MYHLF Vol. 1 Mission 3 Part 2

Philz returned to the estate and immediately finished writing up the report. Then, right around the time he began preparing lunch, his older brother Serge came to the room with Canal accompanying him.

“Sorry to come by so suddenly.”

“No…”

The last time Serge visited this detached residence was when he was a young child. Back then, he would sneakily come to the estate without letting his mother, the first wife, find out and play with Philz. Serge had just gained a little sister around that time, so perhaps he had been searching for a place where he belonged.

Serge had liked Clarus, as unlike his own mother, Clarus smiled brightly at him. She had shown him dances and other things, and he had smiled with her just as he had with Philz.

But once the first wife began harassing them, Clarus’s smile gradually vanished. Even as a child, Serge must have tried to be considerate. After that, he had started keeping his distance so that, under no circumstances, would his mother see him together with Philz or Clarus.

“Oh my. Could that be little Serge?”

Clarus was doing divine protection embroidery while humming cheerfully, in an excellent mood thanks to the aroma of baking bread.

“Ah, Lady Clarus…?”

“Hehehe. Yes, it’s me. I’ve turned into an old woman now, haven’t I? How embarrassing.”

“…”

It was the same bright smile from back then. Serge seemed bewildered by it.

“Oh, sit down, sit down. I’ll make tea. Canal, you sit too, all right? No manners or noble status matters in here.”

“Y-Yes…”

“B-But…”

Serge’s eyes widened at Clarus’s manner. What she guided them to was the four-person dining table Philz had made. It was the sort of thing almost never found in a noble estate.

Even so, the fine wooden chairs with backrests seemed exceptionally rare in this world. Ordinary chairs were either like stools or shaped like benches. Apparently, people believed that only sturdy furniture like sofas had backrests.

It seated four because the Gods came by in shifts. In fact, Philz had another set of four-person tables and chairs of the same height and design stored inside his Magic Bag.

“It’s fine. Sit there. Fil, can I use these tea leaves?”

“Yeah. Use this tea set.”

After making the Magic Bag, Philz had applied the same concept to create a Magic Box with a lock. What he took out of it was a tea set decorated with a beautiful rose design.

“How cute. Where did this come from?”

“I forgot the Guildmaster gave it to me before. He said it was for Mom.”

“For me? The Guildmaster…?”

“His name is Luiri.”

“Ah, Big Brother Luiri… Huh? He’s a Guildmaster?”

“Yeah. So you do know him. He said, ‘I meant to give it to someone who was like a little sister to me and resembled you.’”

Back when Luiri was still an adventurer, it seemed he had once traveled together with Clarus.

“Ah, I’m so happy. Big Brother Luiri remembered me. I’ll brew this deliciously!”

“Yeah…”

Seeing how delighted she was, Philz decided he should mention it in a note along with the report he was sending to the Guild. By now, Luiri must have been certain that Philz was the child of Clarus and the Duke.

Clarus poured mana into the pot Philz had made, brought the water to the temperature suited for black tea, and skillfully brewed it.

While watching her from the corner of his eye, Philz arranged the warm bread on a wooden tray, serving as tea snacks. He kept the soup warm. For the moment, he would talk with Serge first.

“The tea is ready. Please have a cup first. Oh, come on, Canal. You sit down too.”

“Please sit, Canal.”

“Y-Yes… Excuse me…”

After not only Clarus but Serge as well told him to sit beside them, Canal timidly took a seat.

Philz placed the tray of bread in the center of the table and handed out small plates.

“Have you had lunch yet?”

When he asked Serge, his brother gave a wry smile.

“No. I couldn’t quite bring myself to eat…”

“…?”

Seeing Philz’s expression seeming to ask why, Serge continued.

“Father returned, but he immediately left again. Because of that, Mother started blaming Canal and the others, making a scene about how she hadn’t even been able to greet him… For the time being, I calmed Mother down and had her shut herself in her room. She only just settled down…”

Serge looked utterly fed up. Then Canal had told him Philz was back, and he had somehow found himself coming over here. One could also call it taking refuge.

