We were told a meeting was being held, so we all gathered in the dining hall.
A pleasant aroma was wafting from the kitchen. It seemed preparations had been underway immediately upon Adele's confident return to the Rufens Royal Castle.
General Broa was there, wearing a look of exasperation.
"I suppose I can't ignore an urgent summons that claims to be about food supplies. But really, you could show a bit more consideration for our schedules too, you know."
The reason for his grumble was that this had happened right before he was about to leave for training. He'd hastily left his subordinates in charge—or rather, dumped the work on them—and come here.
Baldoa was placating General Broa with a strained smile.
"However, if it solves the food problem, that alone makes it worthwhile. But what kind of ingredients did you manage to bring back?"
I was curious about that too. Lianne, seeing Adele's confidence, seemed to have relaxed a little.
"You've found a solution, haven't you?"
Adele nodded.
"Yes. There are some minor issues, but I've brought solutions for those too. As for taste, well... but it's been confirmed that it's rich in nutrition. By the way, since it's a potato, as long as you remove the sprouts, there's no worry about poison."
Monica had apparently judged the presence or absence of poison, so it was definitely usable as food. Baldoa stroked his chin and nodded, looking pleased.
"Let's turn a blind eye to the taste issue. Being highly nutritious is good."
The knight who was beside Baldoa—or rather, his wife, Alette—was smiling and nodding. You could see her happiness and anxiety in how she kept finding excuses to show up here in Rufens. She was worried about other women getting close to Baldoa.
Honestly, Baldoa was good-looking and skilled. Women would approach him without him even doing anything, so she was probably extra anxious.
"Being a knight, at worst you're told to just go find something to eat in the mountains. It's not always a situation where food is plentiful. Just hearing that food is being prepared puts me at ease too."
Lianne looked at Alette.
"You're Rolfis's Vice-Commander, aren't you? Is there a food shortage over there as well?"
Alette looked slightly troubled.
"The expedition is one thing, but the distance involved is quite considerable. Up until now, we've primarily fought wars in neighboring areas, so we're lacking in that kind of know-how. Well, because of that, even we can't quite tell whether our food supplies are sufficient or not... This time, I-I came to hear my husband's opinion."
Alette kept glancing at Baldoa. Then Baldoa smiled and said:
"In that case, let's discuss all of that later in my room. I just got my hands on some excellent tea, so the timing is perfect."
From inside the Jewel, the Third Generation watched Baldoa's response.
'If Rael could handle things this well... No, blood would rain from the sky.'
As expected, she was enjoying my misery. Just then, from the kitchen emerged Valkyrie wearing an apron—dressed up in the cafeteria lady style. It seemed Valkyrie was the one who had done the cooking. Well, Valkyrie was also good at cooking. I let myself feel a little anticipation.
She was carrying a pot and plates for serving, though...
"Everything is ready. Now, please eat."
Adele was brimming with confidence, but when I looked into the pot, I thought:
"Potatoes? They don't look bad. But weren't potatoes part of the plan?"
When I took the plate and stuck a fork into the potato, the faces of Baldoa and Alette—who had been smiling just moments ago—quickly turned pale. As for Lianne:
"Perhaps it's a different variety? If so, the food situation might improve somewhat. It smells quite nice... Ogbh!!"
The moment Lianne put the potato in her mouth, she let out a sound no princess should ever make. And from inside the Jewel, the Third Generation panicked.
'Th-that's a wild potato! Why would you serve something like this?!'
A wild potato? I tilted my head and was about to eat when Baldoa turned to Adele.
"Wh-what are you thinking?! Serving something like this! Ah, Lord Rael, please don't eat this. This is no good. It's not fit for human consumption!"
With a terrifying expression, Baldoa snatched the plate away from me and immediately cornered Adele. Adele's expression was equally serious.
"If you'd just eat it, you'd understand! It's perfectly awful!"
"You served something awful with that much confidence?!"
Alette shook her head from side to side, making a rejecting gesture with her hands, noticing how different Baldoa's demeanor was from usual.
"No way. Absolutely no way. Even if I were so starving I'd eat bugs, I'd still refuse this wild potato no matter what. I was tricked into eating it last time as a prank... I even lost my temper and punched my senior's knight over it."
