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Karem was able to receive the fish-shaped pastry mold much faster than his previous requests.

It was said to be thanks to the lack of work for the crafting guild during the winter.

For the client, that was actually a good thing.

The copper mold, which sealed almost perfectly when stacked, had a comically shaped salmon instead of a fish depicted in it.

The handle was firmly attached and didn’t make a sound as it moved.

The item was delivered, fully upgraded with everything he wanted.

In his previous life, he had never seen such a luxurious mold.

“What did I order? An animal-shaped mold with a handle?”

Catherine, who had eaten lunch at the restaurant for the first time in a while, turned the mold around in her hands for a break before setting it down with a sigh. It looked exactly like the one Karem was holding.

Karem had only ordered one.

The item Catherine was checking was a spare prepared by Gobanio.

It was a gift expressing gratitude for the regulars, hoping they would continue to frequent the place.

Moreover, it was said that making fish-shaped pastries was easier than expected, so there was no burden to worry about.

Wait, with its salmon shape, it wasn’t a fish pastry but a salmon pastry, was it?

“Are you going to make short, chubby salmon-shaped pancakes? Well, Princess Alicia might like it.”

“Flora would probably like it too.”

“Well, compared to her fully grown body, her mental age looks like it’s been copied from the princess, so she likely would.”

Catherine, indulging in the joy of a brownie rich with sugar, closed her eyes for a moment. Since returning from her last business trip, she had consumed at least six cups of roasted Alraune beverages each day.

‘Is it okay to drink that much…?’

It might be fine for a caffeine substitute, but six cups of coffee? Catherine would be awake for two days straight after just two cups, let alone six.

In her past life, he was overly sensitive to caffeine.

Fortunately, the substitute coffee before her wasn’t coffee at all.

Still, she didn’t plan on drinking that much.

“Do you have something you want to say?”

“No. I just thought you seemed to really enjoy that beverage more than I expected.”

“Well, isn’t that obvious?”

Catherine lifted her glass proudly.

If what was inside had been wine or milk, it would have immediately spoiled and disappeared into the air, accompanied by a terrible smell.

“You speculated that the curse doesn’t recognize Alraune byproducts as food, right?”

“Yeah. The roasted Alraune beverages I’ve drunk so far prove that. The drinks based on Alraune’s Tear didn’t trigger the drought curse.”

Is that the logic that even mixing wine with muddy water would still result in muddy water?

“Then you can eat other things directly, can’t you?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean you can make any dish that contains roasted Alraune.”

Then could other foods using Alraune’s Tear be possible as well? No, maybe using roasted Alraune instead of Alraune’s Tear would work.

“Tiramisu, cream with roasted Alraune added… that’s about what comes to mind right now.”

“…I haven’t thought of that before.”

It was the first time Karem saw the astonished look on Catherine’s face.

With her mouth slightly open and her eyes blinking, the expectation slowly grew on her face, and as her lips started to curl upward, she coughed lightly to regain her composure.

“Indeed. If it’s a dish containing roasted Alraune, which is the raw material of Alraune’s Tear, then according to the logic of muddy water, there’s certainly a possibility.”

“Speaking of which, shall we bake right away?”

“With that mold we just received?”

“I ordered it to be baked, after all.”

Karem received the copper mold that Catherine handed over.

Since they just had lunch, it would be quite a while before snack time, but it didn’t matter if they had a snack a bit early. No, it didn’t matter even if they had already had a snack.

How full could one get from fish-shaped pastries?

There’s always room for fish-shaped pastries, even when full.

Thud, thud, creak—

The door was burst open, and Olivier came in.

“What the heck! Kitty! What on earth are you lazily doing alone… oh.”

Upon seeing Catherine’s contorted face, Olivier clicked his tongue as if to scold her, but stopped when he noticed Karem twisting the fish-shaped pastry mold nearby.

Grinning.

He wore a sly smile.

“Did I come at the wrong time?”

“…I don’t even want to know what time you’re talking about—”

“Oh dear. If I’m not careful, I might get poked by a unicorn.”

“So what the hell is that wretched time?”

“Um, well? Huh?”

Olivier alternately looked at Catherine, who frowned as if confirming something, and at Karem, who looked bewildered.

“Are you saying nothing really happened?”

“We were just chatting while Mary went to clean the tableware.”

“…Not a romantic time for just the two of you?”

Catherine froze like a cat that spotted a cucumber.

Karem felt his head heating up as if he would explode at any second.

Olivier let out a deep sigh, as if he couldn’t believe the dense response of these two. It was almost laughable, but how should he point it out?

“Oh, romantic? What are you even talking about!”

“Kitty. Kitty. Oh, Kitty. How many years do you think I’ve watched you? Unlike today’s promiscuous youth, you should be making more progress!”

“Old man, stop babbling nonsense!”

With a hand gesture, Catherine activated her magic.

“Not a chance!”

A small ice shield appeared silently in front of her. As always, she defensively reacted without a care, but Olivier’s eyebrows twitched.

