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“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Mika and I brought in the finished food. It seemed like the dining hall was just for entertaining these guests right now, with Karua and most of this country’s higher ups missing, and merely the two kings, the foreign ruler’s guard, the knight commander, and finally Tuhl present.

It looked like there were also seats for Mika and me. Though they were right next to King Rama.

“For the appetizer… we prepared olives!” I explained, while the food was placed in front of everyone.

On that note, our job only went so far as to bring the food here, so while I did give the explanation, it was the maids who distributed it.

“Oh~… This looks truly delicious!” King Rama exclaimed.
“It really does… let us begin,” King Mephilad agreed.
“Hrm. Our thanks for the food.”

King Rama tried the appetizer. He then dropped his fork with a clatter.

“My King!?”

His guard, who hadn’t tried the food yet, rushed to the king in a panic. For some reason, King Rama seemed to be trembling.

“…It’s.”
“It’s?”
“It’s way too good… Is this something out of this world¹!?”

King Rama got up with such force from his chair, he almost blew away his guard who had come to his side.
I’m glad if that was only because it tastes so good.

“L-L-L-Let Us be blunt, Alim… We thought there was nothing past True Cooking, no matter what you did. While it is usually quite good, the cooking made by high-class chefs and adventurers with left-over skill points generally tastes similar. Even We have that skill… Still, what is this? Is this food intended for the gods?”

Huh… and that was only the appetizer. Is he so enraptured with my cooking that he won’t be able to eat anything else? I mean, is that just my imagination, or is the guy genuinely crying?

“Originally… originally, We’d have been fully satisfied merely by being able to eat your cooking, Alim…!”

His fists were clenched, and he was shaking.
Is this guy alright?

“U-Uhm… there are more courses, so… could we talk about this after the dessert…?”
“Hah… y-you’re right. Our apologies… you may go back to your seat and try the food, too, Hanuman².”
“I shall do so, My King.”

So, the guard is called Hanuman. Somehow, this name fits his face to a T³.

Right after eating some of the appetizers I had made, the guard also started trembling and then broke into tears.

“Well… Item Master is on a completely different level.”
“That should be clear at this point,” Mika replied to my whisper, as if that was the most obvious thing.

After the appetizers came salad, soup, and bread, then fish and meat dishes… and finally dessert. The somewhat lavish meal was over. Seeing the two guests tremble from beginning to the end had been somewhat fun.

Incidentally, I had splurged a bit on the main meat dish and made dragon steak. Though it wasn’t Rose Dragon, just normal Child Dragon. But the sobbing likely meant that it was satisfactory.

“That was… truly delicious. As a trueborn royal, We assumed We had tasted the delicacies this world has to offer, but… We clearly felt why King Mephilad called Alim the best chef in Anazumu.”

Eh-heh-heh, he’s going to make me blush. Well, I’ll be using more expensive ingredients for the wedding to clear out most of my stock.

“…King Mephilad, could We borrow this place for a short time?” King Rama asked, looking both rather happy and determined.
“…? I’m not sure what your intentions are, but… as long as you don’t use it for anything untoward.”

It looked like King Mephilad didn’t know either what the foreign ruler was planning. Even the guard Hanuman looked as if he had a question mark floating over his head.

“You have Our thanks.”

Right after giving King Mephilad his gratitude, King Rama stood up, grabbed the chair he had been sitting on, and then brought it to a place a few meters away before returning to us. Then, he stood right behind me.

Eh, what’s going on?

“Alim… no, Alim Nariwei, could you turn your chair Our way?”
“Hah… that’s fine, but…”

As he had asked, I turned my chair, so it faced the other way. Seeing him again from close up, he gave off the air off a handsome ruler, and I could feel youthfulness and power overflow from him.

“…Hah…” King Rama was taking deep breaths.

What’s this about?

At any rate, it felt like I had experienced that atmosphere before. How should I put it… he was exuding a kind of nervous excitement… something Mika and I had experienced on Earth to the point where we started to loathe it. For example, on Valentine’s Day, behind the school, when suddenly-

“Alright.”

Likely having made up his mind, Kind Rama looked at me seriously, as I was still sitting there. Finally… he went down on one knee, so his line of sight was level with mine, held out one hand, and spoke.

“Alim Nariwei, won’t you marry Us⁴?”

1. Alim’s cooking claims another victim.
2. The original is ハヌマーン (hanumaan). Hanuman is a deity in Hinduism, further driving home the point that Bufura is supposed to be fantasy India.
3. Does that mean he looks like a monkey?
4. The original is closer to “won’t you start a relationship with the intention of getting married?” While this seems to be a common expression in Japanese (I’ve seen it in other LNs), it does not sound like what a king would say.

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