The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]-Chapter 958: The First Batch

The confused settlers of the dungeon space really should’ve expected it the moment Luca had all of them washing and combing through lumps that were most definitely seaweed.

But no one could really say anything when everyone from the cadets to the Emperor himself was doing exactly the same thing, or something even more unusual. Like one Orc Princess who had generously volunteered her services to squeeze the water out of a particularly conspicuous portion of their current haul.

None of them truly knew what they were out there to do.

But knowing Luca, it was bound to be good.

So when he said that their goal was to dry the seaweed well, everyone simply got to work.

Maybe a little too well.

Princess Kira, for example—the same woman who declined her Bunbun’s offer to help, insisting she wanted to do it on her own—had decided that flattening the seaweed required the full application of her strength.

"Ha! Look at all that water coming from the sides!" she remarked proudly, pressing down on the unfortunate bundle like her life depended on it.

Because of such devotion, the ever-observant Ada actually had to intervene a few times just to make sure her master didn’t accidentally crush everything to smithereens.

After all, Luca had said to dry the seaweed.

Not obliterate it.

Thankfully for the poor plants, the golden-eyed cadet finally returned with reinforcements.

Cece had arrived.

The butlers had arrived.

And most importantly, several people blessed with talents in woodworking, like Head Maid Gloria, the Elders, and even Theo returned from the workshop looking all successful.

Then again, when it came to woodworking and small precision tasks, the credit mostly went to D-64, whose efficient assistance had made their early return possible.

Now rewarded with an unusual sticker placed proudly on the otherwise pristine body of the small companion mecha, D-64 rolled forward with great dignity as Luca prepared to explain their next step.

"Ta-da!"

Luca pointed excitedly toward a neatly stacked collection of wooden frames that they had prepared just moments ago, while everyone else was left to the task of cleaning, cutting, and draining.

"We’re ready with the frames, so we can start laying out the sheets!"

As expected, many of the people present looked rather confused.

Sheets?

What sheets?

But Luca simply picked up one of the frames and began demonstrating.

"Step one," he said cheerfully. "We’ll need to use this frame on top of our drying racks. The tighter we pack them in, the more we can make per rack."

He carefully placed the frame on the rack and gestured for everyone to watch closely.

"Step two is spreading the seaweed thinly inside the frame."

Using a trowelful of the prepared seaweed, Luca gently spread it across the slots of the frame until the layer became even and flat.

"Step three is actually simple because it’s basically the same as step two," he continued. "Once the slots are filled, we take off the frame and move it to another spot so we can repeat the process again and again."

But as if remembering something important, the excited demonstrator suddenly paused.

"Oh! A good way to do this is to scoop the seaweed and spread it with a bit of water," he added. "That way it would spread evenly, and the thickness would stay consistent!"

Princess Kira gasped loudly.

"Water?!" she exclaimed.

Her eyes widened in pure disbelief as she pointed dramatically at the neatly flattened piles she had worked so hard on.

"Didn’t I just dry all of that so it wouldn’t be wet anymore?!"

Luca quickly raised his hand.

"Oh no! Not that batch!" he said hurriedly.

"The reason I asked everyone to separate the seaweed earlier was so we could use them in different ways."

He pointed toward the flattened piles Kira had worked on.

"The ones you dried are the kind we’ll use for soups! They aren’t cut or shredded into very small pieces because they’ll be used differently."

As he spoke, Luca’s eyes began to shine brightly.

His thoughts had already drifted toward something warm and comforting.

Seaweed soup.

Looking back on his life, Tesseris probably had plenty of affordable food, but unfortunately for him, he just happened to be poorer than usual.

But at the very least, during his time at the Guiding Center, before everything came to a head, there were days he managed to enjoy seaweed soup.

The others didn’t seem to like it a lot, so Luca was fortunate because he did and could usually have more of it because there would be so much left over.

It was really good, and he hoped his family and friends could get to taste it too!

"Wow!" Princess Kira said in amazement. Like a coin mid-flip, the gallant woman definitely had a change of mood after hearing Luca’s explanation, "Then should I make more of the special ones?"

Luca thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

"Maybe that’s enough for now," he replied thoughtfully. "I have a feeling the other version will be used more often."

Kira tilted her head curiously.

"Well, what are these sheets supposed to be for then?"

The enterpriser and unintentional influencer smiled.

"The finished product would be seaweed sheets," he said. "We can eat them as snacks, or use them to make different kinds of rolls!"

"!!!"

The word "roll" immediately got one blonde straightening up.

After all, if there were rolls involved, then that clearly meant they were for him.

Luca grinned at everyone who was waiting expectantly and continued his explanation.

"So for step four, all we really need to do is make sure we dry the sheets for a few hours," he said.

"We’ll have to keep checking them because this will be the first time we’re drying seaweed here. It would be best if we could figure out the optimal time!"

The little foodie’s heart was practically bursting with excitement.

He truly hoped it would work.

Of course, Luca had already kept a small portion of their seaweed harvest safely stored away in case something went wrong, but experimentation was part of the process. If they wanted to get the best method, they would have to go through a bit of trial and error.

Then again, with something extremely forgiving, how bad could it really get?