Alette refused with a face turned pale. General Broa, meanwhile, kept eating the potato.
"Mmph! This wild potato is incredible! It's impressively awful!"
She was genuinely shocked. Curious, I took the potato from Valkyrie and tried it myself. Lianne had her mouth hidden behind a handkerchief, eyes brimming with tears. The glare she was directing at Adele might have just been my imagination.
The moment it entered my mouth, my body rejected it on instinct. Biting down brought not just bitterness but a kind of sliminess — honestly, there was no way to describe it. It felt like eating dirt. My body simply refused to recognize it as food. I somehow managed to swallow, and after that, I had zero desire for another bite.
"Isn't this a bit much?"
At that, Adele shot back, irritation evident in her voice.
"Even so, it's extremely nutritious! And this is already better after proper preparation!"
Baldoa raised his voice in outrage. I'd never seen Baldoa like this before.
"Give me a break! I absolutely refuse. I-I'm never eating this again! Never, ever!"
This was the first time I'd encountered food that my body rejected so completely. Lianne, still teary-eyed and gagging, managed to offer her opinion anyway.
"...Let's set aside the nutrition and the taste. For someone on the verge of starvation, simply having something edible would surely be better. And this can be produced in large quantities, can't it?"
The look she directed at Adele was remarkably stern. Then, rather than Adele, it was General Broa who answered with a smile.
"You can produce it in massive quantities. Plant it in a field and it sprouts right away, and in some areas you can find huge amounts growing wild in the mountains. If only it tasted good, the food supply problem would be solved in no time."
I was watching General Broa. The fact that he was chewing and swallowing without any trouble struck me as genuinely puzzling.
"General, you seem completely unbothered."
General Broa laughed.
"Ahahaha... Once, due to a superior's mistake, I ended up stranded in the mountains. This was the only food available. At that point, you either eat it or you don't survive — but you also really, really don't want to eat it... It was the worst. Thinking back on that, I'd say being able to eat it at all is still the better option."
Baldoa and Alette, however, still weren't having it.
"I still absolutely refuse."
"I can't either. Absolutely not!"
However, Lianne seemed to judge based on her position rather than taste alone.
"...If we could get it in large quantities, I'd consider it. Well, if we can't settle things within three months, we'll be forced to eat these sweet potatoes? Think of them as your meals from now on."
The two of them went pale.
The Third Generation, impressed, spoke up:
"You took incredibly foul-tasting sweet potatoes and made them merely normally unappetizing. Isn't that revolutionary?"
I didn't want any revolution like that. Just then, through the gap in the dining hall door, I noticed Novem peeking inside. She had, for some reason, a sad expression on her face, and she left the room looking downcast. The fact that she seemed somehow apologetic caught my attention.
Around the time the food situation had been somewhat resolved.
I had business and visited South Baim. It was partly related to weapons and armor, but also to confirm whether we had sufficient supplies.
The artisans of South Baim were working busily almost every day. Thanks to that, it looked like we would be able to secure the target number of weapons and armor as well.
While walking through the streets of South Baim with Monica, I ran into Vera.
"Oh, you're over here today?"
When Vera said that, I saw that a massive amount of cargo had arrived in front of the Trade Company building in South Baim. Barrels were stacked high, and horse-drawn wagons were being used to bring them in one after another.
"You bought sake or something?"
When I said that, Vera smiled slightly and shook her head. As her black twin tails swayed, Monica made an annoyed expression and conspicuously shook her own twin tails. I ignored them since it didn't matter, and Vera explained.
"I went a bit further out. Want to take a look?"
Saying that, a barrel lid was opened. Inside, there was wheat.
"This is..."
Vera shrugged.
"A bit farther out, there's land with a different climate. The taste — or rather, the texture — is different too. It seems to be a slightly different variety. But it looked like it would be perfectly edible, so I bought it. We need it, right?"
I looked at Vera's face.
"...What?! You're giving them to me?!"
Vera crossed her arms and nodded.
"Of course. Consider it an investment. You're an important customer, and I can't have you losing, now can I? It's not much, but come back safe, all right?"
I thought Vera's smile was dazzling. Adele had brought the tasteless potatoes to solve the problem, and she wasn't exactly at fault either. But she couldn't hold a candle to Vera, who had brought actual proper food.
