The Baking Club That Can't Bake - 2
Karl and Erich walked without a word between them. Karl was scanning the surroundings for a quiet place where they could talk, while Erich found the idea of speaking first to his brother too much of a burden. It did not help that, from Erich’s perspective, Karl’s expression looked so serious.
A good person.
Those two words slipped unbidden through Erich’s mind as he watched him. “A good person”—a phrase he had never once considered in his entire life.
Growing up, Erich had never seen a good person. His father, the head of the house, went without saying, and his mother was a rather ambiguous case. Even his older brother Karl occupied a subtle gray zone that made one tilt their head if asked whether he truly counted as one. Until he met Luise, the very idea of a good person had been nothing more than an ideal to Erich.
The reason such an Erich found those words rising as he looked at Karl—not even Luise—was simple. It was because of a conversation with Luise not long ago.
For Erich, the time before heading to the clubroom—the Academy’s regular class hours—was the finest stretch of the day. By the luck of sharing a class, he could talk with Luise alone, free of interrupters. They chatted about this and that, and thanks to lively Luise, unexpected topics sometimes surfaced.
“Erich… do you dislike Big Brother Karl?”
Like that.
At Luise’s sudden thrust of a question, Erich stared at her in fluster. She blinked back at him with genuine curiosity and worry. Seeing that look, he scratched his head awkwardly. Watching how tense he became the moment he stood before Karl, Luise must have grown concerned about the brothers’ relationship.
“No. It’s not that I dislike him. I just find my brother a little hard to approach.”
“Why? Did something happen when you were little?”
At that, the corner of Erich’s mouth lifted, just barely. If he had to choose a time when things with Karl had been relatively good, it would have been childhood.
“Nothing happened. Maybe that’s exactly why things feel awkward.”
If something had happened—if they had talked a great deal and he had grown used to Karl—perhaps he would not find his brother so difficult or so easy to avoid. Erich sometimes thought that. Though it was already too late.
“It’s just… the atmosphere my brother gives off is a bit heavy. Unlike me, he’s been living as a bureaucrat for years, so we haven’t seen each other often. That’s all. It’s nothing big.”
He tried to brush it off with a forced smile, but Luise tilted her head as if the answer made no sense to her.
“Really? Because Big Brother Karl seemed to care about you a lot, Erich.”
“My brother did?”
Now it was Erich’s turn to be puzzled. The Crassius family was one where mutual neglect was practically the house style. And Karl, whom he barely saw after becoming a civil servant, was looking out for him? Even coming from Luise, the claim was hard to believe.
“Yeah. He was always looking at you.”
What Luise said next was this: during club hours Karl’s eyes were always on Erich, and sometimes when they passed through the Academy and Karl appeared in the distance, his gaze seemed fixed on Erich walking beside her. He never put it into words, but it felt as though he was always paying attention.
“When I first met Big Brother Karl, he spoke warmly to you too, Erich.”
“Did he…?”
Erich wondered how those rough words could possibly be heard as warm. Still, he did not argue—first because they were Luise’s words, and second because he himself had already begun to harbor a faint hope. What if, just as she said, Karl truly was looking out for him?
Is he really thinking of me as his little brother?
They could get along amicably, without avoiding each other the way ordinary brothers did not. That possibility shook Erich’s heart, and as if sensing it, Luise chuckled and went on.
“You know, I’ve always wished I had an older brother. So when Big Brother Karl became our advisor, it felt a little amazing—and nice.”
“So you got a little sister without my brother even knowing.”
“Hehe, is that so? That’s why if things between Big Brother Karl and Erich weren’t good, I might be really sad.”
Because to me, both Big Brother Karl and Erich seem like good people.
At those words Luise added, Erich could not open his mouth.
A good person, huh.
Luise’s voice as she smiled bashfully still shook through his head. As if Erich himself did not wish that Karl were a good person, that they could be good brothers. He had simply been put off by instinct and could never draw close.
But not anymore. With Karl taking the role of club advisor, Erich had gained both the necessity and the courage to face the trauma that was his brother, and in his conversation with Luise he had glimpsed hope of overcoming it.
Thanks to Luise, I can finally face it head-on.
For years Erich had avoided Karl simply because he found him instinctively off-putting. He had been afraid even without ever talking properly or watching him closely. But now, at last, he felt ready to look at Karl.
Sensing that change, Karl—who had been walking ahead—turned and looked back at him. Before they knew it they had come to a place where not a single human presence could be felt. Let’s get a little closer to my brother right here. With that resolve, Erich was about to open his mouth.
But Karl was a fraction faster.
“You like Luise, right?”
Ah.
This is… a good person…?
