Dinner and Uses for Shells

When I entered the dining room, everyone was already there.

"I'm sorry for being late."

"No, Leon-kun, you made dinner for us, didn't you? It's only natural that you'd be late. More importantly, I'm looking forward to your cooking."

"I'm looking forward to it too. I've never had Leon's cooking before."

Richard-sama and Catherine-sama seemed very excited about it.

"You used what we bought earlier, didn't you? I'm looking forward to this too."

"I wonder if it'll be different from what we usually eat. I'm looking forward to it."

Lucien and Frederick-sama looked excited too. This is a lot of pressure! What if they think it tastes bad...?

I was about to say, "Please don't expect too much!" when the food was brought in.

There was nothing I could do but pray that everyone would enjoy it.

The servants brought out dishes that had been beautifully arranged on plates, making them look like fine cuisine. It was hard to believe I had made them. For now, I decided to try one bite of everything.

First, I'll start with the salt-grilled yellowtail.

I took a bite... Hmm, delicious. Salt-grilled fish really is good. But now I want rice!! This won't do—I want white rice.

Next was the oven-baked scallops.

At first, there was a crisp texture, but juicy flavor immediately welled up and spread through my mouth. Oh man... They were too delicious... The garlic came through, too. This was exquisite.

The oven-baked scallops were perfect. Next was the fried version. I poured tomato sauce over it and took a bite. Crisp... Delicious!! The crunchy texture was incredible. The tomato sauce was exquisite too. As expected of you, Nasser-san—this is delicious.

Finally, the octopus karaage. I took a bite... Oh! The more I chewed, the more savory flavor came out. It would be even better dipped in soy sauce, but it was good with salt too.

Phew... Everything was incredibly delicious. Thank goodness—it was a huge success. I looked around to see everyone's reactions.

Huh? Why was it so quiet...? Could it be that they didn't like it?

"Um... Was it not to your liking?"

"Leon-kun!"

"Y-yes!"

"This is unbelievably delicious! What is this? Especially this oven-baked scallop dish—I could eat any number of them."

"I like this crispy dish. The texture is so interesting, and it goes perfectly with the tomato sauce. It would go well with bread too."

I was glad they liked it. Richard-sama seemed to prefer the oven-baked scallops. I could see why.

Catherine-sama seemed to prefer the fried dish.

"Leon, I'm amazed that you can make food this delicious! I like fried horse mackerel."

"I prefer the octopus karaage. It has a different kind of deliciousness from simply grilling octopus and sprinkling it with salt."

Lucien liked the fried horse mackerel, while Frederick-sama seemed to prefer the octopus karaage. I was glad they enjoyed them.

Feeling relieved, I began eating again.

Richard-sama was muttering things like, "If only we had an ice maker, we could eat this food in the Royal Capital..." Maybe these dishes would become available in the Royal Capital someday.

Do your best, Richard-sama!

After we finished a thoroughly satisfying dinner, I went straight to sleep that night. Cooking unfamiliar dishes had left me pretty tired.

Then, the next morning, since we would return to the domain capital after lunch, I decided to try processing the scallop shells before then.

After breakfast, I went out into the garden.

I think I remember that scallop shells were roasted, crushed, and used as fertilizer. Or was it...? Did they have to be soaked in water first? I seem to remember soaking them in fresh water.

Hmm... I couldn't remember very well.

For now, I'd just have to test it over the long term and see what happened. I decided to roast and grind one-fifth of the shells. As for the rest, I'd have to try soaking them in water for different lengths of time.

I took about one-fifth of the shells and placed them in a shallow depression I made in the ground with earth magic. Then I kept feeding the fire with fire magic, roasting the shells thoroughly. Maybe there was a better way to roast them, but for now, roasting them should be enough.

My memory was too vague, so I had no choice but to try it more or less at random.

Next, I had to crush them into powder. I used earth magic to create something like a sturdy stone bowl and put the shells inside. Then I made a hard stone rod with earth magic and crushed the shells with it.

Oh, they crumble pretty easily. Making them fine might be difficult, though. I continued crushing them for a while without thinking about anything else.

All right! Is this fine enough?

As I stood up, thinking that, Roger was staring at the crushed shells with a puzzled expression.

"Leon-sama, what have you been doing all this time?"

"It's an experiment."

"What kind of experiment?"

"These crushed shells might work as fertilizer. I thought I'd make a little for now and see. It will also be easier to explain it to Richard-sama and Christophe-sama if I have an actual sample to show them."

Roger seemed somewhat convinced after hearing my explanation.

"Could you bring me a bag to put this powder in?"

"Certainly."

Roger brought me a bag, and I put the shell powder inside. This was enough for now. Once we returned to the domain capital, we'd have to try soaking the remaining shells in fresh water. It might also be worth crushing some without roasting them first. We would also have to test how much to use and how often. There were so many things to confirm.

I wondered if Richard-sama would be troubled by how vague my knowledge was.

Hmm... But this stuff had been nothing more than garbage, and there was a chance we could put it to good use. It was worth discussing, at least.

Actually, I had avoided talking about knowledge like this because people would wonder how I knew such things. But according to Martine, Richard-sama and Alexis-sama apparently believed that I was an Apostle-sama. If that was the case, they probably wouldn't question my knowing all sorts of things.

It wasn't as though I had lied and claimed to be an Apostle-sama. Since they had misunderstood me even though I denied it, it was probably all right to take a little advantage of that misunderstanding and improve this world for my own sake, even if only slightly.

For now, I hoped this could be one step toward making seafood available in the Royal Capital. If this fertilizer became a specialty of the port town and brought the town more attention, seafood might attract more attention as well. If demand increased, supply would surely increase too. I had already made an ice maker, so transportation shouldn't be a problem.

Well, it might not go as smoothly as this, but it was better than doing nothing.

Since there was still time before lunch, I decided to tell Richard-sama about it. I had Roger check whether I could meet with him, and the reply came back that I could come anytime.

Roger and I visited Richard-sama's room carrying the shells and the shell powder.

"So, what is it this time?"

Richard-sama sent the servants away as soon as I sat down on the sofa. Does he think I always have something dangerous to discuss...? Well, I can't deny it.

"This time, it's about scallop shells."

"Scallop shells? You mean the scallops we ate last night?"

"Yes. If you roast and crush scallop shells, they can be used as fertilizer."

"Wha—... Really!?"

"Yes. Is it really something to get so worked up about?"

"No, I was just surprised because I thought shells were useless nuisances with no particular purpose. If we can put them to good use, that's wonderful. I hear they're piled up as garbage on the beach as well."

Indeed, that mountain of refuse might become a mountain of treasure.

"So how do we turn them into fertilizer?"

"I can't give you anything very precise, but I think you just need to crush them and mix them into the soil. However, roasting them first or soaking them in fresh water for several days should affect how effective they are. I don't know the most effective way to make the fertilizer, so you'll have to figure that out through trial and error..."

"No, that's more than enough information to begin experimenting. We should make several versions during the winter and test them on summer vegetables. For now, it would be best to try them in the fields at the residence in the domain capital. If it works, perhaps we can have them produced in this town. It might even become a specialty of the town..."

By the latter half, Richard-sama had completely sunk into a sea of his own thoughts, essentially talking to himself.

Can I continue the conversation...?

"Richard-sama?"

"Ah, sorry. I got lost in thought."

"No, it's all right. I also can't say for certain how much should be mixed into the soil or how often it should be applied. Would that still be all right?"

I seem to remember my mother saying that she ruined the vegetables in her home garden in Japan by using too much fertilizer.

"Of course. Trial and error is only natural when starting something new. The information that scallop shells might be useful is already more than enough. We should certainly test how much to use. We should also try combining them with the fertilizer we've been using..."

Richard-sama looked ready to sink back into his thoughts. It seemed best to wrap things up quickly.

"Richard-sama, the powder in this bag was roasted and crushed without being soaked in fresh water. The wooden box contains the shells I got from the market, untouched."

"This? You have to crush them quite finely, don't you?"

"I'd like you to experiment with how fine they should be as well, but I don't think it would be good for them to be too coarse."

Richard-sama stared intently at the shell powder, then raised his head.

"Leon-kun, thank you for this valuable information. You do so much for us. I wish I could repay you somehow."

Richard-sama said that with a somewhat apologetic expression.

"No, everyone in the Townsend ducal family has treated me very well, so it's only natural. If anything, I think I should be doing more to repay you. I'm sorry that the information I gave you this time was so vague."

If the first nobles I'd met hadn't been as kind as the members of the ducal family, they might have taken my family hostage and forced me to do something for them. I might even have been imprisoned myself. Even though I could use magic, I wasn't all-powerful.

At the beginning, I hadn't been very alert to danger, so I really had been incredibly fortunate to meet the people of the Townsend ducal family. I felt I already owed them a lifetime's worth of gratitude.

"I'm glad to hear you say that. In that case, I'll discuss this with Christophe when we return to the domain capital. I may ask you for more information later. Would that be all right?"

"Yes. Please ask me anytime."

And so, my discussion with Richard-sama came to an end. Richard-sama apparently intended to have the servants bring shells from the beach. They would need a lot of them to test various methods.

Perhaps I should seriously think about how to repay the ducal family. They had treated me incredibly well, yet I had given them so little in return. If I remembered any other useful knowledge, I would tell Richard-sama about it.

After that, I returned to my room and relaxed for a while, then had lunch with everyone before leaving the port town.

It had been an incredibly fulfilling two days.