Ch.3131 – The Value of Outdoor Cooking

<31 – The Value of Outdoor Cooking>

One by one, my companions touched Oknodie who was wearing the hat.

Only Yuie was getting desperate.

“No!”

[Examinee <Giselle> has escaped the game of tag.]

“I-I’ll give you more money, as much as you want!”

[Examinee <Son Ocheon> has escaped the game of tag.]

“Don’t leave me behind!”

[Examinee <Isabelle> has escaped the game of tag.]

My companions escaped one after another.

Beside them, the NTR victim Rockpell bowed his head in gratitude and lightly touched my shoulder.

[Examinee <Rockpell> has escaped the game of tag.]

The NTR woman Yuie, finally free from paralysis, came running.

Sneering at her, I touched myself.

[Examinee <Oknodie> has escaped the game of tag.]

“Wait!”

“No thank you~”

[You have removed the black hat.]

[You have lost the Black Hat Instructor qualification (one-time use).]

Poof!

The hat scattered into the air.

Along with it, Yuie’s wicked intentions and dreams of passing the exam scattered as well.

“This is revenge for Dorothy.”

“Why are you doing this! I never did anything to hurt any of you. You could have just closed your eyes and taken money from that country bumpkin!”

“You know, if I’m going to attend this academy, I’d rather have kind classmates than mean ones.”

In short, it was justice served.

[You have completed the Betrayer event.]

[You were not bribed by Yuie.]

[As a reward, Rockpell’s favorability toward you has increased.]

I had roughly expected such a reward.

But what would a little girl who’s not even 19 do with favorability from a male character?

Above all, I am a man.

Even if my body is a little girl’s, building favorability with a man and doing this and that…

The mere thought is horrifying!

“Thanks for helping me. But I…”

“You’re going to save Dorothy, right?”

Rockpell bowed his head.

“I know I have no right to ask after receiving your help. It might sound shameless, but if you could postpone my repayment just a little longer…”

“It’s fine.”

“…Are you serious? Back in my home forest, I was known as <Swift Beast> Rockwell, and my help could…”

“What nonsense are you spouting when you couldn’t even protect your own woman? You’re the weakest one here.”

“…You’re right. What meaning would there be in talking about strength when I couldn’t even protect a friend.”

“If you understand, then hurry up and go.”

“Thank you. I won’t forget this kindness.”

He doesn’t know where Dorothy is, and he might be attacked by other examinees on the way.

It’s uncertain whether Rockpell will safely pass the exam and be able to repay the kindness.

“Mouse, aren’t you being too generous?”

“It’s fine. Ultimately, it’s up to Dorothy whether to forgive him or not.”

Rockpell is the type of person who will dig himself into a hole of depression and despair on his own.

In the original story, if I could use Rockpell to make Yuie—who would have succeeded in marrying into wealth—suffer even a little more, I could let him go to this extent.

It feels like I’m taking the Rockpell NTR route, but I can just choose not to give him any favorability, right?

‘Neither I nor Dorothy have any intention of accepting someone like him anyway.’

There’s another reason too.

“We all have plenty of points anyway, right?”

[Ticket Watch Score]

<Oknodie 82 points>

<Giselle 72 points>

<Son Ocheon 72 points>

<Isabelle 72 points>

We’ve all exceeded the minimum passing score of 50 points.

We’ve all escaped the constraints of the tag game.

There’s no need to wrestle with petty criminals in this situation!

“What are we having for dinner?”

“Grilled mushrooms.”

“With butter.”

Giselle took out butter from her magic backpack.

I’ve decided.

If I’m going to date a man, Giselle is my first choice.

* *

Northern Grand Duchess Irene.

She was different from the dime-a-dozen noble ladies.

“Ouch, it hurts. The thorns on the ground are so painful.”

“Don’t lean against the trees either. The bark is rough and it’ll tear your clothes too.”

“Waaah. I don’t want to enter the advanced class. Can’t I just forfeit and go to the lower class?”

Walking, running, resting, breathing.

Even doing just that much made these noble ladies complain.

Their childish behavior made her sigh.

No wonder there were conspiracy theories every year about whether there was a female quota system.

Did their families buy the tickets for them?

It seemed like such a waste of money.

How many fur coats could that money have provided for the soldiers freezing in the north, or how many well-forged new swords could have replaced their old, chipped ones?

“U-um, Archduchess Irene. Aren’t you hungry?”

“…Don’t worry about me.”

One somewhat perceptive noble lady, who had spread a blanket on a nearby rock to rest just like Irene had spread her cloak on hers, tried to strike up a conversation.

She seemed eager to gather food together, but unfortunately, Irene had already brought her own provisions.

