Chapter 505

"Director, what standard should we use to host this Special Mission Unit group?"

Inside the Imperial Palace, the head of the Imperial Household Agency's Great Meal Section inquired.

"Prepare it according to the standard for hosting the Honke. Speed is essential." Maeda Toshisuke, Director of the Imperial Household Agency, said: "Design it as an informal reception."

"Host you?" The meal section head was severely startled.

Who is Maeda Toshisuke?

A descendant of the Maeda clan lords of the Kaga Domain under the Edo Shogunate, a former Peerage Duke, the Director of the Imperial Household Agency, a noble person serving as the Warrior Descendant Chanting Role — even for an informal reception, the arrangements must be of a very high standard; only the etiquette is simplified, but the standard is not reduced. The Great Meal Section, in charge of court cuisine, has always been quite stubborn and traditional.

In Japanese history, following the Black Ships incident and the establishment of the Rokumeikan, plus the fact that a US diplomatic personnel once died of liver fluke disease from eating sashimi, state banquets gradually shifted from Japanese cuisine to French cuisine. It was not until after Japan's economic takeoff in the 1980s that the idea of Japanese cuisine returning to state banquets began to appear, but even then it was extremely cautious. Especially things like sashimi, raw food, semi-raw food, and pickled seafood — absolutely no thought of them returning to the state banquet table.

"What's the matter? Uesugi-kun is also a Warrior Descendant! Just like me! Treat those Special Mission Unit people as Uesugi-kun's attendants." Maeda Toshisuke roared in a low voice: "Make it fast!"

"Yes!" The Great Meal Section thought it made sense; Uesugi Muneyuki is also a Warrior Descendant — that is enough. As long as there is a reasonable excuse not to violate regulations, it's fine.

Yes, Japanese people are just this conservative and nitpicky. They are particularly particular about "Is there a regulation?" "Is there a precedent?" If there is, everything is easy to handle; if there isn't, it's a thousand difficulties, a hundred unwillingnesses.

However, the Director of the Imperial Household Agency personally instructed that Uesugi Muneyuki be hosted with the status of "Warrior Descendant Chanting Role," which shows how much he values Uesugi Muneyuki. After all, the safety of the entire Imperial Palace, and even the nation, now rests on the shoulders of the Special Mission Unit headed by him!

The Great Meal Section's meal preparation speed was very fast. When the time reached just past 3 PM, the Great Meal Section notified Uesugi Muneyuki and the others that they could dine.

"Oh oh oh, I never thought I'd have a day eating the Imperial meal!" Hearing that the Great Meal Section had arranged the late lunch, Minami Ojou-sama said excitedly: "Hey, Uesugi, have you ever eaten the Imperial meal?"

"No." Uesugi Muneyuki shook his head helplessly. He glanced at Ikeda Erena, who was equally full of anticipation, and smiled: "Don't imagine the Great Meal Section's food too good. The most important things about the Imperial meal are actually safety, not touching the guest's taboos and dietary restrictions, and the taste just needs to not lose face."

".." Ikeda Erena was actually nervous to the extreme. The most the Tall Beauty could do at this moment was speak as little as possible — speak less, err less; don't speak, don't err!

Don't look at her naturally spicy and open personality, and the Spanish blood flowing in her veins — Spain has kings too! Deep down, Erena actually quite respects and fears this kind of occasion.

Will I not embarrass Sōsetsu?

"That's right." Nango Yui, the Acting Unit Chief of the Special Mission Unit beside her, nodded: "The Imperial meal, when it comes down to it, is just that. The most important thing is safety, safety, safety. Second is being able to slightly reflect the country's cultural characteristics. Third is not being unpalatable. As for the so-called most authentic and most delicious — that's impossible."

"The Unit Chief is right." Date Nagamune nodded: "I've eaten at the Kasumigaseki Kasumikaikan before; when it comes down to it, it's just that."

"Hey hey hey, you people, how come every single one of you has experienced it?" Ishihara Mikoto was also very nervous. For someone from an ordinary background like her, this was a scene she had never seen.

Say, even someone like me, can I bear an heir for the Uesugi family?

Mikoto wavered even more.

"It's nothing, just eating a simple meal. After eating we still have to wait for the test results. Don't care about those things. We didn't come here to be hosted by the Imperial Palace; we came to solve the case. As long as the case is solved, even rudeness is courtesy. If the case isn't solved, even courtesy is rudeness." Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly.

"Yes." The Special Mission Unit members all nodded.

