Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: Derived Sauces (2)
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The scorching sun beat down on the vast Western Great Desert.
In its midst, a massive caravan advanced, led by a flag as black as pitch.
Though the sandstorm dried out her ashen skin even further, the caravan's leader didn't stir an inch.
The sole princess of the Western Dark Elf Kingdom and master of the Black Moon Caravan, Kalendil Levana Ariel.
Her mysterious amethyst eyes turned toward the guards who had halted the procession for a moment.
They were cautiously opening small bottles filled with a red liquid—the Tomato Sauce—traded from the Empire, dipping pieces of dried jerky into it for a taste.
…!
For the first time, awe flickered across the faces of the battle-hardened dark elf warriors.
To them, born and raised in the desert, this flavor was a shock in itself.
A fruit that could never grow in this barren land.
The taste of 'life,' condensed from fertile soil, abundant water, and the blazing energy of the sun.
"Princess... no, Caravan Master. This taste is..."
"The taste of the sun. The taste of life as well."
Kalendil replied softly. She gazed far off, toward the east beyond the sandstorm.
Long ago, their ancestors had lost everything due to the betrayal of those who guarded the World Tree, driven into this land of death.
From nothing in a land of nothing, they created something, building their own kingdom in the harsh desert.
But the wound of betrayal was deep and bitter.
That wound ran so deep that the dark elf kingdom had sealed itself off from the outside world for centuries.
This was why, even as they traded covertly with countless kingdoms and tribes along shadowed paths, they never stepped into the light. It was their ironclad rule.
But Kalendil was different.
In her ashen skin and amethyst eyes, she harbored not her ancestors' despair, but a longing for the future.
As princess of the kingdom—and future queen—she desired not mere survival, but prosperity.
She wanted to prove that flowers could bloom even in this barren desert, that they could forge a civilization greater than the betrayers' lush forests.
"Caravan Master, this sauce... it's incredible. If we had something like this in the kingdom..."
"Yes."
Kalendil took up the warrior's words.
"This taste of the sun is what we lost. And what we must reclaim."
Her reforms began with this single small bottle of sauce.
To persuade the conservative elders who clung to isolationism, she had led the Black Moon Caravan straight to the Empire herself.
"Jonathan of Valens..."
When she first recognized the value of his sauce and tried to secure an exclusive contract for rare spices, he saw through it, avoiding monopoly and opting for a standard deal instead.
At the time, her impression of the man was merely that of a talented estate proxy and inventor.
But news from the east in just a few months proved her assessment far too modest.
Not only her caravan but the dark elves' shadowy intelligence network reported every event in the Empire without fail.
Turning the 'fake product crisis' around with the 'Imperial Safe Mark' system. Receiving the Scarlet Pasturelands as a reward and becoming an official lord.
And the most astonishing news of all.
"A saint, huh..."
With just one new sauce he created—the 'miraculous sunset hue' (mayonnaise)—he had subjugated the untamable giants of the northern wolfmen, the Empire's neighbors for centuries.
Even the Holy See officially recognizing him as a 'saint' brought a faint smile to Kalendil's ever-stoic lips.
"Taming barbarians with a single sauce, satisfying both the Emperor and the Pope. He's far more than I thought."
Her amethyst eyes sparkled with delight.
A partner of this caliber was more than enough to shatter the rusty locks of the dark elf kingdom and usher in winds of reform.
He had asked for rare spices from her, and in exchange, Kalendil gained the most potent cultural weapon and political ally to dismantle isolationism. How could she not be pleased?
"Alright, let's move! To the east!"
Kalendil cracked her whip once more. The caravan rolled forward again.
Her wagon was loaded with the rare Western spices Jonathan had so desired.
What miracles would he work with these? Could he even bring flowers to bloom in the desert?
In the desert heat, Kalendil thought of her distant eastern partner, harboring pleasant anticipation deep within.
Meanwhile, at the alchemy workshop in Kandoria.
I gazed at the two mother sauces placed in the center of the workshop.
"Alright, everyone. What you've seen so far is just the basics."
"Basics? This? These sauces shaking the entire Empire?"
Edelin retorted, clutching a plate of meringue cookies like a treasure. I smiled and placed an empty pot on the fire.
"Exactly. They're excellent on their own, but they serve as the 'foundation' for deriving dozens, hundreds of other dishes. Now..."
I poured finely chopped garlic into the pot and began sautéing it in olive oil.
A sizzle sounded, and a nutty aroma filled the workshop in an instant.
"Ooh! Smells amazing!"
Edelin chimed in right on cue.
When the garlic turned golden, I turned off the heat briefly.
Then I dumped in the prepared base Tomato Sauce.
Finally, I crushed dried oregano and basil leaves in my palm to maximize their aroma and sprinkled them in.
"Isn't this... just adding some herbs?"
Edelin twirled her brown hair around her finger, tilting her head.
I grinned at her.
