Strudel for the Dryad
"Ah, so that was all it was?"
Gordon, who had been slumped in defeat, only relaxed once he had heard the full explanation. He had been wearing that needlessly suspicious look and putting everyone on guard for nothing.
"Come on, what exactly did I do to make you start out so wary of me?"
"You're really asking me that right now?"
"Everyone ate the vanilla, the Alrune's Tear, and the bean garum just fine, and now you're acting like this."
"And you're the one saying that?"
Gordon made no effort to hide how thoroughly fed up he was. Of course nothing Karem made ever tasted bad. Even when opinions split, it never went beyond a matter of personal preference.
Still, Gordon could never forget the first time he had laid eyes on the beaver testicles Karem brought out. The feeling he had back then was exactly the same as the one he was having now—delicious or not.
"What? What's wrong with wanting to repay someone who saved your life?"
"Think about the look on your face. You really expect me not to react like this?"
Gordon gave his head a hard shake, then let himself collapse into the chair with a scowl.
"So. What is it you want help with?"
"Cooking."
"What? Cooking? From me?"
"Yes. You were a mercenary, weren't you? Can't you cook?"
Gordon tilted his head. He had been bracing for a request to go gather ingredients or something of the sort.
If someone asked whether he could cook or not, the answer was yes—he could. Within the limits of field cooking, anyway. The kind of food that was just edible enough to keep you going.
"What dish are you trying to make?"
"That's what we have to decide now."
"You haven't even decided yet?"
"It only just occurred to me."
At those words, Corvus, who had been listening with his wings folded, cut in.
"Forgive the interruption while you are in the middle of discussing—"
"Yes?"
"The stores in the greenhouse are nearly exhausted."
"Hm? Excuse me?"
Corvus swept his wings in a gesture for them to follow, intending to show them the state of the storeroom in person. Naturally, Mary's eyes lit up at once.
"Junior Karem. In that case, I should also—"
"Are you planning to leave Lady Catherine alone?"
"Ah—blast. And what about you—"
"I already have permission."
Just as Corvus had said, the storeroom was completely empty.
The space that had once been packed with every sort of provision now looked as if it had never held anything at all. It was not merely sparse here and there—it was almost entirely bare.
"There's nothing left in here."
"Last time there was at least a decent stock. We just happened to visit right when the supplies ran out, I suppose."
What remained amounted to apples, pears, tomatoes, sugar, sacks of flour, butter, and salt. Aside from those, there were only neatly folded empty sacks; not so much as a crumb of any other foodstuff was in sight.
"The number of visitors to the greenhouse has increased. Or rather, 'residents' would be the more accurate word."
"Does that dryad, Flora, eat as much as the young lady?"
"No, not to that degree. Flora does eat a fair amount, yes—more than an ordinary woman—but she cannot begin to compare with Lady Alicia."
Corvus turned his beak this way and that, then picked up a stack of folded sacks with one claw and set them on a shelf.
"With the increased number of residents, and with Lady Alicia visiting more frequently than before, the provisions have been depleted even faster than usual. Of course, the timing of the supply orders also happened to overlap."
He folded his wings and scratched his beak with a talon.
"So these are all the ingredients remaining in the greenhouse stores at present. If you harvest the fruit grown on the trees inside the greenhouse, the selection would increase somewhat."
"And if we fetch things from the main warehouse?"
"Then of course it would increase further."
After checking every corner of the storeroom, Karem stepped outside and found himself staring at a man and a monster chatting away quite amicably.
Come to think of it, isn't this Gordon's first time meeting Corvus?
Corvus spoke better than most people, had an unnecessarily fine voice, and even knew foreign languages—but he was still a monster.
...When you put it that way, he really was anything but ordinary. Yet Gordon was not only unsurprised; he was carrying on a conversation as naturally as if nothing were amiss.
"Gordon."
"Yeah. So anything further inside?"
"No. Looks like what we can see here is everything. But..."