<Type A Military Rations>

A taste-destroying weapon in food form, with absolutely no consideration for flavor, designed solely to pack maximum calories into a minimal size.

She dissolved the visibly unappetizing ration with her saliva, then crunched it down when she couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Aaagh! I-I’ll give you my emergency food, so please stop eating that horrible thing!”

“I’ll just accept your goodwill.”

“Don’t say that, please take it! It’s painful even for me to watch you eat with that ‘I’m eating just to survive’ expression!”

How could she know if this was a disguised attempt at poisoning her?

Irene didn’t trust people easily.

The shock had been too great when the villagers who had offered her a meal in a pioneer village in the cursed land of Northland turned out to be dirty cult followers.

Though she was lucky enough to survive, she lost half of her subordinates from that experience, and afterward, she never readily trusted kindness offered by others.

She had personally learned that tasteless Type A military rations were better than delicious feast dishes laced with poison.

Of course, she didn’t believe these soft noble ladies had that kind of intelligence, but due to her trauma, she couldn’t easily eat food given by others.

‘I’m used to tasteless food anyway. And it’s not like others are eating anything delicious either.’

The children of noble families would probably carry emergency food named after their family as provisions, but they wouldn’t have eaten such precious items already.

They’d want to save them as much as possible, so they’d probably be awkwardly picking and eating unnamed wild plants or berries from the forest.

Bitter dandelion leaves.

Stinging nettle leaves with sharp thorns.

Buckthorn berries that cause diarrhea.

Incredibly astringent nutmeg berries.

They were all picking and sharing notoriously bad-tasting things among themselves, which was quite baffling.

She had memorized even species that didn’t grow in the north just in case, and now that effort seemed admirable.

Those noble ladies would have been better off studying how to identify delicious leaves and berries instead of this month’s spring fashion or popular dances at social gatherings.

‘The military rations aren’t so bad in comparison.’

As Irene was consoling herself with that thought, an irresistibly stimulating aroma reached her nostrils.

Sniff sniff

She moved her feet as if entranced, trying not to make a sound, and heard the sound of something grilling.

Sizzle

Mushrooms.

And with the added aroma of savory butter.

‘This is cheating!’

While some people were eating these tasteless military rations, others were eating mushroom dishes that smelled amazing from the start!

She felt so wronged that tears almost welled up, but she forced herself to hold them back with determination.

As the Northern Archduchess, she couldn’t lower herself to begging for food.

“Archduchess Irene…? Did you come because you wanted some mushrooms?”

The noble lady who had been observing Irene’s every move asked with an incredulous face.

She had thought she didn’t care about others’ gazes, but now that she was caught in such an embarrassing situation, she tried to play it off.

“I was merely trying to see which competitor had succeeded in securing food supplies.”

“Ah… As expected, you’re amazing, Archduchess. Everyone else came running because they were hungry. There’s such a contrast between those driven by habit and you who remains rational!”

This girl, does she have the makings of a sycophant?

She has a talent for saying pleasing things.

“Then I suppose you won’t need any, Archduchess!”

“…What do you mean?”

“Those people over there are buying grilled mushrooms with money.”

“!!”

“The team with the noble girl isn’t selling because they’re short on money, but probably to avoid giving the impression that they’re being charitable to fellow noble examinees, so they’re reluctantly charging a fee.”

“Such a thing…”

“Anyway, since you won’t be eating any, it doesn’t matter to you!”

“…Here, eat this.”

Irene took out another Type A emergency ration from her magic backpack and handed it over.

“A-Archduchess…! To even provide food for me, I’m truly touched!”

She just wanted to let this mean girl who had verbally blocked her from getting grilled mushrooms experience the same pain.

Of course, having observed how unpleasantly Irene ate her emergency rations, the noble lady had no intention whatsoever of opening hers.

Perhaps after being stranded and starving for about a week, when her vision started to blur, she might find the courage to try it.

“Oh? Look, one of the children from the mushroom-grilling team is coming over.”

Without military service experience, one would neither have heard of nor experienced the infamy of Type A military rations.

For some reason, the youngest examinee Oknodie, a small girl with cute blonde hair, approached with an expression that seemed to say “how can anyone eat such a terrible thing?” and took out candy from her pocket.

Snatch.

And then what appeared to be her companions—a woman and a monkey beastkin—rushed over in alarm, grabbed Oknodie’s arm and mouth, and quickly dragged her away.

“How mean… the child was just going to give me candy…”

‘That’s really petty.’

Irene felt unreasonably wronged.

Even though she had a policy of not eating food given by others.

She felt displeased, as if something had been snatched away just after being offered.