“I see…”

“…Yes… This black tea smells wonderful…”

“Doesn’t it? It’s Fil’s special tea. When you drink it while waiting for a meal, it settles your stomach and makes you feel relaxed.”

“Is… that so? Then, I shall have some.”

“Go ahead. Come on, Canal, you drink too.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

They breathed in the fragrance of the black tea and slowly brought it to their lips.

“…Delicious…”

“It’s delicious…”

“Hehe. I’m glad.”

Philz could tell the tension left both of their shoulders. Once it did, he noticed just how exhausted Serge looked. The first wife became hysterical and shrieked or complained at every opportunity. Even if she was his birth mother, Serge was forced to hear and deal with that constantly. Of course he would be exhausted and Philz found him almost pitiful.

“Brother, please eat here if you’d like. I’ll serve soup, too. Although I’m sorry to say there’s no main dish.”

“No, but… is that all right? Just a little… Um… That bread over there? It does look delicious…”

He likely wondered whether it truly was bread because of its unusual shape. Thinking that, Philz went back to get the soup.

“Ugh, Fil… I don’t need soup…”

“Denied.”

At this point, Philz was starting to think Clarus simply hated vegetables.

“Ugh, Fil is being mean…”

“I’m not letting you keep refusing food just because you assume you won’t like it.”

That said, Philz had thought about making something Clarus could eat easily too. Today’s soup was sweet corn soup. He did not serve it in a dish either.

“…A cup?”

Serge mumbled without thinking. It was cup soup served in a cup that could also retain heat. Since common sense dictated that soup was served in a soup bowl, he was understandably surprised. Clarus’s eyes widened too.

“Sorry, Brother. This way, it won’t cool down.”

“No. It won’t cool down…? That’s excellent.”

Then there was the bread before them. It was spiral-shaped, with something inside it.

“…Fil… There’s something inside.”

“I thought of it because someone is picky. This one has bacon. This one has apla.”

The bacon, too, was homemade and had finally been completed. Apla was a fruit much like an apple. However, it was apparently quite sour. Because of that, it did not seem to be sold very often. This batch came from trees growing wild in the forest, where Biz, who liked them, had picked them.

“This one is an egg. And this is the usual kind. Mom, you have to eat at least one of each.”

“Eeh, but… they do look delicious… I’ll try them.”

“Yeah.”

They were small, so even eating all four kinds would not amount to much. Philz had made stuffed bread because he wanted her to be able to eat main dishes. It really made him feel as though he were taking care of a child.

“Brother, Canal, please have some too. They’re still warm, so they’re good.”

“Warm bread… Then I shall.”

“I will take some for you.”

And so, a meal with an unusual group of people began.

It was said that this world only had one kind of bread. People simply chose the size according to the number of family members. Bakeries only sold round, kiln-baked loaves that looked the same apart from their size.

Because of that, bread was not something one selected. It was simply lined up and sold at the storefront. They apparently did not use yeast either, so it was fairly hard, and storage methods were also a problem. It was not as though they had paper bags or plastic bags, so after half a day, the bread became even harder and drier.

It was normal to eat it soaked in soup or water, and perhaps because of that, many eateries served fairly good soup. Shops with delicious stewed dishes were quite popular.

People with any real attachment to food were rare. Most simply thought that anything was fine as long as they could eat it. If there was grilled meat, that was enough to call it a fine meal.

The circumstances surrounding noble meals were more particular than those of commoners, but they were not as luxurious as those on Earth.

The bread was homemade and baked fresh for every meal, so it was not dry or crumbly. That part was good.

Then there was soup. Many soups used chopped vegetables cut small and fine so they could be easily scooped with a spoon. Apparently, a cook’s skill was shown in how they brought together the flavors of various vegetables.

After that came the main meat dish. A steak made with carefully selected tender cuts. The sauce was original to each household.

Fruit was served as a sweet dessert. That was separate from tea sweets.

In this way, partly because the world was poor overall, its people had little interest in food. Under those circumstances, it was no wonder they turned into bread fanatics.

Philz had let them eat soft bread without thinking deeply about the food situation in this world. He now thought that had been a poor move.

