Chapter 121

“Ohohohoho! Welcome to my palace!”

That was the first thing we heard upon arriving at the palace of the Fairy Kingdom.

Of course, as expected, the size of the palace wasn’t built with the average human’s body size in mind, so we couldn’t enter the building and instead met the queen at the entrance.

“Uh… Nice to meet you?”

“Ohohohoho! You should feel even more honored!”

The queen laughed, covering her mouth with a fancy fan.

From the moment we entered the Fairy Kingdom, we had anticipated this, but as expected, there wasn’t much of a sense of grace or nobility. Instead, words like “cute” and “adorable” suited her better.

The size of the castle might be enormous by fairy standards, but by human standards, it wasn’t even two stories tall, and the low ceilings were at a height where I could look down on them. It felt like a well-made dollhouse palace.

Seeing this, instead of feeling any tension, I felt a lack of reality and absentmindedly responded to the queen’s words.

“By the way, we heard you invited us to a tea party.”

“Of course! Attending the queen’s tea party is a great honor that not just anyone can receive, so you should participate with gratitude!”

“A tea party all of a sudden… That’s quite surprising. Well, inviting us to a tea party upon first meeting must mean you want something, right?”

“Nonsense! How could I, the noble queen of the Fairy Kingdom, possibly want something from mere travelers like you? I simply wanted to enjoy an elegant tea party, sharing the ‘dishes we prepared’ with each other!”

Vivian emphasized the phrase “sharing dishes” a bit too much.

And the knights guarding Vivian, who were also sparkling with excitement as they looked at me.

So, the goal is the food, huh?

Actually, I had already figured it out from eavesdropping on the fairies’ conversations since entering the kingdom.

…But judging by the atmosphere, are the knights also participating in the tea party?

“Prepared dishes, you say…”

“Of course, the ingredients for the dishes will be provided by our Kingdom of Arciel. So, you just need to use the ingredients we provide to make a ‘sweet dish’ suitable for the tea party!”

Vivian again emphasized the word “sweet dish” syllable by syllable.

And the fairy officials gulped in unison.

Are the officials also attending the tea party?

“…What if we don’t participate?”

“Ku, Kurt!”

The three looked at me with urgent eyes, as if they hadn’t expected me to refuse.

But the one who looked the most shocked was Vivian, the fairy queen.

“Wha, what!? Why!? Why!! You can’t possibly be thinking of refusing the queen’s tea party!”

Vivian looked at me with the expression of a puppy abandoned by its owner.

She seemed to have never considered that I might refuse her proposal, and her previously calm demeanor was completely forgotten as she frantically expressed her distress.

Not only that, but the fairy army standing behind her also openly showed their disappointment, bowing their heads with gloomy faces.

What? Are you guys also participating in the tea party?

No wonder the army that escorted us to the palace didn’t disband and stayed on guard—they weren’t guarding but waiting to join the tea party?

“Kurt! Are you really going to refuse the queen’s tea party invitation!?”

“Kuh… You’re joking, right?”

“Kurt! Why…?”

And it wasn’t just the fairies who were disappointed.

Our companions also looked at me with desperate eyes, clearly having looked forward to the tea party with the queen.

The atmosphere in the fairy palace instantly turned gloomy with my one sentence.

…Well, I was just testing the waters, but with this reaction, I feel bad.

Feeling like the bad guy in this atmosphere, I reluctantly promised to participate in the tea party, and only then did smiles bloom on the faces of the fairies and our companions.

This kingdom’s atmosphere is a bit tough…

…

…

And so, we ended up participating in an unplanned tea party.

Anyway, since we decided to join, we had to cook as the fairies wanted.

But this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for me.

First of all, being treated as guests of honor in the Fairy Kingdom wasn’t bad for us.

And cooking was always my responsibility, and today I had permission to freely use expensive ingredients under the Fairy Kingdom’s support.

Plus, since we had to make dishes suitable for a tea party, what I had to make was inevitably sweet desserts.

