Hero’s Downfall Report

75 – A Knight’s Haven (2)

“But there are also good points. Because being alone in a room and writing something doesn’t harm anyone. And the truth is, I’m just a spoiled old man who likes to meet people under the pretext of writing.

It may be a bit much to talk about, but if you go to see him, he will be nice to you. Rumors say that writing is just an excuse, and that you’re just doing it to avoid being shut out somewhere.”

“What’s so great about writing?”

“Isn’t this a city of artists?” The branch leader slightly spread his arms.

“I don’t want to be ignored. In a city of artists, if you don’t know art, you’re considered a fool. And this place is full of such artists. If you pick up a stone and throw it, an old-fashioned swear word will come out. Everyone, young and old, thinks they are artists.

But in reality, they are all gilded filth who want to show off their money and show off their time. Everyone knows that real artists live in the capital with support from nobles. This place is full of lizards that have turned into dragons, so be careful.

Don’t introduce yourself as an artist wherever you go. “You will know what it means to be bitten alive.”

“It’s the same as before.”

* * * * *

Unfortunately, the dear Count of Edessa was not at home.

With a very happy and happy expression, the butler announced, ‘It is sad, but the Count went on a pilgrimage to Sword Lover Park to receive poetic inspiration.’

However, upon seeing Cain, Lily, and Maria’s empty expressions, they quickly said, ‘But the Count told them to be courteous to the guests who come, and so they ghost-wrote one or two stories about their experiences, ‘as long as it does not disturb their rest.’ He even added the order, ‘He told me to write it down to the writer.’

“Why is that?”

Maria asked a question with an expression of complete incomprehension. The butler shook her head.

“The Count of Edessa is a story collector. That’s why he doesn’t turn away any number of guests. Instead, he wants to hear their precious stories.”

It’s not that it wasn’t, the entire count’s house was full of gourmets. Next to the talkative and pretentious people, people who appeared to be college students were writing down every word they said.

If you’re lucky, it could be included in ‘The Count of Edessa’s Collected Stories, Volume 3’.

But no college students came to Cain and his party. This is because they could see in their eyes that they were so tired that they were in no condition to speak.

The butler assigned us a luxurious room for four. Everyone lay down in bed and fell asleep.

If it weren’t for the servant’s enthusiastic knocking, I wouldn’t have even been able to eat dinner.

* * * * *

The group finished washing briefly and changed their clothes. To be honest, I didn’t have much expectations when I entered the restaurant. When your body is too tired, your appetite also decreases.

But a well-prepared table put all those thoughts to rest.

There was a whole roasted pig on the large central table. The servants were diligently chopping it with a large saw, and each time they applied force, brown meat juice flowed out.

All of a sudden, a plate was placed in front of the three people sitting down.

“This… “You can eat it, right?”

Maria looked down at her plate doubtfully.

Wild flowers surrounded a plate as wide as a shield. In the middle of the plate was a large piece of wheat bread, toasted and hard on the outside and hollowed out on the inside. The bread was filled with warm button mushrooms, and in addition to the mushroom scent, it had a unique scent.

“What is this black floating thing? Did you burn it?”

Maria, disapproving, spooned a spoonful of her soup to her mouth. Then she stuck out her tongue and said, ‘Water! I kept shouting ‘Water!’

Cain, she thought, had burned her tongue, then took a mouthful and drank it. Her spicy scent filled her mouth. Her Cain eyes widened.

“This… “Isn’t it pepper?” Lily took another spoonful of her drink. It was definitely pepper.

“Pepper?!” Maria poured a glass of water and stuck her tongue out. “Oh my god, how much money did you have to put pepper in your soup?”

But the surprise did not stop there. What came instead of appetizers was a dish. On the outside, it didn’t seem like anything major. It was meat and vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces.

‘No way, it won’t be spicy again!’ Maria hesitated and put a piece of meat into her mouth with her fork.

“… Is the meat sweet? It melts in her mouth. This is strange… “

Still, she mindlessly chose and ate only the meat. Lily frowned slightly at her.

“I don’t feel like I’m eating meat. It looks like something other than meat. It’s so tender and so sweet, it’s just… It feels like eating bread soaked in honey. “It feels so foreign.”

“It’s meat. Pork and beef. “The beef is the brisket part.”

Cain took another bite of her, unimpressed. Maria narrowed her eyes.

“Are you lying to the priest? “Don’t you know how tough brisket is?”

“I grilled beef cut into bite-sized pieces in a cast iron pot with bacon. Add diced onions, carrots, celery, and sliced garlic and fry over high heat, then add red wine and simmer for a long time. I also added some fragrant mushrooms. But the sauce added at the end is unique.”

“What sauce?”

“That slightly reddish thing on top of the meat you are eating now. Squeeze the juice from raspberries and blackberries, add sugar and boil it down slightly. “That’s why it has a strong sweet taste.”

Maria doesn’t seem to even want to cover her mouth anymore.

“I’m eating sugar?”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Maria picked up her spoon. Cain sighed slightly.

“It’s okay to just scrape it off and eat it. “I’m not saying anything about that.”

Lily looked curiously at Maria who was scraping up the sauce on her plate, then picked up the bread that had been served as an aperitif for her.

She elegantly cut a piece and then swiped it across the bottom of her plate. Mary seemed indignant, tearing the bread apart with her hands and putting the rest of the seasoning on the bread. She looked more like she had been wiped rather than buried.

Is it because the ones that came out earlier were so flashy? Rather, the main sirloin steak and grilled pork, grilled skewers with olives and garlic, and grilled apples served with ham with a slightly burnt exterior seemed ordinary.

