OBWESB 15

Chapter 15

Sweet Temptation

In the kitchen, enveloped by a sweet aroma, hands moved back and forth in a swift, rhythmic motion, producing a light shaka-shaka sound. The tool held in those hands was a whisk.

Kaiser von Luxembourg was currently in the middle of baking sweets.

One must not ask why the eldest son of a Ducal House is in the kitchen baking sweets! A few of the kitchen staff were stealing puzzled glances in my direction, but if you let that sort of thing get to you, you’ve already lost.

There was a profound reason behind this. It all started the other day when Beatrix returned home from the academy, her cheeks puffed out in a pout.

“What is the matter? Did something unpleasant happen at the academy?”

When I asked, Beatrix frantically covered her face, indicating that her pout had been entirely subconscious. The sight of her covering her flushed cheeks was incredibly adorable.

“There are a few young ladies with whom I do not get along particularly well…”

At her hesitant words, I nodded in understanding. I had already heard about that situation a few times, both from Beatrix and Garnest’s conversations and from the shadows’ reports.

“Did they say something malicious to you?”

“It is not exactly that, but…”

Seeing her falter, I grew curious. Unlike her usual angry demeanor, today she looked somewhat sullen instead.

“I simply wished to eat a cream puff…”

Beatrix murmured in a tiny voice, blushing as she averted her eyes.

“…A cream puff.”

As I muttered the words, I glanced sideways at Rif, who immediately returned a dependable nod.

“Could it be the cream puffs from Mon Sucre? Shall I send someone to pick some up?”

However, Beatrix shook her head rapidly at Rif’s suggestion.

“There are none left. They were a limited-edition item and are completely sold out.”

For context, Mon Sucre was a highly talked-about cream puff shop that had opened a short while ago. They handled both takeout sales and functioned as a small café. While expensive compared to the cream puffs from my previous life, the shop had become quite a trend among the nobility.

As a side note, this world is frequently flooded with things that existed in my previous life. Cream puffs are still Western confectionery, so that could be a coincidence. But when it comes to things like yokan (sweet bean jelly), the creator is undeniably a reincarnator, right?! I mean, yokan in this Western-style fantasy world… The sense of incongruity is overwhelming.

On the flip side, though, I am holding out hope that the day will come when Japanese staples like rice become readily available.

“What kind of product was it? Shall I ask the chef to make something similar?”

Our estate’s chef could easily recreate a cream puff that had caused such a stir. After all, he had reverse-engineered the process from the finished product and mastered the recipe. In that process, Lilia—who also possessed knowledge from her previous life—contributed vague conceptual information (since her actual cooking skills cannot be relied upon), and I dropped casual hints while knowing the exact method (disguising the information to make it look like I just happened to think of it, in order to avoid exposing myself as a reincarnator).

Therefore, while it might not be absolutely perfect, I suggested that he could certainly craft a similar confection. Yet, Beatrix shook her head.

“I wanted to eat the limited-edition one.”

“Well, if there are none left, it can’t be helped.”

“I know that! But Lady Isabella went out of her way to boast about it to us in a terribly smug manner. And she did it deliberately after the sales period had already ended!”

Garnest roughly ruffled our little sister’s hair as she sat there huffing and turning red at the memory of the young lady in question. Seeing them get along so well despite their bickering was a truly precious and heartwarming sight.

“So it’s not that you genuinely just want to eat that specific pastry.”

“That is part of it, but it is mostly because it’s so frustrating!”

“I believe the sweets Thomas makes are exquisite as well, you know?”

“I love Thomas’s cooking as well. But I wanted something special…”

Looking at my cute little sister poking her lips out, I gave a firm nod. If she couldn’t buy it at a shop, and if the sweets made by the chef lacked a sense of exclusivity…

“In that case, shall I bake something for you?”

“”…Huh?”””

A chorus of surprised voices overlapped at my casually dropped words. Finding everyone’s perfectly round, wide eyes quite amusing, I let out a soft chuckle.

“You will, Brother…?”

“Yes. Or would something made by me lack a sense of exclusivity?”

When I narrowed my eyes playfully and leaned in to look at Beatrix, she shook her head furiously.

“Brother, can you actually make cream puffs?”

