Chapter 6

Chapter Five His Cuisine and the Answer to the Secret —from Ban “—What a pain! Why do I have to do this?” a hulking man complained, his silver hair spilling over his shoulders as he shook an iron frying pan with one hand. “The loser of the bet has to do whatever the other says. That was the deal.” The kitchen was considerably large and splendid, but it looked terribly cramped thanks to the man, who stood almost seven feet tall. Moreover, another stately figure, a woman, was directing him on all manner of things. That wasn’t all. “Wait, Ban. What kind of meat did you just add?” The top half of a frightfully large armored knight was poking in from the doorway that connected the kitchen to the backyard. He seemed unable to fit his whole body into the room. “Huh? It’s the meat of a gray wild rabbit.” “In the recipe, it’s supposed to be a pulled rabbit.” “There are none around here. So instead ♪” The man called Ban didn’t rest his hands as he spoke in his singsong voice. He roughly chopped a yellow fruit, skin and all, and began to pulverize it with a marble mortar and pestle. “Is that a cirin fruit?” the woman asked. Ban nodded and said, “Yup, you got it ♪” “Wait, Ban. That’s also more than the recipe calls for,” the armored knight objected again. Ban responded with irritation. “The Chief likes it. Besides, gray wild rabbits have a stronger flavor than pulled rabbits, so it’s perfect if you add a little more cirin.” “I see.” The woman nodded to herself and jotted something down. The armored knight twisted and leaned forward so that his palm almost touched the ground as he followed Ban closely. “Wait, Ban, that spoon is different from the one you were just using. That’s less than precise.” “You’re nagging me about everything! It fell on the floor and disappeared somewhere. It’s about the same size, so it’s fine! Hey, Merlin, send away that bullshit armor. I can’t work like this,” Ban complained to the woman at his side. But Merlin only laughed. “Oh, don’t say that. It’s part of my research. I need Gowther’s impeccable memory.” “Heh, do whatever you wish, then, and I’ll do the same. Either way, stop commenting on every single detail, Gowther.” “Sure.” Gowther lifted an armored finger to signal his assent. Hmph, Ban snorted, and without giving the knight a second glance, resumed cooking, humming a tune. 1 Margaret let out a sigh and got to her feet. As she carefully opened the window, the wind blew into the room with a whoosh. She could smell water. She was at the royal villa of King Liones, which stood upon a small island that floated in Lake Grau. Margaret had been staying there for about a week. It was a terribly quiet place. The closest town was over five miles away, and untamed hills thick with brush completely surrounded the lake. She was in the highest room on the third floor of the castle, which jutted out from the cliff on the northern side of the island. Directly below her window was the cliff that continued down past the wall, and below that spread the lake’s surface. All she could hear was the wind and waves lapping against the shore. The lake reflected the dull gray of the clouds. The opposite shore was blurry as if it was only a shadow. “ ‘The lone old castle that stands upon the small island is like a stone cell that imprisons me’—” Repeating the lines that her attendant Grace had heard, Margaret sang in a tiny voice. She didn’t know if the melody was correct. “ ‘My body is cursed and torn apart by the fates of the day and the night. It stands here still as stone, it sighs’…” Rustled by the strong wind, Margaret’s long platinum-blond hair danced. “Lady Margaret!” Just at that moment, Grace, who had entered the room, rushed to her side, her face pale. “What’s wrong, Grace?” “Well, for some reason I thought that you were going to fall…” “Oh dear, I’m fine.” Grace peered out the window, trembling. “No matter how many times I look, it scares me. The wind is so cold, it’d be better if you shut the window—” “Right.” With a faint smile, Margaret closed the window. Grace knelt upon the floor to pick up a fallen piece of paper. “Your Highness, here.” “Thank you.” It was that puzzle. It had probably been blown by the wind. “How are you faring with it?” Grace asked. “Yes, well…I have a little bit more to go.” Margaret smiled, but in her mind, she had begun to give up. “The hints, they’re too sparse…Like, I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with an obscure one like ‘Fish’…‘Put in a rabbit stew’? Doesn’t seem like carrot would be the right answer.” “Yes…” As Grace said, the ten empty spaces that remained corresponded to hints that were far too simple. Margaret was at a loss. She lacked the knowledge to tease out the