Side Story: The Saint of Plenty ~Ten-Year-Old Ellize~

I can't take it anymore! Hi everyone, it's everyone's favorite (fake) saint, Ellize! Are you wondering why I'm suddenly screaming the same thing as that gorilla from the Kell*ggs cereal commercial?

Five years had passed ever since I'd gotten reincarnated into this world, and while my mental age didn't quite fit, I was currently a ten-year-old at the end of my tether.

What am I so done with, you ask? The food!

The food in this world was utter crap!

I was the one and only saint, humanity's only hope, wasn't I? (I most definitely was not.) You'd think I'd be treated well since I was even more precious than the royals, right? (Once again, I wasn't, but who cared about that?)

And yet, I was served the same awful food on the daily. Plus, everything was incredibly salty.

Monsters rampaged all over the land, which meant agriculture was difficult, and there was a food shortage. As you can probably guess, some serious effort had to be made to preserve anything edible for as long as possible.

The best method in this world was to pickle it in salt. Pepper was a precious and expensive commodity, so it couldn't be used for no reason. Now, you might be thinking that keeping things frozen and fresh would be easy in a world where magic existed, but it was actually quite difficult! Very few people had the necessary skills to do so.

Noble families often employed ice mages to help with the issue, but naturally, commoners couldn't afford the same luxury.

The situation might've been different if there were a few farmers that knew how to use ice magic—actually, no. In retrospect, they probably would've left their farms behind to find better employment in that case. There was no doubt that working at a noble's estate would be easier than plowing the fields. Even if they didn't go job-searching themselves, they'd eventually be noticed by a noble family and asked to join their estate. Peasants couldn't exactly say no.

Anyway, that was why there weren't any ice magic users among the farmers, and why pretty much everything was pickled in salt for preservation purposes. Most veggies were treated like sauerkraut or pickles, while meat and fish were either pickled or smoked.

In conclusion, everything tasted like salt, with a side of salt, accompanied by a heavy helping of salt. The nobles and royal family stored some of that food as part of the taxes they received, and that was how this mountain of salt ended up on my plate.

To be honest, I'd enjoyed these dishes at first—they tasted very different from what I was used to eating in Japan. Salty things were nice to have...from time to time, that is. I just couldn't stomach so much of it every day.

Thankfully, unlike Middle-Age Germany, water was readily available...for me, at least. I had water magic to thank for that. I didn't have to survive on beer.

As for the commoners...I wasn't too sure what they drank, but I had a feeling it was beer ninety percent of the time. They probably only had access to water when it rained. Wells were too dangerous to use because of the risks of poisoning by monsters.

Anyway, in a nutshell, I'd been eating super salty food for the past five years, and I just couldn't take it anymore. Well... That, and I thought it was really sad how many farmers died of hunger every winter.

Farmers were the unsung heroes of society! Without them and the food they produced, everything would collapse. The fewer farmers were left, the more people had to preserve what little they had on hand, and the more pickled shit we'd all have to eat.

If the farmers were wiped out by monsters, no amount of aristocrats would be able to hold the country together...

Which was why I felt like doing something about the farmers dying was vital—especially for my tummy! This was no time to take away over half of the food they produced as taxes, for crying out loud! Letting them starve would only aggravate the situation and blow up in everyone's face—including mine.

I don't wanna starve! I didn't come to this world to suffer like this!

Anyone could whine that they hated something, or that they couldn't take it anymore, but words alone wouldn't change anything.

Had I been a smart cookie—you know, like almost every single damn isekai protagonist who somehow seemed to remember every internet page they'd ever visited—I would've been able to save the day with my extensive knowledge of agriculture. The issue was that I wasn't all that smart.

I had no idea how to revolutionize the agriculture system, or the way food was preserved. All I knew was that potatoes, sweet potatoes, and soy were so easy to grow that Germany—as well as most of Europe—had suffered from way less food shortage after potatoes had been introduced. You know, only basic facts that pretty much everyone and their grandma knew in the twenty-first century.

Still, even if having potatoes would make everyone's life easier, where was I supposed to find them?

If they existed in this world, the farmers would be cultivating them already!

"Lady Ellize, I've brought a new flower to decorate your room. Should I put the pot here?"

"Yes, right there would be perfect. Thank you very much."

While I was thinking about all that, one of my guards brought me a new potted flower.

It was a very pretty blossom with white petals and a yellow, somewhat bulky center, almost like a pillar.

Huh. It looked a lot like a potato flower...

A...potato...

