The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 90

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 90
* * *
The next day.
I stopped by the kitchen of the Deste Estate, cookbook in hand.
This time, Popina came with me—once my fellow traveler in the struggle against excess weight, now the village’s most stunning beauty in the making.
“Why do you keep getting more handsome?”
“My wife asks me that same question every morning, complaining the whole time.”
“What did you tell her?”
“It’s natural talent. I just neglected myself until now.”
“That’s a rather shameless answer, isn’t it?”
Yet he still calls her his wife.
Sesol, who had joined the bandit gang determined to divorce Popina.
She’d told me her temples throb every morning when she sees him at the mirror, meticulously shaving his scalp with seductive care.
‘Still, the fact that they both call each other husband and wife….’
The world truly harbors all manner of marriages.
Surrounded by undead servants in the kitchen, we prepared food to serve the Duchess of Stria.
Or rather, Popina did all of it himself.
“This cookbook—it looks simple, but it’s actually quite well-structured?”
“You think so?”
“Especially with all these recipes for easy digestion. They’re perfect for reference, since older women often have weakened digestive systems.”
“I see.”
“Ppoppi and Chutchu enjoy this kind of diet too.”
“Ah, it’s become dog food in an instant.”
While Popina studied the book and cooked with focus,
I kept watch beside him.
The undead servants minded only their own tasks and paid us no attention, but accidents happen when you let your guard slip.
Even so, I scanned the kitchen from time to time.
‘Just as I thought—it’s not here.’
A pepper grinder.
I watched the freckled blond boy servant laboring over peppercorns, grinding them by hand.
‘If they had a grinder, he wouldn’t have to struggle like that.’
Thinking such thoughts while looking at a corpse who had become an eternal child made me flinch—as though I myself had become a monster.
‘I’m sorry….’
I will repay your deaths. Please forgive me for what I’ve become.
After my silent apology,
I steeled myself and returned my mind to business planning.
‘First aid kits are easy for latecomers to copy. It was never possible to secure an exclusive patent on them anyway.’
So my next product had to be the one that would raise the Yizel Company to prominence.
‘For that, it needs to be life-friendly.’
I found it in the kitchen and pantry. Appetite is one of humanity’s three basic drives—impossible to ignore.
‘The Empire is rich in spices.’
So I was confident that a grinder allowing people to enjoy spices in varied, immediate ways would sell well.
When I’d actually explained to Popina what a grinder was and its advantages, his response had been enthusiastic.
“Spices like pepper and coriander seeds are best ground fresh. That way the aroma doesn’t fade—it stays strong.”
“Would you be willing to purchase them if I made them?”
“Me, a restaurant head chef? I’d buy twice the number of tables I have!”
“Excellent!”
Just then, Popina’s cooking reached completion.
Every dish on the table featured vegetables braised until tender, or meat simmered low and long until soft.
“Wow, this really is delicious!”
“It couldn’t taste any other way.”
Popina’s naturally smooth scalp gleamed under the light.
His face showed the satisfaction of someone who’d finally had the chance to exercise his skill fully.
“It’s so wholesome that every bite makes you feel healthier. But then when you dip it in this fruit sauce, the fresh sweetness blends together, and it’s like tasting something entirely new!”
“Well now, our village headman’s palate is rivaling a professional’s!”
“Where is this professional? Let them come here and get a slap from me!”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
After tasting small portions, I stored the rest of the food in my Subspace Pocket Pouch.
Thanks to consistent practice, the interior space of the pouch had expanded slightly.
From 30×30 to 35×35!
‘Geez, it went from twenty-seven liters to nearly forty-three!’
I’ll take the leftover food home and split it with Ian and Libi.
Actually, if I don’t bring it back, I’ll catch hell for it.
“Food Popina made with real dedication?”
“I want to try it! Make sure you bring what’s left!”
“But it’s what I already took a bite of…….”
“So what? My little sister ate from it.”
“Besides, if we’re going to nitpick like that, we’d have starved to death back in exile already.”
I don’t understand why that remark made me feel so glad.
“Hehe…….”
Thanks to that, my stomach and my heart both felt full.
“Oh, by the way, sir.”
“Hmm?”
I asked Popina, who was tidying up the kitchen.
“Is a Subspace Pocket Pouch really that remarkable?”
“Of course it is.”
“But the village elders didn’t seem all that amazed.”
When I casually mentioned how I’d been mistaken for a saint after using the Subspace Pocket at the Sacred Shrine, Popina let out a long, wheezing laugh.
“Well…….”
His eyes grew distant, as if gazing toward some far-off place.
“We’ve simply experienced too much to be astonished by things like that anymore…….”
……
“So we’ve grown incapable of being surprised by anything ordinary.”
“That’s just how life goes, isn’t it.”
I offered what comfort I could, plainly.
Popina sniffled a little.
* * *
To be thorough, I asked other residents with rich cooking experience for their thoughts on the grinder.
“My, this is rather nice, isn’t it?”
Sesol, Popina’s wife and a trained cook herself, showed keen interest.
“If we’d had something like this back when I was a trainee, my fingers wouldn’t have turned black from grinding peppercorns…….”
