There were various sweet treats arranged on the table.
Cake, pudding, castella, bean paste and syrup, tarts, ice cream, sherbet, pies,
scones, jello, and yogurts... A pleasant aroma wafted out through the store.
"Everything looks so delicious! Thanks so much, Aer!"
"No problem!" Aer slowly nodded her head at Lu as she said that. The two of
them laughed gently as they looked over the dessert-filled table, picking up a
few afterward.
I took one, but I didn't want to take too many. The two of them, on the other
hand, seemed happy to pick through the whole lot. Girls sure like sweets...
Each of the girls had individual preferences for desserts. Yumina liked parfaits,
Elze liked castellas, Linze liked ice cream, Yae liked bean paste, Sue liked cakes,
Lu liked pudding, Hilde liked cream puffs, Leen liked chocolate, and Sakura liked
tarts. There was a lot of diversity as far as their preferences went...
Aer's café, Parent, was originally situated in Reflet, but we'd opened up a
branch in Brunhild. The main building in Reflet was headed by her younger
sister, who had recently gotten married. Aer decided to move to Brunhild and
manage the new place. Today, we'd been invited to taste-test the new menu.
And that was all that had happened so far. Yae was certainly happy to have
been invited.
The items on the menu were all recipes I'd introduced to this world, but I was
amazed by how faithfully Aer had recreated the items. The ingredients weren't
exactly the same as the ones available back home, but even with that handicap,
the stuff she'd made tasted incredible.
Then again, I wasn't the best one to judge. I didn't have a big sweet tooth to
begin with and hadn't tried a lot of desserts from my old world.
I preferred stuff like tea, personally... Tea was delicious.
"I've eaten a lot... They're just so tasty..."
"Aha... Just don't eat too much!" Elze giggled a little after Yumina spoke. I
didn't think she'd be smiling so much if she weighed herself in the morning...
Those were thoughts I didn't dare to speak, though.
I certainly couldn't find any fault with the stuff Aer had made. They were
right, though... The stuff tasted really good. Almost too good.
"Ahaha... I wonder if these could be eaten outside, I wonder."
"Oh, there's a terrace outside..." Hilde spoke up in response to Yae's
pondering.
The second branch of the Parent Café was built into a busy corner of Brunhild,
it had a terraced dining area outside with a nice little view. It would be nice to
sit out there, provided the weather was nice. I was wondering what Yae meant
with her pondering, given that we'd passed the terrace on the way in.
"Ah, I did not mean it like that, I did not... I meant more for carrying food
around... Food that you can hold in your hand."
Ah, so Yae was probably referring to easy-to-hold treats like crêpes and stuff.
That made sense enough.
"Mmm... That's right. We're opening the festival soon, aren't we? I guess
opening up a dessert shop is good, but we don't have much in the way of food
you can snack on while walking around the place..."
"Oh, what about the waffle cone recipe I taught you?" If we had ice cream
cones, people could pick them up and eat them as they walked around the
festival. That'd probably sell well in Brunhild.
"Ah, yes. It's one of our main products. But I wonder if we can do more of
that..."
"Hey, Touya... Come on. Look it up."
"Alright..."
Elze urged me to look up some new stuff. I was from another world, but I
didn't know everything that was in it... so if I needed information, I'd turn to the
internet.
Hmm... Desserts you can carry... One-handed stuff... Hm... Aha... I wondered if
easy-to-carry desserts were so popular because girls liked to snack on sweet
things on the go. Either way, it was clear there were a lot of varieties.
"This, this, and this... That should do..." I highlighted a few results from the
image search and projected them into the air.
"Amazing...! There are so many... You made all these yourself?"
"Uh... Kind of. The recipes are common in the town I grew up in... I'm not sure
how it'll turn out until we try the recipes..." I gave a vague reply to Aer's
question. Fortunately, none of the images had anything that gave away the fact
that they were pictures from another world... My secret was still safe from the
general public for the time being.
Aer stared greedily at the floating images of desserts. Lu and the others
seemed to get excited as well.
"There sure seem to be a lot of crêpes..."
"I wanna eat that waffle-looking thing!"
"What's that thin roll-cake...? It looks amazing..."
"And that apple pie stick...! I want to try it... I really do!"
