HTACS 82

Chapter 82

From Lee Young-jin’s perspective—not Wolfram’s—Emily Hymelody was a very meaningful heroine.

Let me be clear—she’s not a main heroine. She’s a sub-heroine. Among those, a true sub.

In the second year, she chooses the Magic Department, but she can also be pursued from the Knight Department. What this means is that she’s completely different from Elpirane, who lives in the sub-map Fairy Sanctuary.

Elpirane requires you to divert from Eve’s route midway, but Emily’s route is always open, and the entry conditions are easy.

Taking the specific skill 【Cooking】 is the way to open Emily Hymelody’s route.

Simply put, if you cook a lot of food and gift it to party members to raise your in-school reputation, she’ll suddenly appear before you and strike up a conversation.

At first, she approaches you saying something like, “Would you like to talk about cooking with me?”

Once you start running Emily’s route from there, the other stories suddenly stop, and only Emily’s route unfolds.

Regardless of difficulty or the story you’ve developed so far, you’re thrown into a world of just Emily and Kelterus, and the world adjusts accordingly.

The party-building battle academy RPG D/Z SAGA turns into a passionate cooking shonen manga.

The judges fly into space,

you face the Black Flag’s dark cooking organization,

you collect the legendary 1-tier Seven Great Cooking Tools,

and you become the youngest imperial chef.

At the end of that struggle, Emily, who has convinced the Hymelody royal family through cooking and found her freedom, becomes lovers with Kelterus, and the two join hands to make the world happy through cooking.

Honestly.

Let me be honest.

What kind of drugs do you have to take to come up with this story?

Of course, the fact that each heroine’s taste is so different that it’s hard to follow is also one of D/Z SAGA’s great charms.

Anyway, Emily is that kind of heroine, and the total number of times I’ve seen her ending is 1,631.

Since I’ve seen it so many times, I also know that she’s truly a kind and pure girl without any hidden agenda.

So it’s not bad to get close to her, but…

“Please teach me cooking, Master.”

“…What time do you think it is?”

“3:30 AM. Please teach me cooking, Master.”

“……”

She looks at me as if to say, “So what if it’s 3:30?”

“Please teach me cooking, Master.”

“Go back.”

I see.

In the game, she was a sharp and upright character—but when she becomes real, she’s quite a handful.

I’ve learned something valuable.

—

Emily returned exactly at six o’clock.

Dressed neatly in chef’s attire—clearly giving off the impression that she had the basics down.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you, Master.”

With that, she fell into thought for a moment.

Now. I’ve seen Emily Hymelody’s ending 1,631 times.

But that was back in my noob days.

It’s not like I vividly remember everything right now in front of my eyes.

Let’s see.

“First, Emily Hymelody. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Please speak, Master.”

Anyway, raising affection with Emily yields incredibly ‘good’ benefits.

Let’s start with the preliminary work for that.

After all, I accepted the master-disciple relationship for that reason.

If I teach, I should profit too. Consider it tuition.

“Hymelody. First, let me be clear—strictly speaking, my cooking skill is lower than yours.”

“Pardon?”

“My cooking level is 2. What’s yours?”

“3.”

“As expected, yours is higher.”

“I see. So I’m higher.”

“However, let me be clear—my ideas are unmatched anywhere in Zefflin.”

“Ah. So what you mean is—”

“In other words, I can’t ‘cook’ well, but I won’t betray your expectations regarding the ‘ideas’ you’re looking for.”

“You’re an honest person. You truly deserve to be my master.”

The aura around Emily shifted slightly from blue to pink.

As expected.

To raise Emily Hymelody’s affection, a few ‘absolute conditions’ must be met.

One of them is—’Never lie to Emily Hymelody.’

“So I will eat your cooking, give you advice, and suggest new ideas. Your cooking technique is higher.”

“Yes. That’s enough, Master.”

She turned a little more pink.

