◇

"You've finally come. Good grief, it's very late dearu."

"Excuse me, there was a bit of trouble."

True Ancestor Ban rebuked me when I arrived at the workshop in the innermost part of the castle.

Coming late for something I've requested myself, there's no excuse for it.

It'd be problematic if the furnace got overheated, so he probably couldn't wait for more than two hours after the promised time.

The reason why he's begun re-heating the fire after it had cooled off must be because he couldn't bear the pressures from the vampire princesses who wanted a mithril katana.

It's like when I was before the barbecue set that had been cooled, enduring the line of sight from the beastkin girls who were waiting for the meat skewers that hadn't been grilled. You surely can't resist it.

"Take a good look dearu."

"Is it alright?"

Ban presents me the blade that's on the tongs.

The hue color looks like a j.a.panese sword that's just been taken from the bare heat, normal people will be scalded if they touch it.

I clad my body surface with magic power to deploy [Magic Armor]-like protection like when I did at the Evil Dragon's place. Managing it is quite difficult.

When I asked Liza the knack for [Magic Armor], she said, "Master has to softly squeeze it like, 'fuwatt', tightly. It'll be like, 'posatt', if master squeezes it too much, so please be careful not to make it become like 'gyuut'." such very hard to understand explanation came out.

I've become able to use it somehow from that explanation, but I'm only weaving magic power and the strength is weak, so it's not fit to be called [Magic Armor].

Getting back to the topic. I grab the j.a.panese Katana while I'm clad in magic power. Of course the grease on my hand doesn't transfer to it since my hand is covered in magic membrane.

I put the blade toward the lighting.

There, I noticed something that's not like a j.a.panese katana.

"Ban-dono, this blade has no ripple pattern you know?"

"Umu, the purity of the mithril that Kuro-dono had brought was very high, so there was no need for me to fold much dearu."

What's that got to do with the ripple?

The True Ancestor who saw me looking puzzled opened his mouth to explain about it.

"Essentially, forging by folding is--"

"Hear me! Young n.o.ble of darkness who is also my brethren, True Ancestor Ban!"

Yuika No.3 who came trotting from behind interrupted Ban's words with marvelous-looking face.

"To interrupt my words, even if you are the last princess of goblins--"

The True Ancestor criticizes Yuika No.3 impoliteness with a uselessly long speech.

However, Yuika No.3 swings a stick that looks like a short wand, and interrupts True Ancestor speech once again.

"I am going to talk about how I found one of the 『Three Lost Treasures』, are you still going to a.s.sume that att.i.tude?"

The True Ancestor's expression freezes in shock.

Yuika No.3 grins when she sees that.

However, since the thing on her hand is not a short wand, but a stick with starch syrup, she unfortunately ends up looking like a conspicuous idiot.

She was going to the kitchen with Armor earlier, that was probably when she s.n.a.t.c.hed the starch syrup. Armor who was with Yuika No.3 isn't behind her.

"It cannot be!"

"Yes, it's precisely that!"

I take the spectator position without joining the conversation since I can somehow see the punchline.

"The aroma coming from that mouth, it's 『Pizza』 right?"

....So it's really about that.

I don't think it's something that needs to be discussed with such a serious face.

"Un, Kuro baked it for me."

"Kuro-dono what does this mean dearuka?"

It seems Yuika No.3 had gotten tired of it halfway through, she lightly left everything to me while licking the starch syrup.

True Ancestor draws closer to me with bloodshot eyes.

"D-did you find tomatoes dearuka?"

"Yeah, a remote village on the eastern side of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom was cultivating it."

I push back the uselessly handsome face of True Ancestor that had come near me. Please pardon me from BL.

Don't demonstrate vampires' superhuman strength for things like this. You could have seriously injured someone if his level was low.

"I can't believe it! I had searched the land around there for years...."

It seems that people who had run away from the war between the eastern small countries and the weasel country came drifting to that particular area, so it probably didn't exist at his time.

I stop talking since I'm not into comforting men, and then the topic of conversation changes to Armor who's entered from the opened door.

The head maid, Mrs. Fedraluka and a plain woman who seems to be from the same generation as her follows behind Armor. The woman appears to be this castle's chef.

She probably came after hearing Armor's and Yuika No.3's talk about pizza.

"Ban-sama, please forgive me for entering your workplace."

"Fedraluka huh. I do not mind."

The chef who had followed behind Mrs. Fedraluka also talked, but it was just as I had expected.

Since I already have the written recipes for pizza and simple cheese in my storage from Puta town, I give it to her. Together with tomato seeds and a paper written with the way to raise them.

I actually wanted to give them the seedlings since raising it from seeds is going to be hard, but I didn't have any left since I had already used them all for experiments.

"--then, we will arrange it as such."

"Umu, I wait for the good news dearu."

After receiving various things, Mrs. Fedraluka and the woman left.

It seems the vampire princess who's good with earth magic will also cooperate to prepare all kinds of soil to grow the tomatoes.

Incidentally, I also told him that I would get fresh tomatoes in a few days since we're growing tomatoes at the experimental farm outside the labyrinth city.

"Then, in order to protect the experimental farm from pests such as thieves, I should dispatch my followers, the crimson bats, and burning-blood wolves to protect it..."

"Please be moderate about it okay."

Good grief, he seems to lose his restrain if it's about tomatoes.

I didn't expect him to be this kind of a glutton character.

◇

He has to endure with Sus.h.i.+ since I didn't have any ingredient left for pizza.