"Mmm... Seems like there's a lot going on with these things..." I pulled up a
few recipes, allowing Aer and Lu to commit them to memory.
"What is this strange fish-like pastry...?" Leen pointed out a taiyaki... I
wondered if that'd be the kind of one-handed dessert we could use. You could
certainly carry it easily.
Leen was suspicious of what was inside the pastry, so I explained it to her.
Taiyaki was a pretty good snack.
"I see. There's bean paste inside, then..."
"It looks tasty, it does..." Yae was practically salivating. She was also shoveling
cakes and snacks from the table into her mouth. That girl was a real sucker for
delicious treats... It was definitely a weakness.
"Can you put other things inside it?"
"Yeah, you can. I've seen variants with cream or chocolate inside before."
"That sounds good." There were a lot of taiyaki variants. I'd even seen more
novelty types with things like bacon, cheese, and curry inside.
"Does it need to be fish-shaped?"
"Nope. You can have it as a different shape if you want. In fact, uh... hold on a
sec. Here, it was originally more of a round shape." I searched for an image of
some imagawayaki, a round bean paste-filled pastry. It was definitely a simple
design.
"I'll make a mold for you guys. It's not all that complicated."
"Great! I'll get the bean paste ready!"
"Ooh! That sounds good!" Elze seemed pretty fired up. I didn't realize they
wanted to eat it already! Everyone seemed excited, so I sighed and pulled an
iron ingot out of [Storage] and began shaping it into a mold for the pastry.
The café was outfitted with a magical furnace from Felsen. It worked like a
regular stove, but was just operated by a Fire spellstone. Aer bought it using the
profits from the café back in Reflet, and it seemed like she got a good price for
it too.
Naturally, she'd bought it from Olba Strand. That guy never missed a good
opportunity...
I produced five molds for them to use. They were a little bit heavy for women
to use, so I enchanted them with [Gravity] to reduce their weight.
Aer ran into the kitchen, one of the molds in tow. Lu went right after her. That
was an amusing sight.
"The festival is going to be quite fun..." Yumina smiled sweetly. It was difficult,
but everyone in town was getting ready. It all started as a ploy to give the young
king of Palouf some confidence, but I was happy to see how it was all coming
together.
"Personally, I am looking forward to the test of martial skill, I am. You will all
see how powerful my brother is, you will!"
"My own elder brother won't be defeated so easily, either!" Yae and Hilde
had ostensibly been assigned to the security detail, but they'd have time to
check out events. They were no different from anyone else at the event, after
all. It was fine for them to take some time out.
Still, I didn't want the knight order to get too overwhelmed... They had a lot
riding on them during this upcoming event. I decided I should probably pay
them all a bonus alongside their salary. Then again, I had just given everyone a
raise in terms of pay... The knight order's salary was still being paid out of my
own pocket, at the end of the day. Kousaka was definitely helping with national
income, but we weren't pulling in a lot.
We had to use the treasury funds to repair Frame Gears damaged during
Phrase skirmishes, and we'd also recently funneled a lot of cash into creating
the gate to the Reverse World, along with the mana storage tank. These were
necessary expenses, so I had to prioritize them.
The Behemoth Treants were worth quite a bit, so I was glad I'd killed them. I
didn't want to flood the market with dragon materials or spellstones, either...
so I had to deliberately hold back on selling that kind of stuff.
Adventurers were still coming and going to the dungeon islands, and they
were paying the toll on their way. That was a valuable source of income for
Brunhild.
Money made by beach-goers was also added to the treasury... Personally
hunting Mithril Golems seemed like easy money to me, but I didn't want to
poach too many strong monsters in other nations. That'd be the same as
stealing livelihood from other adventurers. Taking all their spoils wouldn't be
right, since they needed to build up their own fortunes and paths in life.
I was a Gold-rank adventurer, which made me stiff competition for other
adventurers. It'd probably be better if I went for Orichalcum Golems. But then
again, who knew what kind of economic damage I could do if I recklessly ran
around farming money like that...
Achieving gold rank took a lot of effort... Hilde's grandpa had done the same
thing as me, long ago... and he rarely responded to quests asked of him.
Ultimately, money was the root of happiness, but I needed to think very
carefully about the ways in which I earned it. It'd be easier if I didn't need
money to make things work...
