Extra - Meanwhile, at the Royal Capital...

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Boxed Meal Shop Regulars

“I want that boxed lunch...”

“I want some simmered mushrooms...”

“I want a meal cooked by girls...”

The customers who used to be regulars at Layette’s Atelier for their boxed lunches were now at the bread shop that replaced it, grumbling to themselves as they browsed the options.

When Layette’s Atelier closed down, a quick-witted bread shop employee immediately rented out the spot and went independent. They began offering boxed lunches and side dishes along with bread to inherit the customers of Layette’s Atelier. However...

“Well, it’s not bad, but...”

“Compared to Layette’s Atelier...”

The shop owner may have been an employee at a bread shop before, but he wasn’t eating bread three meals a day every day.

So when he was working at his former workplace, he had eaten the meals from Layette’s Atelier several times.

That was how he came up with the idea of offering boxed lunches and side dishes along with bread as soon as he had heard about it closing, and he quickly made a move to rent out the location and retain the old customers.

The old regulars who had no time to prepare lunch were accustomed to the convenient nutritious boxed meals, but they couldn’t help but compare the new offerings to those at Layette’s Atelier.

Not to mention, Kaoru had stocked her ingredients at the market, but the seasonings and condiments were created with her ability.

Soy sauce, miso, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, sugar, etc.

Many of them were either ridiculously expensive or unavailable altogether in this country.

...There was no way to compete.

The regulars were also used to the filling meals that came with rice, and the bread-based meals offered now left them feeling unsatisfied.

But with the owner being a baker, he couldn’t help but put the focus on bread for economic and other reasons.

“Aw man... Why’d Kaoru and the girls have to go...”

“She had no choice. She was the Angel, after all... If she did come back after all that, there was no way she could keep running her shop. The royalty, nobles, and rotten priests from the temple would never leave her alone...”

“I wish she would’ve kept selling boxed lunches as the ordinary girl with scary eyes instead of the Angel...”

“Idiot, then the royal capital and the rest of the country would still be infested with the epidemic!”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet your expectations...”

The owner lowered his head apologetically as he rang up a customer at the counter.

Since he was a former customer of Kaoru’s meals himself, he knew full well that his were no match.

He was in his mid-twenties and leapt at the chance to build the new business that was a fusion of a bread, boxed lunch and side dishes shop, and didn’t have sufficient funds to hire any workers.

All his savings had been used up on renovations, a baker’s oven, and other expenses.

His funds were actually a bit insufficient, and he had some outstanding loans.

He couldn’t stop sending money to his family that needed his support either.

“Well, it’s much better than not having a shop like this at all. Don’t beat yourself up over it...”

One of the customers realized he may have been too harsh and tried to cheer up the owner.

“But it’s a guy making these...”

“If it was a little girl, or at least a young woman...”

Other customers continued to complain, but with no funds to hire employees, there was nothing that could be done.

Unless the owner could get married and have a daughter or something.

The owner stood there looking glum, when the doorbell rang with a cling...

Three girls, aged sixteen to seventeen, twelve to thirteen, and seven to eight, leapt into the shop together.

“Hey Big Brother, we heard you got your own shop!”

“You have open rooms, right? We wanted to live in the royal capit... I mean...”

“We’re here to help!”

“““Girls!!!”””

The customers seemed ecstatic, but the owner looked pale.

The oldest and second oldest of his younger sisters were terrible at cooking.

But they were unaware of this fact, and would often try to cook for their family.

The reason the shop owner went to the royal capital wasn’t just to become successful there, but a lot of it had to do with escaping the cooking his sisters made at home.

The youngest of the three wasn’t old enough to entrust with cooking either.

All he could do was pray her cooking skills wouldn’t take after her sisters’.

The young owner watched the rejoicing customers, deep in thought.

“If my sisters have anything to do with the food I put out, my shop is done for...”

There would be many hardships ahead of him.

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Soldiers of the Royal Capital

“What, the soldier’s disease is never coming back again?”

“It’s thanks to the second battalion commander!”

“““Three cheers for Lieutenant Colonel Vonsas!”””

“““Hip hip, hooray!!!”””

