Chapter 25: Reason to Help and Pudding
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Translator: SFBaka
We finally made it back to the manor, but Cleria wanted to ask me about the designated request I got earlier, so the three of us went back to the girl’s room to discuss it.
“It isn’t really a hard request. Jonas-san talked about it with me this morning. He asked me to guide them toward the bandit hideout in order to recover the rest of the goods they took from Tarus-san when they abducted him. Only I and Tarus-san am familiar with the location of the bandit hideout after all.”
“You intend to accept the request?”
“Of course. We’ve been in their care after all. And for a quest that can be finished in a day, five Large Silvers is a nice enough reward. It’ll also depend on the people coming with us to recover the goods, but we’ll probably depart tomorrow or the day after.”
“The modifications on your leather armor will only be finished after three days right, Alan?”
“It’s not like I need it for the quest anyway. The area we’re going to is nearby, and I haven’t had any trouble even when I’m not wearing armor so far anyway.”
“I see. I’ll go with you then.”
“And I’m coming as well, of course,” Elna followed up.
“Nah, I’ll be fine on my own y’know. And your armor’s modifications are also going to be finished after three days too right?”
“I’m also indebted to Tarus-san after all. And I probably won’t face any danger with you and Elna by my side.”
“…Alright, fine. The three of us will go, okay.”
“And, um, Alan. I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while, but…”
So she’s asking me now huh. It’s probably about where I come from anyway.
“Why do you go out of your way to help someone like me?”
Oops. So it’s about that. Hm. My reason for helping her huh… I haven’t really thought about it much, to be honest.
I just didn’t want to leave a helpless young lady to die at first. After I rescued her from danger, I guess I treated her as a sort of troublesome little sister. I’m an only child, so I guess I’ve kinda always longed for a younger sister or brother since I was a kid.
“I don’t have any particular reason when I decided to help you out, Cleria. I just did what any decent person would do, I think.
“I don’t really understand myself, but I guess I kinda ended up treating you like a little sister I wanted to take care of along the way, Cleria.”
“Eh! Little sister!?”
Cleria gave an incredibly surprised reaction. Is it really something that weird? Well, I guess it would make a teenage girl like her feel a bit uncomfortable to be treated as a little sister by someone unrelated to her. But those are really my honest feelings.
Elna, who was in the corner, was nodding in agreement for some reason.
“I see… Little sister…”
Cleria seemed somewhat depressed now.
“Well, it might sound a bit weird, but that’s basically my reason for helping you out, Cleria.”
“I see… I understand. I’m really thankful for all the help you’ve given me, Alan.”
“Oh c’mon. There’s no need for that. You’ve also helped me out quite a bit as well, Cleria.”
“What do you plan on doing after this, Alan?”
My plans huh. Cleria probably thinks I came to this continent with some sort of goal in mind. But I honestly don’t have a concrete goal right now. I don’t have anything I particularly want to do. I had my hands full just trying to stay alive up until now after all.
“Cleria, aren’t you curious about the place I come from?”
“T- That’s… It’s true that I have always wanted to ask you.”
“You’ve already realized this a while back, but it’s true that I’m not someone from this continent.
“I came to this continent by ship, but that same ship sank along with all of my comrades. I was the only one who survived.
“I won’t be able to go back to my home country without that ship. So, right now, I have no choice but to live in this continent.
“Because I’ve just arrived on this continent, I don’t have any particular goal in mind. But perhaps my desire to learn more about magic can be counted as one.”
“Won’t you be able to go home to your country if you made a big and sturdy enough ship?”
“No, that would be impossible. It’s difficult to explain why exactly, but I probably won’t be able to go back to my country.”
“I see… So Alan isn’t able to go home just like me.”
It’s a little different in my case, but I guess that’s one way to put it.
“Let us do this then! Alan will cooperate with me and I will also do all that I can to help you as well. But as for studying magic… Aren’t you already a very accomplished mage, Alan?”
“I’ve certainly managed to learn some magic. But there are other spells and elements, right? Uh, there’s wind magic, earth magic, and light magic. I’d like to learn them as well once I’ve managed to settle down somewhat.”
“If it’s wind magic, Elna here is the best wind mage among the knights.
“Oh, haven’t properly introduced you and Elna to each other yet, right?
“Alan, this is Elna Norian. She’s one of the royal guards assigned to serve me. No, make that ‘formerly’.
“Elna, this gentleman is Alan Corinth. I owe him my life.”
“I am called Elna Norian, Alan-dono. I serve as one of Cleria-sama’s royal guards. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”
I took the opportunity to have a good look at Elna. She seems to be the same age as me at least. She was a tall and beautiful girl with fiery red hair.
“I’m Alan Corinth. Nice to meet you too. You have a surname, so I guess you’re a noble right?”
“That is correct. I hail from the House of Viscount Norian.”
“Are all of the royal guards nobles?”
“Not all of us are, but we compose the majority.”
“I see. So that’s the case. So, Elna, I’d really appreciate it if you could demonstrate some wind magic spells for me sometime.”
“Certainly. But I do not have a magic tome with me. Do you have one, Alan-dono?”
“No, I don’t. But it’s enough to just show me some spells.”
“Alan doesn’t need magic tomes after all.”
“Just what do you mean by that, Cleria-sama?”