"We did it!"
Lu and Aer brought a plate through from the kitchen. The pastries on the
plate were a little burned here and there, but they looked tasty enough.
"This one is bean paste, and this one is custard. Please excuse the burnt
corners..."
"No, don't worry. The crisp parts taste pretty great too. I like it a lot." I
reached out to grab out a pastry.
Oof, it's hot!
I bit down into the crispy pastry, and the hot custard flowed out from inside
and spread across my tongue. Mmm... Delicious... We can definitely sell these...
They're tasty and easy to eat.
My stomach was full from the cake I'd eaten earlier, so I didn't want to
overdo it.
"Delicious... I could eat this all day... I want to try all the different types... Ah...
Khh?!"
"S-Sakura?! Here, tea!"
Sakura had eaten too quickly, resulting in some of the pastry getting caught in
her throat. Linze quickly held a cup of tea up to her. She really shouldn't have
stuffed both types into her mouth with both hands... I didn't think bean paste
and custard was a good combo, really.
"You can make all kinds if we change the filling. I'm sure this'll be popular."
"We need to practice in order to crisp the edges a little better... It'll depend
on the filling, too." Aer and Lu were already talking about how to make the
product better. It was almost like Lu had become an employee of the place
before anyone noticed.
"Ah, I'm sorry I'm late! Ah... Is there anything left?!"
A woman threw open the café's front door and looked around frantically
toward the table that was stacked with treats.
It was Micah, the owner of the Silver Moon Inn. She'd moved from Reflet to
Brunhild, just like Aer.
"There's still plenty left, don't you worry. I'll bring some more out now!" Aer
smiled and headed back into the kitchen as a few more people came into the
café from behind Micah.
Oh no.
"Wow! There are lots of great sweet treats here, you know? Good work
sniffing this place out."
"No big deal. I knew you'd be interested in this kind of stuff, Karen."
"Indeed... It came in handy this time."
"Wahoo! Hic! I schmell dessert, hic! Shmells like... Booze! Yahoo!"
Oh dear. The new intruders were Karen, Moroha, Karina, and the drunk little
goblin known as Suika. It was an unfortunate gathering of gods.
There were seats and tables available for them, but we'd only just opened the
place and there wasn't even a sign up yet... I had no idea how they'd figured us
out. In the end, I didn't think about it too hard. It was fruitless to question the
divine. I'd built it, so they'd come.
"Lu, sweetie! Get me some of that fish pastry, you know? And tea, too!
Touya's paying, you know?!"
"Y-Yes, I'll get right on that!" Lu took up a serving tray and ran back to the
kitchen. She really was acting like an employee... Then again, Karen was her
future sister-in-law, so she was probably just doing her best to appease her.
Also, what the hell was that about her saying I was paying? Didn't she have any
money? I sighed quietly as Karen explored the menu.
"Oho... So this is the menu. It's so nice, you know? Everything looks
amazing..."
"Hold on a sec, you just ordered a taiyaki! Don't go overboard...!"
"Don't worry, you know? How about we tell you something interesting?"
"Huh?" I raised at that. It sounded a little ominous. I was certainly curious to
hear what someone like Karen regarded as interesting, though.
I stared over at her, and suddenly Moroha piped up.
"Apparently the dungeon island has itself a Carbuncle. Karina here said she
saw one, at least... Isn't that right?"
"Yeah, sure is. Ain't in the dungeon, but I saw it from a distance. It was a
Carbuncle for sure... It'll be worth a lotta money."
Money, you say? But what the hell is a Carbuncle anyway? I looked puzzled,
so Linze chimed in with some much-needed clarification.
"A Carbuncle is a species of magical beast with a gemstone embedded in its
forehead. The stone is actually a spellstone, and they're usually really pure
grade. High-tier staffs and wands usually have Carbuncle spellstones embedded
into their tips."
Ohhh, I think I remember reading about that in the guild library. The
illustration was like an oversized squirrel with a fire spellstone in its forehead.
Still, just one spellstone wouldn't make a ton of cash. It might cover a good
all-you-can-eat dinner, though...
"Hic! Achtually, I heard it was a Hydra Carbuncle, hic! Mahny headsh... And a
spellstone in each, hic! Big money, biiihg money!"
