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Chapter 47
“I Hope You Can Face It”
“So, why did you come to the kitchen?”
Laifan frowned as he asked, making me feel nervous.
According to May, he took great pride in being the head chef of Esperos Grand Castle.
This kitchen was like his sanctuary. Would he hate the idea of me, an outsider, borrowing it?
“I won’t use it for long. I just wanted to borrow the kitchen for a little while.”
“What for?”
“Um, well…”
Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal. But why was everyone staring at me like this was so important?
I glanced at the servants peeking at me curiously and smiled awkwardly.
“I heard His Grace personally cared about my breakfast today. I just wanted to make a simple dessert to thank him.”
“You know how to bake?”
Laifan’s eyes widened as if surprised by my embarrassed confession.
I guess it was strange for a noblewoman to personally cook in the kitchen.
He looked at me with sparkling eyes, making me take a step back.
“It’s nothing impressive.”
“What kind of dessert isn’t impressive?”
“Well… it’s a sand cookie with pavé chocolate in the middle.”
“Pavé chocolate? What’s that?”
…Wait, has it not been invented yet?
The servants’ eyes sparkled with curiosity as if they’d never heard of it before.
After a brief hesitation, I explained casually:
“Pavé chocolate is basically made by mixing cream and chocolate together. It’s softer and chewier than regular chocolate.”
“I can’t really imagine it just from your explanation. Is it a dessert from Zeros?”
“No, not Zeros. It’s from a country much farther away.”
If I remembered correctly, pavé chocolate was a dessert from Switzerland…
“Well, if we can’t imagine it, we’ll just have to taste it!”
“Huh?”
Laifan grinned and shouted loudly:
“What are you all waiting for? Go get the cream and chocolate!”
“Yes, Chef!”
The servants rushed off to the pantry, and Laifan turned to me with a satisfied smile.
“We won’t disturb you, but may we watch and learn?”
“W-what?”
“The dessert you mentioned just now.”
“Why?”
“As a chef, it’s my nature to be curious about any dish I’ve never seen before.”
Seeing him holding a knife bigger than his face while smiling sent a shiver down my spine.
I glanced at Laifan, who was waiting for my answer, and nodded awkwardly.
“Sure… I guess that’s fine.”
“So we mix the heated cream and chocolate together?”
“Yes. It’s not a complicated dessert, so this is how I usually make it.”
I thought Laifan would just tell me to work quietly in a corner, but he was surprisingly serious about it.
The problem was, he had turned this into a much bigger event than I expected.
I glanced nervously at the servants surrounding us like they were attending a cooking class.
Some of them were even holding the same ingredients, copying my every move.
Since I wasn’t skilled enough to teach, I felt self-conscious.
Laifan, heating the cream, shrugged.
“Don’t worry. I rarely make desserts here, so everyone is just curious.”
“Oh, you don’t make desserts often?”
I remembered the roughly cut chocolate pieces that had simply been placed on the table this morning.
Technically, banana flambé counted as dessert, but Laifan was probably referring to things like cakes or cookies.
“Yes, His Grace doesn’t really like sweet things. So naturally, I stopped making them.”
“He doesn’t like desserts?”
Laifan flinched at my question.
He looked around nervously, then waved his hands.
“N-no, it’s not that he dislikes them. He just doesn’t really ask for them. Of course, when Lord Shion was alive, he did request them sometimes, but—!”
Laifan shut his eyes tightly and cursed under his breath, clearly flustered.
I noticed the kitchen’s atmosphere had become heavy at the mention of Shion’s name.
Even the sweet smell of chocolate felt bittersweet now.
I looked around and called out energetically to a servant in front of me.
“Don’t boil the cream so hard!”
“Huh?”
“You only need to heat it gently over low heat until it’s warm and the edges start to bubble. If you boil it too much, it might separate when you add the chocolate.”
“Ah, yes!”
The servants quickly moved their cream off the heat.
As I watched them pour the cream into the chopped chocolate, I felt Laifan’s gaze on me and looked up.
I smiled at him.
“The cream, Chef.”
“…What?”
“You shouldn’t boil it so hard either.”
Laifan quickly removed his cream from the heat and poured it into the chocolate.
He stirred with a spatula and glanced around the kitchen.
Everyone was smiling and chatting about the pavé chocolate sand cookies we were making.
He let out a quiet voice.
“Thank you for earlier.”
“For the cream?”
“No. For naturally lightening the heavy mood.”
Laifan wasn’t looking at me.
He added another handful of chocolate and spoke in a calm voice.
“Lord Shion was very precious to everyone at Esperos Castle. Most of the people who still work here have been here since before he was born and watched him grow up.”
“….”
“For us, he was like a son born of the heart. A son who left for a place we can never see again, one we must carry in our hearts for the rest of our lives.”
Laifan turned to me, his voice quieter.
“Lord Shion is someone we can never forget. But because of that, thinking of him makes the air feel heavy, as if even laughing and talking is a sin.”
“….”
“Just like you saw earlier.”
Laifan set down the spatula and looked at me directly.
I met his gaze as he gave me a bitter smile.
“That’s why I’m grateful. It’s not easy for us to change the heavy atmosphere anymore.”
“Do you know why that is?”
“Huh?”
“It’s because you’re low on sugar. When people are tense or on edge, they crave sweets for that reason.”
Laifan blinked, clearly not expecting my words.
After looking at me several times as if trying to process the meaning, he finally asked:
“Are you saying the mood of this castle could be fixed with just a sweet treat?”
“Well, not exactly. Sweet food is just one way to lift spirits.”
Laifan’s expression fell.
I looked at him and poured the remaining chocolate in.
“Emotions can’t be solved by hiding or suppressing them. Everyone was just as sad and shaken by Lord Shion’s death as His Grace was. That’s why I hope you can face it now.”
“….”
“If you keep burying it and avoiding it, even the good memories might fade away.”
“….”
“From what I’ve heard, Lord Shion wouldn’t want the people he loved at this castle to bury him in their hearts and suffer forever.”
“….”
“Basically, people’s emotions are more easily swayed than you think. Like how sunny weather makes you feel good or eating something delicious makes you happy.”
“….”
“So, desserts are just a small way to help reach those emotions again.”
