episode_0352

The day after Princess Mezlen found out that the person she was attracted to was Harold.

At first, I was trying to find out who Mezlen was in love with so I could help her, but in the end, I never got involved in her first love that came her way.

No, to be precise, I couldn’t intervene even if I wanted to. It was nice to give Mezlen time to be alone with Harold, but unfortunately, he had to leave the academy again the next day for the ‘Humanities Inquiry’ class.

‘These days, it really feels like I’m leaving the academy once every two weeks.’

It was inevitable because the class curriculum of 『Luminor Academy』 was structured that way in the first place.

In fact, it was probably an inevitable choice for a game company. Although 『Luminor Academy』 was a well-made academy game, there were ultimately limits to the events held within the academy.

Since it was not possible to resolve all four years of the story through events that took place within the academy, Part 3 ended up taking the students outside and making them experience various types of events.

Although the volume of the game itself increased, there was something a little disappointing in that the atmosphere of an academy game was slightly diminished.

‘But, well, it’s not a bad idea to wander around the empire with Ethan like this once every two weeks.’

The fact that there are external events outside the academy every two weeks means that I can also go on various dates with Ethan outside the academy once every two weeks.

Forest date during nature exploration time. Dungeon date during geology exploration. And this exploration of the humanities was going to be something like a volunteer date.

It definitely feels like a volunteer date in that it rebuilds village facilities destroyed by bandits, comforts people who have lost their families, and creates facilities where children who have lost their parents can live.

As a bonus, you get to subdue a group of bandits, beautify the environment, and replenish your experience points. In fact, looking at the level of difficulty, it could be said to be the easiest of the exploration classes so far.

It’s not that Sanjeok is particularly weak, it’s just that the preparation required is much less compared to other inquiry classes.

The humanities exploration class was an event where the main focus was not on survival or combat, but rather on reasoning to find someone in the village who was in secret with the bandits. And as for that reasoning, I don’t mind leaving my hand on it since the guy is going to figure it out on his own.

‘It was also the reason why I deliberately made sure that Gemmojoshegiggwat was taking humanities inquiry classes.’

I, who am only the baronet’s daughter and in fact Ethan’s exclusive maid, thought, ‘The culprit is in here!’ Even if you say the same line, there is no way it will attract aggro, and it was naturally the main character’s role to be in the spotlight of such an event, whether in the original game or here.

All I had to do was watch the ritual and eat the rice cakes in the background and rush to the final bandit suppression event. In the process, I gain some experience and practical experience.

‘I can test the basics of becoming a sword expert that Harold talked about through actual training.’

Becoming a sword expert begins with seeing the swords of your opponent in the near future.

In general, about eight or nine out of ten bandits were armed groups wielding swords or daggers, so there were more than enough people to practice with.

My heart began to race for no reason at the thought of being able to spar at a similar level to the time I faced the Hobgoblin Swordsman with swordsmanship over and over again.

“You look happy, Lilith.”

“Yes?”

“Did anything good happen? Oh, by the way, what did your father say yesterday? I think they called me for training.”

“Ah, that’s it… .”

… Well, you can tell Ethan. Because if I hide it in the first place, it’s not like Harold won’t tell me.

“Actually, Master Harold told me that I have the temperament of a sword expert.”

“… Really?”

“Of course, I am still just at the beginning stage and I am far from being able to touch Master Ethan’s sword.

Of course, it would be impossible for me to improve my swordsmanship skills to Master Ethan’s, and right now I am only able to predict my opponent’s swordsmanship on rare occasions.”

“That alone is amazing. To begin with, Lilith is not even in the swordsmanship club, but she sees the potential to become a sword expert.”

“… Of course, I don’t think you can be sure until you actually wield it in real life.

To begin with, Master Ethan, who majored in swordsmanship, didn’t it take a year from the time he joined Sword Expert until he reached Expert level? It will probably be sometime after I graduate from the Academy that I will become completely familiar with this power.”

“I can’t necessarily say that, but… . Anyway, congratulations on becoming an expert, Lilith.”

“Thank you, Master Ethan.”

We spent about 10 hours chatting and riding in the same carriage from morning to the humanities research class location.