"What, a Hydra?!"
I jolted my head toward the little drunkard. Isn't the Hydra more like a manyheaded snake? Kind of like Orochi... Could there really be a creature like that,
with a powerful spellstone in all of its heads?
"She's right. It was a pretty big Hydra. If you took it out, you'd definitely get a
lot of money."
"It's on Brunhild's territory, Touya. There'd be no issue if you killed it. Plus, it's
your job as king to reduce the dangers on that island to begin with!"
"Better hurry though, you know? Other adventurers might take it down
instead, ehehe..."
"I better go kill it quick..." I couldn't pass up the opportunity. A golden chance
had manifested right in front of me, so I needed to take it. Time was of the
essence!
"See ya, hic! Ah, Aer! Gimme that schtrawberry wine tart and the rum raisin
ice creaaam sandwich!"
"I'd like the fruit sorbet, you know?"
"Raindrop cake for me."
"Opera cake, please!" I listened to them rattle off their orders as I opened a
[Gate] to the dungeon island. I wanted to get it done as soon as possible. But
man, they were really ordering a lot... Not as much as Yae, but still...
Looks like I'm gonna need all the money I can get. Wait for me, Carbuncle
Hydra!
"Geez... That was rough..." I just barely managed to beat the Hydra.
That was one hell of a snake... I knew it had that kind of power, but geez...
Whenever I cut one of its necks, the head just grew back right away. On top of
that, each of the heads breathed a different magical element!
I killed it by using a blade and cutting them all at the same time. It made
sense, really. The spellstones were in each head, so taking out each one
disabled the flow of magic through its body.
Still, the fights on the dungeon island were extremely rough... The Hydra's
blood was also a pretty potent poison... This thing was extremely dangerous.
Luckily, the battle was won and now I had nine spellstones that were around
the size of soccer balls. Once I delivered them to the guild, I traded them in for
some serious cash. Enough to give a bonus to everyone working in the knight
order, too.
I left the guild and walked back to Parent Café. I walked through the castle
town and saw everyone preparing for the coming festival. There were stalls
being erected, and decorations in various street corners.
A festive air was already around the town, even though we were just
preparing. I kind of liked the bustling atmosphere, though. It was exciting.
I opened up the door to the café, and the little bell by the door jingled.
"...Yikes." The table had a ton of glasses, dishes, and cups piled up. I couldn't
believe how much food they must've eaten... Yumina and the others were
sitting around the table drinking tea, but Yae was still snacking.
I could see Karen smiling slyly as she chatted at the end of the table. What the
hell... You ordered way too much!
"Hic! Wewcome back big bwooo... Did you make good moneeey?"
"...Yeah. But looking at the damage here, I might have to fork it all over at this
rate." Suika, the drunk little goblin she was, continued to shovel dumplings into
her mouth. Gods didn't even need to eat... She was totally taking advantage.
Come to think of it, that probably meant they had bottomless stomachs too... If
I wasn't careful, they'd drive the food costs up just as much as Yae did.
But they ate standard amounts in the castle... Maybe they were just going all
out because it was dessert food.
"I wanted to give everything a try, is all... Kind of lost myself in the taste."
"Mhm. You can't tell taste by looking. The only way to tell if something is
tasty is by eating! Everything on the menu was tasty, though."
Wait, everything?! You seriously ordered everything from the menu?! I went
out to get that money and you... You finally really did it... You... You maniacs!
You ate it up! God damn you!
"Ah, uhm... Touya... Sorry, but, uhm..." Aer quietly murmured towards me.
"Oh, right. No worries, I'll cover my sisters now...!" I had originally intended to
pay for half of the food-tasting, but now I had to pay for my sisters, too... I
didn't need to worry about Micah, at least... Aer invited her, so that was her
issue.
"Ah, no... Actually, uhm... I'm out of ingredients... Entirely... I don't have any
fruits or sugar for the festival... s-so, uhm..."
"Ah, gotcha. I'll go and buy some, then..."
You sisters are a public menace... You've completely ruined this poor woman's
supplies...
Brunhild's stores were running low on supplies due to festival preparations.
Stuff like that was usually provided by outside merchants, but Aer had literally
just set up her café branch, so she hadn't had time to contract suppliers and
such, either.
