Chapter 61: Alicia’s Cooking Class

"Now then, we’ll begin making sweets. Are your resolve and ingredients prepared?"

"Yes! I’m ready, teacher!!!"

The mansion where Alicia and the others were staying was, unsurprisingly, enormous, considering it was built to host the kings of two nations. Although it was rarely used, it was still maintained regularly, so there were no concerns about hygiene.

More importantly for the current situation, it had a magnificent kitchen worthy of the mansion’s scale. Alicia, acting as the student, and Julia, who had somehow been dragged into the role of teacher, now stood there together.

"...Seriously, why do I have to do this?"

"Um, is it really that bad? The cookies you made were so perfectly shaped and beautiful that I honestly thought they were bought from a shop. So I kind of brought you here on impulse."

"D-Don’t think flattery’s gonna work on me!! Anyone should be able to make something at that level!!!"

Julia crossed her arms and dramatically turned her face away after receiving the innocent compliment, but anyone could see her cheeks turning red.

Having devoted most of her life to mastering the spear, she was weak against straightforward affection like this. No matter how much her spear skills improved, people simply treated it as something expected. She was criticized plenty for her shortcomings, but she was almost never praised honestly and directly.

So while she felt embarrassed having her baking skills acknowledged, she still decided to happily teach Alicia.

Not because she was easy to manipulate or anything.

"...So this is a tsundere. It’s even easier to understand than in the books."

"Quiet, Layla. I can confiscate every cookie in your hands, you know."

"...You should really realize why you’re making these for the Sword King in the first place."

"Haaaaah!? It’s just strategy!!! That idiot has a huge sweet tooth, so if I keep giving him treats like this all the time, maybe his swordsmanship will dull when we fight someday! It’s completely advantageous for me, and there’s absolutely no other reason, okay!?!"

"...Saint Alicia. Do you know any magic that can cure someone from becoming hopelessly pathetic? Leila just says, ‘This side of Julia is nice too,’ and leaves her like this."

"Sorry. Even my powers have limits..."

"Why am I getting attacked from every direction here!?"

Julia looked utterly unwilling to accept any of this, but the gazes from the other two were warm, almost as if they were imagining future Julia seeing this scene and dying from embarrassment on the spot.

Watching Alicia apologize awkwardly, Layla figured the girl probably suffered quite a bit dealing with the people around her too. She finally voiced the question she had been wondering about.

"...More importantly, why am I even participating in this?"

"Oh, you don’t have to help make the sweets."

"...Thank goodness. I prefer eating sweets, not making them."

"I just need you to taste-test. Your body’s weirdly sturdy, so you’ll probably survive if something goes wrong."

"...Can I go home now?"

"As if I’d let you. This is an order from the 'Spear King.'"

"...I can’t believe the first order I receive is for something this stupid..."

Lured in by delicious sweets, Layla instead found herself assigned to taste dangerous experimental creations. Her shoulders visibly slumped in disappointment.

For a girl who treasured good food precisely because she had spent so long eating terrible meals, this was practically reopening old wounds.

Still, an order from her king was an order. Compared to the previous Spear King, who gave commands even more ridiculous than this, things had honestly improved.

"Now then, do you know what the most important thing in making sweets is?"

"Yes! Love for Toma-kun!!"

"Wrong answer!!!"

"Owow!?"

The instant Alicia answered, Julia brought a chop down onto her head.

Holding her aching head with both hands, Alicia looked up at Julia in confusion. Julia crossed her arms once more, silently realizing all over again that beginner cooks truly were something else.

Meanwhile, Layla had already stopped hiding how badly she wanted to leave.

Staring at Alicia, who clearly had no idea what she’d done wrong, Julia let out a deep sigh before mentally preparing herself to face this powerful enemy.

"What’s important in cooking—and baking—is following the recipe!! Love goes into the process itself!!! Love alone doesn’t magically improve the taste of food or sweets!!!!"

"T-That can’t be!?"

"...Hey, are you gonna be okay? You’re already this shocked and we’ve barely started."

"I-I’ll endure it!! I want Toma-kun to eat delicious things I made!!!"

Alicia, wearing an apron with her golden hair tied into a ponytail for once, clenched her fists with determination.

Inside her mind, she imagined Toma smiling while eating her sweets and praising her, which made her face grow slightly red.

Quickly shaking her head to drive the fantasy away, she turned back toward Julia, trying to show just how motivated she was.

Julia was normally strict with both herself and others, but deep down, she wasn’t the type of person who could abandon someone unless the situation was truly hopeless.

So, after another long sigh at the seriousness in Alicia’s eyes, Julia began teaching the completely clueless Saint how to make sweets.

"That’s not how you hold a knife!! And use your other hand to hold what you’re cutting! Cat paws! Cat paws!!!"

"C-Cat paws? Um... like this?"

"Yeah, like that... And move the knife by pulling it!! Why are you swinging it around like a sword!?"

"W-Well, Toma-kun cuts like this sometimes... Ah! Wait, now that I think about it, he held it differently during the barbecue!!"

"Stop waving the knife around while gesturing!!! That’s dangerous!!!"

"...This is incredibly stressful to watch."

A complete amateur attempting to make sweets...

"Next, we melt the chocolate. ...Don’t put it directly over the fire!! You use hot water to melt chocolate! A double boiler!!"

"A double boiler... I see, so this is how you melt it. It’s slow, but it’s definitely melting!"

"Stir it properly so the heat spreads evenly through the chocolate. And be careful not to let water get into the bowl. Keep going until it’s completely smooth."

"Understood!! It already smells so good I want to eat it now!!!"

"...Thank goodness she didn’t suggest making chocolate from scratch. At least she didn’t start with nightmare-level difficulty."

Even under the supervision of the highly experienced Julia, this was still a brutal battle...

"Cracking the egg... hyah!"

"Don’t slam it against the edge of the table like that!! And you got shell fragments into the bowl too!!! Try again!!! It won’t taste good if shells get mixed in!!!"

"U-Uuuugh...!!!"

"...I’ve never seen someone too weak to crack an egg properly before..."

"I-I was afraid that if I used too much force, the shell would fall in too... What should I do?"

"Then it’s fine if a little shell gets in. Just remove the pieces afterward."

"Uugh... Sorry for creating extra work..."

Even so, step by step, they kept moving forward, steadily approaching completion...

"150 degrees for 13 minutes... Ah! Then wouldn’t increasing the heat make it faster!?"

"Then the inside wouldn’t cook properly! Recipes have reasons behind them, you know!?"

"Y-Yes... I just felt bad making you two stay here any longer..."

"...Wow, that’s genuinely sweet. Julia’s the bad guy here."

"How am I the bad guy!?"

After somehow reaching the baking stage using the installed magical oven, the three girls finally relaxed and drifted naturally into conversation.

They talked about everything from trivial topics to important matters, seeming to grow closer through the shared experience. Laughing and chatting together, they looked just like ordinary girls.

"Still, Sordia’s cooking magic tools are incredible. What’s really crazy is how widespread they are. In the Yaranli Kingdom, a kitchen like this would only exist in special districts or fancy restaurants."

"...In my country, they’re luxury items. Commoners could never afford them."

"They’re still pretty expensive here too, so most people can’t casually buy them. I heard the magic research labs and civilian magic-tool engineers worked really hard to lower the prices as much as possible."

"Seriously, just having one useful tool changes everything. Less work, more options. This thing even has a timer, right? You can just leave it alone and it shuts off automatically when the time’s up."

"...Not having to constantly watch the clock is revolutionary."

"Hmm... I kind of want them to give me one of these. I’d love to take it apart, understand the structure, and reproduce it."

"You’d probably have to negotiate with the higher-ups in the government for that... Ah, but if you asked Toma-kun, he might just give you one as a present."

"...Isn’t the Sword King way too generous?"

"A-Ahaha... W-Well, that’s one of Toma-kun’s good points?"

Alicia scratched her cheek awkwardly while laughing weakly, only for the other two girls to stare at her intensely.

Apparently, even she realized her excuse sounded flimsy, because she quickly looked away.

Deciding not to push her further, the other two instead asked the thing they were even more curious about.

"...More importantly, why do you like the Sword King so much, Alicia?"

"Fwah!?"

"Wait, seriously? You actually like that guy!? Don’t do it!! He totally seems like the type who’ll self-destruct someday!!"

"I-If Toma-kun is heading toward ruin, then I’ll go with him!!!"

"...Ah. This is way heavier than I expected. I feel like I unearthed something I shouldn’t have. Can I pretend I never asked?"

"Don’t stir things up and then try to run away from the aftermath!!!"

"Why are you treating this like some dangerous explosive!? Listen carefully, okay? Toma-kun is actually—"

Clenching her fists, Alicia passionately began explaining all of Toma’s good qualities.

Layla nodded along absentmindedly while mostly tuning it out, while Julia deliberately looked away as though she had absolutely no interest whatsoever—despite clearly listening carefully enough not to miss a single word.

When three girls gather together, they become noisy.

As if embodying that saying itself, the three spent their time together like completely ordinary girls.