Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Recollection of the Past

It was a period when the feudal era was ending and modernization was starting, but manors still existed here and there in Britain.

Where is the location? How much is the profit? The size? What kind of manor is it raising?

The salary of ordinary laborers passing Baker Street is between 4 and 6 pounds. In annual salary roughly 40 to 60 pounds? Why does this calculation come out because the majority were non-regular workers so income was often irregular.

They say the small manor Mr. Henry has in the Midlands also has a monthly profit of 20 pounds, if it's a royal manor no matter how small the size 30 to 40 pounds would come out?

Just owning one manor means the annual profit of ordinary London laborers is plugged into the wallet every month. So the wealth gap between nobles and commoners opens tremendously.

But in fact such things weren't particularly important.

It's a manor, a manor. A rural village that set up a base in a place with good air. So if His Majesty lends me that manor... I was thinking of bringing Mom there.

This mission was considerably important to me because of that.

"Then..."

I slowly looked around the villains in front of me.

When I first entered here, the reactions weren't good so I thought they were being territorial and treated them a bit harshly, but it wasn't to that extent. Looking now they seem quite nice friends.

Resources that can be used even if I get a stomachache let's recycle. It's my motto from the orphanage days.

I clapped my hands.

"Good. Taste my tteokgalbi as much as you want. Instead, you'll have to help me a bit more meticulously. Do you have time?"

Since Lady Edith isn't here, even using these people instead... I intended to try an experiment that would surprise His Majesty. This time in a really creative way.

"Let's see, the ingredients... Soy sauce and sesame oil, beef, what else was needed?"

Just in time a Korean food with considerably overlapping ingredients with tteokgalbi came to mind.

Can it succeed? Of course. I've never seen a foreigner who didn't get surprised after eating this. Even the Finnish royal family who visited Korea as state guests were impressed by this Korean food.

The problem is that among them there's one ingredient that can't be obtained in 1901 London Britain. Using the point shop would be simple, but in this place it's an impossible thing.

So that substitute...

"I'll help first, Chef!"

"No, I'll help!"

"I raised my hand first, you bastard!"

"What? Bastard? I'm your senior, you bastard!"

I have to make those guys find it. Quite a decent thought, right?

And impress His Majesty and receive the manor! Heh, this is it!

###

The great king of the British Empire that commands the whole world, Edward VII.

It was really a long time since he enjoyed such a leisurely weekend afternoon like this.

He inherited the throne this spring, but his daily life didn't change much from his time as crown prince.

In fact the existence of the king in the British Empire had long fallen to a symbolic status after the Magna Carta.

Most policies were swayed by nobles and gentry who seized the parliament, and he was merely a rubber stamp role that could only 'agree' to bills passed in the parliament.

Other than that showing his face at various national events, receiving foreign delegations, and exercising influence on cousins or nephews of European royal families intertwined by blood?

There was no particular dissatisfaction with the current situation. Rather compared to cousins who are suffering checking nobles, suppressing the growing bourgeois class, and even worrying about domestic and foreign colonial issues how comfortable it is.

Moreover recently there were 'republicans' who were being more extreme. Thinking of dealing with those who have the insolent idea of overturning the royal authority given by God, just thinking about it makes me shudder.

France. Those guys are always the problem the problem. The wicked republican bastards who kicked out the Bourbon royal family and are strutting.

Because these guys are running wild all over Europe, even the social trips I enjoyed became difficult, right?

So recent weekends were only about enjoying hunting parties or horseback riding, watching opera, and polo games.

Thud.

Edward VII closed the new Holmes novel he had already thoroughly read over 10 times, and shook the handbell to call the attendant outside the door.

Jingle jingle.

"Gradually I'm getting hungry, what is that friend doing in the kitchen right now?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. I'll check right away."

"Tell him to hurry a bit. I'm so hungry I might even tear and eat a horse."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Originally today he was thinking of playing poker with old friends of high society. But he changed his mind and decided to call 'that guy.'

