Chapter 126
After finishing his delivery, Glenn Dudley, the butcher’s son, returned to his family’s shop, only to find his two younger sisters crowding around him with stern faces for some reason.
“Hey, Glenn. What’s all this about?”
“What happened to the princess? What happened to her?”
“You’re cheating!”
“How indecent!”
Confronted by his two sisters, Glenn scratched his head vigorously.
He had no idea what they were talking about, but his sisters just wanted to try using words like “cheating” and “indecent,” which they rarely had occasion to say.
“Come on, what’s with you two all of a sudden?”
“A girl came to the shop! She says she wants to see you, Glenn!”
“She looked so troubled! You must have done something to her, Glenn!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Leaving his sisters’ noisy clamor behind him, Glenn headed to the front of the shop.
He swept his gaze around the familiar interior and spotted a petite girl standing in the corner. With her head lowered, she fidgeted with her fingers. It was Monica.
“Monica! You’re here? That’s unusual!”
Monica Everett, the 〈Silent Witch〉, was a regular customer at Dudley Butcher Shop. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Monica herself, but her disciple who bought a considerable amount of meat.
Dudley Butcher Shop was a fair distance from Southdoll, so Isaac had told Glenn he could simply bring the meat when he came to visit. Lately, it had become a habit for Glenn to bring a large amount of meat along whenever he went to Southdoll.
This was the first time Monica had come to Dudley Butcher Shop herself to buy meat.
Glenn had assumed she would come with either Lana or Isaac, but apparently Monica was here alone.
Monica bowed her head and said, “Good afternoon,” then looked up at Glenn with a serious expression.
“Actually, there’s something I was hoping you could tell me, Glenn...”
Glenn’s sisters seemed to think Monica was just an ordinary girl, but the truth was that Monica was one of the Seven Sages, the highest-ranking magicians in the Kingdom of Ridill: the 〈Silent Witch〉. In other words, she was incredibly smart.
What could someone as smart as Monica possibly want to learn from him?
Glenn’s imagination ran wild as he wondered if this might be a national crisis. Then Monica asked him shyly,
“D-do you know what kind of meat Aike likes...?”
Glenn’s eyes widened at the unexpected question.
The person Monica had named was her disciple, the Second Prince of the Kingdom, and, to Glenn, a fellow meat lover and someone he could rely on.
Incidentally, Glenn still called Isaac “President,” just as he had when Isaac was student council president. By now, it was practically a nickname.
“You want to serve the president his favorite meat?”
“Yes. I want to serve Aike the kind of meat he likes... I thought you might know, since you and Aike are always talking about meat...”
Glenn folded his arms and thought back on all the conversations he’d had with Isaac about meat.
He’d only learned this after graduating from Serendia Academy, but Glenn and Isaac had fairly similar tastes in food.
These days, they exchanged recommendations for how best to prepare different cuts of meat.
“Well, the president likes pretty much any kind of meat. He seems fine with strong flavors, too. If anything, the seasoning matters more than the type of meat. He seems to like it seasoned pretty boldly.”
“A bold flavor... Um, should I sprinkle on lots of salt?”
Only then did Glenn start to worry about Monica’s cooking skills.
“How good are you at cooking, Monica?”
“Um, if it’s just cutting something up, roasting or boiling it, and sprinkling on salt...”
“Oh, good. You’re better than my master.”
Monica timidly asked about the mutter that had slipped from Glenn’s lips.
“Um, what kind of cooking does Mr. Louis do...?”
“Master says that if you cook meat or fish thoroughly and put jam on it, you can eat pretty much anything.”
“...Wow.”
When Louis had casually taken a jar of jam out of his pack during their training in the mountains, Glenn had doubted his own eyes.
In northern Ridill, people sometimes serve meat with berry sauce, but Glenn was certain that what Louis did was absolutely not the same thing.
“Master drinks alcohol like it’s water and puts jam on everything... If he hadn’t married Rosalie, I’m sure he’d have died young.”
“Ah, ha ha...”
