NOVEL NEXT Chapter 364
The world is unpredictable.
Tom, who had been fired from the cheese workshop and had moved to the capital to drown his sorrows in drink while nibbling away at his savings, never imagined he would come to be entrusted with such an important task.
Though it wasn’t weekly pay, a salary of 3 crowns per month.
Of course, Tom used to be the head apprentice at the cheese workshop. A quality large wheel of cheese could fetch him easily dozens of silver coins. Depending on the type, golden coins were not uncommon either.
However, the money he earned wasn’t really his. After all, he was just an apprentice.
Thanks to being the head apprentice, he earned more than the other apprentices or workers, but compared to the wages of the masters, it was mere goblin nails.
Only the masters handled proper money in the cheese workshop.
If one were to save up for a year without eating or drinking, perhaps they could amass a similar sum?
“A chance to work in the royal workshop has come.”
“Who would have thought?”
“Long live His Majesty!”
“Surely we should express our gratitude only to His Majesty.”
Everyone agreed with the employee’s words.
“His Majesty, Lord Jackson, and Lord Karem.”
Although all the employees present were just a bunch of drunks loafing around the tavern, they weren’t completely hopeless from the roots up.
Hopeless people couldn’t be used even as workers.
Unusable folks had long been filtered out by Michael.
The people gathered here were chosen by Michael because they had potential, and the employees knew that.
It meant there was no one here with the audacity to pretend it didn’t concern them.
While common folk might be oblivious, someone like Tom, who was involved in a guild or a similar profession, surely had some indirect experience in contacting nobles.
Yet deep down, Tom felt a prick of conscience that made him involuntarily close his eyes.
“Lord Jackson. I’m truly sorry for doubting you.”
He was aware the gentleman had status, but honestly, he still felt like a delusional cultist.
What would someone think of a chef who became somewhat famous in a tavern and shouted about listening to their words while draped in a robe?
Everyone would think of them as a lunatic, definitely a cultist.
There was a reason such a cultist hadn’t been chased away.
First, they were a big spender who generously showered money in the pub.
Second, that money became the snacks that comforted the drunken patrons.
No one cared for the empty echoes of lofty proclamations except the tavern owner who wanted to chase away beggars.
But what if that beggar served up expensive snacks?
At the very least, it was polite to listen to whatever nonsense they spouted.
“Still, to be honest, it feels like a cultist.”
That bold remark was enough to freeze everyone who was mashing the beans with bricks.
In an instant, they all erupted into protests.
“Shut up! What if it reaches Lord Jackson’s ears!”
“Keep those thoughts to yourself!”
“I’ve heard Swordmasters can hear insults from the crowd even ten blocks away!”
“But a salary of 36 crowns, isn’t that the very essence of a god descending to earth?”
Tom’s quiet remark stirred all employees, from the most loyal Yustitia follower to the irreverent drifter, to nod in agreement without thinking.
Of course, they did not intend to belittle the goddess of justice and judgment, the embodiment of fairness, Yustitia.
But couldn’t they revere them as at least a lower-tier deity? Especially since the person in question was a human who ascended to become a warrior deity of the triune faith they believed in?
“Yet honestly, every time Lord Jackson is heralded as a god, the expression on Lord Karem’s face gets funny…”
“It seems even the main figure is uncomfortable about it.”
“Given the skills he has at that age, who would dare say otherwise except the clergy?”
Indeed, the Pork Belly BBQ was genuinely delicious.
At Tom’s words, everyone mashing the split peas shared the same thought.
The sauce condensed from being grilled over charcoal, the richly brown meat soaked with sauce, the oily glistening fat.
To them, sauce generally meant only the gravy sauce made from simmered meat juices, so a soy sauce was something extremely fresh and stimulating.
Recalling that flavor made Tom involuntarily salivate.
There were no traces of the taste and aroma of charred pork belly left in his mouth.
If he had devoured a meat pie filled with gravy sauce, the aroma would still be distinctly lingering in his mouth, but the absence only made him feel more regretful.
If only he hadn’t wrapped it up in lettuce.
No, it would be a pity to forgo that flavor.
“Huuuu…”
He let out a sigh as if the earth was crumbling.
Even now, there was no more room in his stomach, but to be honest, he wanted to eat until just before throwing up.
How regrettable that the final portion of pork belly vanished into the mouths of the knights and soldiers who couldn’t resist the smell…
“I heard it takes two months to make.”
The time until the workshop could produce its own soy sauce and kongarum.
Surely the smell was already beginning to hint at something serious, like the odor of fermenting cheese, but he decided to think otherwise.
If he could endure this smell for just two months, soy sauce and kongarum would emerge.
This meant he could eat pork belly again.
What’s more, he wasn’t going unpaid during that time.
Three golden coins a month.
In two months, that would double.
If he didn’t get greedy, he could eat his fill of meat for all three meals and still have plenty of money left over. Meat was always right.
He could surely eat at the most expensive restaurant in the outer castle. Perhaps he could even enter the inner castle.
It would have been impossible in the past, but now it was feasible.
After all, he was the mid-tier manager of the royal workshop.
What a pity that the pork belly would only be prepared for today.
“If I ask, they said they would share the recipe.”
Tom, the former head apprentice of the cheese workshop and current mid-tier manager of the royal soy sauce workshop, understood the importance of recipes better than anyone.
And he marveled.
What all artisans would kill to protect or acquire were just secret recipes, but this generous youth was said to freely distribute such secrets.