Luckily, I could use [Gate] to shop in other cities around the world in a matter
of seconds, and I had [Storage] readily available to stash the perishables in, too.
I guess I just needed to head out and buy some stuff...
"Guess I'll go, then..."
"Oh, Touya! I'll come too!" I was about to step through my newly-conjured
portal when Lu suddenly stood up and started removing her apron. That was a
relief, really. I didn't know what the best foods were, so she'd be a help.
Sue and Sakura watched as Lu walked over toward me.
"Darn it, Lu beat me to the punch..."
"I'd go with you too, Grand Duke... but my tummy is quite sore..." Sakura
leaned back in her chair, hands resting on her stomach. She really ate too
much... She didn't have Yae's fortitude.
Speaking of Yae, the gluttonous samurai was finally taking a break from
chowing down. She was just sipping at some tea instead. Lu, on the other hand,
hadn't eaten all that much at all because she was helping Aer prepare all the
treats.
I figured I'd go to the alchemy lab later on and get some stomach medicine
from Flora.
"Thanks for waiting, Touya. Let's head off!"
"Mhm. See you guys in a bit."
"Take care out there."
Leen and Paula both waved me off. Everyone else smiled and waved, too.
Guess if Lu's tagging along, I'll hit up Regulus. I can buy some more coffee
beans there, too.
I opened a [Gate] straight to Gallaria.
◇ ◇ ◇
The preparations were well underway.
Originally, we planned to just have a two-day festival, but it ended up turning
into a four-day affair. People didn't just want to see one tournament, they
wanted to enjoy more stuff in excess.
The finals for the shogi and martial arts tournaments were on the same day at
the same time in the original schedule, and that just wouldn't do at all.
Thus we amended the schedule.
■Day One
Opening Ceremony
Baseball Tournament (Preliminaries)
■Day Two
Baseball Tournament (Finals)
Shogi Tournament (Preliminaries)
■Day Three
Shogi Tournament (Finals)
Martial Arts Tournament (Preliminaries)
■Day Four
Martial Arts Tournament (Finals)
Closing Ceremony
That was basically how things were going at this point.
It would still be difficult for participants of one tournament to visit another,
though.
A lot of other nations also asked to get involved in the celebrations.
Originally, it was just going to be members of the alliance, but Palouf wasn't a
member, so we couldn't be seen to give them special treatment. That was why
we'd sent written invitations out to members of foreign royalty that we had
neutral or friendly relationships with.
We'd sent out letters to Hannock, Felsen, Ryle, Xenoahs, and Elfrau.
As for Eashen, I'd sent a letter out to Tokugawa Ieyahsu, since I'd never met
their emperor. Besides, I knew that Ieyahsu was the one really running the
show anyway.
If I was honest, I'd sent out those letters assuming that it'd be trouble if they
didn't get an invite... I didn't expect anyone to show up... But each and every
one of the invited royals took me up on the offer and decided to come.
"They probably thought that if they didn't come they might hurt your
feelings... and risk you storming in there with one of your Frame Gears..."
Nikola nodded slowly as he gave me his opinion.
You seriously think I'd do that?! Those countries would also be bringing their
own knights and talented individuals for the tournaments. The king of Felsen
himself even planned on participating in the martial arts one...
He sure was a crazy collector of weapons, if I recalled correctly... A real
meathead, too. It was kind of funny to me, given that he was supposed to
represent Felsen, which was known for being magic-oriented. He didn't match
the image at all.
Still, this was just supposed to be a little festival... Now we had global VIPs
coming in from all over the place.
I wasn't really worried about security or anything, we had that covered... but
I'd be less poised to intervene in personal squabbles between members of
royalty.
For example, if the beastking of Mismede met up with the king of Felsen after
the tournament... It was possible that if they fought in the tournament, the
loser might hold a grudge and retaliate.
Then again, I highly doubted that it'd come to that.
They were hiding who they were during the participation, so they'd have no
lost honor if they were defeated. Conversely, they'd have no gained honor if
they won. It was a situation devoid of any gamble.
I briefly considered having the tournament champion fight against Moroha...
but I figured that would probably trample on their happiness. And frankly, I
wanted the event to go as smoothly as possible.