I’ll preface this by saying sorry for the late release, was doing some renovations around the house so I couldn’t finish it on time. The next one will be on time though, for sure. Without further ado, enjoy!
I’m having lunch in the garden with Serea, who came for her princess education once again.
Both of us were very busy, so we didn’t have much time to spend together outside of our tea-time and dance lessons, and because of that we made the time to at least have lunch together.
“This is delicious!”
The two of us are happily enjoying the chef’s new dish. It’s a dish made by deep frying chicken meat.
“Submerging the entire thing in oil, this is another luxurious recipe... ”
After I said that a maid told us.
“It’s fried chicken and it became popular in town.”
“In town?”
“Yes.”
“...”
Serea is pondering something.
Did something happen?
“I will go bring the pot.”
With that, the maid went out to get water for tea, so we are alone now.
“...... It’s weird.”
“What is?”
“It was the same with the potato chips from last time, this is exactly the same as something I ate in my former world.”
“I see.”
“No matter how I look at it, it’s weird. It’s possible that the heroine, who kept her memories, made these and is spreading them using the knowledge from her former world.”
“...... It could be.”
There is no culture of deep frying meats or vegetables in our country, since the oil that’s made by wringing out grains is very valuable. It’s not a cooking method one can easily try at home.
“Maybe the heroine was born as the daughter of a restaurant owner?”
“Or maybe a merchant that deals with oil.”
We may need to look into it.
“Let’s look around next time we leave the castle on a date.”
“Maybe it would be best if we don’t get involved, I have no idea what would happen if we bump into the heroine......”
“What if we go and check it out sneakily, without meeting her?”
“You are really curious, aren’t you Shin-sama?”
“That’s not it, the more information you have the better, and the easier it will be to make countermeasures.”
“I might be a little scared.”
“It’ll be fine. I’m with you after all.”
Dance lessons are in the afternoon.
“Two twos are four, two threes are six, two fours are eight!”
“Two twos are four, two threes are six, two fours are eight!”
“Hey, hold up you two, what are you shouting!?”
The teacher was surprised so he stopped his clapping.
“It’s the multiplication table.”
“Multiplication table?”
When the two of us were reviewing what we learned, I was surprised at how fast Serea could calculate and how easily she could solve math problems. When I asked her how she did it, she told me that there is this thing called a multiplication table, and that she memorised multiplications from one to nine! Of course she would calculate fast with that! Here, we would use an abacus for that.
And so, she started teaching it to me as well.
“Hmm, so you are studying arithmetic. I’d like for you to focus on dancing though, but if that makes dancing more fun for you, then its fine. Well then, lets continue.”
Quick, quick, twirl, twirl, turn.
“Two sevens are fourteen! Two eights are sixteen, Two nines are eighteen!”
“Aaaah, little old me ended up memorising it as well. What if people start calling me a calculating man.”
Teacher is hilarious as usual.
Hahaha.
“That fried chicken thing was delicious. I heard that it was popular in the castle town?”
I went to the kitchen and asked the chef. He looks happy.
“Thank you very much your highness. That type of food that’s popular downtown might not be appropriate for the royal court, but it certainly was delicious, so wanted to try copying it.”
“Those potato chips as well. Serea loved them.”
“It’s an honour that even the young lady was pleased with them. I made them just for fun.”
The well-built chef laughs.
“Since it uses a lot of oil, you can’t eat it every day you know?”
“I know, I know. Do they serve that in the restaurants downtown?”
“Yes, they do.As a chef, you can’t slack off in your pursuit flavour. You always have to look for something new, since there is no such thing as common and noble flavours. Recently one person gotten a reputation for coming up with new recipes one after another, I went to try them myself as well. It was a big surprise.”
“What is the name of the store?”
“It’s the restaurant ‘Hans’. Third avenue, Platanas Street.”
“Thanks!”
Highly suspicious.
For dishes never before seen in this world, that look exactly like the ones Serea knows, to keep popping up one after another. This is something that probably needs investigating.
It’s the weekend, the two of us are having a date in town again.
But if I say the two of us, Shreegan and miss Bell are accompanying us as usual.
“I’m really sorry that we are having you work even though it’s a day off.”
Serea lowers her head to miss Bell.
“There is no need for you to do that. Please raise your head. I was looking forward to the outing with Shin-chan as well.”
“Little bro, don’t you have anything to say to me?”
What are you talking about Shreegan, you were the one most excited to come.
Anything is fine with you as long as miss Bell comes, right Shreegan......?
“Say, there was something I’ve always wanted to ask you Shreegan. Why have you been chosen to be my personal guard?”
“That’s cus I’m affordable!”
What kind of reason is that? You became my personal guard because of something like that? I want to make a complaint to the personnel officer.
“Look at it this way, if 30 bandits were to appear, it would be bad if there weren’t at least 10 imperial guards with you, but if it’s me I’d be enough alone, so it’s more affordable that way.”
Shreegan is that strong!? I thought that his face is the only scary thing about him! Shreegan, why do you have a face as if what you said is only natural?
Even miss Bell, who always has a poker face on, has her eyes wide open in surprise.
“I’ve always wondered if it wasn’t too negligent having only one person guarding the prince......”
“If you were to walk with ten guards sticking to you, there is no way you’d be able to go anywhere incognito, right? It can’t be helped.”
You really are something. Where do you get all of that confidence?
