Yeonhwa, the Cooking King(2)

The three people who would go to the palace warehouse to fetch ingredients gathered quickly.

First, there was me in Yeonhwa’s form and Myu in Meiyel’s form, who followed me with a bright expression even though she wasn’t very willing. And lastly.

“I’m tired… and it’s hard… Do you really have to take me along?”

Isolde, who had been holed up in her room and was barely dragged out with Morgan’s help.

After barely pulling her out of the room, she had returned to a somewhat presentable state from her near-zombie condition, but the fatigue accumulated in her body seemed to remain as it was, as Isolde asked thus while showing tears that weren’t usually seen.

Isolde’s tears falling like bird droppings with a plop.

Of course, that didn’t mean I would allow her to go back.

“If you keep holing up in your room like that, you won’t even become human.”

“I’m a demon, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Geez, talking back. Anyway, I’ll let you eat until you burst with what’s left after we come back, so hang in there a little.”

“Ugh… I feel like I’m going to die…”

Isolde finally nodded and agreed as if she had no choice, after my continued persuasion.

Seeing her react to my food even while dying like that, it seemed she wasn’t in a completely near-death state.

Come to think of it, didn’t Morgan also say earlier that it was obviously an exaggeration and we could treat her roughly?

Just as one gets better while working no matter how sleepy, it seemed Isolde would also improve if we kept her moving.

And leaving the drained Isolde like that, I spoke to Myu who was waiting for my orders beside me.

“Then Myu, please open a gate to the palace.”

“Yes, Mother. I’ll open it right away.”

As soon as my words ended, Myu answered and struck her staff on the ground.

Watching the gate that started opening instantly with a vibration, I led Isolde and Myu and stepped into the gate.

The destination was the food warehouse of the palace.

As it’s a party everyone enjoys, it wouldn’t be bad to go overboard for once in a while.

I wonder which dish I should make first?

Demon Realm, Demon King’s Castle, Office.

In that place exuding a chilly and dark atmosphere, Pensia was sitting quietly with her mouth closed.

To be more precise, she was sitting at the table where the Demon King and executives gather.

The Demon King’s seat, which was the highest seat, was empty, and among the executives’ seats, Isolde and Morgan’s seats, who had switched to the human side, were also empty.

The only ones sitting at the table were Ar, Idea, and Pensia herself.

Fortunately, the wounds she had suffered from Yujia three months ago had long been healed, so there was no unfortunate situation where she couldn’t sit at the table due to her body being badly injured.

And it wasn’t just Pensia whose injured body had healed, but Ar as well.

Pensia was looking at Ar, who had healed perfectly as if he had never been injured, when she suddenly came to her senses at the sound of Idea’s voice.

“So, executive who receives the Demon King’s love? It’s been a good 3 minutes since we came here, why don’t you explain why you called us?”

“I don’t know that yet either. I just called you guys according to the Demon King’s orders. Wait until the Demon King arrives for details.”

“Haa… how troublesome.”

At Ar’s words that bluntly cut off the conversation, Idea momentarily made an expression as if she was about to explode with anger, but then she leaned back in her chair and seemed to swallow that emotion.

Recently… no, if we’re being precise, it had been like this since Isolde was kidnapped, but Idea had been acting irritably when things didn’t go her way.

Pensia slightly clenched her fist under the table, wondering if a fight might break out even though Idea seemed to have suppressed her emotions, but fortunately, there was no need for Pensia to bring out her fist.

Step── Step──

“You’ve all arrived. Then I’ll immediately convey a few important matters.”

As Pensia clenched her fist, the Demon King walked in through the corridor connected to the room.

As soon as she entered, she confirmed that all three executives were present and immediately opened her mouth to get to the point.

It was an urgent progression from the Demon King as if she was being chased by something, but no one questioned or complained about it.

After all, she was the Demon King.

As demons, no one would dare to trip up her actions.

Therefore, the meeting started without any objections. To be precise, it was a one-sided notification from the Demon King under the name of a meeting.

“First, three months ago, Ar and Pensia. Activate the bomb you set up in the entertainment district. When the explosion occurs, the humans gathered to enjoy the Day of Divine Manifestation will inevitably be confused. At that time, I will deploy personnel.”

“So that’s why you ordered us to set up the bomb back then, for today.”

“Yes.”

The Demon King nodded at Ar’s words.

The purpose of the bomb planted in the entertainment district three months ago was apparently to divert attention during the Day of Divine Manifestation in the human kingdom two days later.

Certainly, as the Demon King said, if such a large-scale explosion occurred now, three months after they had attacked the kingdom, they would inevitably be confused.

