shabu-shabu. She added the frozen beef she had prepared in advance into the broth.
“I-If you t-take me with you… y-you can eat our family’s s-secret dish… as m-much as you want…!”
“……”
She continued adding vegetables to the pot, then summoned even more as she declared:
“U-Unlimited refills…!”
“……”
Whether she truly believed her family’s secret dish was that delicious or not, Charlotte paid no attention to the blank stares from Elena and the princess and continued cooking with great enthusiasm.
Eventually, she served each of us a plate filled with broth, several slices of beef, and plenty of vegetables. The three of us—me, the princess, and Elena—tasted the shabu-shabu Charlotte had prepared.
It was exactly the flavor I remembered.
“Mm, this is pretty good?”
Elena, who had been wearing a bored expression, suddenly looked surprised and gave an unexpectedly positive review. The vegetables retained a perfect crunch while fully absorbing the rich broth.
It would be perfect if there was a dipping sauce.
I felt it was missing just two percent. If only there was a sauce to dip it in. Or if we wrapped the vegetables and meat in rice paper, made it into ssam, and dipped it—that would be perfect. Still, it was an excellent dish worthy of being called a delicacy.
“Hmm, not bad at all.”
The princess also gave Charlotte’s shabu-shabu a favorable review. For someone who had tasted countless rare delicacies, this level of praise meant it was truly high-class cooking.
“However.”
The princess set down her chopsticks, her eyes sharpening. Charlotte swallowed nervously as she watched her.
“We are not recruiting a chef. Nor are we going to the Dwarf Allied Kingdom to sightsee their natural landscapes.”
At the princess’s following words, Charlotte hung her head low. When the princess glanced at Elena, she also set down her chopsticks and nodded. It seemed the two of them had already decided on Charlotte’s disqualification.
I set my chopsticks down as well and spoke.
“Accepted.”
“……?”
The word “accepted” made all three women widen their eyes in shock as they stared at me. I wiped my mouth with a napkin from the table and explained my reasoning.
“First of all, the food was delicious. It’s not overly stimulating, has a clean and light taste, and is excellent overall. However, it would be even better if there was a special dipping sauce to go with it. Also, if you reduce the broth further, mix in rice and an egg to make porridge, it would taste even more amazing.”
The princess and Elena looked at me with dumbfounded faces as I gave my lengthy tasting review.
Elena whispered in disbelief.
“Y-You’re picking her… just for the cooking…?”
Just for the cooking? This dish reminded me of home. There was no way the adverb “just” could apply here. Besides, I wasn’t selecting Charlotte merely to use her as a shabu-shabu shuttle. There was another reason.
“There is another reason.”
I answered as such and turned to look at Charlotte. Her eyes sparkled behind her glasses as she stared back at me. I asked the next question.
“Candidate Number Twenty-Two, you said you can use natural creation spell formulas, correct?”
“Y-Yes! Yes!”
“Then, can you also replicate and summon specific types of rock?”
My question caused both Elena and the princess to make meaningful expressions. It seemed they had caught on to my intention.
“U-Um… I-It is possible, but… t-to do that…”
In summary, the more complex and rare the rock’s structure, the higher the chance of failure.
“That’s fine. The fact that you can even attempt it is what matters.”
I placed importance on the capability itself. With the Emerald Mana Stone—exclusively mined by the dwarves—running low and its price skyrocketing, simply giving the dwarves hope that Charlotte’s ability could increase their mining output would make them dance with joy.
After reviewing candidates from Number One to Number Seventy today, Ed had only managed to secure one person—Charlotte. The notable figures, including Enya and Isabella, had all been assigned later numbers.
“Still, it was a good harvest.”
Nevertheless, Ed was satisfied. An unexpected idea had come to him, allowing him to recruit Charlotte.
Why didn’t I think of this sooner…
Come to think of it, Charlotte should have been the top recruitment priority. Since she possessed the ability to summon rocks—the most important resource to dwarves—they would have no choice but to covet her power.
However, Ed was an engineer who believed in the law of conservation of energy. He didn’t think Charlotte’s unique creation spell could simply pop an ultra-rare mineral like the Emerald Mana Stone into existence.
But if multiple people work together…
If his own engineering knowledge, Elena’s magical interpretation, and the wisdom of the dwarves were combined, they might be able to artificially create the drying-up Emerald Mana Stone.
Just as hearing Charlotte’s story today had sparked an idea on how to utilize her spell, gathering experts from various fields to exchange ideas might lead to inspiration and breakthroughs. Just like how the equations derived from the Riemann Hypothesis perfectly matched those derived from quantum mechanics.
“Then I should work on another research project.”
That was one thing, but Ed had his own tasks to handle. Namely, analyzing Obsidian.
By studying this demonic sword that amplified destructive power using rage, hatred, and life force as fuel, he might uncover clues regarding ‘emotional energy conversion.’ The very power that Isabella used.
“Fix, we have one month left. Let’s research like hell.”
“Wee-woong~!”
However, analyzing and utilizing the principles of this power couldn’t be done alone. Fix’s assistance was absolutely necessary. That was why, while Ed was conducting the interviews, he had left most of the Obsidian research to Fix. He had given detailed guidance on the research direction and methods and ordered it to grasp the underlying principles.
“Wee-woong~?”
But at this moment, Ed had no idea. He didn’t know that this order would later cause an enormous butterfly effect. That Fix would use this research as an opportunity to perfectly learn human emotions.