Chapter 307 The Deepening Mystery of the Inquisitor’s Miso Soup Craving
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The day after my secret talk with Reinele-san, I showed my face at the dining hall again. Lately, it seemed like I’d always had some sort of chore that took me there, but today? It was purely for a change of pace. Now, I wasn’t particularly exhausted or anything; today had been peaceful. I’d mostly just written letters to send back to Betty’s hometown and helped her copy them out. But because it had been too peaceful, I guess my guard just dropped. I’d been so stressed out lately with everything going on that the backlash from all that tension hit me all at once.
”Ah… the miso soup is delicious today, too,” I sighed, savoring the moment. I wasn’t talking to anyone and hadn’t brought Lewya along. I was just taking my sweet time to enjoy my meal alone. Diana had actually told me not to go to the dining hall without at least one bodyguard, but ever since that whole mess where Sia-san broke into my bedroom, I’d had someone constantly by my side. I finally craved some alone time, so I had secretly slipped out of the mansion. Of course, I wasn’t completely alone—Harmon-san and his crew were making a racket behind me, same as always.
”Hey, Nick! Tell us about that sister from yesterday!” one of them yelled.
”Yesterday? What are you talking about?” I replied, shrugging. “Unfortunately, I was told to keep yesterday’s matters a secret, so I can’t answer anything for you.”
”Tch… well, given who that sister is, I guess it can’t be helped. Wait, if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean we can meet her at the clinic?” the first one asserted.
”Forget it. If you approach a priestess without a clear injury or sickness, you’ll end up meeting one of those terrifying Inquisitors,” another warned.
”The Inquisitor is what now?” a new, unsettlingly formal voice asked.
”No, wait, I was just saying—uh…?”
”Demar, who are you talki—ng to…”
””””………””””
What was that? It got quiet behind me all of a sudden. I turned around to see what was up and noticed the very person I’d spoken with just yesterday standing right beside the table where Harmon-san and his group usually sat.
”Eh, Espera-san?” I squeaked.
”Hello, Nick-san. I apologize on behalf of Reinele-sama for the great trouble she caused you yesterday,” the woman, Espera-san, offered with a flat tone.
”Ah, ha ha ha… how do you know about that?” I stammered.
”She came back so thoroughly drunk that it would be more shocking if I hadn’t noticed. Up until now, I’ve overlooked a few things, considering it was her way of relieving daily stress, but that, I simply couldn’t ignore. I had her confess everything while she was emptying her stomach,” Espera-san explained, her voice devoid of emotion.
Darn it, it was a mistake to let her drink without considering the aftermath! Well, to be precise, Reinele-san herself was doing the drinking, getting less and less reserved as the alcohol flowed, but still!
”I will take the liberty of sitting next to you,” Espera-san said, as she settled into the seat beside me. She glanced at the contents of my soup bowl and slightly tilted her head, a rare break in her composure.
”What is that?” she inquired, pointing.
”Huh? Oh, this is miso soup.”
”‘Miso’?” she repeated.
”It’s a fermented seasoning made from soybeans. It’s pretty unpopular because people say the color and cloudiness make it look like muddy water, but it’s delicious!” I told her, my enthusiasm rising.
”Is that so? Then may I also have one of those miso soups?” she asked, looking straight ahead.
”Sure thing, how about some bread with that?” Narsht-san offered, stepping closer.
”I have already finished my dinner for the day, so only the soup will be sufficient,” Espera-san declared, firmly turning down the bread. She sat up ramrod straight, staring forward in silence while she waited for the miso soup to be prepared.
What was this? Wasn’t she here for me? I had figured she must have something to say about yesterday’s incident, but here she was, coming all the way to the dining hall, sitting right beside me, and just… ordering food? A huge cluster of question marks flooded my mind. Ultimately, Espera-san never spoke to me until the miso soup she ordered was placed in front of her.
”Well, then, ‘Itadakimasu’¹,” she said.
”!?” I gasped.
”Is something the matter?” she asked, noticing my sudden start.
