Opened a Meat Buffet in the Middle Ages (2)
Opened a Meat Buffet in the Middle Ages (2)
Chiik. Jigeuljigeul. Chiik.
The meat sizzled with a bold yet endearing sound.
A savory, delicious aroma the distinguished guests had never experienced spread in all directions.
Princess Yuzel, disguised as a maid, was deeply shocked.
'Beautiful?'
To think she would find a food's aroma beautiful.
For a moment, she thought she had gone mad.
The distinguished guests desperately clenched their teeth to maintain their dignity, but they couldn't stop the physiological phenomenon of their noses flaring uncontrollably.
'What is this smell?'
'How can grilling meat produce this kind of smell?'
'Just what kind of monster has such beautifully formed flesh?'
The layer of fat, looking as if pure white snow had spread, was an unfamiliar shape to them.
After all, this was a place where the very concept of fattening livestock for consumption didn't exist.
Tak! Tak! Tak! Jigeuljigeul!
The droplets of oil leaping mercilessly from the grease layer formed by the melting fat.
The savory scent billowing up as the fatty oil melted the protein layers.
All of it was a first.
This was not a banquet, but a grand orchestra.
The cooking soldiers were each musicians of outstanding skill.
Piel was the conductor of the orchestra.
The meat grilling on the hot plate was the various instruments.
Following the skilled conductor's hand movements, the cooking soldiers fervently played the instruments called meat, stimulating the neurons in the guests' olfactory senses with an intoxicating 'smell-ody'.
It was a brutal form of olfactory violence.
Meat produced jointly by the food engineering, livestock, mechanical engineering, genetic engineering, cold chain, and logistics systems of modern Earth.
To the distinguished guests, that meat was, if anything, a more violent entity than the flesh of any monster.
'I want to try it.'
Princess Yuzel swallowed her saliva with a gulp.
The cooking soldiers grilled meat without rest and set it out front.
Hildea, Rebecca, and Piel picked up their plates and began circulating in order, loading them with meat.
The sight of them using the tongs set out for each dish to place food onto their plates.
It looked like a military mess line, but to the princess, it somehow felt elegant.
Even though they were simply piling meat onto large white plates, it seemed like a more splendid plating than the main dish of any banquet.
***
Piel gave a word of caution to the two women who were frantically shoveling only meat.
"Hildea-nim, Rebecca-nim. If you eat only meat, you'll get sick of it quickly. Please take some of these vegetables too."
"Understood."
"Alright, got it."
Luna was methodically taking a balanced amount of everything, including vegetables, so there was no need to tell her anything separately.
Following behind them, the northern knights picked up their plates and gathered meat.
Piel cautioned them as well.
"Think of the people behind you and take just a little at a time. The meat will continue to be grilled until the end."
"Understood, Colonel-nim."
"You reached the rank of Colonel far earlier than I did, so why do you use honorifics with me?"
"Since you'll soon attain the rank of Brigadier General, I should adapt beforehand. Hehehe."
"...."
Anyway, the meat buffet for the northern knights received an incredibly heated response.
It couldn't even be compared to the time of the Marshall Stew Triumph Ceremony.
"How can this be? The meat in the Marshall Stew wasn't even meat compared to this?"
"Shh, keep your voice down. It's troublesome if the distinguished guests hear."
"Aigoo. We have to react as casually as if we eat this often."
"This must be livestock raised and reared by the gods. There's absolutely no other way to explain this taste."
Conscious of the distinguished guests' gazes, the northern knights tried to eat the meat as calmly as possible.
But they couldn't stop themselves from involuntarily switching into chow-down mode.
Just as the distinguished guests couldn't even bring themselves to touch their own food and were just staring this way, noses flaring.
Suddenly, one knight spoke in a choked voice, as if about to cry.
"When will we get to eat this meat again?"
"...."
"...."
The mood instantly became solemn.
Everyone briefly stopped their forks and exchanged glances, until one knight smiled and boosted morale.
"I believe in House Marshall. I believe they will someday create a world where everyone in the North can eat this meat every day, just like corn soup."