It was a pork ham and grilled with dark beer, so I enjoyed the slightly bitter taste that stimulated the salivary glands in my mouth and the savory flavor that wrapped my tongue every time I took a bite. Of course, the last one was a baked apple that was still warm and as sweet as candy.

“If you have an orchard, you have to grow apples like this.”

Cain smiled bitterly. But she didn’t speak much longer, and showed interest in the plates that followed.

“… “Isn’t this burned grass?”

It seemed like Maria viewed Cain as a tourist guide. She hesitated as it was her first time seeing food like this for Lily. In fact, anyone would think that if they saw long vegetables grilled over charcoal.

“Ah, this. “It’s called Calcutta, but it’s just grilled green onions.”

“You rode it.”

“Just peel off the burnt part. Like this.” The really burnt part came off as easily as the peel of a green onion. “Here, it’s okay if you dip it in the sauce. Paprika, garlic, almond olive oil and vinegar… “There’s pepper in there.”

Lily took a chance and listened to a line. She peeled off the burnt part, dipped it in the sauce, and then she ate it carefully.

“It’s not spicy at all. It’s sweet, but it’s not greasy or boring. I think it’s because of the sauce.”

Maria still seemed suspicious, but as soon as she started eating one, she picked up another.

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I tried it.” Cain answered simply. “You’ll eat a lot of this and that when you go abroad later.”

“Why isn’t there something like this in Magdeburg?” Maria asked, peeling off another stem.

“Because Magdeburg has strong pride. I think imperial food is the best. We have no choice but to provide food that suits the tastes of foreigners, but fundamentally, we believe that the empire is the best. “It’s different here.”

“What do you think it’s like here?”

Cain carefully chewed a roasted olive and put down her fork.

“Compared to Magdeburg, there are a lot of rich people here too. However, Magdeburg is a city where a lot of money flows, and there are many people here who want to show off their money. Most of it goes to supporting the arts. The style in the room here is a mix of half imperial and southern styles. But the wall decoration is in the northern pagan style. As for dessert… “

The dessert was brown candy. It was a little hard, but it was good to melt in your mouth.

“The dessert is Eastern style. Cream, honey, butter, nuts, a little salt, and sugar are added, melted, hardened, and then cooled. However, in a true Eastern style, you would sprinkle some cinnamon powder here, but instead, they added vanilla scent. “It seems to be a preference.”

“… “Are you saying I’m eating dissolved sugar?” Maria muttered as if she was moved. Lily didn’t open her mouth at all.

Cain pretended not to notice that while Maria closed her eyes and was happy, Lily took a handful of her candy and ate it and closed her mouth.

“This city is gorgeous and beautiful. But you can’t be first anywhere in the world.

Because it’s not the capital, its importance is low, and it’s not as rich as Magdeburg, so there’s nothing to do but brag about money. In terms of beauty, it is no better than eastern Venercia, in grandeur it is no better than the southern Papal States, and in terms of its spiritual strength and spirit, it is no better than the western or northern regions.

No matter what criteria you use in lining up, it’s always the second or third place. That’s why people here are very vain. “The result appears like this.”

Lily seemed to be trying not to laugh. The sweetness in her mouth was too good to hear Cain’s serious words. So Lily decided to just pretend not to hear. Therefore, it was Mary who accepted Cain’s words and passed them on.

“Okay. But is there a reason you came to this city? “From what you say, it may just be a city of poor people with an inferiority complex, but it doesn’t seem to be that important to our work.”

“Well. Did I just say it too badly? In a city full of jealousy, people have a more discerning eye than anywhere else in the world. Since the gaze is always directed outward, all the information and news in the world is collected here.

From Noble mtl dot com

Some people have very unique tastes. People who delve very deeply into stories that others only know superficially. For example, Professor Osland Koch of the Department of Literature and Arts, an expert on the Seven Heroes.”

“What does he do?”

“A person who has met all seven heroes. It’s not like we just met. He is a master calligrapher officially invited by the Vatican. He was the first person they met when they returned from the Crusades. So, it’s the first source of information.

In fact, many things have been added to the story of the seven heroes in the world since then, and many parts have been reinterpreted, to the point where it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not. Of course… “

Cain lowered his voice.

“No one would have known about their truth. That’s why you need to meet Professor Osland. Any clues would be great. “It doesn’t matter if it’s something like impression criticism.”

Maria also looked around and lowered her voice.

“What are you trying to find out?”

“What exactly did they do? Of course, I wouldn’t have told everything to Professor Osland. But as far as I know, Professor Osland is famous for asking very harsh questions. Obviously, some of the professor’s questions were rounded up, turned around, or the heroes’ words contradicted each other.

You need to hear that. Before Arianne died, she said she was ‘temperate’. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Moderation?”

“It’s strange.” Cain nodded her head. She said, “I was going to say that somehow. Also, Arius, the apostle of temperance, was the first to be attacked. So, I wonder why Arianne bothered to mention ‘temperance’.”

After finally melting and eating all of her candy, Lily trimmed her neck to make it bigger and bigger.

“How do you plan to approach Professor Osland?”

“Actually, that’s the problem. “I have nothing to make an excuse for.” Cain answered honestly.

“So, I have no choice but to ask Professor Anna for help with this part. Since we can’t utilize the resources of the Security Bureau, we have to at least mobilize the professor’s connections. Of course… It’s not purple. “Academic exchange.”

It meant that imperial resources would not be used. Maria’s expression also became quite serious.

“But won’t it take some time until then?”

“So before that, we have to do what we can. Besides meeting Professor Koch, there are more things to find out. The most urgent thing among them all… Lily. “I need you to help me.”

“I am always ready.” Lily answered proudly. But Cain’s request was unexpected.

“Then let’s spar.”