The Great Mia, Taster of Peruvian Cuisine

“I see... Picking fruit with the villagers?” Rania asked.

“Yes.” Mia smiled and said, “I worry about getting in the way, though.”

Mia was on a roll right now, all those fruit juices has started her brain working.

After meeting up with Rania, they went to the mayor’s house for lunch.

“Wow, so this is the famous Peruvian dish, the tahkoe.” It took a while, but Mia’s patience was rewarded when a thin wrap of yellowish bread filled with meat and vegetables was brought to the table. It was traditional Peruvian food.

“Well, let’s see... This looks like a small flatbread. Or how about a crêpe? The dryness reminds me of the bread they make for rituals that doesn’t have any leaveners.”

After a first look, she bit off a piece to try it. When the spicy spices hit her mouth, they quickly melted away, leaving behind the soft sweetness of well-baked dough.

“Oh, I see,” she said. “It has its own special taste and sweetness. Now, let’s try the whole thing.”

Mia took a big bite in the middle, being careful not to let the filling fall out. There was a burst of flavors. The ambermoon tomatoes were sour. Sharp red mustard strings on her tongue. She couldn’t name the spices in the mix. Then there were the delicious juices of roasted meat. The bitter taste from the crunchy greens added another layer to the complex taste.

“Wow, that was a very unique culinary experience. Oho ho. Since Rania told me about them, I’ve been wanting to try them. They are, in fact, very good.”

Mia told Rania to tell her more.

“A little while ago, this merchant named Shalloak Cornrogue showed up,” Rania said. “It’s the time of year for Thanksgiving, so there are more merchants coming and going than normal. Sometimes it leads to new business deals, so father takes the time to directly answer each one. Shalloak was one of those merchants.”

It wasn’t a coincidence that Rania had overheard that unsettling talk, either. Mia had asked Rania to help spread the word about her sister’s study across the continent, so Rania had been looking for good people to connect with. Saint-Noel was a place where many foreign aristocrats met, so it was a good place to spread the word about her sister’s finding. Rania knew, though, that that alone would not be enough. A lot of nobles didn’t care what happened on the farms in their lands, and royalty was often so far away from farming that talking about it was pointless. Even if she was able to convince some people of what she was saying, the knowledge would at best only be spread in their own countries. If she really wanted to fulfill Mia’s dream of spreading information about cold-resistant wheat across the whole continent, she would have to reach out to a completely different group of people.

So, she set her sights on traders who do business across borders. There were, of course, some traders who only cared about making money and tried to keep the information to themselves. Those people were bad. She needed people who understood why spreading the knowledge was important and were ready to help her do it.

Because of this, she kept a close eye on the merchants coming into Perujin during the Thanksgiving season. Not just an eye, but also ears. She listened closely to the crack in the wall where her father talked to his guests.

Never say that Rania doesn’t have a sneaky side.

As a result, she found out about a plan to harm Tearmoon.

“I’m so sorry, Princess Mia. All of this is because of my father—”

“No.” Mia shook her head and told Rania to stop saying she was sorry over and over again. “If anyone should say sorry, it should be me. This is a mess that the empire made, and Perujin just got caught up in it. I’m sorry for making everyone so worried. I also understand how your father feels...more than a little confused about his relationship with the kingdom. As the King of Perujin, he can’t possibly like the way our nobles treat his country.”

Of course, Mia’s ancestors were the ones who started this whole mess, so she made sure to blame the way Tearmoon nobles treated Perujin. She was good at moving blame, after all.

Then she sighed and said, “I guess I’ll have to talk to the king about this in person.”

Her voice was firm.