Save the Starving Frontier! The “Buyer” of the Reversed Chastity World - 17

Chapter 17: Let’s Eat Breakfast Together!

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The next morning, I was greeted by the female knight order, looking unusually glossy and radiant. Right. Everyone “worked” hard last night.

“Good morning, Kaito! It’s a fine morning!”

“You all look well, that’s good. Since you suddenly ate a lot yesterday, you’re not feeling heavy in the stomach, are you?”

When I asked, it seemed all of them were fine. The knights really had tough stomachs. With stamina like that, and living such an ascetic life, the nights must’ve been hard.

Basically, military life was ascetic by nature. And in this world, with only women around, of course things would turn out like yesterday. On closer look, all of their sword hilts were polished and shining like mirrors.

Yeah. They were about the perfect thickness, after all. I wondered what they had used their knightly pride for.

“Well then, shall we have breakfast? You had bread yesterday. How about I make some proper dishes today?”

“Hear me, everyone! Kaito will cook for us! Meat dishes line up in the first row, fish dishes in the second row, egg dishes in the third row! Form up, three ranks!”

At the commander’s command, all of them immediately lined up in three neat rows. It didn’t even take five seconds. Amazing. As expected of soldiers—they were perfectly disciplined.

“So this row is for the meat dishes? It’s teppanyaki-style, but they’re all the same. Are you okay with that? It’s pretty heavy for the morning.”

“No problem. They’re hearty eaters even in the morning. Give them the most filling one.”

Since Commander Sharon said so, I ordered enough Sakaiya Horumon misuji steak set meals for their number. In silence, everyone filed neatly to the dining tables. I had given Commander Sharon a bundle of plastic forks, so the members received them one by one in order.

The second row was fish, huh. Tempura would’ve worked, but I ordered Minatomachi Gyoko’s grilled hokke (Japanese mackerel) set meal instead. A huge grilled hokke from a chain contracted with the fishing port—no fishiness and really tasty.

And the third row was egg dishes. Eggs, so of course that meant Hadōken’s tenshinhan (omelette rice) set meal. For that group, I handed out spoons.

The knights received the dishes one after another, quickly and in perfect order. When I asked why they were so organized, they explained that during wartime, meals were distributed this way. If distribution was delayed, it cut into eating time and hindered operations, so they were heavily trained in this system.

“That white thing is grain boiled until soft! Anyone unaccustomed, get extra bread!”

Commander Sharon gave the order, but nobody came forward. All the dishes were quite large portions. They must have judged the breakfast volume was sufficient for them.

“This meat is delicious! It’s as flavorful as a magic beast, but so tender!”

“This fish, the flesh comes right off the bone! The taste is light, yet so fatty and good! Could this really be fish from the sea!?”

“This grain is sweet! The runny sauce and soft egg are addictive!”

Everything I had ordered was well received by the knights.  Even though quite a few nobles were mixed in among them, their taste buds weren’t really different from commoners’. Or maybe Japanese cooking was just that good. No, couldn’t be… right?

“For me, a large tempura set meal. And also that shrimp dish called shrimp chili.”

“You eat a lot in the morning. All right.”

I ordered and served it to her. Commander Sharon sat with me, Etna, and the others at the same table for breakfast.

“First, I want to distribute food to each district in the commoners’ quarter. Leave the delivery to the members.”

“Got it. It’s going to be quite a lot, so keep someone with water magic nearby. I’ll fill today’s dishes with that water and ‘buy’ them.”

When I explained, the commander nodded. We could dig up soil instead, but we shouldn’t be leaving the training grounds full of holes.

Once the meal was done, we moved to the training grounds. Each member brought their tray with the dishes still on it.

“I’ll keep sending more out! Take them as they pile up!”

A folding handcart would’ve worked, but this time we used supply wagons. The loading capacity was on a whole different level.

We mobilized forty supply wagons to deliver bread, dishes, vegetables, and flour to each district. We distributed ingredients as well since most food I could order from the Internet Mall included plenty of meats, but severely lacking in vegetables. Especially in the bread section. There were surprisingly few breads with vegetables. 

With supermarket vegetables piled high, people could cook something simple. This world’s people could cook just fine, after all.

“So, Commander, what should we bring to the noble district?”

“The regular dishes are fine, but ingredients alone will suffice. Half the flour of yesterday is enough. Bring extra meat, vegetables, and seasonings.”

Following Commander Sharon’s instructions, I brought out assorted vegetables, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar for loading. I also purchased fifty kilos of salted butter, since that was essential.

What about meat? In this city, they usually hunted magic beasts for meat. If I could get popular magic beast meat, that’d be best, but unfortunately, the Internet Mall didn’t sell any magic beast meat. Maybe in the future, we could recreate dishes using magic beast meat from this world.

So for now, I stuck with block cuts. Of course, only pre-butchered, vacuum-packed meat was sold, so I piled up large amounts of beef, pork, and chicken.

“What is this material? It’s as transparent as crystal, but soft. Is it slime?”

“It’s called vinyl. It’s oil mixed with additives and hardened. The additives keep it from burning; it just melts. But since it’s thin, it tears easily. Think of it as dust protection.”

When I said oil, the commander nodded in understanding. She wasn’t quite convinced about the transparency, but kneaded materials mixed with oil were common in alchemy.

“I will leave the distribution to you all then. I wouldn’t know how to do it properly anyway.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be delivered to the Margrave. Even if we don’t think it through, her retainers will handle the arrangements.”

Yeah, that made sense. The people of the noble district were all under the Margrave’s authority. It was natural that distribution would come from their superior.

That meant I didn’t need to think about how to distribute it. That was a relief. Otherwise, every noble would demand “Give it to me first!” and I wouldn’t know who to prioritize. Things could end up in a mess too. To avoid that, just handing everything over to the top—the Margrave—was the best option.

We waited for the many wagons sent to the commoners’ quarter to return before heading to the noble district.

“Quite the heavy labor first thing in the morning.”

“What of it? Compared to a march, this is nothing. And besides, it’s saving the lives of our people!”

The commander’s face looked happy when she said that. Helping the people, noble or commoner, must’ve made her happy as a knight.

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