"Is that even possible, even for House Marshall?"
"Hey, you went too far with that one."
"You fellows? Why is your faith in House Marshall so lacking?"
A small round of laughter washed away the gloomy mood.
The knights smiled warmly and looked toward the special table where Piel, Hildea, Rebecca, and Luna were seated.
"I wish our God of War would be wedded to the commanders as soon as possible."
"For some reason, doesn't it feel like they'll hold this meat buffet, or whatever it is, for all the territory residents at the wedding?"
"Hah, that sounds plausible?"
While giggling and busily working their forks,
the knights finally began to slightly touch the other food, sneaking glances at the distinguished guests, whose eyes and noses were directed this way.
"Those bastards, they're dying to eat it, going mad."
"Monster meat, human flesh and all, because of what they said themselves, they probably can't bring themselves to even ask."
"If only they hadn't pulled that stunt of cooking their own food while attending someone else's banquet as guests."
"But why is that a problem?"
In the 'formerly' food-scarce North, it was a natural custom for guests invited to a party to pack their own food,
or bring ingredients to cook and eat together.
"In the South, I heard that's considered a rudeness worthy of getting your head split with an axe. A thing unimaginable."
"Ah, so then those bastards committed a rudeness against us that they couldn't even imagine among themselves? That's why they can't even ask for a single bite even while their noses are flaring like that?"
"In any case, those Southern folks, while they seem to make a huge fuss about etiquette, their true nature in the end is very rude and barbaric."
One knight spoke with a sly grin.
"I wish Colonel Marshall would let them stuff their faces with this meat."
Naturally, the other knights bristled.
"What kind of absurd—!"
"Why give good food to those who committed rudeness? Have you gone mad lately because your belly's too full?"
"Withdraw that statement."
But the knight didn't take back his words.
Instead, his smile became even more subtle.
"Think about it. We at least have the hope that we might eat this meat again someday, but do those who must soon return to their territories have that hope?"
"Ah...."
"Uh...?"
"If they didn't know this taste, it might be one thing, but how agonizing would the rest of their lives be if they return having experienced this taste?"
To go back having only smelled the aroma like this.
To spend a lifetime longing for this meat, having experienced it only once.
Which side is the greater hell for them?
"There's something Colonel Marshall always says. Rather than a guy who's never eaten meat in his life, a guy who's eaten it only once will live in agony."
"Then Colonel Marshall, perhaps...?"
***
I spoke to the female commanders.
"So, I will let them eat the meat. Because that is the path to plunging their souls into an eternity of corrupt agony."
For a child who has lived their whole life in a slum, everything changes the moment they visit a wealthy friend's house just once upon starting school.
Things they took for granted, like a pit toilet and unsanitary environments, become perceived as pain.
The same applies to food.
"However, it must not be in the form of us requesting them to please try it. Rather, it must be in the form of us, feeling humiliated, telling them to try it."
"Why must it be that way?"
"Because the dynamic must be one where we are mocked and trampled upon by them, so they won't be able to bring up meat trading or anything else later."
That way, they will taste the meat only once in their entire lives, and then live the rest of their lives in hell.
Not even giving them the hope that trade is possible.
"I have already prepared the method."
After glancing sideways at the distinguished guests, Luna said.
"Aha, so that's why the knights went over to taste that tough, intensely gamey, and salty meat from over there?"
"Exactly. Since we are in a position where we can freely help ourselves to their meat."
"Did you order the knights to provoke a duel?"
"Oh. Luna, very clever? Indeed, just what you'd expect from a 7th-Class Wind Mage."
***
The northern knights brought their plates and came to help themselves to the distinguished guests' cooking.
But the reaction was utterly lukewarm.
After taking one bite, their faces turned bitter, and they quietly returned to their seats.
Of course, they didn't openly throw the meat away, but they just left it aside and went back to eating only their own meat.
The distinguished guests felt humiliated.
They could already tell from the smell alone that the difference in taste was vastly superior.
But having that fact forcibly injected before their very eyes was a disgrace.
"Barbaric brutes, feasting on disgusting monster meat like it's delicious."