Although she hadn’t stated the purpose yet, it seemed the Demon King was planning to accomplish something by deploying personnel while taking advantage of the diverted attention.

And Ar might know, but since she hadn’t told them yet, the purpose of this operation must be very important.

Therefore, Pensia parted her lips to ask one question, but.

“Then how will you handle the personnel, Demon King? How many demon soldiers will you deploy…”

“No, we won’t deploy regular soldiers for this operation. A total of four will go. And three of those four will be you, the executives.”

Pensia’s words were cut off by the Demon King before they could even finish.

The Demon King’s words that only four would go for this operation, and moreover, three of them would be all of her executives.

It was natural for the three who heard her words to be surprised at this declaration, which could be called radical.

But that was only for a moment. Idea, who had been sitting quietly listening to what the Demon King was saying, slightly raised her hand and asked.

“Then who is the remaining one? Is it a new executive candidate if they’re going with us?”

A reasonable question.

Ar and Pensia also inwardly agreed with Idea’s question.

If the three of them as executives were going, the one to fill the remaining spot should be a demon with skills equal to their own.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to even match the minimum harmony.

Therefore, Idea’s question, which contained the intention of asking if that one person was a strong individual similar to them, reached the Demon King, and to that, the Demon King answered immediately without the slightest hesitation.

“The remaining one is me.”

“…Pardon?”

However, the answer the Demon King gave without hesitation was enough to surprise the three executives.

They were so surprised that even Idea, who usually went around with a grin, broke her poker face and reflexively asked back.

However, despite Idea’s question tinged with bewilderment, the Demon King simply calmly repeated her previous words once again.

“I will personally appear.”

For the perfect success of this operation.

Woong───

The sunlight and wind felt upon escaping from the damp air inside the gate.

As I slowly opened my eyes, what filled my vision was not the temple from just now, but a huge warehouse with the palace as its backdrop.

“We’ve arrived.”

I could tell as soon as I saw it. There weren’t many warehouses of this size with the palace as a backdrop.

And even without the palace, just seeing the armored soldiers patrolling around the warehouse, one could easily deduce that this was the palace’s food warehouse.

Therefore, when I said we had arrived, Isolde and Myu, who were floating while sitting on their staffs on either side of me, each added a word while looking around.

“Is this the food warehouse of the Phara Kingdom? It’s bigger than I thought?”

“It’s certainly huge. It must be easily twice the size of the temple.”

As Myu said, this huge warehouse would be about twice the size of the temple.

That also meant that an enormous amount of ingredients was stored inside, so I wanted to move right away.

It would take time to take out half of the ingredients I had decided on from that warehouse.

‘With ingredients piled up like that even outside the warehouse, it should really be fine.’

Moreover, the ingredients neatly piled up outside the warehouse.

With ingredients that didn’t need to be stored in the warehouse piled up like that, it seemed there would be no problem taking half without any worry.

“Alright, let’s go. We need to quickly take the ingredients and do the preparations at the temple.”

“Yeah, got it.”

“Understood, Mother.”

Therefore, I led Myu and Isolde towards the entrance of the warehouse, and as we approached the entrance, naturally, the soldiers guarding the warehouse blocked our way.

“Excuse me, but we’ll check for a moment.”

“We’ve confirmed that you’ve come here, but please show us your passage seal according to procedure.”

The soldiers who asked to see the seal while removing their suspicion quite flexibly, perhaps having seen us come here by gate.

I looked at the two of them and took out the passage seal from inside the letter I had kept in my bosom.

“Here. It’s the seal I received in advance by letter.”

“Hmm… Yes, confirmed. Then please enter.”

“We haven’t set a limit on the support for ingredients, so you can take as much as you want.”

The two nodded after checking the seal.

Then they began to open the warehouse door along with words that seemed rehearsed.

Creak───!

Befitting the huge warehouse, even its door opened with a heavy sound, appearing to be dozens of times taller than me.

As the warehouse door opened noisily to both sides, the surrounding gazes turned towards us, but I had long been used to such gazes while going around in Aria and Meiyel’s bodies.

“Then let’s go in!”

“Let’s finish quickly and go rest. I still have books I haven’t finished reading.”

“I have enough magical power, so we can carry out as much as we want!”

The two answered enthusiastically within their capabilities to my exclamation.

I took the two of them and walked into the warehouse that had opened its mouth with a creak.

‘They said there’s no limit, so should I just take the whole warehouse?’

Brushing aside the thought that would have terrified the two soldiers who opened the door if they had heard it.