The supporting character 'Jean-Pierre Dumont' who newly appeared in the Holmes series. And the rising chef of London 'Jean-Paul Durand' who became the motif of that.

A setting where the great detective who is indifferent to surrounding matters except solving cases is deeply immersed in the taste of food, how outstanding a chef does he have to be for such a description to be possible?

Curious Edward VII sent a telegram to the writer Doyle. The returned answer was considerably absurd.

[ Your Majesty the King, if you eat the cooking he makes you will never be able to return to ordinary. He has tremendous skill so lure him with a large reward. However he has a rebellious temperament so if you try to forcibly hold him he will bounce off. ]

What is this saying? But Doyle's eye for people was very accurate. It's not for nothing that he became the master of mystery novels.

Edward VII whose curiosity soared to the fullest immediately sent people and had them secretly scout around the restaurant.

The returned report was even more absurd.

In the morning, he takes a brief walk, chats with newspaper sellers or surrounding passersby he's acquainted with and returns to the restaurant around lunch.

In the afternoon he goes out for a walk again, rides a bicycle and heads to his 'peanut butter' factory, and stirs up various places in London.

Wondering what on earth he's doing, he was doing charity activities going around London's orphanages and distributing bread or other food bought from somewhere. And that not for a day or two.

Catching pickpockets in the alleys and asking there was no one who hadn't received bread once from that guy?

Around evening he returns to the restaurant again and doesn't go out.

He was a weird guy to the point Kant if alive would want to make him a friend. It seems like a philanthropist, but it's also ambiguous, there was also a bizarre character evaluation that money once entered the pocket rarely comes out.

With this level of scouting it's difficult to grasp him more.

So he called. Frederick Arthur Stanley, former Governor General of Canada and 15th Earl of Derby.

Because there was a rumor circulating that he was raising his eyes and threatening so that other nobles in high society couldn't approach him. Finding out, excluding only the king himself the nobles all knew the existence of that restaurant? Insolent bastards.

The Earl of Derby who hurriedly ran bowed his waist and firmly said.

'Your Majesty! That guy's cooking is mine! No matter how Your Majesty I can't yield even one bite!'

'...What?'

In fact, because he and the Earl of Derby were friends who shared friendship for over decades, even such jokes were no problem.

'If you're going to call that guy please make a promise! That guy's status being a commoner is quite displeasing so please at least bestow one knighthood! Because he's not a noble I can't harass him more!'

Of course the Lord Chamberlain Lord Frederick opposed.

'Your Majesty, there is no justification to bestow such a precious title on a mere chef. All other nobles will oppose.'

'What? If there's a guy who opposes I'll request a boxing match and blow all his teeth!'

'Earl of Derby, can you blow the mouth of the Marquis of Salisbury?'

'Ugh... That older brother is hard for me to handle. I understand what you mean, Lord Chamberlain.'

Marquis of Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil.

The current prime minister of the British government and leader of the Conservative Party. A politician who wields tremendous power in a position no different from the head of Britain, having served as prime minister three times.

The Lord Chamberlain's words meant what would you do if such a person opposes.

'Your Majesty, I have a clever plan for now. It doesn't reach that guy, but my granddaughter knows how to cook quite similarly. Please eat the dishes that guy made once and think.'

So he executed as is.

On the first day he ate the famous Chicken and Chips. As rumored it was a moving taste. So he dismissed and expelled the chef who had put out tasteless Scottish fried chicken for dinner the previous day.

On the second day he ate desserts made with peanut butter. It was so delicious he didn't even share with his lovely granddaughter Princess Maud.

On the third day he ate a meat dish called 'samgyeopsal.' He ate it to the point the smell soaked into his whole body. He thought his stomach would burst.

On the fourth day he ate a dish called 'galbijjim.' They said it was a secret dish whose recipe absolutely doesn't go outside even from the Derby earldom. This was food given by God! He madly spread the sweet galbijjim sauce on bread and ate it.

