The Power of the Saint is All Around (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter SS3

Bonus Story 3

AS I WAS brewing potions at the institute, Jude came into the workroom. “Sei, you have a visitor.”

“Okay, be right there!”

“He’s waiting in the parlor.”

“Thanks.”

“Johan’s with him.”

“He is?”

Maybe it was an official from the palace then.

A month had passed since my return from Klausner’s Domain. Over that month, from time to time, the palace had sent me on numerous expeditions to slay monsters. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that they had been calling on me to purge black swamps. After all, every place they sent me to had one.

The Saint’s primary occupation was killing monsters and purging black swamps. However, I had something of a side job at the research institute. As I did very much have to keep going out on all these expeditions, I was reconciled to the fact that research wasn’t my priority. The palace officials’ frequent expedition-related visits brought that home every time they showed up. They did always make sure to clear everything with Johan, as he was my direct supervisor.

The visitor Jude had alerted me to was indeed an official from the palace. Presumably, he would be asking me to go out on an expedition again. 

I wonder where I’m headed this time?

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” I said as I entered the room, where I found Johan and the official seated across from one another.

Normally, the official would’ve just given me a slight bow from the sofa, but today he stood up to bow formally.

Huh? What’s going on?

I glanced Johan’s way, and he only gave me a silent shrug. Welp. I returned the official’s bow before I sat down next to Johan.

The official went on to explain the purpose of his visit. It was about monster slaying, just as I had expected. That had to mean they had found another black swamp. There sure were a lot of them in this poor, beleaguered kingdom.

“All right, you found another swamp. Where is it this time?”

“No, ah, as it turns out…” The official’s eyes darted anxiously to the side. He was finding it difficult to give me an answer.

What’s with him? 

I looked at Johan for an explanation, but he shook his head. No clue there either. We exchanged frowns and tilted our heads in question. We turned to peer at the official.

The man at last gathered himself and inhaled. “My deepest apologies. As it turns out, we have not found a black swamp at this time.”

“You mean you just need my help killing monsters?”

“Correct.” The official nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on the table. And on top of that, he seemed slightly pale.

Well, if they hadn’t found a swamp, then there had to be so many monsters that the situation was exceptionally dire. As I pondered this, the official reluctantly offered a more detailed explanation.

In brief, the situation was not dire. In fact, the domain I was headed to next was relatively peaceful compared to the other places I had visited. According to the palace’s investigation, a handful of monsters appeared there, but they were so few that the palace wouldn’t even have to send any knights to take care of them. Despite that, there was a reason why they were asking me to go.

Upon hearing that, my face went full Tibetan fox levels of unimpressed. Yeah… Someone wanted to flex their power.

“We truly regret asking you to go afield for such a trivial reason, especially as you are so terribly busy…” the official trailed off before resuming his explanation. Poor guy had the look of someone prostrating themselves.

The palace didn’t like the idea of dispatching the Saint for anything other than an emergency—especially not in cases when the person calling for the Saint’s assistance seemed to care less about the danger than personal influence. Up until now, they had managed to come up with various reasons to turn down the more frivolous requests for my aid. However, this time, the person requesting my presence had refused to give up.

Unfortunately, the palace couldn’t just reject the guy. I suspected that meant this noble was of high station. Furthermore, I hadn’t been called on to head out in the field lately. This noble had noticed the lull, and he’d pounced on the opportunity to press the palace into sending me to his domain. With no more viable excuses to turn him down—i.e., no more black swamps—the palace finally had to yield to his request.

The official grew wearier and wearier as he relayed this information; I could tell this had been a fearsome battle.

I sighed. There wasn’t any real significance to the sound, but the official’s complexion went from regular pale to ghostly white.

I’m sorry! I’m not annoyed with you—it’s this noble who’s ticking me off.

I glanced at Johan from the corner of my eye. He was frowning at the official with real pity.

I dropped my voice to ask Johan, “Does this sort of thing happen often?” 

“What do you mean?”

“Um, people abusing their ability to call upon the power of the state?”

“Ah, yes, it does.” Johan nodded with a tired chuckle.

Though we’d lowered our voices, the official was definitely able to hear everything. I mean, he was seated directly across from us. He shrank back even more.