”N-no, nothing at all! It just sounded strange for a moment; please, don’t mind me. I must have misheard,” I quickly fumbled out, trying to cover up my astonishment. Espera-san hadn’t just said ‘I’m going to eat,’ she had clearly and distinctly said ‘Itadakimasu’ in Japanese.
I pretended to sip my own miso soup while casting a sidelong glance at Espera-san’s face. Now that I was scrutinizing her, her features looked distinctly Asian, or maybe Japanese/Korean—it was hard for me to be sure since I couldn’t even tell the difference between Japanese and Korean faces. Aside from her cream-colored hair, her face wouldn’t look out of place at all if someone told me she was Japanese. It wasn’t that just having these features made her an ihomono, but when you included the pre-meal greeting, it started looking very much like it.
No way, I thought, my anxiety spiking. An ihomono can’t be an Inquisitor in Theocracy. That’s absolutely impossible. Still, Theocracy probably didn’t know every single little thing that came from my old world. Maybe it was just a coincidence that a Japanese-looking Espera-san happened to use that un-scrutinized pre-meal greeting?… Yeah, right. What kind of coincidence is that?
”Nick-san,” Espera-san’s formal voice cut through my internal freak-out.
”H-huh!?” I jumped.
”This miso soup is quite delicious. I have grown fond of it,” she stated.
”Really!?” My doubt was instantly shoved into a corner of my mind, replaced by sheer joy that I had finally met someone who genuinely appreciated miso.
”Oh man, I am so happy you said that! Everyone else loses their appetite the second they see the miso, and they won’t eat it! A few people do eat it, but one of them says anything Narsht-san cooks is fine, and the other one just says he can stomach anything, even muddy water, so I haven’t had anyone genuinely tell me it tastes good!” I exclaimed, pouring out my pent-up frustration.
”You seem to have quite a few unique individuals around you,” Espera-san noted. “While I cannot claim to possess typical sensibilities, I do not believe it looks so off-putting that one should avoid it entirely, though I admit it does resemble muddy water somewhat.”
”Right?! You see! Everyone else is just being overly sensitive!” I asserted, feeling vindicated. “Say, I couldn’t see clearly from a distance, but was the ocher-colored object you dropped into the pot just now the miso?”
”Oh, are you interested?” I asked, immediately excited. “Narsht-san! Could you please put some miso on a small plate and bring it over?” The joy of finally having a miso friend was overwhelming. Narsht-san offered a wry smile but still placed the small plate of miso and a tiny spoon in front of Espera-san.
”This is miso…” she murmured.
After observing the miso from various angles, Espera-san picked up the spoon and brought the miso to her mouth.
I worried that even that small spoonful would be too salty. It looked like white miso, but due to a past, bitter experience of nearly dying from eating spoiled soybeans, I always put extra salt in to prevent spoilage. Yet, Espera-san took the spoonful without flinching and calmly savored the taste.
”Wow… that Inquisitor just ate it in one bite, without hesitation,” Harmon-san muttered from behind.
”I can’t believe she’d eat that. It looks like mud, like ocher mixed with water,” another one whispered.
”Mud? Man, that stuff looks like what comes out when your stomach is really upset!” a third one chuckled.
”Hey! I told you guys to stop talking like that!” I snapped, turning back to Espera-san with an apologetic smile. “Seriously… so, how is the taste, Espera-san?”
”It is quite salty, more so than I expected, but it is delicious,” she replied thoughtfully. “What is this feeling? Though I have never eaten it before, I feel very nostalgic.”
Maybe the Japanese DNA imprinted on her body is calling out for miso? Some ridiculously unlikely thought like that crossed my mind, but it was immediately blown away the moment I saw Espera-san’s profile. The usually expressionless Espera-san was showing a faint smile on her lips. That alone was surprising, but while her mouth was indeed smiling, her eyes weren’t. They looked deeply sorrowful and mournful, leaving me utterly confused.
She really might be Japanese, I thought, the two contradictory ideas—An ihomono cannot be a Theocracy Inquisitor and She is definitely a Japanese ihomono—clashing in my head. They refused to reconcile. Did she manage to hide being Japanese? If so, would she make a comment that might raise suspicion of being an ihomono, like saying the miso made her feel “nostalgic?” And if it was just my overthinking, how could I explain the way she said “Itadakimasu” in perfect Japanese and her Japanese-like features? The contradictions were too big to just shrug off.