Erich’s vision went black.
This should be fine.
Searching for a suitable spot, I had managed to reach a place people rarely came and where no presence could be felt nearby. Here we could talk without pressure. Looking back, Erich’s lips were moving as if he wanted to say something, but I decided to speak first.
“You like Luise, right?”
It was far too aggressive and stimulating as an opener, but I hoped Erich would understand. To make him strong right now, shock therapy was required. Vague consideration would only make the kid weak… What Erich needed was not defeat through kindness, but victory through shock.
Yet without knowing his brother’s deep intentions, the fool’s soul was trying to flee. Not a chance—I pressed straight on.
“I wondered if there was some deep bond between you two that I didn’t know about, but that’s not it either.”
It would have been better if there were. Shared memories incomparable to the other four. But Erich did not qualify.
“Honestly, if you’ve expressed your feelings—no. You haven’t.”
A flashy confession might get flashily rejected, but at least it could make the other person register you as a romantic interest. Erich did not qualify.
“Is there an overwhelming reason for her to choose you…? You know the answer, right?”
You don’t have that. You have to go purely on the bond the two of you build together.
I stepped closer little by little, set a hand on Erich’s thoroughly battered shoulder, and met his eyes.
“Right now, you’re the most disadvantaged of the five.”
Erich said nothing. His eyes had gone hazy—he must have taken the shock a bit hard. Having some guy calling himself big brother suddenly hammer him without pause about a love campaign he hadn’t even revealed would leave anyone reeling.
But it couldn’t be helped. Destruction was the prior stage for re-creation. This shock would be the foundation for a successfully enhanced Erich. I believed that without a doubt. I believed in my little brother.
“…Still, you’re not planning to give up like this.”
Of course, if I left it there, Erich might go fetch a knife from somewhere and try to stab me. Getting stabbed wouldn’t kill me, but after that it would be far too awkward to look at each other. So after delivering the shock, I needed to inject some vitality with hopeful talk.
I casually moved to his side and slung an arm over his shoulder.
“Don’t forget that Luise founded the Baking Club herself.”
At those words, Erich’s hazy eyes turned toward me. Mention Luise’s name and he reacts right away.
“You know Luise likes baking, right? You join in too. I know you have zero baking skills, but at least pretend to do it beside her.”
No—maybe Luise would be delighted to help when she saw clumsy Erich. Old hands go crazy for newbies, after all.
“Make things together. If you can’t keep up, at least ask questions. Sharing a hobby like that alone puts you at an advantage.”
High-and-mighty people with a cavernous status gap versus a classmate of the same hobby with a relatively smaller gap. When something comes up and she needs to lean on someone, who is she going to go to? Is that even comparable?
As I kept talking, life began returning to Erich’s eyes. Yes—deliver a shock and new knowledge goes in smoothly. Without the shock, all blocked up, it never would have been this effective.
“Actually, the status difference? You might even have the advantage. What house is the Naiard family again?”
“A baronial house, I…”
“Right. A baronial house. By simple calculation, only two ranks of difference from the Crassius family.”
Of course, that was when counting by the plain five ranks of nobility. Crassius was not a house you could treat as a mere count’s line. But compared to the imperial family, royalty, and saint candidates above, it was decent.
I could feel Erich’s mind racing. Having set everything down and then injected it anew, there must be new things coming into view. And as a finishing blow, I quietly added that three of the four were foreigners who would return home after graduating the Academy.
That day, Erich grew stronger.
He had leveled up from a Baking Club member who couldn’t bake to at least a member who did bake.
Coming to his senses late and glancing at me with awkward little looks, Erich was sent back to the clubroom first. I told him that if the members asked why he had come empty-handed, he should just make the excuse that the ingredients expected today had run into trouble and would arrive next time.
As for me—since I was already out, I might as well get a little air before heading in. Having talked too much by myself, I felt as though heat was rising through my body.
“Useless guy.”
Tsk. I clicked my tongue once and leaned against the wall. I had not held back any advice I could give for my little brother, but the fact that I had to give this kind of advice in the first place did not sit well with me. It wasn’t even particularly special advice to begin with.
I couldn’t understand it. If you truly wanted to win someone’s heart, weren’t there things you instinctively moved to do?
Moreover, the Luise I had seen so far was on the simpler side. If you just listened to her troubles in moderation, did what she needed, responded to what she was doing, and showed a good reaction when eating the finished product, winning Luise’s heart was easy work.
Yet none of the five were doing any of that properly. Did falling in love for real make your intelligence drop?
If so, whoever among the five ended up with Luise would be in a pitiful state of intelligence. I should offer my condolences to Luise in advance…