Published: August 15, 2025
Two Days Later
“Lord Ryoma, your appointment time is approaching.”
“Thank you, I’ll be there right away.”
On this day, only five days before the New Year, I was working at the hospital in the morning when the maid Ribiola came to call me.
Today, we had rented a meeting room from the security forces, planning to discuss the preserved food we were researching while having lunch together with Mr. Serge and the others.
I quickly finished what I was doing, said a word to Teacher Mafral, and left the hospital.
Then the preparations... although almost all of it was done by the maids, so I just needed to check everything.
Soon, right on time, Mr. Serge, head of the Morgan Trading Company, arrived, followed by Mr. Pioro, head of Saionji Trading Company, accompanied by his wife, Ms. Kurana.
“Everyone, thank you for taking the time today.”
“Thank you for inviting us.”
“We’ve been looking forward to this.”
“Lord Ryoma, long time no see.”
“Long time no see, Ms. Kurana. Please, have a seat.”
And so, the lunch meeting began.
“Let’s get started. Please choose from today’s lunch menu. Although these are still prototypes, so the variety isn’t large. But there’s plenty of each, so please feel free to pick whichever you like.”
On the conference table were three wooden boxes. Inside were glossy bags labeled with the name of the dish and the date of production.
“Oh! The texture is a little different from usual, but the material is waterproof cloth. However, the contents seem to be liquid. Certainly, if you make the bag from waterproof cloth that doesn’t let water through, you can put liquids inside... but it doesn’t seem like something pickled in vinegar.”
“It’s not just the bag that’s different. Look, this one was made two months ago.”
“This one is almost three months old.”
Everyone was talking as they selected their dishes.
The main preserved food prototype prepared for this lunch was, quite simply, “retort pouch food”!
As Mr. Serge mentioned, the coating was changed from the usual to a formula close to a hardened liquid panel. Moreover, by enclosing aluminum foil, a special waterproof cloth with excellent heat resistance and light shielding was created and made into bags to substitute retort pouches. After putting in the prepared dishes, the air was removed, sealed, then heat-sterilized using a custom-made “pressure cooker” from Dinorm’s workshop.
Though the materials differed from Earth’s retort food, the process was nearly the same. Maintaining high temperature and pressure is difficult with magic, and prior to going to the Fatma Territory, repeated failures occurred during prototyping. However, once the pressure cooker arrived, the problem was overcome.
Previously, I used barrier magic to wrap the pot and apply pressure, but that method couldn’t properly release excess pressure, sometimes resulting in explosive bursts scattering the prototype, or conversely, insufficient heating leading to incomplete sterilization.
Getting used to barrier magic and improving its strength to the point I could sense it myself, it finally succeeded occasionally, but it was mostly luck. Towards the end, it felt like training to strengthen barrier magic was the main goal rather than testing retort food.
Yet since starting to use the pressure cooker crafted by Dinorm’s workshop, such issues disappeared. High temperature and pressure cooking became possible, so the bags did not break, and sterilization was sufficient, enabling stable production of retort food. I am grateful and respectful to Mr. Dinorm, who made the pressure cooker.
Thanks to this, I believe the quality exceeded expectations.
Although mass production is not yet possible, that’s no problem since it’s still the prototype phase.
“I confirmed safety with appraisal magic when these were brought in, so they are secure. If anything happens, there is also a hospital in the same building.”
“If you mention the hospital here, it oddly makes me feel less reassured,”