Soon, the Great Meal Section began serving the meal. True to Uesugi Muneyuki's words, etiquette was completely simplified. A dining hall was directly arranged inside the Imperial Household Agency Annex Villa near the Imperial Palace. The food was quite abundant, but there were absolutely no requirements for etiquette.

What was somewhat unexpected to Uesugi Muneyuki was that the food arranged by the Great Meal Section was actually not French cuisine, but Japanese cuisine.

Friends who often eat state banquets should know: when it comes to serious occasions, the world's number one cuisine is French cuisine, followed by Mediterranean cuisine, and in the top-tier cuisines, Turkish cuisine sits at the bottom.

French cuisine is undoubtedly the world's top-tier cuisine, and one of the few cuisines whose cooking methods and techniques can rival Chinese cuisine in complexity. In fact, many countries' state banquets are French cuisine or include French cuisine.

Next are Mediterranean cuisine and Turkish cuisine. Among them, Turkish cuisine is a relatively rare cuisine with heavier flavors that the whole world can accept, belonging to the tail end of the first tier. Then the second tier is where Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine, etc. take their turn — don't laugh. Friends who often stay at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse should know: Diaoyutai state banquets often have various steaks, salmon, French braised pork, large lobsters, and also dishes like Beef Wellington, Wellington squab. And state banquets tend to avoid very spicy, very stimulating dishes; they are generally based on light, palatable Huaiyang cuisine, supplemented by Shāndōng, Sichuan, Cantonese, Fujian, Beijing, Zhejiang cuisines, etc.

As dish after dish came up, Uesugi Muneyuki started eating directly.

The opening appetizer was Chestnut Gluten Dumpling Style, made with early autumn's specialty chestnuts into Sweet Chestnut Filling, wrapped in Wheat Gluten Skin into exquisite dumpling shapes, with a warm, soft, fluffy texture.

Next was Sea Bream Soup Clear Broth, using the "King of Fish" Sea Bream, taking its most delicious head and abdomen parts, extracting stock with Kombu and Bonito, carefully preparing a crystal-clear "Tide Broth." A strand of fresh Yuzu Peel floated in the soup, its aroma elegant.

The third dish was the rare Tempura, made with seasonal Young Sea Bream and Flatfish, paired with large prawns shaped like peonies, elegant in form, crisp and delicious — even Tosho Daigongen (Tokugawa Ieyasu) loved to eat it!

The grilled dish was Roasted Young Heron Salt Grill, using plump Young Heron (Sweetfish), grilled simply with salt, preserving its natural bitter fragrance and deliciousness.

The simmered dish was Taro Stick. This is a traditional famous dish of the Japanese Imperial Family. "Taro" refers to Kyoto's famous Tamba Potato (Taro), with an extremely crumbly texture; "Stick" refers to dried cod milt (dried abalone or sea cucumber also acceptable). Carefully stewed in rich stock until flavor penetrates, the taste is rich and mellow.

This bite, now that's what you call authentic old Kyoto flavor, authentic~ top notch~ the so-called "hard dish" (main course) instead appears lackluster. It's about five pieces of duck meat, using Imperial Household wild duck meat, cooked in the Kanazawa traditional "Ji-Bu Ni" method — that is, coated in a thin layer of wheat flour, then stewed with vegetables in soy sauce, mirin, and Ambassador stock, finally drizzled with mustard sauce.

However, as everyone knows, there's only fried chicken, no fried duck. And for duck, the most valuable parts are its feathers and the stewing broth. The duck meat itself is dry and tough; no matter how you boil or cook it, it's just that. Uesugi Muneyuki found it very ordinary.

The hard dish should give me some Matsusaka Beef, Kobe Beef, Yonezawa Beef!

The Vinegar Dish was crisp Octopus and Small Turnip, tossed in Three Cup Vinegar (vinegar, soy sauce, mirin), refreshing and palate-cleansing.

After these dishes were finished, the rice was finally served: a small bowl of White Rice (about 2 liang of rice), a small bowl of Miso Soup made with Sendai Miso Paste, containing Slippery Jack Mushroom and Tofu Cubes, warm and comforting. Finally paired with Lightly Pickled Cucumber, Pickled Eggplant, Fukujinzuke, providing different salty-savory textures.

The final dessert was Pear Honey Stew and Gyuhi Mochi. The former is essentially a small sweet soup; the latter is a red bean paste cake.

For such a state-banquet-level meal, Uesugi Muneyuki was overall quite satisfied.

Not long after eating and drinking their fill, around 4 PM, the various materials sent for testing returned to the Imperial Palace once again.

