The Power of the Saint is All Around (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 2

Act 2:

The Imperial Prince

A WEEK AFTER Prince Ten’yuu’s arrival. I was at the palace for my lessons and caught snippets of what people were saying about him. I paid more attention than usual; typically, I didn’t really care about gossip, but I wanted to know why exactly the prince had elected to come to the kingdom.

People said more or less the same things across the board. I supposed he had only been here for a week. Thus far, he had remained on palace grounds or the Royal Academy campus. He hadn’t yet gone to visit any of the research facilities, but those tours were scheduled to start sometime later.

So, naturally, everyone mostly gossiped about what he was doing in the palace. My main source of information was a maid who attended me. All of the things she had to say about the prince were generally positive.

According to her, he was quite the courteous gentleman, especially given that he was a royal. Even the knights who were acting as his bodyguards had a good opinion of him.

In any case, I was at the palace to attend one of my customary tea parties. The only other attendee would be Liz. Unfortunately, Aira wouldn’t be joining us that day, since she had work and her own lectures to attend.

It had grown hot enough that you could get sweaty even when you weren’t directly in the sun. Thus, our tea party was being held in a breezy square gazebo in the palace gardens. The palace chefs had done their best to prepare a ton of snacks with refreshing flavors to help us feel a little cooler. There were madeleines made with more lemons than usual, mousse flavored with citrus fruits, and even gelatin desserts accented with lemongrass. They were served together with herbal rather than black tea, which was unusual when it came to the palace.

“I must admit, I was surprised when I heard that they were serving sweets made with herbs. But the flavor is quite refreshing and simply perfect for this weather,” Liz said.

“Yeah, I’m really impressed with the offerings. They’ve done a superb job of bringing out the flavors.”

“Oh? Do you mean to say that you weren’t the one who devised these sweets?”

“Nope. The chefs came up with the recipe on their own.”

A lot of people assumed that I was involved whenever there was a new dish flavored in such a way. However, as of late, other people had been throwing their hats in the “now you’re cooking with herbs” ring.

A palace chef had come up with the recipe for the gelatin dessert as well. The way I heard it, after seeing the meals served at the research institute’s dining hall, he had wanted to see how he could implement herbs in his own work.

And Liz was right. This chef’s concoction tasted far more delicious than anything I could make. The way professional chefs could obtain new ingredients and whip up new kinds of delicious foods…they really knew their stuff! Perhaps it wouldn’t be long before the day when I could once more enjoy the kinds of sweets that had been available back in Japan.

“And this tea. Is it made with mint? It’s so refreshing,” I said.

“I heard that it’s made with a few other ingredients as well. I wonder what the exact blend is. I would love to have this served at home.”

Perhaps the blend was one of the maids’ homemade recipes? It really did taste wonderful, so I wanted the recipe as well. I would have to ask the maids later.

Liz and I were chatting over tea, but this was actually part of my lessons. This tea party was sanctioned not only by my etiquette teacher but my tutor in politics and economics.

Which is to say, it was just a tea party, but it was also more than that. Someone had once said that tea parties are a battleground for ladies. The topics we discussed often had to do with politics and the like, which was probably why my tutor had approved the activity.

As a result, I got to meet Liz for tea parties not just during my etiquette lessons but during other class times as well, meaning I got to see Liz more often in general.

Incidentally, Liz was the one who had negotiated with my politics tutor. While that teacher had a gentle disposition, he was quite strict with his lessons. The fact that Liz had been able to secure his permission really spoke to Liz’s capabilities as a negotiator—her position as the fiancée of the crown prince notwithstanding.

Liz had said that if we were going to hold these parties, then it would be most effective to learn all kinds of things. I supposed that this way, she intended to kill two birds with one stone.

That being said, after exchanging our opinions about the tea and sweets, our conversation switched to one more appropriate for my education, i.e., the matter of Prince Ten’yuu.

“So, I believe that Prince Ten’yuu is presently at the Royal Academy?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

I had been informed of Prince Ten’yuu’s plans for the day so that I wouldn’t run into him. This week, the first place the prince had gone to was the Royal Academy. Apparently, he was prioritizing getting to know everyone his age.

“What’s he like? He seemed a diligent sort when I saw him during the audience.”

I had heard that Liz and the other members of the student council were helping him at the academy. While the maids had a good opinion of the prince, there was a chance that he showed a different side of himself to his classmates. Furthermore, I had a feeling that Liz was exceptionally good at reading people and noticing things that others didn’t, which was why I was so interested in her opinion.

“Your first impression of him would be correct.”

