"It's gotten quite warm, hasn't it?"
"Yes, it has. But there are still plenty of chilly days ahead... So I'd recommend this."
After the snow had melted and the sunlight had grown considerably warmer, Lady Lani paid us a visit for the first time in a while. Lady Reni had tagged along too, though she'd gone off shopping with Amur and the others.
"What's this... oranges?"
Grandpa picked up the citrus fruit Lady Lani had brought out, peeled back the skin, gave it a sniff, and popped a cluster into his mouth. And then—
"Sour! What is this?!"
The taste was clearly not what he'd expected, and he spat it out in surprise.
"So this is...
yuzu,
is it?"
"That's right. On cold days, you can float one in the bath and soak in it — it really warms you up. Not many people eat them as-is because of the sourness, but you can put the peel or the juice in alcohol, use it in cooking, or even make sweets with it."
When Grandpa heard "alcohol," he sniffed the yuzu once more and nodded in understanding. Then he looked at me with expectant eyes.
"I'll take them."
"Thank you very much. They're one thousand gold per kilogram, and I have roughly a hundred kilograms. If you're willing to take the entire lot, I can drop the price to nine hundred gold per kilogram?"
So without hesitation, I decided to buy the whole lot.
"Additionally, I thought you might also be interested in these..."
With that, Lady Lani produced three yuzu saplings. Of course, I bought those too. The branches had been pruned, but each was still about three meters long, so if everything went well, we might be able to harvest fruit in two to three years.
"Now then, this is where I shift to speaking as the southern intelligence operative... Could you please give me a detailed account of the situation when the young lady was injured?"
The cheerful expression she'd worn just moments ago vanished entirely, and Lady Lani began requesting information on Chaos.
"I should mention upfront that the King has placed a gag order on that information, you know?"
"I'm well aware of that, and I'm asking once more. Please tell me."
Just as I was deliberating over what to do, Lani—
"Even if the south is said to belong to the Kingdom, it's practically closer to a separate nation. And even if she's no longer the rightful heir, the young lady is without question one of the most important figures in the south. If such a person has been placed in danger and not a single piece of information has been disclosed, then from the south's perspective—"
—the autonomous region—
"—may need to be reconsidered all over again."
"If I end up getting scolded by Maria-sama, I'm dragging you down with me, you know."
Being threatened like that, it was only natural for a simple adventurer to cave and start talking... or so I decided. I told Lani everything I knew. On one condition, though: she had to agree to be dragged down with me. This was the minimum requirement for me to talk, and when I told her I wouldn't budge on that, Lani nodded immediately. As for Grandpa, he'd slipped out of the room while I was agonizing over the decision—presumably intending to feign noninvolvement.
"Should I just pretend Grandpa's share of the yuzu never existed?"
That settled the matter of Grandpa, and Lani and I moved on to discussing what to do going forward. The biggest problem that came up was—
"I think Hana-sama will understand the situation, but... Robo-sama might just come charging in here."
—her assessment of the situation.
"He tends to go off the rails when it comes to the young lady, and more importantly, he's far more mobile than he used to be... If we leave him be, there's close to a ten-in-ten chance he'll show up... Actually, he already tried to tag along on this trading expedition and got chewed out by Hana-sama, and..."
She said he'd given up after being lectured with "What if Amour starts hating you on top of souring the Kingdom's relationship even further?" but given the pretext of checking on the severely injured Amour, and once he learned that the Kingdom bore no small amount of responsibility for this incident, there was no doubt in her mind that Viscount Robo would come to the Royal Capital.
"To prevent that, we'll need to ask not just Hana-sama, but Sana-sama and Branca for their cooperation as well."
"Come to think of it, I vaguely recall Amour mentioning that the head of your organization was Viscount Robo or something like that..."
When I suddenly asked about that, she said it was already ancient history—apparently, Hana now held the reins. It seems the subordinates had raised the issue that having someone other than the head of the household controlling the intelligence division was problematic.
"Robo-sama's current role is to step in as Hana-sama's proxy when something comes up, but his most important job is chairing the festival's executive committee."
