READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 50
Karem stepped onto the small platform, but the sounds of the crowd didn’t diminish one bit.
Of course, it was only natural for the audience’s gaze to gather on the stage at once.
Could the rumors be true?
Was the Fire Witch Finger not a deadly poison?
Could it be that receiving God’s selection means not dying?
Is there no wine besides beer?
Karem paused briefly to catch his breath amidst the diverse thoughts and feelings reflected in the crowd’s eyes.
It was only natural to feel nervous, having never stood before such a crowd in a past life, but now that he was here, he couldn’t just back down.
Karem decided to think of the crowd as a bunch of talking carrots right in front of him.
Oh, thinking that way actually made me a bit more relaxed!
And then—
The boy opened his mouth with a much more comfortable expression.
“Yes! I’m that reckless little cook who dipped pickles in the Fire Witch Finger!”
Forget formality.
Trying to make it sound like a real speech would only make him more nervous.
Karem decided to skip the awkward greetings.
When the party directly involved with the rumors confirmed their truth, the noise in the crowd grew even louder.
Disbelief, confusion, trust, suspicion—all sorts of emotions flitted about, when suddenly a booming voice cut through the clamor.
“Lies! It’s a lie! It’s common knowledge in northern Europa that the Fire Witch Finger is a deadly poison!”
An elderly man with a head of white hair, bearing the traces of the years in his thick robe, shouted.
“Just a cook, neither a healer nor a priest!”
“That’s why I’m here to prove it, old man!”
“Kid, have you heard the rumors of hungry people who ate the Fire Witch Finger and died? What could have possibly happened to make you want to commit suicide at such a young age?”
“Have you ever seen anyone actually die from eating the real Fire Witch Finger? Anyone at all?”
With Karem’s shout, people below the stage murmured and looked around at each other.
Has anyone actually seen it? I’ve never even seen the Fire Witch Finger! I think I heard that my mom’s sister’s son ate it and died, though…
Indeed, it was likely that seeing it directly was even rarer.
Or maybe someone could have died from an allergy, but Karem had never heard of such a claim concerning spicy food.
However, Karem couldn’t relax.
People were creatures that lied after all.
Just as someone was about to speak out of pure curiosity, a lone adventurer shouted.
“The powder of the Fire Witch Finger can horrify even large monsters and make them go Berserk, so isn’t it obvious it would be toxic if a person eats it?”
An elf, draped in what looked like thick monster leather, said.
“For someone it could be fatal, but for someone else it might not be. Just like with onions—there are cases of dogs eating them and dying, right?”
“That’s true.”
Sled dogs, guard dogs, or hunting dogs were common in the city.
Thanks to that, most people who owned dogs knew through experience that onions could be toxic to them.
“The Fire Witch Finger is the same case. The direction might differ, but they’re all types of spiciness! Onions, garlic, mustard! Even the rare pepper is a different kind of spiciness! They are just used differently! Swords and spears are both weapons, but they have different uses!”
As Karem yelled this, Katherine, who was watching the boy, stroked her chin in surprise and admiration.
“Mary.”
“What is it, Contractor?”
“Do you really think he’s a serf?”
“Are you asking me that?”
The look said, “It was your side that brought that junior of his to endanger my position, wasn’t it?”
Katherine brushed off that rude look with ease.
She didn’t really want an answer, so Mary turned her head away.
“Still, he definitely seems nervous.”
“Yeah. I’ve never seen someone speak so confidently while half-mentally absent.”
Karem lifted a small basket with both hands.
“What’s the use of just talking! I’ll show you!”
Though snow wasn’t falling from the sky, Coldon was overcast.
Still, the people could clearly see a bunch of bright red fruits that resembled wrinkled fingers.
“Don’t tell me he’s actually going to eat that?”
“One poor kid is going to die.”
“It’s time, isn’t it? Let’s head back? One more beer!”
Various reactions flowed from the crowd.
Among them were certainly the intense ones.
“What a ridiculous lie! How can a person survive eating poison!”
“Even if somehow they did survive, it’s obvious they’d be left disabled!”
“Hey! Kid! If you die, you don’t have to pay for the funeral, so come to me instead!”
Regardless of all this, Karem picked a red fruit from the basket.
With his thumb and index finger feeling the spiciness, he brought the tip to his mouth.
Crunch! Crunch, crunch, crunch!
The crisp sound rang out brightly across the bustling plaza.
It sounded fresher than biting into a piece of radish every time Karem moved his teeth.
The people watching couldn’t believe their eyes, staring at the boy on stage.
Could it be true? Karem actually ate the Fire Witch Finger?
As the boy on stage received all the astonished stares, Alicia, seated in the royal seats, spoke worriedly.
“Zigmeser. Is Karem really going to be okay?”
“Of course, he’ll be fine, Lady Alicia. As I mentioned before, it’s only painfully spicy, not something that will kill him.”
“Hmm. But doesn’t it hurt?”
“Well, apparently he has already adapted to it, and he says it isn’t that spicy.”
Zigmeser answered confidently.
Elizabeth turned to Alfred, who was seated in the top seat of the VIP section, watching the exciting and tense situation unfold.
“You. Is the Fire Witch Finger really not a poison?”
“At least I’ve tasted every pickle made from it in the office.”
“Then it truly wasn’t a poison.”
“It seems that way.”
Alfred’s attention was divided elsewhere.
The transformation Karem underwent after eating the Fire Witch Finger, which was only known as a poison, was as rapid as taking a potion.
Even in a heated room, he was sweating profusely.
