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“Ahhhhhh—”

“Keep your mouth shut. Open wide.”

Catherine tapped Alicia’s lips. Alicia quickly opened her mouth wide.

“There’s no bleeding, and no damage to the gums.”

“Isn’t this a big problem?”

“Quiet.”

There’s no way I can stay quiet.

Alicia’s tooth, which had been munching on candy, was forcibly pulled out. And that tooth was firmly stuck in the candy.

Here’s a question: who should be punished?

No need to hear a response.

‘Obviously, it’s the damn person who made that candy!’

Of course, it’s one of the first body parts to get damaged in life. The reasons are many.

Brushing it carelessly, eating hard foods, crunching on bone fragments hidden in meat, falling awkwardly, getting into fights and losing teeth, and eating sticky snacks that pull teeth out—everything’s possible.

“Wow, the more I think about it, the more it screams punishment in the future.”

“We’re still observing, so don’t panic, little one.”

Catherine poked Karem’s forehead with her stick while carefully inspecting every corner of Alicia’s mouth.

“Ah, heh ha haa?”

Alicia said with her mouth wide open, only mumbling incoherent sounds. The meaning was understandable, though.

“Lady Alicia, if even His Grace the Duke found out that I made the object that pulled out your tooth, it would be a disaster.”

“Ugh, but this hurts—”

“Ugh. Princess Alicia, mouth.”

At Catherine’s warning, Alicia stopped talking and opened her mouth again.

Certainly, Alicia looked far too calm compared to a typical person who would be crying and in pain when forcibly losing a tooth, whether big or small.

But that doesn’t mean the fact that her tooth was pulled out—specifically, that the item that caused it was made—would simply disappear.

‘But what’s actually going to happen?’

Despite Iceland’s meritocracy, nobility through bloodline cannot be ignored. How much more for a grand noble family that has ruled this land longer than the history of the Kingdom of Seophone.

And yet, someone has pulled the tooth of the youngest daughter of such a family.

The cherished youngest princess beloved by all in her family.

Of course, there’s one person who hates her and calls her a pig, like Robin, but that’s an inter-sibling dynamic that is naturally ingrained, so there’s no need to consider it.

The count?

There’s no way this could be smoothed over after damaging someone from the Duke’s direct line.

The top magic consultant, Catherine’s backing?

If something goes wrong, the backlash could end up hitting Catherine.

That’s something I absolutely cannot allow.

I committed the wrong, so why should the fallout land on Catherine?

“What? Was it just a big fuss from the hefty little one?”

If it comes to that—huh?

“A fuss?”

“Yeah.”

As Catherine tilted Karem’s forehead once more, she guided Alicia’s lower jaw to close her mouth.

“Now then. Princess Alicia, let me ask you one thing.”

“Ask away. But what about snacks—”

“What about this taffy… will it be fine?”

“Ugh.”

Alicia made a sad noise as she watched the orange-flavored taffy stick slip from Karem’s hand.

“Over the past few days, didn’t it feel strange when you were eating your meals?”

“Strange? What do you mean by—ah?”

“Looks like something’s coming to mind.”

Catherine spoke as if she’d found the answer. Alicia nodded.

“Not long ago, Alicia’s front tooth was getting wobbly.”

“And as each day passed, it was wobbly even more, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Is there any other tooth wobbling?”

“My molars have been wobbling since yesterday.”

Alicia nodded. She looked puzzled as to why such questions were being asked.

“Lady Alicia, how old are you right now?”

“I’m six! Hee!”

Alicia beamed with a wide smile, stretching her tiny hands forward. Her toothy grin was adorable, with one gap showing.

“Yup… mm. Six years old!”

After momentarily twisting her hands, she pondered briefly before curling down four fingers of her right hand and extending them back out.

“Typically, human children between six and seven start losing their baby teeth.”

“Then Alicia’s tooth fell out naturally?”

“Yes. Wobbling teeth are a prelude. And when the pullover place decays, new teeth will grow in to last until old age.”

“Then what about fairies?”

“I don’t know how fairies grow up, but humans are mostly similar.”

Among humans, dwarves are a bit special, as their teeth keep growing, allowing them to grind down naturally while eating hard foods.

So, what? It’s just a baby tooth that fell out?

At that age, it’s certainly the time for teeth to fall out.

“Huuuuuuu.”

Karem sighed deeply in relief.

Naturally, it was a relief. If that was true, the tooth that was meant to fall out just came out a bit earlier. That means there’s no danger of getting beheaded, exiled, or facing any kind of punishment.

“Were you really that worried about it?”

“It’s odd not to be worried. I might’ve just pulled out Lady Alicia’s tooth!”

“Surely, my lord wouldn’t punish you for something like that—”

“Forgot to warn you about how sticky taffy can cling to your teeth.”

“Huh?”

Catherine tilted her head, raising an eyebrow, as if she misheard something.

“That could be a bit of a problem.”

“Katie, can I eat the rations of taffy?”

“Again, I’m not Katie. No. Taffy is off-limits for a while.”

“Ugh—”

Initially looking pale, Alicia turned white again at the next words and gripped the table in shock.

“But Lady Alicia, is it really something to be that shocked over?”

“Not being able to eat snacks! Naturally—”

“You can’t eat other snacks, though?”

“Huh?”

With a face as white as snow, Alicia looked up at Karem, her eyes wide.