It sounded like quite a fall from his former position as head of the household, but apparently he was surprisingly well-su to it—he'd taken the initiative in proposing festivals to Hana. Of course, all he did was make suggestions; he usually dumped all the detailed work on the other committee members.
"That's all he does...?"
"No, according to an acquaintance of mine, he handles all the important permissions and budget negotiations himself, but basically lets everyone else do as they please with everything else, so he's apparently very easy to work for."
He takes the lead on the important things, doesn't meddle in the difficult parts, and doesn't stick his nose in where it isn't wanted. He might actually be a surprisingly decent boss.
Well, there wasn't much point in talking any more about Robo the Honorary Viscount, so I asked about other news from the south. The topic that came up most was Yoshitsune—as the next Viscount of the south, attention was already focused on him, and apparently talk of an engagement had already surfaced.
"Daughters and relatives of influential southern figures, of course, but he's also been receiving proposals from other noble houses. Some of them are after southern privileges or have designs on seizing power, but this is the first time proposals have come from outside the south. Setting aside whether he accepts or not, it's become a hot topic among the people of Nanao."
The south had only held honorary titles until now, but since Hana had elevated it to a proper viscountcy, Yoshitsune as the second-generation viscount—a child at that—would be seen as someone from whom substantial privileges could be extracted.
"Also, recently there's been a rumor mixed in with all of that: that Tenma might somehow become involved in Lord Yoshitsune's marriage."
"Huh?"
"Well, Tenma's disciple was adopted into the Ōtori family and became engaged to a member of the royal family, right? So the rumor goes that instead of sending a daughter south as a bride, they'd take Tenma's adopted child as Lord Yoshitsune's bride. And as a side note, the popular prediction is that Tenma's adopted child would come from the relatives of Duke Sanga, Marquis Samons, or Margrave Housto."
It was an interesting theory and it certainly had a ring of plausibility to it, but when I told her I had no such intentions at the moment, Rani laughed and said, "I think so too."
"However, if that were to come to pass, Lord Yoshitsune—or rather, the Viscount of the south—would be connected to the 'Dragon Slayer,' the 'great noble houses,' and even, however tenuously, the 'royal family.' When you think about it that way, rather than tying the family to some unknown southern magnate or privilege-hungry noble, it would be far more advantageous and far more interesting for the southern viscount's interests and prosperity. It's a scenario one would want to see realized."
I thought I caught a glimpse of something genuine slipping out from between Rani's words, but I just smiled and pretended I hadn't noticed.
"Anyway, why don't we get to work making all sorts of things with a big batch of yuzu? What are you doing about lodging, Rani?"
Rani and Reni, it turned out, had come straight to the house upon arriving in the Royal Capital and hadn't secured lodging yet. So I told them to stay here this time. They were a bit hesitant at first, but when I mentioned that Reni would probably stay over even if it were just her, Rani seemed to picture that scene and agreed with a wry smile.
"Well then, I'll go take a look around the Royal Capital later. Oh, speaking of which, there's still something about Chaos I haven't asked about—would you be able to tell me about it tonight?"
"That one really falls under the kingdom's classified information, so I can't share it on my own authority. Even if you told me you'd drag Reni along as well, it wouldn't be worth the risk."
The classified information in question was when Chaos's arm had returned to normal. To get straight to the answer: there was a high probability that Chaos's arm had regrown around the time of his escape. The last place Chaos had been taken to was apparently a site they'd begun excavating about half a year prior, and on the registration documents filed at that time, under the physical characteristics column, it read:
One arm.
That was all it said.
The reason I hadn't told Rani about this was that these details constituted internal mining information, and even if I were the one sharing them, I judged it would exceed what I was permitted to disclose.
When I declined, Rani—who apparently had known about the situation from the start—gave a light laugh and didn't press any further.
I showed her to the guest room, and Rani immediately unloaded her belongings and headed out to procure merchandise. After seeing her off, I made my way straight to the dining hall.
"With this much, I could probably make all sorts of things...but the prep work is going to be a pain."
I decided that doing all the prep and cooking at once was out of the question, so this time I'd handle the prep now and spread the actual cooking out over several days. Since my usual assistants Jeanne and Aura weren't around, I figured I'd have Slarin help out. Well, when I called Slarin to the dining hall, auseless extra tagalong came along with her, but as long as he didn't get in the way I figured I'd just leave him be...only, Solomon got into the yuzu, took a nibble, and then threw a massive tantrum over how sour it was.