The power partially pierced her defense.

The impact transmitted clearly despite penetrating her magic.

Catherine had definitely crossed an unspoken line they had both established.

No one would have said anything if she immediately got angry and retaliated.

Instead, Olivier smiled knowingly, as if to say ‘I’ve realized everything.’

That expression was naturally evident to Catherine.

“Are you trying to waste my time with silly talk, you old man!? So what do you want?”

“Oh, but this is an exciting scene we’ve got here.”

Winking, Olivier playfully slapped his own head, causing Catherine’s eyes to blaze.

“Oops! I’ll really hit you now. I heard that Jack Frost has appeared nearby. I got an urgent request for extermination. The Adventurer Guild has also issued an emergency quest.”

“Ugh…”

The once awkward atmosphere vanished in an instant, taken away by the culprit himself.

Catherine, now incensed, glared at Olivier, unable to vent her frustrated anger.

“Um, but what is this Jack Frost?”

“Huh? What do you mean by what’s Jack Frost? Oh, come to think of it, there wasn’t any last year, right? Maybe because there wasn’t much snow.”

There was not much snow? Karem found himself momentarily reflecting on last winter around this time.

The dreary sky consistently spewing snow.

Mary, spending more than half the day building a snow castle.

The aggressive snow removal effort he had seen while following Catherine.

Karem peeked outside the window.

Busy streets filled with people shoveling snow, with Mary busy with snow removal and construction.

Had there ever been a time when the inner castle was quiet? The outer palace was probably worse.

“This winter feels just like last year.”

“No, this winter has seen even more snow.”

“How do you know that?”

“When you get to my age, you can tell by how your back hurts when it rains and your joints ache when it’s cold. My joints feel much worse than last winter.”

Olivier proudly tapped his knees and elbows, as if to show off his age. It seemed like an old adage, that people notice the weather conditions by their aches.

“Listening to you, it seems like the snow castle Mary is building is way taller than last winter’s creation…”

“Ugh…”

Catherine, still grasping at the air with her hands, clenched her fists and let out a heavy breath.

“What’s the estimated frequency of Jack Frost’s occurrence?”

“The first sighting was in a village near Coldon, so if we delay even a little, it’ll head to Coldon itself. We need to wrap this up within a week, at the latest.”

“Then it seems we have a lot to prepare.”

“Well, if those two younglings are going to have a lovey-dovey time here—oops!”

Shwoosh—

A much stronger ice javelin than before flew toward him.

Aiming straight for Olivier, the javelin quickly veered off, hitting the center of the closed door with a bang!

*

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*

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Jack Frost.

While preparing snacks, Karem learned about Jack Frost from Catherine.

In large strokes, it was similar to the winter legends from his past life.

Winter, ice fairies, and so on.

The difference was that they were treated as monsters.

Like fairies, they only brought harm to humans.

To make matters worse, they appeared in large numbers at random during the cold winter, and their temperament was vicious, attacking indiscriminately, be it humans, monsters, or beasts, in cities or villages.

“If even one Jack Frost is found, it means there are ten nearby, leading nearby towns and villages to have to respond.”

Mary, who was whisking the batter with a mixer, seemed annoyed just thinking about it.

“But is it okay to call them ‘Mary’?”

“Yes? Is there a problem?”

“No, but even if they are treated as monsters, they’re still technically fairies, right? Isn’t that a distant relative?”

“Just because they’re fairies doesn’t mean they’re all related; they’re not even part of the same race.”

Knock, knock.

Mary knocked the mixer against the batter bowl.

The mixture, which had been stuck together, finally fell apart.

“But is this batter enough?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Don’t you think it’s too watery?”

The batter in the bowl appeared watery enough to resemble thick soup at first glance. It was precisely the consistency Karem desired.

However, questioning now arose about whether it was really the right consistency considering what Mary had been preparing until now.

Of course, she was accustomed to dealing with thin batter.

After all, the pancakes she loved to death used thin batter.

She also used thin batter to make the fried foods she ate sometimes.

However, this batter was the thinnest she had ever seen.

“I’ve made it to fully dissolve based on your order, but what exactly are you planning to make?”

“I’m going to make bread with this.”

Karem picked up the item he had set aside.

A copper mold with four intricately carved salmon shapes and a handle joined with hinges.

Mary recognized that this was Karem’s custom order.

So what?

“Are you going to bake fish-shaped bread or something?”

“Of course.”

“Well, it might be passable.”

“That’s not all.”

Karem set down the pot that had just been simmering in the oven next to the bowl of batter. The thick green pea filling exuded a sweet aroma that wafted to Mary’s nose.

“I’m going to add this.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“And if I add custard cream—”

“Would you like to prepare the batter in a separate kettle for easier pouring into the mold? Also, it would be best to cool the filling to use it. Let’s hurry for the sake of the contractor, who is suffering in this cold weather.”

And for your appetite too?

Karem inwardly asked himself as he watched Mary clapping her hands.

If Mary had heard, the answer would have been all too obvious.

 

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