Chapter 83
Chapter 83. Can't I Just Win It and Pay It Back?
Well, it was fate of a sort.
They took a moment to briefly introduce themselves to one another.
"Ah, so you're a noble! No wonder, you had this sparkly sparkly aura about you!"
Brigitte was a commoner.
She said she was a self-employed owner of a small eatery in a village about an hour from Albion by train.
"Oh goodness, come to think of it — have I been rude? It's my first time meeting a noble in such an informal setting……"
"No, it's fine."
And one look at those bright, sharp eyes told you everything — Brigitte was simply a cheerful, spirited person.
"Wow! Your restaurant brings in that much revenue? And just from selling fried chicken?"
"That's right."
"As expected, nobles really do have a knack for business! I'd love to learn from you! My place barely gets any customers, you see."
She had a certain brightness about her that turned everyone around her into a friend.
She gave off that sparkling energy unique to an ace employee — the kind you could just plant at the entrance and customers would flock in on their own.
Even Penelope, who had a slightly authoritarian side to her, felt the walls around her heart crumbling in the face of Brigitte's unpretentious manner.
"Miss Brigitte, there's something I'd like to ask."
"Yes, Jurgen! By all means!"
Jurgen, who had been standing one step back from the lively girls' conversation, cut in.
There was something that had been nagging at him when he turned Brigitte's words over in his mind.
"You said you have a shop?"
"Yes."
"You said business isn't doing well?"
"Yep, not exactly something to boast about……"
Brigitte's attire was quite shabby.
Her ivory skirt bore the faded marks of long wear, and the sleeves she had briskly rolled up to her forearms were frayed at the ends.
Even her apron had been patched with cloth multiple times over.
Selling just one of Penelope's hair accessories could probably buy every stitch of Brigitte's clothing with change to spare.
"Hm?"
At that point, Penelope also picked up on the incongruity.
Passing the 1st screening itself — call it luck.
But this competition……
Hadn't the entry fee alone been 50 Crowns?
That was not a sum a single common merchant bemoaning poor business could cheerfully pay.
Especially not for a preposterous competition that didn't even taste anything in the 1st screening.
"Ah, that? The entry fee was pricey, admittedly."
Brigitte answered brightly.
"I used a loan shark."
"I see."
Penelope, who had been nodding in understanding, had her train of thought come to a complete halt.
"……Pardon?"
"I tried going to the bank too, but they wouldn't lend me money. Collateral? Proof of income? They kept asking for things like that."
"So you went to a loan shark? Just to enter this competition????"
"Yes? Yes."
She had been expecting an answer along the lines of putting up the shop as collateral, or selling a plot of farmland her parents had left her.
Of all things — a loan shark.
"What's the interest rate?"
"Hold on? I don't quite remember…… Oh, it was 28% monthly compound interest, I think?"
28% monthly? On 50 Crowns, at compound interest?
Penelope was appalled.
"Miss Brigitte, are you certain it's monthly? Not annual?"
"The interest compounds every month, so it's monthly, isn't it?"
Even Jurgen, who reacted to most things with composure, had his mouth hanging open in shock.
And understandably so……
Under those terms, the principal would double in just 3 months, exceed 220 Crowns in 6 months, and hit 1,000 Crowns in a year.
This was the magic of compound interest.
Even Branch Manager Belheim, genius of financial manipulation, might throw up his hands and say 'I couldn't pay that back from nothing!'
"What on earth were you thinking? Do you know what kind of people loan sharks are!"
The most vicious sort of money fiends.
Even nobles who got entangled with loan sharks had been known to ruin their entire family.
"It's fine! As long as I can win the Royal Warrant, I can pay it back in no time! Business will start going well from then on, won't it?"
Brigitte, gazing with clear, unclouded eyes and declaring 'I'll win it and pay it back!'
"Miss Brigitte, what if you can't win? What if you'd been rejected in the document screening?"
"I've thought it through."
"Have you? Like, an inheritance you're expecting……"
"No? Nothing like that."
"……Then?"
"The boss who lent me the money said I'd sell for a high price since I'm pretty."
"Why would you go that far……?"
"It makes me happy when people enjoy my cooking. My shop doesn't get customers, so if I get the Warrant, won't lots of people come?"
Once again saying it as though it were nothing, scratching the back of her head — seeing that, Penelope was seized with dread.
A madwoman.
A genuine madwoman.
"Ah, come to think of it……"
Had she realized, partway through the conversation, that she'd done something mad?
For the first time since they'd met, Brigitte let her words trail off.
"If I receive the Royal Warrant, you two won't be able to, will you."
"Ah……"
"That said, I can't go easy on you! I've staked my life on this too, in my own way. Let's give it our all and have a good, fair match!"
Only then did it come back to her.
Of the 12 finalists, only one team could receive the Warrant.
The document preliminary — Brigitte may have passed on luck, but Seasoned Chicken was Jurgen's signature creation.
On top of that, the very origin of this competition was Princess Luiza having taken a liking to the Seasoned Chicken.
For that reason, among others, the Fifth Princess Luiza Alcaion would be participating in the finals as a judge.
It was practically starting with one vote out of three already secured.
An overwhelming advantage.
"……Hmm."
Granted, things in this world were never entirely fair, and the world of competition was cold — but……
Jurgen felt unsettled.
If Brigitte, who had poured her very soul into entering this competition, failed to win the Royal Warrant, she would be sold off to the loan shark.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I-I'm a little embarrassed."
Brigitte asked with an innocent expression.
