On a certain day, I was called by Lyle-sensei to have an earnest talk with him.
Despite this place being my company, it was my first time entering Sensei's private room, so my heart was throbbing a bit.
There were books lined up in a row on shelves, and his desk was crammed with piles of documents. It was a bit hard for me to find a place to sit, so I had the feeling the 2 of us would end up sitting on his bed.
Still.
What's the reason behind Sensei giving out a nice smell, characteristic of that in girls?
Despite his brown, short hair and his body covered in official clothes, as one would expect, he looked nothing different from a girl with a ripened, beautiful profile.
"What's it, Sensei? It's rare for you to call me for a talk."
Usually, it would be me to hold a conversation, however, this was truly rare.
Haa, could it be that it's finally come to 'that'?!
Was he finally going to reveal the secret behind his gender?!
"Yes, it's not something I can do on my own, so I need to discuss it with you."
"Yes!"
Could it be, that I raised Lyle-sensei's flag, before I could've even noticed?
Fine. Be it a cross-dressing male or a girl, I love both of them!
I'm ready to accept them, to the extent of being at the point of bursting!
"Won't you consider merchandising guns and cannons to the country? If that's fine with you, I will use my experience as a secretary and draw up a plan of sale and distribution."
"Eh, that's…."
What's that? So he isn't going to confess his gender?
"Being an arms dealer is profitable, you know?"
"Yes."
I also thought about trading weapons, since I wanted money…
However, I also thought it could end up as a bad idea.
"I do understand your concern well, Takeru-dono. You're afraid that the weapons would be used in battles between human fellows, right?"
"True, there's such a possibility as well."
As expected of Lyle-sensei.
It looks like he was able to see through all my thoughts.
"However, there's a 'but'. The monsters spawning from the miasma hole of doom are causing great troubles to the kingdom. Only in the royal capital, the area nearby, and the main road are barely able to keep them away. On the other hand, the villages and cities on the east side are sustaining devastating attacks from the monsters, rather than fighting between each other."
"That's…."
"Well, please let me finish speaking. If even people, who aren't able to use magic, can use guns and cannons for self-defense, things like having hard times dealing with the monsters won't happen."
"I do understand your point, Sensei."
"No you don't, Takeru-dono. It's thanks to the large influx of refugees to the royal capital, that there are this many slaves, and therefore, lots of children being randomly sent to the mines."
I see. So the situation looked like this?
I didn't give it that much thought.
"Takeru-dono, you're also gentle toward slaves, right? You even rescued the villagers in Ona, who had lost their basic livelihood, gave them means of self-protection, and new jobs. That's splendid coming from you. I too, feel greatly proud of myself, having helped."
"Well, it wasn't that much, but…."
In the end, I used the slaves and villagers for my own gains.
I wasn't trying to do any good deeds, so it felt embarrassing to be praised.
"However, things like these are originally what a country is supposed to do. Even if I wasn't the one to suggest them, the royal capital would still inquire of me upon hearing about the rumored recovery of Ona village. I think they would buy the new weapons and do nothing but utilize them."
I see, Sensei had thought about that as well.
That's why he was so passionate about manufacturing the arms and researched how to use them.
I don't know if there's any difference, but, we have also tested lots of materials for ammunition when building a bronze-made cannon, instead of just the standard iron-made one.
'Why am I brooding so much over a single village?' – I suspiciously thought so.
"Still, even if this country purchases our arms, you said there's been never a case where they would exploit them, right?"
"True. That's why, I'd like for them to accept our proposal."
'I implore you.' – Sensei, to whom I was greatly indebted, bowed his head toward me. Even I had difficulty in responding to that.
Sensei continued to solicit me, who was hesitant.
"The number of slaves won't fall as long the root of that, displaced people, still exists. I can't guarantee that the weapons won't be used between fellow humans, but, won't it become a chance for Silesie kingdom to overcome this crisis….?"
"Ah yes, I understand. Please do as you deem right, Sensei."
"Thank you, Takeru-dono. You have my eternal gratitude."
Sensei's gorgeous and soft palm of his hand piled up on mine.
We were about to grant a country, where bows and swords were still common, guns and large cannons.
Perhaps, it was truly a bad decision.
Still, if it wasn't for Sensei's help, I'd have died long ago.
I too, grabbed Sensei's warm hand in return.
It was actually me who should be eternally indebted to him.
Even I, who possessed the knowledge of modern warfare history, couldn't tell, at all, what effect the weapons brought into this world of vast plains would have, despite people here being attacked by monsters spawning from that miasma hole of doom.
It may be that the arms won't be utilized just for one's self-defense, as they may be proven highly efficient, so there's also a fear they will induce wars, which can't be undone.
It was a problem I couldn't solve, even if I pondered on it. However, it couldn't be helped that I worry about the future, could it?
As for me, I could only choose the path that the people around me continued to walk.
—Scene Change—
Having my mind filled with nothing but serious matters, I headed towards the dining hall on a whim.
"Ah, Master-sama. Shall I make something for you?"