The lieutenant colonel was exploding in popularity.

“But who would’ve thought that girl from the medicine shop was the Angel...”

“I knew she couldn’t be an ordinary girl when I saw those powerful eyes...”

Actually, she just had naturally scary-looking eyes.

Then...

“Those in the royal army were immune to soldier’s disease.”

As such rumors spread, people from the country began going out of their way to join the royal army instead of the military of their liege lord, and immediately contracted soldier’s disease upon joining.

Even though their seniors and colleagues who were originally from the royal capital were completely free of the affliction.

“This isn’t what I signed up for!”

There was no point in complaining.

As a result, there was an awkward and sensitive rift in the royal army between the natives of the royal capital and those from the country. But at this point, no one knew that this would contribute to stronger solidarity for those from the country.

Over ten years later, the royal army of the kingdom of Jusral would face a grave problem.

As more people who hadn’t drank from the mini goddess statue back then joined the royal army, soldier’s disease began spreading quickly among the ranks of even new soldiers who were born in the royal capital.

Even though their seniors who were also born in the royal capital were immune, soldier’s disease was spreading among their ranks at an explosive rate.

Over the span of ten years, it had become known that soldier’s disease only occurred among those who weren’t born in the royal capital, but this common knowledge had been thoroughly debunked.

This led to the sentiment that the citizens of the royal capital were no longer blessed by the goddess, and the higher-ups of the army and royal palace were at a loss for what to do...

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The Royal Capital and Temple of the Goddess

“Whaaat?!”

The king, who was usually so mild-mannered, raised his voice angrily as he rose from his seat.

This was already an abnormal situation in and of itself.

“They tried to take the goddess statue for themselves and ended up destroying both statues? And the royal palace and temple sides broke one each? Preposterous! There may still be sick people in neighboring cities! What’s going to happen to them now?! And whose orders were they acting on in the first place?!”

The news was too much for the king to bear without losing his composure.

“D-Does this mean our Goddess Celestine has forsaken us? Has she given up on us as blasphemous fools...? At least we haven’t angered her so much that she destroys the kingdom... no, that’s not the issue here! Wh-What do we do...?”

The king was anxious at first, but the disease didn’t spread in the cities or villages afterward, and the goddess didn’t bring judgment down upon them.

The royal palace had lost some of its dignity, but it wasn’t as if there were elections for them to worry about.

This event ended up not being big enough to spark anything like a rebellion in a kingdom that didn’t have competition for the right of succession, and so the king was relieved.

Meanwhile, at the Temple of the Goddess...

The archbishop received the news from his bishop, and his usually holy and gentle face was contorted fiercely as he screamed.

“Wh-Wh-Whaaaaaat?!”

They had ignored the orders of the Angel and greedily tried to take the miraculous statue from the goddess.

The goddess had rejected them, and the statues were destroyed as a result.

Even though there could still be sick people in cities and villages outside of the royal capital.

It wasn’t as bad for the royal palace.

They would just look bad and get some criticism from the people.

The whole thing would be forgotten in no time.

But it wasn’t so simple for the temple.

Priests had ignored the words of the Angel, tried to take the statue by force, and got rejected by the goddess.

While it wouldn’t damage the peoples’ fear and faith for the goddess, it would be a definite blow to the respect, trust, and donations for the Temple of the Goddess.

And a significant one at that...

“Wh-Who was it! Who’s responsible for giving such an order?!”

“I-It was Father Haramous!”

Father Haramous.

He was a troublesome and worldly-minded priest who cared far too much about money and power.

He likely gave the order to his acolytes in an attempt to gain some merit for himself.

“Father Haramous... You’ve done it now...”

In that moment, Haramous’s chances of advancing his career had been completely killed off.

The archbishop looked at the “holy artifact” that was handed to him, which was a mere collection of fragments and powder, and slumped his shoulders.

“I suppose what’s done is done. Now we’ll have to bring the Angel to the temple so we can apologize and make up for this by having her bestow a miracle or blessing upon us. Then we can tell the people that the goddess has granted us forgiveness. Now, prepare for a welcoming ceremony! Don’t hesitate to spend money!”

