ASDP Chapter 37

Alice took a bite of her lunch and quickly put the food into her mouth, very elegantly. Even though it was home-cooked food, it seemed to suit her taste.
“Umm, would the attendant there like some as well?”
“No. I can’t eat with the Saint…”
“If you don’t eat, we’ll have a hard time finishing it all, so could you please eat with us?”
The servant sat down with us, feeling confused, but she made no attempt to eat, so when I thought it was a problem, my father quickly told me that it was a nuisance.
Even if you say you aren’t, aren’t you in a bad mood?
Does my father dislike people involved with the temple? But I think he was very kind to Alfie.

“I give permission. Eat together.”
“I understand”
At the words of the saint, Alice, the servant finally started eating. Cold spaghetti isn’t good, so it would be helpful if she could eat it quickly.
“Is it okay to ask if the servant is a priest?”
“Yes. My name is Sylphia Doyle.”
Sylphia looked at my father with a slightly frightened expression, but my father didn’t seem to mind.

“Doyle means Viscount Doyle’s daughter, right?”
“Yes. However, once you become a priest, your family title will no longer be important. I would like you to think of me as just Sylphia.”
“Well, that’s how it is.”
There is a lot of meaning in my father’s words.
The difference between Sylphia and Alfie is whether they were from a noble family or an orphan. If that’s the case, he might not have good feelings towards aristocratic priests.

“Father, I’m sorry. I’ll ask you first, do you dislike people connected to the temple?”
“Yeah. I hate it.”
“Why?”
“Maybe it’s because someone said something extremely rude to me a long time ago. I won’t say anything more.”
If you won’t say it, you probably don’t want to even think about it. Otherwise, if I ask, my father will tell me everything and won’t hide anything from me.
“But they weren’t the ones who said that rude thing, so I think they’d like you to cut back on them to some extent.”
My father’s eyes widened a little at my words, then he nodded.

“It’s true that I was getting a little emotional too. I still don’t like the people involved in the temple, but I will try my best to hear the truth as it is. So, what do you want to do, Alice? Let me say one thing first, but I would like to once again deny the statement that you and Alfie are the same. Saints certainly don’t have freedom, and their words have a great influence on others. But it’s even worse for priests who are orphans. Even if they want to change the status quo, they have no foothold except for the lucky few. Life is wasted too.”
At his unusually harsh words, Alice tried to contain her emotions, but she still glared back at him.
“But I tried to protect Alfie and treasure him.”
“Isn’t it because you weren’t able to protect him that he was forced to go to the mountain where there is maga and almost die? If you’re going to protect him, you need to prepare him in a position where he can say that he can’t follow unreasonable and reckless orders. Just because he’s your favorite, how much can you protect him?”
Alice, who apparently didn’t even know she’d nearly died until just now, contorts her face in frustration.
I could kind of understand that she was trying to see Alfie as an equal, and she also had a protective attitude toward her servants. That’s why she was probably protecting them as much as she could.
“Sometimes that kind of protective intention is just cruel. It’s like feeding an abandoned cat and not adopting it. You’re just giving alms so you don’t feel guilty.”

“But when I cook for Alfie, he eats it with a smile…”
“He won’t have the right to veto it. If he hates it and doesn’t eat it because it doesn’t taste good and you frown on him, he’ll be put in an even worse position. An orphan who offended a saint isn’t worth living. That’s the idea of ​​the temple.”
Alfie had no veto power.
So I don’t know if his smile was fake or real, but I’m sure he had to smile.
“You know. I don’t know what Mr. Alfie thought about your cooking, but have you ever tried your own cooking? I wouldn’t mind tasting it.”
“No. After all, what I can eat at the temple is decided.”
“I don’t think you know because you haven’t tasted it, but burnt food tastes bitter.”
“……bitter?”
“Yes. It’s gritty, bitter and smelly.”
I also remember this example of a cooking failure.
Charred fish is inedible.

“And if the seasoning is off, it’s like poison.”
If it’s just a little bit out of balance, you can eat it, but if it’s not a little bit, it’s not like poison, it’s poison. Too much salt can damage your kidneys.
It’s scary to say you haven’t tasted it.
“……poison”
“You said the utensils you used to cook with were beautiful, but what kind of food did you cook for Mr. Alfie?”
Alice’s face turned pale at my words.
She was never taught how to cook and had never tasted anything before, so she probably didn’t really understand what Alfie ate.
“…Maybe no one but Alfie would eat it because it tasted so bad?”
Even if they want to do it, that’s probably the main reason the priests don’t want to do it. Theo also said that Alfie was being pushed.
So I nodded.
“But, but! Alfie ate my food with a smile on his face, right? If it tasted like poison, that wouldn’t be possible, right?”
I think that’s normal.
As long as the food was eaten with a smile on the face, it was probably edible even if it didn’t taste good. But I found out about it at my grandfather’s clinic.

“Alfie has a taste disorder.”
“Eh? Taste disorder? That’s…”
“My grandfather noticed because he was taking the medicine that tasted like poison that my grandfather had given him for treatment, without changing his complexion at all. From what Theo says, it seems like he can taste sweetness, but maybe he can’t sense the other tastes.”
Alfie’s lack of taste means he can eat anything with a smile on his face, but I don’t know if he felt sick afterwards, because I’m sure he would have made up for it in front of her.

Alice’s face turned pale and her eyes watered. She still doesn’t cry.
I want to say that if she cries, it’s Alfie who wants to cry, but she probably knows that, so she won’t shed tears herself.
“I understand. Thank you for letting me know. If possible, I would have liked to have the priest come back and have Alfie eat the food.”
Alice must have really offered the food to Alfie with good intentions.
The fact that she said she wanted him to return to the priesthood may have been because she thought that was a good thing for Alfie.
“If Alfie is important to you, I think it would be kind of you to let him go instead of keeping him. Although he was an orphan and didn’t receive a good education, he was very interested in magic and alchemy. I guess he learned it from the stories he heard from the knights and magicians who guarded the saints. That was no small feat.”
There are no textbooks or anyone to teach you, just listen and accumulate knowledge within yourself.
I had a father and grandfather, and I was in an environment where I could easily find out what I wanted to know. That’s why I think Alfie’s efforts to learn from nothing are so hard that you can’t understand just by hearing about them.
Ah, so that’s why my father was listening to Alfie’s story so calmly.
I had told my father that Alfie was an orphaned priest.

Since he is a magician who wants to continue working hard and learning, I understand why my father wanted to help him a little.
“…I understand.”
It would definitely be better for Alfie to become an alchemist’s apprentice. But when I saw Alice look helpless and lost, my heart tightened.

It’s ridiculous how much the saints are sheltered. To not even know that burnt food doesn’t taste good.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!