The one who welcomed me inside the hall was the brown haired and eyed Colette, the former daughter of a baker.
She holds deep interest toward food, so it somehow turned into her being in charge of cooking.
Besides that, Colette was also in charge of supplying us with foodstuff. While we're at it, she would usually hang around dairy farming families in villages near Est, and even help Roll, who was a poor talker, gather soil for niter making, in exchange for other services.
She wasn't as competitive as Roll, but this girl was quite a hard worker too.
"Ah no, I thought about doing it by myself today, so…."
"Then, I shall assist you."
Colette put on an apron on her, heated the stove, brought cooking utensils, and stood on standby, as if it was natural thing for her to do.
"Then, can you help me?"
"Since I'm deeply curious about Master-sama's cooking, please allow me to learn by all means."
Recently, I had had a lot of spare time, so I decided to revive modern cooking and handle it.
I normally like to eat, so perhaps, I could create some rare food with little effort, and add them to my products for sale.
"Whip this raw cream."
"Yes…. is it fine for me to whip it just like I've been doing before?"
Raw cream and butter are products created from the fat of a cow's milk.
There's refrigerator-like equipment in our dining hall (Lyle-sensei made it by creating and cooling water using his magic.), so we left the fat there for a whole day, atop the sediment.
"Yeah, I'm going to bake Crêpes"
I mixed together wheat flour, cow's milk, some eggs, and sugar, and then made raw Crêpes.
"So we bake the wheat flour just like a galette, right?"
The galette, which Colette spoke of, was a food made from thinly baked flour, common to this country's working class.
It had simple taste, so I quite liked it, but, it wasn't something I'd recommend to eat as sweets
.
Surely, if I remember right, Crêpes are supposed to be French-based cuisine, so perhaps you could find it somewhere in this country, were you to search deeper.
Still, I couldn't spot it anywhere in the city of Est, so I made one with raw cream inserted inside. This one is certainly a Japanese style one, hence, you will probably find it nowhere in this world.
I added the raw cream inside my quickly baked Crêpe, and tried to eat it in one go.
"It's delicious, but, I think it lacks a bit of sweetness."
Still, for me, it felt like a taste that I'd been missing for a long time.
Colette stared at me fixedly with a face telling me she wanted some, so I immediately baked one more.
I thought about increasing the Crêpe's sweetness, therefore, I put a peach that was rich in sugar together with the raw cream.
I presented the Crêpe wrapped up with the peach to Colette.
Once she put it in her mouth, her brown eyes sparkled with light.
She had an incredible smile.
"Itsh Dhelhicius…."
"Is that so?"
It felt really good to watch a child enjoying something delicious.
I myself was still an adolescent, but, perhaps this is how I would feel if I had a sister.
For some reason, watching her makes me want to smile as well.
"Master-sama, it's so delicious it feels as though my cheeks are about drop. This is the first time I've ever had something like this. I think this Crêpe will become a blockbuster if we add it to our line of sales products!"
"Indeed, that would be nice. I'll quickly bake some more Crêpes, so how about you give them to Roll and the rest?"
I also added nuts and cinnamon to other Crêpes, and even made a Mille Crêpe, so as to create different tastes to enjoy. The Crêpes received extreme popularity from the others, as soon as I served some to them during our lunch.
It was still difficult for us to produce large amounts of raw cream, but, it isn't like you had to add cream to every Crêpe.
About its sweetness, you could always add fruits as a replacement, even though they were a bit high on that part. As for the raw cream, you could use egg white to make desserts, such as meringue.
Not to mention, there were also salty Crêpes, besides the sweet ones, which you could eat just like a sandwich with cheese and ham inserted.
Speaking of which, there are still sandwiches common in this country, so maybe I should make some hamburgers?
There were, as well, girls that wanted to open a food cart inside the company building. If I tell them how to make street food and have them sell it, perhaps, a new culture of eating while standing will be established.
The Crêpe as a sales product won't yield any huge profit, but, it could become a source of encouragement for people who make a livelihood from cooking.
I think this will leave a much greater impact than just promoting guns and cannons.
—Scene Change—
Holding a letter with the delightful affixed seal of the Silesie Kingdom, Lyle-Sensei entered inside my room.
"I'm sorry for intruding!"
"Ah, what's the matter?"
It was rare for Sensei, who was usually well-mannered, to enter without knocking at the door.
Sensei, whose skin was normally pure white with no tan, had a face even paler today.
I guess it's not good news.
"It's from the kingdom of Silesie. Our proposal for the deployment of weapons, has been... rejected."
"Ah, so I guess it was no good?"
I felt sorry for the Sensei being vexed, but, this information made me breath out sigh of relief.
That's because I feared that the implementation of arms would bring a huge disbalance in hegemonic stability.
"However, the both of us have received an urgent calling from the royal capital. Can I have you come with me there? Right now!"
Why, were we summoned to the royal capital, despite our proposal of deploying arms being rejected?
I had a slightly bad premonition about this sudden call.
It would be nice if it was just a needless worry, but….