Even at the academy, he was as serious as he looked, and moreover he was as courteous as the maids had made him out to be. He hadn’t done anything that Liz could complain about.

The prince was also taking classes with the other students, so he often discussed what they had learned that day with his classmates. From those conversations, Liz had determined that Prince Ten’yuu was knowledgeable about all sorts of things.

“He must be quite the studious type to have come here to study abroad despite knowing so much already,” I said.

“I agree. He said that he had come in order to learn even more. He is particularly interested in plants.”

“Plants? Well, that’s pretty broad. What kind of plants?”

“All manner. We have discussed flowers, trees, and every other variety. However, I believe he spoke most about edible flora.”

Neither of us said it out loud, but Liz seemed to pick up on what I feared, as she swiftly pinpointed the heart of my curiosity.

Prince Ten’yuu was royalty. One could surmise that, based on his apparent knowledge base, he had already received an education befitting a prince. Part of that education involved the conversational skills to subtly gather information from everyone around you without letting others know what it was you really wanted to learn. Therefore, there was more to the prince’s discussions than a mere interest in botany.

As Liz had been similarly educated, being the fiancée of a prince, it seemed to her that Prince Ten’yuu was particularly interested in plants. Therefore, it stood to reason that that topic had something to do with why he had come to Salutania.

“Edible flora, you say?”

“Fruits, for example, but roots as well. He has even described eating types of plants that don’t appear edible, though they actually are.”

“Oh, yeah, there are certainly plants like that out there.”

“He has also discussed their medicinal uses.”

That gave me a bad feeling. “You mean eating roots as a kind of treatment?” I reflexively grimaced, which made Liz giggle.

“That’s right. I don’t know much about it, but I’m sure that if you heard him describe it, you might know precisely what he’s talking about.”

“You’re probably right.”

She was correct in that there were edible plants that could be used to treat certain ills. Had I been there, I might have been able to identify whether any of the plants he mentioned were in fact medicinal. However, I had no way to know for sure.

“This is a list of everything I remember him bringing up.” Liz handed me a note.

“Thank you.” I chuckled dryly as I looked over the list of plant names. These were no doubt the names of plants the prince had previously mentioned. Good going, Liz. “I do recognize some of these as medicinal roots, but the list doesn’t seem to lean toward one type over the other.”

“You think so as well?”

“Yeah. However, I can only speak to the ones I know, and I only know how they’re used here in Salutania.”

The list included plants that, in the kingdom, weren’t used for medicine or food. However, that didn’t mean that they necessarily used the plants differently in Zaidera. In other words, the prince probably knew his stuff, but it wasn’t totally outside the realm of possibility that he was still an amateur. When I explained this to Liz, she agreed that we couldn’t yet know for certain. Even so…

“I heard that you’re supposed to avoid running into the prince, but perhaps you ought to be far more careful. His tours of the research facilities are to begin soon, after all. He will be visiting the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora as well, yes?”

I hadn’t mentioned that I was supposed to avoid him, but the palace had apparently warned Liz about it. That made sense, given her position as the crown prince’s fiancée as well as the Salutanian individual who was in most frequent contact with Prince Ten’yuu. That was also probably partly why she was keeping a close eye on his movements at the academy for me.

“I’m planning to not be there that day. But you’re right, I will be careful. Thanks for your concern.”

Liz smiled in response.

***

Around the same time we had our tea party, we received word that my order of rice and miso had arrived at my company. It had been brought by a ship that sailed with the fleet with which the prince and his retinue had traveled. I was glad for the news, since I had already used up everything I had bought in Morgenhaven.

Franz had actually bought more ingredients for me than just rice and miso, perhaps because I had shown an interest in a variety of things. He asked me to come by the shop, so I did so early the following day.

“Do you think this is enough? We got more than you purchased last time,” Oscar said as I was taking in the bags of rice piled in the company’s storeroom.

“I think this’ll last me for a little while. We don’t know when the next shipment will be, do we?”

Truthfully, I suspected that we would run out pretty quickly—as it turned out, the grand magus loved rice. In fact, he had liked it so much after that first taste during our experiments that he had come to the institute’s dining hall every time they served it. Considering his enthusiasm for the grain, it wouldn’t have surprised me if, once he learned that we had gotten our order in, he tried to acquire some for himself.

“So even this isn’t enough, huh?” Oscar asked.

“Nope. By the way, Lord Drewes from the Royal Magi Assembly hasn’t reached out to you to make inquiries about rice, has he?”

“Oh, he has, now that you mention it.” In fact, Oscar had been planning to give Yuri any surplus.

