NOVEL NEXT Volume 3 - 1
Chapter 1: The Increasingly High Hurdle
When I told Faruno that I would go to the ducal house, she smiled.
“Thank you for agreeing resolutely. You have truly become reliable.”
I’ve made up my mind. The rest is just to go to Duchess Renalier’s territory. I wish to be as prepared as I can, though.
“The problem now is how to travel Duchess Renalier’s duchy. If I’m not mistaken, I need to cross over more than a couple of mountains.”
“Kurt-sama will head towards my father’s manor. Duchess Renalier will send escorts to my father’s manor. Since it’s not an ordinary means of escort, they couldn’t come to this village.”
Duchess Renalier’s escorts, unordinary means. Hearing those two, there’s a single thing that crosses my mind. Could it possibly be that I can personally taste that experience in my life? The most expensive travel in the whole world. Well, it’s not impossible. If I use a horse carriage, the trip going there will take about half a month. However, if I use that, I’ll arrive in just two days.
“Got it. The next issue is departure time. I want to cram as many things as possible. For making a pastry that Duchess Renalier never tasted before, it’ll be the easiest to use ingredients that she never knew about.”
Most likely, the kudzu and pinal that I brought with me now would fill the requirements. However, I want to arrange every possible ingredient besides them.
“That’s...... The banquet will be held in ten days, so the escort shall arrive three days from now in the afternoon.”
My face makes a tiny twitch. If the escort arrives at the Fernande domain in the afternoon three days from now, I must depart tomorrow afternoon or things will get ugly.
What a reckless schedule. Moreover, to arrive in Duchess Renalier’s territory four days from now means that I merely have six days for preparation. In six days, I have to invent the most ideal pastry using the ingredients I’ll carry from this place and those I will obtain in Duchess Renalier’s territory, as well as preparing all of them on top of that.
This kind of schedule is insane. Still, there’s no time to mull over it. I still have an ominous feeling about another thing, though. Or rather, there’s something that I fear for.
“Duchess Renalier said that with a fragment of my abilities, I could make a more wonderful pastry than the rose cookies, didn’t she?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Did that refer only to the pastries?”
That’s the part where I have this awful feeling from. As I recall from Faruno’s words, [It seems she wishes for the best banquet attended by the four Grand Dukes. She orders Kurt-sama to personally display your best skills in that event]. Is it only the best pastries, or is it the best banquet? Could it possibly be that she demands not only pastry, but the best of a full “course”, starting from the hors d’oeuvres to the main dish as well? On top of that, those must be something that they have never eaten before. New inventions.
“Aha, ahahahahahaha. That, that is very unlikely, isn’t it? That, no matter how many Kurt-sama there is, even the pastry is already a major difficult matter, let alone the best full course that no one has ever eaten before in merely six days.” Faruno laughs dryly.
It seems that she has noticed that possibility as well. If not, the order will only express the best pastry, not the best banquet.
“For the time being, it can only be inquired from the Duchess herself. I’ll move according to the worst possibility. There’s not much time before tomorrow’s departure, I’ll prepare until the last second. Sorry, I want to talk in leisure, but we don’t seem to have that kind of leisure right now.”
There’s no way I can overcome this hardship without utilizing each and every weapon that I have in my arsenal, the things I’ve built in my village.
I’m going to stop these anxious thoughts. Well then, from now on it’s the battle of each minute and each second.
“I understand. Kurt-sama, even with my poor abilities, I will do my utmost to support you. In the case of our worst assumption that you will have to handle the full course instead of just the pastry, please write down everything that you’re going to need. From when you arrive in Fernande to the time when the escort comes to pick you up, we’ll gather and utilize every single power that we possess. In the port town of Eclaba, there’ll definitely be a lot more variety of products than even in the duchy.”
That is very helpful. I’ve taken a look around the marketplace once. The things that I want then are my objectives now, to some extent.
“I’ll borrow your strength then, Faruno. You’re a great help.”
“No, it is caused by Fernande’s carelessness from the start. We’ll naturally do our best to help. Besides, I am Kurt-sama’s wife!”
“Thank you. Then, there’s one thing that I’d like from you. It’s the ingredient that I absolutely need. It’s by no means unreachable with Arnold’s budget, is it okay to borrow Fernande’s strength?”
As a pâtissier, that ingredient is a single ingredient that I am most familiar with. When I saw it in Eclaba, I was overjoyed.
“You absolutely can! Please don’t worry about money!”
I’ll become more confident if I can use that.
With reassuring words, Faruno and I left the mansion.
☘
Since it’s much too sudden, I can’t decide on any recipe at all. In order to anticipate each and every single circumstance, in the end, I’m going to gather all the things that won’t be available in the Duchess’ domain.
Walnut oil...... A deluxe oil made from squeezing the plenty nutritious walnut. With this, I can rest assured with the possibility of making rich pastries.
Honey...... Refreshing honey purely made from raspberry flowers’ nectar. It’s the flavor of this fief, the flavor of the beginning of myself as a pastry chef.
Kudzu starch...... The kudzu collected from the spirit village. Kudzu starch is something that has never appeared in this world. There’s no mistake, it should be a not yet known flavor.
Pinal and paple...... This is also the spirit village’s harvest. Moreover, these are of exceptionally top quality. If I marinate the pinals in honey, they will exude a different charm to the raw ones.
These are ingredients to make the pastries. Now, I need to arrange the ingredients to make other meals. In the storehouse behind my house, there’s a rack of venison. The meat is still being dry cured.
However, what I’m going to use isn’t the dry aged meat, but something hidden in secret, deep in the storehouse.
“Yosh, found it.”
It’s a piece of elliptical, dry and hard block of dark reddish brown color. I lightly hit the wall with it, and it produces a clear solid thud. The appearance and the sound are both similar to dried bonito flakes. This is the so-called shikabushi, venison flakes in the block form. It’s an ingredient that recently made its way into French cuisine of modern Earth. It’s the ingredient with umami component like dried bonito flakes. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t have the fishy stench though.
Shikabushi, made from the lean meat of venison by the chefs who chose it from all the ingredients that they experimented on through trial and error to get the umami component. If I use this, I definitely will be able to produce a wonderful soup stock.
“Well then, I need to find something that can make use of it.”
While making that monologue, I left the storehouse. Other preparations are still necessary. I promptly gather all the food ingredients that will become my weapons in this battle.
Credits:
Isecai’s Notes:
The shikabushi. Interestingly this isn’t an ad, but a promotional picture of a Japanese kickstarter campaign: https://www.makuake.com/project/chinzeiya/ I didn’t look too deep into it, but in case you’re wondering. xD