Even so, he had shown it to the adventurers and knights during the encampment because he wanted as many people as possible to develop some interest in food. Otherwise, he thought, nothing would change, and there would be no development.

Though wary, Clarus first took a bite of the bread filled with egg.

“Mm… Is this egg? It’s kind of fluffy.”

“Think you can eat it?”

“Yeah. It’s good. Is there a little herb in it?”

“Spice.”

“Ohhh.”

She had eaten it properly. Judging by the speed at which she ate, she seemed to like it. Next came the bacon.

“…Meat? It’s thin… Ah, it’s crispy.”

“The saltiness makes it easy to eat, right?”

“It has a strong flavor… It’s delicious.”

“Chew it properly.”

Since she ate nothing but soft bread, Philz wanted her to chew properly as well. Was that proof that his thinking was turning into that of a mother hen?

“Okaaay. Mmm, I might want to eat just this meat by itself…”

“…Another time.”

“Yay!”

There was a ray of hope for both her bread obsession and her pickiness. The stuffed bread strategy appeared to be a success.

Then came the one with apla inside. In Earth terms, it was an apple bread that still retained a faintly crisp texture. When heated, apla seemed to develop a surprising sweetness.

“Ah, mmm. Sweet and tart! This one. Is this a sweet?”

“It did turn into something like a snack. It became sweeter than I expected. Apla is cheap even when it’s sold, and there are some growing in the wild, so I’ll gather more next time.”

“Yeah! Wow, it’s sweet and would go so well with black tea.”

“True.”

Relieved that she had liked all of them, Philz quietly let out a breath.

Then he looked toward Serge and Canal. Their eyes were wide as they put the bread into their mouths little by little, moving their jaws slowly and thoroughly. They almost looked wary.

“Brother? Canal? Is it not to your taste? I didn’t put anything strange in them…”

At that, Serge shook his head.

“No. It’s the opposite. It’s delicious… It feels wasteful to let it disappear…”

“Eh…?”

It had not been wariness. They had simply been savoring it with extreme care.

“The texture is completely different too. This is bread… bread? With this alone, I don’t need anything else.”

“I feel the same… As long as I have this bread, I need nothing else.”

“…That’s no good…”

More bread fanatics had been created. But he could not give up.

“That’s right. Soup. Brother, please drink the soup. Canal, you too. Mom, drink yours as well.”

Keeping an eye on Clarus, who was smiling as she ate bread at an astonishing speed, he urged them all to have their soup.

“Mmm… But bread alone is enough…”

“It’s a sweet soup.”

“Eeh, sweet…? But it’s vegetables, isn’t it?”

“…Drink it.”

“Uuugh… Mm… Hm? What is this? It’s good. I can drink this.”

It was not even a sip. Clarus had only touched her lips to it slightly, but once she tasted it, she properly took a mouthful this time.

“It’s sweet. It’s delicious! Vegetables? Is this really a vegetable?”

“It’s kurf soup. I added a little milk too. It’s not really a vegetable, it’s more in the category of grains.”

Kurf was this world’s version of corn. Philz had not managed to make a blender yet, so it had taken some effort to mash it and strain it. But if it meant getting Clarus to eat vegetables, there was no helping it.

Unless it was a particular sort of shop, vegetable soup prepared at home tended to have a grassy smell and was stewed in a way that tried to disguise it with saltiness. Since using spices was generally difficult too, that much was unavoidable.

The meals Clarus had eaten since coming to this estate should have tasted decent enough, but because they contained drugs, she had formed the false impression that soup was awful. As a result, she had stopped accepting soup, which was the one way she could take in vegetables.

“If it’s this vegetable, I can eat it!”

“Don’t make that the only one. You’re going to eat the others too, got it?”

“How could you… But… if you’re the one making it, Fil, it might be all right…”

“Yeah.”

It seemed he might finally be able to get her to eat vegetables. He wanted to keep at it until he could manage to get her as far as salad.

Meanwhile, Serge and Canal seemed to like it as well. Perhaps because it was warm, some color returned to their cheeks. Their eyes, which had shown traces of exhaustion before, were now sparkling.

“Was it to your taste?”

“Ah, yes… It’s delicious.”

