The Chocolate That Wouldn't Set

The system notification was always arbitrary. Aside from calling up the list of contract targets, there was almost nothing I could summon on demand. Most of the time it simply appeared without warning. There were never any signs or previews. It was the same now. No matter what was wrong, it stayed silent. By this point it should have shown up ages ago. The only thing I could check in this situation was……

“No matter how many times I try, this is all I can pull up?”

I tried a few other things just in case there was some kind of error, but the only things I could access were the contract target list and their detailed information. The only new detail I learned was the full description of Raylin’s “Purgatory’s Breath.”

As expected, it was a pure offensive skill befitting a damage dealer. Its targets were, of course, monsters. It seemed monsters were weak to light-related attributes after all.

“Oh, right—this isn’t what matters right now…!”

I had almost gotten sidetracked while slowly reading the ability description. Why wasn’t anything showing up at all? Was something actually broken? Don’t tell me the thing I just made scored two-and-a-half stars or lower?

“Nah… no way. That can’t be it. It’ll probably pop up on its own later anyway.”

There was no point agonizing over it. I decided to stop worrying. It had appeared late before, after all. Besides, steam was still rising from the finished chocolate pies. Once the heat faded and the chocolate hardened, the completion notification might appear then. Watching the chocolate drip down, it was hard to call them finished anyway.

“I’ll worry about that later… For now, let’s move.”

—Clatter, click…!

Once I reached that conclusion, my body finally started moving again. We were almost at the finishing stage, but there was still plenty left to do. All that remained was simple, repetitive work—producing the rest of the batch. I planned to make around two hundred in total. Taking the young ladies and the rest of the staff into account, I wanted to have plenty to spare. At first I had only aimed for the exact number of people, since we were short on both manpower and firepower. But the situation had changed dramatically. Both manpower and firepower were now fully available.

—Fwoooosh…! Roarrr!!

Especially the firepower—it was overflowing. It came from the flames Raylin had provided. As expected of a dragon’s breath, its power was immense. Baking a single tray took only about three seconds. If we moved quickly, hitting the target quantity looked entirely feasible.

“Derke will help too-desu-yong-!”

Derke, who had been spreading cream between freshly baked chocolate buns alongside the wraiths, came over to my side, leaving the rest of the work to her spectral helpers.

“Hm? Derke? Did you finish piping the cream?”

“Yep-! Look over there-eeyap-!”

Where she pointed, stacks upon stacks of assembled sandwiches sat waiting—only the chocolate coating left to apply. The wraiths were already finishing the final batch.

“Whoa, when did you guys make so many……?”

“It’s all thanks to the wraiths helping out-eeyap-!”

Derke spun her index finger in the air, summoning the wraiths around her. She gently patted each one, praising them one by one.

“Whitey? Don’t forget about me either!”

“Hm?”

The moment my gaze shifted to Derke, Raylin’s voice rang out.

“…If it weren’t for my breath, none of this would’ve been possible, you know~?!”

Raylin shrugged at me while flashing her sharp shark-like teeth. Even as she spoke, she was skillfully baking the final batch. I felt a strange sense of disbelief. Dragons were actually devoting themselves to helping me? Back when I first transmigrated, I never could have imagined this.

“They’re incredibly reliable. At this rate we might finish even faster.”

The dragons’ abilities far exceeded my expectations. What had seemed impossible was being handled in the blink of an eye—it was astonishing. I recalled what Raylin had emphasized: “Spit out the ‘im’ from impossible.”

“Of course. I’m truly grateful to you as well, Miss Raylin.”

“Pfft… Whitey? You don’t have to call me ‘big sister,’ so can’t you just speak casually?”

“Ah… well……”

Raylin, having just finished baking all the pies, turned around and made the request. She wanted me to drop the formal speech with her. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it so easily—not with the self-proclaimed number-one in the hierarchy standing right beside me. Derke was already glaring with wide eyes, her lips twitching.

“There’s no time for this-desu-yong…! Everyone, help big brother-eeyap-!!!”

Derke cut in again, interrupting Raylin with an urgent voice before issuing new orders to the wraiths.

“Tch-!”

Raylin could only bite her lip with her pointed teeth, looking frustrated. Even though Derke was her junior, she couldn’t bring herself to scold her.

—Slither, slither, slither……

Regardless, the wraiths moved. Suddenly, the ghosts gathered toward me. They clustered together and began drizzling the melted chocolate I had prepared over the pies in my place. And that wasn’t all.

—Plop, plop…!

Once the outer chocolate coating was applied, other wraiths carried the pies aside. Then, on top of the coated ones……

—Squeeze, squiiirt…!

More wraiths piped from the pastry bags, drawing the same pale liquid chocolate into little pig-tail patterns just like I had done.

“Whoa, they’re incredibly fast.”

It was practically an automated production line. Since all that was left was drizzling the chocolate, there was no need for me to step in at all. The finishing touches were being completed at lightning speed. And before even five minutes had passed……

—Steam rising…!

Over two hundred chocolate pies now filled the kitchen table. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠At last, every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠step was complete. Outside, dinner was also wrapping up. Most of the young ladies were setting down their empty bowls and rising from their seats. We had finished at the perfect moment.

Derke and Raylin had been indispensable high-class labor during the cooking process—precious contract targets who moved solely for my sake. But that proud feeling didn’t last long.

“But why……? Why still isn’t anything showing up……?”

Even though quite some time had passed since I finished the first batch, no system message appeared.

“Hwahwat…? Whitey? Is something wrong?”

“Breeder big brother…?”

They looked at me and asked. My expression must have been pretty grim. Of course it was. After all the trouble we went through to finish this, the thought that it might be a failure was slowly creeping back into my mind.

“It feels like we finished everything, but something’s still missing. What could it be…? What went wrong?”