answers from the connecting words. “I thought I would be able to help with something like ‘Herb’…I apologize for not being more useful.” Grace, whose family ran a medicine shop, hung her head. In the capital, Margaret might have asked somebody about the hints or looked them up in a book—there may have been some way. But all she had at the royal villa was herself, her three maids, and several servants. She could do nothing. It can’t be helped. Margaret closed her eyes. She’d promised her younger sisters to send a messenger upon solving the puzzle, but that seemed unlikely now. But it’s probably for the better. This way, no one will be hurt… Margaret glanced at Grace, who was still looking at the puzzle and shaking her head. The maid suddenly turned around. “My apologies, I’d forgotten what I came for! Your meal is ready.” “All right…” Margaret followed her out into the hallway and spoke to her as they descended the stairs. “Grace, it might be about time that you and Erica returned to the capital. When the next carriage arrives, have it take you on its way back.” “What are you saying?” Grace turned around with a sorrowful expression. “I don’t know about Erica unless I ask, but as for me, I will always stay by your side. I was told to by my parents as well.” “But…” “Um, did I…commit some blunder?” Grace asked, wringing her hands at her chest. Margaret shook her head from side to side. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just…” It’s just that you might be put in danger again—Margaret swallowed those words. Margaret had heard the very next morning from her maid, Erica, who loved gossip, that a monster had escaped from the circus and attacked people on the night of the Summer Solstice Festival. Learning that one of the people who had been assaulted was none other than Grace, she understood everything. Apparently a chimera, a creature begat with magic, had gone after Grace. In that case, it was the doing not of some circus curiosity, but of that woman—Vivian. Encouraged by Grace’s words, Margaret had entrusted her maid with a message, but shouldn’t have. If it was only a date, a time, and a place, she could conceal a message in the Holy Knight apprentices’ daily schedule. If the person who gave it to Gilthunder was Howzer, nobody would be suspicious, or so Margaret thought, but that woman wasn’t so easily deceived. Undoubtedly, the chimera that watched Margaret was, even now, hiding somewhere in this castle. Just like back in the capital, it was monitoring her. To get away from Gilthunder, and to protect Grace, she’d come to the royal villa. Yet Margaret was gradually growing unsure about the best course of action. 2 Crash! Grace, who had finished hanging laundry in a corner of the courtyard and was resting on a nearby bench, jumped at the loud noise. She also heard a young man’s voice: You’ve gotta be kidding me! It came from the back door of the kitchen. Grace timidly approached it and peered through the small crack in the wooden door. A young, blond man wearing an apron was holding his head with both elbows on his workbench. Potatoes and other vegetables still coated in dirt were scattered about on the bench and the floor. “What more can I do?!” The man then placed his hands on the rim of a shallow bucket in the sink next to him. Grace could see fish swimming inside. It seemed he aimed to flip the bucket over. “Stop, please stop!” Without thinking, Grace rushed toward him and grabbed his arm. “Wh-What are you doing?” Caught off guard, the young man whirled around in surprise. “Y-You’re the princess’ maid…” “Yes. I’m Grace. Um, what’s wrong? Vegetables aside, if you throw the fish out, they’ll die…” “So what if they did,” the young man spat, turning away. “Because no matter how painstakingly I prepare her meals, your princess won’t eat, will she? Who knows what kind of extravagant fare you serve at the capital…” “That’s…that’s not it!” Grace shouted, taken aback. She gripped her apron dress firmly. “The princess came here to recuperate! It’s not her fault that she can’t eat much!” “I know that! That’s why I’m constantly trying to figure it out. What’s nutritious, what has light flavoring, what’s easy to eat, what isn’t too hot—but it all comes back hardly touched. I’m losing my motivation.” The man laughed humorlessly. “Why would she ever bother with the cuisine of a country cook like me? She should have just brought a chef with her.” “Y-You’re wrong!” “What am I wrong about? Really, you call it recuperating, but she didn’t bring a doctor or a healer. Are you sure she’s not faking it?” “Wha—” He had gone so far that Grace was left speechless. The man didn’t know—just how much Margaret was suffering. “Her Highness is n-not that kind