Chapter 88
Chapter 88. The Young Lady's Mood Is Sometimes Clear
Lily Fontaine.
She, who was serving as Acting Minister of Internal Affairs in Hanbin's stead, was……
"Aah, it is wholly unprecedented for Her Majesty the Queen to send personal letters of encouragement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs this frequently!"
Performing her duties with far greater ease than anyone had imagined.
"Compose yourself."
"Compose myself! If I may say so, Sir Fontaine's one and only shortcoming is an excess of humility beyond what is warranted. This Bella considers it an honor to her family to be able to work alongside Sir Fontaine!"
So much so that even Bella Ashton — the secretary of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the very embodiment of social climbing, and Lily's personal yes-woman — had genuine feeling woven into her hymn of praise for Lily.
In truth, back when Lily had been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs —
'No matter how exceptional her abilities, is it really right to put someone who hasn't even reached thirty in such an important position?'
'Can she bear the weight of a crucial post entrusted with the major affairs of state?'
— there had been no shortage of voices expressing concern along these lines.
But Lily's ability had silenced those many dissenting voices within a single year.
If Minister of Internal Affairs Hanbin had been an 'Innovator,' then Lily was a 'Mediator' through and through.
She neatly put in order the informal lines of work that Hanbin had laid down, while delicately adjusting things so they did not clash with the existing administrative framework.
When reforms were being pushed through, she took the lead in proposing flexible mediation to the House of Nobles — which bristled with opposition each time — and drew out dramatic compromises.
"In the royal court as well, voices praising Sir Fontaine's capability ring loud!"
She was superior to Hanbin.
She should not be the Acting Minister but the next Minister of Internal Affairs.
……It was not strange that assessments of that kind were beginning to be heard.
"It is not entirely my own ability."
But Lily calmly cut off Bella's praise.
"It is all Hanbin's arrangement."
"Ah, r-, right! Hanbin is of course remarkable too!"
Bella, who knew well Lily's unconditional reverence for Hanbin, swiftly lavished praise on Hanbin as well, eager to stay in her superior's good graces.
"……"
Lily naturally saw right through her.
Yet this was not a matter of reverence for Hanbin — it was plain truth.
The authority of Britannia Kingdom's Minister of Internal Affairs was immense.
Overall command authority over police and intelligence agencies.
Appointment authority over major city and regional administrators.
Inspection authority to monitor all nobles.
Licensing and budget execution authority over major internal administrative procedures.
One might call it the queen's sharpest blade and her most steadfast shield — but it was not a position where one could wield that enormous authority recklessly.
The nobles of Britannia had reserves of their own.
If you tried to press down on them indiscriminately, resistance would arise, and if it grew severe enough, even the queen would have no choice but to replace the Minister of Internal Affairs.
One might describe it as a position where you had to manage ambitious nobles while balanced on the tightrope of the queen's trust.
In such a precarious footing, the moves Hanbin had displayed were like a surging tide.
He willingly took up the scalpel to break down stale conventions, and did not hesitate to incur the wrath of nobles in the process.
How had that been possible?
Hanbin was a nationally beloved Hero who had performed extraordinary feats during the Great Subjugation.
Some of the great nobles, who were quick with information, even knew of the role he had played in the Secret Burial Unit.
The reforms he pushed through had achieved tremendous progress.
He had held standing, fear, and justification all in his hands at once.
And yet, carrying the nobles' steadily accumulating resentment and displeasure upon him like a cross……
[Quitting as Minister of Internal Affairs. Do not look for me. — Hanbin Ainsworth]
Hanbin had left.
Since Hanbin had already played the bad cop, cracking the whip — all that remained was for Lily to wield the carrot.
'Hanbin……'
A blue sky where white clouds billowed.
It was as though Hanbin were giving a thumbs-up and saying:
'Playing the villain suits me.'
Only now did Lily understand that great intention.
Today was a day when he, already so deeply missed, felt even more piercingly absent.
In any case, longing was longing, and the work of the Minister of Internal Affairs did not end.
"Ah, speaking of which, Acting Minister Fontaine. This is a request from the Royal Supply Committee."
"Use the 'Acting' title. From the Supply Committee?"
"It concerns the Royal Warrant Culinary Competition you approved previously. Chairman Baron Kinsley has fallen ill with an upset stomach and is unable to participate as a judge."
"Is the request that I take on the role of judge in his place?"
"Yes indeed!"
It seemed they wished to lend a bit more authority to the newly established category.
"……I am no expert when it comes to food."
However.
"Still, I shall participate."
If she did Baron Kinsley the favor now, she could use it as a bargaining chip later.
Lily accepted without much thought.
***
Another key concern for this competition was not getting caught in the revelation of: 'Shocking! Jurgen was in fact the fugitive Minister of Internal Affairs, Hanbin!'
Because in that scenario, a whole array of extremely troublesome problems would present themselves.