"Spot on. The simplest variation. We call it 'Marinara Sauce'."
I scooped a bit of the freshly warmed sauce onto a small plate with bread and offered it.
Erika smiled, Edelin looked skeptical, and Iris remained expressionless as they took the bread.
And the moment it touched their lips.
…! Huh? The taste is totally different?"
Edelin reacted first, as expected.
"Is this really the same Tomato Sauce from before? The flavor's completely changed! The aroma... it's so much deeper! How can just a few herbs make it this rich?"
Erika looked amazed too.
"It's true. Just adding garlic and a couple of herbs shifted the sauce's entire profile. It's clean and refreshing yet richer! This would pair perfectly with seafood!"
Only Iris savored it quietly. Adjusting her glasses, she analyzed.
"Added only the aroma variable without disrupting the base's properties. An efficient variation. But this is within predictable parameters."
She was right. This was just the start.
"Then let's begin the unpredictable variations."
I lifted the corner of my mouth and pulled out a larger, thicker pot.
This time, I tossed in finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery with olive oil.
"Huh? No garlic this time?"
"This is called 'Mirepoix,' the basic aromatic base in Western cooking."
I sautéed until the vegetables turned translucent, drawing out their sweetness.
The three girls tilted their heads at the sweet, gentle aroma, utterly different from the garlic.
As the vegetables' moisture evaporated, I poured in ground beef and pork.
"Wait, hold on! Meat?"
Edelin's eyes widened.
"That much meat in a sauce? Isn't that just a meat stew?"
I focused on crushing and sautéing the meat with the spatula instead of answering.
As the meat browned, the nutty caramelizing aroma (Maillard reaction) mingled with the vegetables' sweetness, thickening the air in the workshop richly.
When the meat's fat sizzled, I poured in red wine from a bottle.
"Th-that's wine!"
Erika gasped.
"Jonathan! Wine in Tomato Sauce? Both are highly acidic; it'll be unbearably sour!"
"It's fine. This is the key."
I evaporated the alcohol, scraping the flavorful fond from the pot's bottom.
As the wine reduced and the sauce simmered down, I brought out an unimaginable next ingredient: milk.
….
….
….
The three froze solid.
Edelin nearly dropped her meringue cookie; Erika's alchemist common sense shattered on her face.
Even Iris narrowed her brows, staring holes through my hand.
"Um, Jonathan...?"
Erika asked in a trembling voice.
"Did you just... pour in milk?"
"Yeah. It'll tenderize the meat and add creaminess to the sauce."
"You're insane! Milk in a pot with wine and tomatoes? It'll curdle into cheese clumps right away! Alchemy basics are compatibility! You'll ruin all the ingredients!"
Ignoring Erika's cry, I stirred slowly until the milk fully soaked into the meat, grinning.
Miraculously, the milk didn't curdle; it coated each meat particle and vanished.
Only then did I pour in our 'mother sauce,' the Tomato Sauce.
As the red sauce filled the pot, I lowered the heat and covered it ajar.
"Now it's a battle of time. Needs at least two hours to simmer."
….
The three stared vacantly at the bubbling pot on low heat, speechless.
Two hours passed.
Opening the lid released clouds of steam and an unbelievably thick, complex aroma.
The polar opposite of Marinara's freshness.
The meat's heft, vegetables' sweetness, wine's depth, milk's smoothness, and tomato's umami had fused over time into an entirely new dimension of flavor.
The sauce had darkened to a deep mahogany.
I ladled it generously over freshly boiled wide pasta and served it to the three.
"This is 'Ragù Sauce,' specifically the 'Bolognese' style. Dig in."
They picked up forks, half-wary, half-curious.
Edelin tasted first, stuffing her mouth with pasta and sauce.
…!
Her eyes widened twice as much as with the meringue cookies.
"Wh-what is this...! It's... delicious! No way! It should taste like Tomato Sauce, but no sourness at all! Instead, it's smooth, nutty, and insanely deep!"
Edelin couldn't stop forking.
"The meat melts in your mouth, and I thought the wine and milk would clash, but they harmonize perfectly... Mmm! Jonathan, you're a genius! I want this every day!"
While she raved in bliss, Erika approached analytically.
"Unbelievable... It's not the acid (wine) neutralizing the base (milk). Instead... their properties remain while perfectly fusing via the meat's fat. How did you do it?!"
Iris, tasting last, held her fork motionless for five seconds.
A flicker of bewilderment crossed her expressionless face for the first time.
"This is... astonishing."
She adjusted her glasses.
"...Within unpredictable parameters, confirmed."
Her analysis delved deeper than Erika's.
"Mirepoix sugars, meat Maillard reaction, wine fond, milk lactic acid and fat, tomato umami. Forced fusion of these five interactions via two hours of low-heat cooking without separation. Impressive."
Her violet eyes gleamed with intellectual excitement.
