by CHIROLU
“Right, it is surrounded by arid land...” Dale replied, remembering the vast desert he had seen from atop Hagel’s back. With divine protection from Quirmizi, one could expect a sufficient harvest even from a land like this, but that wasn’t a method that could be counted on forever.
The amount of crops that could be harvested in a harsh land like Vassilios were limited. And as a country that refused all exchange with foreign nations, they weren’t able to import food. As a result, and since what they could obtain was limited, they didn’t see meals as something to enjoy, but rather a means of taking in the minimal amount of necessary nutrition.
The young Latina wasn’t aware of this, but the previous First Demon Lord was a ruler with a rather conservative way of thinking. The fundamental stances of that previous government were maintained untouched until Chrysos was enthroned as the new demon lord, which affected the country’s political situation.
Meanwhile, Kreuz was an especially prosperous town even for a country like Laband. It served as a relay point between the port and the capital, and as a crucial place in terms of distribution, it was rich in goods.
On top of that, Latina’s mentor was Kenneth, a man who dedicated himself to gathering and experimenting with foods and recipes from all sorts of regions. His first-rate skills as an adventurer and a heavy warrior had been nothing more than means towards that goal. In fact, shortly after encountering his greatest objective in terms of rare ingredients (a type of dragon that lived in the ocean), he readily married into running the Dancing Ocelot and retired as an adventurer. There were many who voiced their disappointment, as he was still young to be retiring from that job and had shown great skill as a party leader, but he paid them no heed. He had decided to live the rest of his life as a chef.
The place where Kenneth displayed his skills was the Dancing Ocelot. It was a shop with a menu with all sorts of recipes and dishes that you would normally never be able to see in a bar in the rougher part of town.
That was the sort of place that Latina had grown up in.
Latina was no longer able to return to the food culture of her old home in Vassilios.
“Oh yeah... How is Rose handling meals...?” Dale muttered, and Latina’s gaze wandered. After making a terribly conflicted face, Latina soon looked down powerlessly. Her feelings really did show clearly on her face.
“I feel like... it would be a problem... if I didn’t eat the food Chrysos provided...”
“Well, considering your current position... Chrysos may not care too much herself, but there’s no guarantee that everyone else would see it that way.”
Whether or not someone would eat the food provided indicated the lack or presence of trust. No matter the reason, if Latina refused food offered by Chrysos, it would be like declaring to others that she didn’t trust her sister, the king. Latina realized it was precisely because she had the backing of her sister that she was able to act freely, so she also understood that issue.
However, as she and her group had periodic exchanges with Laband, it wouldn’t be strange at all for Rose to have foodstuffs from there. Even rations and preserved foods would still be far more edible compared to food from Vassilios.
That line of thinking caused Latina to grow further conflicted.
She ended up rather easily yielding to her desires. It wasn’t as if she was some purely noble saint, as she was more of a commoner awash in the desires of everyday life.
“Hmm♪ Hmm♪ Hmmm♪” Latina happily hummed to herself, almost skipping down the hall.
She had visited her friend Sylvia just before. Because she had a commoner’s way of thinking to her, no matter how close to Rose she may have been, she couldn’t bring herself to go up to a noble lady of Laband, who acted as an envoy for the nation, and say “please give me food.”
However, it was a whole different story when it came to her friend.
Ever since she was a child, Latina never stopped feeling that she needed to be a good girl. Everything about her had been denied, and she was exiled from the place where she had been born, so she understood just how precious everything that Dale and the other adults at the Ocelot had given her was. If she was a “bad girl,” then she might lose all of that happiness. She feared losing everything once again more than anything else.
As a result, she had trouble bringing herself to complain to adults, but she had grumbled plenty of issues and idle complaints suitable to her age to her friends. And she was also especially earnest with Sylvia, openly voicing her complaints.
Looking completely and utterly downhearted, Latina told her friend, “The food isn’t good...”
Hearing that, Sylvia burst out in a hearty laugh.
Just a little while ago, Latina had complained to her how it was a hassle having ladies-in-waiting involved in every little thing she did, from changing clothes to just taking a short walk. She had thought so at that time too, but it was just too ridiculous of a statement to hear from the sister of Vassilios’s ruler.
“It’s bad enough that I can’t help but laugh at the matter... But hey, so you’re saying it’s bad even with a devil’s sense of taste?”
Sylvia had still wondered if it could be a difference in the tastes preferred by humans and devils, but Latina gave a powerless shake of her head with a depressed look on her face.
“It’s not a good taste... Um, I can understand that because I have other things to compare it to, so I know what tastes good and what doesn’t. But here, that’s just the way food is...”
“It’s not as if it’s so awful I can’t get it down, but it really is impressively unpleasant.”
In theory, it was carrying out its role as food. Actually, it gave the impression that it was doing precisely the bare minimum required.
“Hmm... Latina.”
“What is it?”
“I do have some candy.”
“Waaaaah!”