“Well, you’ll find out soon enough. You would find it hard to believe even if I told you as long as you haven’t witnessed it for yourself.”
“…I see.”
There was a knock outside the room’s door.
“It’s Jonas. We have prepared your dinner.”
We went to the dining room and found Tarus-san and family along with Beck and Thor already seated.
“Thank you very much for making some lovely sweets for us today, Alan-san. I have asked Jonas about them, but he remains tight-lipped, you see,” the Madam greeted.
“It’s a type of sweet that’s very popular in my country. It’s easy to make and quite tasty as well.”
“Maa, I’m really looking forward to it!” Tara-chan chimed in.
The dishes served were as plentiful and delicious as always. Well then, it’s finally time for dessert.
“Would you like me to help with serving them, Jonas-san?”
There’s a bit of a knack in order to get the pudding out of the porcelain containers after all.
“There’s no need, sir. I have already made the arrangements.”
It looks like they’ve begun serving the pudding already. As expected of Jonas-san. All of us have been served pudding before long.
“This is a type of sweet?” Tara-chan inquired.
“Yes. It’s a sweet called pudding. Please scoop out a part of it along with the brown syrup on top and give it a taste.”
I scooped out a portion off of mine first to show them. Un, tasty. It really tastes more like pudding once it’s properly chilled.
“C- Cold!?”
“This is- !?”
“Whoah! What is this!?”
“It’s amazingly delicious!”
It looks like they all liked it. I made large enough portions, so I believe they’d be quite satisfied.
“Impressive, Alan. It’s my first time to taste such a delicious sweet.”
Cleria, who already managed to finish her own portion, gave a rave review.
“I see. I’m glad you liked it then.”
“Alan-san! It’s an amazing sweet! It’s also my first time to taste such a wonderful sweet.”
That’s a relief. It looks like the Madam has also taken a liking to it.
“Is this sweet truly that simple to make?” the Madam inquired.
“Yes, it is. Once you learn the knack for it, it’s really easy to make. Isn’t that right, Jonas-san?”
“Yes. I’ve observed Alan-san’s cooking process earlier. It was truly a cooking method I haven’t seen before, but it’s surprisingly easy to follow.”
“This sweet is truly magnificent, Alan-san! I’m also greatly satisfied. If it’s alright with you, could we purchase the recipe for it?” Tarus-san requested.
Tarus-san has his ‘merchant’ face on. It’s just the recipe for pudding y’know.
“No, you don’t really have to purchase it. I’ll give it to you as thanks for all you’ve done for us.”
“That just won’t do. There would be a lot of merchants in this city who would pay quite a sum for this sort of never-before-seen recipe. I would like for it to be one of the signature dishes in one of our family’s stores. I would easily earn back the money with this sweet, so please do allow me to purchase it from you.”
That’s amazing. So they even have a restaurant. I guess I won’t be able to refuse after he’s said all that.
“I understand. I’ll give you the complete recipe by tomorrow. It would be better if I gave a demonstration to the chefs as well. They’d learn the correct method of making it faster that way.”
“That would be most wonderful! I would be able to eat this every day!” Tara-chan exclaimed in excitement.
Whoah there. Don’t you think you’ll get tired of it if you eat pudding every day?
“I’m now utterly curious if Alan-san knows other recipes apart from this as well!” the Madam followed up.
Well, I do have a lot of recipes. I’ve bought the 「Earth Cuisine Ultimate Compendium」that was released just two years before after all. I even resorted to a credit loan in order to purchase the thing. That reminds me, how am I going to pay for that loan now anyway? Oh well.
It has all of Earth’s major cuisines on it, so I don’t regret buying it at all. I uploaded the whole thing to my Nanom’s database and already indicated all the recipes I’m fond of.
There’s a lot of recipes. But the problem’s the ingredients. I’d need to at least check out all the available ingredients and condiments and make comparisons in order to use some of those recipes.
“We have a lot of different ingredients and seasonings in my home country that may not be available here. If I can’t manage to find an equivalent at least, the number of recipes we can make would be somewhat limited. I’ll try to think of a few we can make with what we have now and show them to you later.”
“I’m truly looking forward to them.”
Now that I think about it, none of the others here actually asked about where I’m from. Maybe it was Tarus-san who told them not to pry too much.
The dinner ended on a high note.
I asked Jonas-san about the request, and he told me the personnel and carriages that would be used for the recovery of the goods will be ready the day after tomorrow. We would depart early in the morning.
When we got back to our room, Beck and Thor told me about what they did during the day.
It looks like they’ve already managed to purchase most of the goods the village needed. They’ll buy the rest tomorrow and would depart back to the village in the afternoon at the latest.
They’ve also managed to arrange for some adventurers to serve as their escorts. Since they had money to spare, the negotiations went smoothly, it seems. The party they managed to get was apparently composed of veteran adventurers and had was fairly accomplished.
A ‘party’ is apparently a group composed of several adventurers. It seems you need to form a party to undertake most quests.
It looks like we need to form a party ourselves.
“That reminds me. We’re supposed to receive the reward for capturing the bandits tomorrow, right? How about we all claim our rewards tomorrow morning? I’m guessing you’d also want some extra money to buy some souvenirs, right?”
“That’ll be great! Let’s do that.”
A little while later, the three of us entered the bath. Since we were all tired from the activities today, we all fell asleep pretty quickly after having a bath.
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