“No way… Do I have to cook today’s lunch myself…?”
“Meow, mrrrow….”
If this ‘Seasoning Set’ really is the treasure, then the ‘treasure’ Bjorn defined must be ingredients.
Naturally, the use of ingredients lies in ‘cooking.’
There’s no other possibility worth considering.
‘Why on earth…?’
That question naturally flickered through my mind.
In the original work before the remake, there was never a single scene of Reysir cooking.
Outside the Demonic Realm, he ate at restaurants; inside, he ate preserved rations.
And that was inevitable.
To cook, you need both time and space, and while cooking, it’s impossible to keep a close watch on your surroundings, isn’t it?
Moreover, the fire lit for cooking and the smell of food could attract monsters.
Logically, cooking inside the Demonic Realm itself is far too dangerous.
‘And yet he makes us do this…?’
I feel uneasy.
I worry that someday, for some reason, we’ll be forced to cook inside the Demonic Realm, and a crisis will arise because of it.
But that’s a future matter, so I’ll set it aside for now…
‘Not to mention the Imperial Princess Fjodra—there’s no way the children of noble families have ever done something like cooking, right?’
Thinking about this problem we’ll face in a few hours gave me a headache.
Originally, I was used to cooking from a very young age, helping my mother, so I’m fairly familiar with it.
But this body’s owner has never cooked before.
‘Last time when Reysir came to my room, I showed him how to roll up a jujube and slice it… but I don’t know how much skill I can display.
Others might not notice, but Pret knows that Karbaldr has never cooked even once.
If I look too skilled, he’ll definitely find it strange.’
‘Ah! Come to think of it, does Pret know how to cook?’
An informant needs to disguise themselves in various professions for infiltration.
I’d assume he has at least basic cooking skills.
‘And Svein, a commoner… I’m not sure.There was never a scene of him cooking in the original novel either. Still, at least there’s a possibility, so I should be hopeful, I suppose?’
“Meow meow.”
While I was staring at the words ‘Seasoning Set’ and lost in worry, Yor lightly tapped my shoulder.
When our eyes met, he shook his head left and right.
As if to say this wasn’t the time to be doing that.
“Right. To avoid the penalty, I still need to find four more treasure capsules. I can’t waste time like this. Besides, if I carry this around, someone might steal it…”
I folded the note again and paused, about to put it back into the capsule it came from.
Because a sudden thought occurred to me.
“Since all capsules look the same, the important thing is this note, right?”
“Mrrow.”
“Then… there’s no need to store it in a capsule, is there?”
“Nyaha!”
“Yor. Since you earned this, you keep it.”
The baby dragon’s Yeouiju wasn’t an inventory, but I couldn’t put this note inside it.
Considering the purpose of the training, that would be cheating.
If I find five or more treasures, I’d still get penalized.
So the method I chose was to take advantage of Yor always carrying the Yeouiju in his hand—by wedging the paper between the orb and his palm.
That way, no one would notice the treasure note in Yor’s hand.
Now the remaining issue is what to do with the empty capsule.
If someone finds the empty capsule I discarded, the strategy of removing and hiding the note would be exposed, making it harder to steal ‘treasures.’
On the other hand, if I carry it along with a ‘dud’ capsule and get my entire bag stolen, the thief would realize I’m keeping the treasure note separately.
‘If I have to choose one… I decided to discard the empty capsule. After all, the idea of storing the treasure note separately is a very simple concept anyone could think of.’
Still, just in case, I asked Yor to keep watch, dug up some soil inside the bushes with a dagger, buried the empty capsule, and covered it back up.
“Pretty convincing, isn’t it?”
“Yawong.”
Yor took a quick look inside the bushes and gave an ‘OK’ sign by touching his thumb and index finger together.
Now that the empty capsule is dealt with, it’s time to resume searching for capsules.
How long had I been moving around, digging through various spots?
I spotted a capsule inside a knot hole in a tree.
It seemed hidden in a way that wasn’t too conspicuous, yet it caught the eye in a suspicious manner.
In cases like this, there’s a high chance a trap will be triggered.
But since there was also the possibility that the contents of that capsule were a treasure note, I couldn’t just ignore it.
“Yor.”
I decided to ask for help from the incredibly capable baby dragon.
Yor answered with a ‘meow!’ and stretched out aether that had been filtered of its special properties.
Then he slightly bent the tip into a hook shape and pulled the capsule out of the knot hole.
There was no need to even approach the tree.
The capsule rolled along the ground and came to a stop at my feet.
Just as I was leisurely bending down to pick it up—
“Wow, that’s really dirty! Pulling it out like that!”
Pret’s voice came from above the tree where the capsule had been hidden.
