The Baking Club That Can't Bake - 4
One person pulling ahead can be dismissed as a fluke, but once two start leading the pack, everyone else has no choice but to move. Two becomes three, three becomes four, and a massive lead group forms in the blink of an eye.
That was why Later's charge, right on Erich's heels, completely upended the race for Luise's favor.
Erich had tried every which way to cling to his title as the sole person who shared her hobby, but in the end he couldn't stop Later. There wasn't really any grounds for stopping a Baking Club member from baking, after all. If anything, Erich had done well to hold him off this long. Better to be satisfied with the monopoly he'd enjoyed so far.
Once Erich and Later had claimed the spots on either side of Luise, the remaining three naturally joined in the baking as well. The Baking Club That Can't Bake had finally evolved into a Baking Club That Can.
Admitting that much left me feeling a little ashamed of myself. I'd dressed it up with grand talk of upended races and evolution, but all it really amounted to was them finally starting something they should have been doing from the beginning.
The continent's future sure looks bright…
A bunch of idiots—and these were the people destined to become key figures on the continent. The future was going to shine so brilliantly, like a Section 3 chief's bald head, that you wouldn't even be able to look at it.
I stared at the six of them in silent despair, and at that exact moment Later turned to move a plate and our eyes met. He offered an awkward little nod of greeting; I nodded back, and only then did he pick up the plate and return to Luise's side. Ever since that frank conversation last time, Later had been acting this carefully around me.
He must have been pretty embarrassed himself. After all, he'd asked me to stop giving family members advice about family. At the time Erich had held the advantage, and if that had continued the whole contest might have fizzled out—but honestly, it had still been an ugly look.
Later probably hadn't realized it in the moment, when stopping Erich's solo run had felt so urgent, but once he'd calmed down he must have recognized how inventively pathetic he'd looked.
Of course, I didn't care. Having one person of interest acting this docile because of the whole affair was a net win for me. The small peace I'd bought with someone else's dark history gave me a deep sense of satisfaction.
"Is this really your first time?"
Luise's surprised voice cut through my thoughts. When I looked over, she was gazing down at Tanian's cookies with open admiration. He'd even plated them, and they looked rather impressive. But did cookies need plating? Couldn't you just pile them in a jar?
"I'm fortunate enough to have a fairly deft pair of hands. And Sister Luise explained everything so clearly that I was able to pick it up right away."
Regardless of my own thoughts on the matter, Tanian answered with a gentle smile, clearly pleased by Luise's attention. For a leading candidate widely expected to become the next Saint, it was a rather modest source of happiness.
Then again, given that the teachings of God included a call for thrift, maybe this was exactly right for him.
While I was lost in that slightly awkward line of thought, the other members' cookies began appearing on the table one after another, each on its own plate. Looking at them side by side, Tanian really had done well. On appearance alone he was on par with Luise. Was this… talent?
The others seemed to be thinking the same thing; they were all eyeing Tanian's cookies with less than friendly looks. Watching them get jealous over cookies was a little pathetic, but at least they hadn't reached the stage of hating the person himself, so as advisor I was satisfied. As long as they didn't start fighting each other, we were fine.
"Alright, let's taste them!"
Luise gathered the six varieties of cookies the six of them had made into one place as she spoke. Yes—this was what a proper club looked like. Until now it hadn't been a club so much as Luise's one-woman show with a free-riding audience.
While the members clustered together and reached for the cookies, I stepped back a little and simply watched. My own supply was sleeping peacefully up on the shelf; there was no need to join in. Luise's hands were just that generous. The jar filled faster than I could empty it, or so it seemed.
Oh, you little bastards.
And my personal cookie jar, which had never once hit bottom since the club was founded, was about to be full again today. Of the six kinds of cookies, only Luise's plate wasn't shrinking.
The ones who'd eaten a few of Luise's cookies out of politeness had, at some point, stopped touching them entirely—as if they'd all made a pact. At first I thought I was seeing things, but as the other plates steadily emptied, I knew my eyes weren't lying. This wasn't a gourmet club. Why were they being so picky about taste here?
Feeling oddly embarrassed on her behalf, I glanced at Luise; she was busy chatting with the five of them and still hadn't noticed. Thank goodness. I'd been worried she'd start trembling with betrayal and humiliation.
"Did you leave these for me? I'm touched that my club members think of their advisor this way."
If I left it alone any longer Luise might catch on, so I casually walked over and claimed the whole plate. There was… a bit more than usual today. Looks like these alone would fill me up.
The moment I carted away the plate they'd all been avoiding while watching each other, the five of them looked at me like a man who'd just grabbed their hands at the edge of a cliff. And when I suddenly took her cookies, Luise beamed with pure delight.
"I made extra because I know you like them, Orabeoni!"
Yeah, I can tell just by looking…
"Brother, you seem to have a warm heart."
"Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
Around the time club hours roughly ended and the room grew quiet, Tanian stayed behind after Later and spoke to me—and with a bizarre remark that had nothing to do with me, no less.
"Didn't you show consideration for Sister Luise again today?"
Tanian's smiling words were even harder to understand. Was it because I didn't know what consideration I'd supposedly shown? Anyone who didn't know that would be an idiot—and I hadn't suffered any intellectual decline yet.
"If you knew it was consideration, why didn't you eat them with me?"
You bastard. Knowing and still not doing it is the worst kind of bad.
With everyone else looking the other way, I couldn't set the plate down until I'd finished every last cookie on it. How was I supposed to stop halfway when the girl who'd made extra because she thought I liked them was staring right at me?
As a faint crease formed between my brows at the sweetness still lingering in my mouth, Tanian gave a small laugh and bowed his head.
"My apologies, Brother. It seems there are some things even effort can't overcome. I'll be more careful going forward."
"I'll look forward to that."
"Haha. This may not quite count as compensation, but if you don't mind, may I tell you about your path ahead?"
At those words, my hands—busy clearing the scattered plates—stopped of their own accord.
"My path ahead?"
"Only if you're comfortable with it, of course."
What Tanian meant by "path ahead" was, if I had to find a comparison, something like a reading of one's fortune or destiny. Except this was a world where gods and divine power actually existed, so the reliability was considerably higher than the fortune-telling of the world before I was transmigrated. Only a handful of priests with exceptional faith and holy power could do it, which was why I'd never received one before.
"Please do."
A reading from the next Saint himself? Even if it meant eating raw flour instead of cookies, this was pure profit. It was a chance to find even a small clue about my thoroughly tangled official career luck and general fortune.
Seeing my attitude change, Tanian laughed again, then quickly composed his features into something serious. Maybe it was the talk of reading destinies, but he suddenly looked like a professional devoted to his duty, and my trust in him went up. Sorry for thinking you were just a slippery character until now.
"Truthfully, I've been able to see your path ahead since the first time I met you. There are rare cases where simply holding someone in your gaze is enough to reveal their destiny."
"I see."
"And in those cases, the path is one that even blessings cannot interfere with."
"……."
What is this—why are you making it sound so ominous.
A chill ran through me as I stared at him without a word. He shrugged and continued.
"There's good news and bad news, but the order doesn't matter, so I'll tell you in sequence."
"Doesn't matter to me. I'm listening."
"No trial beyond your ability will come to you, Brother."
"That's the good news."
Even now there were times when just breathing felt like too much; if some catastrophic trial came on top of that, I might actually lose my mind. Tanian's words gave me a small spark of hope, and I felt myself relax a little.
"However, trials that are nearly impossible may still find you."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
I barely managed to stop the curse that the delayed hope-torture had nearly forced out of my throat. Tanian seemed a little sorry for saying it; he pressed on before I could protest.
"I deliberated a great deal over whether to tell you at all. Since even blessings are useless, hearing it wouldn't change anything—and destinies aren't precise to begin with. How could mere creations like us fully grasp the affairs of one God has marked? I kept silent because I was afraid empty talk would only disturb your heart."
He'd been right to worry. My heart was thoroughly disturbed right now.
Since I couldn't bring myself to speak, Tanian opened his mouth again, looking awkward. No, stop. I'm scared of what I'm about to hear.
"I'll say it again: destinies are not precise. We can see the path ahead, but we cannot know whether what we've seen is the correct path. There are, in fact, occasional records of destinies read by the Former Pope or by Cardinals turning out to be wrong."
"Is that so."
That's truly comforting…
After Tanian left as well, I was alone in the club room once more.
"Even if a heavy trial comes to you, Brother, it will be one your abilities can overcome—so do not despair, and keep moving forward."
Tanian's final words lingered by my ear. He'd added that, in truth, offering this encouragement had been his real purpose more than the destiny reading itself. He'd wanted to say it for a while, but only now had the chance presented itself.
But he'd also said destinies can be wrong. What if the real thing is worse than what he saw, and a truly impossible trial shows up? Then can I overcome it just by not despairing?
I let out a sigh. I'd thought today would pass by ordinary and peaceful, and instead I'd gotten the Saint-candidate equivalent of Your fortune is completely fucked. It's going to be hard and there's nothing to be done. Condolences.
Of course, as Tanian said, destinies as seen by people aren't precise. I could just think of it as hearing something a little unpleasant from a fortune-teller in my previous life. Except this fortune-teller was basically Nostradamus. Damn it.
I almost sighed again, then shut my mouth and stood up. When had I ever thought my fortune was good, anyway? Once I framed it as hearing something obvious, my heart settled a little. Expectation is what creates disappointment in the first place—so what exactly had I been hoping for?
Having sorted my thoughts that way, I returned to the dormitory and wrapped up the day—
"Inspector. About that…"
—only for the vice principal to visit the club room the next day, at which point I realized Tanian's words had been foreshadowing for the work that was about to land on me.