You Mean That White and Squishy Thing?
You Mean That White and Squishy Thing?
Standing before the gates of Britten Territory, Camilla Wagon found herself hesitating.
The reason was simple.
Britten Territory was profoundly shabby.
It didn't even merit comparison to the imperial capital. Even measured against the smaller cities of the south—the ones everyone called provincial backwaters—its castle was tiny.
No matter how you looked at it, this was land with zero potential for generating wealth.
It was not the sort of holding where a knight—no, a chef—of Lucas's caliber belonged.
"Kobi. Why would he open a shop in such a paltry territory?"
"I'm afraid I can't say, my lady."
"Hmm. So he rejected my offer just to set up shop in a backwater this small?"
"Even so, Lucas seemed content with his present life."
"Kobi, that can't be right."
Content with a life like this?
To a woman who believed with absolute conviction that the world runs on money, the choice was utterly incomprehensible.
How much had she offered him?
She had been fully prepared to match any salary he named if he would become her personal chef.
She'd intended to pay him more than an imperial knight commander—more than the continent's greatest chef currently serving the imperial household.
She'd meant to make him the single highest-earning figure among chefs and knights alike.
And yet he preferred this—burying himself in the countryside—over universal admiration?
Ridiculous.
This was a silent declaration of defiance.
"It doesn't seem to be about money... What does he want?"
No answer came, no matter how she turned it over.
"I'll just hear it from him directly."
She was confident. Confident she could give him anything he desired.
The guard blocking the entrance gawked, face frozen in shock, as the carriage bearing the Golden Wagon seal rolled into view.
"Golden Wagon...?"
From that moment, the territory erupted into chaos.
A carriage utterly unsuited to this peaceful, quiet little castle paraded straight down the main road.
Clop, clop, clop.
By the time the procession halted in front of the Knight Restaurant, the townspeople had surged after her in a buzzing, murmuring throng.
The first thing Camilla noticed was the signboard, painted in unfamiliar script.
"What is that?"
"They call it a Knight Restaurant. The lettering is said to come from Lucas's homeland."
"Is that so? The shapes are curious. They look almost like pictures."
Beneath the strangely pictorial sign hung a large bulletin board. She studied the papers pinned to it and read their contents closely.
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★★★★★
The Bulgogi Baekban and the fried rice are truly delicious. So delicious I stole bites off the owner's plate after finishing my own! The owner is kind and the food is wonderful.
Recommended menu: Bulgogi Baekban - Fried Rice
-Liana, Territory Administrator of the Viscount's House-
==============
"Oh, what's this? Testimonials from customers? Posting user reviews to boost credibility? The stars above must indicate satisfaction ratings."
As she read the board, the corners of her lips curled upward.
Using customer testimonials to raise a product's trustworthiness.
"A clever promotional method."
The higher the credibility of the reviewer, the greater the promotional effect.
Looking over the board, she saw most entries were written by the territory's steward, its knights and knight commander, even the young lord and the viscount himself. People who wielded considerable influence within the territory.
She had employed a similar method herself.
Present the emperor and the imperial household with the finest specimens of your products so that they come to use Golden Wagon goods. Nobles who witnessed the emperor using them would covet them and follow suit, and the more they did, the higher the products' value climbed.
Once a trend caught among the nobility, the goods could be sold at steep prices, and profit followed.
Trends, of course, were never eternal.
They moved like a tide. Products fashionable among the aristocracy soon trickled down to the aspirational middle classes. Mass-produce mid-to-high-priced versions for that market, and widespread popularity followed as a matter of course.
Simply by presenting their finest wares to the imperial household, Golden Wagon had sold its goods at an absurd scale. That was how Golden Wagon had turned its products into sought-after items in the capital region. And how it had, simultaneously, made the Golden Wagon name known there.
More ingenious than my own approach.
Pinning handwritten customer reviews right in front of his shop. Her method of presenting goods to the imperial household had one critical flaw: if the emperor did not choose the product, it never saw the light of day.
It relied entirely on the mystique surrounding the emperor and the nobility. What if one were on bad terms with the current emperor? The method became unusable.
Moreover, it was difficult to apply to anything that wasn't conspicuous—fashion, jewelry, goods that caught the eye. Even if the emperor or his household wore them, if they failed to draw the nobility's gaze, the endeavor failed outright.
But this approach was different.
A visitor writing a testimonial in their own hand—that stirred a buyer's interest far more directly. Why had they written such a review? How delicious must the food be? What exactly was this dish they claimed had let them "feel chivalry"?
It was the perfect promotional method for a restaurant. And it could be applied across a far broader range of fields.
Had Lucas devised this himself?
If so, his value had just climbed again. It meant he possessed not only culinary skill but commercial instinct.