And so, the royal palace and temple made preparations for a lavish welcoming ceremony, and the convoys from both sides glared at each other at the entrance of the royal capital.

They were competing over who would invite the Angel to their side first.

It was a heavy responsibility, and the cost for failure was similarly heavy.

“““Urrrgh...”””

The two factions continued glaring at each other.

However, there was still no sign of the Angel and the men sent to receive her.

The citizens of the royal capital looked at them with disdain as they walked by.

The long, long wait for the men was just beginning.

The crowd of men continued standing at the royal palace and temple with eyes full of expectation and hope...

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The Orphanage

When Kaoru was delivering gifts to the orphanage and street urchins, a thought once crossed her mind.

Wasn’t she only providing temporary relief and satisfying her own ego?

Orphans weren’t exclusive to the royal capital.

And of course, they weren’t exclusive to just this country.

She wasn’t going to be around forever, either.

It was possible that she’d find someone at the capital to settle down with, but there were no such plans at that point.

What would happen if she was to leave suddenly?

Or what if she slips through Celes’s protection, which was dubious in the first place, and died or became unable to take action?

The kids at the orphanage would still be able to survive on their own, and achieve relative happiness by their own accord.

Though that did depend on the individual, and not all of them would make it.

With street urchins, it was uncertain whether they’d be able to make it to the starting line of adulthood.

But granting some ridiculous blessing to children just because they’re orphans wouldn’t help them in the long run.

They would become a target for the envious, or they could make them arrogant and lose their good nature.

So Kaoru decided to raise their odds of survival by juuust a bit and leave it at that.

“Immunity to food poisoning even when eating rotten or toxic foods.”

“The ability to absorb nutrients by eating weeds.”

“The ability to absorb pathogens and parasites and turn them into nutrients.”

...Pretty weak.

They weren’t much of a blessing to a normal commoner, and it was unlikely for anyone to find out about such minor things.

...In fact, they probably wouldn’t notice it themselves.

But for a street urchin, it was a “blessing from God” that would greatly decrease the hurdles of surviving into adulthood, which was fifteen years old.

Even if that person was never aware of their own blessing.

Kaoru had secretly included potions with such effects in the food she’d been delivering as gifts.

(This should help increase their odds a little even if I’m not around...)

Then, the incident regarding the “distortions” occurred.

It pained Kaoru to leave without saying goodbye to the children who had grown so close to her, but life was a cycle of meetings and partings.

Though they may have only crossed paths for a fleeting moment, it would be enough for Kaoru if she was able to help their chances of survival even a little.

With those thoughts in mind, she put the royal capital behind her.

Meanwhile, at the royal palace...

“What? The Angel is missing?! She never returned from the village in the east? Her shop in the royal palace is already emptied out? Find her! Find the Angel nooow!!!”

Meanwhile, at the Temple of the Goddess...

“Find her! Bring the Angel back, no matter what it takes! Oh, but be gentle with her! Do not do anything that could incur the wrath of the Goddess Celestine!”

But the search for the Angel ended in failure.

Then they thought about it.

After doing all sorts of research, they heard the Angel had taken care of children at the orphanage by giving them work and sending them gifts.

If that’s the case, perhaps she would be impressed by efforts to save the orphans.

Then, if they do find the Angel or she returns some day, they could invite her to discuss the charity work for the orphanage.

There was no way she wouldn’t accept that invite, and she’d be open to hearing them out!

It was the perfect plan!

And so, the country and temple began supporting the orphanage. The maximum capacity was increased as they expanded the facilities, and the street urchins were taken in as well.

The orphans weren’t stupid.

They heard what the adults were talking about, and understood who was responsible for the improvement of their conditions.

Though, even if that hadn’t happened, it wouldn’t have changed where their loyalties lay.

And eventually, everyone stopped using calling whistles in the royal capital.

Anyone who blew a calling whistle would attract orphans from all over the royal capital.

They would rush over, excitedly shouting that Lady Kaoru had returned...

It was a scary sight to see dozens of orphans running toward you, but it was heartbreaking to see them walk away disappointed with slumped shoulders.

Eventually, the orphans became known as the “Servants of the Goddess”...