Cleaning up after Solomon's rampage ate into a chunk of my time, but I pulled myself together and got started on the prep with Slarin.
Slarin's job was to clean the yuzu. She could absorb them into her body, dissolving the dirt off the surface to leave them spotless — but even so, I wasn't comfortable using them straight from that process, so I still had to rinse them off with water.
Once they were clean, I separated the peel from the flesh and removed as much of the white pith as I could.
"I'll put these in a container, pour in a high-proof liquor...seal it up, and it's done!"
I only had regular sugar on hand, so I skipped it this time. If I needed to add sweetness, I figured I'd try sprinkling some in when it came time to drink.
"After that...maybe I'll make some yuzu pepper too."
I had a ton of green chili peppers from last year's harvest, so this would be a good way to use some of them up. The method itself was simple enough, but if I wanted to do it properly there were quite a few things to watch out for and some tedious steps involved, so I decided to go with a quick-and-dirty version first, gauge everyone's reactions, and then think about whether to make the real thing.
"Shiromaru, Solomon — stay back, it's dangerous."
I warned them, but knowing how easily curiosity and appetite could win out, I also asked Slarin to make sure they didn't come any closer.
"Chop the yuzu peel into fine pieces, cut the chili peppers to roughly the same size...mix in salt and grind it all together."
Ideally I should have removed the chili seeds too, but that was a hassle, so this time I just cut off the stems.
"I'll put this in a container, let it sit somewhere cool, and it'll be done."
To make sure nobody accidentally ate the quick-and-dirty yuzu pepper, I stuck a label reading "Yuzu Pepper — Extra Hot" on it and stashed it in a cool, dark place.
"Other things I can think of...jam, tea, ponzu, maybe cake? Well, these could work as substitutes for other citrus fruits too, so I might as well try a few other things."
And with that, the first round of yuzu preparation was finished. However, that evening...
"KYAAAAAAAH!"
Two victims of the yuzu pepper had emerged.
Despite the fact that we'd put up signs and all, Grandpa and Aura of all people had to go and taste the yuzu pepper with a spoon.
If they had just sniffed it or dabbed a tiny bit on their fingertips and licked it, things wouldn't have gotten so bad, but the chain of reasoning went something like: "There's something unfamiliar here," "Tenma was making something," "He bought some citrus fruit called yuzu," "It says pepper, but there are no black grains," "So it can't be inedible," "It probably just says sour because it's yuzu and he got the label wrong," "You can't really tell the flavor unless it's at least this much" — and with that, the two of them self-destructed. For the record, Aura was the one who discovered it first, and Grandpa just happened to come by at that exact moment, lost to his curiosity, and helped himself to a pinch.
"Well, even though it's called pepper, I thought it'd be fine since the ingredient is citrus fruit…"
"You wouldn't normally think citrus fruit could be spicy, though~…"
They didn't exactly look very repentant, so I prepared dinner with an emphasis on particularly hot dishes.
"Oh, it's demon j… err, never mind…"
"Oh, oni…mon stew looks delicious…"
When I served up the piping-hot stew I'd specially prepared for Grandpa and Aura, I could have sworn I caught them saying something I shouldn't have let slip, but the moment they locked eyes with me, they obediently started eating.
"This is a fascinating condiment. Yuzu pepper, is it? It's interesting how it's called pepper even though it's made from chili peppers."
"Well, in some parts of the south, they do call chili peppers 'pepper,' so it's not exactly wrong. Still, I've never heard of a condiment made by mixing yuzu and chili peppers together, so it certainly is unique… I suppose how well it sells will depend on what it pairs well with."
Renny-san and Rani-san were tasting the yuzu pepper I'd made and exchanging their thoughts on it. And then:
"Tenma-san, please sell us the recipe for this! I'd like to try selling it at Lady Sana's place!"
"If we sell it at Lady Sana's, we can secure distribution channels throughout the south. It'll probably get copied eventually, but in the meantime, we'll establish the 'Tenma Brand' and its reputation."
