Chapter One Hundred and Fourty-Eight: Dungeon Cooking 3
“Hey!? Don’t try to ruin the panacea by throwing random stuff into it!”
Gunther frantically stopped Karen as she was about to top the soup curry with some deep-fried eggplant.
“Eh? But deep-fried vegetables make it taste better! Especially eggplant—when deep-fried, the vegetable’s richness and sweetness get concentrated, and the spices in the soup curry enhance the flavor, you know?”
“Guh, that does sound delicious…”
“Also, I should tell everyone—this panacea doesn’t keep well! It’s just regular food, so don’t try to store it and please eat it by today!”
Based on Karen’s experience so far, cooking-type potions like this lasted about two to three weeks at room temperature. Tea-based ones tended to keep longer. So the exact expiration date remained a mystery.
The adventurers who had lined up with their personal plates to receive the curry distribution flinched and trembled. Some were holding potion bottles—not because they lacked plates, but because they wanted to save the panacea for later.
“Let’s eat this piping-hot, delicious soup curry with plenty of deep-fried vegetables on top!”
“…Wait, are you sure it’s okay for us to have something like this? It’s a panacea, you know?”
“It’s fine. As long as you get along well with Lady Waltride.”
Karen casually added a condition in response to Gunther’s words. Hearing the additional condition, Gunther sighed.
“That’s too cheap a price for getting to eat a panacea for free.”
“If you think it’s cheap, please be kind to her. Well, she’s a good person, after all.”
She might not be a good princess or a strong person by this world’s standards. But to Karen, she was someone with whom she felt a connection in many ways.
“She doesn’t seem to be a bad person… judging by how she’s lining up with the adventurers.”
Gunther looked back toward the rear with an exasperated expression.
At the back of the long line, a beautiful blonde woman stood holding a plate with an excited expression on her face. It was none other than First Princess Waltride herself.
“Since even the princess is lining up, everyone’s been influenced to behave properly and line up nicely.”
“I thought everyone was well-behaved because they were high-ranking adventurers, but they’re actually just following Lady Waltride’s example?”
Seeing Karen laugh, Gunther sighed and held out his own plate.
“I don’t have any physical problems right now, so I’ll take the chef’s recommendation and have vegetables added… the deep-fried ones do look delicious.”
Karen piled her recommended vegetables onto Gunther’s soup curry.
“Let’s see—eggplant, and bell peppers, and pumpkin, and paprika!”
“ Ugh, ahh—don’t break, don’t break, don’t break!”
Gunther didn’t have an appraisal mirror in hand, yet every time Karen added another piece of fried vegetable, he writhed and relaxed again as though he could see the results himself.
From there, a natural game of chicken began.
The adventurers weighed their chance to obtain a panacea against their own recklessness and appetite, writhing as they had deep-fried vegetables piled on.
“Deep-fried mushrooms are delicious too, you know?”
“That’s enough! That’s enough!”
“Eh… but they’re tasty!”
While making high-ranked adventurers writhe in agony with gestures of adding more, Karen continued serving one after another.
“I’ll take mine without vegetables.”
“Gyahaha! Are you chickening out!? Despite being high-ranked!”
“Shut up, Sepl! I just don’t like vegetables!”
“What are you, a kid?”
Though some adventurers got riled up by Sepl’s taunting, almost all the adventurers requested the deep-fried vegetables.
Honestly speaking, Karen felt that the potion wouldn’t break even with the deep-fried vegetables added. This was an alchemist’s intuition about her own created potion. It was probably correct. But since the adventurers seemed to be enjoying their game of chicken, Karen decided not to spoil the fun and kept quiet with a smile.
“Little Karen, with this stuff added, even herb hardtack tastes good!”
“Right?”
Those were Sepl’s words—one of the first to get his soup curry from Karen and have her pick the vegetables. And when the others pointed out that the potion might break after everything was added, he’d panicked, but by now he seemed to have stopped caring.
Eventually, it became Waltride’s turn.
“Karen! This smells absolutely delicious! The aroma reached my tent too.”
“In that case, are the knights also interested in this smell?”
“Ah, several of them were wandering around looking for which knight order was cooking, so I told them it was a cooking potion my alchemist was making for the adventurers. That’s fine, isn’t it?”
Waltride stared intently at Karen.
“You want to spread word of this, don’t you?”
“…Yes. Thank you for your cooperation, Lady Waltride.”
Karen smiled brightly.
Riding on the adventurers’ desire to show up the knights, Karen was also executing her own strategy for her own reasons.
“Since I was able to make a panacea, I should be able to become a B-rank alchemist when we leave the dungeon.”
“Naturally, that should be the case.”
A potion only Karen could make. No one else would be able to reproduce it.
Previously, she had aimed for promotion with a thesis on fever-reducing potions made from non-magical materials, but it was rejected at that time. But that was because Karen lacked credibility, and since it couldn’t be reproduced, they couldn’t completely rule out the possibility of other materials being mixed in. Yuluyana had said that if the reason no one else could reproduce it included ‘the goddess’s restrictions,’ then the story would change. If she still couldn’t get promoted to B-rank after this, she would finally have to transfer guilds.
“It’s helpful—there are certain people I want to brace themselves once they hear the news through rumors.”
“Mm. Your enemies will tremble in fear. Now then, please share some soup curry with me too.”
“Soup curry, yes. Right, right.”
“Mmm!”
Karen took the silver plate and piled it high. She also added deep-fried vegetables on top. The potion would definitely not break. Rather, the potion would probably get closer to completion.
Waltride didn’t seem worried about the panacea breaking and watched with a cheerful smile as colorful vegetables were piled on her soup curry.
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