Perhaps Monica could relate; she gazed into the distance and laughed weakly.
At any rate, Glenn folded his arms and thought about what kind of meat to give Monica.
From what he’d heard, Monica wasn’t much of a cook. At this rate, Isaac might end up eating meat smothered in salt.
“I’ve got it! Wait here a moment!”
Glenn ducked into the back of the shop, put a lid on the enamel pot in the kitchen, and packed it into a basket. Inside was meat that had been marinated in sauce and roasted.
Dudley Butcher Shop also sold prepared meat products. The contents of the pot were one of their prototypes.
Glenn draped a cloth over the basket and held it out to Monica.
“I’ve been wanting the president to try this! He seems to like eastern-style seasoning, so I’m sure he’ll love it!”
Marinating meat in sauce before roasting it, instead of pouring sauce over it afterward, was a common cooking method in the eastern region. Adding honey or fruit to the sauce to make it a little sweet was also typical of eastern-style cooking.
The enamel pot held a new dish: meat in a sweet sauce seasoned with the Dudley family’s secret spices.
“Should I just heat this meat up as it is?”
“It’s already cooked through, so just warm it in the oven on low for about five minutes and it’ll be ready to eat!”
For novice cooks, a large cut of meat could be surprisingly difficult to handle. It was hard to judge how long to cook it so the inside was done without burning the outside.
But even beginner Monica should be able to warm it up... probably.
At Glenn’s words, Monica breathed a sigh of relief and patted her chest.
“I think even I can manage this... Thank you, Glenn.”
“You’re welcome! Let me know what you think next time!”
“I will!”
＊ ＊ ＊
Monica woke to an appetizing aroma of spices, fruit, and meat juices mingling together.
She rolled over in bed and squinted at the soft spring sunlight filtering through a gap in the curtains... then her eyes snapped wide open.
She had meant to put grown-up consideration into practice and take care of Isaac. So why was she in bed?
“Aike...! Aike!”
With her hair still tousled from sleep, she clattered down the stairs to find breakfast laid out on the table.
Thin slices of meat were neatly arranged on a large platter at the center. It was the meat she’d bought from Glenn.
“Good morning, Monica.”
Isaac appeared from the kitchen, arranging freshly baked bread on a plate and pouring coffee into Monica’s cup.
All the dishes were set out, too. There was nothing left for Monica to help with.
Isaac quickly pulled out a chair for Monica, who stood frozen in front of the table, and gestured for her to sit. “Please, go ahead.”
Monica perched on the chair and covered her face with both hands.
“I’m sorry, Aike. I... fell asleep, didn’t I...?”
“You must have been tired from the long journey.”
“Ugh...”
“It was a big help that you heated the bath. And I was happy to see the bedding all laid out neatly.”
She was glad he’d appreciated her efforts, but somehow this didn’t feel like grown-up consideration.
(If anything, I feel like I’m the one being taken care of...)
Feeling the weight of her own inexperience, Monica picked up a piece of bread.
The round bread was about the size of her palm and had a slit cut into it. Was she supposed to split it in two here?
Across from her, Isaac was stuffing meat and vegetables into the slit in his bread.
Food made by putting meat and vegetables on or inside bread could sometimes be seen at upper-class tables. But in those cases, they usually used thin bread and made the portions small enough to eat with one hand.
It was unusual among the upper classes to cut a slit in a round loaf and stuff something inside, but Monica knew one person who ate that way.
Casey Grove, who was from the eastern region.
“Aike...”
“Mm?”
Isaac paused with the meat in his hands and tilted his head slightly.
His bread was packed with meat. It was quite a hearty portion for breakfast.
(Where did Aike grow up?)
Monica started to voice the question that had come to mind, then stopped herself.
If he could eat whatever he liked, however he liked, right now, then surely that was the best thing for him.
“This bread is delicious with fried fish in it, too.”
“Maybe I’ll try that next time.”
“Yes!”
Monica put a slice of meat and some vegetables in her bread, opened her mouth wide, and took a big bite.