Well, what should I do about this? If I said no, this hapless official—stuck between this noble, the palace, and me—was going to have a heck of a time dealing with the fallout. Therefore, if Johan okayed it, I was willing to go. That didn’t mean this noble’s attitude didn’t stick in my craw. I hated the idea of giving in quickly to a guy like that.

These kinds of things happened back in Japan too, I thought resentfully.

Meanwhile, Johan asked the official where I would be going. He winced in sympathy when the official relayed the location. It turned out that this noble was notorious for abusing his power to get his way.

“What’s the local specialty in that domain?” I asked.

“As in, a local delicacy?” the official asked.

“Basically. If I have to go, then I’d like to check it out.”

If this noble was obsessed with his own power, he was absolutely going to come up with all sorts of reasons to drag me around and treat me to nice things in order to curry my favor. I’d only ever been on the opposite side of this equation in Japan, but in my opinion, the whole rigmarole was a pain no matter which side you were on.

But if I had to deal with it, then I needed something to look forward to. As such, I wanted to enjoy the local specialty. Everywhere I had been thus far had developed some kind of unique offering. What did this domain have?

The official’s complexion improved slightly; I had, after all, just said something about this whole situation that sounded somewhat positive. “Probably pork.”

“Do you mean like pigs?”

“Indeed. They have fertile fields where they’re able to raise a large number of pigs.”

His smile returned as he told me more about the domain. I supposed it made sense that a noble with a lot of sway would rule over a domain with abundantly fertile land. Their ability to raise so many pigs was proof of that—not only were the people able to eat, they were also able to feed their livestock.

I wonder if they have ham and sausage. I’m kinda looking forward to that.

“What’s on your mind?” Johan asked.

I grinned at him. “I was wondering about what they might have made with all that pork.” 

A grin spread across Johan’s face as well. “Ah, I see.” 

Wait a minute—I’m smiling because I’m looking forward to being treated to food. What’s he smiling about?

Honestly, it wasn’t too hard to figure out. If we found a way to directly obtain high-quality pork, then I could make new pork dishes at the institute. 

We’d been looking at one another while chatting, but now we turned back to the official.

“If Sei asks my permission, I believe I’ll give it,” Johan said.

“Okay. Then I’d like to go,” I said.

“Thank you!” The official was so enthusiastically grateful that he practically threw himself at my feet.

He gave us a few more details before leaving. On his way out, I made the official take some pound cake back with him—it had been our snack for the day. I felt awful knowing he would have to keep dealing with this noble. The guy sounded like a royal pain. Hopefully the sweet snack would help the long-suffering official feel better. He did look tremendously pleased with his gift.

***

At the entrance to the forest, I got out of the carriage and stretched. As I lowered my arms, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to find myself facing someone with golden hair that glinted in the sunlight.

“Tired?” he asked.

“Nope, I’m fine.” I smiled at Albert, which brought a smile to his face as well.

It was finally the day to go kill some monsters in the new domain. It had sure taken a while to reach this point, though…

The domain that had so persistently requested my aid was in fact fairly peaceful, with few if any monsters troubling the people—just like we’d heard. And, just as I predicted, I had been wined and dined by the domain’s lord from the moment we arrived at his castle. I had been told it would just be until we headed out on our expeditions. For some reason—who could guess why!—that had taken a whole week.

There definitely weren’t enough monsters to warrant that much preparation. I’d had the knights look into it for me to double-check, just in case.

Although I had known this would happen, having nothing to do had made me all kinds of restless. Now, I had finally escaped the lord’s attempts to detain me, and we had at last made it to the forest. However, there weren’t that many monsters in the forest to begin with.

We’ll just go on a few forays, clear out the monsters, and then head straight home to the capital. After all, there might be another black swamp waiting for us by the time we get back. 

The knights accompanying me shared this sentiment, so we got to work as soon as possible. We split into teams and entered the forest.

“There really aren’t any monsters,” I said after nearly a half hour of walking. We hadn’t run into a single one.

“Well, of course there aren’t. You’re here with us,” the knight walking next to me joked.

At that, another knight quietly chuckled.

Normally we weren’t so carefree on an expedition, but the lack of monsters had put us all at ease. Even Albert was laughing.

“By the way, did you make the pasta we had last night?” the knight asked.

“That I did.”

“I had a feeling. It was incredible.”