Seeing her friend in such low spirits had caused Sylvia to recall what she had on hand. She pulled out a small candy-filled bottle that was buried amongst the books and documents cluttering her desk. As it provided a quick source of energy, it was a necessity for priestesses of Akhdar. She pulled out one and offered it, causing Latina’s eyes to sparkle as she opened her mouth, looking like a young child.
“Is it tasty?”
“Yeah!”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
It felt akin to giving food to a small animal.
Apparently, Latina got a great deal of happiness from this first bit of flavor in a while, having had the joy of a proper meal stolen away from her. She seemed to have reverted to a bit more of a childlike state, rolling the candy about inside her mouth with a happy look on her face.
“Now that I think of it...” Sylvia muttered and stood up, then rummaged through her own luggage, which she had tossed into the corner of the room. Before long, she pulled out a plain looking tin.
“Hmm?”
While Latina looked on with confusion, Sylvia opened it and a particular scent wafted through the air.
“Alright... it’s still good. This is all I’ve got right now, but do you want it?”
Latina understood what it was that was in the tin, so her friend’s words caused her to become overcome with emotion. She held her hands together in prayer and she looked at Sylvia with teary eyes.
“Sylvia... you’re like a goddess...”
That sort of comment most certainly wasn’t the sort of thing that should be said by a demon lord, a lower-ranking god.
As a result of all of that, Latina ended up walking down the hall while humming along. Her skipping had a rather unique feel to it, thanks to her peculiar sense of rhythm.
“I’m so, so happy, it’s butter♪ It’s real salty, so just a little♪”
While improvising those unique lyrics, Latina pressed on into the kitchen. As a result of her daily walks throughout the temple, she had confirmed its location.
When she discovered the kitchen she stared in, gloomily lost i
n thought, and eventually ended up polishing pots, though she didn’t regret that. After all, from Latina’s point of view, that was incredibly enjoyable to do. The more effort she put in, the more they sparkled, visibly showing the fruits of her effort. The start of things was Latina finding a burned pot in the corner of the kitchen, and she then ended up polishing every pot she laid eyes on thoroughly.
This place was a temple, so there was hardly anything around meant for amusement. And even though Latina could speak the devil language, she didn’t know how to read or write, so books were out too. She was exiled when she was young, so she didn’t have a chance to learn the written language. No matter how smart she may have been, there was nothing she could do about that.
As a result, Latina had far too much free time on her hands. She just didn’t have anything to do.
Chrysos still didn’t understand that to get a workaholic like Latina to take it easy, giving her a moderate amount of work was the most effective method.
As an aside, when Dale saw Chrysos throwing herself so hard at her work as ruler to get through it so she could make time to spend with Latina, he thought that the two sisters really were quite similar.
Latina had found something to do for the first time in a while. She had crumbled before the twin desires of food and a way to kill time.
The lady-in-waiting accompanying her was at a loss as to how to deal with Latina’s actions and was left nervously following along after her, but in her current state, Latina didn’t even notice the woman. From the lady-in-waiting’s point of view, Latina’s actions were a “sudden eccentricity of the Platinum Princess.”
With light footsteps, she entered into an area that was part of the temple but was a place that the elite would never visit, where servants carried out miscellaneous affairs. The mysterious tune she hummed to herself was one that the woman had never before heard in devil culture. Perhaps it came from human culture. For just what purpose had the humans created such a melody, though?
It was no surprise that the lady-in-waiting would be left confused. Latina’s actions defied her understanding, after all. And confusing matters further was the fact that the Golden King, who was soft on her sister, ordered the woman to abide by Latina’s will to the best of her ability. But with that said, from Chrysos’s point of view, it was only natural to be waited on, and she would never consider doing any work of the sort meant for servants. And so, neither Chrysos nor the ladies-in-waiting had ever considered that Latina would enjoy such work and wish to do so.
The differences in the way they were raised showed in that.
As a result, the lady-in-waiting was left unable to comprehend Latina’s intentions, much less stop her. It made for quite a worrying situation for the woman.
Latina was in such high spirits because in one hand she held the tin with the butter, while in the other she had a small bottle.
“Sylvia really is kind, to even give me honey♪”
Even her monologue then was a part of her tune.
Latina had been so happy that Sylvia couldn’t help but offer her treasured bottle of honey. Latina had been just too excited over a single partially-used tin of butter, causing Sylvia to feel almost guilty somehow. And she also couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for Latina, seeing how she’d been forced into such a corner.
With the tin of butter in one hand and the bottle of honey in the other, Latina set aside her usual hesitation that she would have about intruding on the workplace of others. In other words, she charged right into the kitchen.
The first thing Latina did after entering the kitchen was put up her hair. That was a teaching from her master, and she saw it as one of her responsibilities. In truth, she also wanted to put on an apron, but she wasn’t able to prepare such a thing.
Next, she placed a bit of the butter in her mouth to check it. It was far saltier than the butter that was normally used in Kreuz. Kenneth had taught her that that was how items in tins were, though, to make them last longer, so she wasn’t surprised.