I want him.
Camilla, who had been studying the board's construction with keen attention, addressed Kobi.
"Kobi. What do you think?"
"Wh-what do you mean, my lady?"
She had been so absorbed in admiring Lucas's review board that she failed to notice Kobi, following behind her, had turned utterly pale.
"This board. Couldn't we adapt it for our own Golden Wagon storefronts?"
"It—it seems a fine approach."
"What's wrong with your complexion? You look like someone caught sneaking food."
"Well, you see, my lady..."
Just then, her eye caught a particular review.
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★ ★ ★
★ ★
It'sh hard to pronoush but delishus. At firsht I thought it was weird. After eating it, it's heaven.
Goesh great with shojo.
Pleash love GW Shojo lotsh.
Danju, you bashard! I got a temper too! Is your mouth the only mouth around here?!
Recommended menu: Coco Gizzard Stir-fry - Soju
-Kobi, Senior Manager of Golden Wagon (FUTURE HEAD OF THE MERCHANT GROUP VERY IMPORTANT!)-
==============
Kobi's review.
"Hey, Kobi."
Camilla's voice dropped to ice in an instant.
"I-I'm sorry! About writing 'Future Head of the Merchant Group,' that was—"
She stared down at the crown of Kobi's head, bowed at a full one-hundred-and-twenty-degree angle.
"You ate something behind my back?"
"P-pardon?"
"Ddong... jip? Have you lost your mind?"
"Ah, my lady, that—the name doesn't mean actual, uh, feces are involved..."
"So it involves fake feces, then?"
"No, not at all, that's not—"
"I had no idea you harbored such tastes. And Lucas! What was he thinking, just whipping it up because you asked? He needs to consider the reputation of his own name as a chef."
"M-my lady, you misunderstand."
But Camilla was in no mood to hear him out.
Because the more she chewed on it, the angrier she became.
"Now that I think about it, whatever it was, you ate food that Lucas made for you alone, didn't you?"
"P-pardon?"
"I told this bastard to deliver a gift, relay my message, and come straight back—and you drank, too?"
"W-well, you see, I..."
"Haah. To think this is our Golden Wagon's senior manager."
Kobi, reading Camilla's mood with anxious eyes, ventured carefully.
"Er, uhm, the part where I insulted you, my lady..."
"Forget it. Kobi, isn't getting drunk and doing something insane sort of your brand by now?"
"Ah... I'm sorry."
"If you know you're sorry, do better. If you truly want to be the future head, try surpassing me first."
"Yes, my lady."
Overlooking a subordinate's strange hobbies was part of a superior's duty.
As long as he doesn't eat it in front of me.
Eat weird things if you must—just do your job well.
Kobi would have been mortified if he'd heard what was running through her head. Unfortunately for him, Kobi possessed no ability to read minds. He simply felt relieved to be alive.
Just as Kobi was hanging his head in dejection, a pink-haired woman emerged from the restaurant.
"We're currently on break—"
The moment she met Camilla's eyes, the pink-haired woman shrieked.
"Kyaaah! C-C-Camilla-nim?!"
"And you are?"
As if summoned by the noise, a familiar face appeared from within.
Jet-black hair. Clearly-drawn, chestnut-brown eyes. He wasn't wearing the splendid armor and uniform of the knight order as he once had, but the man who faced her now—dressed in clean, practical clothes with his sleeves rolled to the elbows—was unmistakable.
The moment she saw him, her mouth watered.
The dish he'd once made her—Doenjang-jjigae—flashed through her mind and her mouth flooded with anticipation.
"Lucas! There you are! You have no idea how desperately I've been wanting to see you."
Camilla cried out, her voice flushed with excitement.
"You've come. Lady Camilla Wagon."
"You'll take responsibility for making me like this, won't you?"
***
"What brings you here?"
"What brings me here? You told me yourself. If I wanted to eat it, I'd have to come all this way. So I dragged my weary feet here."
Seated at a table, Camilla spoke with a haughty posture. It was a gesture that said: I've come as you demanded, now serve me as a guest should be served.
I didn't think she'd actually come.
I'd come all the way out to this rural backwater of Britten precisely to avoid anything that might entangle me with the imperial household. True, I'd still done business with the Golden Wagon group—but only because they were the sole merchant company capable of procuring the variety of ingredients and seasonings I needed.
I'd made my refusal to Camilla emphatically clear, too. I'd assumed this merchant group leader, prideful as she was, would never actually make the journey. So why?
She fixed me with an amber stare.
"So. What's today's menu?"
I handed her the menu board.
-MENU-
-Bulgogi Baekban - 10 Silver
-Add Fried Rice - 4 Silver
-Western-style Donkatsu - 12 Silver
-Fish Dish - 12 Silver - Menu varies according to the day's catch.