Even Lord Frederick who had been silently watching up to here raised both hands and feet and participated in front of galbijjim. Edward VII burst into laughter together with the Earl of Derby at such an appearance.

'Good! Knowing how to make cooking of this level of taste, cheaply supplying the ingenious invention of peanut butter and giving joy to the subjects of England, and that person who is kind to those around and a model for others if not receiving a knighthood who would receive it! I'll handle the aftermath, now tell me that clever plan, Earl of Derby.'

'Using the excuse of preparing coronation cooking kidnap that guy, Your Majesty. And after succeeding the coronation next year bestow the title. Then no one will be able to oppose. I'll create the atmosphere in advance. Just in time the Lancaster guy was thinking the same as me. That guy also fell for the taste of chicken, hahahat.'

'Kidnap a person? In broad daylight in London? The king a citizen? You've gone crazy.'

'That friend is so sharp-witted that no trap works. He's quick-witted unlike his age and sees through people's hearts at a glance. Sometimes to the point suspicion arises whether he's really looking into the head. Despite growing up in a poor working class family he's a guy with such good skill that he set up the largest scale restaurant in London with others' money. Unless it's kidnapping level he absolutely won't approach first.'

'Heh... Arthur, this friend was thinking of a big trouble thought.'

'Because I've already tried. This is the last. The third time won't work. For now kidnap and lure with money. It will work well. That friend is crazy about money. So I also sometimes stick gold coins in that friend's back pocket under the name of friendship fee.'

'You tried kidnapping? Who? You?'

'No, it's the Prince Duke of York.'

'What? You mean my son George?'

'That friend lately saying it's annoying is throwing away all the letters that came to him. If you use that excuse he'll accept the reason for summoning him. I guarantee, Your Majesty.'

This is the devil's whisper. Edward VII recalled the past of stirring around the Thames River with the Earl of Derby in childhood and causing trouble.

It seems fun? So he really did so.

After that the chef of Baskerville Hall who appeared in front of his eyes tried to safely escape the trap he made with witty answers.

To the point if listened without thinking he would have been momentarily deceived. So for now he put money and had him cook.

Now depending on how that guy reacts, whether to give the knighthood or not will be decided.

His recollection was cut by a sudden knocking sound.

Knock knock.

"Your Majesty, checking it seems the cooking is prepared. Shall I prepare it in the banquet hall?"

"No, today it's annoying to go down. Tell them to bring it to this room."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Edward VII patted his thick belly. This belly that becomes more obese as he ages. However because he knows how well this large belly works in high society, he couldn't give up.

"Health management? Such things are for George to do."

Delicious food and parties, alcohol! That is the happiness and joy of life!

Creeeak.

While humming a tune, the sound of a serving cart being pushed was heard from afar. Edward VII stopped the song and corrected his posture and made a dignified expression.

Now it was time to return to the official king again.

The person who entered with the knocking sound was that outstanding chef, Jean-Paul Durand.

A handsome young man rare even in high society where only beautiful men and women gather. To the point someone would mistake him for a child of a high noble family.

�Is he really a commoner? Even if said to be an illegitimate child of a duke or marquis family I would believe. Moreover just looking at the eloquence it seems he received education of a noble family.�

But somehow, continuing to look the appearance is familiar.

A prominent nose, clear jawline, dull hair color, and eyes that look rebellious. The vague memory suddenly became clear. Clearly a very long time ago, in the past of dozens of years ago that seemed to pass by... On that land taken by the republicans...

�Surely... It can't be. How can it be. No, it can't be!�

�Your Majesty, please enjoy the cooking I made. This is a dish called �tteokgalbi,� ahem, it is one I creatively adapted in my own way the royal court cooking that was only presented to the king in a place called �Joseon� in that far eastern land. And another one...�

The chef spoke and opened the round cloche that was covered on the wide plate.

At that moment, a tremendously rich and sweet aroma spread full in the room and took away all of Edward VII's thoughts.

Gulp.

Edward VII swallowed the saliva full in his mouth.