Alicia Tried Her Best
It was nothing new, but Catherine was thoroughly used to being waited on.
A great mage was valuable manpower that the kingdom itself would send people to attend, and a sage-class one was someone even the king of a minor nation would not dare treat carelessly.
On top of that, she was under the Curse of Famine.
She could not pick up food with her own two hands.
Which meant she had no choice but to be waited on.
The old man's attendants, fellow adventurers, inn waiters, other nobles' servants—on and on.
If no one was around, she simply went hungry.
No problem at all.
People did not die from skipping a few meals.
Of course, the utterly unamusing situation of a sage-class great mage nearly starving to death had occurred on rare occasions, but then her outstanding knowledge, wisdom, and magic never failed to shine.
And then there was the house elf Mary.
One house elf per household.
Mary was far too good at her work.
Catherine had grown so used to her that imagining days without her was nearly impossible.
Sizzle— sss— zii—
"Hm? Lord Atanitas?"
"...Pay it no mind."
Hmm? Catherine waved a hand at Karem, who was tilting his head.
A little awkward, or perhaps simply embarrassed.
It really was nothing new. Truly.
Why am I embarrassed about something like this.
Catherine concentrated on keeping her composure.
Karem waiting on her. As ordinary as Mary doing the same. Of course, the two servants often argued over it.
That, too, had already been part of daily life for a full year.
And then daily life changed. Unintentionally for anyone. The precocious Karem they had thought was still just a child had grown because of the curse, and from a sudden confession of his past life had come a real confession.
No, that was the cause.
It had begun a few days ago in the village they visited on business. After hundreds of years of dreaming, she had partially fulfilled her dearest wish through a loophole. She could, once again, grasp food.
In the process they had reconfirmed each other's true feelings.
Thanks to that, Catherine cast aside the anxiety she had been carrying.
The moment they returned she secretly obtained a novel.
There was no hesitation.
Her cool reason used it as reference and defined their mutual behavior as the frustrating back-and-forth of two hopeless romantics who had never once dated.
Thanks to that, Catherine could objectively recognize this... hard-to-define bittersweet, needlessly awkward sensation.
Sizzle—
"...Is this much butter enough?"
"Yes. Sufficient."
"How about the syrup...?"
"Butter caramel would be good."
Though he felt a subtle gaze on him, Karem poured a generous amount of butter caramel sauce over the thick pancake whose surface was on the verge of collapsing from the soaking butter.
"Come to think of it, you followed Jigmeser this morning."
Catherine briefly turned her eyes to the long, stretching ribbon of butter caramel sauce.
"He said he would use the King Frost whole. Did you check what kind of decorative dish he was planning?"
"He froze solid the moment I brought that up."
"What?"
"Exactly as I said."
Deeply sympathizing with Catherine's feelings, Karem set down the kettle and began cutting the pancake with fork and knife.
"Well, he asked me to help with the concept."
"Help with what to make for the decorative dish?"
"Yes. A few dishes that use ice come to mind, but."
Every single one of them lacked impact.
Karem silently shrugged. Catherine did not bother asking. It was obvious without looking.
"Before that—the King Frost. Is that even edible?"
"Well, no problem. Even a King Frost is ultimately just a somewhat hard and giant Jack Frost. And once you extract the materials from a Jack Frost, the leftover byproduct is nothing but ice."
"Materials?"
What did a Jack Frost leave behind when it died besides snow and ice fragments? At least Karem had never seen anything else.
"Jack Frost materials. To obtain a Winter's Crystal you need preparations. Powder from Explosion Fruit is necessary."
"Just the name sounds ominous. Does it explode if you touch it?"
"Yes. It explodes if you touch it. Well, at worst it only leaves a small burn."
The effect was surprisingly mild compared to the name.
"They grow in clusters, so if you mess up the harvest they all explode at once and blow the whole area sky-high."
Cancel what he said earlier.
"Well, let's leave the ominous talk there."
Anyway, what mattered right now was the pancake.
Like cake, pancake was still a cake no matter how you sliced it.
A dessert delicious even when cold.
With butter spread on it and soaked in syrup and sauce, of course it was tasty.
But a hot pancake had a texture and aroma you could never feel once it cooled.
"Be careful—the sauce might drip."
"You cut it too small."
"I don't have Mary's skill."
Letting Catherine's small complaint slide, Karem supported the dripping sauce with the knife while guiding the fork toward her mouth.
An endlessly natural motion, one he had performed and watched countless times.
Uh... wait.
Cutting the food small and feeding her.
Nothing particularly special.
Even if they were not lovers, feeding someone else happened universally for all sorts of relationships and circumstances, regardless of world.
Same for Karem.
Though he had never done it in his past life, in this life he had waited on and served Catherine enough to grow used to it. The moment Mary left any gap, that is.
"...What? Suddenly stopping."
"No. Just... the thing I do every day suddenly feels embarrassing."
"You're saying that so bluntly?"
"What's so new about it."
He had thought he was used to it any number of times, yet once he became aware of his true feelings and tried to act the same as before with Catherine, every joint creaked.
But he could not keep this up forever.
Moreover, he was in the middle of waiting on Catherine right now.
With Mary even away from her post.
He could not miss this chance.
"Hoo... yes. I've calmed down."
"Just get reasonably used to it."
"Please understand. Fellow hopeless romantics."
"Don't get cheeky."
Dismissing Karem's attempt, Catherine opened her mouth and took the sauce-soaked piece of pancake.
There was an emotion that could only be felt through size.
The thick pancake, buttered and drowned in butter caramel sauce, looked at a glance like a cake pickled in syrup.