“Off we go little bro!”
You really like that setting don’t you!Whatever...
As usual, we went to the church again for the mass.
Since Serea wanted to get a better look at the church, a priest gave us a tour after the mass was over, so it took longer today.
“Are wedding ceremonies held here as well?”
Serea asks with glittering eyes.
“Yes, our doors are open to all citizens. It’s a church for the people, and one’s status doesn’t matter.”
“Does that apply to vagrants as well?”
“We welcome everyone lord Shin. It’s the duty of the church to protect the weak. We also periodically give out food.”
“Charity huh...... Should we be more charitable then?”
“That isn’t enough. We need to give them work too. People don’t live on bread alone. The gratification of work, the sense of fulfilment of finishing your work, they are all necessary. It's not enough to just give them a hand, they need the strength to stand on their own two feet.”
This is a pretty difficult problem. Thanks to the orphanages my sister founded, the number of vagrant children has been drastically reduced. I’d like to do something about the other vagrants next.
“I think that we need to improve the school system.”
Serea says that.
“I think that there are a lot of jobs available for those who can at least read and write. If all children were to go to school and learn to read, write and calculate, it will help them no matter what occupation they chose.”
...... Serea remembers being hospitalized and not being able to go to school much.
“It’s called compulsory education. The law says that all kids have to go to school, and studying is their job. There is no tuition fee either, in other words it’s free.”
If you were to walk trough town, you would see a lot of kids that have jobs.
Some are store clerks, some are cleaners, and some are doing deliveries. Kids our age are running around town and working.
“In order to do that, we would need to get the peoples consent to use the tax money for it, it would be a huge undertaking......”
“I’d want to be pardoned from having to study from childhood though.”
Shreegan, why did you really join the knights order......?
“This way!”
I lead the way around town, while looking at a map.
“I hear that there is a restaurant with a growing reputation.”
“Do you by any chance mean restaurant Hans?”
“That’s the one.”
“If it’s that one, I’ve eaten there countless times. Aaaaah it’s all so tasty!”
“I heard that the fried chicken is delicious.”
“Yup, let’s go, let’s go.”
Serea looks a little uneasy, but well, we'll just have to wait and see.
It’s pretty crowded. There is a line in front of the restaurant.
“Wow, today might not be the best day to come.”
“......Since it looks like they also have takeout, should I go get some?”
Miss Bell was concerned.
“Yeah, I’ll leave that to you. The rest of us will wait outside.”
Shreegan looks like he wants to line up, but he is my guard, more or less, so he won’t separate from me.
Serea, Shreegan and I sat down on a street bench to wait for mis Bell to return.
Hot, freshly fried chicken. It looks delicious.
Serea takes one bag, takes a small bite from the chicken, then offers it to me. It’s poison testing. She really is cute. It makes me happy.
“Thank you.”
It’s crispy on the outside, and tender with sizzling juices trapped on the inside.
“Delicious!”
All four of us start eating.
“This was deboned right?”
The chef at the castle carefully removed the bones from the one he prepared.
“With this, you eat the small bones too. Try taking a bite.”
It’s just as Shreegan said, when I bit into it, the small bones were crispy.
This is amazing!
“......”
Serea is surprised as well.
“This is exactly like KFC”
“What’s KFC? The usual?”
“Yes, and I think the reason you can eat the little bones is because they're fried in a pressure frier.”
“Pressure frier?”
“Colonel Sanders came up with it.”
“Really...”
“He was always standing in front of the store, wearing white clothes and holding fried chicken.”
“...... For the store owner himself to be calling customers in, how much free time did he have? Didn’t he have anything better to do?”
Serea started to chuckle. Did I say something weird?
She took a potato, took a small bite, and held it out to me. Since my hands were sticky and full of fried chicken, I just opened my mouth and ate it directly from her hands.
The potato is thickly fried. It’s different from last times potato chips, it has a crispy outside and a soft inside texture. It’s good that they are easy to eat.
The four of us ended up finishing everything in no time.
The person who came up with all of this can’t be an ordinary person.
“Using lots of precious oil, this is such extravagant food......”
“I guess it pays off because you can make it in large quantities and sell it.”
What composed analysis miss Bell.
The idea of takeout is also amazing. This also speeds up sales and makes more profit than just having people sit inside. This is an idea that has never been seen before in this country.
“How about we take a look inside?”
Serea tried to stop me by pulling my sleeve.
“Well just take a peek. Right now, we are just hungry kids, no one will think anything of it. Serea, you come along me. You two wait here.”
“Little bro, don’t forget to look both ways!”
Yeah, yeah, you’re noisy.
The two of us cross the street, walk up to the front of the store, go to the window and stand on our tiptoes to peer inside.
There are a lot of customers. All of the seats are occupied.
The girl at the counter, that’s talking to a customer......
“That’s the girl!”
I said unconsciously.
That girl!
It’s her!
The girl with a cat, that I saved from bullying when I was seven! Crystal pink hair and sparkling blue irises!
White skin, beautiful plump pink lips,lovely dazzling smile! There is no mistaking it, she is the girl I met when I was seven![TN-3]
TN: Well, they finally found the heroine, can’t wait to see what they are gonna do in the next chapter.
[TN-1] There is a phrase in Japan, ‘normies explode’, basically one says it when he is envious of a couple being all touchy feely.
