The Emperor's Chef (1)
I had gone rigid, stammering like a fool, when Emperor Leonik laughed with easy warmth.
"Haha! Ermia, from your account alone I half expected an actual envoy of Lady Maria. He's quite an ordinary young man."
"Right? The ability, though—that's anything but ordinary."
"Don't overthink it. Sit. Kang Jinwoo, isn't it? May I call you that?"
"Y-yes! Please, speak as you like."
What was this? Had Ermia tipped him off beforehand?
More startling still, she was on casual terms with the Emperor of the Empire himself. The title of archmage really did carry that much weight.
Leonik had loosened the air in the room, and thanks to that I managed to sit with a somewhat easier heart. The sudden turn of events had left me with a mountain of questions. I stole an awkward glance around and opened my mouth.
"Um... Your most noble, eternal, hale, blessed, and revered Majesty. There is something I would humbly ask..."
"Spare me the botched ceremony and speak plainly. That's why I called you aside."
"Ah, yes. Might I ask what all of this is about?"
"Hm. That would be the chamberlain's part. Ah—I dismissed everyone, so of course there's no one."
"Pfft. Age is catching up with you. You're all over the place, Leonik."
"Same as ever, treating the Emperor so lightly. Ermia."
A long history had clearly piled up between them out of my sight, and there was no one here to explain it for me. Ermia and Leonik were not mere acquaintances. They were close—close enough for her to laugh in the Emperor's face. That was a vibe you only got from people who had been thick as thieves since they were young.
In any case, she had no intention of speaking for him. She only narrowed her eyes in a sly smile.
In the end I was granted the excessive honor of hearing the whole story from Leonik's own mouth.
"Hah. Touch the power of a god, and suddenly even the Emperor gets ignored. Fine. I'll tell you myself, Kang Jinwoo."
"Th-thank you."
"To put the conclusion first, the greatest reward in this merit ceremony is yours. The trouble is, I was told that ability of yours must be kept secret."
"Pardon? Mine?"
"Yes. I didn't see it myself, but they say a miracle dwells in your food. If what Ermia says is true, it is a power that must not come to light."
"Of course it's true. I'll take it from here, Kang Jinwoo."
Ermia uncrossed her arms and picked up the thread. I sat quietly and listened.
"A mysterious power that exchanges ingredients, and food made from those ingredients that carries a miracle. That's the whole of your strength, isn't it?"
"Yes. More or less."
She was talking about Mana Market and Son-mat—Hand Taste—so she had it roughly right.
"Thanks to that power, my students grew, and so did I. Without you, we couldn't have survived the attack. That's why the greatest reward is yours. The ability was kept secret, so we had no choice but to withhold the award from the official ceremony."
"So that was it. Then what did you mean earlier, calling me Lady Maria's envoy? You mean the goddess I know, right?"
Asking them to keep it secret had been my request, and Ermia and Leonik had respected me as far as they could. That question was settled, but I still had more. Leonik had called me Maria's envoy.
In this world, the Maria I knew was the one true goddess—and I was her envoy? If anything, my only tie to the Church of Maria was having used its priests and nuns as unpaid labor for kneading hardtack. Far from being an envoy, I would be lucky not to catch divine punishment. Beyond that, I had never been involved with the Church, and I had never even prayed.
"That's... unexpected. I was going to ask you."
"What? I don't know anything."
"From the look of you now, that seems to be true. Then I'll explain it step by step."
As if a long story were coming, Ermia drew a deep breath and began. She started with what she had heard from her master, Grendel, about the mana of the gods.
Humanity's goddess, Maria, and the evil god, Nereus. Grendel, who had indirectly felt the power of those gods in the Great War, had said human mana could have no effect on them whatsoever. He compared it to the feathers of a duck, which never get wet. Ermia said she understood that metaphor perfectly when the man in the black robe sealed her, and her own human mana became useless.
"Kang Jinwoo. Your mana is a little alien, so I said I would study it. You remember?"
"Yes. I remember."
"From what I've come to realize, your mana and that mysterious power were both granted by Maria. The terrorists who attacked the Academy, on the other hand, were remnants of the evil god—Nereus."