“Good. I will give you only the most honest and certain answers, and I won’t give pointless advice. Taking that in and mastering it is your responsibility.”

“Yes, Master. Thank you so much. That’s exactly what I needed.”

Once again, her aura turned red.

Let’s see.

‘You deserve to be my master.’

‘That’s enough.’

‘Thank you so much.’

These lines indicated that Emily’s affection had risen three times toward me.

Probably at four times, a bonus flag would trigger.

“Then would you eat my cooking and evaluate it?”

“That’s not difficult.”

First, I had Emily cook.

“This is steak.”

The dish that came out was at level 3 cooking quality.

“Hmm. Let me taste it.”

When I taste it, a message will definitely appear: ‘Something is lacking.’

And then two choices appear: ‘Speak honestly’ or ‘Praise vaguely.’ And then—

“It’s terrible. Completely lacking.”

“Is that so.”

“First, the sauce made from the leftover juices is too weak. At this rate, it’s closer to grilled raw meat than a steak. The heat control was fine. If you’re making steak, make it bolder.”

“…Ah. That’s a very precise critique. But…”

I need to hit her with the facts here.

Facing Emily Hymelody, who’s fallen silent in deep thought, I straighten up and ask.

“Is something bothering you?”

“……Do you know my background?”

Here it comes.

“Do you know my background?”

“Hymelody royal family’s princess. Good grades, but an eccentric who dreams of becoming a chef.”

“Yes. That’s right. You know well.”

After that, Emily’s lengthy explanation begins, and I just need to throw in appropriate interjections.

“Hmm. I see. Yes. That’s right. But you…”

To put it simply, Emily Hymelody has the following backstory.

Born into the Hymelody royal family, she despised a life overshadowed by the family name.

She came to Zefflin to study, and wants to try doing something on her own.

And since cooking—whether made by imperial or royal chefs—is still bad if it tastes bad, she wants to create cuisine that surpasses the royal family’s name.

Something like that. If you dig deeper, starting with why she hates the family name, it gets a bit dark, but she’s just that kind of person.

Anyway, the Hymelody royal family knows Emily is aiming to become a chef, and has completely cut off all support related to cooking.

“I couldn’t get spices because they’re expensive.”

Because of that, she couldn’t obtain high-quality spices, and her cooking had stalled. Emily is trying to find a way out. That’s the basic narrative of her route.

And if I plant the flag here, the bonus unlocks immediately.

“You’re still immature. What have you staked for your goal?”

“My entire life.”

“I see. But are you only trying to buy spices with money from the royal family? If that’s your entire life, then your life is already practically subordinate to the royal family.”

“…………Ah.”

“If you’re staking your whole life, then walk with your own feet. Emily Hymelody. Have you ever tried to obtain something outside this academy?”

“Ah, no. Never… because it’s dangerous.”

“I see. Then right now, you’re nothing more than a bird that envies the outside of its cage while eating the feed given to it.”

“Ugh, th-then what am I supposed to do?”

“Follow me. I’ll show you a new world.”

If the story has progressed this far—if this were a game—the following message would appear:

**【Sub-heroine Emily Hymelody’s bonus conditions have been met.】**

**【Bonus awarded!】**

**【A new field has been opened!】**

And before my eyes, a resolute Emily Hymelody would deliver this line:

“I’ll follow you. Outside the cage.”

Good.

It really opened.

—

Emily Hymelody was astonished.

Wolfram von Lohengrin.

This man’s words seemed to read every corner of her heart.

His words struck her chest with sharp precision.

A warm pain that didn’t hurt.

His sharpness, as if only peeling away the useless outer shell, unconsciously loosened her expression.

So that’s it.

If she couldn’t get spices because she had no money, it meant she was living a life dependent on that money.

If she hated the Hymelody name, she should hate even all the support it provided.

She was angry at her own half-hearted duality.

And she was shocked that a man she’d met for the first time today had stripped it bare.

“Emily Hymelody.”

“…Y-yes.”

