“From now on, I’m going to make pancakes with Murmur, so just remember one thing.”
“One thing? Okay, Murmur will remember it well.”
“Please don’t get too close to me.”
Nicasia and Citrine.
Esme, who had been watching the two of them from start to finish, spoke firmly.
“Murmur can’t come closer?”
“No, don’t cling too much.”
“Esme has become evil again…”
“What, what! Why are you suddenly saying such strange things?!”
As Murmur lowered her head and spoke, Esme was startled and grabbed her horns to lift her face up.
“Murmur did something wrong… Esme…”
“It’s not that I’ve become evil! We’re about to bake pancakes, and if you cling too much, my arms won’t be free, and I could get hurt, right?”
“Ah, I see. That’s a relief. Murmur was worried.”
“Murmur, really! You sometimes say such strange things.”
Esme wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
‘Ugh…! I hope I don’t end up like Nicasia and Citrine, do I?’
Esme, who had fanned herself once with her left hand, brought the pre-made batter to the side of the frying pan.
“I made the batter earlier when I was making cookies with Nicasia.”
“Esme, weren’t you doing something else at that time?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t too hard, and I couldn’t ask Murmur to make the batter again.”
Esme smiled and tasted the batter with her pinky finger.
“Hmm, I learned how to taste from Pearl, but it’s hard to know the flavor just by tasting it like this.”
“Murmur wants to taste it too.”
“Ah, sure. But Murmur might not know either…”
Esme extended her pinky finger with the batter to Murmur.
It was an unconscious action while they were talking, and Esme realized belatedly that it was quite an embarrassing situation.
“Sorry─”
“Yum…”
Murmur opened her small mouth and took Esme’s pinky finger, licking the batter with her tongue.
“Hmm, as Esme said. Murmur doesn’t know what flavor this is either. Is it okay as long as it’s not too salty or sweet?”
“Ah… maybe, yes. Well, I guess so.”
Esme answered in a strange tone, like a broken music box, and looked down at her pinky finger.
‘D-did Murmur just lick my finger? W-well, normally, you wouldn’t offer it like this… Ah, no! Thinking about it, you wouldn’t normally offer it like this, right?!’
Esme’s mind started spinning, and Murmur, seeing this, took out a handkerchief that Nicasia had prepared from her apron.
“Did you not like it?”
“Huh? What? No, no! Murmur, I was the one who offered my pinky finger, right?”
Esme answered with the brightest smile she could muster.
‘… … Murmur is making a face like her heart is hurting. Just like now.’
It’s natural to be hated for being a demon.
Murmur, who is only in the 5th grade of elementary school, sometimes makes a face as if she has given up on everything in this world.
It was something I didn’t know before we became close, but after we became close enough to bathe together, I often saw it, and every time, Esme felt complicated.
‘Surely… it must be because of people like Aunt Colette. After all, Cosmos Academy is a place where heroes are selected.’
The word ‘hero,’ which used to feel so shiny, didn’t feel so magical to Esme these days.
“Murmur, wouldn’t you be surprised if I suddenly licked your pinky finger?”
“But Esme offered it.”
“I didn’t mean for you to lick it! It was just a mistake!”
Esme shook her head frantically and lit the oven with magic.
“Ah, anyway! The pancakes are more important than the pinky finger, right?”
“Right. We have to bake the pancakes deliciously and beautifully.”
“Since I’m good at pancakes, I’ll teach you well, Murmur. First, step on that wooden box over there and come up.”
Murmur nodded and jumped onto the wooden box.
“To bake delicious pancakes, it’s important to make the amount of batter consistent.”
“So they look pretty if they’re the same shape?”
“Of course. If the stacked pancakes are all different shapes, it would look strange.”
Esme scooped up a ladle of batter.
“Use exactly this much for one pancake.”
“Okay. Murmur will remember.”
“Then like this… spread enough oil… right. This is important. You must coat it with oil.”
Esme skillfully placed the batter on the frying pan.
“Then like this. Now, just wait quietly.”
“How long do we wait?”
“Flip it when you see bubbles rising from the batter. I can’t say exactly how many minutes.”
“It’s okay. Murmur is fine with that.”