“What do you mean by that?”

“How many hard and chewy foods have you even had?”

“Well… Uh-oh?”

“And it’s not like you can’t eat snacks at all, right?”

Though it’s said that fried foods and sodas are bad for health, who really listens to that?

It’s just a wobbly tooth after all.

Moreover, it’s a tooth that was supposed to fall out soon, anyhow.

“Is that really so?”

“Let’s just hold off on consuming anything before that tooth falls out. Right now, I can’t even think of what hard or chewy snacks there are.”

“Then I can just eat cake!”

“Though you have to brush your teeth thoroughly afterwards.”

“Of course I will. Huh?”

Alicia paused mid-sentence, tilting her head and then looking back up at Catherine and Karem in turn.

“Since it’s going to fall out anyway, isn’t it okay not to brush?”

“Well… that might not matter, I guess.”

“Then—”

Alicia’s face brightened like sunlight.

No child likes to brush their teeth.

“But would the Duchess allow that?”

Catherine shook her head as if it were out of the question, resting her chin on her hand.

“Popins wouldn’t allow it either. Iona and Zigmeser wouldn’t either.”

“Well… Alicia will brush quietly.”

“That’s right.”

Catherine gently stroked Alicia’s hair with her other hand.

“But Katie, if I finish the taffy I was eating—”

“No. And I distinctly said I’m not Katie.”

“Katie is Katie! Waaaaaah—”

Catherine removed her resting hand and used both to grab Alicia’s cheeks, squishing them and twisting them around.

“Oh, Alicia’s cheeks aren’t a toy!”

“Well, I bet Godwin and the Duchess think differently.”

Alicia’s round, mochi-like cheeks were mercilessly twisted around by Catherine’s hands.

‘I wish I could try that.’

Despite saying that, seeing her act so obediently makes it seem like she doesn’t particularly dislike it. I felt an urge to touch them if a chance ever arises.

Knock, knock, creak—

“Excuse me. Contractor.”

“Yeah.”

A servant entered, hands holding a tray stocked with tableware, a kettle, butter, and a stack of thick round pancakes like a pyramid.

“I figured you wouldn’t be eating that taffy candy, so I took the liberty of making pancakes since we had lots of syrup left over.”

The pancakes stacked up like a pyramid before them.

They didn’t look like mere pancakes; each one appeared to be four or five layers thick.

More like pancake-cake than just ‘pan’cake.

They were a gentle brown, so golden brown that it barely revealed the white surface, looking irresistibly delicious as if showcasing the ultimate fantasy of a brownie.

The sweet steam rising from the still-warm pancakes enveloped the office, sweetly covering the smell of paper and curious herbs.

“Just now, I prepared it all by myself since Karem was busy scaling the tower.”

“Always looking for any chance, huh?”

“Is that something you can accuse me of? You enjoyed my diligent service before I arrived in the village, after all.”

Karem decided to take a generous approach towards Mary right now.

In any case, they spent half a day together in an awkward but precious time.

More than anything, there were urgent matters at hand.

“By the way, why all of a sudden did you make such thick pancakes?”

“I’ve been pondering about this for a while.”

Tap, tap, tap—whoosh—as the three of them sat at the table, Mary tidied up the surface.

“Pancakes are, after all, a type of cake, so why aren’t they as thick as cake?”

“So, I figured we’d stack several on top of each other and eat them—”

“No, this and that are not the same.”

Mary interrupted sharply, cutting off her own words.

Certainly, what she had now looked distinctly different from the usual pancake.

The pancake, clearly made with some special tool instead of a standard pan, could almost be mistaken for a castella, perfectly coated in crisp golden brown.

“It would be impossible to cook something like that with a kitchen pan. How did you make it?”

“I borrowed a custom-made cooking tool that my junior ordered.”

“Huh? Me?”

“It’s too small to serve as a pot and too deep to work as a frying pan.”

Indeed, there was one product out of the initial ordering that had an ordering mistake.

‘But you made so many?’

Karem glanced at the tray set at the center.

The pancake was so thick that icing it would make it almost a cake.

There were at least dozens of those pancakes.

“Oh, I think I could eat it all at once.”

“Karem?”

“Ah, just a moment.”

Replacing Mary, who was supposed to be serving Catherine, Karem hastily stacked pancakes onto Alicia’s plate as she urged him on, immediately spreading butter over them.

Sizzle—sizzle-sizzle—

The thinly spread bright yellow butter melted immediately under the warmth of the pancakes, gleaming on their light brown surface. The aroma of warmed butter seeped into the sweet scent.

“Hmmm, something’s missing here.”

“Uh, are you talking about drinks? I’ll get them right away—”

“No. I meant whipped cream. Haven’t we always prepared that whenever we served pancakes?”

At those words, Mary froze with the butter knife still in hand.

To be clear, she had intended to spread butter on Catherine’s pancake.

“…”

“Mary?”

“…I—”

“Huh?”

“As a brownie, how could I have such a lapse in thought!”

Mary dropped the butter knife and sprung up.

“I’ll go get some drinks along with whipped cream right away! My apologies for any inconvenience until then, please take care of the contractor.”

And with that, she vanished in a puff from where she stood.

She must have appeared from the kitchen.

“Hmm… you can eat alone, right?”

Alicia stared intently at the pancakes and nodded. Karem handed her a fork and knife, then picked up the butter knife Mary left behind.

 

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