Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 49
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 49
“Th-that is a dessert?”
“Yup.”
“…”
Alex stared at the hotteok Lion had made, his expression utterly bewildered.
Given the cinnamon scent, it did seem to fall under the dessert category.
“Is it something like a pancake?”
If that were the case, it certainly qualified as a dessert you could whip up on the spot.
‘Though it’s regrettable how greasy it is—that does put some distance between it and the meaning of dessert.’
Still, slathered with honey and cream, it seemed like it would taste decent enough.
Lion’s answer, however, was nothing like what Alex had imagined.
“It looks similar, but the taste will be completely different. Want to try one now if you’re curious?”
Lion wedged a hotteok into a cup and handed it over.
It was originally meant to be eaten out of a paper cup, so seeing one crammed into a mug looked a bit ridiculous… but still, it was better than burning your hands.
“Huh, you eat it just like this?”
“Yup. That’s why I gave it to you in a cup. This tastes better when you take bites straight from it, like street food, rather than slicing it up with a fork and knife.”
“Aha.”
…Or so Lion said, but in Alex’s eyes, this dessert still seemed deeply suspicious.
“There’s hot syrup inside, so eat carefully. Anyway, I’ll go take these over before they get cold.”
After giving him that precaution, Lion loaded the hotteok onto a plate and headed for the dining hall where Rickshel was.
Left alone, Alex stared doubtfully at the hotteok half-crumpled into the cup before finally resolving himself and taking a large bite.
And then…
“Oh, ohhh!”
A pageant of new flavors stormed through his mind.
* * *
At the hour when Lion was engrossed in grilling hotteok.
Rickshel Asteri was… in a decidedly foul mood!
He had set aside all his tasks and come to the dining hall at the sound of his brother’s summons,
yet his brother was nowhere to be seen while he himself had to sit there conspicuously alone and take a meal.
For a moment he wondered if the servants had lied to him—but seeing them eye each other and steal glances toward the kitchen, that didn’t seem to be the case.
‘Just what…’
In truth, Rickshel Asteri was in something of a sulk.
Ever since Lion had gone for his check-up at the Magic Tower, he had never once had a proper conversation alone with Lion.
And moreover.
‘Just what did he do at the Magic Tower for such strange rumors to spread?!’
The bizarre rumors originating at the Magic Tower had naturally reached the ears of Rickshel, its next master.
Fine. Those were mere rumors; his brother could hardly have helped them.
The problem was what came after.
The brother who had done nothing but read books suddenly began to venture outside.
Fine. Even after making every concession, he had thought it good that his brother had shaken off his worries and gotten up.
He would surely come find Rickshel before long and tell him about it,
and then Rickshel would naturally be able to give him the present he had been unable to deliver at the coming-of-age ceremony—he had believed it without a doubt.
So why had he still not come to see him?
‘It is an item I put considerable care into.’
Tap, tap.
When Rickshel’s fingers drummed the armrest, it was the servants who turned pale.
‘What do we do, the young master seems dreadfully ill-tempered…’
‘B-but we’ve got to earn the meat we ate.’
‘Was this the right choice?’
‘Somebody step up and do something…!’
At last one of the servants stepped forward and addressed him as deferentially as possible.
“Um, er… Young Master? Young Master Lion said he was going to make a dessert and bring it. The head chef just went, so he should be here soon.”
“…”
Rickshel’s mood, however, did not seem to improve.
There was exactly one person capable
of smoothing over this situation.
Lion. The servants were hoping for Lion’s swift return when—
“Phew! Rickshel, you waited, right?”
Lion was back.
The servants wept with relief inwardly.
Young Master Rickshel was not quite on par with the family head, but he too belonged to the category of people who were dreadfully difficult to endure.
With one exception: Rickshel at Lion’s side.
“Ah! Brother. You’ve come?”
Rickshel’s expression melted away instantly.
He was even wearing a serene little smile at the corners of his mouth!
Even though he had clearly been sulking, seeing Lion walking around in perfect health made the discomfort in his chest softly dissolve.
“Did you eat?”
“Yes. I have ingested sufficiently.”
Ingested…
‘What a STEM-major way of putting it.’
In any case, it was a relief that he’d eaten.
Lion looked at the hotteok he held in a cup.
[Nostalgic Hotteok (★)]
-A food that reproduces the nostalgic taste of winter street-side hotteok.
-It has a subtly luxurious flavor.
‘Eating this on an empty stomach would be pretty harsh.’
Lion handed Rickshel the hotteok nestled in the cup.
“This?”
“A new dessert I developed. It’s pretty good, so I wanted you to try it too.”
“…Thank you.”
Unlike in the past, Rickshel accepted the food from Lion without a hint of reluctance, taking it readily.
“How should I eat it?”
“The syrup inside is hot, so just don’t burn yourself. Like this.”
Lion demonstrated, tearing off bites from the outer edge bit by bit.
The hotteok tasted decent.
But whether because this was a different world or because health and nutrition had been on his mind, it lacked the aggressively sweet punch of the versions he’d eaten back in reality.
‘No, actually, this might suit Rickshel’s taste better.’
He ate whatever Lion gave him readily enough, but he was still a noble.
Food that delivered a simple, direct impact to the palate might put him off.
“Then I shall try it right away.”
Rickshel bit straight into the portion sticking out over the rim of the cup.
The crisp outer layer cracked apart with a snap, and the chewy, cooked dough inside delivered a distinctive texture.
Just as he thought it was decent but perhaps a little plain—
“…!”
The intense fragrance of cinnamon and sweet sugar syrup flooded into his mouth.
The weighty sweetness of brown sugar and the aromatic depth of cinnamon powder blended with the unique dough, producing an exquisite taste.
It was different from the desserts he had eaten until now.