"Moreover, the 'mother sauce' isn't an end product—it's a 'binder' and 'base' uniting other ingredients. Depending on the process, results vary like this. Just tweaking ingredients and order yields something entirely different."
She looked straight at me, questioning.
"This isn't like Marinara's simple addition. You've built an entirely new method. This recipe... who exactly are you?"
I shrugged with a satisfied smile, no answer.
Well, one could say I'd crammed humanity's foolish efforts for tasty food into my head from Earth.
But this wasn't the end.
With a pleased smile, I shifted my gaze from the low fire.
As the three girls stared blankly at the pot, still reeling from the Ragù shock, my eyes turned to a bowl of chilled mayonnaise on the opposite counter.
"If Tomato Sauce is the base for hot dishes,"
Their gazes snapped to me, then the mayo bowl.
"this miraculous sunset hue is the base for cold dishes."
"Cold dishes?"
Edelin tilted her head.
"You're cooking with this too? Boiling cream sounds weird..."
"Not boiling."
I pulled out three clean bowls. Into the first, I ladled mayonnaise.
"Starting with the simplest variation."
I took leftover chopped garlic from Marinara, crushed it with the flat of my knife, salted it lightly, and mashed it to a paste.
"G-garlic?"
This nutty, smooth mayo—with pungent garlic? Horror crossed Edelin's face.
I mixed the paste in. The mayo's nuttiness blended with garlic's pungency into an aggressive, appetite-whetting aroma.
I spread it on fresh bread chunks and offered.
"We call this 'Aioli.' Traditionally garlic and olive oil, but mayo shortcuts it stably."
They hesitated, then tasted the bread.
…!
Edelin reacted first again.
"Whoa! What punch! Nutty yet pungent! The richness vanished; it's intensely bold now! Slather this on meat—game over!"
Erika marveled.
"The mayo fat tempers the garlic bite, amplifying aroma! Jonathan, this is... revolutionary!"
Iris nodded quietly.
"Predictable 'aroma' variable. Efficient, like Marinara."
"Next level then."
I drew the second bowl forward.
This time, finely chopped onions, pickled cucumbers (pickles), and capers.
"More ingredients this time?"
"Adding texture and acidity."
I mixed them into the mayo.
The white sauce now dotted with bits, looking refreshingly tangy.
"This is 'Tartar Sauce'."
Instead of bread, I served fried small fish for pairing.
"Try with fried foods."
Edelin dunked generously and bit.
Crunch! The tartar vanished into her mouth.
"...Oh! Oh! Oh! So tangy! Totally different from the garlic one! Cuts the fried greasiness perfectly? Crunchy bits too! Can't eat fries without this now!"
Erika grasped the principle alchemist-style.
"Fat (mayo) tames fat (fry)? No, the mayo's acid and bits neutralize oiliness! Perfect compatibility!"
Iris tasted silently, then summed up briefly.
"Aroma, texture, acid variables. Application stage. Efficient."
I grinned. Yes, up to here was application.
"Now, the finale."
I took the third bowl, ladled in mayo.
Before everyone's eyes, I poured a ladle of the just-simmered 'Tomato Sauce' on top.
"""...!!!"
The workshop air froze again.
Even Edelin couldn't scream. Erika sighed "Ah..."; Iris's glasses flashed.
"J-Jonathan...?"
Erika's voice trembled.
"Did you just mix Tomato Sauce into mayonnaise?"
"Yeah. Right?"
Now they stared with near-reverent awe bordering on fear.
Common sense destroyed. Wine and milk weren't enough; now blending two finished sauces.
Unfazed, I mixed calmly. White cream and red sauce became an appetizing pink.
Not stopping, I added more chopped pickles and onions from Tartar, then a pinch of cayenne pepper from Kalendil's spices.
"Done. 'Thousand Island' dressing."
I drenched fresh vegetable salad and served.
Edelin swallowed hard, taking a bite.
….
Her face entered ineffable ecstasy.
"...Delicious."
She murmured.
"Not like any taste I know. Mayo nuttiness and tomato tang perfectly fused! Crunchy bits, spicy finish! First time veggies taste this good!"
Erika was already dazed.
"Impossible... Stable emulsion mixed with another aqueous base—no separation... No, even better fusion! How?!"
Then Iris, quietly eating salad, clinked her fork down firmly.
She slowly pushed up her glasses. Her stoic violet eyes burned with awe and thrill beyond intellectual excitement.
"You aimed for this from the start. Mother Sauce A and B. A+a, A+b, B+x, B+y... And finally A+B."
Iris scanned the five derived sauces on the counter.
"This... this is combination theory. Not alchemy's, but infinite flavor combinations."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"With just two base sauces, ingredient and process combos yield near-infinite flavors."
I met her admiring gaze with a satisfied smile.
Verification complete. Time to distribute these for real.
I didn't know it then.
"O, oooh! Th-this is...!"
That these sauces would unleash a typhoon from a completely unintended direction.