Apparently, Yuri had sent his first inquiry to the Zaideran merchant ship, only to learn that they had already sold all their imports. After figuring out that my company was the buyer, he had asked Franz if he could have some. He sure was tenacious.

“It’s up to you. We’ll say no if you want it all,” Oscar said.

“Hmm. Let me think about it for a moment.”

What was I to do? The fact that Yuri had tried to acquire rice on his own meant that he either wanted to eat rice more often…or he wanted to do more research on its effects. I couldn’t come up with any other explanation for why he would want to buy it.

If he merely wanted to eat it more often, then there was no need to give any to him, so long as we increased the frequency with which rice was served at the institute’s dining hall. However, if he wanted to do his own experimenting, then it would be better to give him a share.

I wanted to investigate rice’s effects, but I was busy with my own research projects. If Yuri was up to the task, then I figured it would be more efficient to leave the experimenting in his hands.

Okay. The first thing I need to do is find out just what he’s up to.

“Do you know why Lord Drewes wants rice?” I asked.

“No, we didn’t ask. What would you like to know?”

“Hmm. I’d just like to know what he’s after so we know whether it would be better off in his hands.”

“I see. Then I’ll go ahead and make the inquiry.”

“Thanks, that’d be great, if you could.”

I was quite grateful that Oscar offered to do it, since I had a feeling that there might be problems if I asked Yuri what he planned to use the rice for. Yes, he had made the inquiry at my company—but he didn’t know that it was my company.

I wound up learning Yuri’s intended use for the rice the next day, and from the man himself. Apparently, Yuri had figured out the true identity of the rice-buyer the second he received my company’s inquiry. He sent a letter saying that he would negotiate with the buyer of the rice directly, and at the same time, he arrived at the institute to tell me his reasons in person.

Oscar hurried over to the institute as soon as he got the letter, but it went without saying that it was already too late. I appreciated the effort, though.

It was just as I thought. Yuri wanted the rice for research. We had yet to determine if recipes other than chirashizushi induced the same effects, so he wanted to find out for himself. Therefore, I agreed to give him a share of the rice in exchange for the results of his research. Also, we decided that he could ask the dining hall chefs for any of their recipes that used rice.

In any case, other than the rice, there was also the matter of the miso. It had been transported to the kingdom in a barrel. Unlike the rice, I was absolutely sure we had enough miso to last us until the next shipment arrived.

The final things Oscar showed me were the new ingredients we hadn’t previously received. At first, I was shocked. Then I was filled with excitement.

Franz had used his own judgment to procure an incredible array of ingredients, all of which I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Glutinous rice, adzuki beans, mushrooms, dried fish, even green tea. And genuine soy sauce. You read that right: soy sauce.

Franz had thought this might be what I was looking for, since it had a similar smell to miso and was a dark liquid.

I did a fist pump on the spot. I at least managed not to cry out with joy.

Of course, I bought everything he showed me. The price was fearsome, as they were all imported, but I was able to afford it with my personal funds, thanks to how well my skincare products sold. The institute also chipped in, since they purchased a portion of the goods for the dining hall. However, if I was going to keep buying these ingredients regularly, I realized it would probably be better to limit how much I bought each time.

Ideally, I wanted to have a meal with rice once a day, but when I considered how much I could actually afford, it amounted to more like one or two times a week. And there were other people who wanted to have rice too, so a lot of it was used up in any given meal.

“Something the matter?” Franz asked me.

“No, nothing.” 

We were in his office, and I had sunk into thought as I looked over the list of purchased items. However, I decided it was best not to say what I had been thinking, because I had been mulling over the way the buying price really stacked up when you put everything all together.

By all rights, a company ought to seek profit, but I suspected we had been offered discount prices due to Franz’s good work and goodwill. Moreover, it would have been rude to call any of it costly in front of someone who worked for me. 

However, Franz seemed to see through me. “It’s too expensive, isn’t it?”

“Yes… But that can’t be helped, what with it being imported.”

“Indeed. I negotiated with the seller, and apparently this was the lowest price they could afford to sell at.”

If Franz said so, then it had to be true. If we wanted it any cheaper, then we’d have to make it ourselves.

“Do you think we could grow rice?” I wondered out loud.

“Do you know how?” Oscar asked.

“A little bit, but even if we could grow it, we don’t have the land.”

“Land, huh? That’s a good point.”

Though I said that, there was a possibility that I could acquire land. I had a feeling that if I asked the king or the prime minister, they would grant it to me. They always said they hadn’t repaid me enough for my work as the Saint, despite all of the accommodations I’d already received.

