Watch Your Teeth Day and Night (2)
"Aaaaaah—"
"Don't close your mouth. Open wide."
Catherine tapped Alicia's lips. Alicia quickly opened her mouth as wide as it would go.
"No blood. No damage to the gums, either."
"Am I not in huge trouble?"
"Quiet."
As if he could stay quiet.
Alicia's tooth, the one she'd been working on that candy with, had been yanked out by force.
And that tooth was still stuck right in the candy.
Question: who exactly was going to get punished for this?
No need to wait for an answer.
Obviously the bastard who made that damn candy!
Teeth were among the first parts of the body to take damage in life, of course. The reasons were endless.
Brushing poorly, biting into hard food, crunching a bone shard hidden in meat, falling the wrong way and cracking a tooth, getting punched in a fight, or having one pulled free by a sticky snack—and so on.
"Wow. The more I think about this, the more I only see a future where I get punished."
"I'm still examining her, so stop making a fuss, little one."
Catherine poked around Alicia's mouth with a stick, then jabbed Karem's forehead with her empty hand.
"Aeh. Heh ha-euh-hei-ah?"
Alicia spoke with her mouth still wide open. Only muffled noises came out. The meaning was clear enough, though.
"Lady Alicia. Even with His Grace the Duke's mercy, if he finds out I made the thing that pulled out your tooth, I'm finished."
"Hei-ah oi ah-peun-de-neun—"
"Shh. Lady Alicia. Mouth."
At Catherine's warning, Alicia cut herself off and opened her mouth again.
She was far too calm for someone who'd just had a tooth forcibly pulled. Most people, adult or child, would be crying and in pain to some degree.
That didn't change the fact that Alicia's tooth had been pulled—or more precisely, that he'd made the thing that pulled it.
So what actually happens now?
Even with Iceland's rampant meritocracy, you couldn't ignore aristocratic bloodlines. Especially not with a great noble house that had ruled this land longer than the Seophon Kingdom itself had existed.
And he'd just pulled a tooth from that house's youngest daughter.
The little princess who monopolized the entire family's affection.
Sure, there was one person who called her a pig and disliked her—Robin—but older and younger siblings were programmed to hate each other, so that hardly counted.
Past contributions? As if those would smooth over harm done to a direct descendant of the ducal house.
Catherine's backing as Chief Magical Advisor? One wrong step and the sparks could fly her way instead.
That, he could never allow.
He was the one who'd messed up. Why should Catherine take the hit?
"Well. Looks like it was just the big little one's fussing after all."
If that happened—wait, what?
"Fussing?"
"Yes."
Catherine lightly poked Karem's forehead again. While he rubbed the spot, she tapped Alicia's chin so she would close her mouth.
"That will do. Lady Alicia. Let me ask you one thing."
"Ask me anything. But the snack—"
"This taffy… will you be all right?"
"Hing."
Alicia made a sad little noise as she watched the orange-flavored taffy stick in Karem's hand move farther away.
"These past few days, when you ate your meals, did anything feel off?"
"Feel off? What do you mean… ah?"
"Something came to mind, I see."
Catherine spoke as if she'd found the answer. Alicia nodded.
"For a little while now, Alicia's front tooth has been loose."
"And it got looser every day, didn't it?"
"Yes."
"Any other teeth loose?"
"A molar started wiggling yesterday."
Alicia nodded again, clearly not understanding why she was being asked.
"Lady Alicia. How old are you right now…?"
"Six years old! Hee!"
Alicia grinned and thrust both hands straight out in front of her.
A pure white, healthy smile. The missing front tooth made it utterly adorable.
"Mm… yes. Six years old!"
She turned her hands over for a moment, thought about it, then folded four fingers on her right hand and held it out again.
"Among people, ordinary humans usually start losing their baby teeth—having them loosen and fall out—between the ages of six and seven."
"So Alicia's tooth came out naturally?"
"Yes. The looseness is the warning sign. And from the empty socket, a new tooth grows that you'll use until you die of old age."
"Then what about Flora?"
"I don't know how fairies grow, but people are all pretty much the same."
Dwarves were the odd ones among people; their teeth kept growing, so they naturally ground them down by eating hard food.
So… that was it? Just a baby tooth falling out?
At that age, it really was the right time for teeth to start coming loose.
"Huuuuuuu."
Karem let out a long, deep sigh of relief.
Of course he did. If what she said was true, a tooth that was already going to fall out had simply fallen a little early. No beheading, no exile, no punishment of any kind.
"Were you fretting that much?"
"It would've been weirder not to. I might've yanked out Lady Alicia's tooth, after all."
"My lord would never punish someone over something so—"
"I also completely forgot to warn her that it was sticky and would cling to teeth."
"Hm?"
Catherine tilted her head and raised one eyebrow as if she must have misheard.
"That… might actually be a bit of a problem."
"Kitty. Can I still eat the leftover taffy?"
"I told you it's not Kitty. Hah. Taffy is banned for the time being."
"Huk—"
"Hard food and chewy food are banned too."
"Heeeeuk—!"
Alicia's face went pale blue at the first sentence, then pure white at the next. She clutched the table with a look of pure shock.
"Lady Alicia, is it really that shocking?"
"N-not being able to eat snacks! Of course—"
"It's not like you can't eat any other snacks, you know."
