Volume 1 - CH 28

Volume 1: Chapter 028: Tooru Becomes a Gourmet Reporter

Day 7: Makia

You can stop coming.

Let me put it simply, I want someone more handsome and obedient.

“….”

I return to the Odille mansion exhausted and found this note on Makia’s door.

It has been seven days since our big quarrel, but she still refuses to appear in front of me.

Still, she would make sure to throw acorn bombs at me in the morning just when I am leaving the building. She had been setting up all kinds of traps lately. Traps ranging from mildly annoying to somewhat dangerous.

However, it looks like the danger is mostly aimed at me. She had done something to the acorn bombs that would only activate when they hit me. If it happens to strike someone else, it would only have the impact of a regular acorn strike.

I manage to secure one of her acorn bombs and, after carefully taking it apart, I found that she had painted the inside of the acorn cap with blood infused with magical power. She may have included my hair in this concoction of hers as well.

Blood-based magic is her speciality after all.

Within every single thing in this world, regardless of whether they are living or inert, there is a certain level of ‘data’ that anchored it into the real world. For living things, ‘data’ consisted of name or origin. So long as the existence has weight or mass, they have ‘potential’. In abstract terms, it may be called fate or karma.

For inert objects, name and mass are important too, as well as usage and reason for existence. Having a history would also add to an inert object’s value. In short, there are all kinds of information that could contribute to the value of an ‘existence’

Makia’s blood has the terrifying ability to transform this data into energy. A person’s name is the culmination of their existence, a sum of all their data. This is why, as a Name Fate Witch, she could see a person’s fate and potential just by knowing their name. She once described this as the power of exposing ‘bonds’.

For an ‘inert object’, an acorn may not seem to contain much data. A single acorn only weighs about 3 to 4 grams and these came from a Sawtooth Oak tree. However, it has numerous potential futures, it could become animal feed, a tree, picked up by a child, made into a toy and so forth. Thus the ‘data’ of a single acorn is contained in its future ‘potential’.

By altering a single acorn’s destiny through magic, it could be made into something like a vicious children’s toy. The data involved only has enough energy to turn it into a small firecracker, but the fact that she could change a simple little acorn’s ‘data’ into a firecracker is still there.

[1] Makia’s power could turn mass, fate, and history into energy. Just what kind of history does an acorn have? Nothing much, but, can you imagine what would happen if Makia gets her hand on something historically significant? If a one-of-a-kind special heirloom that had played a significant part in changing world history were to fall into Makia’s hands, her power would be terrifying. The rarer, and more significant the information, the more powerful her magic.

Well, Makia’s powers have limits too. However, I’ll just leave the explanation here.

Hm?

What’s that?

My abilities?

Well, let’s just say that it is basically overwhelmingly powerful Black Magic.

It is completely different from Makia’s [1] blood and ‘data’ related magic. A common type of Black Magic where the source of power comes from my ‘self’.

In contrast, White Magic draws its powers from the outside world. Basically, nature and spirits lend their power to a White Magic user, either indirectly or through contracts. It requires less preparation and labour, with significantly lower risk to the user.

Personally, I think of it as the jack of all trades magic that covers a wide range of useful abilities.

Day 8: Tooru

Did you set up traps at the building gate?

Master was trapped in it.

Also, could you really find someone more handsome than me?

I am really tired today. So my reply is not as clever as it might have been.

Since Master fell into a pit trap that I am pretty sure is meant for me, [1] I thought I should let her know and be more careful where she sets her traps. I’m sure she wants to get me trapped so that she could bombard me with acorns

Also, I really don’t think there’s a better-looking guy than me around.

Yeah.

Day 9: Makia

Shut up you baldie.

People who work too hard will become bald!

Baldie!

“… …”

What is she, a child? Still, I am kind of worried since, [1] well, it can’t be good when a real witch curses you bald. My dark luscious hair!

Day 10: Tooru

Today, I had a full-course dinner of Pearl Salmon and Peach Shrimp.

It was crazy delicious.

I know.

Don’t you think I of all people would understand what would happen if I start talking about food?

The dishes I have just mentioned are part of a tasting menu that I had at the cafeteria just the other day. It was one of the dishes included as part of a full course, a luxury seafood meal created especially to celebrate the founding day of Vabel. 

A time-limited menu that can only be enjoyed once a year on the Holy Festival Day of the ‘Holy Festival’ of Vabilophos. Students would get to enjoy this special super luxurious meal at a super low, low price. People outside of the school, [1] such as merchants, visitors, etc would have to fork out a ridiculous sum of money to enjoy this same meal. Naturally, there are some exceptions but at any rate, it became a rather hot topic in Karted. I’m sure this was all deliberately arranged.

Well, in all honesty, the dishes were crazy delicious.

Fresh Pearl Salmon fish caught from the nearby seas of Karted, its oily flesh nicely seared and sprinkled with a light and refreshing sauce made with Delia Fields lemons. The sweetness of the salmon oil mingled with the fresh taste of lemons made for a simple, yet elegant dish.

As the name suggests, the light pink Peach Shrimp was plump flesh that became more savoury the more I chewed on it. The shrimp is delicious raw or grilled. However, it is simply irresistible when served with a tomato cream sauce and made with scallop broth.

Oh, am I a gourmet reporter?

Is this the revolution of the sense of taste?

There were also cold soft-boiled eggs on bright red salmon roe, squid ink pasta, caviar toast and a lemon sorbet for dessert. Every single thing was delicious. So much so that I had to wonder if I would be punished by the heavens for eating such luxurious things. Especially when I caught sight of the poor children scraping for a living at the edges of the town.

However, a project to give them affordable education and an opportunity to change their lives is right in front of them. [1] We are making every effort to encourage them to take it.

No compromise.

Well then, how will Makia respond to this?

Day 11: Makia

Please tell me a bit more about that.

I knew it.

I just knew it, you have completely forgotten about our fight, haven’t you?

I have never seen a more gluttonous woman in my life.

It doesn’t matter that she’s the daughter of the Count, she had not had the opportunity to eat fresh seafood like this. Quality gourmet seafood dishes of this kind could only be found in successful port cities like Karted.

I really do want to let her eat this someday.

I am sure she would look very happy eating this.

Day 12: Tooru

Wahaha, I won’t tell you, lol.

Little children should just eat lemon cake.

Would Makia become angry by this?

Still, I would like it if the three of us could go and eat this together.

One day.

[Gumihou: Ahh, this Tooru guy…]

[1] Filling in the ‘Unspoken’. Often, when it comes to Japanese novels, the translation might feel a bit lacking since the author deliberately choose to use fewer words and let the reader fill in the blanks through a preset cultural understanding.

If the missing info looks too sparse, Gumi will fill in some of the blanks. This is not to imply that the writer’s craft is lacking, but we do have a cultural gap. Gumi will try to fill in these gaps unobtrusively.