HERE THEY ARE! HOT DAMN, I ROCK!!! Wait, hang on! Why're you guys using potatoes as decoration?!

As soon as the member of my guard left my room, I jumped to my feet, rushed to the flower, grabbed it, and uprooted it.

As I'd expected, I uncovered a little tuber.

Damn! It really is a potato!

I thought I might have been mistaken, but no, it was a potato—a perfectly good one, at that. I decided to cook it and have a bite to confirm later on, but it definitely looked like one.

I might be able to do something about the situation now. This one little vegetable is opening a whole new world of possibilities!

Potatoes were very nutritious, so if I taught farmers how to grow more of them from this one, we could improve the food shortage. They'd also be instrumental in curing scurvy...maybe? I had a feeling they worked on that illness, at least.

Another good point about potatoes was that there were dozens of ways to cook them. They were great no matter how you made them—simply boiled with a bit of butter; cooked into potages, soups, and omelets; fried into chips; or, hell, you could even make cakes with them with a little more effort.

Nothing's as versatile as a potato! You could make a full-course meal using them in every dish.

I had a hard time understanding how such an incredible vegetable had ended up as a decoration in my room. Hadn't anyone ever tried to eat the tuber?

I supposed I'd only thought about that because I knew about potatoes from the start, but still...shouldn't at least one person have tried it before? If people had been crazy enough to look for ways to eat poisonous fishes like fugu, or to stuff little auks into dead seals, waiting until it all fermented and mixed together before slurping it from the seal's asshole, taking a bite out of a plant wasn't asking for too much, was it?

Or maybe people were just batshit crazy in my old world. That's also a possibility. Actually, yeah, they definitely were.

While I could probably never replicate the ingenuity of the people who'd figured out how to eat fugu, I could deal with potatoes.

They were known to be easy to grow, and they grew fast—it only took around four months for them to mature. While that was a fairly short time as far as crops went, it was still too long. Plenty of people would die by then, so I figured I'd cheat a little.

First of all, I used my magic to fly south.

Back on earth, potatoes originated from South America—around the Andes, if I wasn't mistaken. I assumed a similar place had to exist somewhere in this world, and I might find tons of potatoes ready to harvest there.

Anyway, I ended up finding the place I was looking for, but...there weren't that many potatoes there. Not enough to really help the farmers, so I decided to bring them back to use as seed potatoes.

It was a bit of a pain, but I'd grow them myself for the time being. I didn't have the time to grow them the normal way, though. I had to make enough of them for farmers to be able to plant and eat, and I had to do it fast.

Thankfully, I could count on my magic. It'd probably make this whole endeavor easier.

I started cutting the sprouted potatoes. I made sure the part I'd sliced was dry on each potato before I planted them.

I wasn't exactly sure why I was supposed to do that—something to do with the germination process, and uh, the preservation of the seed, or whatever. Apparently, if that part was still wet, there was a risk the potato would rot, so you had to leave them in a well-ventilated place until the piece was all dried out.

I didn't have that much time to waste, though, so I just used water magic to suck out the moisture and light magic to simulate sunlight and hasten the drying process. I also relied heavily on earth magic to plow the ground.

I'd also heard that potatoes could develop toxins if they were left in the sun for too long, so I made sure to bury them deep enough.

Anyway, now that everything was set up properly, it was time to use healing magic. I pumped them with extra energy so they'd grow faster.

Why would excess energy make a potato grow faster? Dunno!

The only thing I knew for sure was that it was a dangerous technique. My potato plants wouldn't live any longer, they'd just live...faster. Since they'd grow sooner than expected, they'd also wither sooner.

Now that I think about it, I might be onto something here. I could do a cool nature restoration project. Assuming these plants lose around a tenth of their life span... I could plant a bunch of millennium trees, and they'd still stand tall for around nine hundred years. Good enough, right?

Anyway, my potatoes had grown quite a bit while I'd been pondering over that. I left the biggest and healthiest stem alone and uprooted the rest.

Time for another round of healing—I mean boosting—magic.

I ended up harvesting around ten potatoes of various sizes. I repeated my earlier process—cutting, drying, and planting—with these.

Oh, and by "I," I mean my golems, by the way.

I couldn't be bothered to do all that manual labor myself, so I'd created golems with earth magic.

Did you really think I'd work the fields?! I was a shut-in in my past life! What kind of NEET becomes a farmer, huh?! Go on, my little golem minions! What's that? Overtime pay? Sorry to disappoint, but this company does not comply with any labor laws. You'll keep toiling for free till you drop dead!

"Goo..." the golems whined through the little holes that were most likely their mouths as they worked.