of p-per…” Grace started to speak but couldn’t continue. She was no different in failing to understand Margaret’s suffering. When the man asked Grace why he was wrong, she couldn’t explain. She could only repeat that he was wrong. “Her Highness is…” Tears began to well up in the maid’s eyes. In moments, they began flowing and dripping from her cheek to the floor. “Whoa, hey…don’t cry!” The young man began to panic as if he was just coming to his senses. He restlessly scanned his surroundings, grabbed a yellow fruit that was lying on the kitchen counter, scrubbed the dirt from it with his apron, and thrust it toward Grace. “I’m sorry I ran my mouth…Here, I’ll give you this.” “…” Grace, who had lifted the hem of her apron to wipe away her tears, was a little appalled. She wasn’t a child of five or six, but he seemed to think that a piece of fruit would make her feel better. When she glowered at him with upturned eyes, the young man faltered. “No, really…I apologize.” “Never mind about me. I can’t forgive someone who speaks ill of Her Highness.” “I understand. Sorry—please take this back to your room and have it with the princess. She can stomach at least a little bit of fruit, can’t she?” the man said, pushing the gift into Grace’s hand. Accepting it helplessly, Grace tilted her head. “This fruit…What’s it called? It’s like an apple…” “Ah, cirins are only picked in this region. They also taste like apples but are somewhat sweeter. You can crush it and add its flavor to a stew too.” “Cirin…” Grace suddenly remembered something. “This must be…” She spun, fruit in hand. “What is it?!” the young man shouted in surprise, but she didn’t bother. 3 “Your Highness! This is it! The cirin fruit!” Margaret had moved the table up against the window and spread out the puzzle. She was sitting chin in hand when Grace burst through the door and startled her. “What happened, Grace?” “I figured it out! The hint! The ‘put in a rabbit stew’ clue!” Grace, who was normally calm, pushed the yellow fruit at Margaret with uncharacteristic fervor and pointed at one of the blank spaces in the puzzle on the table. “Here! This is ‘cirin fruit,’ isn’t it?” “Ah…you’re right.” Margaret, too, traced the blank with her finger. Sure enough, those letters fit perfectly. “Sometimes this fruit is crushed and added to a stew. The kitchen man—uh, I forgot to ask his name, but he said so.” “Oh…” “Apparently this fruit is only harvested in this region. No wonder we didn’t get it!” Grace said happily. Margaret looked down at the puzzle anew. “Come to think of it—this was inserted by a page that showed this castle.” The princess remembered the time she’d started working on it with Veronica and Elizabeth. It seemed not only the name of the lake but also all the other vague hints had something to do with this castle. “Maybe there are other answers that only people here would know!” “Yes!” Margaret met Grace’s eyes and stood up. “Hello,” Grace called at the kitchen entrance. “Oh, it’s you,” a voice replied, and the young blond man came forth. “I’m sorry about earlier.” “No, I’m the one—whoa!” The young man widened his eyes when he realized that Margaret was standing behind Grace. He hurriedly took a step back and bowed his head. “P-Princess, what brings you to such a squalid place?…Y-You didn’t rattle on me, did you?” The young man glanced at Grace with frightened eyes, but she furiously waved both her hands. “No, no! Actually, Her Highness has something she would like to ask you.” “Me?” Margaret smiled at the bewildered young man. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Margaret Liones. Thank you for always making such delicious food.” “No, that…um….Excuse me for not being able to serve anything to your liking.” “No, pardon me. I’m sorry I can’t eat much. What’s your name?” “I’m Phil.” “Phil. Well, Phil, there’s something I’d like to ask you.” Margaret handed the puzzle that she held in her left hand over to Phil. “This is something I brought from the capital. I just can’t for the life of me fill in spots like this one…or this one. But just now, we figured out ‘cirin fruit,’ and we thought maybe we should ask someone who is better acquainted with this region…” “Huh, let me take a quick look.” Phil took the sheet from Margaret and for a while compared the hints with the empty places on the puzzle, lowering his fingers from time to time to count letters, until finally, he nodded. “Well, these certainly aren’t the kinds of things you would know. Almost all of these blanks are vegetables, fish…anyways, ingredients associated with this area.” “I thought so.” Grace was beaming. “I wonder if the person who made this puzzle is from around here. But Ladies Veronica and Elizabeth found