Gordon, leaning against the wall, turned his gaze when Karem let the sentence trail off. What is he about to say this time?
"Isn't this the first time you two have met?"
Huh? Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Corvus and Gordon looked at each other. They blinked, as if trying to figure out what the problem was.
Then, almost at the same moment, both of them widened their eyes in realization. We're only noticing this now? Well, I was the same.
"It may be rude to ask, but did you perhaps hear about me from Lady Alicia...?"
"Nah. I just walked into the greenhouse, sensed a monster's presence, and figured it was one the Duke—uh, my lord—kept for himself."
Karem was left speechless by the natural attitude born of such an absurd misunderstanding.
"You didn't find anything strange about it?"
"How many nobles do you think keep monsters as pets?"
"Ah."
It was common enough for those in power to keep fierce beasts for display. Catherine herself had said that people of high rank did so from time to time.
Of course beasts and monsters were different creatures entirely, but as long as one did not go too far, everyone seemed content to look the other way and pretend nothing was amiss.
"And having those beasts or monsters take on actual work? It's rare, but not unheard of."
"...Could you give me an example?"
"Gargoyles for security. Knights who have tamed hippogriffs. That sort of thing."
So it's like keeping furniture or pets? Well, it did sound effective enough.
"As long as it's not something truly dangerous and aggressive, or raised in some unnatural way, I suppose. Corvus."
"Yes."
"Have you ever eaten a person?"
"I have never done any such thing."
"Then that's fine. So how did you learn Seophon speech?"
"I simply remembered the words people spoke, and in time I learned them naturally."
"Oh. Smarter than most people, then."
Gordon was impressed by the strangest things. Still, learning a language purely by listening and remembering was undeniably remarkable.
And yet... something about the whole exchange felt off. Was it really all right for this to pass so smoothly? Then again, when he thought about it, he himself had been dragged here by Alicia and had simply let the matter slide as if he were climbing over a wall after a snake.
"Ah, whatever."
"Well. Looking at this, even you can't settle on a menu, can you? At a glance all I can think of is cookies or apple pie."
Gordon picked up an apple, took a huge bite, and chewed with noisy satisfaction.
"I do have one idea that just came to me."
"When you put it like that, I don't have much room to argue."
Having eaten even the seeds, Gordon flicked the stem out of the storeroom.
"But anything too complicated and I won't be able to keep up."
"It's not that complicated a dish. Besides, Mary's here too."
"Well then. What are you planning to make?"
"Strudel."
"Another thing only you know about."
Thinking that they might as well have a snack while they were at it, Karem answered with complete confidence.
"Forgive another interruption, but would you kindly pick up that refuse and dispose of it properly?"
While Karem gathered ingredients, Gordon went and retrieved the apple stem he had flung so far away at Corvus's request.
Snack time had been decided on the spur of the moment.
Yet not a single person refused.
Mary was delighted at the prospect of work that involved butter and flour desserts, and when Karem explained the strudel recipe to Catherine, she simply told him to go make it at once.
It was only natural, if one thought about it.
No one present would turn down a crisp pastry filled to bursting with fruit tossed in sugar and the rich aroma of butter.
"So how many are you planning to make?"
"Huh? How many?"
"Isn't that the obvious question?"
Catherine tilted her head as she watched Karem coat the apples and pears Gordon had sliced with flour.
"Flora is one thing, but we've also got that mercenary and the young lady."
"Ah. I forgot for a second."
He had forgotten because they were not in the room.
"Since it has come to this, I'll go fetch all the remaining ingredients from the storeroom."
Mary, who had been preparing to make the pastry, dusted the flour from her hands and headed straight for the storeroom. Watching her go, Corvus spoke as he peeled fruit with his beak.
"My already empty storeroom is about to be stripped down to the bare bones."
"Ah, I apologize. I should have asked permission first."
"Not at all. I was joking. We have to place an order anyway, so clearing it out completely is fine."
Reassured, Karem carefully laid the well-mixed fruit onto the pastry Mary had prepared before leaving, then rolled it up as carefully as if he were rolling a kimbap.
"You said this is called strudel, correct?"
Corvus peeled the last apple and tilted his head over the table.
"The method is simpler than I expected."
"Seal it up, brush it thoroughly with butter, and bake. That's the end of it."
"Like baking a pie?"
"Hmm... it is a pie, in a way."
A pie was a pastry with filling placed on top of or sealed inside the dough and then baked. In that sense, strudel firmly belonged in the pie family.
Even Karem, who had never been confident at baking, had often made it at home in his previous life; the method was that simple. With nothing more than the frozen pastry sheets sold at big supermarkets, one could put together something quite similar in no time.
And considering Mary's baking skill, the strudel he had made in his past life would be little better than flour dumplings. That was how Karem saw it.
Which only made the regret sharper.
If I only had whipped cream or custard cream... or even eggs, I could at least whip up some meringue and get close. Tch. Should I go get some? Nah. Forget it.
While Karem fretted over the missing ingredients, Gordon, who had been leisurely slicing the peeled apples and pears, spoke up.
"I'm almost done slicing. Want help once I'm finished?"
"No. I think you'll need to keep slicing."
"Huh?"
Gordon turned his head in the direction Karem pointed and understood at once.
Thud—
Mary set down at their feet a sack stuffed with every last apple and pear she had scavenged, the remaining flour sacks, and a basket full of the other ingredients. A light tremor ran through the floor.
"Just in case, I brought every last apple and everything else that was left."
As time passed, the fragrance of freshly baked bread and rich butter began to drift gently through the nest.
"I thought we had quite a lot of dough."
Catherine looked at the oven, which was giving off a soft heat.
"The preparations finished faster than I expected."
"Just as Karem said, it wasn't that difficult."
Gordon, who had assumed the claim of simplicity was empty talk, was genuinely surprised by how little there was to the process.
Stuff the pastry with filling, seal it carefully, brush with butter, and bake. Compared to any dessert he knew, it was almost too straightforward.
Of course, Mary had handled the bulk of the labor by making the pastry herself, and Karem did not know the original recipe by heart, so the method had become even simpler than the authentic one.
But simplicity also meant room for expansion.
"Whipped cream or custard cream... jam on the side would be good as well."
Mary, standing beside Catherine, swallowed hard as she imagined all the possible variations and improvements to the strudel.
"Considering the harmony with the pastry—"
"That would definitely taste better."
"Then why—"
"How am I supposed to use what we don't have? We've already finished baking; it would feel wrong to run out and come back now. There will be other chances. We'll eat it later. Later."
"So tomorrow's snack, then?"
"Well... if Lady Catherine wants it?"
At those words Mary's head snapped sideways. Catherine gave her a brief sidelong glance before turning her eyes forward again.
"Well. We should taste it first. By the way, quite some time has passed. Is it still not done?"
"It's nearly finished baking."
Corvus returned just then from checking the oven.
"It only needs a short rest now."
"Should we not call Lady Alicia and Lady Flora?"
Mary asked out of politeness even as she drank in the deepening aroma of savory butter and sweet caramel.
"Oh, no need to worry. I opened the oven briefly just now to check, so they will be along any moment—"
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—
From the forest on the far side of the nest came the sound of two sets of footsteps, one large and one small. There was no question who they belonged to.
Rustle-rustle-swish—!
"Porororong~♬"
"Snack time!"
Alicia's love of food was only to be expected, but Flora came running as if she had never been sulking at all, snuffling the air with a bright expression and scattering dry leaves as she charged toward the table.
Though the two of them were completely different in size, the way they were both covered in dry grass, the radiant looks on their faces, and the way their nostrils flared made them look almost...
"Doesn't it seem as if there's a second Lady Alicia?"
"Kid. That sounds pretty disrespectful."
Catherine, however, did not contradict him.