A few hours later, my little golems crumbled down, their duty accomplished. They left behind a beautiful field of potatoes.

Nice, my field is twice as big as the Tokyo Dome now. All hail magic!

I just needed to let everyone know that potatoes were edible and to teach them how to grow them. I'd give them this whole field too while I was at it.

I had to make sure the potatoes and farming methods would be shared with every village and city. Once that was done, I wouldn't have to do anything anymore. The farmers would take over. Soon enough, they'd work like faithful little ants to bring me, their glorious queen, all the potatoes I could eat!

Now, how do I convince them that potatoes are yummy? The best course of action would be to let them have a taste.

Since no one had thought of eating potatoes before, no one had any clue how to cook them. Which meant...I'd have to cook myself, huh?

I'll invite a few big shots—royalty or aristocrats—and a few chefs...but what should I cook them?

Boiled potatoes were a staple, but I couldn't forget about French fries and potato salad either...and baked potatoes with butter were great too...

Might as well just cook a few different dishes to see what sticks.

◇

After Ellize taught the people that potatoes were edible, they quickly spread through the land.

Before she'd made that discovery, people had no idea potatoes could be eaten.

Even the word "potato" itself had been coined by Ellize. In the past, the plant had a different name altogether.

It grew beautiful white flowers, so it had been sometimes used to decorate households. However, people had never paid much attention to its peculiar bulky root.

There were several reasons for that—first of all, potatoes were scarce and their place of origin unknown. Potatoes grew in the remote Southern mountains, but very few people ever ventured into that range.

A knight who'd unexpectedly found one during one of his travels had brought some back, which was how they'd found their way into this part of the world. However, as fate would have it, that knight had passed away from a mysterious illness a few days after his return without telling anyone where he'd found the potatoes.

The pretty flowers had motivated a few farmers to try to cultivate the plants, but they most likely made mistakes in the process, and some sort of disease had killed most of the potatoes before they could be harvested. That disease had even affected the next batch of potatoes, so the farmers had concluded that the plant was incredibly hard to grow, and they'd given up on cultivating large quantities of them.

As one could expect, scarce decorative flowers rarely found their way to the homes of commoners. Only nobles purchased them, and they had no need to try to eat unknown plants—they weren't as desperate as the poor commoners, after all.

That wasn't to say that all nobles led a comfortable life. The food shortage was very severe, and some nobles also had difficulties keeping themselves fed. Obviously, these people didn't have any resources to waste on decorative flowers, so they didn't have access to potatoes either.

Despite all this, there still had been a few attempts to eat potatoes before. These people had simply been unlucky. Some had fallen ill because of the toxins contained in potato sprouts, some had tried to eat unripened ones, while others had eaten potatoes that had turned green.

No one had been there to tell them to remove the sprouts, to wait until the vegetables were ripe, to avoid eating them after they turned green, to keep them out of the sun, to look out for signs of diseases, or to bring new ones from the mountains. With all this knowledge, cultivating and eating potatoes was easy. Without it, not so much.

As a result, barely anyone had tried tasting them, and the few who had...had not had a very good time. Since they'd only ever eaten spoiled or toxic potatoes, they'd assumed that was how the plant was supposed to be: pretty, but inedible. If at least one of the people who'd tried potatoes had had a little more success, things might've been different.

Had they known they could be eaten, farmers would've redoubled their efforts to figure out a way to grow them efficiently. The risk of food poisoning mattered very little to starving people. They likely would've failed time and time again, but eventually, they might've mastered the cultivation process of potatoes and figured out a safe way to eat them.

However, that hadn't happened. That was how things always were—the simplest of things went unnoticed for the longest time until someone had a flash of genius. Conversely, misguided ideas also tended to stick around for the longest time.

Thanks to Ellize, all the misunderstandings that surrounded potatoes had been cleared away.

She'd never noticed that the potatoes that had been brought to her castle to decorate her room were toxic from disease. Instead, since she'd brought brand new ones from the mountain range, she'd been able to easily cultivate them using the proper method.

She'd spread those healthy plants...and saved the common people from starvation.

Seven years after those events, a group of magic academy students was enjoying a plateful of potatoes after training.

Potatoes had become one of the most common vegetables in Giardino. They could be found on everyone's plates—nobles and peasants alike.

There were two people in particular who were eating much more than anyone else in the cafeteria: Verner and John.

One of them had been born into a noble house before being banished at a young age, while the other was a commoner who'd experienced hardened life as a soldier. Regardless, they'd both lived through difficult times and knew the pain of starvation. They were thankful they got to eat their fill every day now.