Murmur answered while holding the spatula Esme had brought with both hands. She planned to flip it quickly when the bubbles rose.
“But Murmur, have you ever eaten pancakes before?”
“Murmur has never eaten pancakes before.”
“… Really? You’ve never eaten them at all?”
“Yeah, there are no pancakes in the cafeteria.”
Esme swallowed hard.
“I’ve been curious since last time… Murmur, have you never eaten dessert before?”
“Yeah, there’s none in the cafeteria.”
“Murmur, by any chance… have you never eaten any food that’s not in the cafeteria?”
“Yeah, Murmur has no money.”
“You did mention that last time. Oh my…”
Why did I hate and torment Murmur so much in the past?
Esme suddenly remembered the incident in 3rd grade when she grabbed Murmur’s horns and shook them wildly.
‘Ugh…! Stupid Esme! Why did you do that! Why did you do that! What made Murmur seem so bad to you!?’
Murmur, who couldn’t possibly know these thoughts, flipped the pancake in one go.
“Ah… well done! Murmur! That’s the hardest part, and you did it in one go?”
“It was a bit hard, but I did it.”
“When I made pancakes with my mom before, I couldn’t wait and ruined them.”
Esme spoke while looking at the pancakes cooking with a sweet aroma.
“Back then… thinking about it, I was always impatient before meeting Murmur. I always made mistakes. I made mistakes with Murmur too.”
“Murmur doesn’t think so.”
“No, I ruined the pancakes when I made them with my mom, right? If I had made them a little better, my mom would have remembered me as a smarter child.”
“That’s not true.”
Murmur slowly stroked Esme’s hand.
“Esme definitely made the pancakes well back then.”
“Pfft, Murmur~ You don’t have to force yourself to comfort me.”
“It’s not forced. Esme knows how to bake pancakes perfectly now. Pearl didn’t teach you, right?”
Murmur picked up a nearby recipe book and showed it to Esme.
There was no pancake recipe in this recipe book.
“The pancake recipe Esme remembers now is the one your mom taught you. How to make the batter, how to coat the pan with oil, how to flip it when bubbles rise. Even how to put whipped cream and syrup on top, you learned all that back then, right?”
“Yes… that’s right. My mom taught me back then.”
“Murmur thinks. Esme didn’t fail back then. You learned from your mom. Everyone fails when they’re learning, and that’s why you can teach Murmur like this now.”
Esme naturally fell into a thought she had never had before.
“Did my mom… disappoint in me? Thinking I was a fool who couldn’t even make pancakes?”
“No, absolutely not. Murmur promises. She probably thought you were amazing for remembering it all at once.”
“What are you saying. Really. Murmur, you sometimes talk so maturely for your age.”
Esme smiled happily. Small, tiny Murmur.
The demon I used to hate so much has now become so close that she can beautifully decorate the only memory I have with my mom.
“I think I understand what my mom meant by the one and only friend in this world.”
“Yeah, Murmur will always be Esme’s friend.”
“Just a friend?”
Esme said it jokingly, but Murmur, skillfully placing the pancake on a plate and adding new batter, answered.
“Murmur can always be more than a friend if Esme wants.”
Tiny Murmur was thinking of something like ‘best friend,’ but to Esme, it was different.
“M-more than a friend…”
“Yeah, Murmur and Esme will get along super, super well.”
Esme, with her cheeks flushed, turned her head without realizing it.
‘N-no, doesn’t ‘more than a friend’ usually mean something else? I’m not misunderstanding, am I? Right?!’
Esme closed her eyes tightly and thought.
‘I-I need to read that novel on the desk quickly…’
* * *
『You have acquired new knowledge!』
【Cooking Lv. 1】
Due to the influence of the DLC, instead of 【Cooking Skill】, I got 【Cooking Lv. 1】, but it feels better because it’s clearer.
That cooking skill would later be divided into ‘Intermediate Cooking Skill,’ ‘Advanced Cooking Skill,’ ‘Super Advanced Cooking Skill,’ which was a bit of a brain twister. Anyway, things are going as I planned.
