Is This Right? (5)

I’ve done it. I’ve finally caused trouble. That evil thing Mari is eating with a seemingly calm face. It’s clearly visible that she wants to throw it away, saying it’s not fit for human consumption the moment she tasted it, but can’t do so because she’s in front of me, a duke’s daughter.

‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry…’

Her first impression of me must have been the worst, and now I’m even forcing her to eat something strange, so my image in Mari’s eyes must be continuously falling.

This is why I learned baking from Uncle Jake, the chef, enduring the glares of Muriel and other maids. Just giving cookies would be burdensome enough, but they’re even homemade? Unless you have a personality that says whatever comes to mind regardless of the situation, you’d have no choice but to eat them reluctantly.

Moreover, Mari is such a kind child that she maintains a smile while eating them. Although she won’t show her dislike out of consideration for the giver’s sincerity, she can’t shake off the feeling that what she’s eating is something other than food. What I fed her wasn’t an ordinary chocolate chip cookie.

There’s an ingredient. When used normally, this ingredient gives a refreshing feeling and leaves you in a good mood, so it’s often used in tea, ice cream, candy, and such. But when some devil combined it with chocolate, it created a cursed combination that has sparked anger and resentment from many people.

Yes. It’s mint chocolate.

Let me clarify first, I personally don’t hate mint chocolate that much. Of course, if asked whether I like it or not, I’d say I don’t like it, but I don’t hate it to the point of screaming as if someone pressed a seizure button just by mentioning mint chocolate. In fact, I didn’t care if someone ate mint chocolate in front of me or brushed their teeth with it, as long as they didn’t offer it to me. Of course, even if they offered, I wouldn’t eat it.

But I genuinely think mint chocolate is not great, and I’ve seen many people who extremely despise it. Here, I could get a hint.

Does Mari like or dislike mint chocolate? This idea came to me while thinking of various ways to torment(?) Mari. Generally, tormenting involves patterns like hitting, cursing, interfering with something, or feeding something horrible. I chose the last option here.

It wasn’t mentioned how Mari feels about mint chocolate. But if Mari liked mint chocolate, would the author really not have written about it?

The proper commercialization of mint chocolate came in modern times. But according to mint chocolate lovers’ claims, it started somewhere around the 16th or 17th century. In other words, if Mari liked mint chocolate, there’s no way the author wouldn’t have used that to establish character!

It would be easier to create more character while appealing to Mari’s unique taste. In fact, among the people I’ve seen, there were far more mint chocolate haters than lovers. Occasionally, when jokingly bringing up mint chocolate, they would complain, asking why anyone would eat something that tastes like toothpaste.

In other words, Mari is anti-mint chocolate. This is a conclusion from my certain brain fiction. Then, what happens when you give mint chocolate to an anti-mint chocolate person? Without a doubt, it’s an increase in the anger stack.

From the moment I realized this, I learned baking from Uncle Jake, the chef, while enduring the glares of Muriel and the maids. When they asked why someone like a duke’s daughter would want to do it herself, I made the excuse that there was someone I wanted to give them to personally, and they let it pass with very warm eyes.

Surely they didn’t think it was for Reinhardt? No, they couldn’t have. I gave the finished products to Father and Brother, and distributed them to the servants as well, so they couldn’t have guessed it was for someone specific.

I deliberately didn’t give any to Reinhardt. We don’t see each other that often anyway, so it would have been difficult to give them to him.

Anyway, I fed her my masterpiece mint chocolate cookie, but Mari’s reaction is more subdued than I expected. No, is she perhaps so angry that she’s quiet? If so, I should deliver the finishing blow here.

“What about that?”

“Oh, don’t mind this. It’s a failed batch I set aside for myself.”

Eating a normal, decent cookie in front of someone eating mint chocolate. Is there any greater deception than this! It’s an incredibly evil act, even if I say so myself. Wouldn’t even the Demon King stand up and give a standing ovation for this?

“N-No! I’m fine with the failed batch, so please don’t worry…”

“No. It’s only natural that I clean up my own failures. It’s fine, please finish eating.”