Honestly, the Great War, Maria, Nereus—whatever. To someone who had crossed over from Earth, it was a dry, scholarly tale from long ago. But my strange status window and skills had been granted by a god of this world? I leaned in toward that interesting hypothesis.
"If not for your food, I probably couldn't have broken the seal either. That seal held the evil god's mana—a power on a completely different level from anything a human could wield."
"No... really? Is that true? It's so sudden I'm still dazed."
"A revelation at the great cathedral in the south would make it certain, but in my view there is no mistake. You are a human who received a god's power. Maria must have wanted you to help humanity with it. And amusingly enough, that is exactly what you are doing."
"I was just going to live running a restaurant in some remote backwater, and I only ended up in the capital for a little while by chance. You're saying all of this was planned?"
It felt like I had been eating dinner as usual when someone suddenly dumped the secret of my birth on me. I had never actually lived through a past like that, of course. I only meant it was that shocking.
Everything I had done through the status window—all of it a god's plan? Then I had been nothing but a pawn, thrashing about on the palm of Maria's hand according to her design?
"I'm not a pawn. I'm a person!"
"Hm? Obviously. What are you suddenly... Anyway, looking back now, it all fits. The Monster Wave in Silbaerin was abnormally fierce compared to other years, and you—who had just happened to open a restaurant in Silbaerin—supplied food and lent your strength. Right?"
"Yes... I did."
"And Nuardel. Hey, Leonik. Word came in from Nuardel, didn't it?"
"Truly. I can hear my authority dropping in real time."
Ah. I had just been thinking, Is His Majesty more of a lightweight than I expected?—and he caught it like a ghost.
Anyway, Silbaerin's Monster Wave. It had been a long time since I had heard that mentioned. Back then it was the region where I lived, and the quartermaster had been so hopeless that I had stepped in out of pity for the knights.
But Nuardel. I didn't think I had done much there. The reason I had gone in the first place was half coercion, and everything that happened after was nothing but Arthur and Kailan raising hell.
"News from Nuardel arrived ten days ago. They nearly suffered a great calamity from the monsters pouring out of the Kalian Mountain Range, but they had prepared in advance and held them off well. And... three elves serving out their punishment supposedly distinguished themselves?"
"Oh, really? How?"
"The food they made was so wretched that the furious elves found the strength to fight instead. They swore they would survive no matter what, if only to taste your Hand Taste one more time, Kang Jinwoo."
Criminal elves making food. That would be Iseria, Veila, and Seiran. Honestly, I hadn't expected anything from the other two. I had taught Iseria with my own hands before I left, so I had held out some hope for her—but it seemed she was still suffering through it.
"Of course, that is only an aside. In truth, the Sildiel family, who have kept eating your food, are the ones in charge of Nuardel's defense, are they not? The elf named Elioren, and the three I just mentioned—all of them showed strikingly great power."
"Aha... But how does Your Majesty know so well? Isn't Nuardel closed off?"
"When you are Emperor of the Empire, there are ways. Don't be curious."
"Ghk—yes, sir."
I swallowed the barbed answer at once.
I truly hadn't intended any of it, but just as they said, every step I had taken had contributed greatly to holding back the evil god. Now I understood what that hideous eyeball of a monster had muttered about variables as it died.
I didn't know the details, but the Great War was a pretty old affair, wasn't it? They had been carefully laying plans from then until now, failed to account for me rolling in, and gotten blocked at every turn?
My heart's swelling. What a complete amateur.
If that was the case, then selling toast, tteokbokki, Milk Peach, and chicken skewers at the Academy was probably the same story. No need to ask further. So much information had come in at once that my head was spinning. The news whipped around me like contradictory orders shouted from every side, and I focused on sorting out my thoughts.
Ermia saw my face and nodded, as if to say it was only natural.
"All of this must feel sudden. Still, one thing is certain."
"Right. That my food is delicious..."
"No. That too, but... sigh. I'll just do it. No more talk."
The chair scraped. Ermia finished speaking and rose. Leonik, who had been listening, rose as well, his lavish ornaments swaying. Startled, I grabbed the armrest to stand with them.
