Side: Yuki
Now that the siege of the Demon King's Castle is over, all that's left is to wait for the Roumel invasion force to collapse. However, that's the Allied Army's job; unless something goes horribly wrong, there's really no part for me to play.
At this point, the Roumel invasion force is practically checkmated anyway. If they had managed to capture a town or a fortress in Roumel, they could have used it as a base of operations, but thanks to the Heroes, they haven't been able to seize a single piece of Roumel's territory.
Well, it would be a pain if they put up a weird final resistance and caused unnecessary casualties, so the plan is to eventually send Slakichi-san and his troops to ambush and harvest the Roumel invasion force while they're quietly retreating.
At least, that's the plan.
Two days have passed since we captured the Demon King's Castle. Even if the enemy's messenger reached Roumel a week in advance, we still have to kill time for at least another week. Having an army turn back and march in reverse is just that tedious of a process.
As for the Allied Army, they're enjoying a lavish, warm reception from the demon citizens, throwing themselves into banquets while simultaneously drawing up countermeasures against the returning Roumel invasion force. Among them, the generals who defeated the nameless monstrosity—the one that supposedly devoured the Demon King—are now being hailed as "Heroes", but honestly, I don't really care about any of that right now.
"...I'm bored."
"Me too."
Seraria and I are relaxing on the veranda, lazily sipping tea.
A workplace that you can commute to right from your own house is incredibly convenient, isn't it? Plus, taking time off is totally fine since I have a substitute. Doppelgangers are truly wonderful things.
"Look, I love taking things easy so this is fine by me, but if you're so bored, Seraria, shouldn't you go over to the Allied Army and do some work? You've got way more on your plate than I do."
"No way. I've left the Weed units of the Allied Army in Qual's hands, so everything is fine. Besides, I've told my Doppelganger to give me a live commentary on the other leadership councils, so there's absolutely no problem."
I wonder about that. She's the top brass of the Weed military... actually, she's technically Elju's older sister and the practical leader of the Allied Army. Elju is only the Supreme Commander in name, since she doesn't actually know how to command an army.
"Then go play a video game."
"...I'll hold off until this whole thing is over. I've already cleared it once. I'll go for full completion later."
"...That's probably for the best."
When I playfully showed her a Level 1 restriction run and a Real-Time Attack (RTA), it completely lit a fire under her. However, it seems that pulling an all-night session and then sleeping soundly for a whole day afterward took a bit of a toll, so she's exercising some self-restraint.
I think I'll wait until this entire incident is settled before telling her that a sequel to that game exists. If I tell her now, another all-nighter would be a mathematical certainty.
"What else is there to do..."
"Let's see... Oh, right! I've been wanting to try making some baked sweets. Is there anything that's relatively simple to bake?"
"Sweets, huh? Why all of a sudden?"
"It's simple. I make my own tea, don't I? But I've never actually made the sweets that go along with it. Tea and sweets are naturally meant to be a set, so being able to only do one half feels a bit lacking, doesn't it?"
"I guess that makes sense."
I can understand where she's coming from. But while brewing tea is considered a proper lady's pastime, she was probably told that making sweets should be left strictly to the professional chefs. Seraria used to be royalty, so didn't she have to go through a lot of trouble just practicing how to brew tea herself?
"It was my mother's hobby. You heard it from that bastard father of mine, didn't you? About how my mothers were adventurers, along with that bastard."
"Ah, now that you mention it, I think I recall hearing something like that."
"Because they used to be adventurers, they were the types of people who firmly believed that if you can do something yourself, you should. Even after they became the Queen and the concubines, that never changed. I mean, they went out of their way to take care of us themselves."
That must have been quite troublesome for the people who were supposed to take care of them.
"My mothers used to brew the black tea for me. Even back then when I was just a child, I could tell it was absolutely delicious. And the sweets they served with it were the same. But it's a shame. Both of my mothers passed away far too early. The only thing I managed to commit to memory was how to brew the tea."
"And that's why you want to make sweets."
"Yes. I probably can't recreate my mother's cookies, but I'd like to feed handmade treats to my own children someday."
Well, there's absolutely no reason to refuse a request like that.
"Well, we might not be able to replicate your mothers' cookies, but we can certainly make "Seraria's cookies". We have plenty of ingredients available here, so we can experiment all we want."
"Heh, you really are dependable at times like this. You're right. My mothers' flavor belonged strictly to them. I just need to borrow my husband's strength to create cookies that are uniquely my own."
"You bet."
However, I've never actually made baked sweets before.
I mean, I know what the ingredients are, but unlike regular cooking, you can't just throw things together on a whim and aggressively mix them up. If you don't blend the exact right amounts, the flavor collapses—or rather, it fails to even become a proper baked sweet. It's a tricky business.
I'm sure it's just like regular cooking once you get used to it, but until you reach that point, you have to measure the quantities precisely and mix them carefully, which is why I had never dipped my toes into it until now.
"And that's why I went ahead and printed out a whole bunch of recipes."
"...My goodness, there are so many different types just for cookies."
Exactly. I had a vague awareness that variations existed, but I never imagined there would be more than ten major categories. And this doesn't mean variations based on fillings like chocolate chips; it means there are over ten entirely different methods of making cookies.
Drop cookies, refrigerator cookies, shaped cookies, cut-out cookies, piped cookies, bar cookies... and so on.
Cut-out cookies are self-explanatory, but the others are mysterious...
...What the hell is a refrigerator cookie?
And bar cookies are basically those calorie bars, right?
"Well, the instructions are all written down, so let's just give it a shot and see how it goes."
"Right. We need to make them exactly as the instructions say first before we try putting our own spin on things."
Yeah, Seraria doesn't seem like the type of person who would completely ruin a dish. You always have to watch out for the types who try to add their own "arrangements" the very first time they cook something; the basics are crucial for everything.
As a result of our cookie-making venture:
"Onii-chan, it smells amazing!!"
"Nii-sama, what is this!?"
"...What a lovely, wonderful scent."
"Onii-san, is this the smell of cookies?"
"Are these handmade cookies?"
One after another, the family members who had finished their work came flooding back into the house...
"Wow, this is a bit too much, isn't it?"
"Yeah. I wonder if even I can eat all of this?"
Everyone nodded in agreement at Tori and Riel's words. And with good reason—the kitchen counter was literally piled high with mountains of freshly baked cookies.
"Well, it was our first time, so we got a little carried away having fun with all the different kinds."
"Yes. There were so many varieties to choose from, and before we knew it, we had made far too many while experimenting."
In the end, a fair amount of the finished cookies were consumed during our post-dinner tea time, and the remainder were packed up and distributed as treats to everyone's respective workplaces.
Moderation really is key for everything.
