After finishing the rations for everyone, I watched them eat.
If you carefully observed the customers’ expressions and gestures, the leftovers they left behind, and so on, it was a great help in running a shop. That kind of know-how was no different in a field kitchen.
Whether there was anything uncomfortable about the meal, whether there were foods everyone tended to avoid, how much food was left over...
‘Not a single person is leaving anything.’
Was it because my sensibilities were still stuck as a modern person’s?
Even though I had blended the spices for the curry to be as universally palatable as possible, I thought there would be at least some people reluctant to eat it...
Contrary to my expectations, the knights scraped their trays clean with their spoons, then wiped up even the last traces of curry sauce with bread and ate that too.
At that rate, I wouldn’t even need to wash the dishes.
As I observed the people, I noticed Arthur, who was likewise wolfing down his curry.
When he usually came to the restaurant to eat, he never ate as though he were craving it that badly. Did curry suit his tastes better than noodles?
Then had he been forcing himself to eat nothing but banquet noodles all this time because of his superior?
Next time he came to the restaurant, I’d have to give at least Arthur something else.
Arthur, having finished his meal, caught his breath and raised his head.
Since our eyes met, I spoke to him.
“It seems the meal suited your palate.”
“Yes. I enjoyed it very much. I can hardly believe it was made from the same ingredients as yesterday. Were spices among the provisions?”
“No. Those are something I procured separately.”
“They must be outrageously expensive...”
When I told him the source of the curry, Arthur trailed off in concern.
By medieval standards, spices were indeed extremely expensive ingredients.
But, well... I could get them with a click, and by the nature of spices, they didn’t require dozens of kilograms like other ingredients, so they weren’t a burden.
Although I wouldn’t be able to make more for them once the monster wave ended, it was still good if I could feed them well in the meantime.
If you begrudge national defense spending, the country falls.
“It’s fine. I don’t intend to charge for them separately, so please just enjoy the food.”
“Urgh, how can you devote yourself to the nation like this... Thank you.”
Arthur expressed his gratitude with an overwhelmed face, as if moved.
Not only him, but Luke sitting beside him and the other knights seemed to feel the same.
“Thank you for the meal!”
“Thank you for the meal, Mess Officer!”
Seeing them empty their trays clean and even greet me so heartily put me in a good mood.
As expected, people needed full stomachs to have manners, and they looked better for it too. Eating was important.
However, just then, an urgent report that poured cold water over the warm atmosphere rang through the field kitchen.
“E-Emergency! Intermediate magical beasts are attacking!! We need reinforcements!”
“Weren’t they expected to appear starting two days from now? They’ve shown up already?”
“Yes! They appeared all of a sudden, and the front line is in danger!”
The messenger explained the situation in a rush, and the knights, who had just finished eating, hurriedly rose from their seats.
Arthur, as befitting a platoon commander, was the first to run out of the field kitchen.
There were injured even when facing lower-grade magical beasts during the day. If intermediate magical beasts appeared at night, it would not end with mere injuries.
‘Damn it, why now of all times...!’
The troops who had just returned from battle had not had enough time to rest before being deployed again.
They had only just managed to eat before heading back to the battlefield. There was no way they could bring out their proper strength...
With worry weighing on him, Arthur put on his armor.
But the weight of the armor felt lighter than usual.
It was as if he were putting on armor for work in the morning after a deep, full night of sleep.
It was a sensation impossible to believe came from a body exhausted by fighting all day.
Feeling something off about that discrepancy, Arthur looked at the other soldiers.
“Huh? My sword feels a bit lighter?”
“Mine too. Doesn’t the armor feel lighter as well?”
It was strange that everyone in the daytime combat group was feeling such an improvement in condition, but there was something more important at the moment.
They too were aware of that, so they immediately put on their gear and threw themselves into the defensive line.
Bwoooooo—!
The sound of a horn blared out, announcing the arrival of reinforcements, and battle cries poured forth.
The well-trained soldiers were each deployed to their assigned defensive lines, while Arthur headed for the command tent.
When he entered the command tent, Duke Kailan, who was responding to the monster wave day and night without rest, and his adjutant Elrak greeted Arthur.
“You’re here. What is the condition of the daytime combat group? I’m uneasy since they came out without even resting properly.”
“Yes. I understand your concern, but their condition is not as bad as expected. No... they actually look good.”
Elrak had been worried about the morale of the soldiers who had not been able to rest, but Arthur’s answer was unexpectedly positive.
Out of habit, Elrak stroked his own mustache and studied Arthur carefully.
Arthur too had clearly been exhausted from fighting all day, yet his posture was upright at attention, his gaze unwavering, and the momentum flowing from his mana was vigorous.
Arthur was not the kind of person to give a false report out of concern for his superior’s reaction, and the state Elrak saw with his own eyes was also good, just as Arthur had said.
With a sense that this was fortunate amid misfortune, Elrak let out a soft laugh.
“If so, that’s a relief. Is it thanks to the temporary mess officer’s food?”
“I believe so!”
Arthur answered Elrak’s half-joking remark seriously.
Food was not a potion, and simply eating a meal should not immediately restore vitality or strength.
As a platoon commander and an aura user, Arthur surely did not fail to know that.
And yet he was taking such a serious attitude. Elrak thought Arthur must have found it extraordinarily delicious.
“Well... in any case, lend your strength to the center of the defensive line. They say the ogres are concentrated in the center.”
“I shall obey!”
Even among intermediate magical beasts, the degree of danger was not all the same.