”Nick-san,” she interrupted my thoughts again.
”A-yes?”
”Is this the only type of miso you have?”
”Um, well, we have one other type, one that’s been aged for quite a long time,” I explained.
”Then, would you allow me to try that one as well?” she requested.
”Y-yes, of course,” I replied, nodding. It definitely felt like Espera-san had an unusual level of interest in miso. I couldn’t shake that feeling… but it was no use. No matter how many times I thought about it, the only conclusion I could reach was something completely implausible. While I was struggling with this, Narsht-san brought out two small plates—one for the new miso and one with long, thin slices of fresh vegetable—and placed them in front of Espera-san.
”Compared to the last one, the color of this miso is reddish-brown. And what are these vegetables?” she asked, observing the setup.
”This miso is too salty to eat on its own. Your tongue would be shot,” Narsht-san gruffly explained. “So, use the vegetables to eat it.”
”I see,” Espera-san acknowledged.
Even with Narsht-san’s warning, she seemed curious about the miso’s raw taste and put a tiny bit on the tip of the spoon before bringing it to her mouth. She immediately frowned at the intense saltiness.
”It is indeed quite salty,” she confirmed, carefully.
”See? That much saltiness would numb your tongue and ruin all the other flavors. That’s where the pride of our frontier settlement’s vegetables comes in,” Narsht-san asserted.
”Then…” After tasting the fierce saltiness, Espera-san showed a moment of hesitation before eating the miso with a slice of vegetable. She was chewing cautiously at first, but then her rigid posture suddenly softened, and her eyes widened in surprise.
”Delicious…! I couldn’t tell when I ate the miso by itself, but when the saltiness was diluted by the vegetable, it allowed the depth and the aroma to become apparent. It’s strange; the aroma is something one usually senses with the nose, yet I feel it here,” she mused, pointing to her mouth.
I’d been overthinking everything, but seeing Espera-san give such an honest, simple review of the miso made me feel foolish. Who cares who Espera-san really was? I abandoned the frustrating spiral of my thoughts and chimed into the conversation.
”When your tongue gets hit with a really strong stimulus, your other senses get dull—I totally get that feeling,” I confessed. “I’ve had a similar experience myself a long time ago when I basically destroyed my tongue with a devastatingly sweet Oran fruit, and couldn’t taste anything but the sweetness after that.”
”Hah… and where did you have an experience such as that?” she inquired, slightly judgmental.
”I ate the Oran fruit that only had two left on the tree,” I admitted sheepishly.
”I believe there were far better methods available to you if you had grown tired of your life,” she asserted flatly.
It seemed that the consensus about eating the highly condensed sugar of an Oran being a suicidal act was universal. That certainly showed how disappointed Diana must have been in me back then… though, even considering that, letting me eat that was still going too far, wasn’t it?
”I wasn’t thinking of anything like that!” I quickly denied. “Anyway, which miso did you prefer?”
”Hmm, I prefer the flavor of the dark miso, but the mellow flavor of the light miso is also quite enjoyable~desuno, so it’s difficult to say which is my favorite,” Espera-san answered, leaning forward slightly.
”I’m glad you liked it so much. Oh, would you like me to share some with you?” I offered.
”Would that be acceptable?” she asked, surprised.
”Yes! I’m honestly just about the only one who consumes it, so I actually have a little leftover. It would help me out if you took some,” I replied.
”If that is the case, I will accept without reservation,” she declared.
”Great! I’ll bring it over to the clinic tomorrow, then. Oh, right, I have something important to take care of first thing in the morning.” I checked the time.
”Is that so?” Espera-san questioned.
”Yes, so I’ll excuse myself here~desuno. I hope you enjoy your miso dishes, Espera-san! See you!” I asserted, standing up and leaving the dining hall to head back to the mansion.
It was only then, walking the road home, that the realization hit me.
”Ah, wait, what did Espera-san even come to the dining hall for?”