“Sure enough, the flavor has dropped compared to fresh butter...”
Even so, that first bit of flavor in some time caused her heart to dance.
“With just this, it would probably be hard to make a pastry... and this is all the honey I have, too,” she muttered to herself, starting to rummage around the kitchen as she did so.
Latina had made up her mind not to misuse Chrysos’s authority as ruler, but during this time alone, she was ready to use whatever she needed to. And so, she ended up pilfering foodstuffs from the kitchen, an incredibly petty bit of embezzlement. It was so light an amount that it would be awkward to try to lay blame on her for doing so.
“This grain... it doesn’t have much taste, so... maybe I should try baking it?”
Latina had taken the grain powder used to make the staple gruel-like dish and added an appropriate amount of water and tried mixing it. She had really wanted to use something like milk, but she couldn’t find anything fitting that description, unfortunately.
The dough had a stickier texture than it would have had it been made with wheat flour, and it was obvious at just a glance that it hadn’t been milled uniformly.
“It might work out a bit better with some sifting...”
Her thoughts hastened on the matter of how she could prepare and cook it.
She dropped a bit of her precious butter onto the heated metal pan, and it soon melted, letting off a pleasant aroma. Smelling that scent for the first time in a while caused her to feel exhilarated. She carefully added the dough to the pan, and it made a high-pitched sizzle. Normally, she would temporarily remove the pan from the flame so that the heat could drop, but just as predicted, the highly sticky dough was running on the thick side. It would surely be fine, even with this level of heat.
What Latina had created was a sort of pseudo-crepe made from flour and water.
No matter how much Latina may have polished her cooking skills, there was a limit to what she could make while improvising without any preparation. She hardly even had anything to serve as proper ingredients to start with.
Even so, when she lightly spread butter atop and drizzled on some honey, a scent wafted off the dish that aroused her appetite. It had been a depressingly long time since a smell had such an effect on her.
It was bad manners to dig into food while standing, but she did it to taste it rather than to steal a bite before sitting down to eat it properly. Especially when it came to something she was making for the first time, it was only natural for a professional to check her work.
Latina shed a few tears.
The dough had been lacking in taste, so the saltiness of the butter actually worked to her advantage. The honey gradually permeated the taste buds of Latina, who had been starved for sweetness.
“It’s edible...” she muttered, a truly depressing statement. Latina ate all of it and then fried up another batch with the remaining batter and went running to Dale.
“Dale!”
“Y-yeah...?”
Latina was supposed to have gone off to have an open conversation with her friend Sylvia, but she had returned carrying a plate, leaving Dale perplexed.
With that said, when she offered him the plate with a wide grin on her face, he had no option but to smile back.
“Dale... I made this. Will you give it a try?”
“I could never say that I didn’t want your home cooking, but... you made it...?”
It was a virtue of hers that she was always earnest and couldn’t tell a lie, but Dale’s smile was an unusually lukewarm one, having sensed what was going on.
“So you... went into the kitchen...?”
“Just for a bit. It wasn’t for long!”
It was awkward for Latina as well, so she tried to desperately stress the extenuating circumstances as she gave her explanation.
“Um, it probably won’t be so good when it gets cold, so please eat it while it’s hot.”
“Right.”
That
was the reason that Latina had hurried back to the room from the kitchen. The lady-in-waiting, who was completely at her mercy, was left out of the loop.
She had folded the batter in half over itself and made them a smallish size to make it easier to eat, and just touching it had been enough to convey its stickiness. A portion of her skill as a chef could be seen in the way that they were all nearly identical sizes.
As Dale brought one of the offered crepes to his mouth, a sweet scent wafted through the air. As he chewed, the saltiness of the butter and a gentle sweetness filled his mouth.
“I want to say anything and everything you make is delicious, but...”
“Yeah,” Latina said with a nod, holding the same food as Dale in both hands and stuffing her cheeks.
“It’s not exactly mindblowingly tasty, is it?”
“Right. It’s not all that great.”
Latina was aware that the ingredients she had on hand had been limited, so she wasn’t hurt by Dale’s words. She was able to accurately assess the dishes that she made.
“Still... it’s been a while since I’ve been able to have proper food...”
Despite any flaws, it was still freshly baked, and compared to the food offered by Vassilios, it was far more akin to actual food.
“Yeah...” Latina said with a nod, her eyes tearing up a bit. “Meals really are precious...” said the ruler of the nation’s beloved sister earnestly while continuing to nod.
Dale couldn’t help but feel that something about that was extremely misplaced, but he didn’t point that out.
Sure enough, Latina wasn’t able to take the task of cleaning up the plate away from the lady-in-waiting. Even so, she didn’t get discouraged, instead starting to work away in a corner of the villa. Looking at her, Dale saw she was lining up several containers she had likely pilfered from the kitchen. Finding that strange, Dale peeked inside and spotted some manner of fruit immersed in water.
“What’s that...?”
“I’m trying a bit of an experiment. Don’t touch it or move it, alright?”