I took Vera's hand.
"Th-thank you. Really, thank you."
When tears started streaming down my face, Vera actually looked startled.
"Eh? Um... eh? It's really not that many. In the grand scheme of things, it's a tiny amount. You don't have to cry over it..."
I shook my head, then pulled Vera into a hug.
"That's not true at all! You're the best, Vera!"
That didn't mean I could get away without eating the tasteless potatoes, of course. But Vera's kindness had truly touched my heart.
"H-hey! Everyone's watching!"
Vera squirmed in my arms — and from the windows of the mansion, Fidel was leaning out, his face beet red as he stared at us. His expression was positively demonic.
The Third Generation laughed at the sight. Though there was something slightly different about it this time.
"Mmm, Lyle is well loved. That's good. That means everything will be all right now. Everything will be all right."
That evening.
I appeared inside the Jewel for the first time in a while, still bothered by the Third Generation's words.
The Third Generation was sitting in a chair before the round table, grinning as always.
"What's the matter?"
"No, it's just... Third Generation, about that..."
Seeing how flustered I was, the Third Generation seemed to realize what I wanted to say, still smiling.
"Ah, you were worrying about what happened during the day? You've grown quite a bit. Before, you always seemed so disinterested when talking to others."
He scratched his head, looking troubled. Certainly, it was terrible at first. I couldn't understand people's feelings and had even hurt others before.
"Before, I was just..."
"But you noticed my feelings, didn't you? If so, you've grown, so that's fine. Lyle seems like he'll be alright without me."
"I have others supporting me. But... I still want your support too, Third Generation."
The Third Generation leaned back against the chair's backrest.
"Do you not need my Skills?"
If asked whether I wanted them or not, to be honest, they were difficult to handle, and the Third Generation's advice was more appreciated.
"It's true that I find your advice more helpful."
"You say such nice things. But, I can't give them to you."
The Third Generation stood up from the chair and walked towards his room of memories. He glanced back at me with a smile, so I followed him to his room of memories as well.
Entering the Third Generation's room of memories, the scene before us was the mansion the First through Third Generations had lived in.
"If you always need assistance, it's the same as depending entirely on it completely. It's time for you to stand on your own, Lyle."
The view from the mansion was thoroughly tranquil. Even in the midst of the Third Generation's harsh era, it looked like a different world.
This was House Walt's time as a baronet family. They owned multiple villages, and the Third Generation, as head of the house, displayed his skill—followed by an era of prolonged war.
The Third Generation had also lost his life in that war. For his efforts, he was called the Righteous General and carved his name into the history of Baim, but the man himself never desired such a thing.
Looking at this peaceful scenery, the Third Generation might have wanted to live a more ordinary life. He simply couldn't. Unlike me, he probably couldn't afford to rely on others.
"Is the time for relying on others over, then?"
'Indeed. Though, from my perspective, I don't see any need for assistance. You've grown considerably in these past two years or so, Riel.'
"...I'm embarrassed when compared to the Successive Heads, though."
'Is that so? I think, even among all of them, you've had it tough, Riel. You've fought your way here, so have a bit more confidence.'
Feeling bashful, I was simultaneously struck by a profound sense of loneliness.
I had always known that the time of parting would come eventually, but now that it was here, I hesitated. Still, I understood that letting the moment slip by would be a mistake. The Second and Fifth Generations had taught me that much.
"So I really will be alone from now on."
'Alone? No, that's not right at all. You have a lover who supports you—no, quite a few wives, and all the people around you. Being truly, purely alone—there's almost no one like that in this world. Maybe only at the moment of death.'
The Third Generation corrected "lover" to "quite a few wives." The fact that he said it knowingly made it worse.
"I do feel like I've had all sorts of troublesome things piled onto me, though."
"You chose this path yourself, Riel. Well, I had a good time. Because I was able to see the future."
The Third Generation began to speak of our first meeting.
"At first, I thought, 'Is this kid really going to be alright? He seems hopeless.'"
"...You're awfully blunt about it."
"Yeah. There's no point in lying at a time like this. But now I think... I'm glad I met you, Riel. I'm glad—*we're* glad."