"Jurgen! They say that instead of the Supply Committee Chairman, Acting Minister Fontaine will be attending as a judge at this competition!"
"What?!"
An emergency had arisen in the midst of all this.
"This is completely good news, isn't it? I'm lucky in a way that doesn't seem like me at all."
Looking at it purely from the Royal Warrant angle, Penelope's point was correct.
The prestige of the newly established culinary category would change depending on who the judges were.
"Hmm~~~…… I see……"
But why had Lily suddenly turned up?
Wasn't Lily the taste-blind sort who, no matter what food you put in front of her, responded with nothing beyond 'thank you,' 'how delicious,' and 'shall we get back to work now'?
No.
That wasn't what mattered right now.
The problem was that Lily knew Hanbin far too well.
Even if this appearance was a coincidence, if she were to take on the judging role at close range, she would detect something off immediately.
At that moment, Jurgen made a decision.
Therefore, on the day of the culinary competition, Jurgen would hide thoroughly.
Penelope would handle the cooking in his place.
How to get her to accept this was the question on his mind.
After all, it was quite unnatural for Jurgen to be absent from a competition in which they needed to give everything they had, wasn't it?
What excuse should he use?
"Cough, cough, cough!"
"What's that? Did something go down the wrong way?"
For now, let us try persuading her with the notion that he felt a little under the weather.
"It seems I may have caught a chill……"
"Goodness, only a fool catches a summer cold. Come here."
A cool hand touched his forehead.
He looked up in surprise to find Penelope before him, brow furrowed with concern.
"Hmm, no fever though?"
He hadn't expected her to cut off his retreat that quickly.
Just as Jurgen was flustered and about to add something further——
"Fine, I understand. Give me the recipe. In more detail."
"……Will you be alright with that?"
"You said you're ill. It's just a matter of memorizing the recipe and following it exactly, isn't it? Teach me, then go inside and rest properly."
Unexpectedly, Penelope accepted with good grace.
Without even a trace of suspicion or a searching glance.
She already had the method for frying chicken and making the seasoning sauce committed to memory, so he walked her through the Mashed Potato and Gravy Sauce recipes step by step.
True to form as a quite accomplished Alchemist, Penelope reproduced each recipe skillfully as soon as it was explained to her.
There was no great change in her expression, but she was humming to herself — and somehow she even looked enormously excited.
"It seems cooking has grown on you."
"I'm not at your level, but I can do what you teach me."
"Well done. Penelope."
"What are you doing, don't just pat my head like that."
Penelope swatted Jurgen's hand away——
But there was a reason she was overflowing with motivation.
The turmoil that Brigitte's appearance had stirred in her heart had settled.
She would give everything she had toward the original goal — bringing the Royal Warrant to Y&P Trading Company.
Whether Brigitte ended up replacing Penelope's role or not, that was a problem to think about later.
And in the midst of all that, Jurgen had come to her asking Penelope to personally cook in the competition's final round.
What did that mean?
It was a token of trust!
There was an overwhelming token of trust — that Penelope could be put forward in a critical situation where the Royal Warrant was at stake.
From that point on, trivial elements like Brigitte stopped mattering to her.
"Ah ah ah~~……"
Penelope laughed like a scheming villainess of a young lady and pressed on with her intensive training.
"……?"
Though Jurgen could make neither head nor tail of it.
***
Her grandfather had said.
That even before Brigitte could walk, she slept clutching a spatula close to her chest.
Just as the one who pulls the sword from the stone becomes king, and the one born under the saint's star becomes a saint —
Perhaps from that moment, Brigitte's fate was set upon the path of cooking.
They say there is a pleasure in choosing your own fate, but……
Brigitte did not feel particularly aggrieved about it.
She loved cooking.
From the age when other children were running outside with runny noses, she was at the restaurant helping her grandfather with his work.
She stood side by side with her grandfather in the kitchen and made warm food, and threw herself into cooking research together with him.
She loved making delicious food for people.
She loved watching someone scrape their bowl clean down to the last drop.
It was a small establishment — a ramshackle wooden building with only three tables, and the kitchen was nothing to speak of — but Brigitte's Dining was the place where she had spent the most precious time of her life.
Around the time when new notches in the pillar where Brigitte measured her height stopped appearing——
'Brigitte, my dear granddaughter. Please take over the restaurant.'
'I may have fallen short of being anything more than a third-rate cook…… but you, unlike me, can become the greatest cook of all.'
'Please make Brigitte's Dining the finest restaurant in Britannia.'
Her grandfather left Brigitte's side.
Brigitte forced a smile and replied.
'Yes, I absolutely will……! Absolutely!'
Her grandfather's final words may have been hollow encouragement, meant to lift the spirits of the granddaughter left to stand alone.
But Brigitte's culinary skills had begun to advance by leaps and bounds from the moment her grandfather departed.
It may have been because she devoted herself to cooking practice every night, shaving off her sleeping hours, or it may have been because it was the period when Brigitte's talent was blooming in tandem with her growth.
