The Right to Buy Meals (3)
With a playful lilt replacing her earlier threatening tone, Professor Lucia continued.
“Alright, everyone, pay attention again! Kael has made a very big decision today! This evening, he’s going to give every single one of you the chance to buy two of these delicious treats!”
The moment her words ended, the sound of swallowing saliva echoed through the room. Though they were noble heirs, none of them—boy or girl—seemed capable of maintaining their dignity.
“Instead of simply giving you the food, Kael will draw up contracts to be paid later by your families. The price will be set per meal, and today’s meal costs one gold coin. You’ll repay it within one year of external time. Anyone who agrees simply needs to sign the contract.”
The students’ eyes widened. One gold coin was by no means a small sum. Yet for noble heirs like them, it wasn’t an impossible amount. If it meant even a brief escape from their empty stomachs and the torment of that awful coarse black bread, they felt like they could secretly sell off their family heirlooms.
“One gold coin? Of course I’ll pay!”
“I’ll sign! Hurry up and give it to me!”
“I’m starving! Come on!”
The students shouted over one another.
When Professor Lucia cast her spell, one hundred and ninety-seven glowing magical contracts appeared in the air before the students. Ink-dipped quills floated alongside them. Each contract already bore the student’s family name and personal name, along with detailed clauses such as “purchasing all future meals on credit, to be paid within one year of external time.” It specified that the price would automatically update inside the magical contract with every purchase, that every transaction would be meticulously recorded, that the total would be billed to their families at once, and that the students promised to pay using their family names as collateral.
Yet the students signed without hesitation. Neither Irina Rosengart nor Princess Elenora Caldria were exceptions.
However, Irina shot Kael a sidelong glance, her emerald eyes burning with displeasure and humiliation. One gold coin was hardly a burden for the Rosengart ducal house. But she was the same woman who had publicly humiliated him in high society by calling him a talentless man and breaking their engagement. Still, she couldn’t resist the scent of that food. In the end, she grit her teeth and signed.
Once all one hundred and ninety-seven had finished signing, Kael purchased a massive quantity of frankfurter sausage sticks from the platform.
You have purchased 393 Frankfurter Sausage Sticks.
786 points deducted. Remaining points: 7236
Together with a burst of light, three hundred and ninety-three frankfurter sausage sticks piled up on the platform. The salty aroma of meat filled the dining hall. Even though they were processed meat, meat was still meat—and these were seasoned with modern spices. Professor Lucia even used magic to amplify the scent, spreading it throughout the entire cafeteria. The intense temptation seeped into every student’s nose.
“Alright, form a line, everyone.”
At Professor Lucia’s command, the students scrambled to line up. But many, driven mad by hunger and the overwhelming smell, couldn’t keep their reason intact.
“Uwaaaah!”
Those who ignored the line and rushed forward to grab the sausage sticks slammed into an invisible barrier. Thanks to that, the students had no choice but to line up properly.
One by one, they received their frankfurter sausage sticks.
Gulp.
A male student swallowed hard, then took a big bite. Salty juices burst in his mouth as the soft, chewy sausage melted on his tongue. It wasn’t a metaphor—it really felt like it was melting in his mouth.
“?!”
The boy who had bitten into the sausage widened his eyes in shock and began devouring it frantically. The harmonious blend of modern seasonings—black pepper, garlic, herbs, and more—created a flavor that was simply divine. No matter how noble they were, the meals in this world had their limits. Even compared to the medieval commoner palates of Ring and Ming, nothing could compare to the intense, stimulating taste of modern food.
In particular, sausages in this world usually carried a gamey odor and rough texture, but these frankfurters had none of that. All he could taste was pure bliss that transported him straight to heaven.
“H-how can meat be this tender and fragrant?”
Starting with the shocked male student’s reaction, similar cries erupted from every corner. Even the female students, who had been starving and tormented by the coarse black bread, threw their dignity aside and ate with wild abandon. They didn’t even care that grease was smearing across their faces. They simply wanted to eat one more bite, even licking the last traces of seasoning off the sticks.
The sight of students eating like beasts, accompanied by gasps of admiration from all around.
“I’ve never had sausage like this before!”
“This seasoning… what on earth is it? Even our family has never used a combination like this!”
Finally, it was Irina’s turn.
She glared sharply at Kael, her gaze filled with humiliation.
“Hello, Irina.”
Kael greeted her, but she answered shortly and coldly.
“Yes, Lord Aberwin. Please… refrain from calling me by my first name.”
Kael laughed inwardly at her reaction. Right now, her emerald eyes were swirling with rage, trembling, and confusion.
She’s furious at herself for being unable to reject my food. And on top of that, she’s starting to wonder if breaking the engagement with me was a mistake.
Irina’s gaze burned with anger. But that anger didn’t last long. Unable to resist the salty, savory aroma of the sausage, she snatched two frankfurter sticks with trembling hands and returned to her table. Then she parted her small lips and took a bite.
“Hup!”
