I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 90

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Maresents spoke.
“I’ve discovered peculiar additives that don’t occur naturally. Artificial chemical compounds. Look at this—it’s documentation certified by the Magic Tower.”
Maresents was confident.
In truth, he hadn’t even gone so far as to think that ramen was food that promoted “demonization.”
However, he was absolutely certain that ramen was a worthless food—or rather, such an inferior commodity that it couldn’t even be called food.
The document he presented contained a chemical formula.
[C
5
H
8
NO
2
Na]
His expression was supremely confident.
“Do you know what this is, Princess Isabel?”
“That is…”
Maresents studied Isabel’s expression.
‘She’s definitely flustered.’
It was only natural. Truth be told, Maresents didn’t know exactly what this was either. He was a culinary researcher, not a mage-engineer or chemist.
“Go ahead and speak. Why can’t you answer?”
“That… Lord Maresents. Are you certain about that documentation? Did you really receive it from the Magic Tower?”
The attention of thirty thousand people focused on Isabel and Maresents.
Their expressions were vividly captured on the mage-engineering display board—a rare artifact of mage-engineering that existed only on Sky Island.
“Did you really receive it from the Magic Tower?”
“Yes, I did.”
“So that means… hmm.”
Isabel laughed sheepishly, a bit embarrassed. Then she glanced to the side and made eye contact with Yuri.
Yuri nodded once.
Thanks to that, Isabel gained a bit more courage.
“You’re absolutely certain, right?”
Maresents was convinced.
Isabel was definitely stalling for time.
He hadn’t expected things to crumble from the start, but regardless, he needed to drive the final nail in quickly.
“Yes, I am. Princess Isabel, you must give a clear answer to this.”
Isabel spoke, embarrassed.
“That chemical formula is wrong.”
“…Pardon?”
Isabel took paper and pen from Yuri and wrote something down.
[C
5
H
8
NO
4
Na]
O
4
After checking that section, I continued speaking.
“If you look here, you see.
O
2
is not correct—it should be
4
instead. Anyway, I’ll consider that a mistake. You’re claiming that substance doesn’t exist in nature and is chemically dangerous, correct?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
I examined the chemical formula I had written once more.
A few days ago, Yuri had taught me this.
‘I didn’t invent the soup by accident, Princess. I realized it while making dalgona. If I wanted to make you happy, studying chemistry would be essential. So I studied hard.’
Yuri, who had been a mathematical genius, turned out to actually be a culinary genius, and furthermore, a chemistry genius.
If not for me, Yuri’s talents would have disappeared as just another minor character, but meeting me allowed them to fully blossom.
And studying chemistry together with Yuri, I came to deeply regret one thing.
‘I should have studied this fascinating chemistry much earlier!’
It wasn’t just mathematics and electricity that fascinated me. Chemistry studies were equally enjoyable.
I was naturally inclined toward the sciences.
Science studies brought me joy.
And sharing that knowledge and experience with others brought even greater joy.
Especially now, with so many eyes focused on me!
‘This is exhilarating.’
I felt it once again.
‘I really am an attention-seeker, aren’t I?’
I felt slightly worried about it.
‘Is this okay? I’m not weird, am I?’
Regardless, I was thoroughly enjoying all this attention pouring down on me.
I was so eager to share this fascinating chemistry discussion that my lips itched to speak.
“Let me explain this chemical formula for you.”
I was genuinely thrilled because this was such a wonderful thing.
“What you mentioned is actually derived from glutamic acid, you see? Glutamic acid is a very common amino acid that forms proteins. Oh, and the chemical formula for this glutamic acid is….”
The seven-year-old Princess continued speaking with the most harmless expression in the world.
“The correct formula is
[C
5
H
9
NO
4
]
. That’s what it is. Anyway, that dangerous chemical substance you just mentioned is precisely the sodium salt of glutamic acid. So we call it sodium glutamate, or L-sodium glutamate. To break it down, it’s MonoSodium Glutamate. Taking the first letters, we decided to call it MSG.”
Isabel found it fascinating even as she spoke.
‘I only threw out the idea, so how could MSG identical to the modern version come into existence? Modern MSG would be MonoSodium Glutamate too, right? Wow, this is really incredible.’
