Chapter 456 – The Head Chef of the Royal Castle

Following the lady-in-waiting’s guidance, I headed to the royal castle’s kitchen to begin preparations. After disinfecting my hands, feet, and clothing with Life Magic, I entered the kitchen and found all eyes on me.

It seemed the chefs were watching me rather than listening to conversations. Hmm… Well, first things first, I should greet the head chef and express my gratitude.

“Um, I apologize for making such an unreasonable request today.”

When I spoke to the middle-aged man wearing the most impressive chef’s hat, his expression softened.

“Not at all. As a chef myself, I’m looking forward to seeing something new, and it should be good learning experience for the younger staff as well. Please don’t worry about us.”

His response was gentle. As expected of someone chosen by King Melvin, I suppose.

…Well then, let’s get started right away. I took out the necessary items from the luggage I brought, prepared everything following the same procedure as yesterday, then moved on to the final steps of making the cutlet using Magic.

As I fried the cutlet while supporting it with Magic, murmurs arose from those around me. The coating visibly browned before their eyes. When I judged the timing right and released the seal, the aroma and sound were unleashed, once again drawing “Ooh…” sounds from the chefs.

“I see… I’d heard about it, but while this is fried food… this is what it means to not use oil. Indeed… using too much oil can make food somewhat heavy depending on one’s physical condition.”

The head chef was seriously analyzing it.

“But I imagine this method can’t be used with ingredients that have low fat content.”

“Hmm. That would be a matter of knowing when to use which method, I suppose. After it’s made into a Magic Tool, we’ll have to research it ourselves.”

When it comes to making a cutlet sandwich, the sauce can somewhat alter the crispy texture of the coating, so to let them enjoy the cutlet itself, I decided to fry another piece in parallel while making the sandwich.

Just as I started frying the second piece, I spread mustard on the bread, placed lettuce on top, then put the sauced cutlet on the bread… I fixed it in place with a Shield to prevent shifting, then cut it – completing the cutlet sandwich.

I plated the cutlet sandwich and also cut the second cutlet on the cutting board. This one I served with shredded cabbage and sauce in a small dish on the side.

“It’s ready.”

When I said this, the chefs cheered and applauded. Receiving praise from professionals was somewhat embarrassing… Well, first let’s bring it to the dining table.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Yes. I’ve been looking forward to this.”

King Melvin smiled cheerfully. It seemed I’d raised his expectations, though I didn’t know if it would suit his taste.

When we sat at the dining table, the lid was removed from the silver tray.

King Melvin seemed to want to try the cutlet sandwich first… He brought it to his mouth, slowly savored it, then his expression softened.

“Oh… This is… quite good. The ingredients seem to be of good quality too.”

Hmm. Mammoth meat is popular everywhere after all. If King Melvin gives his seal of approval, it must be the real deal.

“That’s wonderful to hear.”

“This new dish as well. The coating has an indescribable texture.”

After tasting the cutlet itself and closing his eyes to savor it, King Melvin spoke.

“Bowman. What did you think?”

When King Melvin then asked the head chef, the head chef… Bowman nodded gently.

“No, it was good stimulation and learning. For dinner, I’ll have to think of something using the new ingredients as well.”

“Yes. I look forward to that too. But this cutlet sandwich is quite good. It seems like something that could be enjoyed easily even during busy work periods.”

“Your Majesty, that’s somewhat…”

“I know, I know. One must eat properly.”

King Melvin grinned at Bowman, who responded with a wry smile and a nod. I could somehow sense a familiar dynamic in their exchange.

At any rate, even if they don’t have the concept of “food as medicine,” judging from the earlier conversation about oil usage and such, they seem to be people who pay attention to health management through diet.

As someone in charge of the royal castle’s kitchen, he must have solid skills and knowledge, and he seems to have King Melvin’s deep trust… I think I understand why they readily allowed me to use the kitchen.