Our household cooks, too, offered their positive remarks.
“Honestly, if I’d had this back when I worked at the restaurant, my nails wouldn’t have been stained from grinding pepper!”
“Every kitchen novice just grinds spices…….”
“And peels potatoes and carrots like mad!”
“That’s what it means to be a rookie — you get the grunt work.”
I set out the food I’d kept in the Subspace Pocket on the table, partly to comfort Libi as she vented her grievances.
“Arf.”
“Arf.”
Ppoppi and Chutchu caught the scent and trotted over, tails wagging.
“Good heavens, they’ve got noses that don’t miss a thing, do they.”
“A dog’s sense of smell is a dog’s sense of smell…….”
“Grrrrr!”
“Grrrowl! Arf!”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Ian! I told you not to say the word ‘dog’ in front of them. You two, stop bothering my brother.”
When I sternly told them I’d get down on all fours and fight them if they didn’t listen, the pups finally settled down.
Libi scooped the cleanest portions of the food into a bowl reserved for the dogs.
“There you go, dig in.”
The moment she set it on the floor, they bounded over and began eating.
We ate the rest of the food for dinner.
Thanks to the Subspace Pocket, the cooking stayed warm as if freshly made, and Ian and Libi both marveled at every bite and enjoyed the meal thoroughly.
“Speaking of which, where’s Verity?”
Libi asked as she bit into a large piece of cabbage roll.
“At the Deste Estate.”
“She’s probably going through the manor and taking care of things.”
Ian continued my thought.
“The Duchess of Stria arrives tomorrow afternoon, so they need to check the estate for safety and do repairs before she gets there.”
“Right, so you’re staying there from tomorrow on, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
I nodded while chewing on the pancake I’d made from a mixture of potatoes and yams.
“I’m going to seduce the Duchess of Stria quite shamelessly.”
“Whew, is that what living life means?”
“Wait and see, brother. Once I become the Duchess’s favorite, I’ll make sure you never have to lift a finger for the rest of your life.”
“My goodness, my heart’s been racing ever since!”
“So what are you going to do for me?”
“I’ll give you a position as commander of the Stria Knights.”
“Ha! With a sister like you, I’m going to live like a king!”
Though we were bantering like this.
‘This is no laughing matter.’
I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
The Duchess of Stria would be staying at the Deste Estate for two whole weeks.
Over the course of those fifteen long and short days, I intended to use the Duchess and those around her to pry the Deste Territory slightly out of the Emperor’s grasp.
‘I need to deepen the rift between Stria and the Imperial Court far beyond what it is now.’
To that end, I would be staying at the Deste Mansion for a while.
On the surface, I would pose as the niece of Molle Rebus’s lover.
Naturally, Molle Rebus would be played by Modi, and his lover would be played by Frelia disguised with a Magic Artifact.
‘I feel terrible about deceiving the Duchess, but there’s no choice.’
As long as the Multidimensional Alliance lurked behind the Emperor, we couldn’t continue to sit back and hide the way we had been.
“I just hope nothing goes wrong…….”
Libi murmured as she stirred her chicken soup with a spoon.
Then she let out a small laugh.
“……Though that’s not going to happen, is it?”
“It won’t.”
Ian swallowed a wry smile and gestured to me with a tilt of his head.
“Not with our village chief.”
“Of course.”
Faced with an avalanche of praise, I shrugged with a grin.
“I’m going to make quite the splash.”
* * *
At the end of a train journey that took four days, we arrived at the empire’s northernmost reaches.
The Deste Territory.
The Duchess of Stria, arriving at this place revered as the birthplace of Magical Engineering and a new holy land, was already seized by regret.
‘There are far too many people.’
Even though she had waited until all the other passengers had disembarked before stepping off the train, the sheer crush of the crowd made her head throb.
She hadn’t walked more than a few steps before nausea began to set in.
“Are you well, Grandmother?”
Crown Prince Pereus helped the ailing Duchess to a nearby bench and sat her down.
“Someone go fetch water. And something to settle the stomach——”
“That won’t be necessary.”
The Duchess of Stria raised her hand in refusal.
“The Viscount Deste has surely sent a carriage to wait in front of the station. We ought to board it at once and leave this place, so as not to inconvenience the others.”
“Then I shall go check whether the carriage has arrived, Your Grace.”
Pereus departed swiftly toward the station entrance with his attendants.
‘Tch, does everything weaken when one grows old?’
The genuine concern for his grandmother that had shown mere moments before vanished in an instant, replaced by an expression of boredom and indifference.
‘I shouldn’t have come along.’
The Crown Prince had harbored not the slightest desire to accompany his grandmother on her rest cure.
Nor did he care for the position in which he found himself—bowing and scraping before an maternal relative’s house. As Crown Prince, such humiliation wounded his pride.
‘And yet…….’
Stria despises the Imperial Court.
“Do you wish to become Crown Prince?”
“Uncle?”
“I won’t stop you, if that is your desire…….”
…….
“I am nothing. Nothing at all.”
They loathed the very idea of their bloodline remaining in the Imperial family.

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