Honestly, I wasn’t as excited as the other three who were thrilled about being invited to the fairy tea party, but it was still a pretty pleasing proposal for me.

I rarely get to make such desserts because of the cost.

In that sense, the condition of being able to freely make sweet desserts without ingredient restrictions was quite appealing to me.

Thinking that, I headed to the kitchen where the ingredients were piled up.

To be precise, it was more of a temporary table set up outdoors rather than a proper kitchen, but it wasn’t a problem.

Because Vivian had assigned fairy soldiers as cooking assistants.

Among the fairies, who are already magically talented, the soldiers trained specifically for combat magic were even more skilled.

They used wind magic to control dust and fire magic to achieve precise temperature control comparable to a modern oven.

…Quite an enviable ability. I should ask Serena if she can help with cooking like this next time.

Anyway, for those reasons, even though the setup was temporary, there was no shortage for cooking.

Then, there’s no need to hesitate any longer.

Let’s start cooking.

First, I took out a bag of flour from the fairy’s pantry.

As expected of flour used in the royal palace, it was stored by type and of excellent quality.

The flour I would use was the finest, low-gluten cake flour.

It’s the most commonly used type of flour for making desserts.

The dessert I would make this time is a fruit tart.

So, first, I need to make the tart crust.

Prepare cake flour, sugar, a bit of salt, butter, and egg yolks to make the dough.

The sugar used in the dough can be regular sugar, but it’s better to grind it into powdered sugar for a smoother sweetness when eating the tart crust.

This dish will be eaten by me and my companions, but mostly by the fairies, who, due to their small size, can feel subtle taste differences more intensely, so I put a lot of effort into it.

Also, even small lumps in the dough can feel larger to fairies, so I made the dough more carefully than usual.

Once the dough is formed, I put it in a place without sunlight and asked a fairy assistant to cool it evenly.

The fairy soldier I entrusted with this task saluted solemnly, as if on a mission to save Private Ryan, and began cooling the dough.

The tart crust needs to rest for at least 30 minutes, so next, I’ll prepare the cream and fruits for the tart.

First, mix liquid thin cream with sugar to adjust the sweetness, then keep whisking until it reaches the texture of regular edible cream.

That completes the basic cream, but for the tart, it’s not enough, so I added yogurt and cream cheese to deepen and enrich the flavor, then added lemon juice for a refreshing aroma.

The remaining time is for preparing the fruits for the fruit tart.

But preparing the fruits too early can cause them to lose freshness from exposure to air, so I just washed the fruit surfaces clean with water.

The fruits to use are strawberries, kiwi, green grapes, blueberries, and oranges—anything suitable for a tart.

Especially since the fruits around here are near the Dwarf territory and also close to the World Tree, their quality is excellent.

With such high-quality fruits, there’s no need for additional syrup treatment.

Meanwhile, the tart crust dough has rested enough.

Divide the dough into portions for one tart, then use a rolling pin and mold to shape the tart crust.

Repeating this process quickly results in multiple tart crusts.

Then, lightly dust the shaped tart crusts with flour to prevent sticking to the pan and poke holes with a fork.

This hole-poking process is called docking, which prevents the dough from puffing up unevenly during baking by allowing the expanded air inside to escape through the holes.

Then, place something light on top of the dough to act as a weight, and the preparation is complete.

After that, just leave the dough to the oven (played by the fairy).

All I need to do is check the dough’s condition and adjust the temperature occasionally.

Considering that I can visually check the dough’s condition in real-time and adjust the temperature meticulously, it might even be better than an oven.

Once the tart crusts are baked, it’s almost done.

Fill the inside of the tart crusts with the prepared cream and top them with neatly cut fruits.

This time, considering the fairies, I made quite a few small-sized tarts, but even so, they might still be large for fairies and need to be cut into smaller pieces.

Anyway, it’s complete.

Today’s tea party menu.

Fruit tart made with fruits grown in the World Tree’s domain.