Chapter 14: Cantreia’s Admission Letter

Steamed Horse Head is indeed one of the most famous hearty dishes in the Adventurers’ Tavern.

It uses high-quality horse head meat, first slow-cooked on low heat, then reduced on high heat.

After taking the meat out, it is roasted directly with flames.

At this time, you must be careful not to angle the flame incorrectly, otherwise the fire won’t penetrate properly, and if you add ingredients in later, the vegetables will easily become overcooked.

When the heat is just right and the dish is taken out of the pot, that’s when various auxiliary seasonings are added — such as mey-cardamom (a type of cardamom commonly found in low-altitude plains), roasted crispy chicken bones, clam powder…

All these seemingly unrelated ingredients gathered from all over the world are combined, and with the chef — who claims to be Tier-1 in the entire town — spending two and a half hours roasting it carefully, the Steamed Horse Head dish is finally completed.

The brilliance of this dish lies in how the side ingredients elevate the texture of the horse meat, along with the freshness of the clam, the sweet-tart scent of the mey-cardamom, and the crispiness of the chicken bones.

Though it is called Steamed Horse Head, there are actually no real vegetables in the ingredients — yet the dish gives the refreshing and flavorful taste of a stew.

It makes anyone who eats it instinctively give a thumbs-up.

“How did you manage to make it this bad?”

“It’s unbelievably bad!”

However, not everyone can appreciate good food.

For example, some aquatic-born non-human races, upon learning that the dish contains clams as seasoning, resist it out of fear of cannibalism, since clams are related to them — so they often group together outside the tavern to protest and pressure the owner.

“Save the clams!”

“The dish is fine, just stop putting clams in it!”

As for why they don’t protest about the chicken bones also being meat…

Please — the bones are completely burnt. There’s no meat left anyway.

…

When the dish was served, the previously serious-faced Sal asked the tavern owner what the dish was called, froze for a moment, and then instinctively protested.

“Explain to me — where exactly is this bad?!”

The boss was confused.

“This… this is the dish. Steamed Horse Head.”

“You’re blind!”

Sal slammed the table again.

“I just won a championship before I came here — what part of me is bad?!”

…

By the way, the time Sal transmigrated was November 3rd, 2018 in the real world.

…

Ah, then never mind.

Back then, this dish didn’t exist yet.

Anyway, after calming down again, Sal sat back down under the tavern owner’s “this guy is crazy” stare.
But he didn’t touch the freshly served dish at all.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

Rein was eating happily, but when he saw Sal’s expression as if he had just swallowed a bug, he couldn’t help but ask.

Sal, however, used this chance to change the topic.

“Stop eating. Let’s continue discussing business.”

Rein immediately put down his fork and knife, and then crooked a finger at Yuyan.

Receiving the signal, Yuyan rolled her eyes at Rein, then reached under her skirt and, without hesitation, produced a palm-sized wooden box, placing it on the table in front of them.

“Where did you even pull that out from?!”

Sal’s eyes nearly popped out.

Yuyan simply gave the brat who hadn’t even grown all his hair yet a cold snort and didn’t explain.

“Look at how ignorant you are.”

Rein hadn’t told Yuyan that Sal was actually his biological son.
So her attitude toward him remained just as harsh.

Sal couldn’t be bothered to argue.
He rubbed his slightly aching temples and turned his eyes toward the wooden box.

“What is this?”

Rein didn’t answer directly and just gestured for him to open it.
Sal looked at the box, then at Yuyan, who was already yawning.

It didn’t feel wet… so it probably wasn’t taken out from that place… right?

After taking a deep breath and mentally preparing himself, Sal pulled the box closer.
Under Rein’s gaze, he opened it.

Inside was…

A scroll?

Sal was confused.
He didn’t understand why Rein was giving him this, nor how it related to the “deal” they were discussing.

When he opened the scroll, golden letters at the top shone brilliantly.

“Cantreia… Academy of Magic Admission Letter?”

“What is this supposed to be?”

He turned the scroll over and finally noticed his own name written in the corner.

“You signed my name on this?!”

Sal finally realized what Rein was implying.
He flattened the scroll on the table and pointed at his name.

“You mean… you want me to go… to this place?”

It was obvious.
The format looked just like the university admission notices he had seen online.

And why only online?

That was simple.
In his previous life, Sal never had the money to attend university.

He had been surviving in society from a young age.

His education had stopped at junior high.

And now this guy wanted him to skip high school and go straight to university?

Impossible.

Sal instinctively began rolling the scroll back up to decline.

But just as his hand touched the scroll, Rein spoke.

“You want to become an adventurer.
I’m not wrong, right?”

“Who told you I want to be an adventurer?”

True — Sal had never said it aloud.
But Rein’s observations had been too sharp.

His longing when seeing beautiful scenery while traveling, and that brief hesitation before denial…

Rein’s mentor called this ability “Mind Reading” — a technique taught at Cantreia, requiring no magic.
It remained a compulsory course.

And as the mentor’s greatest student, Rein had mastered it to perfection.

Even the mentor himself might have nothing left to teach Rein in this field.

However, that was only in that field.

After years of decline, Rein was a shadow of his peak — losing at least one-third, maybe even half of his former strength.

He had sacrificed too many opportunities while searching for a pureblood dragon.

He could have stood beside — or even surpassed — his mentor as a grand mage.

But he chose his passion over his career, wasting countless years for a dream with no clear end.

All of that is why Rein was now willing to call in old favors at Cantreia just for Sal.

“To become an adventurer, you must understand magic — and human society.”

Sal froze.

“Don’t you think… this is an excellent opportunity?”