Freeze-Drying System / The Pilgrim Saint
Freeze-Drying System / The Pilgrim Saint
Andrea—who had boldly promised to teach the knights the secret techniques of the elves—stood before them in the early morning, drawn up like a new knight commander, shoulders squared and eyes sharp.
"Atten-tion."
"Atten-tion!"
The knights, discipline drilled into them, roared back in unison at her single word.
"Good lungs. Atten-tion."
"Atten-tion!"
"Starting today, you will endure brutal conditioning before you so much as touch an ingredient. Understood?"
She delivered it evenly, but her voice carried a dense, hard-edged fighting spirit—the kind that could make anyone with a weak will shrivel on the spot just from the sound of it.
"......."
"Understood?"
"Yes!"
Her frost-edged voice had them all rigid.
I hadn't seen Andrea's eyes turn that sharp in a long time.
Damn, those eyes.
The first time she ever set foot in this restaurant, she looked exactly like that. The eyes of a warrior measuring up everyone in front of her for slaughter. Occasionally she still showed that look when a worthy opponent came along—say, Veronia—but mostly I'd gotten used to her as a member of the staff. I'd almost forgotten the woman was a swordswoman of monstrous skill.
"She's going to enjoy this."
I found myself thinking back to what she'd said to me the day before.
-If I turn those knights into actual human beings, then in return, boss, you grant me one wish.
-You've got a specific dish you want?
-I-It's not that, okay?
She'd told me she'd tell me what she wanted later.
If it's not food, then what...?
I had no idea. The Tuu hunting method—she'd already gotten that out of me. She didn't think I'd lied about it, did she?
That would be a problem.
I was still turning it over in my head while getting the restaurant ready for the day when Rimeon, by now the establishment's official alchemist-mage, walked in.
"Boss, there are knights suffering mightily outside—what exactly are they up to?"
"Andrea's out there turning those fine fellows into human beings. She's running them through training."
"Ah."
"So what brings you here?"
"The alchemical apparatus for freeze-drying is finished."
"Truly?"
"Would I lie about something like this? Ha-ha-ha!"
No wonder he'd had that spring in his step lately.
"Would you like to see it?"
"I would. Where's the machine?"
"Currently in my laboratory."
"Let's go right now. I want to see it immediately."
"Are you sure you can step away from the shop?"
A little worried, sure. But Andrea was here. It'd be fine.
"I'll leave it to Andrea. Her skills speak for themselves."
"I see. Then come along at once."
On my way out to the entrance, I saw the knights holding basic sword stances, each of them frozen motionless with a small stone balanced on the tip of their blade. Andrea was glaring at them with those hunter's eyes.
"Andrea. In the middle of training?"
"Ah—yes, boss!"
Her expression softened the moment she saw me.
"Where are you headed?"
"Apparently the freeze-drying system's finished. Going to go take a look."
"Ah."
"Mind handling the prep for today, just this once?"
"Will you be long?"
"Shouldn't be, but just in case."
"Go whenever! I'll handle everything."
Andrea shouted it with confidence. That put me somewhat at ease. This was why you needed staff you could trust.
"By the way, where's Bldi?"
"Good question. I saw her cleaning in the corner of the shop earlier, but......."
I had no choice but to tell Andrea to keep an eye on Bldi too, and then I headed over to Rimeon's laboratory with him.
His lab, set up in the house right next to ours, had been purpose-built for alchemical research. The ground floor—ceiling punched through high overhead—was crammed with all sorts of research paraphernalia and blueprints. In the center sat the freeze-drying machine, presumably Rimeon's invention.
"This one?"
"Yes. You open the intake, place the material to be dried inside, and the inscribed magic circle flash-freezes it. Wind magic variants draw out some of the internal air to lower the pressure and seal it."
"Have you run tests?"
"Of course. I tested everything."
Rimeon pointed to powders laid out in the corner: a red powder and an ocher-yellow powder, each spooned neatly into transparent bowls.
"The red one on the left is gochujang dissolved in water and then freeze-dried. The ocher-colored one on the right is doenjang dissolved in water and freeze-dried."
Next to them sat thoroughly desiccated meat, fish, and various vegetables—mushrooms, radish, napa cabbage—all laid out bone-dry.
"These, as you can see, are other ingredients I froze as a test."
"How low does the temperature go?"
"At present, down to minus one hundred degrees. With future improvements, it could reach minus two hundred."
"Can you reverse it—raise the temperature?"
"Impossible with this machine as it stands, but if I adapt the design, I can finish a new one within a few days. Swap the freezing magic for flame magic, invert the wind-drawing spell into a pressurizing spell. Honestly, finding materials sturdy enough to endure the pressure will take longer."
"Good."
I examined the brittle-dried meat and vegetables.
Properly dried. Texture and shape preserved, yet completely parched.
Crack!
I applied a little pressure. The mushroom and radish snapped like dry twigs.
"You dried these properly."
Vegetables, fish, meat—all bone-dry.
Crrrck.
I pressed lightly on a thoroughly desiccated fish and a piece of meat. Both had lost every trace of moisture; they crumbled at a touch.
Finally, I took up the seasoning powders—supposedly gochujang and doenjang dissolved and then freeze-dried. The particles were remarkably fine. I spooned out a bit with a little teaspoon, tapped it onto a plate, and sprinkled a few drops of water onto it. Once it turned pasty, I dipped my finger in and tasted.
The gochujang seasoning and the doenjang seasoning both hit the tongue vividly. The flavors had survived the drying process intact.
With this, the ultimate ramyun soup packet is actually possible.
Solid-ingredient soup, too.
Instant ramyun.
