Chapter 371

“I am Demona Wicronon. Now that I am here, you do not have to worry about anything.”

“Wicronon? No, more than that, what worry…”

Even if Nia was a bit suspicious, the name of the Wicronon family carried quite a bit of weight for her as well.

“How frustrating it must have been when the world wouldn’t listen to your voice. Now I! I will deliver Senior Nia’s will to the world on your behalf. So now, you can just wait with a comfortable body and mind.”

Moreover, it was a truly sincere tone, gaze, expression, and gesture.

She was like a ray of light descending upon a hard life where it seemed no one in the world looked back!

“Wow, Wicronon is awesome.”

“I really think we just need to wait now.”

“I want to wait too…”

The naive people of this world were completely moved to tears by Demona’s words.

However, Roan stared at Demona’s back with coldly frozen eyes.

For some reason, it reminded him of a scene he had frequently seen whenever he turned on the news in Korea.

Especially around election season.

“Wicronon! Wicronon!”

“Demona! Demona!”

Demona’s followers sent tiny cheers.

*Hum— Thump—*

“My, that girl had a side like that too.”

“Ah, if they do poorly, they’re someone else’s descendant; if they do well, they’re my descendant, eh!”

The authorities also seemed quite moved.

While Nia was not exactly moved, she still asked half-heartedly,

“Sure… what do you need?”

Demona shook her head and said,

“What would a lacking person like me need? Just whatever your heart desires, whatever you can give me is fine. I will take whatever you give.”

“Uh… yeah. Then here.”

Nia rummaged around, gathered the ingredients needed for simple cooking, and handed them to Demona.

If she used those ingredients faithfully, it would be no problem for her to get a perfect score on the pop quiz.

‘There was a reason they’ve been one of the Empire’s four great families for five thousand years.’

Roan clicked his tongue as he watched that scene.

Indeed, one had to have at least that much political skill to survive, let alone lead one of the four great families.

…The problem was that he didn’t know why she didn’t act like that normally.

Anyway, by this point, the named characters, including Sion, had roughly figured out how to get ingredients from Nia.

“If I become the Saintess, for nature…”

“In the Pabilto family, we will put those black mages to work for nature conservation…!”

“The Diella family has cultivated and protected grapes like friends for generations…”

Nature conservation efforts and pledges tailored to their own situations!

Listening to those words, Nia distributed the ingredients accordingly.

Roan’s mind became even more complicated.

‘Demona has released poison into the naive Empire.’

The untainted nature and people had been Roan’s only comfort.

Of course, not all of those words might be empty promises.

However,

“Demona.”

“Huh? What?”

“Why did you ask for ingredients at Senior Nia’s discretion?”

“Since I don’t know anything, I left it to the expert’s judgment~”

“Then do you really plan to make efforts for nature conservation in the future?”

“No, I told you to wait~ I’ll conserve nature someday!”

“…”

For one thing, she was definitely making an empty promise.

With the very first person in that state, what on earth was he supposed to do!

In any case, the noble students who had to lead the Empire learned how to speak to be reborn as truly outstanding nobles.

“I will take that goat over there!”

“Is that so? Jjukjjuk-ie would probably prefer carp meat over goat meat.”

“Uh… because I like goat meat more. But how do you know Jjukjjuk-ie’s name…?”

“Hahaha! Truly trashy humans~ Just take the carp meat.”

“No, the goat is…”

*Glare—*

“…but I should eat carp too. Hahaha!”

Depending on the situation, they also acquired the flexibility to compromise reasonably with the strong.

Still, Acherandir’s curriculum was producing quite decent effects in its own way!

As Roan looked at that sight in dismay, Nia, whose eyes happened to meet his, smiled brightly and said,

“Roaaan! Why don’t you leave these trash behind and go to the mountains with me after all?!”

“…I cannot.”

When Roan refused, the surrounding students stirred.

“He’s not going?”

“Why? That’s too bad.”

If they were disappointed because he was going, it would have been a beautiful display of loving a friend, but the students acted completely opposite, never failing to meet expectations.

“Roan is truly serious about rebuilding his family~”

“Hahaha! Indeed, if a man harbors an ambition, he has to be at least that much! We will specifically help set up the interrogation room in the lord’s castle!”

“…I do not need such a thing.”

“What! Is he planning to do it directly in his room? As expected of Roan. Even our family wouldn’t go that far… Kehuck-cough!”

At least his friends thought well of him, but it was not the correct answer.

Not long after, all the students received enough ingredients to take the pop quiz and took their respective places.

Alphard spoke in a voice that all the students could hear.

“The students who received their share—just cook as you were taught.”

“Hey, did you learn anything?”

“No? We all slept together.”

Roan nodded, thinking, ‘Of course.’

In fact, there might have been a good reason for taking a pop quiz without being taught anything at school.

What was the use of teaching hard?

When the students had no intention of learning in the first place.

Meanwhile, Roan gathered discarded branches and fallen leaves from the edge of the playground.

[I will help too!]

*Kirik—!*

Bell and Charlotte also carried as much as they could bear.

Sion saw this and asked,

“Roan, what are you going to do with those?”

Roan stared intently at Sion.

“W-Why?”

Sion flinched and asked again.

“Sigh. To cook, you need fire.”

Was Sion also a daughter of a noble family who had never dipped her hands in water!

