Episode 4: Part 2 — Family Photo

After returning from the village, I visited a meat processing plant in the artisan district. I had gone to ask questions about poisons that affect birds, and I was brought to Dargan’s workshop.

“In other words, you want to use honey instead of sugar?”

“Yeah. To preserve meat, you have to use a massive amount of salt. But if you use too much, you can’t eat it without soaking the salt out. That’s why high-end goods use about as much sugar as salt. Vinder’s honey is priced about the same as sugar, right?”

Dargan brought up a business deal. Since he’s talking about using sugar, it’s likely something like ham rather than dried meat. Since there are no refrigerators, preserving meat relies on osmotic pressure. In the first place, honey—a lump of sugar that serves as food for bacteria—does not rot because of osmotic pressure.

Between nature making sugar and nature making honey, the cost of sugar is overwhelmingly lower. It might sound surprising, but sugar has the lowest cost among the three major nutrients. Plants create sugar directly from water, carbon dioxide, and solar energy. Proteins and fats are created specifically by using the energy from that sugar.

Plants turn the sugar they make into a form that is easy to store: starch. This is grain. Alternatively, they link sugars together to create strong fibers to build their own bodies. You can see how common sugar is for a plant.

Conversely, it is difficult to obtain a large, concentrated amount of sugar in a high-purity state. In this world, humans cultivate plants like sugarcane in fields, spending an enormous amount of time and labor to extract sugar. In modern terms, it costs a lot in labor and land.

On the other hand, what about honey? Simply put, honey is the condensation of nectar, which is thinly distributed sugar. If you purely calculate the labor required, it is a high-cost item that doesn’t even compare to sugar.

The key point is that most of that labor is done by honeybees. Using bees as a low-cost labor force to obtain honey from land stretching outside the fields is treated as a bonus for the village.

By the way, livestock farming essentially has the same structure. It involves using an animal like a cow to turn sugar—in the form of dietary fiber that humans cannot digest for nutrition—into meat.

In the environment of this country, if we use our beekeeping technology, we can make it for the same price as sugar, or maybe even cheaper.

“Besides, we might be able to make a new product with a flavor different from sugar.”

“There’s that, too.”

The difference between sugar and honey is whether it remains as sucrose or is broken down into fructose. Fructose, which is abundant in honey, has the property of having a strong sweetness at low temperatures. That is why it is used in soft drinks.

By the way, on modern Earth, there was technology to turn starch back into sugar, and technology to break sugar down into glucose and fructose like honey. As a result, soft drinks flooded the market to the point of causing health problems.

Honestly, even if I know the principles, my application doesn’t reach the level of an expert. I only remembered what we just discussed after it was mentioned.

“I see. Honey production will increase further in the future. But there is one problem…”

“What is it?”

I told Dargan about the honey mixed with poisonous flower pollen.

“Do people usually worry about that level of detail? You won’t be able to eat anything.”

“I know, but…”

“Well, as a business partner, that stupid honesty isn’t bad. So, what are you telling me to do?”

“Actually, as experimental samples to investigate the toxicity of the pollen, I want small birds—specifically, songbirds.”

Dargan listened to my words with an exasperated face, but he agreed to prepare birds like quail. Once the marking of those flowers I left with the Curator is finished, I can perform the experiment.

“Then, the business talk is over. …By the way, Vinder. Who is your real target?”

Dargan suddenly lowered his voice and asked.

“Huh?”

“I mean, you’re surrounded by an incredible line-up of beauties, aren’t you?”

“No, no. They aren’t just ‘flowers on a high peak’ (unreachable); they’re more like flowers blooming above the clouds.”

“Don’t hide it. I know you went on a date last week.”

“That was, well, er, as part of employee training, so to speak.”

“The highest among the high-peak flowers is an employee? That’s amazing.”

Dargan teased me with a knowing look. I should have called them shareholders. I looked across the street. Across the main road was the Forum where we went to spend time.

“It’s an enviable story. The dignified Lady Claudia was with you, too, right?”

“In short, are you holding a grudge because I didn’t invite you? No, it was just a gathering of classmates.”

“Hahaha, besides that… Oh, looks like your pickup is here.”

A small girl came running, her black pigtails swinging. Did she come all the way to pick me up? No, wait—it’s strange that Mia is in such a panic.

“Senpai… Lady Alphina… news reached the shop that she collapsed at…”

I went pale at the words Mia said while out of breath.

“That’s a major event. What is her condition now?”

“Ah, no, she is conscious…”

Dargan asked in place of me, as I had frozen. Mia, having caught her breath, explained. She collapsed while facing the crystal at the Cathedral and was hurriedly moved back to the Grand Duke’s residence.

“The story is that it’s likely overwork. She says she’s fine and tried to return to the Cathedral, but the Grand Duke is stopping her.”

“She was fine until just last week. Besides, she said the image from the crystal was already determined…”

I felt a little relieved by Mia’s words, but what welled up next was a feeling of helplessness. It had only been four days since the shopping trip at the Forum. At that time, I asked a little about the prophecy. If the situation is that harsh…

“Am I that unreliable…?”

“Calm down. The fact that a message was sent specifically means there’s something going on, right?”

That’s right. Why am I obsessing over uncharacteristic vanity? Get a grip.

“T-That’s right. First, information gathering.”

“Hey, what on earth are you—”

“Probably, he’s saying he’s going to visit her, so it’s fine. Dargan-senpai.”

“Ah, no, that’s what I meant, but…”

“You, your choice of words is bad.”

I thought so myself. Good job translating that, Mia.

“Anyway, I understand the situation. Go quickly. I’ll make sure the birds are ready. Fresh ones that would be delicious to eat.”

“Ah, yes, please.”

Come to think of it, we were talking about the pollen toxicity test. I can leave it to him; he said the delicious yakitori at the Forum was sourced from Dargan.

The Forum? Something got caught like a thorn in my throat. No, it wasn’t about the yakitori. It was after that, when the two of us went to buy fruit water, and at that time Alphina…

“Senpai, let’s hurry.”

“Ah, yeah, but there’s something I need to check first.”

“It’s this relief, right?”

The arrangement and types of stalls were different from four days ago, but there was no mistaking the largest stone slab in the wide Forum. I stopped in front of it. Mia was still looking puzzled.

I stared at the magnificent relief.

About a dozen men and women in old-fashioned clothing were lined up. It was a composition like the gods of Olympus in Greek mythology, or the twelve apostles of Christianity…

“I see…”

I remembered the Roman Forum. There was a relief depicting a group of gods in the same way. However, the ones likened to gods were the Imperial family of that time. If so, what is depicted here is…

“In short, this is a family photo of the Royal Family…”

“Senpai? Yes, Lilka said this plaza was built by the high nobility, led by the King and the Grand Duke. …Ah!”

“What ‘artistic meaning’ behind the blank space?”

The blank space near the center. When it was made, a person should have been depicted here. It was scraped away afterward. That’s why it was unnatural.

One more check. I headed to the second-largest stone slab in the Forum. There are two, but naturally, it’s the one placed to the west.

“Senpai?”

“…So it’s ‘Damnatio Memoriae’ (erasure of record)?”

I struck the stone bench. I am angry at my own stupidity. I should have gathered more information properly about the situation Alphina is placed in.