“So this is kurf… It can become soup…”

“If you’d like, please take the recipe for this soup with you.”

“Is that all right?”

“Yes. As for the bread, it uses a somewhat special method, so until it can be mass-produced, I can pass some to you through Canal every so often.”

“Ah, may I really?”

“Yes.”

If their meals became more enjoyable, it would surely give them energy too. At present, it was essentially as though they had pushed the first wife onto Serge. Recognizing that anew, Philz sincerely wished to reward his hardworking older brother.

—

Once the meal was over and everyone had settled down, Philz placed the item before Canal and Serge. It was the pocket watch Philz had been making.

If he was going to leave this house, he was concerned about the two he would leave behind. That was why he had intended to give them theirs first. When the two of them had come together, he had thought that if he was going to give them the watches, now was the time.

“What is this? The workmanship is incredible… So detailed… Is this a Kyuraus flower?”

Kyuraus, the Guardian Flower of Kyuras, the Goddess of Wisdom and Fourth God, was a flower similar to salvia. Surrounding it was a creeping plant with small round leaves, meaning 【rest and tranquility】.

“I thought the God whose Blessing you received was Goddess Kyuras, Brother.”

“Yes… The one whose Blessing I received was indeed Lady Kyuras.”

It was a secret that he had gotten that information from Kyuras herself. Philz continued before Serge could press him on it.

“For Canal, I carved the Ryulila flower, the Guardian Flower of Goddess Ryula.”

The Ryulila flower was a small white blossom like a strawberry flower. Surrounding it was a medicinal herb with leaves like a sensitive plant, meaning 【that which protects the heart】.

“Please pour a little mana into the magic stone on the protruding part at the top.”

“Mana…? Is this a magic device?”

Anything that used mana was a magic device. But neither Serge nor Canal had ever seen anything like it.

“Yes. But it doesn’t use much mana. Normally, simply wearing it allows it to take in the mana that naturally leaks from your body.”

“Is such a thing possible?”

“Yes.”

“I see. I didn’t know that…”

If he answered firmly that it was possible, it likely would not seem suspicious. It was technology that had existed long ago. Modern magic devices still retained that nature to a slight degree, so it was not a complete lie.

When mana was poured into it, the carving of the leaves surrounding the Guardian Flower engraved on the front lid glowed a faint green.

“Ah, it changed color…”

“…”

“Wow. How beautiful.”

Serge and Canal held their breath, while Clarus, who had been watching, was deeply moved.

“With that, you have been registered as the owner. Please press the part at the top down a little.”

“Ah, yes… Ah.”

“This is… a clock?”

Seeing the small clock inside after the lid popped open, the two of them widened their eyes.

“The time should be properly set. I made the mechanism so it won’t drift.”

“It won’t drift…?”

“That part is a trade secret… No, for now, please think of it as strictly confidential technology.”

“I see…”

He said that, but it was the same as a radio-controlled clock. The church had a clock passed down from ancient times in the prayer hall. That clock absorbed the mana unintentionally released by priests when they prayed, allowing it to continue running semi-permanently.

Long ago, because that clock was the best way to maintain accuracy, formulas had apparently been designed so that it would synchronize with the clocks spread throughout town. However, those technologies have been lost, making them impossible to use.

At present, the clocks out in town were adjusted at regular intervals by people sent from the church. It had become an exceptionally tedious arrangement. Only the fact that the church’s clock was accurate had been passed down, which was truly unfortunate.

“But… a clock… so small…”

“I hear they existed in ancient times. However, it incorporates all sorts of complicated elements, so I imagine reproducing one must have been difficult until now.”

Magic device crafting techniques alone were not enough. Refining the metal used as material, granting multiple formulas, and many other techniques were necessary. After discussing it with the Gods and going through trial and error, he had finally completed it.

Since every step was done by hand, it required patience. It would likely take days to finish even one. For Philz, who possessed a strong Blessing from the God of Craftsmanship, it had not been especially difficult or time-consuming, but for an ordinary person, it would be impossible.

“The commercial registration for this technology and these pocket watches should be completed through the church around today. Please accept them. Either way, they have owner registration, so no one else can even open them.”

“Eh… May I try?”