The last time they had offered me land, I had declined on the pretext that I had no idea how to manage it. However, my feelings had changed a bit since then. I mean, owning land where I could plant whatever I wanted had its appeal. Rice wasn’t the only thing I wanted to grow, after all. I had a ton of plants I wanted to try my hand at cultivating, starting with all of the herbs I had received from Corinna.

While I already had a garden plot for experimentation at the institute, my investigations were limited by its size. As a matter of fact, it was already way too small for what I wanted to use it for, as lately I had increased the number of herbs I was researching.

Hmm. Maybe I should discuss this with Johan later. But… I sank into thought again in front of Oscar and Franz, but I didn’t at all notice how closely they were watching me.

***

It had been about half a month since the prince from Zaidera arrived, and we expected that, before long, he would have become so used to life at the academy that he would begin conducting his tours of the research facilities. The first place he visited wasn’t the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, but our turn came soon enough.

I spent the day of Prince Ten’yuu’s scheduled visit cooped up in the palace. And it wasn’t just that day either, but the days before and after as well—all to accommodate for any unforeseen sudden change in schedule. Thanks to these precautions, I didn’t meet the prince, and his visit to the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora resolved without incident.

I returned to the institute when I felt it was safe again. …So I say, but it was really because I wanted to go back to work. Moreover, the Zaiderans would be staying in Salutania for a while longer, so I couldn’t relax yet. However, since the prince’s tour was over and done with, I figured it would be okay to go back to the institute, just for a bit.

The day I returned, I checked up on my plot of herbs, which I had been away from for a few days. My plants looked like they were growing well, and it seemed nothing had happened to them in my absence.

I nodded at them in satisfaction as Jude walked over to me. He was there to help me with the watering—and to tell me what had happened while I was gone. He had observed Prince Ten’yuu closely for me, since I couldn’t have done it myself.

Jude confirmed that the prince was profoundly knowledgeable about herbs, just as Liz had told me. According to Johan, Prince Ten’yuu knew so much about herbs that if the research institute decided to employ him the very next day, he would have had no trouble getting straight to work. This meant that he had even greater expertise than he was showing off at the academy. 

Naturally, he also knew a great deal about potions.

“He was especially knowledgeable about the ingredients that go into potions that cure status abnormalities,” Jude said.

“That’s amazing.”

Unlike HP and MP potions, there was an unbelievable number of variations in the recipes for status cure potions. For example, a potion to cure poison required an entirely different set of ingredients from a potion to cure paralysis. Consequently, if a person could talk fluently about these potions, that indicated a wealth of knowledge about a wide range of ingredients. The fact that the prince knew all this was impressive in itself.

“He asked us a bunch of questions, but we also learned a lot from him as well.”

“Oh? What kind of questions did he ask?”

“You know, like whether the effects of a given potion can vary if you use different ingredients—or if it was made in a different country. Or if potions that have the same widely accepted name might actually have different effects.”

“I see.”

This seemed to reflect Liz’s earlier description. Prince Ten’yuu was in fact studying abroad because he was particularly interested in learning about the differences between countries. Jude nodded in agreement when I told him as much.

We finished watering my plants while we were chatting, so we were heading over to Jude’s plants when he suddenly mumbled, “Although, Johan had this troubled look on his face.”

“He did?”

“He really did. After the prince left, I asked him about it, and he said he was worried about why the prince was asking those questions.”

I realized that the prince must have asked many more questions other than the ones that Jude remembered most clearly. But for now, all the evidence I had to think through were the ones that had left an impression on Jude.

It sounded like Prince Ten’yuu was simply interested in the differences between each country, but was there more to it? And if so, just what kind of information was he trying to eke out of these discussions?

“Differences. Differences…”

“What are you thinking over there?”

“Hmm, wait, I think I’m on the verge of remembering something… I got it!” As I searched my memories, I recalled that I had once wondered the same thing. Specifically, I’d had that thought while I was trying to figure out what it was that made my potions more effective than the ones made by others. Yet again, a cold sweat collected on my back. “Do you remember asking similar questions, way back when?”

“Did we do that?”

“You know, when we discovered that my potions are different from other people’s.”

“Oh, yeah!” Jude’s eyes opened wide, and he smacked his fist into his palm. However, then his face went pale, as if something had occurred to him.

I had a feeling that it was the same thing I had realized.

“You don’t think that Johan was thinking about…”

“You too?”

“Yup.”

The potion I had given to Ceyran back in Morgenhaven. 

