Chapter 196
Catherine had received numerous proposals and meeting requests during that time.
And she had rejected most of them, except for the public meetings and a very few select ones.
There wasn’t any special reason for it.
It was just bothersome, it interfered with her research, and there was no real incentive to meet every person who begged to see her.
However, even Catherine didn’t turn down interactions with her lord, his relatives, or his vassals.
Her reputation wasn’t particularly on her mind.
It felt like a mix of curiosity about outside news and a sense of propriety.
The pinnacle of power gathers countless pieces of information just by existing, so Catherine accepting Elizabeth’s proposal was also for that reason.
Anyway, since her business trip and rest had been quite lengthy, Catherine was curious about how the world was turning these days.
Thus, the reception room guided by Elizabeth was as large as the office.
An antique table was filled without gaps with snacks and drinks.
But not a single person dared to touch any of it.
“So, how’s the romance going?”
Elizabeth asked as soon as the guest sat down.
“Puhuhuh-! Kelek!”
Catherine, who had choked, quickly turned her head.
But Elizabeth was rather convinced.
“Kyaaaaa! Indeed! Indeed!”
“W-woman, w-what does that mean?”
“What’s it to you, you know very well.”
Elizabeth waved her hand and picked up Catherine’s sweet dorayaki, a treat named ‘B-an Cake’ by the current Karem.
“How famous is the news about you instantly falling for the growth of your own personal chef?”
“Who’s instantly falling for anything! Who!?”
“Oh my, does that mean the order of events is reversed?”
An obvious gaze as if searching for something.
Her light brown eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Rescue from a past of persecution, a heart unrecognized or hidden at a young age, an opportunity that came with a crisis?”
Elizabeth deciphered Karem’s past and behavior, along with Catherine’s reactions.
The rumors were merely the trigger, but there were plenty of hints.
Elizabeth grasped the sequence of events. So, it wasn’t this side, but that side that did the wrongdoing?
Unconsciously, her clenched fist tightened.
“Such a sweet and fresh love that looks like it was painted! My mouth is already tingling sweet and sour without even tasting this treat?”
“I haven’t accepted it yet!”
“The term ‘yet’ implies that there are feelings, but you’re just not ready to accept them.”
Catherine’s composure crumbled under the consecutive blows. Shock, embarrassment, and speechlessness. Elizabeth enjoyed her reactions with a twinkle in her eye.
“The fact that there was a confession and feelings in the first place is true.”
“N-no, um. Uh, huh—”
“Social status? Nobody in Iceland would make an issue of that, and age? If Karem has matured, now is the most natural time.”
However, Elizabeth instinctively sensed that the reason Catherine was currently malfunctioning like a broken magic tool wasn’t just such simple matters.
“Karem was eleven before he was cursed. Considering the age to engage before an arranged marriage, that’s not such a young age.”
Elizabeth absentmindedly touched her forehead.
“I feel like something is about to come to mind.”
“My lady.”
“Wait a moment. Atanitas. Just a moment.”
Her mind itched.
It wasn’t a headache.
The name that seemed to announce her existence in the present from a past long forgotten was what they call déjà vu.
A woman’s intuition suddenly struck her.
“…Could it be Atanitas? Was it your first time as well?”
“Who!… N-no… Uh…”
Catherine almost shot out in outrage but then lowered her voice.
As if she couldn’t bring herself to lie.
Then the answer was out.
Elizabeth set down her treats, stunned.
The thought that someone her age had never experienced romance…! had never crossed her mind at all.
That was a line that was far beyond acceptable.
But what mattered now wasn’t that.
What mattered now were two things. The keyword of a young boy turned into a man and a cursed girl who knew nothing of love.
A tale filled with keywords that truly stirred a woman’s heart!
However.
“Since the snacks will dry out and the drink you brought will get cold, shall we wrap up this story here?”
“Yes, please.”
“I’ll be waiting with a joyful heart?”
As Catherine managed to quell her choking cough, Elizabeth picked up the dorayaki she had just placed on the plate again.
The treat was a combination of what she commonly knew.
Two beautifully browned pancakes.
Filled with mashed pea paste.
A dessert that had the main dish as a side. If it were something ordinary, she wouldn’t even think about touching it. But the one who made it was the one who made it.
Karem actually made this.
So, there must be a reason for it, even if she couldn’t put her finger on it.
The one reason that nobody could refuse was vanilla.
“Duchess.”
“Um? Mary?”
“First, let’s split it in half.”
Mary took the unseen round sides of the dorayaki and bent it in half. Elizabeth, with a pounding heart, followed suit.
Bzzzzzzzzzz—
The dorayaki, split in the reception room’s light, revealed a completely different color from the perfectly browned surface.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight.
Yellow vertical lines filled with tiny holes from the pancakes.
The middle was spread wide with a slightly plump layer of light green paste.
Of course, the light green paste, the mashed peas, was much finer and denser than what she knew.
“But, do these two really go well together?”
She was sure she would bring it because it matched, but other than the aroma of the buttery pancakes, she couldn’t catch a whiff of anything else to make her want to reach for it.
“Duchess. I must look.”
“No.”
“But my lady.”
“There’s no reason to look.”
But she couldn’t keep eyeing a guest’s gift forever. As always, Elizabeth stopped her maid and took a bite from the corner of the halved dorayaki.
The pancake was indeed baked just as appetizingly as its appearance.
The soft texture of its split surface felt moist and fluffy.
And the taste of the light green pea filling followed.
Is that the taste of mashed peas?
The mashed peas she knew weren’t that special.
They were cooked enough to be slightly chunky so that they could be picked up with a fork, seasoned just right — salty with a hint of acidity — it was a side dish for a steak.
