Chapter 4 Exclusive Servant and Natto Riot
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
A little after my fifteenth birthday, I went to the new settlement land in a carriage, but before I arrived there, I wanted to go back as soon as possible.
The reason is…
”What’s wrong with your face, Master Neil? It looks like it’s gotten even worse since the last time I saw you.”
The reason is this.
Diana, my exlusive servant whom my father had assigned to me, was spitting venom words that was sapping my mental strength.
I know she is a beautiful woman with beautiful black hair, long slits and blue eyes that show a strong will, and she is so good-looking that I can say she is a beauty without any flattery.
In fact, I would have been happy with all my hands if it weren’t for her poison.
I wonder why my father gave Deanna to me. Maybe because she was close to my age, or because she used to play with me when I was little?
To be precise, I used to play with her, but that’s not important.
The problem is Diana’s attitude, which is inappropriate for a servant.
Well, to be honest, I don’t want to be respected as a master, but I also don’t want to be treated like a nonsense.
”Diana, didn’t you used to be softer?”
”Oh, so now you’re trying to s*xually harass me? Pfft, please. But, well, I have more muscles than I used to have.”
”No one’s talking about your body! I didn’t even mention it!”
”Is that so? But I assumed Master Neil had mastered the art of stealthily fondling my body without my consent.”
”What’s my reputation in Diana’s mind?”
”You’re nothing but a mad scientist always holed up in your lab, conducting bizarre experiments.”
Well, it’s hard for me to deny the fact.
After all, it’s true that I’ve been experimenting a lot to see what I can do here based on modern knowledge, and it may look like I’m doing crazy things, but that doesn’t mean I’ve ever invented such a perverted invention that I can freely play with her body!
Wait? At least I have thought about the possibility of making such a secret tool by using the power of magic, though, hasn’t it?
”Master Neil, did you think of something inappropriate?”
”Y-you’re imagining things.’
What kind of an esper is she?
Anyway, my mind can’t handle her free talk, so I’m going to ask her about the settlement.
”Our destination, I didn’t hear anything about it. Where is it?”
”The southern border of the Empire. It was given by the Emperor during the Nattou riots.”
”Oh, that time.”
The Nattou riot was literally a riot caused by that fermented soybeans.
As I recall, it was three years ago, and I was about to start an experiment based on modern knowledge in my laboratory as usual.
I had always been the first to try out any knowledge that seemed useful, and for a change of pace, I decided to experiment with something simple and not so useful that I had not been exposed to before.
Among them, I suddenly thought of nattou, a fermented soybean food.
After all, the process of making nattou is very simple. First, soybeans and straw are prepared.
The soybeans are soaked in water and then boiled in a pot until they are so soft that they can be easily crushed with fingers.
The straw bracts are also boiled and dried in a pot, and then the freshly boiled soybeans are stuffed into the straw bracts and left in a warm place for a whole day to complete the nattou.
It was supposed to be a simple and safe process, but that was not the way it was supposed to go.
This is a different world, where the laws are different from those of the world in which I was born previously, and even if I followed the same procedures, it does not mean that the same thing will be produced as in the world in which I used to live.
I had forgotten this fact, and when I opened the door of the laboratory with a silly thought that I was looking forward to the taste of homemade nattou, I immediately sensed something strange.
The laboratory was filled with a faint sweet smell.
I thought that it was just a case of “bacteria got into the room and made it rotten”, but I was horrified when I found a dead rat right next to the nattou.
The smell of nattou must have brought the rat here, but the problem was that the rat was dead, even though there was no sign that the straw bract had been torn.
It would be understandable if the rat had died after eating nattou, but the fact that the straw bracts were not torn means that the rat had died without eating natto.
Because of this, I had a bad premonition in my mind, and I left the laboratory immediately, and erased the natto by magic, and disinfected the whole laboratory, but then my physical condition changed rapidly, and I had high fever, diarrhea, and vomiting.
After three days and three nights of wandering between life and death, several high-ranking priests were summoned and constantly applied healing magic to me, and I managed to survive.
I still feel chilly just thinking about the fact that I almost died in spite of the fact that I left the laboratory immediately after realizing something was wrong, if there had been no dead rat at that time and I had been late in noticing something wrong….
I thought that the experiment on nattou was the last one and that the report on natto was a failure, and the natto incident seemed to have ended with that.
However, one day a while later, my father and I were summoned by the emperor himself.
We were both horrified at that time, wondering what was the meaning of summoning not only my father but also myself who had not yet come of age, but to our surprise, the reason for the summons was about the failure report of the natto.
Apparently, His Majesty the Emperor had read all the reports on my experiments regardless of the results, and he was very interested in the strong toxin, and above all, the fact that it can be easily produced.
As it turns out, all it takes is to boil soybeans and straw in a pot and leave it in a warm place to create a powerful bioweapon.
The ingredients are easy to use, and no one would even imagine that soybeans and straw could be used to make poison.
Moreover, even a single breath of the poison would surely result in death unless several high-ranking priests were stationed to cast healing spells continuously, so I was truly trembling as I listened to the Emperor’s story.
As for the reason why he summoned me, he wanted to warn me to keep the existence of natto and its production method secret.
I thought it was unnecessary to call me personally, but I guess the emperor did not want more people to know the existence of natto as much as possible.
Fearing that the information about natto might be leaked, he did not send a letter to me, and the fact that this discussion was held not in the audience hall but in his private room among us, the emperor and his son, and the prime minister, shows how careful he was.
Thus, the nattou, which I tried to create as a biological weapon named “Nattou,” spread its threat secretly under the secret order of the Emperor, and as a reward for the development of Nattou and as a hush money, I was given an undeveloped land in the southern border of the Empire as the territory of Count Atmiras’ family.
However, since I don’t have very good memories of that time, I feel a little complicated to think of the land that was given to me.
Regardless of my feelings, the carriage carrying me and Diana was moving smoothly toward the new land.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.