But the taste was not what it appeared.
Though he had poured on the butter caramel sauce until it went deep through the softened surface, it still had not reached the core.
The surface layer of the sauce-soaked pancake was so moist it crumbled at the mere movement of the tongue. The word resistance did not exist there.
While expelling the sauce it had absorbed like a sponge, the locked-in butter flavor exploded.
Beneath that, the intact pancake's dormant taste and texture—too deep and thick to have been reached—awakened the moment the surface crumbled.
A density with not a single hole to be felt.
The high resistance that density produced.
Yet a soft pancake inversely proportional to that density.
While teeth worked the bread into two pieces, four pieces, from pieces down to particles, the fluffy texture faded, and then a subtle sweetness wiped clean the mouth and tongue thickly coated in sauce.
"Just making the pancake thick creates this much difference."
"Indeed. I only ever thought about trying it. If I'd known it'd be like this, I'd have done it earlier."
"But still, the size is too small."
"If I cut it any bigger it'll spill."
"Too small."
Catherine lifted her head slightly and frowned a little at Karem.
"Cut it a bit chunkier and bring it."
"You have a small mouth."
"A servant talks too much!"
"I'm a chef."
Unless they rewrote the contract, he was still nominally a servant as well, so Karem decided to do something more productive.
"Anyway. Understood."
Karem forked a chunky piece of sauce-soaked pancake from over the plate pooled with sauce. The small-looking cross-section squished a little, then elastically regained its shape.
"This much?"
"Bigger than that. Yes. That's it."
He cut as Catherine demanded, but as expected it was large. A piece clearly bigger than the width and height of Catherine's mouth. Of course, being pancake and thoroughly soaked in sauce, it would go in.
But if it went in like this it would spill not only around her mouth but onto the table or floor. Mary would happily clean it, yet it felt icky.
Karem had no choice but to stand from his seat.
"I'll move my seat a bit."
"Yes. Mm—mm?!"
Karem shifted his chair a little closer to Catherine.
The sudden reduction in distance. He thought he heard a high-pitched sound but paid it no mind, supporting under the fork with a fresh plate as he offered it to her.
"Here you go."
"..."
Aah. Hap. Chew— Quiet reaction.
Different from the loud urging of a moment before.
Convenient for Karem.
But—
As expected, it's a mess.
Just as Karem had predicted, the pancake crushed while entering Catherine's mouth and fell onto the supporting plate.
Around her mouth also became covered in syrup and pancake crumbs.
Can't be helped.
Karem set down the utensils and picked up a nearby napkin. Meanwhile Catherine lowered her gaze and quietly chewed with a small mouth.
"Excuse me."
"What."
Trying to steady her shaking mind and savor the taste, Catherine froze on the spot at the next sensation around her mouth.
Swoosh— swoosh— swoosh—
Nothing particularly startling had happened.
Karem was simply wiping her mouth gently with the napkin.
"..."
"See, it doesn't all fit in one bite..."
"...I got greedy."
"Uh, no. Since it's dirtied we can just wipe it. That, um."
Catherine agreed in a tone that felt awkward. Karem, wondering what, also averted his gaze, then briefly met Catherine's eyes before both looked away as if on cue.
I'm just wiping the food from her mouth.
Even when eating with both hands, food got on the corners of the mouth; no matter how cleanly you fed and received, something getting on was natural.
So just wipe it like this without anything special—
Clatter—!
Karem's and Catherine's heads snapped around.
"Uh... oops."
He locked eyes with Alicia, who was stretching her fork over the empty plate that held not a trace of sauce, trying to spear a pancake. She had lowered her posture so that only her eyes peeked over the table, watching the two of them.
...Right. Alicia was also there.
The two of them had completely forgotten.
"...Lady Alicia?"
"Ah, Alicia just thought Karem and Kitty seemed busy so she was going to eat the pancakes alone..."
Karem casually turned his gaze. Alicia's fork was touching the rim of the plate right in front of the pancake pile. Her arms were short because she was young.
"So Alicia, don't mind me! Alicia is used to it from often watching Flora and Gordon. So—"
"I took a detour but I'm back."
"Oh, dear."
Panicked Alicia, trying to salvage the situation, unconsciously put a hand to her forehead at the voice from behind. Mary could not possibly miss that clear motion.
"Ah."
The table, Alicia with her arm outstretched, Karem closer to Catherine than his original seat, and Catherine's complex expression with countless emotions crossing it—everything.
Mary grasped it all.
"You needn't worry. Rest assured, Contractor. I am in a position of supporting the relationship between junior Karem and the Contractor."
"Mary! You shouldn't say that out loud...!"
"But junior Karem. That said, junior Karem encroaching on the domain of work that I should do is absolutely—"
Actually, Catherine had no particular thoughts.
Even if she had been flustered from forgetting Alicia for a moment, how could she hide this heart, this relationship forever in this vast castle?
But was that openly mocking them right now?
No—considering Mary's personality, she was probably just not caring about the surroundings at all.
Then I don't have to hold back either.
Catherine smirked and smiled small.
But before that, there was something to do.
Catherine gestured with her eyes to the trembling Karem, glancing at Alicia.
Karem faithfully stood to fulfill that intent.
A moment later.
"Ooooh, ooooooh!"
Behind Karem, who dashed out carrying Alicia, a house elf's scream and pain-filled groan echoed through the top floor of the Mage's Tower.
*** Material Attachment ***
(Catherine might have eaten it if she had brought cream from the start)
—Pancake with Caramel Sauce Accompanied by Cream—
A picture drawn by ChatGPT.