However, the mashed pea filling revealed between the decomposing pancake held impeccably different flavors.
There was no scent of peas whatsoever.
Thanks to that, its inherent nuttiness was felt even more strongly.
The added sweetness of sugar blended seamlessly without being bothersome.
The combination of beans and sugar.
She had doubted if they would blend well, but as the sweetness was added to the finely mashed richness of the peas, the roasted chestnut cream she had at the palace popped into her mind.
Above all, the combination with the soft pancake.
The filling encased by the pancakes was so soft it was hard to believe it was made from beans. The fine particles didn’t hinder her mouth, teeth, or tongue in any way.
Thus, instead of overshadowing the pancake’s taste, it elevated it, creating a beautiful harmony of flavors and aromas.
The method she knew to enjoy pancakes was simple.
Spread some butter and pour syrup on top, and if she wanted something heavy, add sausage, egg, and bacon, or if she sought sweetness, mix in fruits, jam, custard cream, or the newly added whipped cream.
With variations being simply adding fruits to the batter or frying it in bacon fat instead of butter.
“By the look of your reaction, it seems you enjoyed it.”
“The texture and flavor are impressive and very different from pouring syrup or spreading jam.”
“Is that so?”
Catherine said that and took a bite of the dorayaki that Mary offered her.
Seeing that, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes for just a moment.
Is that so? She thought. That sounded like she picked it up without tasting it.
“Would you like to taste the drink as well?”
“You mean the one we brought along, that’s been brewed?”
“Yes. It’s Alraune’s Tear brewed from roasted Alraune.”
Mary held up the kettle that was still warm at Catherine’s gesture, and a waiting maid instinctively held out a cup for Elizabeth.
Shwoosh—
“Roasted Alraune…”
Elizabeth frowned at the unexpected pairing of two words. While Catherine wouldn’t serve her something she couldn’t eat, there was still the unshakable prejudice against monsters.
That prejudice dissipated with the elegant aroma rising from the cup the maid handed her.
“The color is very dark, but the fragrance is lovely.”
“Be careful. The taste is as bitter as the color.”
“Is that so?”
How could something smell so wonderful yet be bitter? She’d never encountered such a thing. Maybe it resembled the aroma of freshly roasted nuts?
Elizabeth looked down at the frothy light brown bubbles floating atop the cup and carefully took a sip.
“Ugh!”
The intense bitterness struck her tongue and assaulted her entire mouth at once.
Moments later, as the bitterness subsided, an alluring fragrance lingered.
“…How on earth is such an aroma possible?”
With every breath she took, the fragrance intensified.
“You said we roasted the Alraune and brewed it?”
“I never expected such a fragrance from Alraune.”
“Besides the aroma, this bitterness is quite stimulating for the mouth.”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and glanced at Catherine, tapping her fingers on the table.
“This doesn’t feel like bitterness; doesn’t it have a sort of astringency?”
“It’s due to being roasted stronger than usual.”
“…Is this a form of revenge for earlier?”
“I said nothing.”
With a gesture from Catherine, Mary fetched a small jar of sugar and whipped cream from the basket that was prepared.
“Then how about combining it with what my house fairy likes?”
At the unspoken suggestion, Elizabeth slightly pushed her cup forward. Mary immediately added a generous amount of sugar and a thick layer of cloud-like whipped cream on top.
“The joy of the Brownies.”
“Brownie as in… that kind?”
“Yes. It’s named so because even our kin can joyfully drink this fragrant bitter water.”
You can mix the cream into the drink or drink it and then enjoy the cream to wash your palate. With that, Elizabeth raised her cup again.
Slurp—
Indeed, the initial intensity was gone.
Perhaps because of the sugar, the bitterness and thickness diminished.
Instead, a refreshing sweetness took its place that further emphasized the alluring and elegant aroma.
Even the lingering thickness and bitterness on her tongue began to melt away with the whipped cream gradually dissolving in the hot drink, leaving only a subtle scent of milk.
“Enjoying sweet snacks, and washing the residual taste with the drink to enjoy the treat all over again.”
“Indeed, Duchess. To think you’d unravel such an endless way to enjoy snacks.”
Elizabeth couldn’t help but sincerely marvel at Mary, who showed her pride in such a mundane achievement.
“Come to think of it, Karem is absent today, isn’t he?”
“Do you have any business with the boy?”
“No. I just recalled that he was a personal attendant.”
“The boy is closer to a chef than a servant. That said, at least in this scenario, it’s all about this, right?”
Of course, Catherine was glad. If the boy had been here, it was a guaranteed future that everything would be twice as sweet.
Mary, who had no way of knowing her master’s thoughts, proudly puffed out her chest and openly showed her pride.
“The boy just stepped out for something at the forge.”
Catherine, while taking a bite of the dorayaki, also tasted Alraune’s Tear.
The bitter liquid seeped into the pancake, which melted apart, and the sweet pea filling flowed down her throat smoothly.
“Whatever he’s preparing, I guess it’s some new cooking tool.”
He didn’t go out for anything else, after all.
For a while, only the sounds of clinking cups and dishes, and the peaceful noise of enjoying the drink and treats filled the reception room.
Bang—!
“Duchess! Duchess!”
The sound of hurried footsteps shattered the serene atmosphere.
*
*
*
Chiiiii-!
Sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle-!
The forge of Gobanio.
In a place now called Gobanio’s forge, the sounds of meat grilling and the delicious sweet and spicy aroma blended with the hot smoke as it steadily claimed the cold alley.
“Karem, can I have one skewer?”
“Are you out of your mind!? It’s not fully cooked yet!”
“You can eat wyvern meat a little undercooked!”
“Nonsense!”