“Yes.”

Serge tried to open Canal’s pocket watch. However, it truly would not open.

“If it’s left open for more than a day without the owner touching it, it will close automatically. Later, please go to either the church or the Merchant Guild and complete the owner registration there as well. I built in a detection formula, so if it’s lost, it can be found again.”

“It even has something like that… Yes… I understand. We’ll go afterward. Canal, is that all right?”

“Y-Yes.”

There were few people capable of granting or engraving detection formulas. The technical fee for it was also expensive, but having it attached offered peace of mind. If it were stolen, and if it were registered as linked to its owner, the Merchant Guild or church could immediately tell where it was.

“The church is probably in chaos because Father is there, so the Merchant Guild would be better. While you’re at it, Canal…”

As he spoke, Philz brought a letter from the drawer of the desk he used for work and held it out to Canal.

“I’d like you to give this to Mirana, the Merchant Guildmaster. If you say it’s from Fil, the staff should connect you to her right away.”

“Understood. This is something I should deliver directly, then. I will take custody of it.”

“Please do.”

After that, as there was no time like the present, Serge and Canal rose from their seats.

At the end, when Serge was leaving the detached residence, he turned back. His gaze wandered as he spoke to Philz, who had come to see them off.

“Fil… Um… Thank you. May I come again?”

“Of course.”

“I see.”

Philz saw Serge smile for the first time in a long while, looking truly happy. He smiled back in the same way and watched the two return to the main residence.

Then Clarus, standing beside him, leaned against him.

“Little Serge… finally smiled, didn’t he?”

“Yeah…”

Back when he had come to this residence to play as a young child, he had always been smiling. When had that smile disappeared? Clarus seemed to have felt lonely about it, too.

“You know… I thought I was the only unhappy one. But… that wasn’t true, was it? Little Serge is only fourteen, right…? He’s just a child, and yet he kept doing his best without running away from that place…”

“…Yeah…”

“I’ll do my best too. I won’t lose. I absolutely won’t let myself lose.”

“…”

Philz thought this was what those mothers who had let everything twist out of shape needed. The attitude of turning forward and confronting irrationality head-on without using their children as shields. That, first of all, was what they lacked.

They voiced their dissatisfaction, but they never conveyed it directly to their husband. Thanks to that, things had grown even more warped. Their frustrations piled up, and all that stress was then directed toward their children or the other wives, producing nothing but detrimental consequences.

“You know what? The next time I see that man, I’m going to tell him.”

By “that man,” Clarus meant her husband.

“I’ll tell him, 『Don’t act so high and mighty when you can’t even look after one wife!』 and 『You can’t even control a single woman, and you still call yourself a man? Someone like you is what people call useless!』 and 『Don’t ever make that husband face at me again!』”

“…I-I see…”

Clarus had shouted at the main residence with all her might and now looked thoroughly refreshed. She apparently had not noticed the guards watching the garden doing double and triple takes.

“Yes! I can do it! If I act like a woman from the old downtown giving a thunderous scolding to a useless, cheating man, it feels wonderful.”

“…I see…”

Come to think of it, Philz remembered that she was a performer. It seemed she had fully recovered the identity of the person she used to be.

“That feels like you, Mom. I like it.”

“Really? I love you too, Fil!”

Smiling wryly as Clarus hugged him, Philz glanced at the main residence, thinking that this place had what that place lacked put him in a good mood.

“Fil, I want more bread.”

“…Mom… Even if it’s bread, you’ll gain weight if you eat too much.”

“Eh…? But bread… doesn’t make you fat…”

Had she heard that somewhere while traveling when she was young?

“Where did you get that information? Eating too much is bad. That’s why you need a balanced diet with vegetables too…”

“It’s fine! Divine protection weaving takes stamina. I’ll work hard so I can eat lots of bread!”

“No… I’m telling you to stop being bread-obsessed…”

“For bread! I’ll work hard!”

“…”

Watching Clarus energetically go back inside the residence, Philz let out a great sigh.

“Honestly, what am I supposed to do with you…?”

It did not seem Philz’s worries would run out anytime soon. But perhaps those, too, were moments of happiness.