"What's this? Why isn't Doenjang-jjigae on here?"
"I haven't added it to the menu yet."
"These other items—I haven't tried any of them."
"What would you like?"
Camilla studied the menu board briefly, then set it down as though dismissing it without regret.
"Give me what I always eat."
"..."
"And if possible, I'd like that fatty cut of meat included. You know the one. Brisket, was it?"
Camilla's lips twitched as she spoke. Even now, her mouth was pursing and unpursing—she was clearly braced with anticipation.
"I'm sorry, but I can't serve you Doenjang-jjigae right this moment."
At those words, the corners of her mouth, just beginning to lift, plummeted.
"I read your bulletin board. Kobi ate off-menu. The viscount ate off-menu. Even the knight commander ate off-menu. So why am I the exception?"
Those all had circumstances behind them. But Camilla was not the sort to hear out circumstances.
"I rode in a carriage for two weeks to eat the Doenjang-jjigae you make. You know I despise wasting my valuable time more than anything."
Her voice was laced with genuine displeasure.
I had no intention of sending her away on an empty stomach, either. The true reason I couldn't produce Doenjang-jjigae right now was something else entirely.
"I have no dubu for the Doenjang-jjigae."
Make Doenjang-jjigae without dubu? That was like eating a steamed bun with no red bean paste inside. Like mala soup with no mala, like tanghulu with no sugar.
"...That soft, white thing, you mean?"
"Yes."
"When I ate it at the knight order last time, you had it every day."
"That was because I soaked the beans in advance and kept spare dubu prepared, anticipating your visits, Lady Camilla."
"..."
"It will take considerable time. If you wish to eat it, it won't be ready until tomorrow evening at the earliest."
Making dubu required first soaking the beans, and the beans needed a substantial amount of time to soak. Twelve hours at minimum, sometimes a full day. After that, grinding the soaked beans, boiling them, and coagulating them all required additional time.
Assuming I started making dubu right this moment, it would take at least a full day or more.
"So I only have to wait one day?"
"Yes. Perhaps you'd prefer to choose another menu item instead."
I didn't want to simply send her away after she'd come this far. I'd been avoiding the calamity a distant future might hold—not trying to chase off someone who'd traveled all this way to eat my cooking.
If I chased her off, my neck would be on the line right now.
"If that's the reason, it's fine. One day is nothing. I can wait."
The anger vanished from Camilla's voice.
"You intend to wait?"
"Naturally. It took me two weeks to get here. I can't just leave."
"..."
"And since I'm already here, I plan to do some legwork and see if I can't find a diamond hiding in the dirt. Do you think that'll be wrapped up in a single day?"
"A diamond? There's nothing here that would interest Golden Wagon."
"Nothing? Of course there is."
She pointed at me.
"You, Lucas. Do you know how badly I've been craving your cooking?"
Her eyes glittered.
"You know how incredible that feeling of satisfied fullness was—when I put that soft, white, hot thing in my mouth. Don't you?"
"Lady Camilla, if someone overhears, they'll misunderstand. Please say 'dubu.'"
"Misunderstand? Who's going to misunderstand? Did I say anything wrong? I saw your face when I ate that dubu, soaked through with the rich Doenjang-jjigae broth. You loved it too. Didn't you?"
What chef wouldn't appreciate someone who enjoys their cooking? But when you phrase it like that, the misunderstandings just keep piling up.
Even now, Liana's eyes have gone enormous.
"That's true enough, but..."
The nuance, my lady. The nuance.
"Well, fine. Now that I know I can't have Doenjang-jjigae immediately, I'll take my leave for today."
"You're not eating? There are other menu items."
"No. I don't want to blunt the edge of this long wait with some other dish."
Yet as she looked at the menu board, her eyes were dripping with lingering desire. She was holding herself back by sheer willpower when every fiber of her clearly wanted to eat right now.
"Today, I'll go sample the skill of the viscount's castle chef."
Just as she finished speaking, the sound of Viscount Britten's approach reached us.
"Lucas, I'll be looking forward to it. I hope you'll fill me up completely—with something that fully satisfies the wait."
The amber eyes regarding me curved in a soft, gentle arc.
"Just like that time before."
After that, she departed for the viscount's castle alongside the newly arrived Viscount Britten.
"First, I need to get my hands on some beans."
I'd talked big, so I'd better deliver at full skill. At that moment, Kobi, still lingering where he stood, spoke up.
"Lucas, I brought beans."
"Truly?"
"The head of the group insisted we procure this exact variety. She said it's the finest strain available anywhere in the empire."
So that was why she'd left so abruptly, without even mentioning the beans.
I could feel the sheer force of her obsession with Doenjang-jjigae.