Alice told me that the stall and cooking utensils were ready, so I moved to the backyard to have her show them to me. Alice brought a stall that looked exactly like what you would expect to see at a festival.
[It’s great. It really looks just like a food stall but…… Ummm, what’s with that familiar-looking creepy cat on the signboard?]
[It’s our mascot character. That was also drawn on the paper bags for the baby castellas.]
[……I see.]
Apparently, it seems like she’s shamelessly acting as the stall’s mascot. Well, I guess you could say it’s creepily cute as long as only the face is shown in the picture.The real thing, including its movements, leans heavily towards being creepy though……
[And so, these are the cooking utensils. Since this was a gathering of amateurs, I made them so that it would be easy to bake baby castellas with them. For example, you see the magic crystal here in the handle?]
[Yeah, I can see that small crystal. What is it?]
[When you’re baking baby castellas, this magic crystal should turn from green to red when you cooked it just right. When it turns from red to purple, it’s a little overcooked, and when it turns black, the baby castella is burnt.]
[Eh? You can tell how well it’s baked by looking at this? That’s extremely convenient.]
This function is something I’m grateful for. Especially because of the nature of pastries made by baking, burning is a factor I’m worried about, but this makes it easy even for me, with my limited experience in judging how baked a pastry is.
[Also, I made it so that you won’t have to worry about a fire happening. It heats up magically and the temperature is automatically adjusted when it crosses a certain threshold.][Ohhh……]
[The iron plate also has a special magical treatment applied to it that automatically creates a thin magical film on the surface of the iron plate for baking, so the dough wouldn’t burn and stick to the surface without oil. Additionally, if you twist the handle to the left twice, the magic imbued in it will be activated and the iron plate will be cleaned. Any rubbish removed in the process will go into the small box next to it, so be sure to throw it away regularly.]
[……The heck, that’s awesome.]
Errr, in other words…… It’s a cooking apparatus that automatically adjusts the heat level, doesn’t require oil, doesn’t burn and make the dough stuck, and has a simple operation and a cleaning function…… Isn’t this thing just perfect?
[Incidentally, this is the iron plate for making regular baby castellas, while this one is for making chocolate-filled baby castellas. If you throw the chocolate into this tubular part here, it will automatically blend the chocolate. You don’t need to soak the chocolate in hot water, you can just throw the whole plank of chocolate. The amount of chocolate you’re gonna put in a baby castella can be adjusted by moving the handle next to the tube, so you can try to find a good ratio.]
[……Aren’t you a bit too capable?]
[Didn’t you know? Alice-chan has always been transcendentally beautiful and transcendentally capable. Well, I made it so that Kaito-san, who has little cooking experience, can easily make large quantities of baby castellas. With this, even if you have a few more guests than you expected, we will be able to handle them.]
I’m really glad I asked Alice to do this. For once, I’ll tolerate that smug look of hers. She has done more than enough work to be that smug.
Moreover, the iron plate can be easily removed and transported, and since it doesn’t use fire, it can be used indoors, so it’s easy for me to practice.
Let’s call Tre-san and the others and try making a prototype right away.
I invited Tre-san, Cento-san and Cien-san to join me in cooking using the ingredients given to us by Shiro-san. Alice played the role of teacher and taught us how to make baby castellas, and since our cooking utensils are very convenient and multifunctional, I felt that I was able to make them quite well even though this was really my first time making them.
At any rate, I had made a promise to Shiro-san, so I packed the first baby castellas I made in a paper bag and called out to Shiro-san in my mind, and then the paper bag in my hand disappeared.
I received Shiro-san’s thanks after that, so it looks like I successfully fulfilled my first promise to her.
After that, I tried making prototypes again. The first ones I created weren’t with chocolate, but regular baby castellas. Then, we all tried the finished products together……
[……Delish……]
[This is amazing, Kaito. It’s insanely delicious! We might actually have a talent for making baby castellas! Isn’t this enough to take over the world?]
[……Cento, this……]
[……U- Unnn, it’s obviously too good…… Are we selling these for 5R a bag?]
Tre-san was eating the baby castellas with a very satisfied expression, while Cento-san and Cien-san were staring at the baby castellas we made with a rather mysterious look on their faces…… Meanwhile, Alice covered her eyes and was just facing the heavens.
Alice, who had been looking up to the heavens for a while, then looked at me with a somewhat resigned expression and spoke.
[……Kaito-san, have you already received all the ingredients from Shallow Vernal-sama?]
[Eh? Y- Yeah…… I received a much larger quantity than I had thought……]
[Is that so…… Haahhh…… I give up. I know it’s useless to say this, but that airhead God…… If we’re gonna do this another time, I’d like it if you could at least complain to her that she should create ingredients that are already in existence.]
[……Got it.]
I thought it was too delicious to be made by us amateurs, but it seems like it was because of the ingredients Shiro-san had created, extremely high-quality ingredients that don’t even exist in this world.
……Well, it must be hard for Alice to regulate information in various ways, but as for us, we aren’t really bothered by the delicious taste…… so I guess it’s alright?
Ahh, wait a moment? I guess Kuro’s reaction when she eats this might be terrifying……
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [Well, even though there are some problems, I guess this ends the preparations? In that case, it looks like the Founding Festival will start in the . Well then, let’s see who will come visit the stall……]