Where on earth had they picked up the "Tenma Brand" idea? …was my first thought, but it was the kind of thing you'd figure out with a little research into famous products in Gunjou City. "Establishing a reputation" probably meant building a brand.
"It's really simple, so I wouldn't even need to be paid for it, honestly…"
I said as much, but apparently that would lead to a flood of unauthorized products using my name, so a financial contract was necessary. I found it a bit odd that selling the yuzu pepper required a contract while the sweets from "Manpukutei" were fine, but I was told that was because those predated my fame — people already knew about my long stay in Gunjou City and my connection to Manpukutei, and more importantly, Duke Sanga was backing it, so nobody dared to meddle.
"We can't do sweets, but we'd like to handle the condiments in the south," I was told.
So we drew up a contract. It wasn't simply a recipe sale, either — it was structured more like a royalty agreement where I'd receive a portion of the sales revenue, and payment would be made in southern foods, drinks, and condiments. I left the selection of goods to Rani-san, with the arrangement that she'd deliver them all at once when she came by on her trading route.
The next morning.
"Well then, I'll be heading back to the south ahead of everyone."
Rani decided to move up her departure so she could carry news of Chaos and the yuzu pepper back to the south.
I saw Rani off at the gate of the estate, and after relaxing at home for a little while,
"Oh, by the way, Tenma, didn't you say you were going to pay your respects to my brother and the King?"
Renie came by as if it had just occurred to her.
"Ah!"
Now that she mentioned it, I had said I'd go report to the King about how I'd given information to Rani without permission, and that we'd get scolded together. Last night, during the after-dinner drinks, Rani must have told Renie that "the two of us will go see the King" — I remembered that now. Though honestly, I would have preferred it if she'd remembered a little sooner.
"So, Renie... let's go get scolded together."
"Why do I have to?!"
Renie seemed to think that Rani and I going to see the King was some kind of work to strengthen the ties between the south and the royal family, and it apparently hadn't crossed her mind at all that we were going to apologize.
"Wait, I'm going to bring my brother back!"
Renie said that and tried to chase after Rani, but
"That's impossible no matter how you look at it. Even if she's taking the usual route back, it would take two to three days to catch up and come back from here. And if she left deliberately, we'd have to chase her all the way to the south."
Even if the information leak was within acceptable bounds, it was better to go see the King as soon as possible, so I had no choice but to give up on Rani. It was nothing short of unfortunate for Renie, but as far as I was concerned, it didn't really matter whether I apologized with Rani or with Renie — and thinking about the extra hassle, it was actually easier to just take Renie along as is.
"...When I get back to the south, I'm going to spread some nasty rumors about my brother to everyone I know."
Renie wore a cold smile that was completely unlike her usual demeanor. I was curious what kind of rumors they'd be — probably made-up or exaggerated — but poking at it seemed like it would only backfire on me, so I silently prayed that the arrow wouldn't land anywhere near me and made myself as inconspicuous as possible.
"I see, so that's why I was summoned."
I had Kurif come to the estate so I could report to the King right away. There was always the option of going directly to the royal castle as usual and meeting him there,
"That's true. If you show up at the royal castle with a woman in tow, it could spark some strange rumors. But if you at least maintain the pretense of having been guided here as an envoy from the Southern Autonomous Zone, then no matter how much people gossip, you'll have a way to explain it away."
Kurif deliberately chose his words with hidden meaning, and before I could retort, he headed toward the carriage.
"Well then, shall we get in the carriage?"
I climbed into the carriage with a visibly nervous Leni, and Kurif drove us to the royal castle. But during the ride, there was no conversation between Leni and me.
"So that's the situation. Well, once the Southern Autonomous Zone was brought up, it was only natural that Tenma shared a certain amount of information. Just to be sure — you didn't leak anything beyond that, did you?"
"No. Lani... she's an intelligence operative from the South, but beyond that, I understood everything to be classified under the Kingdom's secrets. Well, she did try to negotiate for certain concessions... but those were personal to me, and since neither side stood to lose anything, there was no conflict."
When they heard that concessions had been requested, the King and Maria's expressions darkened for an instant — but once Tenma explained what the concessions actually were, they burst out laughing. During the time it took for the two of them to start laughing, Leni's face had gone rigid with tension, and her tail was standing straight up.