In the "diatom examination" that Uesugi Muneyuki strongly advocated for, there was indeed a discovery!

Uesugi Muneyuki not only extracted diatoms from the lungs and bone marrow, but also meticulously compared them with water samples from different areas of the Imperial Lake Shore together with Ishihara Mikoto.

Ishihara Mikoto discovered that the combination of diatom types in the deceased's lungs had a subtle but critical difference from the water sample at the body discovery location. Instead, it highly matched the diatom combination at a certain water inlet closer to the North Maru Park direction.

This meant that the deceased most likely entered the water elsewhere, and only later drifted to the discovered position.

Sure enough, in the subsequent re-investigation of the lake shore, Uesugi Muneyuki discovered that although the mud was wet and slippery, the locations that truly matched "accidental slip and fall" traces had soil disturbance degrees and directions that contradicted the body's final position and posture.

About fifteen meters from the body discovery point, at a more concealed shore, Uesugi Muneyuki found half a blurred shoe print. The shoe print pattern was special, size larger (approx. 28cm), and pressed deep into the soil, indicating its owner was not light or exerted force kicking off at that moment. More importantly, the mud composition adhering to the shoe print edges differed from the common soft mud on the lake shore, containing more humus and pine needle debris.

"In other words, Shizuo's water entry point was not the position where the Gardener found him, but the waters near North Maru Park." Uesugi Muneyuki and Ishihara Mikoto looked at the latest test results and said in a deep voice: "It appears the perpetrator infiltrated the Imperial Palace from North Maru Park."

"Good, everyone, Sōsetsu's mission has proceeded to this point. Next it's our turn to act." Minami Ojou-sama finally got the result she wished for. She gave a sharp cry: "Eaten and drunk your fill? Everyone! Special Mission Unit, move out! Target: North Maru Park!"

"Yes!!!"

Just like that, at 4:30 PM, the Special Mission Unit members formally arrived at the North Maru Forest near the Imperial Palace and began the survey.

Simultaneously, Uesugi Muneyuki immediately reported to the Cabinet Emergency Crisis Center, giving his conclusion in a calm tone:

"The deceased was subdued by someone and thrown into the water to drown, not an accident."

"The perpetrator possesses the following characteristics."

"Physically fit, has certain grappling or control techniques, able to subdue an adult male in a short time (although Shizuo's body was weak)"

"And left no obvious struggle injuries, indicating skilled technique."

"Wearing dark clothing, possibly wearing gloves. Black chemical fibers in the deceased's nail gaps and synthetic fibers on the clothing point to this."

"Possibly carried rope or zip ties: the bright blue plastic fragments in the nail gaps are strong evidence."

"Shoe size is larger, approximately 28cm, wearing outdoor or work shoes with special patterns: deduced from shoe prints at the scene."

"Infiltration route may not be a regular route, familiar with or reconnoitered the Imperial Palace's external environment: silica diatom evidence points toward the North Maru direction."

"The point may be somewhere in the vicinity of North Maru Park: silica diatom distribution differences point to this point."

"So everyone of the Cabinet, please allow me to directly command the Imperial Guard Headquarters and requisition and investigate all work, duty,

patrol, and monitoring records of the Imperial Household Agency, above desu!"

Uesugi Muneyuki's report finished, leaving the Cabinet Emergency Crisis Center with an indescribable shock.

At the same time, an indescribable sense of relaxation and joy also began to linger within the crisis center.

Great, it's Legendary Forensic Uesugi who came, we're saved!

Relying on a single corpse and extremely minute fiber particles, Uesugi Muneyuki easily deduced the culprit's vague portrait, saw through Shizuo's true cause of death and the culprit's possible infiltration location!

Too strong!

Prime Minister Owada and Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda both couldn't help but sigh, seeing Uesugi Muneyuki act with such divine speed, their expressions also relaxed considerably.

Relaxed, and also a bit hungry!

Prime Minister cannot speak directly, Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda immediately said: "We will satisfy all your needs! All resources of the entire Imperial Guard and Imperial Household Agency at your disposal! Order issued immediately, Uesugi-kun, well done!"

"What you and the Special Mission Unit need to do now is just two things! First, confirm the culprit's whereabouts, check whether the other party has left the Imperial Palace or not, second, try to deduce what the culprit entered the Imperial Palace wanting to do? Is it curious misentry, infiltration theft, or——malicious intent?"

"Understood!" Uesugi Muneyuki's expression was solemn, but within a trace of hidden worry surfaced.

This infiltration seems— not simple at all!