She’d mentioned an apology for Reinele-san, but if that was the only reason, she would have left after saying it the first time. The fact that she sat next to me meant she must have had something else she wanted to talk about…
”…Well, it’s not like I’ll figure it out no matter how much I think about it,” I conceded to myself.
Espera-san’s true identity, her purpose—something was definitely going on, but I didn’t have the guts to pry, and honestly, the noble-style mind games were the last thing I wanted to deal with. From what we’d talked about, she didn’t seem like a bad person. She treated me with respect when I was polite, she let Betty off the hook, and she seemed like someone who wouldn’t act outside of reason. I was worried sick when I heard an Inquisitor would be coming with the priestess, but I was truly glad that the Inquisitor who came to the frontier settlement turned out to be Espera-san.
I hope things can just keep going smoothly like this… What I completely forgot was how many times I had wished for things to go smoothly, and how many times that wish had failed to come true.
* * *
I thought about adding a different point of view at the end of this chapter, but since the post is already late, I figured putting it in the next chapter would cause an even bigger delay. By the way, Narsht is interested in miso, but only from a cook’s perspective for seasoning, not from an eater’s perspective, which is what Neil was expecting. So, Espera is the first person who truly appreciates miso as an eating partner for Neil.
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Summary:
Nick, seeking a peaceful solo meal, finds his tranquility shattered by the arrival of Espera, the mysterious Inquisitor. She reveals she knows about Reinele’s drunken confession, then sits down and orders miso soup. Her formal demeanor cracks as she tastes the soup and the new dark miso, confessing to a feeling of deep nostalgia. This moment, combined with her use of the Japanese word ‘Itadakimasu’, plunges Nick into a spiral of suspicion: could the Theocracy’s Inquisitor truly be a fellow ‘ihomono’ from his world? Despite his fear, Nick is momentarily charmed by her genuine appreciation for his food. He leaves, still unsure of her true purpose for visiting the dining hall, a mystery that continues to worry him.
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Character Insight:
Nick’s central conflict revolves around his deep-seated paranoia as an ‘ihomono’ in the Theocracy. His willingness to completely abandon his fears when he finds a true ‘miso buddy’ highlights his craving for normal human connection and cultural familiarity. Espera’s fleeting, sorrowful smile while tasting the food hints at a massive, hidden emotional life beneath her rigid Inquisitor exterior, suggesting she carries a burden similar to Nick’s.
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Behind the Scene:
The chapter sets up Espera as a major source of future tension and intrigue. Her background and connection to Nick’s former world are explicitly hinted at but left unconfirmed, driving the next part of the story. The small, seemingly innocent detail of her appreciation for miso is actually the most significant piece of evidence pointing to her potentially being an ‘ihomono,’ making the food a potent symbol.
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T/L:
¹ [Itadakimasu] is a Japanese phrase used before eating to express gratitude for the food and all those involved in preparing it. ↩
Notes:
• Reinele – A High Priestess (higher clergy rank than Espera) of the Pentis faith. She is highly nervous, timid, and fidgety, nearly knocking something over in her stress in Lord Neil’s presence. She is visually distinct among the clergy as her robes strain under ‘gravity-defying architecture,’ suggesting a very large figure. She is uncomfortable with Espera’s open discussion of money and compensation for healing services. Have long blonde hair.
• Harmon – An experienced hunter and guard who came to the settlement and stayed. He is part of a hunting group with Demar, Dominic, Jott, Victor and Kilk. He knows Nick and Lewya, and discusses business ideas with Nick. He first appears in Chapter 220.
• Nick – A servant who serves Neil and is trusted to protect him. He is strong enough to potentially fight Momoka. He first appears in Chapter 225, where he is introduced as a servant who is worried about Neil’s well-being after a monster attack. He is later revealed to be Neil himself, pretending to be a servant named Nick.
• Espera – An Inquisitor (middle clergy rank) of the Pentis faith from the Theocracy, serving as the official point of contact. She is characterized by her crisp tone and brutal honesty, defending the necessity of charging high fees (‘fair compensation’) to maintain their resources and aid the suffering. She possesses a cool, assessing gaze and is highly perceptive, noticing Bearty and closely examining her distinctive features before choosing to leave without incident.
• Narsht-san – MC’s chef.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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