Ch.133Chapter 133. St. Valentine’s Day (2)

After buying the necessary cooking tools and returning to the room with Irene, Reika was busily moving her hands, preparing something.

“Um… Reika, I’ve brought everything you asked for.”

“Ah, thank you! Please put them over there.”

A large brass bowl, two smaller ones, and a tray.

Some wooden items, cookie cutters, a few bricks, and ingredients.

She had also drawn water from the well, thinking it might be needed.

“For this moment, I’ve double-checked the recipe!”

On the way back to the lodging, Reika had purchased a book with recipes and quickly studied it.

Irene realized anew that when making sweets, Reika showed none of her usual absentmindedness.

After checking the ingredients, Reika began making something with her delicate hands, working steadily.

“What’s this…?”

“Cooking preparation! Oh, Irene, could you open the window…!”

Seeing Reika’s unusually high energy, Irene silently opened the window as instructed.

After a few minutes of tinkering, a rather impressive cooking apparatus took shape.

It was a primitive setup—bricks stacked in a rectangular shape with chopped wood placed inside—but it would allow for cooking with fire.

“Wait. Doesn’t this need fire? …We didn’t bring anything to start one.”

“Don’t worry.”

Reika took a deep breath and slightly opened her palm.

Whoosh-

She gently tossed the small fireball that had gathered in her hand onto the wood—

and it caught fire, beginning to burn.

“Ohhh…”

With the brass bowl placed on top, they had a fairly decent cooking system.

“You’re amazing. I didn’t know you could create fire from your hands.”

“Anyone who can read mana can do it.”

“Mana?”

At Irene’s question, Reika put a finger to her lips and fell into thought.

“Hmm… according to my master, it’s an energy source flowing through the air… It’s like… feeling the air enter your body when you breathe, you can feel energy gathering at your fingertips… is that how I should explain it…?”

Explaining mana, something she had felt since birth, was extremely difficult even for a genius like Reika.

Irene seemed to sense this intuitively and considerately changed the subject rather than asking more questions.

“By the way, you seem quite skilled at this. This isn’t your first time, is it?”

“I couldn’t leave my room. Secretly preparing cooking tools and baking bread was my only time of freedom. Thinking about what kind of bread to bake, what to put in it… those considerations make me very happy.”

After saying this, Reika let out a small “hehe” laugh.

Her slightly flushed face showed how genuinely happy she was.

“Now I’ll melt the chocolate in here.”

She put all the “leftover chocolate” they had purchased into the pot.

Since it melted easily in the mouth, it would quickly become gooey under that heat.

For Irene, who had only cooked simple foods like grilled meat or basic salads, it was difficult to quickly grasp what Reika was trying to do—

‘I should leave this to the expert.’

“Next, we wait until it’s completely melted. Oh! I brought this. Try it on.”

“Huh?”

Irene took the piece of cloth that Reika had pulled out and handed to her.

When she unfolded it… it was an apron.

“You carry such things around with you?”

“I always do. I thought… someday I might bake with a friend…! It’s a bit makeshift, but still, this day has finally come for me…”

Leaving Reika to her sentimentality, Irene put on the apron, but—

“Hmm…?”

“Something doesn’t seem to tie properly.”

“Reika. I’m sorry, but I think the size doesn’t fit.”

“What? Oh…”

As soon as she turned to look at Irene, she painfully understood what “the size doesn’t fit” meant.

The apron barely covered her chest… that area was floating awkwardly.

When she had seen her changing clothes before, Irene had definitely been wearing compression bandages… but even with those, she was this size?

“Reika…?”

“Ah, yes! Um, that… you don’t need to force yourself to wear it! It’s fine, really.”

Reika, momentarily stunned by Irene’s overwhelming chest size, hurriedly waved her hands as she spoke.

“Hmm… somehow, I feel sorry.”

“No, not at all! If anything, I should apologize… I should have tried harder…”

“…?”

After that small commotion passed.

Irene was using something like a mortar to crush various nuts, including hazelnuts, into small pieces.

“Good! You’re doing well!”

Then, she put the crushed nuts directly into the melted chocolate.

Reika stirred the chocolate well and spoke.

“It’ll be hard to perfectly recreate that taste… but I think this will add enough nuttiness…”

After some time passed.

Reika extinguished the fire and skillfully transferred the hot chocolate into the molds bit by bit.

“Here. You try it too, Irene!”

“U-um…”

Somehow, she managed to pour the melted chocolate into the molds as instructed.

It wasn’t a complicated process, but… for some reason, from the moment she began crushing the nuts, she could feel the sensation of “creating something.”

Her own two hands—

hands she had thought would never find value beyond being stained with others’ blood on battlefields… the feeling of creating sweets with them felt extraordinarily different and fresh to Irene.

Whether food or snacks, creating something for people to eat must be an act of creating life itself.

That she, who had always taken others’ lives, was now making sweet, warm treats—things that sustain life.

Irene felt she could somewhat understand why Reika enjoyed making sweets.

“Well done!”

Reika arranged the prepared chocolates on the tray, then poured the water Irene had drawn into the remaining bowl.

“Now it’s time to add the seasoning of time.”

An hour later.

After confirming that the chocolate on the tray had hardened somewhat, Reika ended her meditation and slowly stood up.

She slightly opened her pale hand… closed her eyes, and began gathering blue energy.

“!!!”

Soon, something like small icicles emerged from her hand.

Reika made several pieces and dropped them into the bowl of water.

With the water instantly chilled, she placed the tray on top—

“It’s done!”

“My… magic truly is amazing.”