When you considered Ceyran’s connection to Zaidera, it only made sense. I might have been unconsciously refusing to connect the obvious dots. Part of me felt guilty for having given Ceyran one of the potions I made purely for my own self-satisfaction. I had been devoted to thinking that the possibility the prince had come to Salutania because of that potion was very low. 

I had a feeling that had been my bad habit of wishful thinking all over again.

“But how could Prince Ten’yuu have found out about the potion?” I asked.

“Hmm, maybe he heard about it from a rumor?”

“If Ceyran and his crew thought it was a high-grade HP potion, then surely it wouldn’t have been worthy of the rumor mill.”

“I dunno about that. High-grade HP potions aren’t all that common outside the institute. And hey, maybe the crew just talked about the incredible potion that saved their friend.”

Jude had a point. But I still had a feeling that this kind of rumor wouldn’t have been enough to inspire a prince to come all the way here. Did that mean the prince was here for a different reason after all? 

As we were thinking it over, footsteps approached from behind us. Jude turned, and I peeked around him—only to find Prince Ten’yuu standing there, a single attendant with him, his mouth slightly open.

For a moment, we stood there in turn, just gaping at one another. I recovered myself and quickly dipped into a curtsy. Jude immediately followed suit with a bow. Since I wasn’t meeting the prince as the Saint, I figured it wasn’t inappropriate to behave like his status surpassed mine.

“Are you one of the researchers at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora?” Prince Ten’yuu asked.

Jude hesitated for a moment before answering. “Yes. It is an honor that Your Highness remembers me.”

Prince Ten’yuu must have spent time close to Jude during his tour, if he remembers his face so well. There’s no way he could remember the faces of everyone he met that day, right? Either way, Jude sure knows how to treat a noble. I bet he learned all those manners at the Royal Academy. 

I couldn’t help but let my thoughts drift off like that while I tried to escape from my reality. I mean, the very person I had been trying to avoid was standing right in front of me.

I had dropped my gaze to the ground, so I couldn’t see Prince Ten’yuu’s expression. I had a feeling that he was looking at me, though. My feeling was probably right too, based on the next thing he said.

“Are you one of the researchers as well?” he asked after a moment.

Uhhh, what should I say? I had been trying not to run into this guy, and I hadn’t talked to him the one time we were in the same room together. I wished someone would answer for me, but unfortunately, no one did. Even Jude looked like he didn’t know what to say.

It would have been rude to make him wait much longer, so I reluctantly nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. My name is Sei, and I am employed here at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora.”

“I am Ten’yuu, and I’ve come here from Zaidera. I remember meeting Jude here yesterday, but I believe I did not meet you, yes?”

“That is correct. I was away working at another location.”

At first, I had considered just saying I was a passerby, but I quickly realized that was a bad idea. Not just anyone could walk the grounds of the palace. Plus, if I couldn’t tell the lie persuasively enough, there would surely be consequences down the road. In any case, I knew I wasn’t good at telling convincing lies, meaning it was best to be honest from the start. Saying I was a researcher was harmless enough. 

But I had a feeling that was my wishful thinking acting up again. However, I dedicated myself to ignoring the feeling.

“I see. Are you the one growing these herbs?” the prince asked me.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You’re cultivating quite a few rare varieties. Just as I would expect to see at a research institute.”

Even though I’d assumed my physical features would be more intriguing, the prince’s eyes were focused on the herbs at my feet. He was looking at the herbs I had grown from some of the seeds I received from Klausner’s Domain. It was a species that was relatively easy to grow, but which wasn’t native to the area around the capital.

Had he registered that much from a mere glance? If he had, then everyone was right. He really did know a lot about herbs.

As if to prove that was true, he started asking me questions about the other herbs growing in my plot—questions that someone who wasn’t an expert wouldn’t have known to ask. I couldn’t help but get really into our conversation, so much so that I didn’t even notice how much time was passing.

“Your Highness, we should be going soon,” his attendant said.

“Is it that time already? I got so absorbed in conversing about these rare varieties that I hardly noticed. Thank you for answering my questions,” the prince said.

“Please, don’t mention it. I apologize for detaining you for so long,” I responded.

Prince Ten’yuu headed back to the road he had been on before. Some of the tension in my shoulders bled away—I hadn’t even realized it was there—as we watched him walk farther and farther away.

I let out a breath and heard Jude do the same. I looked up at him, and we both smiled awkwardly.

Well, it was now fact that I had met the prince. There was no changing that.

I should probably tell Johan about this. I wonder what he’s going to say? The thought of having to report this incident bummed me out, but I had a feeling that Johan was going to be more troubled than even I was feeling. I’ll just have to give my sincere apology…