Making Citrine and pudding, Nicasia and cookies, Esme and pancakes—it feels like I got to see all the event scenes that I would normally only see one at a time, so it feels like I got three times the benefit.
“Murmur, will it really work?”
Nicasia, who had just finished plating, looked at me with a very nervous expression.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Citrine already talked to Lady Jepar, so she’ll definitely come.”
“It’s good that she’s coming, but… will she really listen to us?”
“She’ll definitely listen.”
Everyone was looking at me with anxious eyes, but knowing the outcome, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Lady Jepar, please come this way.”
“Oh my, you really prepared desserts. Hehe, you should share them with your friends…”
Lady Jepar, who had been enjoying herself with the children outside Piglet House, came in with Citrine and spoke.
“Murmur and her friends worked hard to prepare this.”
“Thank you, Murmur. You must have had little time to spend with your friends…”
Lady Jepar walked to the table and spoke, but when she saw the prepared desserts, her lips trembled slightly.
“Murmur prepared this. Today is a day for everyone to make happy memories. I wanted Lady Jepar to enjoy it too, so I made it.”
Gulp, the sound of Nicasia swallowing nervously echoed through Piglet House.
“Pancakes, pudding, and cookies.”
Lady Jepar nodded and sat down.
“You’ve prepared quite a lot.”
“Please try each one. Lady Jepar.”
“Hehe, I will. Now then… a pancake that’s a bit misshapen. Soaked in syrup and topped with lots of whipped cream and butter…”
Lady Jepar rubbed the syrup that was generously poured on the pancake with her knife.
“…Is it okay? Murmur? As I said before, there’s too much syrup.”
It’s fine. In fact, this is the right answer.
Lady Jepar silently picked up the syrup-soaked pancake with a fork and brought it to her mouth.
“It’s a pancake that children would really love. Murmur.”
“Yes, it’s a pancake that children absolutely love. It’s topped with lots of sweet maple syrup.”
“Adults would never pour syrup like this. But children don’t know that.”
“Yeah, my mom always said not to pour too much, so children want to pour more syrup to eat.”
This is the first memory of Lady Jepar and her daughter.
“This is… pudding.”
“Yes, it’s pudding made in a pudding cup. There’s strawberry syrup on top and caramel at the bottom.”
Lady Jepar scooped up the pudding deeply with a spoon.
“I believe it will be fine.”
Normally, you wouldn’t use strawberry syrup and caramel together.
Even if you do, you would measure it precisely to make a 3-layer or 5-layer pudding that looks beautiful.
But this pudding is different. It’s a greedy pudding filled with flavors that children love.
“…It’s overflowing with sweetness.”
“Any sickness would be cured if you eat this pudding, Murmur thinks.”
“Ah… ah. Yes. Yes. With such sweetness overflowing, I would surely feel better soon.”
This is the second memory of Lady Jepar and her daughter.
A messy pudding prepared by her daughter for her sick mother.
A small child can’t make medicine. She remembered the pudding that made her feel better and added strawberry syrup, thinking it would taste even better.
“To think that any sickness would make you feel better…”
“I just realized that Murmur is really good at saying nice things.”
“Earlier with the pancake and now with the pudding… Murmur is a master of presentation!”
Guys, even if you whisper in a small voice, it’s too loud!
Honestly, I’m a bit embarrassed too, but what can I do? Cooperate!
“The last one is cookies.”
“Sn… snowman cookies. Lady Jepar…”
Nicasia spoke in a shrinking voice.
Yeah, I understand that feeling. These snowman cookies are so over-decorated that anyone who knows even a little about cookies would be horrified.
When I said we should make them like this, Nicasia freaked out and said no one would eat them.
“It’s quite… a cute snowman.”
Lady Jepar picked up the snowman cookie.
“Murmur, what were you thinking when you made this cookie?”
I remember this choice.
“Because it’s a snowman-shaped cookie, I wanted to decorate it nicely and beautifully.”
“Hehe… you sound just like my daughter.”
Lady Jepar pushed the messily decorated cookie into her mouth.
“Fenex… loved making snowmen like this.”
Lady Jepar looked at the cookie with a distant gaze.
“Who is Fenex… Ouch!”