"You know, the best thing about this school is the meals. Can you believe they give us so much every single day? Hanging around nobles is the best, truly," John said, his mouth full of food.

While John and Verner were both commoners now, they'd lead very different lives. Up until three years ago—back when he'd been fourteen—Verner had been raised as the son of a noble family. Since Ellize had popularized potatoes seven years ago, he hadn't suffered from hunger much except when he'd wandered about alone after getting kicked out by his family.

On the other hand, John remembered the terrible famines that used to plague the poor when he was younger. During the cold winter days, he and his family would huddle around the fireplace. He remembered very vividly munching on roots to distract himself and forcing himself to sleep to try and bear the hunger.

In those times, someone would pass away every winter. Everyone was skin and bones. People withered away without knowing when their turn would come. He could never forget his older brother's face when they'd found the cold body of their newborn brother one morning. He hadn't gotten to live longer than a day. He remembered his shock when he'd heard of his friend's death on another such morning—they'd had such a long chat the day before.

Having lived through all that made him all the more thankful for the democratization of potatoes.

He remembered the rush of euphoria he'd felt after eating his fill for the very first time just as vividly as the losses. He'd thanked the saint with every bite as tears ran down his face—so had everyone else in his village.

Thinking back on it, that defining moment might've been when he'd decided to become a soldier.

He wanted a job with a decent wage to give back to his parents who'd done everything they could to raise him and his siblings in those difficult times. More than anything else, however, he wanted to protect the saint—the person who'd given them so much.

That had been his very first motivation.

"You're a little off the mark, John. Even though this school has always had a majority of noble students, it couldn't afford to feed them so well until seven years ago," a voice suddenly explained from under the table.

John and Verner almost dropped their forks, chock-full with bites of potatoes on them. They looked under the table, trying to figure out what the hell was happening, and found their teacher, Supple Ment, skittering around on the floor.

What in the world was he doing?

"Hm... Mr. Supple? What are you doing there?"

"Nothing much. I've been doing some research, you see, and it would appear Lady Ellize sits in this area almost every time she visits the cafeteria. I figured that this exact position would give me the best chance of getting stepped on by our glorious saint."

What is wrong with this pervert?! Verner and John mentally screamed in unison.

This school was meant to foster knights that would protect the saint. How could one of the teachers be the biggest threat to her safety?! No one could ever blame the two students for thinking that Supple had to be kicked out of the school if it ever hoped to fulfill its mission of protecting the saint.

"If I may," Supple said again, still laying face down on the floor. "Plenty of nobles struggled to feed their children up until seven years ago. You may not be aware of this, but in those times, even nobles suffered from the food shortage—the situation was that dire."

Nobles collected food from the commoners as taxes. However, if the commoners barely produced anything, then there was barely anything for them to collect in the first place. As a result, some noble families had also suffered from starvation.

As far as the commoners were concerned, giving away what little food they'd managed to produce was a death sentence. In those days, they'd tried to hide the food away instead of paying their taxes. When the people were cornered to that extent, eating whatever they could came first. They couldn't afford to worry about what punishment the nobles would dish out.

People had killed each other over food. They didn't hesitate to fight their neighbors, outsiders, and—in some cases—even the nobles that ruled over their territory. They'd gang up together and loot their food reserve.

The situation had been so dire back then that they simply couldn't unite against the monsters—they were too busy killing each other.

"Thankfully, everything changed. The introduction of potatoes didn't just help fill people's stomachs—it brought back peace and harmony as well. Since they didn't have to fear for their own survival anymore, people were able to care for their neighbors again. They became able to fight together against a common enemy," Supple explained as he carefully examined the legs of the students making their way into the cafeteria from his spot under the table.

He had no interest in looking at the schoolgirls' legs, but he didn't want to miss Ellize walking in. Thus, he kept his eyes trained on the door. Apparently, Supple was able to recognize Ellize immediately simply from her legs.

"This is the very reason why Lady Ellize started being revered as the greatest saint in history. Please don't misunderstand me. While they don't come close to her in terms of scale, the past saints and knights have killed their fair share of monsters, just as Lady Ellize has. However, getting rid of beasts doesn't do much for children who suffer from hunger—it doesn't fill their stomachs. Dying at the hands of a monster and dying from starvation isn't so different, is it?"

John nodded in silence.

Killing monsters was a way of protecting the people. However, if they died of starvation a few days later, what was the point? What difference did it make?

