Chapter 80

Kurt, holding the finished cake, stepped out of the kitchen. Mari, who had been waiting for the meal to be completed, tried to shoot him a sulky voice.

Even though she had been determined to eat fried food today, especially since she couldn’t have it during the journey, Kurt had decided the menu without giving her a chance to voice her opinion.

Of course, she knew that as someone who was just receiving the food, she wasn’t in a position to complain…

But still, since they had come to a city famous for strawberries, Mari had planned to ask Kurt to make strawberry fried food, so she felt a bit of dissatisfaction inside.

Strawberries were delicious fruits, and fried food was delicious, so she was sure that the dish would be incredibly tasty…

“Mr. Kurt! You’re too…”

No, to be precise, she was about to say that.

But when she turned her head and saw him bringing the cake, Mari forgot her grumbling and could only stare at Kurt with a stunned expression.

It wasn’t because the dish he brought was something she had never seen before and couldn’t even guess what it tasted like.

It was because his body was covered in soot here and there, and his skin seemed to have turned red from the heat.

It was the result of his lack of skill in baking the cake, using his body to make up for it, which left him somewhat dirty and disheveled.

But Kurt, seemingly unaware of his own condition, apologized to Mari.

“Sorry. I’ll make fried food for you next time.”

“Ah, no… That’s… I mean…”

Seeing Kurt, who clearly had a harder time cooking than usual, Mari’s mind went blank as she desperately tried to think of an excuse.

But her tongue seemed to have frozen, unable to form proper words, and she just stammered, repeating the same phrases.

And then…

“Miss Marisia. How can you complain to Mr. Kurt, who worked so hard to cook?”

“Right. Mari. You went too far.”

The two people, who had just been complaining about Kurt not making stew or grilled dishes, switched their stance the moment they saw Kurt and blamed Mari.

Could it be that she never expected her trusted companions to betray her?

Mari made a sad face and tearfully apologized to Kurt.

“I’m sorry! Mr. Kurt! I won’t complain about side dishes anymore!”

“…What?”

And at Mari’s sudden change in attitude, Kurt couldn’t grasp the situation and just made a bewildered sound.

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After a bit of commotion, the three finally calmed down and looked at the food Kurt had brought out.

“Wh-what kind of food is this…?”

“I can tell that the thing on top is a strawberry… but I can’t imagine what kind of food this is otherwise.”

“What on earth did you make?”

And each of them gave their impressions upon seeing the cake Kurt had made.

Though their impressions weren’t anything grand.

All they saw was a pure white cylindrical object.

The only recognizable thing was the shape of the strawberry on top.

“It’s a strawberry cream cake.”

“A cake?”

“Yes. It’s a type of sweet bread.”

“Sweet bread? Like honey doughnuts?”

“More like the custard sandwich we had in Leila.”

“Custard…”

Gulp.

At those words, Mari and Karina unconsciously swallowed their saliva.

The food Kurt mentioned was a dessert they had only eaten a few times while traveling with him.

Even Mari, who had traveled with him the longest, had only eaten honey doughnuts and custard sandwiches twice, and Karina had only eaten custard sandwiches once.

The amount of sugar used in making desserts was so high that they couldn’t bring themselves to ask him to make it actively, but deep down, they had always wanted to eat it again someday.

“Could it be… that we’ll get to eat dessert again in a place like this?”

The two, who hadn’t even tasted the cake yet, were already looking at it with faces melting in anticipation.

“Dessert? Ah! That thing we ate when we went to catch the Sea Golem last time, right?”

And at their reaction, Serena, who had never tasted Kurt’s dessert before, finally realized what it was and raised her voice.

Serena, who had always been annoyed by Mari and Karina bragging about the delicious food they had eaten, while secretly growing a fantasy about the dessert in her heart.

Now facing the cake, Serena’s eyes sparkled as if stars were embedded in them.

“Is this that dessert…?”

“No, this cake is different from the custard sandwich we had last time.”

“Di-different!?”

“I put more effort into making this one. It’s probably more delicious.”

“What!?”

At those words, Mari expressed her surprise by hitting the table, and Karina also silently expressed her shock as if she had heard that elves were aliens.

Could it really be more delicious than that custard sandwich?

The two expressed their shock in their own ways, and Serena, who didn’t understand why they were so surprised, could only look at them in confusion and say, “What? What’s going on?”

And finally, Kurt took out a knife and, after three cuts, divided the strawberry cream cake into six pieces. The cross-section of the cake, emitting a beautiful golden light, made the three exclaim in admiration.

Kurt then placed a piece of the cake in front of each of them, and the three quietly swallowed their saliva.

“Then, enjoy your meal.”

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Thump thump.

Serena, feeling her heart beating with anticipation, lifted her fork.

‘Just how delicious is this that everyone is making such a fuss?’

Trying to deceive herself by acting nonchalant, her face was filled with an undeniable sense of anticipation.

‘Mari and Karina said it has a soft sweetness unlike any other sweet food in this world…’

Glancing at the cake, the triangular piece of cake, formed into a white, fluffy mass, was unlike any food she had ever seen.

The soft, spongy form, surrounded by something white, looked similar to the bread she usually ate.

