Truffle Omelets

After returning home, I examined the truffle—or what I believed to be a truffle—more closely. It looked like a rough, knobbly black ball.

When I brought it close to my nose, it gave off an incredibly complex aroma, something between spices and garlic.

Apparently, truffles were rare mushrooms that came into season in both summer and winter.

This certainly seemed to be a genuine truffle.

However, I couldn’t be absolutely certain.

Truffles were extraordinarily expensive in the royal capital, and I’d only ever eaten one or two tiny pieces. Frankly, I didn’t know enough about them to confidently declare, “This is definitely a truffle.”

Noah, who’d discovered it, apparently hadn’t eaten one before, either.

So I decided to ask the black-haired man, who seemed to be the most knowledgeable about luxury ingredients among the guests at my inn.

This region was known for producing truffles, and the black-haired man appeared to be a fairly high-ranking knight. Since truffles were a local specialty, I imagined he’d had plenty of opportunities to eat them.

A week after our truffle-hunting expedition, the black-haired man arrived, unusually accompanied by his brown-haired companion. Apparently, with spring approaching, their work at the fortress had finally settled down.

The moment he saw the suspected truffle, the black-haired man declared without hesitation,

“That’s a truffle, all right. It has a wonderful aroma.”

Apparently, the black-haired man had eaten enough truffles to identify one immediately.

Incidentally, when I asked him what dishes he’d recommend, his answer was, “Everything I’ve had was delicious.”

What on earth did he mean by everything?

That was my initial reaction, but according to the black-haired man, truffles went wonderfully with bread, pasta, meat, and cheese. Surprisingly, they were also delicious with potatoes. Considering all that, I supposed “everything is delicious” wasn’t much of an exaggeration.

Among all those dishes, he said omelets were his favorite, so I immediately called Noah and the others over. We made omelets, topped them with sliced truffles, and ate them together.

Warmed by the heat of the omelets, the truffles released an even richer, more luxurious fragrance into the surrounding air.

They were perfectly ordinary omelets, yet I was astonished by how dramatically the addition of truffles transformed their aroma and flavor. They were absolutely delicious.

Once we’d finished eating our omelets, the black-haired man presented me with something that looked like a stone, saying, “I brought you a gift.”

He’d been carrying it effortlessly in one hand, but it was so large and heavy that even holding it with both hands was difficult for me.

I casually accepted it with a “Thank you very much,” but the moment I realized what it was, I gasped.

“…Is this a magic crystal?”

“Yes. I’m impressed you recognized it.”

“I’ve never seen one of such exceptional quality before.”

It resembled a crystal with a faint bluish tint, but it was no ordinary crystal.

It was a magic crystal, a rare type of magic stone that could only be obtained deep within dungeons.

I hurriedly tried to return it to the black-haired man.

“I couldn’t possibly accept something like this.”

“But I specifically obtained it for you. I thought it was beautiful…”

The black-haired man knitted his brows, looking troubled.

“Well, of course it’s beautiful, but this isn’t something I can simply accept!”

“But this is precisely what you need right now. Please take it. I don’t want a repeat of what happened the other day.”

The black-haired man pushed my hands back with an unusually forceful insistence.

By “what happened the other day,” he was referring to an incident when I’d suffered a minor burn while cooking.

I could still use weak healing magic.

In fact, approximately eighty percent of mages had an aptitude for very basic healing magic. It was one of the first spells most mages learned.

However, although healing magic was relatively easy to learn, mastering it was extremely difficult. There were plenty of people capable of using elementary healing magic to treat minor injuries and illnesses, but professional “healers” who could cast intermediate spells or anything more advanced were few and far between.

In the past, I’d been able to cast multiple healing spells simultaneously to produce the equivalent of intermediate healing magic. I could even regenerate small amounts of missing tissue. But those days were long gone.

Now, even casting an ordinary healing spell carried the frightening possibility of exhausting my magical power, so I hesitated to use it.

When the man saw my burn, he anxiously urged me to heal it immediately.

“It’s not worth wasting magic on,” I replied.

A burn like this would heal perfectly well if I just cooled it down.

“You can use healing magic, can’t you?”

“Well, yes, I can, but it would be a waste of magical power.”

When I refused a second time, the man said, “Then I’ll do it,” and cast healing magic on me himself.

…However, something about it felt strange.

Normally, healing magic accelerated the body’s natural ability to heal and repair itself. That was why the affected area usually felt warm when someone cast a healing spell on it. Yet the black-haired man’s hand was enveloped in a distinctly chilly aura.

Once he’d finished healing me, the black-haired man let out a weary sigh.

“Haah… Healing magic isn’t exactly my specialty…”

Magic crystals were healing magic stones. They functioned as amplifiers for healing spells.