“Isn’t it? My father only focused on its value as a strategic weapon… but even without that approach, there are countless ways to use it. I wish we lived in a different era.”

And so, a proper chocolate was completed.

The shapes varied since they used cookie cutters, but what mattered was the taste, right?

“…”

Irene nervously took a bite of the chocolate.

After rolling it around in her mouth a few times…

“…It’s delicious!”

“That’s great!”

It didn’t taste exactly like the new product they had tried before, but it was definitely edible.

“You made it yourself, Irene!”

“No, I… I only did what you told me to.”

“That’s not true. Your heart went into the chocolate. A person’s feelings play a more important role than any seasoning.”

“…Is that so?”

“Of course!”

From Reika’s smiling words, Irene gained a strange courage.

So… should she give this to that man?

Irene thought of Swen’s face—the one who had always been her support, who had taken on the stigma of betrayal for her sake.

‘I hope he likes it.’

I want to see him happy when he receives this—

At this moment, that was her only wish.

* * *

Upon receiving Jenis’s message that someone was urgently looking for me, I left the lodging and headed to a small park near the Einhart Castle square.

When I arrived, I met faces I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“Swen…!”

“Swen…!”

The people who had called for me were Irene and Reika.

Perhaps because it had been a while since we’d met, I found myself smiling involuntarily at the pleasant thought of seeing them.

“Have you both been well?”

“Yes. Well… thanks to you. How about you, Swen? You look a bit thinner…”

Irene said this while lightly tickling my cheek with the back of her hand.

I’ve noticed recently that she tends to worry excessively.

“No, I’m the same. If anything, I’ve been eating well lately.”

“Really? That’s good then…”

“But what’s the matter? Calling me so suddenly.”

“Irene…!”

At that moment, Reika gently nudged Irene’s side.

As if understanding what this meant, Irene made an “oops” expression and stared blankly at my face.

“W-well… that is… Swen. I-I have something to say.”

“Yes. Please go ahead.”

“Um… ahem. That… since I’ve been greatly indebted to you since our time in Brans territory. And, um… Christmas, right? You congratulated me first then, so to return the favor… um, that is…”

Her awkwardness was incredibly cute and lovable, but putting that aside—

I had a feeling I knew why she had called me.

“Did you perhaps prepare chocolate?”

“…!!!”

Irene’s pupils visibly widened.

With a deeply flushed face, she asked me how I had guessed, looking perplexed.

“H-h-how… did you know?”

“Well, today is Saint Valentine’s Day.”

“You knew about this Northern Continent holiday…?”

I nodded at Reika’s question.

“Yes, more or less.”

“Well… that makes things quicker then.”

With that, Irene handed me a paper bag.

When I opened it—chocolates shaped like people or teddy bears, looking somewhat like cookies, were revealed.

“Wow… did you make these yourselves?”

“Huh? Ah… th-that—”

“Yes! Irene and I… worked hard to make them…!”

Reika answered with sparkling eyes, speaking for Irene who was too flustered to respond properly.

“Really? Thank you. You could have just bought them.”

I ate a person-shaped chocolate right there.

With a crunching sound, various nuts were chewed in my mouth.

‘This… seems like that?’

Once again, I was reminded of something from my original world.

You could easily find nut-filled chocolate at convenience stores.

“It’s delicious. Thank you.”

“No, well… i-if you like it… that’s good—?!”

I put the half-bitten chocolate into Irene’s mouth.

She was greatly surprised, her face reddening as she didn’t know what to do… but eventually closed her eyes tightly and ate it.

Then, chewing like a small animal… with a gulp, she stared at me and asked.

“W-what was that just now…?”

“It’s delicious. I wanted to share it with you, Irene.”

“Wow… Swen, you’re so bold…”

Reika covered her mouth with both hands, not knowing what to do.

What’s going on?

I don’t think I did anything special.

“Anyway, since we’ve met after so long, shall we take a walk together? I really missed you, Irene.”

“Huh? Ah, um… th-that…”

She didn’t know what to do, but eventually said in a small voice.

“…I missed you too.”

At that moment.

Reika, who had been watching us carefully, cautiously raised her hand.

“Um… I, well… I’ll head back first! You two enjoy your time—”

“What? No way. Come with us, Reika.”

“…Eh?”

“I missed you too, Reika. I was really lonely by myself.”

“…Eh? What? You… m-missed me too…???”

“? Yes.”

Hearing my words, Reika suddenly lowered her head, not knowing what to do.

This was the familiar Reika I knew.

I was wondering why she had been speaking so fluently today.

But well, it wasn’t a lie that I missed her.

While Jenis wasn’t a bad friend, the time I spent with them had been quite enjoyable for me.

“Um… i-if you say so…”

“Great. There are many beautiful places around here, let’s look around slowly.”

“…Yes.”

With Irene’s nod—we slowly began walking with no particular destination.

Walking in step with them, listening to the rustling wind and the sound of leaves swaying… I recalled what had just happened.

“Swen. On Saint Valentine’s Day, there is a custom where women give sweets to men. If it’s you, you’ll easily understand why I’m bringing this up.”

“I want you. That’s why… as a monarch, and as a human being, I intend to impress you as much as possible from now on. Starting with the smallest things. I will sincerely engrave myself in your sight.”

“Don’t you think it would be a very enjoyable time to slowly discover together that if there is a lord to serve in these turbulent times, it would be me? Hehe…”

‘I probably shouldn’t mention being called by Serpina and receiving all sorts of expensive chocolates…’

Including the reason I learned about Saint Valentine’s Day, which was remarkably similar to Valentine’s Day—

I thought it would be better not to mention such trivial matters as I enjoyed this leisurely time with them after so long.