That meant I could finally taste it again—the flavor I'd half-forgotten.
Now, you could argue I could simply make the broth and cook ramyun from scratch. To which I'd say: you just don't understand the soul of ramyun. What I wanted was instant ramyun. The kind where you tear open a packet, dump it into boiling water, and five minutes later it's done.
At last.......
I looked over at Rimeon after tasting. He'd been watching me, wound tight with tension, biting his lip.
"Looks like a success. You've worked hard."
"Truly?"
He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fist.
"Finally!"
It hadn't even been a full month since he'd received Homer's blueprints. In less than a month, he'd completed the freeze-drying system.
Camilla sent me the right person.
Just as I was thinking that—
"Looks like you two have made something interesting."
I turned toward the familiar voice. Camilla stood there, her hair falling like a sunset sky around her shoulders.
"Lady Camilla. When did you arrive?"
"Just now. The craftspeople for building the teleport gate have all been secured, so I came to your house in person—but I seem to have stumbled onto something more interesting."
Her eyes went to the machine behind us.
"What's that?"
"Ah, this is a freeze-drying system. It's a technique for dehydrating ingredients while preserving as much of their flavor as possible. A project that began with Sir Lucas's idea and proceeded through research."
"...Is that so?"
Camilla looked at me.
"Correct."
"And what, exactly, does having that do for you?"
She sounded as if she couldn't quite grasp the point. I showed her the powder made from doenjang.
"This is powder made from dissolved doenjang. No smell at all, is there?"
"......Huh. You're right."
"With this powder alone, even someone with no cooking talent can produce a delicious soup dish in an instant."
"That's possible?"
"Of course. Shall I demonstrate?"
Interest kindled in her eyes.
"Let's."
***
"Haah, haah."
The Saintess Amelia spurred her horse along the forest trail, gasping.
"This way, Your Holiness!"
Together with the Holy Knights guarding her pilgrimage, she fled from the pursuing Knights of Bellosa. Wind lashed her skin. Unaccustomed to long rides, her lower back throbbed. She forced her body to recover with holy power and kept urging the horse forward.
The Bellosa knights did not let up.
Arrows flew from behind. She deflected them—and the arrows aimed at her holy knights—with divine protection. A shield of light enveloped every knight guarding her.
"I expected some interference, but to think they'd move this openly......."
Amelia clenched her teeth.
She recalled what the Lord of Bellosa had said before the attack on the Holy Knights.
-Even now, renounce your support of the Imperial Princess. Then we can resolve this amicably. Your Holiness is simply passing through on pilgrimage. You will not speak of whatever radiance the princess may or may not have received.
-You intend to lay hands on a messenger of God?
-I was under the impression that the Order's principle was to refrain from meddling in imperial politics.
Lord Bellosa, with an uncharacteristic boldness, had sought to check the Order for intervening in the imperial succession. His eyes, gleaming like a serpent's, had appraised her from head to toe.
-If God means to meddle once more in human politics, then humans have no choice but to commit impiety.
-You declare yourself a heretic, then?
-It is not heresy. I am merely saying that we wish to see things done according to human will.
-To oppose God in the pursuit of that will is itself heresy. Do you not know how the Empire was founded?
-The First Emperor laid the foundations and built it.
-Had God not sent the First Saintess to aid him with divine grace, the Emperor would never have overcome the crises that beset him.
In the end, Lord Bellosa had refused to relent. He attacked her and the Holy Knights.
-Striking down Your Holiness pains my heart, but accidents during pilgrimage are hardly uncommon. We will say you were killed by heterogeneous tribes who crossed the western border.
More than half the Holy Knights had given their lives to get Amelia out of the castle. Half of those who remained had stayed before the castle gates to slow the pursuit.
And now—
"The path splits."
The remaining knights stopped at the fork, ready to stake their lives.
One path led down toward another territory below the forest. The other plunged deeper into the woods, toward the distant south.
"We should part ways here, Your Holiness."
The holy knights bowed their heads before her.
"No. Please don't."
It was reckless. If she abandoned them here and fled, she could see exactly what future awaited.
"If we do not hold them, the pursuit will stay on you. Count Purt's territory—whose house stands in opposition to Bellosa—is not far. Go and request an escort there."
"......."
They would all die. She knew that, and still she had to leave them.
It was unspeakably selfish, but to convey God's will—God who had chosen the Second Princess—she, at least, had to survive.
"......God will watch over you all."
Then a female knight approached—one who bore the same pale, pink-tinged shimmer in her hair.
"Give me your veil and holy vestments, Your Holiness."
"Mika......."
It was Mika, her personal guard.
"You must survive, Your Holiness. And you must tell the world everything that Lord Bellosa has done."
"......I'm sorry. Truly, I am sorry."
Amelia choked back her tears. She could not show weakness here. She had to steel herself, by any means, and survive. Only then could she prove that their sacrifice had not been in vain.
"May God's blessing remain with you all to the very end."
She bestowed one final blessing on every knight present.
"They're closing in. Hurry."
Amelia handed her vestments to Mika, and the two exchanged horses for the last time.
"I'll take the upper path. No one will believe the Saintess fled by such a rough route. And even if they do chase me, they won't find me easily in the forest."
Mika nodded at her words.
"If you reach the city first, Sir Mika, hurry to the Order's church there and request reinforcements."
"......Understood."
It was a decision she'd reached after her own careful deliberation. Amelia took the upper path on her horse, while her guard Mika went lower. Two knights fell in behind Mika—to complete the illusion that the real Amelia was making for the city.
Amelia rode hard along the upper trail. The sounds of furious battle reached her ears.
She swallowed her tears and rode on.
For survival. To uphold God's will.