"I'm not trying to make light of the accomplishments of the brave saints who dedicated their lives to fighting the witch and her monsters. However, that is the duty of all saints, is it not? Many saints of old have certainly fulfilled their duty, but Lady Ellize is different. She goes above and beyond to help people. She's done more than any other before. She's the only one who's succeeded in bringing a smile back to the faces of starving children. This is why the people love her so much. You may not be aware of this, but the common people usually don't even know the saint's name. Lady Ellize is the only one to receive such love and admiration."

The fact that so many knew of Ellize's name was the greatest proof of her popularity.

The saint was the symbol of hope, the only person who could defeat the witch. However, in the eyes of the commoners who didn't even know whether they'd live to see another day, stories of the saint and the witch's fight were far removed from their everyday concerns. They usually only referred to the saint by her function and thanked her for ridding them of the monsters. The knights and soldiers who fought alongside her knew her name, naturally, but as far as commoners were concerned, the saint was simply a glorious figure they'd never seen before. They respected her, certainly, but they didn't seek to learn anything specific about her.

In fact, up until now, the people would have never noticed if, say, the current saint was a fake all along and the real one suddenly reclaimed her rightful place. They'd mistakenly think the two people were one and the same. They didn't know her name or what she looked like, so how could they tell the difference?

Neither Verner nor John knew the names of the previous saints until they'd learned them in class. It had been their very first time hearing that the previous saint's name was Alexia, and the name of the first one had been Alfrea.

Everything was different when it came to Ellize. She'd descended from her almighty position to save them. That was why everyone knew of Ellize's name.

"She's truly incredible..." Verner whispered, admiration thick in his voice.

Strength wasn't all about defeating your enemies. Ellize's first priority had always been to extend a helping hand to the people who needed her. She'd never let anyone down.

Her resolve was what had inspired so many to strive to become knights.

I'll protect her, no matter what, Verner and John promised themselves.

As Verner and John made a solemn vow in their heart, Supple suddenly whimpered, "Unh!"

The person he'd been waiting for had finally stepped into the cafeteria. Against all odds, Supple truly had identified her by her legs. Ellize was coming his way, accompanied by someone else!

Thanks to his thorough investigation, he knew that Ellize usually avoided the center seats. She also had a tendency to go right—he'd even noticed her walking on the right side instead of in the middle of corridors.

The spot he'd chosen was immediately to the right of the entrance. On top of that, Verner and John, two students with whom she seemed to be on friendly terms with, were seated right there.

She'll come here! There's a very high chance she will! Supple thought, his lips twisting into a creepy grin as he started shivering with anticipation.

However, something unexpected crushed Supple's expectations.

While Ellize had started walking in this direction, another student was also approaching. She was much closer than Ellize, so she'd reach the seat faster.

Logs...?

The girl's legs were so thick that they looked like logs to him. Her every step was so heavy that Supple felt as if the ground was shaking. Her body was similarly solid and trunk-like. The lower part of her body was pretty much an inverted triangle. Her legs were just as built as her trunk, and they did a wonderful job of supporting her thoroughly trained body. As for her bulging chest... No, those ought to be called pectorals, he thought.

A bulky woman—he'd mistakenly thought she was obese at first glance, but she was pure muscle—was rapidly approaching the seat under which Supple was hiding.

Supple trembled in fear as the being—he couldn't bring himself to call her a woman, she was nothing like Ellize—approached.

This was the Training Institute for Magic Knights—a place where students trained their minds and bodies to fight against monsters. They learned to become living shields, ready to protect the saint at any given moment. Seeing a prospective female knight with a strong, muscular body in such a place shouldn't have come as a surprise.

If anything, that student should've been praised endlessly for her dedication. Her muscles were the fruits of her labor, proof she'd trained diligently with everything she had.

Her appearance was of no concern to her. Instead, she'd polished her very flesh to the upper limits to live up to her duties.

She'd trained for over twenty-four hours right before the tournament and had been forced to forfeit because of muscle pains. Had she participated, she might've been able to snatch the victory.

Steam was coming out of the girl's mouth (what?!), a fierce expression on her face as she stomped toward Supple.

Supple tried to stop her. "W-Wai—"

Sadly for him, she hadn't heard his call. She trampled him mercilessly.

Oh, incidentally, the student weighed over a hundred kilograms.

At any rate, the evil had been defeated. At last, the stalker had received a befitting punishment.

Ellize vaguely looked in that direction and changed her trajectory. She sat at another table and began to dig into the assortment of potatoes Layla had just placed in front of her.

(4.9k word count)

A/n And that's the end of volume one, I'll be continuing the next volume tomorrow. So stay tuned.