The Childhood Friend of the Villainess in a Romance Fantasy

Translator: Elisia

Editor/Proofreader: TempWane

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Sugar was an expensive spice.

How expensive, you ask? To obtain around 1kg of sugar, you would need to trade one whole calf.

Of course, that wasn’t the standard price. It was just a rough comparison to illustrate its value.

Most sugar was imported from the New World. Unlike pepper, which was traded in the past at the same value as gold, or vanilla, which is far more expensive than sugar, or saffron, whose price depends on the whims of the market, sugar has been relatively more abundant. But still, sugar is sugar.

This was the far northern edge of the kingdom and it’s neither close to the sea. I’d heard there was only one merchant who even bothered to come this far, effectively holding a monopoly. So, buying sugar would require a ludicrous amount of money—there was no financial safety net for capital like in the modern world.

An expensive spice, hard to come by.

And she was just eating such sugar by simply dipping baked potatoes in it? Something so expensive that poor people only used it as medicine?

For a moment, I wondered if the Delkis family was a place with extreme wealth, watching Elsie Delkis’ behavior.

I’d heard that stuffed moose heads were sometimes sold as decorations.

The moose in the northern regions were much larger than those in other areas, so noblemen would often mount their heads on their walls and boast, “I hunted that myself.” Not that the Delkis family intended for their moose to be used this way, considering they detested lies.

They also produced hides, though most were raw and untreated. The Delkis probably have tanners, but the treated leather produced by the Delkis likely wasn’t enough even for local use.

Since they had almost nothing to sell, merchants generally only came to sell. And if there was ever something to ‘buy’ from here, it was less for profit and more because the Grand Ducal House had probably nudged them to “buy from here.”

Any item a merchant purchased from Delkis would be repurchased by the Grand Ducal House at the same price. Otherwise, there was no reason for merchants to buy Delkis goods.

Not too long ago, they even brought three untamed, aggressive moose, raising suspicions they held a grudge against the Grand Ducal House. Seeing the merchant struggling to bring them alive, however, made me reconsider.

Once I dismissed the idea that Delkis was wealthy, I concluded that Elsie Delkis must have personally purchased the sugar.

“…….”

Watching her dip the potato in sugar and eat it so enthusiastically, I grew increasingly suspicious.

Most people treated expensive items with care. And sugar was something that had never once been cheap in this world. Perhaps it was different in the New World, but here, sugar was absurdly expensive.

Even if she had tasted it before, most wouldn’t think to use such a rare item in this way. If it were used in cooking, it would be for a carefully chosen ‘rare’ dish.

In places with limited ingredients, the flavors people could imagine were limited. When ingredients were scarce, culinary methods naturally become limited. While they might try to make meager ingredients taste better, ultimately, they would need other ingredients to make that effort worthwhile.

So, generally, even ‘imagining’ is difficult.

…Should I test this a bit?

“Enjoying this delicious dish brings something to mind.”

I lifted a forkful of potato and spoke.

“I’ve heard there are quite a few fermented foods in the South.”

Elsie Delkis looked up at me. She couldn’t respond, her mouth full of potato, but her eyes sparkled with interest.

The North likely had its own fermented foods; after all, Inuit dishes from the Arctic are famous in their own way.

But even if Delkis had such a tradition—

“For example, cabbages that were salted and stored for a long time.”

Blink.

Elsie Delkis blinked.

After chewing up the last bit of potato in her mouth, she carefully asked me,

“What does that dish taste like?”

Well, that would be the taste of kimchi.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as kimchi. The taste was closer to aged kimchi, though the cabbage here was more like regular cabbage, and it didn’t use fish sauce or chili powder. So, it wasn’t exactly the same.

But its unique tangy taste from lactic acid fermentation made it an excellent kimchi substitute.

“It’s a bit sour, the cabbage is crunchy, and it has that sharp, fermented taste.”

Elsie Delkis looked at me directly.

Her gaze was brimming with interest.

Was that reaction because she knew what kimchi was?

I wasn’t sure if dipping potatoes in sugar was a uniquely Korean habit. But I had once seen a Japanese person looking surprised on YouTube alongside a Korean, asking, “You dip potatoes in sugar?”

It seemed like even abroad, potatoes usually came with salt.

And above all, wasn’t this a Korean novel written by a Korean author? The setting might resemble medieval Europe, but—

If we’re really talking about being ‘transmigrated’, there was a high chance the other party was also Korean.

Perhaps I should test this a bit more.

After all, sugar had always existed here. Though sugarcane originated from far away, it still came from the Old World. So if Elsie was familiar with the flavor and researched it, she might have thought it was worth experimenting with.

What if I mentioned a crop that was only recently discovered and still unfamiliar here?

“By the way, I recently heard about a crop called a pepper from the New World. It can be used in cooking or processed as a spice.”

Blink.

Elsie Delkis blinked once more.

If she had ears like an animal, I bet they would have perked up.

“They say it has a bit of a spicy kick. What do you think about that, Lady Elsie?”

“Sp-spicy—”

She seemed about to say something, then quickly closed her mouth.

Understandably so.

In this region’s cuisine, there was no concept of ‘spicy food.’

Not just slightly less spicy—there was no ‘spicy’ taste at all. They had salty foods, sweet foods, but no spicy foods. There might be ‘spicy’ ingredients somewhere, but as far as I knew, none were used in the local cuisine.

Elsie Delkis kept her mouth shut, but I had seen her expression.

A look of yearning.

For someone raised here, they might be curious about a new flavor, but they wouldn’t show a look of yearning for an ingredient or flavor they’d never encountered.

For a so-called food enthusiast, she seemed satisfied enough with baked potatoes.

Although it was a bit risky, should I mix in a small lie?

Since peppers haven’t fully spread here yet, there’s no gochujang made with glutinous rice, meju, or red pepper powder.

How about I try a little more? If I mention that peppers arrived first in the East and something like gochujang developed, how would she react?

…

But I decided not to go that far.

After my past-life memories returned, the hardest thing to adjust to was the taste. That was probably why she wore that expression. She was probably excited by the idea of re-creating a taste from home, even if roughly.

I looked down at the potato and sugar.

This, too, was the same.

Unable to eat the sugar-filled treats of modern society, this was likely her chosen alternative. I could only imagine what lengths she had gone to obtain sugar in a place where sugarcane didn’t even grow.

“…If I ever come across it, shall I send some to you?”

“Could you really?!”

Elsie Delkis, unable to hide her delight, looked at me with a big smile.

Yes, I wasn’t fully sure yet, either.

Today was only our first meeting.

If I could be certain over time, maybe we could reveal things to each other then.

If she were in a similar situation to mine, she would only see me as a ‘villain.’

“Yes, if I manage to find some, I’ll be sure to let you know first.”

And I’d look into finding glutinous rice and meju, too. Since I could probably get malted barley here, I might be able to create a close imitation.

If I were alone, I wouldn’t even think of making it. Trying to acquire meju without someone to understand the effort would be… difficult. Mostly due to the image I had to uphold, I’d have to endure.

“Thank you so much!”

Elsie Delkis’ face showed no trace of doubt as she spoke brightly.

In fact, she seemed to have no concerns of even hiding her thoughts.

Well, if she did remember her past life, the story would diverge completely from the original…

And if she were indeed in a similar situation, and I could let her know I wasn’t planning to become a villain, maybe we could talk about the novel together one day?

Thinking that, I felt a small spark of excitement.