"It's nothing."
What could be done?
That said, CCC had no obligation to give up the Royal Warrant for her sake.
"Oh right, Lady Penelope. Jurgen. Have you had dinner?"
"No, not yet."
"Perfect timing! I was just about to make something for myself for dinner. Shall I make some for you two as well?"
Apparently not noticing Jurgen's unsettled state in the slightest, Brigitte made the cheerful offer.
"That would be most appreciated."
He had been planning to cook himself originally, but……
It was also an opportunity to gauge the skill of the competition.
"Wonderful! If you wait in the dining room, I'll have it ready in no time!"
While Brigitte pulled ingredient after ingredient out of the large rucksack on her back.
The two exchanged glances and quietly made their way out to the dining room.
"……Jurgen. What do you think?"
"A remarkably impressive young lady in every respect……"
"I'd feel safer leaving a child next to a body of water than leaving her alone."
"Agreed."
It seemed Penelope felt the same way as Jurgen after all.
Well — Penelope came across as very prickly on the surface, but she had never been capable of being truly harsh-hearted.
He was also aware that the aggressive parts of her personality stemmed from her complex and her defense mechanisms.
"Looking at how she is, she's incomparably more endearing than Serena. For now — how about we pay off her loan shark debt? At a reasonable interest rate. We have enough leeway for that, don't we."
"You've grown quite mature, haven't you. How admirable."
"……What are you saying? I'm only bringing it up because she seems like she'd be good to take on as an employee?"
Penelope, apparently flustered, gave Jurgen's hand a light pinch.
"Everyone! Dinner's ready!"
Brigitte brought the food out promptly.
They had been prepared to go in and help if it was taking too long, but there was no need.
"Is that Aglio e Olio pasta?"
"Wow! You recognized it that fast! As expected from the owner of a three-story restaurant!"
It made sense that it had come out quickly.
Aglio e Olio pasta.
With its simple preparation, it was one of those dishes where the fundamentals mattered most.
It was also one of the recipes Penelope had learned from Jurgen, alongside Cola Wings.
"It's not exactly the most impressive dish to serve guests, but it's gotten fairly good reviews in its own way. I do hope you enjoy it!"
"Hmm……"
Good person, Penelope thought.
If a noble had offered a meal in this manner, she would have naturally suspected an ulterior motive lurking behind it.
She would have taken it as a kind of power play — 'Look what I can make, what can you do?' sort of feeling.
Noble society had that somewhat sinister side to it, as one well knew.
But from Brigitte as she set down the plates, there was not a single trace of malice.
"So open and bright."
"Indeed……"
"Sort of, how to put it……"
Rather healing, actually.
"Well then, let's eat."
"I'll make it for you next time. I can do Aglio e Olio too, you know."
"Wow! Really?"
Penelope looked down at the plate.
The plating, with the noodles neatly twirled into a nest shape, was quite tidy, and the way the parsley had been scattered just right to bring out the color was pretty — but……
She had no great expectations.
After all — was not Aglio e Olio and Cola Wings the very first dishes Penelope had learned to cook from Jurgen?
In all her life, Penelope had never eaten anything more delicious than Jurgen's cooking.
"……"
And so Penelope twirled some noodles around her fork and brought them to her mouth——
And froze in place as though she had swallowed poison.
This is strange…… something's……
"How is it?"
"It's, it's delicious."
"Phew, I actually put a bit more effort in than usual. It was my first time cooking for a noble, so I was awfully nervous, you know?"
Penelope turned her head with a creak and looked at Jurgen.
Jurgen was wearing an expression of unprecedented gravity.
Mmm.
Penelope took another bite of pasta.
It was not a mistake.
"……This is insane."
It was delicious.
Overwhelmingly more delicious than the Aglio e Olio Jurgen had made for her.
It was not a matter of preference.
As someone with a sensitive palate, Penelope could say so with certainty.
The absolute level of taste was different.
"……Remarkable."
That impression, Jurgen was experiencing with all the more vivid intensity.
One of the hobbies of Hanbin the Food Development Researcher — as opposed to Hanbin the Minister of Internal Affairs — had been hunting out fine dining establishments.
It had simultaneously been a part of his work as well.
He had swiped his corporate card freely, visiting globally renowned restaurants listed in culinary guides such as Michelin and Gault Millau.
The Aglio e Olio that came out of those restaurants had invariably reached the level of art.
A realm that could not be reached simply by executing a recipe.
The domain of a first-class chef — attainable only through the accumulation of thousands upon tens of thousands of experiences.
Brigitte's Aglio e Olio was without question at the very top of that domain.
No special ingredients had been used.
And yet.
Garlic sliced to an identical thickness without a hair's breadth of deviation imparted an even, consistent fragrance to the olive oil.
Delicate control of the heat allowed not even a hint of bitterness or astringency.
The pasta was perfectly al dente, seasoned to a precise degree.
The emulsified sauce coated every strand without a single gap, as though applied in layers.
It had brought the contradictory proposition of oily yet clean to life upon the plate.
"……"
Goosebumps rose across his entire body.
How was something like this possible?
How could such a difference emerge from that simple Aglio e Olio?
The principle was simple.
Just as playing the same score on the same piano produces different results from an entrance exam student and a world-class pianist.
Brigitte's culinary skill simply stood several dimensions ahead of Jurgen's.
"How is it? Not bad, right?"
Brigitte asked with a shy smile.
Perhaps this culinary competition……
Might turn out to be a very difficult fight indeed.