It seemed this capsule was a trap Pret had set to catch people.
No wonder it looked suspiciously visible.
‘Seeing him do this, has he found less than five treasure capsules? Or maybe more ingredients are better, so he’s trying to secure as many treasures as possible?’
I couldn’t tell which.
But I guessed that the person with the most treasure capsules right now was probably Pret.
After all, finding hidden things is Pret’s specialty.
If it were Pret, he’d have found three or four times as many capsules as I did, and unless he was incredibly unlucky, they wouldn’t all be duds.
“…Just the person I wanted to see.”
“Huh? Are you taking out your whip? Trying to fight me?”
“That’s right. You’ve probably secured several ‘treasure’ capsules, haven’t you?”
“Do you think you can take my bag? Unlike that ribbon, you can’t just pull it lightly and steal it.”
To be honest, I’m not confident.
With Yor helping me at full power, I wouldn’t be at a complete disadvantage.
But catching Pret, who’s determined to run away in a mountain full of traps, is practically impossible.
“Still, it’s worth a try.”
“What if I end up taking your capsules instead?”
“I don’t mind. I have nothing to lose anyway.”
“So you found all duds?”
“…That seems to be the case.”
Thinking of the fifteen ‘dud’ capsules in my bag, my voice came out bitter.
Then Pret whistled, “Whew~!“
Somehow, that action felt like he was saying, ‘Not bad!’—probably not my imagination.
“That’s not what I heard.”
“What did you hear?”
“I ran into Svein earlier. When I offered to free him from a trap in exchange for all his treasure capsules, he said a senior named Karbaldr had taken the only one he found.”
It seemed Svein had fallen into one of Pret’s traps.
And Pret had squeezed information out of him that he didn’t even ask for.
“He could’ve just said he didn’t find any, but he had to…”
I clicked my tongue, “Tch!” and tightened my grip on the whip.
Since I’d entrusted the treasure note to Yor, there was almost no risk of it being stolen.
But if I acted overly cautious and wary, Pret would approach me aiming to steal the bag.
‘Maybe this is for the better.’
‘Did he see through my thoughts? Or did he have another reason?’
An unexpected remark slipped from Pret’s lips.
“Forget it, forget it. I’m not going to steal it, so relax.”
“…What?”
I didn’t believe him.
Instead of hiding my feelings, I furrowed my brow and let them show.
Then the other party responded with a disappointed expression.
“You know, right? That I want to get on your good side.”
“But… we’re training now… Isn’t this not right?”
“Ahaha! You’re so—! I don’t know if I should call you stubborn or sincere!”
His cheerful voice held not a trace of fighting spirit.
He really seemed to have no intention of fighting me.
This was quite a predicament.
‘Should I launch a preemptive strike? No, if I do that, he might just run away. With Yor’s 【Dragon Fear】 skill… no, that wouldn’t be very effective either.’
Even 【Dragon Fear】, having degraded to a mere C-rank, wouldn’t do much.
It could easily suppress someone like Svein, who’s still at the level of an ordinary person, but Pret is incomparably stronger.
At best, it would stiffen his body for a moment, creating an opening.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Senior Karbaldr. I don’t need to find any more capsules now.”
“Then why did you set up these traps?”
“Because the remaining time is too long, and waiting around is boring?”
“…”
Not to secure more cooking ingredients, but simply out of boredom.
It was an absurd statement, but it paled in comparison to what he said next.
“Would I otherwise use a real treasure capsule as bait?”
I’d assumed it was a dud since it was placed as trap bait.
Reflexively, my gaze turned to the capsule at my feet.
“This is my heart for you, Senior! Please accept it!”
Hearing that made me so reluctant I didn’t even want to touch it.
But the afterimage of the childish headband Bjorn wore last episode flickered before my eyes, and I couldn’t bring myself to ignore a capsule that might contain a treasure note.
So I quietly picked up the capsule, opened it, and checked its contents…
「Carrot」
It wasn’t a dud.
It really had the name of an ingredient written on it.
‘Seems like treasure capsules are overflowing. If I ask for three more, will he hand them over willingly…?’
For a moment, greed reared its head, but I held back because I couldn’t know what he’d demand in return.
Besides, it would be a shabby action unbefitting Karbaldr’s character.
And lunchtime was still far off.
“I don’t need your heart, but I’ll gratefully accept this.”
“Ahaha! So it’s the object over the heart? I like that you know how to seize practical benefits!”
“Hmph!”
Even if Pret said he wasn’t interested in others’ capsules, it wouldn’t do any good to show him taking out the treasure note and hiding it separately.
So I signaled the end of the conversation, pretended to search for capsules, and quickly left the spot with Yor.
I wonder how Reysir would react to the way Pret talks with Kar