For the first time, her voice trembled.

Why? Because he’s a member of the imperial family?

No. It was his words that made her tremble.

He had simply called her name.

She had only come to learn cooking, yet with less than ten exchanges, she felt something inside her being filled.

So this is the leader of the most dangerous rising crew in Zefflin right now.

No, honestly, she didn’t know.

He was someone with this much charisma. Someone who reads people’s hearts the moment he sees them, barges in, stirs things up, and drags them along.

With someone like this, people would naturally gather around him even if he did nothing.

“If you want to go outside the cage, follow me.”

“…Yes, Master.”

His behavior was as if he’d seen through her thousands of times before. His unhesitating harsh words strangely filled her heart.

—

The original D/Z SAGA was a very heroine-centric game.

For example, if you take Eve’s route, Kelterus learns 【Holy Light Spear】. If you take Regina’s route, you learn 【Great Magic Merchant’s Blessing】—a skill that halves all shop item prices.

In other words, the bonus skill you receive depends on which route you take and which heroine’s ending you achieve. If you take Isolde’s route, you learn 【Seven-Color Magic Sword】—anyway, heroines are extremely important.

So what is the bonus from Emily Hymelody—who is now walking calmly three steps behind the cart Patrasche pulls?

It’s 【New Field Open】.

Originally, this new field doesn’t unlock just by raising her affection a bit.

This is, in a way, a field central to the story.

She agonizes between the Hymelody royal family name and her own identity as Emily.

She wrestles with whether she can develop her friendship with the commoner Kelterus into love, fights with him, and falls into self-loathing.

In the midst of that, they embrace each other in the rain, say they’re sorry, brew warm soup, realize that all their memories, friendship, love, and bonds are in cooking, defeat the Black Flag’s dark culinary world—and that’s how the field opens.

But doing all that is too long. No, seriously, it’s way too long.

And I already know where this field is located! Isn’t that obvious?

Couldn’t I just go alone?

No, that won’t work.

To enter this field, you need someone who’s prepared to devote their soul to cooking.

That’s also some arrangement by the First Emperor—the map won’t open if you just try to go in.

So for quick affection, quick questions, quick answers, and quick unlock—this is the fastest route!

My strategy is flawless!

“…Isn’t this the Sleeping Mountain Range?”

“Hmm. Turn right here.”

And when you casually turn right—surprise, surprise—a portal hums, just like when the Fairy’s Paradise opened.

And a voice speaks:

【You who walk a path neither of sword nor magic—what do you seek?】

“Is that question for me? I, I—”

Emily Hymelody looked at me and hesitated.

I don’t intend to do a youth-friendship-passionate-cooking-shonen-manga at this point.

“You can answer honestly. What do you want to do, Hymelody? Put that feeling into words.”

“…Senior. Thank you.”

Only then did Emily Hymelody let out a *hoo* and answer the question.

“I want to walk the path of cooking. A path of my own, judged only by my own skill.”

【Good. I have seen your pride and resolve. Sword and magic are not the only paths of learning. My arrangement shall open here for you and your companions.**

That great First Emperor’s voice rang out, and I stepped through the door.

And what emerges is…

“U-uh…”

“Hmm. As expected.”

The roaming monsters—from White Rabbits to Drago-horn Saurus—are all ingredients.

The fallen tree fruits—from acorns to watermelons—are all edible.

The items scattered nearby—from refined salt to pepper—are all spices.

“Th-this is…”

“I read it in imperial records. The First Emperor made arrangements not just for sword and magic, but also for those who walk the path of cooking.”

“…Th-then.”

“Rejoice. You have now opened the door to your cage.”

“…Ah, aah…”

Emily trembled as she looked at me.

Is she that happy?

I’m happy too.

This place is a bit dangerous, but if I bring party members, I can farm ingredients quite safely.

First, unlocking this map makes progression easier—and that’s how I ended up seeing your ending over a thousand times, you know?