A young knight, his pride wounded, muttered that,
and Varen of the Staff Department, who had been watching for an opportunity, didn't miss this chance and sank his teeth in.
"What did you just say? Did you dare insult us as a lowly group of beggars who only scrape by eating the flesh of vile and corrupt monsters?"
The young knight was flustered.
"I-I didn't go that far...."
"I clearly heard it with my own ears, do you intend to deny it now?"
The young knight cast a gaze around asking for help, but
although 'a slight exaggeration' had been added, Varen hadn't said anything technically false, so the distinguished guests only looked back with pitying eyes.
"I challenge you to a duel!"
"A duel? Fine! I shall defend my honor and correct your error through this duel!"
The young knight spiritedly accepted the duel.
Because in the first place, they had specifically picked out and snapped at someone who would be likely to do so.
The bewildered distinguished guests tried to stop the duel, but Hildea instead got angry and hyped up the atmosphere.
"A wolf of the North does not retreat even when their honor is damaged! This is a battle of pride between the North and the non-North! Does everyone acknowledge this?"
The distinguished guests faltered, as if suddenly swept up in the logistics, but control of the situation had already left their hands.
Count Yunes sighed and gave his consent.
"I only wish for there to be no casualties."
"Do not worry. A Priest is on standby."
The young knight's expression hardened at the word 'priest'.
'Does that mean they intend to inflict severe wounds and then legally kill him through healing shock death? Truly barbaric!'
The young knight resolved never to lose as he engaged in the battle.
And as everyone watched, the duel ended in a defeat so swift it was utterly anticlimactic.
The young knight, his sword cut in two, stared at Varen as if he couldn't possibly believe it.
"A mere cooking soldier, how can he possibly...!"
"A Sword Expert at that age?"
"A Sword Expert in the cooking division? What nonsense is this!"
The distinguished guests were so shocked they nearly fell over.
They knew the northern soldiers were brave, but a Sword Expert working as a cooking soldier!
(In fact, he's a Supply Officer.)
Hildea coldly arbitrated.
"Varen, what do you demand as the victor's right?"
"I shall bestow the victor's right upon the Commander-in-Chief-nim."
"Very well. I shall exercise it in your stead."
Hildea's blue eyes coldly swept over the distinguished guests.
"To the wealthy and noble distinguished guests from the South, our food culture of eating monster carcasses must be incomprehensible.
However, in the North, where grain and livestock are scarce, to survive we had no choice but to pioneer the elf forests and consume the flesh of the demonic beasts that live there."
The distinguished guests swallowed dryly.
"As you have insulted our food culture, please apologize by experiencing the food culture of the North."
Count Yunes hid his bewilderment and stepped forward.
"That is to mean...?"
"Though you may not wish it, eat this flesh of demonic beasts that we eat to live. Then we too shall forget the insult to our food culture."
As if waiting for this moment, the cooking soldiers distributed one plate each to the distinguished guests.
A not-large amount, containing grilled meat as large as a newborn's fist, portioned by type.
The distinguished guests thought it fortunate that the victor's right wasn't crueler.
'Count Balckenhardt is somehow trying hard to smooth over the atmosphere.'
'His political reflexes are truly quite remarkable.'
They thought Hildea had naturally settled the overheated atmosphere while placating her own subordinates.
The meat they had wanted to try anyway.
They picked up their forks with willing hearts.
And were thrown into shock.
Because it was a violence of taste where even the expression 'too delicious' was a sacrilege in and of itself.
***
Princess Yuzel shed tears internally.
'It's delicious. So delicious! Could it truly be a dish brought from the feast of the gods?'
A rapturous taste that surpassed the level she had imagined by seeing with her eyes, smelling with her nose, and hearing with her ears.
So Princess Yuzel cried inside while working her fork.
Because....
'The atmosphere has turned out like this... I can't possibly make a proposal to buy this meat....'
Though Hildea had mediated the overheated atmosphere well, surely she herself was feeling insulted inside.
The distinguished guests were now unable to bring themselves to utter the words asking if they could have one more bite.