"Huh?"
With her face still white, Alicia looked up at Karem and her eyes went round.
"What on earth do you mean by that?"
"Lady Alicia, how much hard and chewy food have you actually been eating anyway?"
"Well… uh, wait?"
"And it's not like you can never have them again."
In the end, people still ate fried food and soda even knowing they were bad for you. Who actually listened?
It was just a loose tooth.
One that was already about to fall out, and more that would follow.
"Is that really true?"
"Just hold off until the loose ones come out. I can't even think of any hard or chewy snacks right this second."
"Then I can eat cake in the meantime!"
"You'll still have to brush carefully, though."
"Of course I'll brush. Wait?"
Alicia stopped mid-sentence and tilted her head. Then she looked back and forth between Catherine and Karem.
"If it's going to fall out anyway, do I really need to brush?"
"Mm… it might not matter that much."
"Then—"
Alicia's face lit up like sunshine.
No child in the world actually liked brushing their teeth.
"But would the Duchess allow it?"
Catherine shook her head as if the idea were absurd and rested her chin on her hand.
"Poppins wouldn't allow it either. Nor would Iona or Jigmeser."
"Mm… Alicia will brush nicely."
"That's right."
Catherine slowly stroked Alicia's head with her free hand.
"But Kitty. Can I at least finish the taffy I was eating—"
"No. And I clearly said it's Catherine, not Kitty."
"Kitty is Kitty! Ungaaaaah—"
Catherine even pulled her other hand free and grabbed both of Alicia's cheeks, squishing them this way and that.
"A-Alicia's cheeks are not toys!"
"Is that so? I suspect Godwin and the Duchess would disagree."
Alicia's round, sticky-rice-cake cheeks were mercilessly squished and stretched by Catherine's hands.
Kinda jealous, actually.
Even while complaining, she stayed still, so she didn't seem to hate it that much. If he ever got the chance, he wouldn't mind giving them a squeeze himself.
Knock knock knock. Creeeak—
"Pardon the interruption, Contractor."
"Go ahead."
Mary entered carrying trays in both hands—dishes, a teapot, butter, and a pyramid of thick round breads stacked high.
"It seemed you wouldn't be eating the taffy candy after all, so while I still had plenty of leftover syrup I baked some pancakes."
The pyramid of round breads was pancakes.
And not just any pancakes—each one looked like four or five layers stacked together.
Less "pan"cake and more pan"cake."
They were golden-brown all over with almost no pale spots left, looking so delicious they might as well have been the distilled dream of every brownie.
Sweet steam rose in lazy curls from the freshly baked stack, gently covering and erasing the office's usual smell of paper and strange medicinal herbs.
"While Junior Karem was busy climbing the tower, I prepared these all by myself."
"You really never miss a chance."
"Is that something you should say after freely waiting on the Contractor in the village the other day before I even arrived?"
Karem decided to be magnanimous and let Mary's current attitude slide.
They had, after all, spent a half-day of awkward but private time together.
And more importantly, there had been urgent business.
"But why suddenly bake pancakes this thick?"
"I've been thinking about it for a while."
While the three of them took seats at the table, Mary cleared the surface with brisk little taps and sweeps.
"Pancakes are cakes, so why aren't they as thick as cake?"
"So you just cook a bunch of thin ones and stack them—"
"That and this are different."
Mary cut him off with a knife-edge of finality.
She was right. The thick pancakes in front of them were nothing like ordinary ones.
They had clearly been made with some special tool rather than a regular pan, and at a glance they almost looked like castella cake covered in a crisp, golden crust.
"You couldn't bake them like this with the pans in the kitchen. How did you do it?"
"I borrowed the cooking tool Junior ordered custom-made."
"Pardon? Me?"
"That pot that's too small to use as a pot and too deep to use as a pan."
There had indeed been one item from the first custom order that had been a mistake.
But you baked this many?
Karem looked at the tray in the center of the table.
Pancakes that could practically become a cake if you just iced them.
And there were at least several dozen of them.
"Uh, they'll go fast, though."
"Karem?"
"Ah, just a moment."
Stepping in for Mary, who had to attend Catherine, Karem set a pancake on the plate of the impatient Alicia and immediately spread butter over it.
Sizzle— sizzzzzzle—
The thin smear of bright yellow butter melted at once from the pancake's heat, coating the golden-brown surface in a glossy sheen. The warm butter fragrance sank into the sweet aroma.
"Hm. Something's missing."
"Ah, do you mean a drink? I'll bring one right—"
"No. Whipped cream. You always prepare it when we have pancakes, don't you?"
At those words, Mary froze with the butter knife still in her hand.
She had been about to spread butter on Catherine's pancake, for the record.
"…"
"Mary?"
"…This—"
"Hm?"
"How could a brownie make such a blunder!"
Mary set down the butter knife and shot to her feet.
"I'll bring whipped cream along with the drinks at once. As frustrating as it is, I leave the Contractor in your care until then."
And with a little poof, she vanished on the spot.
She had no doubt poofed into existence in the kitchen.
"Hm… you can manage on your own, right?"
Alicia stared fixedly at her pancake and nodded. Karem placed a fork and knife in her small hands, then picked up the butter knife Mary had left behind.
(of. Mlesna Tea Tokyo)
A picture drawn by ChatGPT for us.