The culinary master Maresents fell silent.
‘What… what on earth is she talking about?’
Maresents hadn’t expected such words to come from the Princess, so he couldn’t open his mouth.
Yet there was no hostility to be found in the Princess’s demeanor.
She was explaining something utterly incomprehensible with bright, sparkling eyes, and there was something oddly happy about it that seemed strange.
“Mono means one, and Sodium is sodium, so to put it simply, it means one sodium is attached to glutamic acid. Even more simply put, it’s protein with salt stuck to it.”
“….”
Isabel asked with bright, sparkling eyes and an expression burning with scholarly passion.
“Could you explain to me, Master, why you believe this is a dangerous substance?”
If by any chance I’m wrong about this, I need to apologize. I can’t let my pride cause me to feed something harmful to the Empire’s people.
That’s what Isabel thought.
‘If it really does contain something dangerous, I should actually thank him instead. As a culinary master, he might know something.’
Isabel smiled brightly and spoke.
“Please teach me, Master.”
To some eyes, she appeared as a harmless, vibrant young child, and to others, she seemed like a seasoned veteran with extensive experience.
* * *
Maresents was momentarily flustered but quickly regained his composure.
‘She’s certainly not someone to be underestimated.’
He now understood why the Royal Family had proposed the debate first.
The situation with thirty thousand spectators was already stirring.
‘The truth doesn’t matter anyway!’
All that mattered was spreading the perception that it was dangerous.
That was the truth of the world he’d learned through fifty-five years of life, and it was the method he’d used to eliminate his rivals.
“I understand perfectly well that you’re trying to obscure things with such difficult terminology. You’re muddying the essence.”
“Is this difficult? Even at seven years old, I can understand it perfectly well….”
At that utterly innocent face, Maresents’s own face flushed red.
“Well, that’s because you’ve received elite education since childhood, hasn’t it?”
“It’s something I learned from my attendant, who comes from a commoner background.”
Isabel looked at Yuri and asked her.
“Yuri taught me this, didn’t she?”
“Yes. I swear on my life.”
Maresents let out a deliberate cough.
“It’s certainly content that’s difficult for the general public to understand.”
“But it’s not content that you couldn’t understand, is it, Lord Maresents?”
“….”
Maresents was suddenly gripped by a sense of crisis. If he admitted ignorance, he had no idea what barrage of follow-up questions would come his way.
But if he claimed to understand, he felt as though he were being drawn into her trap.
‘A seven-year-old Princess, and yet….’
It felt as though thirty snakes were writhing in his stomach.
‘A born strategist!’
He couldn’t read Isabel’s true intentions.
Of course not. Isabel was simply a bit excited right now.
“We conducted experiments using laboratory mice. Every single mouse administered MSG died.”
At those words, the crowd began to murmur.
Since it was a matter directly connected to health, people were easily swayed.
This time, Yuri raised her hand.
“How was it administered?”
“We administered it via syringe.”
“Saline solution kills mice when administered by syringe too. Does anyone actually inject food directly into their bodies using a syringe?”
“Hmph, I anticipated that, so I brought oral administration results as well.”
Maresents and the other two debaters claimed that the experimental mice fed MSG showed abnormal reactions and died.
“At that dosage, mice would die from salt or vitamins too.”
“….”
Then Narmore raised his hand.
Though still young himself, he was originally conceived as a great merchant and capable strategist.
He had been waiting for this moment.
“You said it was an artificial chemical additive, correct?”
The idea came from Isabel, the development from Yuri. And mass production and distribution came from Narmore.
Therefore, Narmore was more knowledgeable than anyone about the mass production process.
“Do you even know how this is made, and yet you make such claims? You don’t actually think it’s made in some chemical laboratory with medicines and such being added, do you?”
“We haven’t investigated how it’s made.”
“I’m not sure how you can claim it’s an artificial and impure chemical additive without investigating that, but I’ll explain anyway. It’s made by fermenting sugarcane with yeast. So how is that dangerous?”
Narmore thought to himself.
‘The Princess handles spotless truth. I’ll handle the unsavory persuasion.’
With perfectly calculated timing, the capable merchant Narmore began to raise his voice.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————