The pasta was carried out to the dining room when the butler spoke, "This is the basilica that Sei-sama has made."
It was finally tasting time.
The people in the dining room were Feudal Lord-sama, his family, Captain-san and myself.
"I was looking forward to tasting your food when I heard that you were cooking today." Feudal Lord-sama"s wife said and I smiled ambiguously.
"I hope it suits your tastes……"
The taste is probably fine.
Even though I made it, the head chef was the one who put the finishing touches on it.
I only made the pasta.
I had mixed feelings about being told that I"d made something when the head chef did the important part.
I had no choice but to ask the head chef to add the finishing touches since it was being served to Feudal Lord-sama and his family.
I had to cook, so I chose to eat later.
I tried to tell them this, but the butler dismissed my suggestion.
"Please eat it while it"s still hot."
Everyone put the pasta into their mouth at once.
The fresh herbs spread throughout my mouth with just a bite.
The herbs gave the pasta flavour and although it was only seasoned with salt, it was still very tasty.
I wouldn"t expect anything less from the head chef.
I could hear them complementing the aroma, and of course how good it tasted as well.
I looked around and saw that everyone was smiling.
I"m relieved, it looks like Feudal Lord-sama and his family like it.
"Was this called pasta? It seems to be made from wheat."
"Yes, it is."
"It seems like this is eaten in your kingdom Sei, but I"ve eaten something similar to this before."
"You have?"
"I didn"t eat it in our kingdom, but it was often eaten by commoners in a kingdom I"ve visited before. I"m sure they were called noodles."
"Noodles! It might be the same dish. The word pasta means noodles."
"Ooh! Does it?"
I asked Feudal Lord-sama in detail and it seemed that the food he ate before was pasta.
The pasta he ate had sauce poured on top of it unlike the herbal pasta we were having today.
I"ve never seen noodle dishes before so I thought that it didn"t exist in this world.
Although it wasn"t common in this kingdom, it existed in others.
Also, I might be able to find the ingredients that I"ve given up on because I thought that it didn"t exist here.
Should I ask the merchants next time they come to the Research Inst.i.tute?
I conversed with Feudal Lord-sama and Captain-san, who was sitting next to me, called out suspiciously, "Huh?"
I looked towards him and his eyebrows were scrunched up.
"Is something wrong?"
"Nope……"
He"s being evasive.
What the heck is wrong?
Captain-san said he didn"t have any likes or dislikes. I started using herbs in my cooking since I"ve started cooking.
Did he not like one of the herbs I used today?
No, but the herbs I used today were all ones I"ve used before while cooking at the Research Inst.i.tute, so that shouldn"t be it.
Then, is it something else?
I stared at Captain-san and asked him about his complexion. He replied in a troubled tone while smiling wryly, "It"s fine."
At the same time, I heard someone in Feudal Lord-sama"s family gasp, but it was probably my imagination.
The day after dinner had ended without any mishaps.
I went to deliver the potions to the knights" standby place and found out why Captain-san was acting so suspiciously.
"HP recovery?"
"Yeah, that"s right. It only had a little effect though."
The knights from the 3rd Knight Order also ate pasta last night with Feudal Lord-sama"s family at the back of the dining room.
This was so I could find out the difference in effects between the different wheats used.
The knights also helped me research food effects back at the Royal Capital so they were used to it.
They ate a different dish this time so I received two different feedbacks.
Like my investigations at the Royal Capital, the two different types of pasta had different effects.
The pasta made from spelt had the effect of normal wheat pasta as well as HP recovery.
Since the other ingredients were the same as the food I"ve made before, it could be said that HP recovery was the effect of spelt.
Captain-san"s expression changed at dinner probably because he noticed the effect.
"HP recovery…… Did your HP recover instantly?"
"No, it recovered gradually."
I heard HP recovery, so I wanted to confirm if food could take the place of potions, but the pasta didn"t recover HP instantly like potions did.
The HP recovery effect was gradual just like it was when one left their HP to recover naturally without relying on potions or magic.
The recovery effect was probably greater than normal, so that was why they had noticed the difference.
Another knight was listening to what we were saying and he thought it had a different effect.
He added, "I thought that it just increased our natural recovery rate."
"Ah, is that possible?"
"If it increased your natural recovery rate, then the recovery interval is the same as usual?"
"I didn"t verify that. I need to test it again."
HP and MP recover at a steady rate over time.
The knight didn"t go as far as to check the interval between HP recoveries when he was eating.
The knights said that they had to investigate this more and looked toward me.
They want seconds, I get it.
If so then I need to go to the kitchen again.
This all depends on if I can use the kitchen or not.
"I have to check if I could use the kitchen……"
"Oh right, this isn"t the Royal Palace."
"Nothing you can do about it."
The knights smiled wryly and gave up.
The herbal pasta was more popular than I thought it was.
They were more disappointed that they couldn"t eat it again than not being able to investigate the effects.
I talked with the knights and Captain-san came down from the 2nd floor.
"Sei, you came."
"Yes. I came to deliver the potions."
"Thanks, we"ll take it." Captain-san said and a knight went to the table where the potion box was placed and carried it to the back.
I completely forgot about my goals and just stood around talking in the hall.
I had two goals.
The first was to deliver the potion and the second was to get a progress report about the surrounding areas from Captain-san.
I thought I would talk about the effects of the food after I finished my goals but the knights caught me.
I had to pa.s.s the hall in order to get to the office so it was inevitable.
However, I should have ignored them and went straight to Captain-san"s office.
I told Captain-san why I came here today, "There was something I wanted to talk to you about in your office, but I got caught up talking about yesterday"s food".
"Ah, yesterday"s…… Yesterday"s meal was very delicious."
Captain-san smiled his usual dazzling smile.
I think I"ve gotten used to it, but it"s still hard to look at him directly in the eyes.
I decided to change my approach and talked about something more serious, "Thank you. I"ve heard about it from the knights."
"About the food? We"ve been talking about it since this morning."
"You were? Did your expression change yesterday because you noticed the effects of the pasta?"
"Yeah. I was hesitant to say it in that place yesterday, so I kept silent about it."
Captain-san said that Feudal Lord-sama didn"t notice so he remained silent about it.
He didn"t bring the subject up.
The information was publicly known at the Royal Palace, but the details were kept a secret, so it was difficult to talk about it in public.
Going with the flow, we also talked about the effects of spelt.
The knights were talking about it all morning and Captain-san also knew some of its effects.
"It"s a simple recovery effect, but I"m not sure if it increases natural recovery rate or not. I need to use the kitchen again if I want to verify this."
"That might be difficult, since people need to work in the kitchen."
"That"s true. Should we verify the effects when we get back to the Royal Capital?"
"Whatever the effect is, it"ll be great if it improved HP recovery rate."
As Captain-san said, recovery rate was important for those who subjugated demons.
It was a matter of life and death.
But it was difficult to carry pasta while walking and it didn"t seem very delicious to carry a lunch box.
If HP recovery was a special effect of spelt then I could make it into something that"s easy to carry around.
I want to see if other dishes would have the same effect. But I would need the kitchen for that……
Do I have to wait until I return to the Royal Capital to confirm the effects?
I thought and left the building.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam