Tear-Soaked Tasting Session - 1
Being dragged around by Margeta just because I was the Academy inspector was exhausting enough, but unfortunately I also held the title of Baking Club advisor. Mornings were for poring over the student council’s expo budget; afternoons were for consulting with the Baking Club on what they would do at the expo.
Holding dual posts is no job for a human being.
Even the Imperial administration, which worked civil servants like dogs, did its best to avoid dual appointments—yet here I was suffering one at the Academy. I just wanted the expo, whatever it was, to start and finish as soon as possible.
Stuck in the dissonance between a perfectly healthy body and a bone-weary mind, I sat staring blankly until the ever-noisy club members swam into view. Look at all that energy. If only there were magic that could transfer vitality to someone else. Maybe I’d overdone it in my teens, because ever since hitting my twenties my stamina seemed to have taken a nosedive.
Whether I was wheezing or not, the six who were single-handedly draining my mental strength remained wholly absorbed in expo preparations.
“Variety would be best. Putting out nothing but cookies feels a little dull.”
Tanian spoke gently, but I could roughly guess his true intent. If they only sold cookies it would turn into a one-woman Luise specialty show, so they needed other snacks as well. Watching him carefully talk around it made me feel a little sorry for him.
“I can make cakes and bread too.”
“I’d like Luise to focus on the cookies. Leave the rest to us.”
Luise’s ambition to get involved with the other snacks was cut short by Ryutis’s swift intervention. Their faces said they would rather learn the recipes themselves than ever entrust them to Luise’s hands. These bastards had clearly decided from the start that the cookies were the sacrificial pawn so the other items could shine.
They never once consider their own palates.
They failed to factor in that their own tastes were endlessly refined. Still, if I assumed that some of the Academy students and visiting outside nobles would have equally refined palates, the choice made a certain amount of sense.
At first I thought they were just being picky because they were royalty and imperial family, but then Erich not being able to eat Luise’s cookies either wouldn’t make sense. Maybe the average noble palate really was that elevated. I wouldn’t know—I’m not an average noble.
In any case, after the members’ desperate blockade led by Ryutis, Luise seemed to accept it and nodded. Having the vice-president make everything alone looked worse than having every Baking Club member produce a different snack. Whatever their real motives, the surface picture was one of beautiful cooperation.
And so the baking session arrived, thick with the rich scent of flour.
No—too thick. I was half-convinced flour was about to go up my nose. Snorting white powder would look extremely strange. Don’t fling flour this way.
Seeing things other than cookies fill the clubroom felt oddly refreshing. Were these really the same kids who, until recently, had been Baking Club members who couldn’t bake? Their growth was almost moving. I just wished their social awareness would grow to the same level.
“Better than I expected. We could sell these at the expo without losing face.”
Erich tore off a piece of bread and popped it into his mouth. It seemed to suit his taste well enough. Maybe he was being generous because he’d made it himself, but it didn’t matter. Who would dare complain that snacks made and sold by royalty, imperial family, and a saint candidate tasted bad?
In that sense, even if they sold nothing but Luise’s cookies at the expo there wouldn’t be a problem. Before anyone said anything, no one would know whether Luise or the royals had made them. Thinking about it that way, these kids were putting themselves through unnecessary trouble.
I casually forked a bite of cake as well. It wasn’t all that different from Luise’s cookies. Let’s just call the real achievement the variety of the menu.
“Oppa, how is it?”
Luise, who had been sampling each new creation one by one, turned her gaze to me. As advisor, my approval was required before they could present these at the expo. I nodded at her words. Well, they weren’t bad.
“They’re fine. Selling them like this shouldn’t be a problem.”
“You only tried the cake, didn’t you? You have to try the others as well.”
Ryutis set a lump of bread in front of me. Not exactly a welcome courtesy. Look, if you people are the ones selling, customers would buy pure flour and butter.
Still, judging without tasting would look odd, so I tore off a small piece and ate it. It was about cake-level—decent enough. When I nodded again, another snack appeared before me.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“…There’s quite a lot.”
I hadn’t noticed when I was just looking, but once I realized I was expected to taste every single one, the volume was substantial. Kids, an advisor is not a tasting guinea pig. Was the “advisor” title I held for the club actually “food advisor” instead of club advisor?
“Since we made them ourselves, it’s hard to give an objective evaluation. Wouldn’t the advisor’s judgment be the most accurate?”