"Well, as long as Tenma is fine with it and there are no issues, it's not our place to interfere..."
"I am curious about that yuzu pepper, though — what exactly it's like."
That was the general tone of the conversation, and they pressed me to bring out the yuzu pepper. I'd anticipated this, so I'd brought it along properly. I relayed several points of caution, but the King's curiosity got the better of him, and he dipped his finger in to taste it right then and there, immediately startled by the heat. What's more, he then rubbed his eye with the same finger and started writhing in pain.
"It's not as pungent as I expected. If you think of it as a condiment that adds spiciness, it seems like it could be used in quite a variety of dishes."
While the King suffered, Maria calmly analyzed the situation. Kurif also tasted it and said that once the flavor had mellowed a bit more, he'd like to try using it in various dishes.
"Leni, you worry too much. His Majesty and Maria may be strict, but they're not the kind of people to blow up over every little thing, so you should relax and talk more naturally."
"No way! With an attitude like Chris's, the best outcome is getting fired and the worst is losing your head!"
"You're overthinking it."
Chris, who'd heard that Leni was visiting and knew the next day was his day off, apparently decided to drop by the house, since he ended up climbing into the return carriage.
"Well, even if his manners aren't perfect, they're not the kind of people who come down hard on someone who's genuinely trying to improve."
"That's right. When Tenma first met His Majesty, he called him 'old man,' you know. Even now, he still treats His Majesty casually more often than not. Although he doesn't do that to Maria, of course."
"Chris, the only times I treat the King casually are when the King himself is in the wrong. I've never treated Caesar-sama, Isabella-sama, Zain-sama, or Mizaria-sama casually."
"In other words, that means you *have* treated all the people whose names you didn't mention casually, right?"
I couldn't refute Leni's comeback, but one thing I could say was that it wasn't so much that I *had* treated them casually — it was more that I *regularly* treated them casually.
"But even though Maria occasionally goes off the rails, you don't treat her casually at that time, do you?"
To Chris's question, I had a clear answer of my own. And that was —
"Chris..."
"Someone who always
goes off the rails,
and someone who only
occasionally goes off the rails — do you think you can treat them the same?"
"Can't do that."
That was the answer. Chris grasped the meaning in an instant, and if that's how it was, there was nothing to be done about it.
"Tenma-sama, there's a carriage from Duke Sanga's household stopped at the mansion."
A little before reaching the mansion, Kurif spotted the carriage from Duke Sanga's household and came to report it.
"I wonder which one it is?"
Either Duke Sanga or Albert had come, but what business could they have? As I pondered this and stepped into the mansion—
"Tenma-kun, I'm terribly sorry!"
I was led to the drawing room, where Duke Sanga was waiting. He immediately bowed his head to me.
Albert, standing beside him, bowed silently as well.
"Albert... did you do something again?"
The only reason I could think of for Duke Sanga apologizing to me was Albert standing right there, so I said it trying to lighten the mood—
"
Not
again, but that's more or less correct," came the reply.
"Tenma, the two of them came here on serious business. Stop your fooling about and sit down to hear them out."
Honestly, Albert's reaction was completely unexpected, and I'd been agonizing over how to respond, so it was a relief when Grandpa stepped in to mediate.
"So, what's the reason behind both the Duke and Albert coming together to bow their heads like this?"
I asked for the reason, framing it as a fresh start, and—
"Well, you see... our daughter is apparently coming..."
"Primera... no, you mean the older sister above her?"
If Primera was the one coming, I couldn't understand why the two of them would come together to apologize. Besides, the moment Primera's name came up, I remembered something. It was—
"The sender of that letter that turned Albert white as a sheet."
The older sisters who had left an angry letter at Albert over my matchmaking with Primera, and who were expected to eventually come check on me in person.
"Apparently, the second daughter will be coming to the Royal Capital soon, and she says she'd like to meet you, Tenma, when she does."
If it was just one of them, maybe they were planning a staggered assault... that's what I couldn't help thinking.
The part about the King rubbing his eyes and groaning after tasting yuzu pepper — that's the author's real-life experience.