"Oh, if it isn't Lord Rest!"
"The lord has arrived! Everyone, prepare a welcome!"
When Rest and Celestine arrived at the seaside village, the villagers immediately erupted into commotion.
Because Rest had once subjugated the sea dragon that attacked the village, he was treated like a hero here.
The moment he showed his face, it turned into a full-blown festival. Villagers gathered and surrounded Rest and the others.
"My lord! My lord!"
"We're so glad you've come! Tonight we feast!"
"Thank you, thank you so much…"
Among the villagers, there were even people who clasped their hands together and bowed in reverence.
At this point, it was getting downright uncomfortable. Too much goodwill could actually become a negative.
"What brings you here today, Lord Rest?"
"I came to check on the sake brewery. I heard a new batch was finished."
"Ah, I see, I see. Allow me to guide you right away."
The village representative laughed heartily and led Rest and Celestine to a building deeper inside the village.
"This is the sake brewery…?"
The building had an unusually Japanese-style aesthetic to it.
Like the other buildings, it was constructed from wood, but the roof was lined with ceramic tiles.
Tiles, that is — though they were misshapen and clumsy-looking, as if someone had cobbled them together by imitation.
"What about this roof?"
"Ah, I was told to make that by Lady Sanada. She said rainwater must not get inside, you see."
"Oh, I see."
Rest nodded at the villager's answer.
He didn't know much about alcohol, but... there was surely no benefit in rainwater mixing in.
They had probably gone to the trouble of having a tiled roof built so that rain wouldn't leak in from above.
"Come now, please, do come inside."
"Oh!?"
Upon entering the building... immediately, barrel-like objects made of wood came into view.
"Is this... the distilled liquor?"
"No, that is the base liquor from which the distilled liquor is made. I ordered merchants to procure it and had it transported here."
It was not the villager but Celestine, who had followed Rest inside, who answered his question.
"According to the method left behind by Lady Sanada... distilled liquor is apparently obtained by heating fermented beverages such as wine and cooling the steam. I had various types of liquor brought in to test which kinds produce the finest distilled liquor."
"Huh... there's more to it than I thought."
Rest gave a vague reply that could pass for understanding or not.
For Rest, who had been a high school student in his past life, alcohol was something entirely foreign to him. Honestly speaking, he didn't really understand the difference between fermented and distilled liquor either.
"We place this liquor into specialized equipment and heat it. In this village, it is difficult to secure enough firewood, so we use a magic item for heating."
Celestine guided him to a back room.
There, something resembling a metal apparatus was set up. A tube was attached to the top of a large bottle-shaped container, and the tube ran straight through a water tank and connected to another container.
"Before we intervened, this equipment was smaller and made with cheap bronze. Now we use large-scale ones made from magical alloy."
"Is this water... seawater?"
"Yes, the cooling of steam requires a large amount of water. We draw water from the sea for that purpose. I've also had craftsmen build new manufacturing equipment, so we should be able to produce large quantities of higher-quality liquor going forward."
"I see..."
Rest was simply overwhelmed by Celestine's explanation.
(They've set things up this thoroughly... Well, of course they have—they've been working at this seriously...)
Having established such a solid brewing environment and equipment in such a short time, Celestine's capabilities were plain to see.
Sanada Shoko must have also put in tremendous effort to bring sake-making to fruition during her lifetime, yet here Celestine had accomplished what she herself never could.
(It's magnificent... truly...)
He felt the same way about Viola, Primula, and Yuri too, but... was someone like him really a worthy fiancé for Celestine?
He felt that someone more impressive would be a better match for Celestine... and Rest felt a genuinely keen sense of inferiority.
"...Let me do my best. In various ways."
So he wouldn't be left behind.
So that he wouldn't be a disappointment, Rest resolved in his heart to put in even greater effort.