“That’s true enough.”
Later’s calm, perfectly reasonable point left me with nothing to rebut. Still, making me eat everything six people had made was a bit much. Even at a tasting booth you’d be full after this much.
But under the silent weight of six pairs of eyes, I quietly moved my hands. Looks like I wouldn’t need dinner tonight either.
“Come to think of it, once isn’t really enough, is it?”
While I was quietly eating, that devil’s mouth of Ryutis started flapping again. You little bastard, what are you trying to say this time?
“Not enough? What isn’t?”
“Cookies are one thing, but everything else is our first try. Even if it came out fine this time, who knows how it’ll turn out at the actual expo?”
“A fair point.”
“So let’s keep making them. Once our hands get used to it, they’ll turn out fine no matter when we bake.”
Ryutis’s and Later’s gazes locked onto me. Behind them, Ainter gave a small smile and added,
“We’ll be imposing on the advisor quite a bit.”
And the members began baking at a pace that looked like a factory production line. Stop. Please just stop…
“How is this?”
“Fine.”
“And this?”
“Edible.”
“Is this one all right too?”
“Yeah.”
Six supply lines, one single point of demand. It was the kind of insane logistics that would make the Golden Duke faint, and my stomach was screaming. Even water would kill you if you chugged it this fast.
Watching me force food down, the members huddled together and muttered among themselves.
“He says everything is fine, so I can’t tell if it really is.”
“Now that I think about it, hyung will eat just about anything.”
“Hmm. Maybe we chose the wrong person to ask for evaluations.”
You absolute bastards.
After stuffing me like this, now they say that? Burning with rage I glared at them, but I couldn’t exactly rein them in by force, so I just cooled the fire in my gut. Well, Erich I could probably thrash a little.
I finally forced the bread in my mouth down my throat and rapped the desk to gather their attention. The bullshit ends here, you damn brats.
“This is enough. We’re not making everything today anyway, so we’ll do it again tomorrow.”
If you understood that, get out of here.
When I waved my hand and declared the meeting over, the members who had been clustered together finally drifted out one by one. Everyone except Luise.
“Luise?”
What was this? Luise had never stayed until the very end before. Whenever she looked like she might leave a little late, the other five would wait so they could walk her all the way from the clubroom to the dorm. Come to think of it, she’d whispered something to them earlier—had she told them to go on ahead?
Under my puzzled look, Luise took a small tin from her bag and held it out to me. When I accepted it she twisted a strand of hair around her finger and gave an awkward little smile.
“Um… you’ve looked really tired lately, Oppa. I heard this tea is good for fatigue, so I brought some.”
“Oh.”
I was a little moved. Amid this hopeless club that had no idea what I went through behind the scenes, a beautiful conscience was blooming.
If the members were even half as considerate as their president…
Academy life already piled on fatigue just by existing, and being hauled around by Margeta only accelerated the accumulation. I hadn’t been advertising it, yet she’d noticed. As expected, Luise was a flawless, sinless child. The only sins here belonged to the five idiots.
“Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
When I answered with a smile, Luise smiled brightly back.
“Um, Oppa.”
“Hm?”
While I was heading to the shelf to set the tea tin next to my personal cookie jar, Luise’s voice called from behind me.
“If anything’s ever wrong, please tell me anytime. If it’s something for you, Oppa, I’ll help with anything!”
Then she bowed at the waist, said goodbye, and fled the clubroom as if escaping. The sudden words drew a hollow laugh from me before I could stop it.
Did I look that worn out?
Had I been showing enough strain that a kid who had just become an adult felt the need to comfort me? A touch of self-reproach crept in. Had I really been shuffling around looking that haggard? No, that couldn’t be right.
I stared blankly at the door Luise had left through for a moment, then turned away. Hard to believe, but what could I do? She’d seen through me. More important was preparing for the guest who would arrive any second—the precious visitor who would help me deal with the still-mountainous pile of snacks.
No sooner had the thought formed than a knock sounded at the door.
Knock-knock.
“Yes, come in.”
A man opened the door and bowed his head.
“Have you been well, Inspector?”
“Of course. And you, Sir Villar—keeping healthy?”
There he was, my daily disposal unit.
At Villar’s appearance I welcomed him with the gentlest smile I could muster. Your prince made some of these, so you have to eat them with me. That would only be right, wouldn’t it?