The intermediate magical beasts currently confirmed on the battlefield were ogres, horned bears, and ice wolves. Horned bears and ice wolves were opponents ordinary knights could handle by forming ranks.
But ogres were far superior in size, strength, and defense compared to beast-type magical beasts.
Without the sword aura of an aura user, one could not pierce their tough hide and cut through their muscles.
For that reason, a knight capable of manifesting at least aura and producing sword aura was needed.
Arthur received the order and immediately headed for the central defensive line.
On the way, he saw soldiers engaged in fierce battle.
Among them were those who had been eating with him only moments ago, and compared to the night group, who had been well-rested before being deployed to battle, their movements were clearly different.
Slice—!
The sword of an ordinary knight, swung not with the intent to sever but merely to wound, cut off an ice wolf’s head.
It was the sword strike of a soldier who had been eating curry with relish in the field kitchen earlier.
“Huh, why did that cut so well?”
“You’re the one who cut it!”
The blade had advanced along the same sword path he had swung to the point of tedium, yet the result was different from usual.
Though the soldier was flustered by his own strength having somehow changed, he quickly adapted and swung his sword skillfully.
‘Everyone who ate the curry has grown stronger.’
Arthur reached that conclusion.
It was not only the knight who had just defeated the ice wolf. All the knights who had eaten Kang Jinwoo’s food had become stronger.
What stood out in particular was the combat power of the 1st Platoon.
“Urgh, help me!”
“Hyaaa!!”
Slash—!
When a knight from another platoon barely endured a horned bear’s claws with a cross guard and called for help, a knight from the 1st Platoon cut off the horned bear’s foreleg in a single stroke.
“Whew, I thought I was going to die!”
“Focus! Press them like this!”
The knight order’s organization into platoons had been created to make orders useful in interpersonal combat, subjugations, and reconnaissance operations.
When blocking a monster wave, they formed lines based on the weapons used and the number of personnel, without regard for platoon divisions.
Amid the chaos of everyone fighting all mixed together, the knights belonging to the 1st Platoon moved freely in all directions, killing magical beasts.
Why was only the 1st Platoon displaying such obvious strength?
‘The banquet noodles from last time?’
He could think of no other variable.
Everyone in the knight order shared the same training, meals, and rest areas.
‘I... didn’t feel any great difference in my strength.’
Even after the previous reconnaissance in Kallian Forest, Arthur had accompanied Duke Kailan every time and eaten Kang Jinwoo’s food.
But by that logic, Arthur’s strength should also have grown, and yet Arthur’s sword remained the same.
Arthur stopped thinking deeply.
During battle, becoming lost in such thoughts could put not only himself but his comrades in danger.
“It’s Sir Arthur!”
“Platoon Commander! You’ve arrived!”
“Yes!”
As soon as he reached the central defensive line, Arthur drew his sword and cut down the magical beasts.
His movements seemed very similar to usual, but the person performing them could feel a faint sense of incongruity.
‘What is this? It feels as if both my sword and my mana have become empty.’
Because ogres boasted bodies far larger than humans, the common tactic was to attack their lower bodies and break their balance before delivering a fatal blow rather than confronting them head-on.
Arthur executed that tactic like a machine.
Slice—!
“Uoooooooh!!!!”
The ogre tried to catch Arthur’s fluid movements, but Arthur dodged this way and that while attacking the joints of its lower body.
When the ogre, strength leaving its leg, dropped to one knee, Arthur steadily blocked its struggles and cut off its neck.
Thud—!
The ogre’s massive body, its head severed, collapsed to the ground.
He had only dealt with one among countless ogres, but Arthur felt an exaltation difficult to put into words.
‘My realm... has risen!’
The reason the other knights had been able to grow stronger despite eating Kang Jinwoo’s food fewer times than Arthur was that their growth threshold was low.
They were knights who had not reached the realm of aura users in the first place, so even consuming a little of Kang Jinwoo’s food had a dramatic effect.
But Arthur was a mature aura user.
Ten years ago, Arthur had first awakened aura, and he had continued training up to the present. His mental world was already saturated.
No matter how much time passed, he had been unable to awaken the next realm beyond sword aura, sword force, yet because he trained steadily, his mana had been compressed and accumulated.
A decisive trigger to surpass a realm.
It could be a duel with one’s life on the line, enlightenment gained in daily life, or perhaps an elixir or medicinal ingredient containing pure mana.
‘The sound I heard when I ate the curry... that was the moment I crossed the realm...’
All the puzzle pieces fit together in Arthur’s head.
After recognizing the rise in his realm and feeling the vessel within him, he realized it had not become empty.
On the contrary, because the vessel had become far too large, his existing mana had become a meager amount, making it feel as if it were empty.
Fwoooosh—!
Arthur closed his eyes, tightly gripped his sword, and released his mana.
At the same time, the intermediate magical beasts threatening the troops at the central defensive line all turned their gazes at once.
“Ugh...! Huh?”
“Grrrr...”
“Now!”
“Gwoooak!”
The magical beasts had instinctively sensed powerful mana and begun to be wary.
Thanks to Arthur’s mana release, the knight engaged in a contest of strength caught his breath, while another knight seized the chance and cut off the neck of a magical beast distracted by Arthur.
Arthur’s mana, growing increasingly powerful, transferred to his sword in an instant.
Fwoooosh—!
From the crossguard to the very tip of the blade, a sharp sword force burned silver.
Not only the magical beasts, but even the knights continuing the battle lost themselves staring at Arthur’s sword force.
That night, half of the monster wave that had attacked Silvaerin was annihilated.