Grand Palace of Nova Lemuria.

　It is the political center of the current Lemurian Empire, and is also where Hercule resides.
　The Grand Palace of Nova Lemuria is the largest palace in the world, at least as far as Hercule knows.

Built by many craftsmen, including dwarves, the building itself is a work of art.
　The inside of the palace is decorated with stained glass, mosaics, and a beautiful purple carpet that only emperors are allowed to use.

　The walls of the palace are made of marble, and if you look closely, you can see that they are finely carved.

　It is the pride of Lemuria, and the greatest work of art in the Lemurian Empire.

　Now, ......
　This is also true for roads and other infrastructure, but buildings cost more to maintain than to build.
　The Grand Palace of Nova Lemuria is no exception to this rule.

　The beautiful carvings, mosaics, etc. are quite durable and do not need much repair.
　The problem is not that it is opulent.

　It is spaciousness.

　The bigger the building, the more prominent it is.
　This is the truth.

　The Grand Palace of Nova Lemuria is huge.
　So it takes a lot of work to clean.

　And the bigger it is, the more expensive it is to guard.
　So Hercule thought.

　Let's seal off two-thirds of it.

　In this way, Hercule succeeded in reducing the maintenance cost of the Grand Palace to one-fifth.
　If the room had to be used for a ceremony, it could be cleaned immediately after.

　At least once a month should be enough for most rooms that are not in use.
　It would be ridiculous to clean the room exactly once a day.

　That's why.



　Hercule's financial health has been improved by eliminating waste. ......
　However, in some areas, he wastes more than Hadrian III.

　One is the uniforms of the servants of the palace.
　From the very plain uniforms of the past, Hercule has adopted a beautiful and cute design, the mini-skirt maid uniform.

　Of course, only cute young unmarried girls can wear the mini-skirt maid uniform.
　Aunts are the same as before.
　Not to mention the eunuchs.
　What happens when they get dirty?　Just buy a new one at taxpayer expense.

　The young female servants working at the Grand Palace are ......

　Thirty humans.
　Twenty half-elves.

　The total number of servants is only fifty, so it doesn't cost much money.
　Incidentally, these fifty are the most beautiful women in the world.

　The design is by an artist who has known Hercule for a long time.
　This artist has designed dozens of lovely maid outfits.
　And Hercule has adopted almost all of them.

　So the designs change from day to day.


　Why did he choose the miniskirt maid outfit?
　It was for the pleasure of Hercule's eyes.

　In addition, he thought that if there was a cute girl, he would eat her (s*xually).
　This makes Hercule sound like a prick. ...... Well, he is a prick. ......

　In the first place, the young girls who serve in the Grand Palace are candidates for the Emperor's concubines.
　The fact that the recruitment criterion is the face speaks for itself.

　And of course, the girls know this.
　In fact, they are more than willing to become the emperor's concubines.

　Hercule is one of the most beautiful men among the elves, muscular, well-built, young, and above all, the most powerful man in the country.

　He is muscular, fit, young, and above all, the most powerful man in the country.
　Well, since Hercule is currently obsessed with Karolina, the chances of the girls embracing her are slim at the moment.

　Incidentally, young servants leave the palace after about ten years.
　If they don't take notice of you after ten years, you'll have to compromise with another man.

　Well, it's easy to marry a half-elf, not to mention a human, because their beauty won't change in ten years.

　However, I still want to be the emperor's concubine.
　These girls blushed slightly, but they wore mini-skirt maid outfits and fluttered their asses in front of Hercule today. in their minds.


　There is one more thing that Hercule wastes his time on besides the miniskirt maid outfit.
　That is cooking.



　"Yes, it's delicious again today.

　Hercule scoops up the soup with a silver spoon and drinks it while cooling it down.
　Then he twirls the pasta with a silver fork and brings it to his mouth.

　The meal, including the cost of labor and ingredients, cost 100,000 yen per meal.

　Salad, pasta, fish, meat, soup, and dessert.

　All of the ingredients were fresh and in season from all over the Lemurian Empire, and they were prepared by the best chefs in the Lemurian Empire.

　Without a doubt, the food in front of Hercule's eyes was the best in the world.
　The food in front of Hercule's eyes was undoubtedly the best in the world.

　(It's slightly inferior to the three-star cuisine I remember from my previous life. ......)

　I'm not sure what to say.　Well, it's better than before.
　Thank you very much. Thank you very much. ...... I will continue to work hard and make dishes that will make His Majesty proud.

