Before coming here, Kroya had actually held some hopes for the local seaside cuisine. With seafood, as long as the ingredients were fresh, making it taste bad should have been difficult.
Reality, however, had dealt him a heavy blow-
To avoid being dismissed and sent back, the cook had brought all her lifelong skills to bear, adding spices she considered extravagantly "luxurious" to the sea cucumber and abalone soup.
The result was a broth with a brownish cast.
Those strange flavors mingled into something intensely pungent. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought it was a potion brewed by an alchemist.
The abalone and sea cucumbers bobbed in the broth, appearing and disappearing like restless souls that refused to die.
Yet the abalone and sea cucumbers were enormous, with a faint trace of mana emanating from them. Even someone who knew little about seafood could tell that these ingredients were of exceptional quality.
It really felt like a criminal waste.
Kroya inspected it several times before finally taking a small taste.
The complicated flavors nearly made him spit it out on the spot. He could make out salt, black pepper, fennel...
The rest were mostly flavors he couldn't even identify.
As for the other food, those dry-looking loaves of white bread... he had the distinct feeling they had already begun to weather away.
The only remotely presentable dish on the entire table was a plate of grilled salted fish, but even its arrangement was downright alarming-the fish heads pointed skyward, their eyes staring in death.
He sighed deeply, silently coated his fingers with mana, and began opening the coconuts.
When he fell silent, the four knights and Rob naturally did the same. The Royal Capital had long since abandoned the notion that adding more spices made food taste better, yet they were apparently still doing it here. One look was enough to tell that lethal quantities had gone into that soup.
And yet, in such a remote island village, using that many spices really was a courtesy reserved for the most honored guests.
"My lord, would you like me to prepare something?" the knight Ate asked respectfully. "I once learned how to prepare seafood from a tavern's proprietress."
Of all those present, he had served Kroya the longest. He was, in fact, the first knight to become Kroya's retainer after Kroya entered the mage tower. Having become a mercenary at eight, he had traveled far and wide and learned quite a few things.
He also knew perfectly well that the original Kroya would not swallow a single bite of anything he disliked.
Mages tended to be rather willful. It was their prerogative.
"No need." Kroya shook his head. "We'll make do for now. Get some proper rest after the meal. We need to learn everything we can about the island.
"Use whatever means are necessary."
He split open a coconut. Its flesh was translucent and tender, and its water gave off a sweet fragrance. It seemed rather different from the coconuts he had seen before.
He took a sip of coconut water.
Its cool, rich sweetness immediately spread through his mouth, sweeping away his irritation and restlessness and leaving a delightful lingering taste.
Most importantly, it actually contained mana!
The mana was hidden deep within the coconut water. Even he hadn't detected it right away.
"This coconut... it looks a bit like a pure white sea coconut."
No wonder it was white. He had thought it looked familiar-the original Kroya had seen it in an illustrated guide to low-level magic plants.
The research he had done before coming here was proving useful now. He said in surprise, "Although these coconuts haven't reached the level of magic plants, they still draw in mana on their own. Eating them regularly can provide a substantial improvement to one's constitution."
Most crucially, with cultivation, they could become magic plants: pure white sea spirit coconuts. If that transformation succeeded, the nutritional value of their water could even rival the milk of certain second-tier magical beasts.
Coconut powder or coconut oil made from them would sell very well, too.
Rob keenly sensed the business opportunity.
He immediately stood up, abandoning his meal. "My lord, I'll go count how many of these coconut trees we have right away!"
The loyal steward had been worrying about the territory's resource production all along. If it produced too little, supporting the resources Kroya needed to advance would be difficult.
And Kroya's rank determined how high they could hope to rise. Only as Kroya's rank increased would their own standing rise with it.
If Kroya truly became a third-tier or even fourth-tier mage, returning to the Royal Capital would pose no difficulty at all.
"..."
"There's no need to rush." Kroya leisurely ate the coconut flesh. "If they've been here all this time without anyone discovering what they are, then nobody must know about them. Let Batos handle the count.
"Count them yourself in private, too, and see whether his report matches yours. If it does... I'll keep him on to work for me."
Kroya left the rest unsaid.
But if that fellow deliberately concealed anything or failed to count carefully, his days would be numbered. Who would believe that someone who had been lord here for so long couldn't even keep track of a few trees?
"Understood." Rob agreed.
Then he and the four knights began eating the dishes whose flavors defied description, while Kroya finished both coconuts, clapped his hands clean, and got up to inspect his quarters.
His quarters had originally belonged to the previous lord. It was the largest room in the castle, and it had already been cleaned and tidied thoroughly.
It measured about twenty square meters.
It came fully furnished with a bed, bookcase, desk, and everything else he needed.
There was even a pot of small, coral-like flowers on the windowsill. They swayed gently in the sea breeze blowing through the window, producing clear, bell-like chimes.
"Not bad."
In truth, Kroya hadn't expected much from the place, because the original Kroya had carried a Mansion Spell scroll left to him by his grandfather.
All it did was "decorate" a space of up to forty square meters, with a first-level Alarm Array thrown in.
It was something of a luxury item for lazy mages.
The original Kroya had always treasured it, but he wasn't about to put it on a pedestal. If it was useful, he would use it.
So he immediately unfurled the scroll and placed a mana crystal on it, thinking as he did so that this world's magical civilization seemed a little strange.
Even a first-level mage's carriage could be equipped with spatial folding magic, and special spells such as the Mansion Spell existed. Yet the Mage Association in his memories hadn't seemed all that wondrous.
For the moment, he couldn't quite work out how advanced this civilization truly was.
While he pondered, the scroll in his hands finished absorbing the mana crystal's energy. Exquisite patterns of mana unfurled from it, extending like tentacles.
Within that radiance, the room's furnishings underwent a dramatic transformation-
An ornate pattern of stars replaced the stone ceiling, a soft carpet covered the floor, and the bed, desk, and bookcase all became exceptionally refined.
Most importantly... a peculiar blue lamp hung in the center of the ceiling, burning pale blue lamp oil.
As it burned, the oil released the delicate fragrance of essential oil from azure lavender, a third-tier magic plant that helped mages enter meditation more easily.
The sight left Kroya stunned.
Huh?
Am I seeing things? Isn't this a first-level Mansion Spell scroll? Since when did it come with special extras like this?
Before you continue