Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Four: Pot-au-feu with Wine and Root Vegetables 3
“To get straight to the point—a Great Collapse Stampede occurred at a nearby dungeon. But it seems to have settled.”
Licht had returned after gathering information from Helfried’s group and reported to Gottfried.
“Someone must be clearing that collapsing dungeon. Right now, Earl Ehlertt has sent up signal fires to call the participants back, so whoever hasn’t returned would be the ones clearing it.”
“Hmm. The hunting festival was originally a celebration for expanding one’s territory by conquering nearby dungeons. It makes sense if someone aiming for victory decided to attempt a dungeon clear.”
“Let’s hope whoever is doing it has the ability to see it through. If the effects of a Great Collapse are reaching this far out, it wouldn’t be surprising if monsters from the deep floors have crossed over.”
“…Could the Great Collapse have been caused deliberately?”
“Deliberately?”
Licht’s expression turned puzzled at what sounded like Gottfried talking to himself. Gottfried then activated a magical tool to prevent eavesdropping and spoke:
“I just have a… feeling.”
“Your feeling, is it…”
As Karen approached with a bowl of pot-au-feu, Licht, who had been wearing a grim expression, pressed his lips together. It seemed there were things she wasn’t meant to hear.
“Root vegetable pot-au-feu. Please, help yourself.”
“I had some earlier—it was excellent. It even turned into a potion. Something about strengthening one’s body. Good to know my wine was put to use.”
“Your wine?! Karen, you used Gotthard in a dish?!”
“It came together as an exceptionally expensive pot-au-feu, one bowl at a time. Please, do try it.”
Licht took the bowl with a look of astonishment, brought a spoonful to his lips with an expression of exasperation—and his eyes went wide.
“…It’s delicious.”
“I think it’s largely because it was such fine wine that it turned into a fine dish.”
“I could understand a fine potion, but a fine dish…”
Licht gave a wry smile and ate his way through the steaming, fluffy potato chunks, chewed through the thick slabs of bacon, savored the tender carrots against the satisfying bite of the lotus root, and slurped up the meltingly soft onion along with the broth. His nose had gone red at the tip. He let out a contented breath and said:
“If you and Julius end up together, this is what he’ll be eating for the rest of his life.”
“That’s how it will be, yes.”
“…How can I not root for him, being fed something like this?”
He sighed, then drew a magical tool for blocking eavesdropping from inside his coat. It seemed he had been trying to have a conversation earlier that could only be had with Gottfried, so Karen began to step away—but Licht stopped her.
“I’d like you to hear this too, Karen—if you don’t mind, Captain.”
“I have no objection, Sir Licht. Miss Karen is as good as family to me.”
“Earning his approval—what on earth did you do?”
Karen felt they had bonded over Gottfried’s love talk, but the Knight Captain likely didn’t see it that way. So she kept her mouth modestly shut.
“Well, whatever. The Knight Captain, you see, has exceptional intuition… It was the Captain who found Julius back then.”
“…Found him?”
Sensing something ominous in Licht’s hushed voice, Karen furrowed her brow. Gottfried picked up where Licht had left off:
“That man pursued every woman of high magical power he could get his hands on, and when he discovered that one of them had borne him a child—a boy named Julius—he abducted the child and threw him into an uncleared dungeon. What I found was Master Julius, having escaped the dungeon on his own. …If this instinct of mine were some kind of true ability, I would have wanted to feel it sooner. A useless power, in the end.”
“That isn’t so, Captain. Because you came to the entrance, Julius would have known, at the very least, that someone had come for him.”
“I took him into my protection, only for Winfried to snatch him away immediately… After that, there was nothing more I could do.”
“What was Winfried after?”
Karen spoke his name plainly, without any respect, but neither Licht nor Gottfried took issue with it.
“That man wanted strong children. He kept Lord Helfried in place as his heir, while conducting his experiments—the weak ones would simply die inside the dungeon, the strong ones would survive. When he saw Master Julius come out alive, the man was overjoyed.”
“In other words, the Knight Captain’s intuition—his premonitions—are accurate.”
Licht said it loudly, as if to keep Karen from sinking too far into her thoughts, and looked over at her.
“Don’t get too caught up in Julius’s past, Karen. He’s already looking forward—toward the future. Toward a future with you. That goes for you too, doesn’t it?”
“…Yes.”
Karen nodded. Licht had hesitated over whether to tell her this—and in the end, he had chosen to. He must have trusted that she wouldn’t let herself stay trapped in the past.
But being told not to dwell on it was one thing. She couldn’t help but think. Karen turned her gaze in the direction she guessed Julius might be, and couldn’t help but let her thoughts drift to him.
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