“Hueet? It’s still not done-desu-yong…?”

“Whitey? Maybe if you try tasting it yourself, you’ll figure out what’s wrong?”

“Aah, right…! Big sister’s right! Thanks as always!”

Raylin was correct. Just sitting here worrying wouldn’t solve anything. I had no choice but to find the problem myself.

“Ahem! Cough…! Th-this much gratitude isn’t……”

Leaving behind Raylin, who had started bleeding from the nose at being called “big sister,” I hurried over to the finished products.

“The outside looks perfect… Is the taste the issue after all?”

Thinking back, I had been so focused on replicating the appearance of the chocolate pie + X-Shell that I might have overlooked something.

“Don’t tell me it failed so badly it doesn’t even get rated?”

The worst-case scenario flashed through my mind, but the possibility was extremely low.

“With both ‘Dragon’s Hand Taste’ and ‘Blazing Dragon’s Inferno’ applied, how could it possibly fail?”

—Swish…!

I took off the oven mitts and reached for the first batch of chocolate pies I had baked. To figure out what was wrong, I just needed to taste one—

“Uwah-?! H-hot……?!”

But I couldn’t even get a taste. A sharp, stinging sensation shot through my fingertips. A throbbing pain followed. The moment my fingers touched the freshly baked pie, they turned red and swollen. A pure-white blister even rose up. It was literally scalding hot—too hot to touch. Even though quite a while had passed since I took it out of the oven.

“No wonder steam kept rising……”

“Haat? Big brother…! Are you okay-desu-yong-?!”

“Wh-Whitey?!!”

Even though I had only lightly burned my fingertips, both dragons rushed over in concern. Derke looked at my finger with pity and blew on it gently. Raylin, knowing her own body temperature was high, hesitated to approach.

“I-I’m fine. More importantly, Derke?”

“Uung?”

“When you touched the freshly baked ones earlier, weren’t they hot?”

“Hmm…? They were a little warm, but I didn’t really feel it-desu-yong…! Look at this-eeyap-!”

—Grab!

Derke boldly picked up one of the pies with a completely unfazed expression. Even as a hatchling, a dragon was still a dragon. She could apparently ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠handle this level of heat without issue.

—Drip…!

But the chocolate coating on the surface couldn’t withstand it. It began dripping down from the intense heat. The chocolate I had spread on the outside was still soft and running.

“Hueet? My hands are getting all covered in chocolate-desu-yong…!”

“Wait? Don’t tell me……?”

I checked the other finished pies just in case. But they were the same……

—Drip! Drip! Drip…!

The outer chocolate was still flowing. There was no sign of it hardening at all. The problem was definitely the temperature. On top of that, for some reason, faint steam was still rising from them. Even the ones that had been out for a while were still visibly steaming.

“Hohwaat…? Whitey? This might be because of my breath, you know?”

“Ah? Your breath?”

“Yeah. I guess I put a little too much power into it earlier. That’s why the heat isn’t settling down.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Hmm, the only way is to cool them down with something cold, I suppose……?”

Ah, so that was why nothing had appeared. The chocolate still hadn’t hardened. With it constantly dripping like this, there was no way they could be considered finished. It wasn’t that the system was acting strange. Raylin’s firepower had simply been too strong. Just how much power had she poured into it?

“Even after baking the pizza last time, the heat lingered for a long time……”

Now that I thought about it, the Maruti guys had also taken quite a while to finish. They had probably spent a lot of time trying to harden their chocolate too. Anyway, what should I do now? Dinner seemed to be over already…… If only we had a refrigerator or something at a time like this.

—Flap flap flap…!

“Let’s cool them down quickly-desu-yong-!”

When I turned my head, Derke and the wraiths were fanning the pies with their hands. It was a commendable effort, but pointless. You couldn’t cool a Flame Dragon’s heat with mere wind. Just when I thought we were nearing the end, the finishing step became the problem. One obstacle after another. Since we started without any preparation, trial and error was probably inevitable.

“Damn it…… Is this really the end?”

“No, Whitey! It’s not over yet! Look over there!”

“Huh? What are you suddenly talking about……?”

While I was racking my brain for a way to cool the pies, Raylin shouted triumphantly and pointed her index finger forward, telling me to look.

—Thud, thud, thud…!

In the direction she pointed, a shadow appeared. I thought it might be Benetric, but it was small. The figure, about the size of a second-year student, was walking toward us.

“Senior Raylin? I came to report for weekend duty before the tea party.”

“Ah……?”

The shadow’s true identity was none other than Sonya. Just as we were struggling with the final step of the dessert, she stepped into the kitchen. Her face was as expressionless as ever. Apparently she had come to report about her duties. But why Sonya? What could she possibly do with that small body……?

“…The professor said your training ran late today, so she’s giving you tomorrow off. Tomorrow it’ll just be me and Zero—”

“Sonya-!!! You came at the perfect time!”

“Yes…? Senior? Why are you suddenly……?”

At Raylin’s boisterous voice, Sonya only raised an eyebrow slightly. That was the full extent of her surprised expression.

“Right, Senior Raylin? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What do you mean by asking Sonya for help?”

But Sonya wasn’t only capable of keeping a blank face.

“Haaaat? B-Breeder teacher? Why are you here—?! A-And calling Senior Raylin ‘big sister’……???”

Only now noticing my presence, Sonya’s expression changed dramatically. Her pink eyebrows shot upward. Lately, whenever she ran into me, she showed these dynamic shifts in expression. For some reason, she expressed her emotions especially often in front of me. Seeing her poker face crumble so frequently, it was starting to feel cute. But that wasn’t important right now.

“Huh? Whitey, you didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“I thought you would’ve noticed from roll call. Sonya’s the Ice Dragon.”

“Aaaah?”