Well then. After leaving the royal castle, I first headed home. Since I hadn’t had lunch yet, I decided to warm up last night’s leftovers.

Given that it was what had been served at the tasting, even though it was the same menu two days in a row, it could be called a luxurious lunch. The smoked meat was ready too, so with some variety, it was quite satisfying.

After enjoying a slightly late lunch, I headed to the game room where everyone was relaxing.

Forset and the others’ assistance is essential for preparing the underground paddy field environment, and I also need to discuss environmental preparation and planting for the other crops I found in the south.

I showed my face to everyone and first told them about what happened at the royal castle.

“–So that’s how it is. We’ve reached an agreement to build a greenhouse and underground paddy field in the hot spring town.”

“Is that so? For us, if it involves planting underground, we should be able to help.”

Forset smiled at the mention of the underground paddy field.

“I heard resources were becoming scarce on the moon… Food self-sufficiency was apparently an urgent issue. Because of that, our magical technology for preparing crop cultivation environments has developed… Please leave it to us.”

I see. In the sense of being isolated from the outside world, the underground desert city is probably similar to the moon. Both growing crops in the underground city and growing the forest on its surface were thanks to Halvaronis’s technology, so with that track record, they should be reliable.

“Finally, we’ll be able to grow those children too.”

Floria also looked happy. She seemed to be looking forward to planting the southern crops. Marlene was watching Floria’s expression with a bright, beaming smile.

“That’s right. We can’t keep them preserved in Magic Arrays forever, so first let’s build the greenhouse in the above-ground section. I’ll consult with you later about the underground structure.”

“Understood.”

“Then afterwards, we’ll scout around the ritual site?”

“Yes. I already have an idea of the vacant land around the ritual site, so I’ve already got some spots in mind.”

I answered Grace’s question.

“Then afterwards will be building the greenhouse, I suppose.”

“As for materials, once the location is decided, I can transport them using Teleportation.”

When Rosemary said this, Claudia smiled. I see. Since it’s just the upper part of the labyrinth, using Teleportation Magic to transport them won’t be much burden.

“It’ll be helpful not having to worry about loading and such.”

“Yeah. After I check in at the workshop, I’ll head to the hot spring town briefly. It seems like we can start work right away.”

Nodding at Ashley’s words, I responded like that.

The reason for stopping by the workshop… is because I’d like Alfred’s help with setting up the Magic Tools for the greenhouse.

Well then. As planned, I showed up at the workshop and called out to Alfred, then immediately headed to the hot spring town with him. Since Princess Elham also wants to cultivate the southern plants, I asked her to come along so I could hear her opinions.

“Ah, you brought the hot spring town model.”

Alfred nodded as he looked at the three-dimensional model of the hot spring town we’d loaded onto the carriage.

“Yeah. I need to consider whether we can build the planned greenhouse and also create the underground section.”

The area around the ritual site has heavy security due to VIPs coming for bathing, so development hasn’t progressed much there, leaving many vacant plots.

This time we’ll be building the greenhouse using those locations… but it’s not like any vacant spot will do. Since we built the hot spring town area from the foundation up, I know the positions of water pipes extending from the ritual site’s hot spring source. We narrowed down candidates considering land area and other factors.

“Then that would be– here, perhaps?”

I used Earth Magic to add a new three-dimensional model of the greenhouse to the candidate site.

“The location seems good.”

“But there’s somewhat more land than needed.”

Princess Elham commented.

“That’s true. We ended up with more land available than planned. Should we create gardens outdoors too and plant things that can grow outside the greenhouse, or perhaps expand the greenhouse…”

This is something to ponder. Well, there shouldn’t be any problem building the planned greenhouse as is. If we have materials teleported to the extra space, the work should progress more smoothly… Yeah. Let’s go with that.

As for the underground section of the three-dimensional model… I kept trial-and-error experimenting while considering how much space we could make, how to route the water pipes from the hot spring source, and other details. While we were doing this, the carriage arrived at the ritual site.