Her eyes flew wide open. The fantastic blend of seasonings and the soft, chewy sausage meat filled her mouth completely. Even the finest dishes served at the Rosengart ducal house felt trivial compared to the seasoning on this sausage. Of course, even if you seasoned a steak with pepper, the quality of the meat itself was completely different. Pepper couldn’t fully mask the gamey smell, and the meat was never this tender. The flavor that exploded the moment it touched her tongue was on another level.
The stimulating taste created by the harmony of garlic and herbs violently awakened her palate, which had grown dull from the endless coarse black bread. The bouncy texture of the sausage brought her pure happiness with every chew.
After wolfing down both sausages, she belatedly realized she was holding two empty sticks. Her emerald eyes were flooded with shock from the storm of flavor modern food had unleashed in her mouth.
“It’s so delicious…”
The exclamation slipped out before she could stop it. Irina was startled by her own words, but no one paid her any attention. Everyone else seemed to have lost their minds in the same ecstasy she was feeling.
Was… breaking the engagement back then really the right choice?
The thought rose in her mind. Startled, she hurriedly pushed it away. Once her stomach was somewhat full, her reason returned and her pride resurfaced.
Meanwhile, Princess Elenora savored the sausage slowly. Maintaining her graceful posture, she took a delicate bite. Her ruby-red eyes trembled violently. Even the imperial court’s finest delicacies felt ordinary in the face of this sausage’s simple yet powerful flavor. As the tender meat melted on her tongue and the harmonious spices danced across her senses, she barely managed to maintain her dignity while murmuring,
“Incredible.”
A small sigh of admiration escaped her lips.
Even after devouring their two sausages, the students still felt unsatisfied. Their hunger had been eased, but their stomachs craved far more.
“It’s not enough…”
“Can’t we have more?”
A sense of shared understanding formed among the now-full students. Two simply weren’t enough. They wanted more food. But who would dare step forward and confront Kael?
That was when someone stepped up first—Finit, the second son of the Beloam County.
Rising from his seat, Finit walked straight toward Kael. His gaze briefly flicked toward Irina.
Heh heh, if I manage to get even more food here, Lady Irina will have to notice me, right?
With that calculation in mind—scoring points with Irina—Finit stood before Kael and shouted arrogantly.
“Hey, Kael Aberwin! You think two measly sausages are enough to fill us up? We paid a whole gold coin each—sell us more!”
Kael shook his head.
“No can do. Two per person is the limit for today.”
Finit’s face flushed bright red. Despite paying such an expensive price, the fact that Kael refused to hand over more sausages ignited his fury. He grabbed Kael by the collar and snarled.
“Hey, are you kidding me? If we’re paying this much, you should be grateful! Why won’t you give us more? Just because the shame of the ducal family got some kind of ability, you think you’re hot shit now?”
His voice rang throughout the entire dining hall. Irina lifted her head to look at Finit. No—every student was staring at him. Feeling their gazes, Finit grew even more brazen. He genuinely believed his actions would earn everyone’s praise and that Kael would cower and hand over the food. He was convinced he would become Irina’s next fiancé. He also believed that Kael, the disgrace of the Aberwin ducal house, was far beneath him, the second son of a count. And he thought Professor Lucia wouldn’t interfere, since this was a perfectly reasonable demand from customers who had paid a high price.
“What are you doing to Lord Kael!”
“Take your hands off Lord Kael right now!”
Ring and Ming shouted with furious expressions. He wasn’t afraid of mere commoner girls. But then Professor Lucia’s enraged voice cut through the air.
“Finit! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She looked ready to hurl a spell at any moment. Finit flinched but protested with an aggrieved expression.
“Professor! This is Kael Aberwin’s fault, isn’t it? We paid a whole gold coin and we only get two sausages? Isn’t this our legitimate right? We’re even willing to pay more!”
Kael inwardly cheered at Finit’s foolish words.
I’ve been waiting for this kind of outburst!
He even felt grateful for the boy’s stupidity. But now it was time to act.
“Haa…”
Letting out a sigh, he spoke in a voice laced with feigned bitterness.
“It’s truly regrettable that you mistake my goodwill for a right, Finit. Even though my ability has limits, I summoned food for all of you. That gold coin will be collected from your families later—it’s of no immediate use to me—and yet this is how I’m treated. How disappointing.”
Kael wasn’t expecting sympathy from the students. He had no interest in something like that. Humans were creatures who would try to devour anyone who showed weakness. That was why he began the first phase of his true plan.
“My ability has restrictions. If I receive this kind of mental shock, tomorrow I’ll only be able to summon half as much food.”
“In other words, unlike today, I’ll only be able to summon 197 frankfurter sausage sticks tomorrow. So you all decide.”
Kael stared straight at Finit as he spoke.
“Will everyone eat just one tomorrow? Or will 98 out of the 197 eat only coarse black bread while the other 98 eat two and one person eats one? If only half of you are going to eat, then you can decide among yourselves who gets to eat the black bread tomorrow. I won’t be the one choosing.”
What Kael was really saying was this:
Do you all want to eat only half tomorrow? Or would you rather half of you starve while the other half eats like today?
The moment those words sank in, every student’s face hardened at once. Their stomachs still felt empty, and the thought made their reason feel like it was about to snap.