Hey now. How dare you try to covet this. No matter what, I don’t want to eat mint chocolate. Of course, when I was making it, I did taste it to see if it matched the flavor I remembered. But that’s all. I haven’t tasted it since then.

For me, a slightly failed regular chocolate chip cookie is better than a well-made mint chocolate cookie. Although the texture is a bit off due to timing issues, it’s still quite delicious, probably because of the good ingredients.

‘This is the taste.’

Usually, what I make myself tends to be inferior to what others make, but given the comparison, I think I could enjoy eating anything. Long live chocolate.

‘Why is she looking at me like that?’

But for some reason, Mari is looking this way with an intense gaze. How should I describe it? It’s like a gaze that says I’m terribly pitiful. Muriel sometimes looked at me with eyes like that.

Why is she acting like this? Surely not because I’m eating the cookie I called a failure? No, there’s no way. This isn’t that mint chocolate cookie, it’s a normally delicious chocolate chip cookie. The appearance might be a bit off, but the taste is normal.

“Um…”

“Yes, what is it?”

Just as I was thinking it might be time to speak up after eating and drinking too much, Mari spoke first. What is she going to say? She probably won’t say something like ‘Your cookie is so refreshing I don’t need toothpaste!’ to my face, but I expect she’ll show quite a bit of discomfort.

Come on, bring it on anytime. Whatever you say, I’ll counter with a villainous line! It’s time for all the knowledge in my head to work!

“If it’s alright with you, may I treat you to cookies next time?”

“What?”

What did I just hear? My brain temporarily shut down at these unexpected words. Why is she saying such things? I tried to closely observe Mari’s expression, but her face showed nothing but pure goodwill. Why on earth is she acting like this?

‘Could it be that she liked the mint chocolate?’

No, that can’t be. The author wouldn’t have missed such a strong personality trait of liking mint chocolate. In other words, Mari is likely to dislike mint chocolate. And if she really liked it, she would be eating it enthusiastically, not nibbling at it passively like this. Then why is she suddenly saying such things?

Ah, could it be that?

‘Does she think I’m bad at cooking and that’s why I made such a failure?’

She might think I’m bad at cooking because the mint chocolate cookie I gave her as a success tasted so bad. This is a somewhat understandable guess. Because, first of all, I’m a duke’s daughter. What does being a duke’s daughter mean? It’s that lofty image of someone who could live without getting a single drop of water on their hands. It’s not exactly wrong since I could have lived like that if I wanted to.

In other words, Mari might be in a state of reasonable doubt, thinking ‘Is this taste because this girl is so bad at cooking?’ after tasting the mint chocolate cookie I gave her. So isn’t she trying to show an example herself?

Mari is good at cooking, as these types of protagonists always are. Of course, it doesn’t mean she knows how to make gourmet dishes, but at least by her family’s standards, she knows how to do all the housework by herself and has enough skill to bake with ingredients from home. There was even a scene where she baked cookies for Reinhardt.

Seeing my mint chocolate cookies, someone as capable as Mari might think, ‘Maybe this taste is because she’s a beginner?’

[She probably baked these cookies wanting to make a good impression on her roommate, but due to lack of skill, this is the result? But since her skills are still lacking, I should help her next time.]

Alright. I’ve got it perfectly figured out. This is undoubtedly what Mari is thinking.

But not a chance!

“You don’t have to go that far…”

“No, you baked cookies for me personally, so this is the least I can do… If it’s alright with you, won’t you please accept?”

Wait a minute, thinking about it again, isn’t this an advance payment? If I refuse this, I might be seen as the worst scum who avoids someone’s sincere effort. Hmm, come to think of it, that’s not bad? Should I just refuse?

‘Ah, but I am curious…’

In the original story, it’s said that even Reinhardt highly praised Mari’s cookies. Reinhardt, having grown up in the imperial family, must have tasted numerous gourmet dishes, yet he praised them to that extent… To be honest, I can’t help but be curious.

Oh, whatever!

“…Then may I ask you to do so?”

“Yes!”

Seeing Mari’s bright smile, I could keenly feel the sensation of falling for the devil’s temptation.