The fish were Piracucu-like fish that were swimming in the castle's ca.n.a.l. It had few bones, and tasted like sea bream. I've made the sus.h.i.+ with various kind of fish, since making only one is lonesome.

"Ho, you use some good wasabi."

"Umu, it's superb. Eating good sus.h.i.+ like this make me crave for some big tuna."

"Kuro, omit the wasabi for my shares."

It was popular among the reincarnated people, but--

"Even if this is Ban-sama's preference, I will excuse myself from partaking..."

"This is a bit."

"...."

--The vampire princesses on-site are keeping their distance.

"Eating food raw, that's like a beast it's disgusting."

"Semerii?"

"Are you implying that Ban-sama is like a beast?"

"....tearing limb from limb, final decision."

The other vampire princesses seemed to be infuriated from the criticism that escaped Semeri's mouth, they caught her body with blood-made whips and took her away from the dining room.

They probably used Semeri as a pretext to leave this room that's filled with vinegared rice's smell.

Even White Princess was covering her face with a handkerchief all the time.

"Is there no sus.h.i.+ roll?"

"I can make some cuc.u.mber roll if you want."

"I'd like to eat tuna sus.h.i.+ roll."

"I want to eat normal sus.h.i.+ roll."

What Yuika means by normal sus.h.i.+ roll seems to be dried gourd sus.h.i.+ roll.

Still, Armor has only been requesting tuna for a while.

"I can't do that since I don't have the freeze-dried tofus and the dried gourds."

"Ban's castle has those freeze-dried tofus."

Hou? I had seen firm tofus in the royal capital, so there were freeze-dried tofus too huh.

I could probably get it if I look in the royal capital.

The True Ancestor's chef whom I helped would teach me the freeze-dried tofu recipe, so there's no problem even if I don't acquire it there.

Right then, True Ancestor made an explosive statement.

"Moreover, I have found the gourds during my search for tomatoes dearu."

--what'd he said?!

I inch closer to True Ancestor and ask him the location for that.

Gentlemanly of course.

"Spit it out! Where did you find it!"

"Would you cease it Kuro! I am not into men."

It seems finding it was difficult, True Ancestor isn't quite willing to talk about it.

Pus.h.i.+ng back with his hand the face of someone who's asking gentlemanly is rude though.

"Wait, I don't have the map for it, but finding them is easy."

"So, where did you find it?"

I should be able to find the place with the map search function if I can narrow it down to a certain extent.

I can finally eat the sus.h.i.+ roll that I usually ate during lunch break again!

"You know the great river in the eastern part of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom right?"

--Of course.

There's probably no one in s.h.i.+ga Kingdom who doesn't know the great river flowing beside the Duchy Capital.

"Go to the end of the upstream source of that river."

Further away from Gururian City huh.

"Across the mountain to the north-northeast of that--"

Hmm? North-Northeast?

"There's a vast forest where the giants live. The gourds are growing wildly near the village where those giants live."

Isn't that.

--Muno territory!

To think that it was in the vast forest to the northwest of Muno City!

"The giants are hard to please. They trampled many of my follower wolves and ghouls that I brought in my search."

"It's alright, I have a way to deal with them."

If I'm not mistaken Karinsama should be acquainted with the elder of the Giants' village, I'll ask her to support me if I fail at negotiating alone.

I promised Yuika the best sus.h.i.+ roll there is.

◇

"Umm, I am very sorry for losing my composure at that time."

A beautiful girl doing dogeza is very violent. The one being apologized ends up looking like the bad one instead.

I lightly clap Yuika No.1's shoulder and raise her head.

"It's alright already, No.3 has already apologized enogh."

"...No.3 is it?"

Oops, that was bad of me.

"The White Oni Sovereign--Folnis La Belle Fille or the girl who calls herself Dark La Princesse."

"Aah! You mean founder-sama!"

That's the first generation huh.

"Founder-sama stopped it didn't she. I was afraid and couldn't stop attacking even though I had noticed that you never attacked back."

It seems the girls can meet together in their dream, so they can exchange information with each other to an extent.

By the way, according to Yuika No.3, the goblin demon lord that Aze talked about seems to be a different person from her. She looked a bit sad, so it might be her acquaintance or a relative.

Looks like Yuika is going to rent a room in True Ancestor's castle until her dwelling is restored. The reason why it's not Corpse's or Armor's castle seems to be because she's afraid of ghosts.

I think Vampires are categorized as ghost themselves, but this place has a lot of normal people working in it so it must be comfortable for her.

She's not treated as freeloader since it seems she's going to make a s.p.a.ce that's most suitable to grow tomatoes with her unique skill in return for the expense.

I wonder if she'll share one cultivation s.p.a.ce for me too.

She'll probably do it if I ask her, but asking now will make it look like I'm bullying her, let's ask for it later.

Semeri who hadn't showed her face after being dragged away for saying "Disgusting" seems to have gone to the kitchen and s.n.a.t.c.hed various food into the large bag she's holding.

It seems she's going back to her territory by hitching a ride on Armor's car.

I haven't visited Semeri's territory, so I make a promise to go there after returning from the Royal Capital.

"Come anytime. I'll welcome you myself, so come bringing a lot of good food."

"Yeah, leave it to me."

Asking for good food to [Come] instead of [Wait] is so Semeri-like.

Now then, if I don't get back to the mansion above ground soon, I will miss the departure to the royal capital.

I left the labyrinth's lower layer while being sent off by Yuika, True Ancestor and the others.