“I believe it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Answering Garnest’s surprise-filled question, Beatrix stood up with a radiant smile, jogged over to my side, and clasped my hands.

“Sweets made by Brother would be amazing! I would absolutely love to eat them!!”

“With expectations that high, I certainly cannot afford to fail. Why don’t you invite your friends over as well? If we have the exquisite confections Thomas makes alongside mine, I am sure your friends will be delighted.”

“Is that truly alright?!”

Beatrix squealed with delight, her face blooming into a magnificent smile.

Yes, her sullen face is cute, but her smiling face is the most beautiful thing of all.

“Garnest, let us invite Lord Dia as well.”

“Since we’re doing this, let’s keep the fact that Brother Kaiser is baking the sweets a secret until the day of the party. It will be a wonderful surprise.”

“You are right! I shall keep it a secret from Lady Katrina and the others as well.”

Garnest wore a slightly mischievous grin as he plotted, and Beatrix happily agreed. Watching the two of them seriously discuss the scheduling, I reached out for a baked treat placed on the table before me.

The baked confections made by Thomas, the head chef of our household, had a visually appetizing golden-brown color, and naturally, they tasted delicious. Honestly, the sweets made by a professional are bound to be far tastier than anything made by an amateur, but if our household’s princess desires something special, it cannot be helped. Even if I cannot match a professional’s skill, a handmade treat from the eldest son of a Ducal House should be a rare novelty.

Besides, I want to meet Beatrix’s friends. Since Beatrix technically carries the villainess flag, I want to secure as many dependable allies around her as possible. Furthermore, I am actually in the middle of brainstorming a plan to run a small-scale shop in the future, so this is the perfect opportunity to gather feedback from teenage girls.

Look… if Garnest smoothly inherits the Ducal House as planned, I’ll be unemployed, right? Granted, I have various skills and connections, so I won’t have any trouble making a living, but I was thinking I’d like to earn some pocket money for the future. The funding, of course, will come out of my own allowance.

While I thought accessories and ornaments would be nice due to their high profit margins, making them too high-end carries a risk if the business fails. Plus, dealing exclusively with noble clientele can be a real hassle. As a result of wavering back and forth, thinking food might be good too…

I decided to go with a combination of sweets and small-scale accessories.

For the sweets, I am planning to feature macarons as the star attraction. They don’t exist in this world yet, after all. Compared to cakes, they are far more convenient in terms of shelf life and portability, and above all, I am certain that visual aesthetic will be a massive hit with girls.

And entering the stage for just such an occasion is our incredibly useful maid, Miss Lilia!! When I subtly steered the conversation, she practically spilled information from her previous life left and right! Thus, I successfully drew out the topic of macarons, ensuring that the idea officially stemmed from our household’s maid rather than me somehow knowing it beforehand.

Sorry for using you, Lilia…

I intend to have her fully involved when setting up the physical shop as well. But when I presented the compensation, she was absolutely thrilled and raring to go, so no problems there!

I plan to focus primarily on macarons and beautifully crafted chocolates. A section of the shop will feature small items like charms and accessories, and I am also considering sets that bundle the sweets and accessories together.

You see that sort of thing a lot during Valentine’s Day, right? Those slightly expensive chocolates where the container can be reused as a trinket box, or where the ribbon ribbon elastic can double as a hair accessory. Along those lines, I am looking into items with beautiful packaging, products that incorporate charms into the wrapping, and items that come with a message card that can double as a bookmark with a small gemstone attached to the string.

The target demographic will be women, as well as men looking for gifts for women. Therefore, from my perspective, I also have the ulterior motive of wanting to conduct market research on girls their age.

“Ah, right. Garnest, I would like to borrow Rian on the day of the party.”

“M-Me, My Lord?”

Suddenly named out of the blue, Rian blinked in confusion and pointed a finger at himself.

Looking thoroughly puzzled, he was Garnest’s attendant. A small, boyish youth with grey hair and blue-grey eyes, he was a quiet boy who shared the same age as Garnest and carried an aura reminiscent of a small kitten.

“I would like to borrow Rian’s unique ability to help me bake the sweets.”

And thus, the tea party hosting Beatrix’s friends was officially decided.