NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9 - The Treasure Hunt (4)
I crawled diligently through the ventilation duct using the crawling technique I learned in the military.
With my frail body, crawling made it feel like my sides and legs would cramp up, but I had to endure it, thinking it was exercise.
At the point where the ventilation duct bent downwards, I took out a hook-ended rope again.
“Navi, can you hold the rope for me?”
“Oh, I will hold it for you.”
“Oh? Then please do.”
As Precia stepped forward, I handed the rope to her.
“Navi, fix the air around us so no sound leaks out.”
-Meow!
As Navi manipulated the surrounding air, Precia asked curiously, “If you fix the air, does that prevent sound from being heard?”
Since sound is a wave, if the air can’t act as a medium, others won’t be able to hear sounds. But such common knowledge wasn’t so common in this place.
“Well, yes. But very loud sounds may still leak out, so come down slowly.”
Shaking my arms, I descended to the floor below, and Precia calmly descended after securing the rope, using her hands and feet against the walls.
After crawling for a bit, we arrived at the kitchen of the 3rd Palace.
“Navi, remove this wire mesh gate while keeping the sound blocked.”
-Meow!
As soon as I gave the order, a strong wind blew and not only removed the wire mesh gate, but blew it away completely.
My heart jumped for a moment, but fortunately, no sound came from the wire mesh that landed noisily on the kitchen floor.
“Good job, Navi.”
-Nyaa~!
I smiled and stroked Navi’s head.
Precia, who was behind me, looked at Navi enviously.
Seeing that, I chuckled and asked, “Do you want to pet Navi too?”
“Huh? Ah, no… Ah, yes! That’s right!” Perhaps embarrassed that she coveted something belonging to her master, Precia’s face reddened.
Navi was undoubtedly adorable. Even in the novel, Precia loved Navi to the point she couldn’t live without her.
After jumping down from the vent, I tried to land but lost my balance and tumbled over. “Ugh, so much for saving face.”
As I got up and dusted off my clothes, Precia landed gracefully beside me.
“Where do we go from here?”
In response to Precia’s question, I grinned mischievously and answered, “This is our destination.”
“Here?”
She looked around the ordinary kitchen illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the small window near the ceiling.
I took out a candle, flint, and piece of steel from my bag and lit the candle.
Matches would have been nice, but they hadn’t been invented yet.
Gunpowder was strictly controlled by the state, so gunpowder-based matches hadn’t been developed either.
Magic was also quite common.
With the candlelight illuminating the area, the unremarkable kitchen was revealed. I moved past Precia toward where food ingredients were piled up.
“Precia, how much do you know about Dalanta?”
Blinking at my sudden question, Precia answered, “If you’re referring to Dalanta, do you mean the great wizard Dalranta Wisel, who was called a war hero and sage 115 years ago?”
“That’s right.”
As I affirmed while clearing away the food ingredients, she pondered briefly before replying, “Well, he was awarded the unprecedented title of Viscount for his great achievements in the war against the Empire 115 years ago, and he founded a school for training wizards. Ah, and the current head of the Wisel family, his lineage, is a famous figure in central politics these days. I heard he has quite the eccentric reputation…”
“I wasn’t asking about the current head of the Wisel family but about Dalanta himself. Don’t you know anything else?”
When I pressed further, Precia apologized with a bow of her head.
“No, you don’t need to apologize for not knowing. You’re not from the Wisel family, so it’s natural you wouldn’t know. Hmm, is this it?” I pulled out a sack filled with potatoes from among the sacks of food ingredients.
“Dalanta Wisel was originally not a wizard but a chef. In fact, his father was the head chef at the royal palace, so Dalanta had exceptional talent as a chef.”
Considering the Wisel family is now famous for wizards, no one would believe this story.
“Dalanta started learning magic simply due to an issue with managing food ingredients.” I untied the string securing the opening of the potato sack, separating it from the sack.
“At the time, due to a mistake by one of the kitchen assistants, tainted ingredients were used in cooking, and as a result, that assistant was beheaded. Dalanta’s father, who was in charge of the kitchen, also had to take responsibility.”
There were small magic characters engraved on the string, with a small gold ring at the end for tightening it.
“Seeing his demoted father, Dalanta sought a way to keep ingredients fresh at all times and soon turned to magic.” I slipped the small, thin gold ring onto my finger and forcibly channeled the awakened mana from Aquila’s mana circuit into it. The string then seemed to be sucked away somewhere.
“Dalanta wanted to learn magic, and luckily, a wizard happened to notice his talent and agreed to teach him.”
That wizard was one of the Four Seasonal Sages like the protagonist Jade, known as the ‘Sage of Spring Blossoms’.
“Until the war broke out, Dalanta worked in this very kitchen. What I have in my hands is the extra-dimensional artifact ‘Ingredients Storehouse’ that Dalanta created. By the way, the war that led to his ennoblement as Viscount Wisel was the same one he was conscripted into.”
“How do you know this, Your Highness?” Precia asked, and I chuckled.
“I read a lot of books.”