Even though they were close, there was a palpable heat radiating from him.
One might suspect he had caught a cold or some illness.
But Karem’s condition was far too vibrant for that, and Zigmeser had also reported similar effects from tasting it.
“This could be a substitute for the Cold Resistance Potion. It would be a stretch for now, though.”
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, I just thought it was stunning how well that kid Karem is eating.”
“Isn’t it a bit concerning if he claims it’s excruciatingly painful?”
Alfred silently denied his own casually uttered words now.
While one could draw meaningful effects from general medicines, if it was magic or alchemy, he would need to assign the task to Katherine.
Though there were circumstances, he felt it’d be burdensome to demand excessive overtime from her given the festival had just ended a few days ago after being overly busy since autumn.
For now, perhaps it was best to settle for changing their perceptions?
As Alfred grappled with these thoughts, Karem nonchalantly muttered, receiving the astonished gazes from the square.
“Indeed, this tastes different from the peppers I know.”
Depending on the region and variety, even the same crop can taste different.
It goes without saying that in a different world, any similar crop would taste nothing like any pepper Karem remembered.
If forced to compare, it’d be like Cheongyang pepper, jalapeño, and bird’s eye chili in a ratio of 6:3:1?
The spiciness rose steadily, but Karem casually picked up and ate the third fruit as if chewing on a piece of raw vegetable.
“…Kyaaaaaah!”
At that moment, a woman in the crowd fainted from shock, being helped by someone beside her.
“Is this crazy! He actually ate that poison! This is insanity!”
“He’s eating it as casually as an apple! Could it really be a blessing from the gods?!”
“This, this can’t be real! The Fire Witch Finger isn’t poisonous!!!”
“His skin is turning that red; how painful can it be?!”
As a reaction to the earlier silence, the majority of the audience became thrilled.
However, Karem, while enduring the spiciness invading his mouth, trembled at the corners of his eyes.
Was this really something to be ecstatic about?
With a vivid memory of piling spices on meat and more spices, rolling them in more spices, Karem found it hard to comprehend.
But even so, he sensed the madness still flowing.
To create a slight change in the atmosphere, Karem swallowed the contents of his mouth cleanly.
“Look! I didn’t die from eating this! It’s not poison!”
As the crowd grew even more ecstatic, making it hard to hear him, Karem shouted even louder.
“But it wouldn’t be proven if I ate it alone! Is there anyone willing to eat this fruit with me!!!”
And absurdly, the crowd’s noise began to gradually quiet down.
People glanced at each other, whispering.
What on earth did we just hear?
Though they had a hunch, they suspected something like this could happen.
If long-held stereotypes shattered all at once, it would be hard for Karem himself to believe it.
However, at moments like this, there’s a word that can cut through it all.
While the crowd was eyeing each other, Karem took a break before loudly uttering a magical phrase.
“Isn’t there truly anyone here? Are the men of Iceland smaller in courage than a 10-year-old boy from the backwoods of Kingsland!!!”
The words were lengthy.
But the key point was simple.
Scared?
A sudden flash of irritation.
Some men in the audience flinched at Karem’s words.
Exactly the way Karem wanted it.
A burly man sitting in the front row, looking weary, shouted loudly.
“Hahaha! Kid, you know how to provoke people!”
“So?”
“Get up here right now!”
Truly, even without extraordinary abilities in his past life, the magic of words/phrases worked effectively in this fantasy world as well.
With a single leap, the man from the front row jumped up onto the stage.
“Here, take this. Just think of it as being ten times spicier than an onion.”
“Mmm! Can’t you be honest?”
“Huh?”
“Is it really not going to kill me?”
The man asked in a voice that was surprisingly small for his size.
Karem responded by grabbing another fruit and biting into it.
The burly man stared at it for a moment before grabbing it.
“Ugh!?”
The moment he picked it up, a burning sensation shot through him.
It felt like his eyes were on fire from the back of his head to his nose.
But having come this far, he couldn’t back down now.
His pride as a man from Iceland was at stake.
The man squeezed his eyes shut and tossed the fruit into his mouth.
Then his eyes shot open.
“Ughhhhh!?”
Tears sprang from the initially unknown spiciness, but the man bit down on his lips to suppress the screams boiling up from deep within.
As soon as the pain began to subside, he shouted.
“H-Ha! This level of pain is nothing! It hurts more to be hit by a beaver while logging! No! Rather, it feels like my fatigue just disappeared!!!”
It was merely the man’s pride speaking, refusing to acknowledge pain.
But his defiance sparked courage in the other Icelandic men whose pride had been pricked.
Karem silently handed the Fire Witch Finger over to those who came up onto the stage.
Fueled by curiosity and pride, the basket Karem received from Alfred soon ran low.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
“Ugh! Even in winter, this is warming up!”
“Haha! I—I’m definitely not spicy at all! Don’t make me eat more of that!”
“Phew! Seriously! The fatigue is gone! Is this magic?! Phew!”
“My god! He really isn’t dying!?”
“Someone here has fainted! Somebody help them!”
As the people on stage shouted, the crowd erupted with even more astonished cheers.
But Karem was not joyous.
It’s just that people’s strongly held notions wouldn’t easily change.
Yet, having cracked a dam, he believed he could have a glimmer of hope.
Of course, such thoughts only went so far.
“Karem, come over here quickly.”
“Yes?”
“What are you spacing out for?”
“Oh, yes!”
Taking advantage of the crowd’s gaze and interest dispersing, the boy followed the magician and house fairy to escape through the alley connected to the back of the stage.