Truly, the generosity befitting a Swordmaster who venerates the divine!
There was a reason a commander of the royal guard would worship as a god.
Another faith sprouted in Tom and the employees’ hearts.
There was nothing to hesitate about.
Since ancient times, Europa had been predominantly polytheistic.
*
*
*
Karem tried to head back after finishing his work.
Unless an unexpected situation occurred.
Just before he could return, Wales, with his eyes open wide as if he could swallow a storm, gasped.
[What is this delectable aroma, you wretched thing?]
“…Uh, pork belly BBQ?”
[Pork belly BBQ?! Such a delightful name, though I don’t know what it is!]
Wales seized the opportunity like a rolling cake. Immediately, he demanded compensation for using his nest and rune stone privately.
Naturally, the compensation had to be pork belly BBQ.
The only fortunate thing was that he didn’t have to prepare it excessively, only once in a few days, and once a month, so the amount was just snack level.
Having already been mentally drained, Karem felt his sanity slipping when he returned to the Mage Tower after preparing the pork belly for Wales.
However, the task was not over yet.
He still had to prepare a snack for Catherine.
So, he tried to rest in bed for just a moment when he opened the door.
Bang—
“…What the…?”
An empty room, devoid of anything but the bed.
Karem, thinking he’d entered the wrong room, shut the door again.
He had never confused a room before, but given how mentally exhausted he was, perhaps he might have this time.
His room was right next to the kitchen.
The door he just closed was also directly adjacent to the kitchen.
“What the, this isn’t a mistake.”
Karem opened the door again, and the same empty room greeted him, the bed being the only object inside.
By literal meaning, there was just a bed.
The room was absurdly clean for an empty room. After all, Mary would never leave a room unattended.
A mark left on the floor due to the weight of furniture, a window displaying the always cloudy sky of Iceland, and the bed beneath it.
Besides those three things, nothing remained in the room.
“…What in the world is going on?”
Too flustered, Karem sat down right on the threshold between the room and the hallway, stroking his chin.
Did they clear out everything for a spring clean?
That couldn’t be. If that were the case, it would have happened before. Karem had never experienced such a thing.
So perhaps he was kicked out…? No way.
Karem swore to the heavens that he was in the clear.
Then, what was this situation?
“Oh, Karem. I, I guess you’re back?”
When he turned his head to the familiar, wrinkled voice, Narque waved his hand while wearing his robe.
“Is your work, work all done?”
“Right?”
“Then why are you, uh, there like that—”
“Just see for yourself.”
With that, confused, Narque walked over to the empty room and tilted his head.
“Is this a… storeroom?”
“No, it’s my room.”
“Huh?”
“Exactly.”
“Eh?”
Narque tilted his head, and accordingly, the droopy ears under his robe wiggled about.
“Mary was moving things, uh, somewhere. Could that be it?”
“Where to? Up? Down?”
Narque pointed his index finger up to the ceiling. Karem furrowed his brow, filled with bewilderment.
If that’s the case, it means Mary moved things without telling the owner. There is only one person who could make Mary act that way.
Naturally, another question sprang to mind.
“Catherine? Why on earth?”
“Umm, anyway. I’m going to leave now.”
“Uh, okay.”
After sending Narque off, Karem, with a dazed expression, scratched his head in the empty room and then sprang up in realization.
“In conclusion, there’s only one thing to say.”
He didn’t feel any particular displeasure.
After all, there weren’t many things he could claim to own purely among his possessions.
Two magic tools, one divine object, and the pile of Aureus gold coins from the Palatino Empire was all he had.
Clothes, furniture, cooking utensils, and whatnot all stemmed from the salary Catherine provided. There were times when even if he spent money, it would return to him treated as work expenses.
So he was merely a bit baffled.
And the way to clear this bafflement was simple.
“I can just ask.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yikes! Ah! Signal, please!”
Karem jumped, startled by the sudden arrival of Mary, who had been standing expressionless behind him.
“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that from you, Karem junior. So maybe it feels fresh.”
“Yikes. Why all of a sudden?”
“I just came to check if there’s anything you left in your room.”
“Oh, right!”
When Karem shouted, Mary blinked as if questioning why.
“You moved the stuff from my room, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Was it by Catherine’s orders?”
“Yes, indeed, it was the Contractor’s order.”
And the following words literally froze Karem’s mind.
“You said you’d be sharing a room together. Have you forgotten?”
“…Sharing a room?”
For a phrase that couldn’t be taken lightly in a positive sense, Karem rubbed his ears as if he might have misheard.
“Did you say sharing a room?”
“Oh dear, hasn’t the Contractor informed you?”
“I just got back from going out until a little while ago.”
At the mention of a “little while ago,” Mary seemed to recall the significant task that Karem was entrusted with, as her pointed ears perked up.
“Then wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to visit the Contractor’s office?”
Karem silently nodded.
“Suddenly sharing a room, huh?”
Well, they had already seen everything there was to see.
It wasn’t particularly strange to share a room.
Unless there was something to hide, Karem felt he had nothing to be ashamed of. He had admitted to being a reincarnated person.
However, maybe it was because it was his first time sharing a room with someone else.
Karem felt a complex emotion he couldn’t quite pinpoint.
Knock, knock, knock—
“Contractor. I’m coming in.”
“Go ahead.”
“Karem junior is here with me.”
As Catherine avoided Karem’s gaze, he met her eyes filled with question marks.