I had indeed made pasta for the knights the night before. Specifically, I had used eggs and bacon to make carbonara. Although this domain was known for its pork, they also raised cows and had plenty of fresh cream and cheese. They also raised a number of chickens for eggs. The bacon had been made by one of the chefs in the castle.

I had borrowed the local lord’s kitchens to cook. Once before, I had made a pasta dish in Klausner’s Domain, and when I told the local lord that I wanted to make a new kind of dish with a different kind of sauce, he had readily agreed to let me use the kitchens.

Naturally, I hadn’t forgotten to treat the lord and his family too. As one would expect from someone who had used his power to summon the Saint to his lands, he had been quite pleased to be able to taste the Saint’s home cooking. It was thanks to this gift that I had received enough ingredients to make pasta for the knights as well. All in all, a win-win situation. Kind of.

“Pork sure is tasty,” I said.

“It really is.”

“I wonder if we can get the good quality stuff in the capital.” I wanted to try making all kinds of dishes, if I could manage it.

Albert’s eyes sparkled when I mentioned this. To be fair, the other knights’ eyes did too.

Please don’t look at me like you’re looking at prey!

I was immediately interrogated about what kind of meals I wanted to make with pork, so I ran through a few possibilities based on what ingredients were available at the institute. There was a lot more I could make if only I had key ingredients. However, this world wasn’t as developed as the world I had come from, so it was hard to get everything you wanted whenever you wanted it.

Nevertheless, Albert’s mind was entirely focused on the prospect of new kinds of food to try.

In the end, there were only a few monsters to defeat, even in the depths of the forest. After a few more similarly fruitless runs, we reported to the lord that we had concluded our expeditions and returned to the capital. The lord tried to keep us around, but he couldn’t force us to stay. We had indulged him enough when I decided to turn up in the first place.

The night we returned to the capital, I spent the evening resting to recover from the long journey. The following day, I went to Johan’s office to let him know of my return. 

“I’m back.”

“Welcome back.”

I gave him a brief report on the series of non-events that had been our expeditions. He laughed, as was his way.

“I figured as much,” he said. “Good job hanging in there.”

“Thank you.”

“So? Did you get to enjoy the local specialty?” 

Ha—he remembered how excited I’d been when we first talked about this. Admittedly, that excitement hadn’t waned.

“I did!”

I told him about the pork dishes I’d made at the castle. I’d mostly only made traditional dishes that already existed in the Kingdom of Salutania’s repertoire, which meant that Johan was able to comment on some of them as I described them. He’d had a number of these things before.

“Anything new?” he pressed.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure, yeah. And all because they had such a variety of livestock.”

“Oh? Don’t tease—what did you make?”

“A type of pasta called carbonara. It has a sauce made from eggs and smoked pork.”

“Smoked pork…” Johan frowned.

It was technically possible to get bacon in the capital, but it was pretty expensive.

“I got a rasher of it as a souvenir from the lord, so I should be able to make it a few times.”

“Really?!”

I had actually received a lot of presents from the lord as thanks for taking care of his teeny-tiny monster problem. Naturally, I had received bacon as well, so at least making carbonara wouldn’t be a problem.

Johan smiled in pure delight upon hearing this news. Suddenly, his expression became that of someone who’d been struck by a profound epiphany. He thought for a moment with a hand to his chin. Then he grinned.

I could tell from his face—he’d come up with something devious.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, nothing. I believe I just thought of a way to regularly procure pork for the institute.”

Still wearing that mischievous smile, Johan wrote a letter on the spot, which he handed to the servant who was waiting on him. The letter was addressed to the palace official who had visited us not long ago.

I had a feeling that I knew what Johan was up to. I learned how right I was a month later, when that very same official once more turned up at the institute.

It turned out that Johan had asked the official to handle securing scheduled shipments of pork for us—all due to that certain dish. He even managed to get the domain to sell us the pork at a steep discount…as recompense for the Saint’s rather pointless visit.

Let me tell you, we got that pork cheap. Jude, who was from a family of merchants, couldn’t suppress his admiration. The official had brought his A-game to negotiations with that lord. He seemed quite satisfied by the outcome, as he wore a big smile on his face as he reported it to us.

Now that we had a reliable supply of pork, I could increase the number of dishes on the dining hall’s rotating menu. I wanted to try my hand at making all sorts of new foods with the help of my chef brigade. As I waved the official off, I began to plan my first experiment.