Brigitte chose to believe it was thanks to the magic her grandfather had left behind.
That she would become a great cook, just as her grandfather's words had said.
She vowed to make Brigitte's Dining the finest restaurant in all of Britannia.
But reality was harsh.
Brigitte's culinary philosophy — 'good food from good ingredients' — was not recognized.
Over more than two years of operation, the loyal regulars who remained numbered barely five.
All other customers fell into just one category: those who hadn't heard the notorious reputation of 'an outrageously overpriced rip-off place,' had wandered in, and lacked the nerve to walk back out without ordering anything.
Of course, that kind of customer never returned.
Flies came through the door and left, losses mounted month by month, and Brigitte's Dining came to face a crisis of survival.
"But! I've seized the golden opportunity of the Kingdom Culinary Competition!"
"……I know."
"Breaking through the fierce document screening to advance to the final round with the Royal Warrant on the line! It's a chance to become the owner of a bustling restaurant if I just get past eleven rivals, isn't it?"
"……I know, I know."
"And then you, sir, can collect plenty of interest as well, can't you?"
"Ah, for f***'s sake! I said I know!"
"Then why are you demanding the money back right now!!!"
Brigitte shrieked at the loan shark with his chest hair all fluffy and thick.
It was galling enough to make Brigitte — who ordinarily would not say an unkind word to anyone unless absolutely necessary — raise her voice.
Two days to D-Day before the final round.
Today too, she had been planning to head to the Odéon kitchen and spend a pleasant time with her fellow culinary kindred spirit Jurgen.
A cook she could talk to as freely as she could with Jurgen had been a first in Brigitte's life.
She had tossed and turned through the night waiting for this very morning.
But what came to Brigitte as she kicked open her lodgings door in high spirits was……
The loan shark who had lent her the fifty-Crown entry fee.
He had abruptly demanded that Brigitte repay the debt in full immediately.
"Can't you see it's written right here in Special Clause Number 17? If the creditor determines for any reason whatsoever that they have lost 'trust' in the debtor, they may demand immediate repayment of the full debt at any time! The contract is telling you that you have to pay the money back!"
"That's a lie! There was no such clause! And what trust of yours have I supposedly lost!"
Brigitte hadn't laid hands on a Loan Shark without thinking.
The Royal Warrant was an opportunity that would never come again in Brigitte's life, and it was her last-ditch struggle to save the restaurant.
So she had steeled herself for catastrophe if she failed to secure the Royal Warrant.
If her skills fell short and she failed to win the Warrant, she had resolved that she would weep and lament, but accept that outcome all the same.
"That's what I'm saying — I'm telling you, isn't I? Withdraw quietly and I'll write off the debt and interest like it never existed."
But not like this.
"Let's keep this nice and civil. I'm even writing off the interest, yeah? I'm being soft-hearted here, doing you a favor. Alright?"
By this point even a fool would know he was not simply throwing a tantrum.
What loan shark in the world would write off not only the interest but the principal too, for whose benefit?
He had almost certainly been put up to this by someone.
Most likely some highly-placed individual competing in the culinary competition.
Brigitte glared at the loan shark before her.
"……What if I don't withdraw?"
Thwack!
Along with a heavy, thudding pain, a ringing noise went off in her ear.
"Ah…… ugh……"
It was only after she had fallen to the ground that Brigitte belatedly registered that the loan shark's thick palm had swept across her cheek.
"Hey, I was talking to you nicely, yeah. Does this seem like a game to you?"
"……"
"What kind of commoner girl like you wins a royal culinary competition? Does the world seem that easy to you? Does this seem like a game?"
"……"
This man would do whatever it took to prevent Brigitte from entering the competition.
Even if Brigitte used her wits to somehow get the money together and see off this loan shark, the highly-placed individual would interfere by some other means.
In a world where a stone thrown carelessly by a person could kill a frog, a noble's precisely aimed throw could smash a commoner's head without a thought.
Her hope that she could settle things fair and square through ability alone may have been the naivety of someone who did not know the ways of the world.
Brigitte dropped her head low.
"……I'll do it. Withdraw……"
It was infuriating.
Infuriating to the point of having no strength left even to wipe her tears.
This reality — where a challenge she had staked her life on had no choice but to crumble before it even began — was something she hated with every fiber of her being.
If she had known it would come to this……
Would it have been better never to have cooked at all?
Just then.
"Don't. Withdraw."
In an alley where long shadows stretched even at noon when the sun hung at its peak, making it dim and forlorn —
A voice cooler than the shade rang out clearly.
Following the source of the sound with her gaze, she saw a refined young lady with a parasol, wearing an unhurried expression.
Her identity was……
"Penelope……?"
A woman who sometimes cannot simply walk past an injustice.
The irreplaceable core of Y&P Trading Company.
Lady Penelope Rosemore.