But they moved faster than I could get up.
A soft shift—Leonik and Ermia laid their right hands gently over the left side of their chests, over their hearts, and bowed their heads at the same time. It was a formal salute used in the Aethernia Empire only by those of high station.
"Thank you, truly, for saving the Academy, the students, and me. Kang Jinwoo. I, Ermia Belfast, swear on my honor that I will repay this debt."
"Uh, uh. What? All of a sudden..."
"You drove out a shadow of the evil god that even I, the Emperor, did not know, and you helped avert a great calamity for the Empire. I will not easily forget that merit. You have my thanks."
"No. Please don't."
So this was when people said they didn't know what to do with themselves. Hunched in an awkward bow, I received the thanks of two powers. Calling it receiving was generous. I was only stammering and flushed while the two of them bowed on their own.
When the nod was done, they sat back down with composure.
"That took a while. You had quite a few questions. So the conclusion is this, Kang Jinwoo."
"Yes. Please speak."
"Your merit cannot be compared to this Academy attack alone. At this level, it stands alongside that of a hero of the nation."
My restaurant, which doubled as my home, sat in a northern backwater, and until a few days ago I had been living modestly, grilling chicken skewers. Hearing myself called a national hero all of a sudden was embarrassingly much.
"But there is a problem with rewarding that merit."
"Huh. What kind of problem?"
"To properly honor merit of this scale, we would have to raise you to the nobility and bring your house into the imperial household. That is the fitting measure."
"Well... that much would be a burden, so yes, it's a problem."
"No, no. It is not a problem of that sort. The problem is how others would see it."
Nobody had even thought of offering the rice cake, and I had already opened my mouth. A little abashed, I waited for Leonik to go on.
"Your ability is a secret. Even I can see that nothing good would come of revealing it. The belief that we control information is only a human delusion. We never know when your identity might be laid bare before Nereus's remnants."
"Ah. Now I understand."
"Yes. If I bestowed some dazzling reward on you in this situation, it would only draw suspicion. But neither can we reveal your ability and broadcast your deeds."
Heard that way, it was a rather ironic situation. People do not live every gesture of their lives in order to receive some prize. I had only been getting by as things came, so a grand reward for it felt somewhat burdensome. Still, whether I had intended it or not, a result was a result. There was no reason to play the fool and refuse.
"This is why I called you aside, Kang Jinwoo. Tell me what you want. We will work it out together."
"Haa... that's a difficult one."
"As the great Emperor of Aethernia, I find it unbearably frustrating, but... it cannot be helped. If you need more time to think, as much as you—"
"No. Nothing like that. I've decided."
"What."
The point, anyway, was a reward that matched my merits without standing out too much. It wasn't a problem that needed days of thought. I looked straight into Leonik's black eyes and spoke with confidence.
"Please let me cook in the imperial kitchen."
"Wh-what?"
"And while I'm at it, I'd like to see the ingredient storehouse. I'm curious about the supply routes, too. Also, the imperial chefs' recipes..."
"Wait, wait. Are you still nervous because you stand before me? Or is this excessive modesty? There is no need for that. Ask for something proper."
"Don't worry. I still have one more."
"Very well. Let's hear it."
His Majesty really did worry ahead of himself. As if I would be satisfied with only this.
I, Kang Jinwoo, was the man who, back on Earth, had piled up money through vicious, skinflint thrift just to secure a restaurant of my own. Since coming to this world that greed had eased a great deal, but I was not fool enough to let an opportunity that fell into my lap walk away.
I stated my final demand.
"Lastly, please grant me the chance to offer my cooking to Your Majesty the Emperor."
"Ha... haha... hahaha..."
"You really are the craziest human I have ever seen, Kang Jinwoo."
"Huh? Why me?"
Leonik burst into a hollow laugh at my perfectly sincere request. Ermia snorted as well and teased me.
No—this was a reward I genuinely wanted. Why were they acting like that? This was one step back for two steps forward. No. One step back for five steps forward.
The body doesn't lie. Capture the stomach, and the rest follows.
Capture the Emperor's stomach. That alone, and my life in this other world would grow richer than anything that had come before.