As the Ingredients Storehouse ring on my finger connected to my mana, information naturally came to my mind about what was inside and how to use it.
“Hmm, is this how it works?” When I gestured in the air, an engraved magic knife appeared above my hand. Precia gasped in surprise, alternating her gaze between me and the knife.
I waved my hand lightly, taking out knives of different sizes as if exchanging them. The knives ranged from a potato peeler the size of a finger to a massive butcher’s knife much taller than me.
Though called knives, anyone who saw the magic engraved on them would drool over them as if they were legendary blades.
“I won’t give you these knives. A chef would be saddened if their cooking knives were used as weapons.”
Even before the sadness, if they knew the knives had been used as weapons, they might try to kill me. Dalanta was closer to being a chef than a wizard, after all.
More importantly, I planned to get Precia a sword far better than these knives.
“I understand.” Precia nodded without seeming disappointed, even looking slightly relieved for some reason.
“Besides the knives, it has all kinds of cooking utensils, too; how convenient.”
This will be indispensable when we travel later.
It seems to require touching objects with the hand wearing the ring or passing them through the loop connected to the ring in order to put things in or take them out of the Ingredients Storehouse.
The interior space seemed more spacious than expected.
The reason it was used as a plain potato sack in the kitchen was probably because the mana contained inside had been completely depleted, preventing anyone from detecting it. After all, what wizard would rummage through a heap of kitchen ingredients like this?
“Shall we return to the Separate Palace now?”
“No, we need to get everything we can from this place first.” I entered the wine storage cellar attached to the kitchen.
The 3rd Palace was larger than my Separate Palace, so its wine cellar was not only spacious but also stocked with fine wines.
This was the main reason I aimed to acquire the Ingredients Storehouse first.
* * *
“Your Highness! Did you cough?”
Even after waking up from Herion’s voice and knocking, I lingered on the bed. Looking at the time, it was already past 9 am.
Last night, after obtaining the ‘Ingredients Storehouse’ from the 3rd Palace, I went on to the 4th, 7th, and 8th Palaces to uncover their hidden secrets, only falling asleep in the late hours and getting only around 4 hours of rest.
The original plan was to ransack the 3rd Palace and, if time allowed, ransack the 4th Palace as well. But thanks to Precia tagging along, with her carrying me, we were able to swiftly move on to the 7th and 8th Palaces.
As an adult male by the standards of this country, I did feel some reluctance being carried by a younger underage female. But for efficiency’s sake, I had no choice.
It seems I’ll have to rely on her again tonight.
“Yeah, ahem! Cough! Cough! I’m awake.” I answered with a sleepy voice.
Hearing my reply, Herion opened the door and pulled in a tray.
“You woke up later than usual today.”
“Ah, I was reading books until late at night.”
“Books are fine, but staying up late is unhealthy.”
“Haam~! I’ll be mindful of that.”
With my nonchalant reply, Herion smiled wryly and removed the cover on the tray.
“For breakfast today, we have Earl Grey tea, a scrambled egg sandwich, sweet potato soup, and a salad with yuzu dressing.”
“But I asked for more protein, no, more meat.” Eggs and sweet potatoes are fine, but what I need is not to lose weight but to build my body.
My puny body needed more protein.
Still, walking around day and night has caused the percentage below my wrist to increase.
‘0.0417 percent’.
It seemed even an ant’s dirt would be greater than this, but the fact that it was rising instead of falling was a positive. I decided to think optimistically that it would eventually reach 100 percent, otherwise I might get frustrated and give up.
“Even at breakfast? Won’t that upset your stomach?”
“Well to build my body, I have no choice. I was going to just ask for…no, never mind.”
I was about to ask to be served like the knights but stopped when I realized knights probably don’t scientifically balance their nutrients when eating.
Honestly, with this body, eating like a knight would likely make me so bloated I wouldn’t be able to move properly.
“I’ll draft a diet plan for you later, so try to prepare meals similar to that.”
I may not be able to create a professional diet plan, but I can certainly do better than the people here who lack nutritional knowledge.
As I bit into the sandwich, Herion poured me tea and replied, “Understood. I’ll pass that on to the chef. Oh, and an envoy from the Palace Messenger Corps visited early this morning.”
Envoys who deliver the king’s orders hold quite a high position in the Palace Messenger Corps.
“Is that so? An envoy came last evening, too; that’s rather quick. So, when is it for?”
“This evening.”
“Today? Well, I suppose it’s not strange for it to be scheduled promptly since it’s in lieu of a birthday banquet.”
I quickly finished my meal and washed my face with the water and towel provided.
“Have the knights prepare like yesterday, as I’ll be going for a walk in an hour.”
“Today as well?” Herion asked, and I grinned mischievously.
“Of course, you must have heard the rumors too.”
Originally, the king’s invitation to dine was for political reasons, but it also carried celebratory implications. So, despite being tired, I planned to go gallivanting for the next week. Though today, considering my condition and preparation time, I’ll only go out in the morning.
After Herion left with the tray of empty dishes, I checked the items I had hastily gathered from the Ingredients Storehouse last night.