CH 299

Mia Opens Her Eys to the Ultimate Truth

“Huh? Mushroom…stew?”

Keithwood’s mind went blank for a second. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Everything had been fine just a few minutes ago. It was now a real emergency. The suddenness was hard to understand.

What? But…how? We were talking about how to keep people safe during the Holy Eve Festival.

Rafina didn’t usually talk about her frustrations, so when she did during the meeting, it caught everyone’s attention. Her worries were also valid, and everyone agreed that more safety measures needed to be taken.

So why? Why do we want to talk about mushroom stew right now?

There was a crisis, and no one knew it was coming.

—

It all started when the student council got together to talk about safety during the Holy Eve Festival.

“A lot of people will be coming and going from the island that day, and many of them will be guests and people from other countries. I’d like to reassure everyone that our security measures will be perfect, but…”

Even though her tone made it clear that she was unsure, she went on to talk about the problems she was having.

Well then. I can see that nobody has an easy life.

Keithwood let out a quiet whistle of a sigh as he stood a few steps behind Sion. Everywhere it was the same. Until they had to learn new tricks, the old dogs were the most reliable. Expertise gained over a lifetime almost always led to mental hardening. The more experienced someone was, the less flexible their thinking was, and the more likely they were to make a big mistake. He said that he was sad that experience could be such a mixed blessing.

The problem was that these old fossils still had value, but it had to be done carefully to get that value. No matter how rigid their skills were, they could be put to good use. Leaders had to be able to figure out how to use and distribute all human resources in the best way possible.

I sure don’t want to be in her place right now.

He thought, “I wonder if there’s even a good way to solve this problem,” with the kind of casual interest that only those who weren’t in the hot seat could have.

But this interest didn’t last long as a side thing.

“Well then, if that’s the case, why don’t we go look for mushrooms?”

The president of the student council then lit a fire right behind him.

Heck, her suggestion didn’t even make any sense! What did she mean when she said “well then”?

There was no way to make sense of what was going on. Keithwood swallowed his complaints and told his mind to work harder. He did this to be polite.

This was Mia after all. The renowned wisdom of the Empire.

His own master, Sion, highly thought of her, and he had been impressed by her on more than one occasion.

Surely, what she said had a lot of good sense. There must have been.

He hoped there would be from the sweet suns up in the sky. He prayed quietly for this unseen wisdom to become clear quickly because he couldn’t get rid of the worry that it might not exist.

Princess Mia tends to…lose her head when it comes to mushrooms. She was crazy about mushrooms for some reason, which he didn’t understand at all.

Is this some sort of “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” thing? No, that’s just too crazy…

He looked at her in silence with worried brows, waiting to see what would happen.

“I’m sorry, Miss Mia, but could you maybe say more about what you mean?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Rafina said in the same way.

Mia didn’t explain anything. Instead, she just nodded and said, “Please, just leave this to me. I promise you that a bowl of delicious mushroom stew is the key to victory!”

—

You have to grab someone by the gut if you want them to listen to you.

Mia thought back to a few lines she had just read in a book Chloe had let her borrow. It had said, “Humans’ most basic need is to eat. By controlling a person’s hunger, one can gain power over that person.”

The passage had struck her very deeply.

“This book tells us a basic truth about being human!”

She ate up the book because of how deep it was. So, her brain went from being in “romance mode” to “gourmet mode,” which let her do “mental fermentation.”

The final distillation of those efforts was the ultimate idea she just presented as a solution—exquisite mushroom stew!

That guy in charge of safety—was his name Santeri?

He won’t be able to beat mushroom stew.

That wasn’t all, though.

The Great Gastronome of the Empire wouldn’t be satisfied with a plan that only had one goal. This had two parts. And feeding him will be a practise run for the night of the Holy Eve Festival, when we’ll have a private stew party with the student council.

The Princess Chronicles say that Mia would ask the princes to watch over her during the festival, but then she would get away from them and sneak off the island.

She had thought about what would make her do something like that and came up with a guess.

“Something’s going to happen…and whatever it is, it’s going to make me want to leave the island.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed it herself, to be honest. She knew her own habits, so she didn’t think it was likely that she would go for a horseback ride at midnight. She knew she was a careful, sensible person because she could look at herself without bias.

Now, you could argue about whether or not both of those clauses were true, but…

“Even if a caravan with the most exotic pastries stopped near the lake, I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t go. I know what I know, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t go,” she’d said, thinking that she couldn’t be tempted by just sweets.

Then she read Chloe’s book, and a cosmic truth became clear to her.

“Even someone with a lot of self-control like me might find that their willpower gives way to the primal desire to eat.”

For example, if she tried a tasty treat the day before the festival and someone asked her to go back the next day for another bite, could she say no?

What if it tasted good? Even more than the hare stew she had once?

She scratched her stomach. She was full at the time. She could fight back. But what if, when the time came, she was incredibly hungry?

Could she sneak out, thinking (wrongly) that now that she knew how to ride Kuolan well, she could get away from a thief or a wolf?

“I’m not a glutton, but I’m not sure if I could stop myself from eating. After all, I’m going against a basic need. Raw human nature. In that situation, I bet a lot of people would end up going with their gut. And that…sounds just like something those sneaky Serpents would try to take advantage of. Hmph, you can’t relax around them at all!”

So, what could she do to get out of this mess? After giving it a lot of thought, she had an idea.

“If this problem happens because I choose to leave Saint-Noel, shouldn’t I just make sure that what’s going on inside is more interesting than what’s going on outside?

I could, for example, get them to make a lot of really good food at the academy, which would make me more likely to stay there…”

So, she thought, “The only way I can get out of this is to have a party with the student council and serve mushroom stew.”

So, thanks to Mia, Project Mushroom Stew Party got started in a quiet way.