Chapter 7.1

After the first spoonful.

The five knights said nothing.

Instead, they silently began to empty their bowls of stew.

“Another bowl here!”

“What else is on the menu?”

“Bring out every dish you have!”

They only started speaking after clearing their bowls.

“No signs of curses, opiates, or enchantments!”

“Delicious. Absolutely delicious!”

“This must be what it means for food to melt in your mouth!”

“What is this flavor and aroma? Can meat even be this tender?”

“Could they really have achieved this flavor using weeds?”

“This is a problem… I might never be able to eat anything else again!”

The knights, overwhelmed by the heavenly taste, were nearly losing their sense of reason.

Among them, one person seemed particularly moved.

“This is far better than the food I had on my birthday.”

Arina, the northern duchess, head of Renslet, and a proud knight, stared at her empty bowl with dazed eyes.

“For such an extraordinary dish to be born in the North!”

Though it was just a bowl of stew, it felt like a rare flower blooming in the barren wasteland of her harsh life and the desolate North.

“What should I do?”

At the same time, an ambition arose.

It seemed wasteful to leave someone capable of creating such cuisine confined to a single inn.

“It’s not just the culinary skill but that Arad Salt—the secret behind it.”

As the next dish was being prepared, Arina’s mind raced.

The simplest and most common method was to intimidate the chef, Arad, and force him to reveal his secrets—just as nobles across the continent often did with talented commoners.

Alternatively, she could abduct him and bring him to Renslet to monopolize his talents.

“No. Neither of those is right.”

Arina shook her head.

Her pride and honor would never allow such methods.

“The North has been greatly blessed by Arad Salt—or will be soon. And in the North, if you receive a blessing, you must repay it. That’s our principle!”

Before being the duchess of Renslet, Arina was first and foremost a proud Northerner.

—

“The quality and quantity are both good.”

“Haha… So, how about…?”

“Here you go, 3 copper more. I especially like the winter apples. Please bring more next time.”

They say a person’s adaptability shows in their speech.

Even though I hadn’t been in this world for long, I had already adopted the archaic tone of someone out of a historical drama.

“Th-Thank you! May our ancestors bless you!”

“Next.”

“Mr. Arad! I brought mine too! What do you think?”

“Hmm… This Snowgrass won’t work. Large ones like this are poisonous and bad for consumption.”

“Ah…”

“But you did well to bring these White Snowflowers. Here’s the agreed 5 copper.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

I was behind Jack’s Inn, inspecting and paying for ingredients brought in by adventurers and local children.

“Arad! Arad!”

Just as I finished settling accounts, I heard Tom’s voice behind me.

“Tom? Is the stew gone already?”

Tom rarely came running unless we had run out of stew, so I asked with a puzzled look.

“Not that. We have an order for something else.”

“Something else?”

The main dish at Jack’s Inn was the 2-copper Arad Stew made with Arad Salt. Other dishes are rarely sold.

The reason? Price.

While the other dishes were undoubtedly delicious, they were expensive—prohibitively so. It was a deliberate pricing strategy to simplify the menu and focus on bulk sales.

“Another high-ranking guest?”

I tilted my head at Tom’s words.

The affluent merchants, imperial adventurers, upper-tier mercenaries, and even the mayor dining here earlier had already been taken care of.

That’s why I was back here settling ingredient accounts.

“Some very high-ranking knights from the High Tower have arrived. Even the mayor inside doesn’t seem to dare move.”

“Knights? From Renslet?”

At Tom’s words, I immediately headed into the inn.

—

The first floor of the inn was filled with a tense atmosphere.

“Are those Renslet’s elite knights?”

At the center of the tension were five knights occupying an entire table.

At first glance, they could be mistaken for mercenaries from a renowned band, but their refined aura and attire set them apart.

The flowing robes and capes over their armor exuded unity and elegance befitting knights, and their disciplined movements radiated a palpable aura of dignity. Respect, admiration, and even submission arose instinctively in anyone who laid eyes on them.

“If the mayor and officials are frozen stiff, these must be high-ranking knights.”

Knights of the North and regular knights of Renslet wielded immense authority. High-ranking knights of Renslet, in particular, were essentially walking embodiments of the judiciary and administration.

They were like the police, prosecutors, judges, and military all rolled into one. Even worse—or better, depending on your perspective—they carried “licenses to kill,” allowing them to execute nobles below the rank of viscount on the spot for justifiable reasons.

“You must be Arad?”

As I stepped out from the kitchen, the knights’ gazes locked onto me.

“Yes, I am Arad.”

I utilized one of my max-level skills, Etiquette, to greet them respectfully.

“Oh…?”

“Do you have a family name?”

The knights’ eyes gleamed with interest.

“I go by the surname Jin.”

I borrowed the name from my past life on Earth.

“Jin…? I’ve never heard of that surname.”

“Yes, my great-grandfather was originally from the Eastern Continent.”

“A noble?”

“We’ve fallen from grace and are no longer nobility.”

“Then, is Arad Salt something from the Eastern Continent?”

“It’s an ancestral recipe I recently adapted to suit the North.”

“Interesting!”

I wove a plausible story about my supposed background while conversing with the knights.

“In any case, the stew was phenomenal.”

“I’ll be thinking about it for days.”

“We’d like to try your other dishes. Is that possible?”

“Of course.”

At their polite request, I bowed once more and quickly got to work.

“Your movements are impressive.”

“He could’ve been a great swordsman.”