Though it looked several times fluffier than what she knew, and seemed much softer than the white bread made from high-quality flour.

‘If the inside is bread, then what’s on the outside?’

According to Kurt, he used cream, so she guessed it might be cream, but the cream she knew wasn’t something that maintained its shape like this, but rather a sticky white liquid.

She couldn’t imagine what process it went through to become like this.

‘From the looks of it, I can’t even guess the taste…’

Gulp.

Serena, with a mix of anticipation and doubt, used her fork to cut a bite-sized piece of the strawberry cream cake.

Contrary to her expectation of strong resistance, the cake cut through effortlessly.

Like cutting through air, the fork slid into the cake without any resistance, and a clean bite-sized piece of cake was cut out.

There was a slight resistance from the sponge cake layer, but it was really minimal.

Surprised by the unexpected softness, Serena almost dropped her fork.

‘What, what is this softness…’

The texture she felt for the first time in her life made Serena gasp in amazement.

The cake on the fork, with no sense of weight, was like eating clouds from a fairy tale.

‘What on earth did you make…?’

At this point, it seemed like alchemy, but the sweet aroma coming from the fork told her it was proper food, not something made by an alchemist.

But that surprise was nothing compared to the amazement she felt when she put the cake in her mouth.

Hah.

Curiosity, amazement, anticipation, doubt.

The taste of the cake, with all those emotions pushed aside.

It was so shocking that if Serena were a beastkin instead of a dwarf, her ears and tail would have stood straight up.

The first thing she felt was the rich taste of the cream enveloping the entire cake.

Though the texture wasn’t like the cream she knew, the rich and smooth milky flavor was the same as the cream she knew.

No, it was more than the same.

The cream, filled with the sweetness of generously added sugar, wasn’t just rich but sweet and rich.

The difference in sweetness.

That alone transformed the taste of the cream from ‘plain’ to ‘happy.’

Her initial impression of eating clouds wasn’t just about the texture.

The fluffy, soft texture of the cream spreading in her mouth, the richness and sweetness beyond milk, spread happily in her mouth.

“Hehe…”

It was a taste so happy that Serena, who had been suspiciously eyeing the cake just moments ago, now wore a silly smile.

And as she happily chewed the cream, she soon encountered the sponge cake layer hidden within.

Unlike the cream, which had drawn her attention for both good and bad reasons, she hadn’t had high expectations for the sponge cake layer.

Though it had an unfamiliar appearance for bread, it was still just bread, right?

‘Well, it’ll probably taste familiar. The cream is incredibly delicious… but isn’t eating bread here a bit…?’

Wouldn’t eating the bread part now make the excitement from the cream disappear?

But that thought was wrong from the start, as the unbelievably moist and sweet texture of the sponge cake proved.

It was no longer the taste of bread she knew.

The strong aroma felt with each chew.

But the aroma was completely different from the graininess of oat or rye bread; it was a soft aroma.

‘Is this… butter?’

Yes. The intense aroma of butter, even stronger than the cream, and the sponge cake, filled with even more sugar than the cream, had a sweetness that made it blasphemous to compare it to cheap breads like oat or rye.

Even the high-quality white bread, made purely from wheat flour, felt bland and crumbly compared to this sponge cake.

And finally, the harmony between the sponge cake and the cream.

The cream alone was soft, sweet, and fluffy, but somewhat lacking in substance.

The sponge cake alone was moist and sweet, but lacking something more.

But when the two combined, they complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses, becoming one dish.

Chew chew.

Gulp.

In the storm of flavors dancing in her mouth, Serena couldn’t regain her composure and kept moving her fork.

When she put the second bite of cake in her mouth, she felt the sweet and sour juice of the strawberry.

The refreshing aroma of the strawberry juice opened a new horizon in the taste that was already enchanting with the sweetness of the milk.

In any dish, sourness stimulates the appetite.

And the taste of the red, seasonal strawberry, worthy of its name as a specialty, with its strong sweet and sour flavors, elevated the taste of the cream cake just as much as the beautiful red decoration on the pure white cream.

The moment the sour strawberry juice touched her tongue, her tongue twitched involuntarily, and saliva started to secrete.

At that moment, she realized that even though she was eating the cake, she wanted to eat more of it.

And at that moment, Serena had no other option left.

No way to resist her appetite.

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“Huah… I’m so happyyyyy.”

“This isn’t just a dessert! It’s clouds! From now on, I’ll call this cloud pastry!”

“Hehe… hehehe…”

Mari, with cream smeared on both cheeks, smiled as if she were the happiest elf in the world, not caring about such things.

And Karina, who said she was eating clouds, gave the strawberry cream cake a strange name.

And Serena, who looked like a pure young girl if you didn’t know she was a dwarf, smiled as she ate the cake.

Even though it was hard to make…

I think it was worth the effort.

Though the connections and memories of past lives have flowed away and can never be regained, it’s okay.

Because in this life, I can build new precious connections and memories.

Thinking so, I picked up a strawberry on the cake with a fork and put it in my mouth.

The taste of the strawberry was one that brought a happy smile.

“Hey! Don’t sneakily cut my piece of cake while taking your second piece!”

Thud.

“Ouch!”

It was an evening where another memory was made.

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