{Chapter 45} Fried Food is So Delicious, Those Big Shots Would Never Understand!
[You spent a considerable amount of time searching, and just then, you heard movement outside the study.]
[Shortly after, Alphonso, who had just returned, pushed the door open. Fortunately, the study was large enough, with over a dozen bookshelves, allowing you to hide behind one of them.]
[Alphonso, who had just returned, didn’t show any unusual behavior. He simply sat down at the desk and started reading, seemingly just killing time.]
[Since the desk was close to the door, you didn’t dare make any significant movements and just waited quietly.]
[Then, you watched as Alphonso fiddled with something on the desk, and the wall next to him flipped, taking both him and the entire desk with it. All that remained was an identical desk in its place.]
Such an advanced secret room? That looks impressive.
The simulated version of myself naively thought to look for a switch on the bookshelf… I feel a bit dumb now.
[After waiting for Alphonso to emerge from the secret room and leave the study, you and Louise immediately went over to the desk.]
[You and Louise clearly saw that Alphonso had been fiddling with a statue on the desk, but no matter how you tried, you couldn’t open the secret room.]
[Puzzled, you sat down at the desk, and suddenly the mechanism was triggered, sending both you and Louise into the secret room.]
Wow, so you had to sit on the chair?
Now it’s time to see what kind of secrets this guy has been hiding…
[Upon entering the secret room, you found it surprisingly empty. Aside from some money, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special.]
[You asked Louise to focus on monitoring any movement outside while you carefully searched the room.]
[You searched the secret room.]
[After a quick search, you found some opened letters. Upon briefly reading them, you discovered they were correspondence between an unnamed individual and Alphonso. The letters detailed a transaction where Alphonso was to pour a potion into the water sources around the forest, which would drive the magical beasts into a frenzy. In return, Alphonso was promised a large sum of money.]
[The letters also mentioned Atala, stating that once the task was completed, Atala would be led to the letter writer to be “taken care of.”]
[You also found a bounty poster similar in style to the kingdom’s wanted notices, but with your photo on it. Although it didn’t specify the reason for the bounty, it did list the reward, you were worth a full million gold coins.]
‘I’m worth a million gold coins? Did I rob the royal family or slaughter an entire city?’
Bounties of a million gold coins were usually reserved for the most heinous criminals, those who kidnapped princesses and forced them to bear their children, or those who massacred entire cities and continued to pillage and burn… Regardless of whether these crimes were equivalent, a million gold coins was definitely the kind of bounty you’d expect for such deeds.
And now, I’m being told that I’m worth that much?
Anna quickly ran through her life again, trying to recall if she had ever committed any such atrocities, but the conclusion was… impossible, right?
Although her childhood memories seemed to have vanished, what could she have possibly done as a child to warrant such a bounty?
Did I kidnap a princess and imprison her for half a year?
Did I even have the capability to do that?
Considering my age at the time and the ages of the known princesses in the kingdom, wouldn’t it have been more likely for a princess to kidnap me… Ahem.
Honestly, seeing that one million gold coins, Anna was even a little tempted to turn herself in for the bounty...
And then there’s the question… just how desperate for money is Atala to take on a bounty of one million gold coins? Is Atala a bit… lacking in common sense?
[After seeing your own bounty poster, you were deeply shocked. When Louise saw it, she even worriedly asked if you were some kind of fugitive from the kingdom, assuring you that she would never turn you in.]
[You assured her that you had definitely never done anything heinous. After stuffing all the letters, the bounty notice, and all the money from the secret room into your spatial ring in one go, you and Louise immediately left the secret room and slipped out of the mansion unnoticed.]
Wow, you actually managed to get out?
[After leaving Alphonso’s mansion, you quickly followed Louise to her house and began sorting through everything you had found.]
[After briefly flipping through Alphonso’s diary and the letters from the mysterious person, you came to the conclusion, Alphonso was just a lackey in the plot to assassinate you, doing it purely for the money.]
For money… I can understand that now, since I just thought about selling myself for the bounty…
Anna silently reflected on this, only to realize that in reality, she was already standing in a restaurant.
“Anna… can you let go of my hand now?”
Louise blushed as she looked at Anna, who paused for a moment before nodding.
Then, sitting casually on either side of a table, Anna barely recognized where they were through the narrow view outside the simulator interface.
This was a regular restaurant in town, known for its large portions.
It couldn’t compete with the Royal-style restaurant they had visited twice before in terms of taste or ambiance, but it had the advantage of being cheap and fast.
Spending a single gold coin here would require ordering a lot of food.
Still, considering Anna had to survive on one gold coin for a month, this wasn’t a place she could casually frequent.
“…Why did you suddenly bring me here?”
Ignoring the content of the simulator for now, Anna asked Louise curiously.
“I… often pass by this place, and I’ve noticed it’s always full of customers,” Louise said. “I just wanted to see what the food is like.”
“It’s definitely not as good as those high-end restaurants. I doubt I’d come back after trying it once…”
“Ah! Miss Louise! It’s been a while!” The waiter delivering the menu recognized Anna and seemed pleasantly surprised. “And who is this?”
“This is my colleague… also a knight.”
“Understood. What would you two like to order?”
The menu here wasn’t as refined as those in high-end restaurants, but at least they provided one.
Usually, places at this level would just have a board listing the dishes, not a waiter handing you a menu.
“What’s this… fried potato chips?”
“…Louise, you’ve never had potato chips before?”
“I know they’re made from potatoes… but I’ve never had them fried,” Louise said matter-of-factly.
“At home, potatoes are always used as a side dish or garnish… never fried.”
This reminded Anna that back at the academy, snacks like potato chips or fried chicken nuggets were rarely touched, and when they were mentioned, it was always with disdain…
As expected, nobles really don’t appreciate good food.
Anna, a noble herself, couldn’t help but mock the nobility.