it at a bookstore in the capital, didn’t they?” “Yes…” “The herbs and other leafy vegetables are almost all things we grow in the garden here. Would you like to see?” At Phil’s words, Margaret smiled and replied, “Really? I’d love to.” “Right this way.” Returning the puzzle to Margaret’s hand, Phil invited the two of them into the kitchen. They passed before the sink, opened the wooden door at the far end, and found themselves in the courtyard. Enclosed by the keep, its two towers, and the ramparts that connected them, the courtyard measured about 160 feet on each side. The brick walkway that linked the keep’s front entrance and the gate between the two towers cut through the center. Various garden trees were planted on either side of the path. “Those far rows over there are vegetables, and that area over there is herbs.” Many varieties of flowering plants grew in the plot where Phil pointed, their leaves all subtly different shades of green. There were tall plants, plants that crawled and spread over the ground, plants with tiny flowers. “…” “The potted ones over there are mint. This block is sage. That’s lemongrass, and this here is what was in that puzzle just now, ‘snow on the mountain’…” Listening to Phil’s explanation, Margaret approached the spot and knelt down in the dirt, unconcerned that her hem would get dirty. Just as the name suggested, the new leaves were whitish in color; it looked as if they were dusted with a light layer of snow. “…” When the wind blew, it carried the smell of damp earth and the strong aroma of grass with it. Margaret gently felt the grass before her with her fingers, and when she tore one blade, she caught a sweet scent. “What a nice smell…it somehow makes me nostalgic,” she found herself murmuring. Though she could hardly remember it, she had a feeling that long ago, she’d smelled the same aroma here. Are you ready? Not yet! Gilthunder and Griamore and Veronica and herself. Hadn’t the four of them run around this yard and played hide and seek? Are you ready? Not yet! Tears pooled in Margaret’s eyes and dripped down to dampen her cheeks. 4 “Wow, it’s true, everything is filled in!” Grace clapped her hands together in celebration. At the workbench in the kitchen, Margaret scribbled with her feather quill, filling in the final empty spaces of the puzzle with the names of ingredients. She gazed at the beautifully completed puzzle with satisfaction. Then, as if an idea had come to her all of a sudden, she looked up at Phil who stood beside her. “Hey, Phil…is there a meal that uses all of the ingredients in this puzzle?” “Let’s see…I don’t think there is just one meal…but together, hmm…” Ah! the cook cried out after deliberating for a moment. “Come to think of it, there was that time…” “That time?” Grace echoed. Phil, who’d dropped his head to mutter to himself, raised his face. “Um, I think it was four or five years ago—the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ came to this castle.” “The Seven Deadly Sins!” cried Grace. Phil seemed flustered. “Oh, I’m sorry…They’re traitors to the royal family now…” He frantically bowed his head as if to end his story. “It’s all right, I want to hear. What happened with the Seven Deadly Sins?” Margaret asked. “Usually the only people here are the custodians, but when guests visit from the capital, servants are gathered as they are now. At the time, the cook here was my grandfather. The Seven Deadly Sins were staying here for some kind of mission. I was around twelve, and I sometimes came to help him—that day, when I peered into the kitchen…” Phil went on to say that the person who was cooking wasn’t his grandfather, but a hulking man with silver hair and bright red eyes. “Silver hair, red eyes and—a giant.” Margaret remembered. There was such a man amongst the Seven Deadly Sins. “Ban, the Fox’s Sin of Greed?” “Yes, he was called Ban. He said, ‘Hey, help me out here’—and I did because I was scared, but when I tried speaking to him, he was actually fairly friendly and fun…” And also surprisingly good at cooking, Phil added. “I think they stayed about ten days. Ban would often lose bets with the others, and the loser had to cook, he said. I think nearly all of the ingredients in the puzzle were in the several dishes that he made then…” “Ah, I’d like to try them.” Grace and Phil leaned forward at Margaret’s murmur. “R-Really?” “I’ll make it! I’ll go buy the ingredients tomorrow!” As Phil spoke, he looked like he just remembered something. “Actually, Ban shared a piece of advice back then…When I asked what the secret was to making good food, he said to ‘do the opposite of the Chief’s cooking.’ ” “The Chief’s cooking?” Yes, Phil affirmed. “Our chief is absolutely horrible at cooking!” Ban had said, laughing. “Do you know what he said when I asked him how he made his food taste so much like garbage?” “Wh-What?” “It’s what happens if you disregard the diner’s feelings and make only what you want to make! So, to make delicious food, you do the opposite, got it?” “Maybe, unknowingly, I was only making what I wanted to make. I chose my flavors to avoid being ridiculed as a country chef, but I was only pleasing myself…Ah, um, so…” Phil looked at Margaret. “From the beginning, I should have asked you what you wanted to eat, or how you were feeling today.” “Well, really…I’m sorry I made you so self-conscious.” Grace stepped in between Margaret, who frowned apologetically, and Phil, whose face had clouded over considerably. “That’s right! It’s almost Her Highness’ birthday, isn’t it? Why don’t we make that meal for her birthday dinner?” Phil’s eyes shone. “Wh-What? When is it?!” “July 7th!” Phil and Grace eagerly nodded to each other and looked ready to hold hands as well. Margaret beamed at them with gratitude and cast another glance at the puzzle she held in her hands. So the Seven Deadly Sins had been here. The puzzle had been next to a page that showed this castle and lake, and the hints were names of ingredients that were often used here. And they’d gone into a meal that one of the Sins had made. It also had our names, father’s magical power, and Zaratras, so I thought one of the capital’s Holy Knights or a castle retainer had made it… If it was the work of one of the Seven Deadly Sins, however, the sentence written at the bottom of the puzzle: “The one who solves it all shall kiss the witch and gain an invitation to the banquet”… Kiss—the witch? The witch among the Seven Deadly Sins could only be the Boar’s Sin of Gluttony, Merlin. Merlin…M-E-R-L-I-N… “Oh…” Margaret realized. Right around the middle of the puzzle, if she diagonally followed the “M” that started her own name, it spelled M-E-R-L-I-N. “……” Margaret gently pressed her lips over the name. Then— “Ah!” Suddenly, the puzzle began to sparkle. Margaret, and of course Grace and Phil beside her, were stunned. The three of them stared at the shining puzzle. “Aie!” A bunch of letters she’d inscribed in the puzzle jumped out, glittering gold. They swirled and danced in the air before finally lining up to form a sentence. “ ‘GO TO THE BASEMENT’?” At that moment, beneath their feet— Thunk…It sounded like something large had moved. 5 When they followed the message and headed to the aged castle’s basement, a small room that was being used to store food, they discovered a passage had opened in the stone wall in the back. At the end of the stairs that continued from there was a large secret chamber. “Wow…amazing…” Phil, who carried a lantern and stepped in first, blurted out in wonder. The chamber was twenty feet long and wide, and the ceiling stood over ten feet tall. A large window hollowed out in one of the walls was inlaid with vivid stained glass. It seemed strange that a basement room should have a window, but apparently it opened to the island’s cliff and must have been invisible from the outside due to some kind of magic. The stained glass was a geometric pattern made up of a combination of several colored glass squares about four inches on each side. The rainbow light that shone through it cast the same design upon the stone floor. “How beautiful…” In the center of the room was a wooden table that should have been too large to bring down here. A white earthenware tea set for five was laid upside down on a beautifully textured wooden tray. The chamber hadn’t been visited in so long that a layer of dust coated everything, but there were no strange odors. “This stained glass design…is the same as that puzzle, isn’t it?” Grace said while gently touching the glass. “Ah…you’re right.” Margaret turned toward the window and held up the puzzle. Sure enough, it was exactly the same. “The invitation to the banquet—I wonder if it was the right to enter this room?” “Perhaps the Deadly Sins held banquets here.” Margaret smiled. “That’s it! How about we have our banquet here as well?” It was Phil who said this. “A banquet for Her Highness’ birthday. Please have your feast here.” “Lovely!” Grace clapped her hands and hopped. “I’ll put some fight into cleaning this room! I’ll have Erica and Agatha help as well and have this place sparkling!” Phil and Grace were looking at each other again and nodding. Seeing the two of them like that, Margaret pulled up the hem of her dress and gave a lady’s curtsy. “Really—thank you. I’ll look forward to it.” “No, Your Highness, it’s nothing!” As the two of them gaped in humble surprise, the princess smiled at them with all of her heart.