Even though we traveled for almost half of the day, excluding one break in the middle and a late lunch, Ethan and I had no choice but to stay overnight as it was getting late.

“Lilith, have you tied all the ropes over there?”

“We’ve tied it up right away, Master Ethan. Now all you have to do is tie the stake in the direction where Master Ethan is, so pull and secure it with all your strength.”

“Okay, Lilith.”

Ethan listened to my words and pulled the rope on his side with all his strength to secure the tent.

… Now that I think about it, I’m completely used to living at night like this.

Well, since I’m going to work as an adventurer later, there would be no harm in getting used to it from now on, but Ethan, despite being a prince from a duke family, seemed to be quite used to bivouac activities.

I guess it’s probably the result of continuing to follow what I think are events that must be performed. Including some unmissable events such as ‘Lara’s Secret’.

In fact, depending on which subject you choose, you can either reduce the number of outdoor classes or choose a subject that has a class location not far from the academy.

However, I am reluctant to take such subjects because most of them offer mediocre rewards and do not give much experience points. Because what I wanted was to move forward by obtaining as many resources as possible from the academy, just like when I played the original game of 『Luminor Academy』.

In order not to regret it later, I had to save as much resources as I could. Even if you return to the academy later saying you missed an event, the experience you missed once will not be returned.

When you create a new identity in the Adventurer’s Guild and become an adventurer, there is a significant difference between starting at level 20 and starting at level 40, so you should always pay attention to it.

“For dinner, I’m planning to make chicken risotto with rice boiled in chicken broth. Is that okay?”

“Any meal Lilith prepares is fine.”

“I understand. Then, I will prepare a meal right now, Master Ethan.”

Since I’ve been staying overnight a lot lately, preparing outdoor meals has largely been my responsibility.

Of course, if you ask Ethan for help, he helps, but when it comes to cooking, it’s important to keep the flow going during the cooking process.

So, instead of helping Ethan with the cooking, I tend to leave him with other tasks and take full responsibility for the cooking. Ethan’s job is to stand guard to prevent monsters from approaching the area, or to get firewood when it looks like it might be running low.

‘It’s been quite a while since I’ve had an outdoor meal with all the ingredients prepared like this.’

Because the area where we recently camped was so remote, it was difficult to cook a proper meal.

Most meals in the Hobgoblin Forest, where food ingredients and even water had to be obtained from the wild, consisted mostly of grilled fish and wild vegetables, and meals in the dungeon could not be made over a fire due to the risk of suffocation. I just kept chewing the dry food.

On the other hand, today I had some time to prepare ingredients and there was a dish I wanted to eat, so I decided to show off my skills in earnest.

The weather was slowly getting warmer, so it was a time when boiled rice was softer than other seasons.

Since I couldn’t find things like ginseng, dried jujubes, or angelica root in this world, I omitted all of these things, and it was boiled rice with only garlic and potatoes, but even this was a pretty good meal for eating outdoors.

-Bubble bubble bubble… .

Now, if I simmer the chicken like this for about an hour, I think it will be fine.

Now all that was left was rice, and this was where the problem started. I have no idea how much rice I should add to this amount of chicken broth to make it taste like chicken porridge.

‘I think I heard somewhere before that when cooking rice, the ratio of rice to water should be 1:1.’

Right now, the pot containing the chicken stew is about two-thirds full, so if I add this much rice in a 1:1 ratio, it won’t work because the pot will naturally overflow.

‘Wait for the broth to boil down, and when it has reduced to about half, add rice to the remaining level and boil.’

Even if you do that, the ratio is 1 to 1. What is there to think about so hard?

With that in mind, when about half of the contents of the pot remained, I removed the meat from the properly cooked chicken, poured in rice until the contents of the pot were just slightly tender, and boiled for about 20 minutes.

-Bubbling, bubbling… .

“… … .”

At some point, seeing the contents of the pot not shrinking at all, I managed to realize that something was wrong.

“Release?”

“… Yes, Master Ethan.”

“Can you eat all of that?”

“… … .”

… Where did it all go wrong?

I think the ratio of rice and water was definitely right.