Even someone like me, whose magical power was now severely limited, could cast healing magic with the assistance of one of these crystals.

My house was far from town, and even summoning a doctor would be quite an ordeal. With two small children now living under my roof, this was an item I desperately wanted to have.

However…

I’d only ever received magic crystals as part of my issued equipment, and I’d never considered buying one for personal use, so I wasn’t entirely sure of their market value. Still, I was fairly certain they were outrageously expensive.

“But…”

“Please keep it.”

When he insisted once more, I finally decided to accept his gift.

“Thank you so much for something this precious.”

When I thanked him, the black-haired man gave me a bashful smile.

“Not at all.”

Afterward, the black-haired man asked whether there was anything troubling me.

The code of chivalry included a rule requiring knights to extend a helping hand to the weak.

Apparently, he regarded a woman living alone in an isolated country house as someone in need of protection, so he frequently showed concern for my welfare.

“Something troubling me… Oh, there was something, actually, but I’ve managed to sort it out.”

When I answered, the black-haired man looked somewhat disappointed.

“I’m glad to hear that, but what was the problem?”

“It was about Noah and Mirei’s schooling.”

The first signs of spring were finally approaching, and Noah’s family was safe and sound. It seemed fair to say that we’d successfully overturned the banshee’s prophecy of their deaths.

Cassie, Noah’s mother, had also recovered her health and was now working energetically at her needlework.

After their father had died several years earlier, Noah’s family had supported themselves through Cassie’s work as a seamstress, embroidering and making lace. However, when Cassie’s health deteriorated, the family had apparently fallen into poverty.

Now that Cassie was healthy again, it would have been possible for Noah’s family to rent another house in town and resume their former lives. However, all three of them said they wanted to continue living here with me.

Having them around was tremendously reassuring for me, too.

However, Noah was nine years old, and Mirei was six. Both were old enough to attend school.

The town was five kilometers from here. Walking that distance to and from school every day would be difficult for children their age.

Ideally, I could take them to school and bring them home in my carriage every day, but I also had the inn to run. Doing that daily would be difficult.

I’d been wondering what to do when a teacher at the town’s school informed me about a curriculum that combined home study with classroom lessons.

Apparently, the children would only need to attend school approximately twice a week and could study at home on the remaining days.

If requested, the school would even lend textbooks to families or allow them to make handwritten copies.

Incidentally, paper was expensive, which made books extremely costly as well. Textbooks were valuable school property that students were strictly prohibited from taking home. Allowing them to be borrowed was an extraordinarily generous arrangement.

Apparently, the lord had recently established this system specifically for children who had difficulty attending school every day.

Thanks to this, Noah and Mirei would be able to receive an education. I was immensely grateful.

“And we have the lord of this territory to thank for all of it.”

“I-I see.”

For some reason, both knights—particularly the black-haired man—suddenly looked embarrassed.

The margrave who governed this territory was also the commander of the Goran Knight Order, the local order of knights.

I supposed having their superior praised couldn’t be an unpleasant experience.

“That’s wonderful news, you two.”

When Dennis, the brown-haired knight, addressed Noah and Mirei, they eagerly replied,

“Yeah!”

“We look forward to seeing you again!”

At first, the two children had seemed frightened of adult men, but by now they’d grown quite comfortable around both the black-haired man and his brown-haired companion.

We also tried another way of eating truffles that the black-haired man had recommended. It was an extremely simple dish: placing cheese and sliced truffles on bread and lightly toasting it. This was delicious, too.

While happily munching on his truffle-topped bread, the black-haired man spoke up.

“By the way, Proprietor, I’m impressed you managed to find truffles. Have you started keeping pigs or dogs?”

“…? No, I haven’t.”

According to the black-haired man, pigs and dogs were commonly used for truffle hunting.

“Oh, a cow found the truffles for us.”

“A cow?”

“There’s a spirit that resembles a bovine magical beast. He’s been courting one of my cows, and he gave us the truffles as a gift.”

“…A spirit resembling a magical beast?”

The black-haired man reacted strongly to the words “magical beast.”

Frontier territories had extensive forests and mountains far from human settlements. Since such places were inhabited by monsters, people living here were exposed to a far greater threat from them than those in the royal capital.

However, as I continued explaining, the wariness in the black-haired man’s eyes gradually faded.

Ul was so devoted to Kera that his dedication was almost touching.

Ever since he’d received permission to enter the cowshed, Ul had spent nearly all his time with Kera, as though trying to make up for all the time they couldn’t be together.

In the pasture, he stayed close beside her as if escorting her around. On cold days, he used his enormous body to shield her from the wind, and whenever he discovered patches of winter grass that remained green despite the cold, he offered them to Kera.

