——Beep?

  Hearing the sound I haven’t heard for a while in my head, I immediately checked my Infinite Storage and found a letter, or rather a card, from Syl.

  “Erm… this is a request.”


  The content of the card was about the request he had made at the temple when we arrived in Rubia, where I had allowed him to request something to eat once a month or so.

  It was written on a card of fine paper quality with a very stylish gold decorative frame on it, so it felt truly wasteful to use on this.

  “… Steamed buns, huh.”


  He seemed to be curious about the six kinds of steamed buns I had made a few days ago, so as usual, he seemed to be watching us frequently. In addition, he even wrote that he wanted me to make custard cream buns and chocolate buns.

  “Still, custard cream buns and chocolate buns, huh. I didn’t think of these when I was working on the buns~”


  I wonder if it’s Marianora-sama who knows about things I haven’t made yet? Syl said that she knows a lot about Earth’s food~ No, was it a kind that came up to mind considering the type of the pastry?

  “But it’s nice that it came with so much burst powder.”


  A lot of burst powder had been sent along with the card, which is really nice since I didn’t have much on hand.

  I still have some meatball-type buns I made, but it’s probably not enough to send to Syl. I told him that I might not be able to send it right away after he made a request, but I’m free today, so I’ll make it now.

  “Allen, Elena, I will be making steamed buns again, will you help me~?”


  “”Yeah, will help~!””


  And so, when I asked the children if they wanted to help me, they were happy to oblige.

  “Help me to knead the dough first then.”


  “”Okay~””


  We borrowed a corner of the kitchen and started to make the dough. Last time, we used the same dough and changed only the filling, but this time, we’ll be creative with the dough itself.

  For curry buns, we’ll use a yellowish dough with curry powder kneaded into it, and for chocolate buns, we’ll use a cocoa dough. It’s not for everything, but it will be easier to tell the filling by the buns’ appearances.

  Once the dough was made, the next step was to make the filling. However, all the ingredients were simple and familiar, so it was a breeze. The only thing is that it was my first time to make chocolate cream instead of chocolate custard, so that took a little longer, I guess?

  Once that was done, the kids and I wrapped more and more ingredients into the dough and steamed them in turn.

  “Alright, and it’s done!”


  “”We made so many~””


  “Indeed.”


  I will send them to Syl while they are warm. I will send him four of each kind, since he will probably be eating them together with Marianora-sama, Salamanteel-sama, and Nomoodle-sama. Perhaps! Perhaps Windell-sama will be there too, so I prepared five of each, and sent the buns Syl’s way after checking there was no one else around.

  “Anyhow, would you like to try the custard cream and chocolate buns?”


  “”Want~””


  “Then, half of each.”


  “”Okay.”


  I left the two kinds of new buns for the twins as snacks, and stored the rest in the Infinite Storage.

  “”Onii~chan, you eat too~””


  “Thank you.”


  Allen and Elena were thoughtful enough to share a third of the custard cream bun and a third of the chocolate bun with me.

  “Yup, they turned out well.”


  “”Yeah, it’s yummy!””


  “Well then, what do I make next.”


  “”Making more~?””


  The children tilted their heads at my words as they munched on the custard cream bun.

  “Since we are here, we might as well. Right~ I got my hands on a lot of burst powder, so why don’t we make a pound cake?”


  “”Pound! Love it!””


  I’ve made a pound cake without baking powder as a test before, but it didn’t rise very well. So, I’m thinking of challenging it again using burst powder.

  “The last time… we made one with nuts and dried fruit, right?”


  “”Was yummy~!””


  “Is that so? I’m glad to hear that. What do we do this time? Do we do the same one?”


  The last time I made it, I made a simple plain dough with lots of chopped walnuts and raisins. Since I was going to challenge it again, I thought I should make the same one.

  “”Will eat the same one~! But you see, you see!””


  “Allen thinks Lemone pound would be nice too!”


  “Elena you know, Elena thinks Oren would be good!”


  Allen and Elena came up with their ideas for pound cakes.

  “Oh, that sounds nice. Rather, those are some good ideas~”


  I believe that lemon and orange zest is a standard flavor for pound cakes. But that’s because I know about it. It’s amazing that the kids, who knew nothing about it, could think of this.

  “”Also, let’s make chocolate one!””


  “That sounds good too. But, that would be cocoa rather than chocolate, I guess? Als… tea, maro.”


  “Ishiuri!”


  “Sweet potato!”


  “Alright, let’s make some more!”


  “”Let’s do it~!””


  That being the case, we decided to work on making pound cakes next.

  Plain, plain with Kotou and Kukuru, plain with Maro, cocoa, plain and cocoa marble, tea leaves, Ishiuri paste with Ishiuri cubes, sweet potato paste with sweet potato cubes.***

  All this has obviously taken a lot of flour, butter and sugar to make, so I’ll have to buy more next time~ Ah, let’s also buy more White Wheat. As for the rest… it should be fine, I think?

  I have plenty of meat because of the monsters we hunt, and I have plenty of fish stocked up. I’ve got vegetables and fruits from Marshelly-san, so I’m good there. Yeah, we’ll be fine. Or rather, we are doing too well~

  ***(Kotou=walnuts / Kukuru=grapes / Maro=Japanese chestnut / Ishiuri=pumpkin)

  “It baked well.”


  “”Looks delish.””


  “Right. Well, why don’t we invite Rebecca-san for a cup of tea.”


  “”Yeah!””


  I’ve heard that it’s better to eat pound cake after it’s cooled, but they taste great when freshly out of the oven, too!

  It was time for tea, so we took pound cakes I had cut into pieces and headed for Rebecca-san’s place.

  “”Obaa~sama!””


  “My, oh my, welcome.”


  Even though it was a sudden visit, Rebecca-san greeted us with a smile.

  “Excuse our sudden visit. We made a new tea-cake, would you like to have some with us?”


  “”Let’s have tea?””


  “Fufu, I’m happy you invited me. I’m looking forward to tasting your new product, Takumi-san. Why don’t we invite Velio-san and Almeria-san too?”


  “All right. But, is it fine to invite them all of a sudden like this?”


  “It’s fine. They will be delighted by the invitation.”


  Just like Rebecca-san said, Velio-san and Almeria-san accepted our sudden invitation to a tea party.

  “Oren is delish!”


  “Lemone is delish, too!”


  “You have made the one with Kotou and Kukuru before right? It’s more delicious than the last time~”


  “This dark brown one is faintly bitter, but it goes really well with tea.”


  “The sweet potato one is very tasty.”


  They wanted to try all of them, so I cut the pound cakes into bite-sized pieces so they could taste all of the pound cake kinds.