“By the way, how about some tempura?”
“It’s yummy, you know?”
“Fritters, are they? Not bad. Light for fried food, and the sauce has a refreshing radish kick. If pairing, I’d suggest a dry white wine from Southern Albion State, aged for three years.”
“Hmm, sounds like something the girls would like.”
“…Don’t make me, of all people, taste-test food to be served to common women!”
“No, the main reason is that I want to eat it, so it’s not like I’m intentionally being disrespectful. Oh, I’m gonna fry some ice cream last!”
I was eating with Rosalinde and Count Missgancia.
“…Speaking of which, why did you come, Count Missgancia? Don’t you have your own personal chef?”
“…Your cooking tastes better.”
Huh…?
I’m not a pro or anything.
Well, I did work at an izakaya from high school to college…
“The vegetables and meat are different. What did you do? The sweetness, the umami, the tenderness… everything is extraordinary.”
Ah, it’s the ingredients.
“I grew them in the garden.”
In the garden (Garden Art).
…Improved breeds of meat and vegetables, fresh seafood, umami seasoning, sugar, and spices.
Certainly, in that respect, I’m superior.
But the chefs in this world are also quite skilled.
Of course, there’s the major weakness of poor hygiene management… but even so, their cooking skills are still professional. I can’t beat Count Missgancia’s head chef, especially in Western cuisine.
“…By the way, what is that?”
“It’s ice cream.”
“Ice cream?”
“Does ‘frozen confection’ ring a bell?”
“…Oh, a frozen confection. Something only available near the north, in regions with icehouses.”
Oh geez, here we go again.
I’ll just become a Zunda fairy to counter.
“What is ittttt!!!”
As I squeezed out a voice like a pathetic synthesized voice forced to do anything on a video streaming site, it was already done.
Fried ice cream, let’s have it with brown sugar syrup.
…Mmm, delicious.
Vanilla ice cream with a crispy coating and brown sugar sauce.
The ice cream emphasizes melt-in-your-mouth texture, is fragrant enough to stand up to the oil, and is lightly sweetened.
Then, you mix the rich brown sugar sauce with the part of the ice cream that melted from the heat and the crispy coating, and put it all on a spoon… ah, it’s the best.
I’m glad I’m not picky; I enjoy sweets, alcohol, and delicacies…
“…Magic?”
Count Missgancia asked with a difficult expression.
“I’m not using magic right now. Ice tempura is purely technical.”
“Nonsense, putting ice in oil should make it melt.”
“This frozen confection contains a lot of oil, making it difficult to melt. I just chilled it to the limit and quickly coated it while it was still cold.”
“…How did you chill it to the limit?”
“Who knows? More importantly, you should eat it before it melts, you know? …Mmm, delicious!”
…Hmm?
“This is so delicious…!”
Oh, Rosalinde seems to like sweets.
Well, I knew that.
Rather, I’ve never seen a woman in this world who dislikes sweets.
No, even men naturally like sweets.
There’s not much entertainment in this world, so eating sweets is entertainment enough.
Even risking their lives to leave the castle walls and wander around the nearby forest to gather fruit from the fruit trees is “because they want to eat sweet fruit.”
People are willing to risk their lives to go outside the castle walls to eat sweets. That’s how appealing “sweets” are in this world.
In fact, that’s been proven throughout human history.
Sweets, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco. They’re addictive, and you don’t need them to live. But people crave them…
However, Rosalinde.
If I keep giving her sweets, she might get diabetes. Even if she’s thin, she can still get diabetes.
I have to be careful and make her eat meat and vegetables before sweets.
This time, I made her eat pumpkin tempura, two shrimp tempura, eggplant tempura, and a small onion fritter, and then a small grilled rice ball.
Is it a late growth spurt? She’s been eating a lot lately…
I’m happy as her doctor.
No, I’m doing my job as a doctor properly… It’s not like I’m happy because the patient is a woman during treatment…
Well, emotionally, I prefer women, but when I’m actually making incisions, they just seem like lumps of meat…
Well, anyway.
Rosalinde is also a patient I’ve been seeing for years.
It’s just gratifying as a doctor that she’s recovered this much.
With that in mind, I fried another Daifuku-sized vanilla ice cream and gave it to Rosalinde.
“Yay.”
She was said to be frail, but at this rate, I might be able to build a body that can withstand childbirth?
Thinking about that, I nibbled on the ice cream.
“…I knew it. I thought I knew it. But I never expected it to be this much.”
“Ah, I’ll say this in advance, but I won’t cooperate with wars.”
“Why? The ‘Eccentric Swordsmanship’ using sticks and swords should be famous even in the Striders Guild. If you also use magic, I wouldn’t hesitate to make you a general.”
“This power exists to save people…!!!”
“I see, and?”
“I don’t know how far I can go. If I do anything too weird, they might say, ‘You’re too strong, so we’ll employ you in the royal family!’ or ‘You’re weird, so we’ll kill you as a heretic!’ You’re the only noble I know who can accept a weirdo as a weirdo and try to make a profit.”
That’s the thing.
I can’t rely on the royal family of this country either.
If I flee to a neighboring country, I’m guaranteed to be treated badly as a foreigner.
In the first place, I’m a Changeling… well, it’s like being a Jew on Earth? Talented but treated as a different race and severely discriminated against in certain places!
That’s why it’s impossible for me to leave Count Missgancia, the only noble who can use me well.
Now, the royal family…
What will happen…?