Ul wouldn’t even eat the winter turnips we’d grown for the cattle’s winter feed. He insisted on giving every last one to Kera.

It was love.

Noah and I had been the ones to plant those turnips, but whenever Ul saw us, he would moo repeatedly, almost as though he were thanking us, before leading us to another patch of truffles.

“How devoted he is.”

The black-haired man seemed genuinely moved.

“Yes. At first, I was wary of him because he was so enormous, black, and intimidating. But it seems Kera has found herself a wonderful mate.”

When I said that, the black-haired man murmured thoughtfully,

“I see. So the bull is black…”

The black-haired man’s own hair was black. Apparently, he’d developed a sense of kinship with someone who shared his coloring.

“By the way, Proprietor, you’re unmarried, aren’t you?” he suddenly asked.

“Yes, I’m single.”

Running an inn meant I was frequently asked questions like that. However, this was the first time the black-haired man had asked me.

I didn’t particularly care when passing travelers or local residents asked about my personal circumstances.

However, the black-haired man and his companion were knights.

They were capable of investigating my previous career, and I still didn’t want them to discover my true identity.

The past in which I’d been forced to retire continued to ache like a wound that refused to heal.

“I see. I’m unmarried as well,” the black-haired man said.

I wanted to conceal my background, but the black-haired man apparently felt the same way about his own. He’d introduced himself as a “knight,” but he’d never provided any further details.

We’d developed an unspoken understanding that we would avoid discussing each other’s personal backgrounds.

Yet, for some reason, he’d suddenly changed his mind and started asking one question after another.

“How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-seven.”

“What a coincidence. I’m twenty-seven, too.”

“…I see.”

It was somewhat surprising to discover that we were the same age.

I’d vaguely assumed he was older than me.

Many of the royal palace magic knights were pampered young noblemen, and quite a few looked younger than their actual ages.

Compared to them, the black-haired man possessed a commanding presence that I’d normally associate with a veteran knight over thirty.

The black-haired man asked his next question somewhat hesitantly.

“Proprietor, have you ever been engaged? Or perhaps there’s someone you love whom you left behind in the royal capital?”

“No, I’ve never had anyone like that…”

I felt rather miserable admitting it aloud.

No, I should simply think of myself as a magic knight who’d been exceptionally devoted to her duties.

“I see. I don’t have a fiancée, either.”

For some reason, the black-haired man seemed rather proud of his answer.

“Ah…”

That was actually quite unusual. Most knights married relatively young.

The marriage rate among knights was so high that anyone who reached twenty-seven without getting married was practically regarded as having something wrong with them.

Of course, men were still considered to be of marriageable age until their mid-thirties. Among the nobility, some preferred to establish their fortunes and positions before choosing a marriage partner.

Perhaps the black-haired man belonged to that category.

On the other hand, a twenty-seven-year-old woman was considered well and truly past her prime for marriage.

I was approaching an age when even men seeking second wives would start turning their noses up at me.

But why on earth were we having this conversation?

Even the brown-haired man and Cassie, who were listening nearby, looked rather taken aback.

At least Noah and Mirei had grown bored with our conversation and gone off to play. That was a small mercy.

“By the way, what do you think of intimidating-looking men?”

The black-haired man followed up with yet another completely baffling question.

“What do I think…?”

I looked up at the black-haired man.

One thing that had surprised me since arriving here was how robust the knights of the Goran Knight Order were.

They were considerably taller and more heavily built than the knights attached to the royal court whom I’d known in the capital. Presumably, their training was quite different.

The black-haired man standing before me was also a large, muscular fellow.

The knight order to which the royal palace knights belonged was called Maruam Central. Bearing the name of our country, Maruam, it occupied the highest position among the nation’s knight orders. It also boasted a large contingent of rare magic knights and was widely celebrated as the strongest knight order in the country.

Consequently, the knights of Central tended to look down on the provincial knight orders. However, after coming here, I’d been forced to reflect on just how ignorant of the wider world I’d been.

Soldiers stationed at the fortress also occasionally stopped by my inn.

Compared to the knights of Central, a greater proportion of Goran’s knights came from commoner backgrounds. Their manners were by no means particularly refined, but their physical abilities were generally outstanding, especially when it came to reacting quickly to unexpected situations.

They certainly weren’t opponents to be underestimated simply because their order had relatively few magic knights.

Their steel-like physiques were proof of their rigorous training and extensive experience.

In response to the black-haired man’s question, I answered,

“…Well, I suppose it’s better for a man to be well-trained than to be out of shape.”

“I-I see.”

His reply sounded strangely deflated, yet somehow relieved at the same time.