However, hearing Roan’s words, Sion tilted her head.

“If it’s fire…”

*Whoosh—*

Then, she simply manifested fire-attribute holy magic to ignite a fire on the playground floor.

“Can’t you just light it?”

“…”

Roan was speechless at that nonchalant question.

Because Sion’s words were actually correct.

For priests, a single fire-attribute holy magic solved it cleanly!

However, Roan, being a black mage, had to professionally learn fire-attribute black magic, but he hadn’t.

But if he asked a devil that used fire, considering previous cases, there was a high probability that it would burn down the entire playground.

*Crackle— Crackle—*

“That’s right, Roan. Isn’t it better to just light it like this?”

“Fire.”

Rafia and Riel, who were watching, also lit fires of their own and asked.

Roan’s expression turned fierce.

“H-Heeek! D-Did we do something wrong?”

His friends asked Roan, thoroughly intimidated.

Roan spoke in a stiff tone.

“Cooking with fire lit like that will make it tasteless. Cooking is sincerity. And since you have to concentrate when cooking, accidents can easily happen.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Then we should gather branches too.”

In fact, all fires were the same, and since they weren’t using holy magic throughout the process like mystic food, what difference would it make.

Still, since Roan had said it, his friends believed it literally and gathered firewood.

“Hey, they say we have to light a fire?”

“Why?”

“…But still, cooking without fire is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Ah, is that so? You’re pretty smart. You must have helped out a lot at home?”

The other students were even more of a spectacle, leaving Roan speechless.

Like that, campfires lit by the students appeared here and there.

*Fwoooosh—!!!*

“Hey, why is your fire like that?!”

“I-I don’t know?”

“Putting a bomb pinecone—into a campfire is dangerous.”

*Hiss—*

“Why won’t my fire catch?”

“If you light a water tree branch—do you think it will catch fire?”

“Pr-Professor, you aren’t angry, right?”

‘Wouldn’t you be angry if you were him.’

Occasionally, students who couldn’t even light a fire properly appeared, but they didn’t make up a large portion.

But that was a minor issue.

“I’m going to make a steak, should I wash it with water first?”

“Right, they said hygiene is important.”

“Then shouldn’t we wash it after grilling?”

‘Go wash your own hands first.’

Hearing such nonsense, Roan, who had tried his best to ignore the other students, could no longer bear it.

*Step, step—*

“H-Huck! It’s Darc…”

“W-We can’t give you our meat!”

“For a steak, just adjust the fire power moderately and grill it until golden brown. Grind and sprinkle the spices Senior Nia gave you beforehand, and before taking it out, poke it with a knife to check if it’s cooked or not.”

“I’ll give you the meat, so please don’t stab me…”

“Tsk, do whatever you want.”

Roan began walking around, teaching common sense to the students who were talking nonsense.

…This time, it was real common sense, not just Roan’s own.

It was to the point that Alphard even said,

“Darc, if you become class representative—I will pay you 500 talents per week.”

“I am sorry, Professor. I am already the class representative of Professor Diar’s class.”

“That is a pity. I am—sorry.”

As Diar had said, using him as a shield usually made most professors give up like that.

However, despite Roan’s and Alphard’s efforts, unavoidable incidents were bound to happen.

*Boooom—!!!!*

“Kyaah! The pot exploded!”

“Wh-What? Is it a black mage terror attack?”

‘No matter how crazy a black mage is, they wouldn’t do a terror attack like that…’

It was a mishap where a pot exploded with a loud noise from time to time, making one wonder what on earth they were doing.

Such cases usually happened when they randomly threw in incompatible seasonings, or failed after trying to create pressure with holy power because they had seen it done somewhere.

The students who wasted the precious ingredients put on tearful faces.

*Woof—! Squeeeal—!*

On the other hand, as firecracker-like sounds popped here and there, the students’ spiritual beasts thought their masters were playing a prank and were very delighted.

Roan let out a sigh and returned to his place.

Why should he look after them one by one as if they were cute, and besides, he had to cook his own food anyway.

Then, he instantly began to focus, ignoring whatever was happening around him.

*Neigh—!*

To give an idea of how intense it was:

*Glare—!* *Screeech—!*

A spiritual beast that ran over to play with Roan without knowing any better fled in terror just by looking at his expression!

Naturally, since Roan had even focused, the speed of progress was amazing.

*Clatter, clatter—! Chop, chop— Plop, plop—!*

“Wow, Roan is really good with a knife! As expected of experience—mmph!”

“You heretic, do you want to become a part of my experience?!”

Demona tried to say something but was gagged by Hector and struggled.

However, the other friends were also looking at him with amazed eyes all the same.

“Did Roan learn cooking in the Holy Emperor’s Palace too?”

“Maybe the people in the Holy Emperor’s Palace were tighter than we thought…”

The reputation of the Holy Emperor’s Palace was dropping in real-time!

In fact, except for special cases, children of noble families boasted about how gently they had been raised, so conversely, being good at such chores was something they were rather ashamed of.

That said, even Sion felt slightly relieved that she had stayed in the Pope’s Palace instead of the Holy Emperor’s Palace.

“I don’t think I’m particularly good at it, though…”

Of course, Roan, the object of their admiration, felt a bit embarrassed.

“””????”””

His friends tilted their heads, wondering what on earth they had just heard.

Then how much better at cooking did one have to be?