“That’s Lady Jepar’s daughter’s name!”
Citrine elbowed Esme and whispered.
“No matter how much I scolded her, she always soaked her pancakes in syrup… she was a child who wanted both caramel pudding and strawberry pudding.”
Lady Jepar stroked the cookie with her finger.
“The only snowman Fenex could make… was this kind of cookie. Even if I told her it wouldn’t taste good, she never gave up.”
Fenex had been sick since she was a child.
The symptoms of her incurable disease were so severe that at some point, she couldn’t go outside on cold days.
“She was such a cute child. She was so good with her hands that she could make lots of snowman-shaped cookies.”
Lady Jepar wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“Thanks to you, I was able to recall memories of Fenex again. Even if just a little, I felt like I was with my beloved daughter, Fenex.”
Lady Jepar, immersed in memories of her daughter, bowed to me. I held her hand tightly.
“Lady Jepar, can you eat more desserts?”
“Hehe… how kind of you. Do you have hidden desserts? It seems there’s nothing more on this table…”
“Murmur said. Today, Murmur and ‘friends’ prepared desserts.”
Citrine and Nicasia opened the door of Piglet House at my signal.
“Lady Jepar…!”
“Please try what we made!”
“Me first! Me first!”
The children who had been playing outside had brought the desserts they had worked hard to make today on white plates and offered them to Lady Jepar.
The messily made pancakes are not the only ones today.
The cookies that look like they were made with clay are not the only ones.
The cute pudding that reminds you of steamed eggs is not unique.
It’s not something only Murmur can do.
“Ah…”
Lady Jepar, surrounded by the children, trembled.
Her beloved daughter Fenex is no more. That’s something that can’t be undone no matter how much she wants to.
But there are plenty of children who want to repay the love Lady Jepar has shared.
Not as much as her own daughter.
Not as much as her own child.
But we can also give Lady Jepar memories with a similar scent and flavor.
“Lady Jepar.”
I held Lady Jepar’s hand, who was looking at the children with a moved expression, and stroked it.
“Murmur wants to make desserts with friends here again next year.”
“You will be able to do that.”
“I want to play a lot with my friends! I want to give Lady Jepar desserts again next year!”
“Of course… of course you will be able to do that.”
“Murmur made a promise? If you break it, you might turn into a piglet!!”
Lady Jepar hooked her pinky finger with mine and smiled.
“I must not turn into a piglet if I want to receive gifts from such lovely children.”
* * *
“Good work, Lady Jepar.”
“Thank you for your leniency, respected Princess Nicasia.”
On the neatly erased magic circle, Lady Jepar bowed to us and apologized.
“As expected, Murmur knew everything.”
“Murmur only saw a few things. I just didn’t want Lady Jepar to make a bad choice.”
Lady Jepar talked with Nicasia as planned and surrendered without causing any problems.
Originally, Lady Jepar, who has a good heart, must have felt that Nicasia’s words, knowing everything from the beginning to the end, were a last chance she couldn’t refuse.
“But are you okay, respected Princess Nicasia?”
“I’m fine. No one was hurt, and as long as you don’t smuggle Lunarin from now on, there won’t be any accidents at the academy.”
Nicasia smiled.
“No one is executed for smuggling Lunarin. Lady Jepar will receive the same punishment.”
Citrine covered her mouth with her hand and whispered that she would have to pay a ‘huge fine,’ so the punishment itself seemed quite heavy.
“What this old demon said…”
“The magic circle? I’m not sure. Such an evil plot didn’t come to fruition for me to grasp.”
Lady Jepar gave a bitter smile and bowed once more.
“Nicasia. Are you really okay?”
“Yes, Father would have done the same. No one was actually hurt or killed.”
Nicasia smiled.
“Also, with the information you provided, even if you go to Holimpia to be judged, you will receive the same verdict as now. It’s not just my judgment.”
That’s certainly true. Even in the hero route, you can arrest Lady Jepar at this point and have her face the judgment of the law.
At that time, as Nicasia said, various mitigating factors are considered, and she receives a good verdict in the ending.
“The problem is that most of Nectar’s descendants receive that verdict over 10 or 20