Rather than delicate, it was somewhat forthright.
Yet that forthright flavor was far from bad.
Moreover, the intermittent crunch of nuts provided accents that enlivened both texture and taste considerably.
“How is it? Not too hot?”
“No…! It is delicious.”
“Haha, I’m glad. I was worried it wouldn’t suit your palate.”
The thing he had fretted over had, fortunately, not come to pass.
Rickshel seemed to like it quite a bit.
“How could anything you make, Brother, not? May I have more?”
“I made plenty, so help yourself.”
To be honest it was a little hot, but the time it had sat while his brother came over must have cooled it somewhat, because fortunately it wasn’t enough to burn his mouth.
“Perhaps because it is not the sort of dessert one eats off a plate with a fork, it was quite a unique experience.”
Rickshel, having wolfed down the hotteok in small bites, wiped his mouth with the provided towel and spoke placidly.
This was after he had consumed no fewer than five hotteok.
“I ate very well, brother.”
“Yeah, yeah. Make sure you brush your teeth really well before bed.”
“…Pardon?”
“If you like sweet things too much, you’ll get cavities.”
“Brother. I do not indulge in sweets.”
It didn’t seem that way.
Lion looked at the empty plate.
Hotteok was a delicious food, but it wasn’t the sort of thing you normally ate this many of.
And he ate every last one.
“Anyway, have you cooled off a little now?”
“…Cough! P-pardon?”
As if caught off guard by Lion’s words, Rickshel, who had been rinsing his mouth with water, gave a shallow cough and asked again.
“What do you mean by…”
“I just figured you might be upset that I haven’t come to find you much.”
“…”
I hadn’t realized he was aware.
A hint of color rose to the lobes of Rickshel’s ears.
“So what I wanted to ask is, can you free up some time tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, you say? Yes. That is possible.”
The truth was even if he couldn’t free it up, he’d fully intended to make it possible.
“Yeah? Then you’ll have to hang out with me a bit tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
“I haven’t even told you what we’ll be doing.”
“I didn’t explain much to you previously, so it is fine.”
“Were things like that?”
But hadn’t that been volunteer work?
‘I’m just going shopping.’
Lion tilted his head, then decided to let it pass.
In any case, his little brother seemed to have gotten over his sulk, and they had even made a plan to spend time together tomorrow. That much would do.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow during the day.”
“Yes. Ah, might this be an occasion that requires that hairpin?”
He was asking if they would need to use a disguise.
“It should be fine… but it wouldn’t hurt to bring it just in case.”
“Understood.”
“Good. And definitely brush your teeth before bed.”
“…Yes.”
Rickshel answered after a rather long silence.
He seemed to dislike being treated like a child, but five hotteok was a bit much.
“Rest well. Brother.”
“Yeah.”
Lion and Rickshel returned to their respective rooms.
Watching the two young masters depart after such a heartwarming exchange, the servants smiled with satisfaction, and…
“Young, young master! Just how did you make this…!!”
Alex, who had arrived belatedly at the dining hall, clutched his half-eaten hotteok and cried out piteously.
…Alas, Lion had already slipped right into his room.
* * *
“All ready?”
“Yes. Brother. I am fully ready.”
“…”
Lion looked at Rickshel, who was emerging from his room loaded down with a cumbersome array of things, and shut his mouth.
“What’d you bring so much stuff for?”
“It is nothing. A little emergency food and drinking water for the worst-case scenario, spare clothes and a towel, and… no. I only carry a staff. Naturally I have also brought money.”
So, in other words, where exactly are you going that you need a survival kit?
‘Good Lord…’
Lion knew perfectly well why Rickshel was acting this way.
Evidently the worry had been far from trivial during that month Lion had been isolated inside the Labyrinth.
He was surely preparing for the off chance the same situation occurred again.
‘What to do.’
He hadn’t expected Rickshel to be this guarded against the Labyrinth.
‘And what’s he going to do when we go there later?’
It seemed Rickshel needed some reassurance.
Lion picked up Rickshel’s luggage himself and pushed it back into a corner of the room.
“We don’t need all this.”
“But…”
“Rickshel. It’s fine. We’re just going into town.”
“At that time too, you were just going in and out of the library.”
“I still came out fine, didn’t I?”
“…”
“If you keep bracing for situations that haven’t happened yet, you’ll make your head explode, you know?”
To put it bluntly, had the War Against the Demons fifty years ago been a war everyone had fully anticipated?
What about the three Mana Shocks Lion had endured?
Could he have prepared for those? They were simply things that happened.
Inevitable problems that could not be stopped.
Of course it would have been better if they had never happened, but you cannot sweep up water that has already been spilled.
Yet if you plug the cup shut so the water can never spill, the inside will simply stagnate and fester.
Lion had been there himself in the past.
An unspeakable sense of loss. Emptiness. Despair.
It was not as if he had never felt them.
No, if anything…
‘I felt them to the bone.’
He had crumbled, and there had been a time when he could not get up and had come to a halt.
Because there had been no one to teach him that rather than the water that had spilled, you needed to fill the cup with something new.
Lion turned his head and looked at Rickshel.
A mature and cool-headed personality. A slightly compulsive need for control.
But still, a child who hadn’t even come of age.
Lion himself had, of course, realized on his own that staying still like this solved nothing.
But…
‘There’s no need to make him realize it alone.’
If there is someone who can help you, it is better to receive that help.
‘I’d better prepare properly for this.’
Lion gave a short cough, then spoke up more brightly than usual.
“Come on, let’s go out light. We’ve got to come back loaded down anyway.”
“…Understood. Brother.”
Rickshel seemed to still eye the luggage, but for now he followed Lion’s words.
Really, such a good kid.
“By the way, what do you mean by coming back loaded?”
“You’ll see when you see it.”
“…?”