　The chef thanked Hercule profusely.
　The chef thanked Hercule profusely. Hercule said he was looking forward to it and concentrated on eating again.

　In fact, the man in Hercule's previous life was not a millionaire, so he did not eat three-star cuisine on a daily basis, but rather ate more frozen foods.

　But now Hercule is the emperor.
　Since he is the most important person in the country, he should not be complaining about eating three-star cuisine on a daily basis.

　But ......

　Unfortunately, the level of cuisine in the Lemurian Empire was limited to between one and two Michelin stars in Hercule's previous life.



　The level of technology in the Lemurian Empire, no matter how advanced, is at best that of the Renaissance.
　However, thanks to magic, food can be preserved for a long time and transported from far away without losing its freshness, and the heat used for cooking can be adjusted to the same or higher level than in modern Japan.

　In addition, the Lemurian Empire is a trading nation, so spices and sugar are expensive, but you can easily get them if you are a ...... emperor.

　But still, this was the extent of it.

　But there was nothing I could do about this.
　He had not yet mastered the art of cooking.

　Moreover, the cuisine of the Lemurian Empire is much more expensive than that of the surrounding countries.
　In the western countries, even royalty and aristocracy ate food by hand, and the food was simply roasted and sprinkled with spices.

　The Lemurian Empire is an advanced nation.

　But Hercule was not satisfied with that.

　So he increased the number of cooks and ordered them to develop new dishes and improve their taste.
　And to some extent, they are succeeding.

　For example, hamburgers are a dish that has never existed in the Lemurian Empire before.
　The hamburgers that Hercule ordered to be made and improved upon have become his favorite dish.

　He also made him research new seasonings.
　To give a concrete example, he made mayonnaise and ...... various other sauces, and has now completed five kinds of condiments including mayonnaise.

　Recently, however, the chef is running out of ideas, which is giving him a headache.

　The improvement of taste is steadily progressing.
　The chefs are working day and night to create prototypes of dishes, write reports on the improvements, and then create new dishes. ......
　By repeating this process, the taste of the food has been improved little by little.

　The best example of this is soup.
　The many soups made with the concept of "flavor" in mind by Hercule were far beyond the standard soups of this world.

　In order to increase the variety of the dishes, Hercule had them scavenge various ingredients from all over the Empire.
　Coffee had been buried.
　Somewhere, there must be a delicious but unappreciated ingredient.

　That's what Hercule thought and started to search for ingredients, and what he found was tomatoes.
　As you know, tomatoes are indispensable in many dishes.

　Tomatoes had already become an indispensable part of the palace cuisine of the Lemurian Empire.
　However, it is still not eaten by the people.
　Well, Hercule didn't care much about the food situation of the people as long as his own taste buds were satisfied.

　Thanks to the enormous amount of money and the hard work of the cooks, the level of palace cuisine in the Lemurian Empire has risen dramatically.
　However, it was still not at a level that would satisfy Hercule.




　As he ate the ice cream for dessert, Hercule suddenly muttered to himself.

　Bread, pasta, and pizza ...... are all good, but I want to try something else soon.

　Specifically, I want to eat rice.
　Well, Hercule himself has never eaten rice ...... or Japanese food.

　Nevertheless, he was interested in the Japanese food that the man in his previous life loved.

　I want to eat Japanese food. I'm tired of Western food. I also want to try ...... Chinese and Indian food.

　However, it is impossible for even the best cooks in the Lemurian Empire to recreate a dish they have never seen or heard of, and there is no rice in the Lemurian Empire.

　What should I do? ......
　I don't know what to do," Hercule thought.

　If we don't have it in the Empire, then we can bring it from outside.

　Coffee and tomatoes are new foodstuffs that have been discovered in the Lemurian Empire, but there have been no reports of new foodstuffs being discovered after tomatoes.
　I think it's time to look abroad.

　We should order our merchants to look for them.

　Fortunately, the Lemurian Empire is a trading nation.
　There are many merchants who come from abroad.

　We can get information from them at .......

　"We could bring in ingredients and cooks from all over the world. ...... Yes, that's a good idea.

　Hercule is a powerful man.
　There's plenty of money. If you have money, you can do anything.

　For starters, rice.
　And miso, soy sauce. If not, soy. I also need red beans. ......

　Hercule smirked.


　
　Nova Lemuria, the city of gastronomy.
　The capital of the Lemurian Empire will soon be called that.