The Archmage’s Restaurant

# 45

Chapter.12 Hidden Face and Dessert

“How do you feel, Master?”

The Gray boy accepted the prince’s offer.

If the Crown Prince becomes Emperor, Great City can become a direct territory of the Emperor. Of course, it was also a kind of gamble that if the crown prince did not become emperor, he would become a lost nobleman.

The Gray boy seemed to like the prince’s aspirations. Once you have the emperor as the central leader, no one can touch the management of Great City.

The Prince and the Great Boy. The battle they must face is whether they can truly achieve what they dream of. It has little to do with me.

However, there is one problem that the Gray boy must deal with before he can advance to the capital. It’s a problem with the boy’s uncle.

The lord’s second wife was deeply involved in the estate until her husband passed away and Gray Boy decided to act as the lord’s representative.

They even used a trick to turn the boy into a scarecrow.

He is a definite enemy for the Gray Boy and the Gray City.

The best way to deal with an enemy is to find flaws.

And it’s a slap in the back.

Looking forward to seeing what kind of expression he would make.

The method I taught the Gray boy is simple. After the count fell, he suggested reviewing all the ledgers of the estate.

The Gray boy, who had been reviewing the ledger day and night, trembled and invited me. The documents handed over to me were the evidence left behind by the enemy.

“If you look at the ledger, it is clear that taxes were stolen. There are more than one or two places where the amount is strange.”

“I guess the reason the little lady tried to turn the Baron into a scarecrow was because she had such a powerful interest.”

“I never thought it would really happen like this. This is too much. This much amount… !”

The Gray boy frowned and his hands began to shake. An expression that mixes anger and disappointment.

“Still, I still remember you being very kind to me during my childhood… Since when did this happen… .”

It only takes a moment for a person to change. Even though I have memories of being nice to others, they may actually be distorted memories from my childhood.

“Because he is not my biological son. This result is common in noble families, but I definitely messed with taxes too boldly.”

The amount embezzled is not at the level of pocket money. During the war, most of the taxes sent to the central government were cut off under the pretext of poor harvest, and after the war, the profits that should have been stored in the count’s warehouse were cut by as much as one-tenth.

Of course, the tax earned by the count family is 1.

At the time when the count lost his mind. The Gray boy was young. She is young now, but she was even younger then, so the little lady’s boldness was sky-high.

The story is that an amount larger than the taxes Duke Taimuran had asked to pay was always being leaked out like this.

“Recently, he doesn’t even try to see me. Because you did something like this, we couldn’t meet you… .”

“The fact that they have been exploited so blatantly seems like they are trying to attack me, but I don’t know what their intention is. “Didn’t you say it’s been very quiet these days?”

“yes. There is no movement. However, my uncle’s biological family is the Count of Dedran, a neighboring fiefdom. It seems like they believe in that power and do it that way. ha… “What should I do?”

The current Earl of Gray suffered from a type of dementia. It is impossible for the boy to receive help from his father. He has already recruited some of the Gray family’s vassals over the years, and if he believes in the military power of the neighboring territory and becomes even more arrogant, it could be a slightly more troublesome story.

Of course, after the Gray Boy began to take the lead as the lord’s representative with the title of Earl, many of the vassals who had withdrawn returned.

No matter how you look at the fact that it became quieter from that point on, it is clear that they are plotting something.

I had already become deeply involved in the Duke’s inspection, so I couldn’t leave the boy who was staring at me so brightly. I can only help you up to this point.

“I would like you to meet the little lady once. “If you meet that person in person, you will be able to see a little bit of their inner thoughts.”

“that is… .”

But the Gray boy got up from his chair with a troubled look on his face. Then he scratched his cheek and sighed.

“Recently, he has been making excuses here and there to not meet me, and I don’t know if it would be possible to introduce you to Master in such a situation… .”

“It would be better to meet through a route that has nothing to do with the Baron. “Could you possibly find out the little lady’s interests or hobbies?”

There was no way he could have a proper conversation with the person the boy introduced in the first place. So, you have to approach from the other side and meet them.

To do this, the best way is to approach it from the perspective of interests and hobbies.

Of course, the easiest way to do everything is to use force to prevent someone from moving. However, if you kill them all just because you don’t like them, they are no different from monsters.

However, if I just threaten him with force and save him, a secret that will destroy my peace will be leaked somewhere.

So, it is best to resolve the issue in a natural way. Now that the circumstances of tax evasion have been revealed, there are many ways.

“well. “I think it would be quicker to ask the butler about that.”

The boy immediately went outside and called the butler. A moment later, the count’s butler with long white hair entered the study and bowed.

“Did you call me? “Little master.”

“Do you know your uncle’s hobbies or interests?”

“yes? “Are you talking about your hobbies?”

The butler thought for a moment and trailed off.

“The little lady can say that she likes it this much… … .”

“Is there anything you are interested in at all?”

“Oh, there is! From the moment you first came to Great City, you have paid a lot of attention to tea and desserts. I heard that you like desserts more than meals. “I don’t think there’s anything else to it.”

Tea and dessert. It was a hobby for the upper class. If you are a hobbyist in the cooking field, it is actually nice to see it.

I nodded to the Gray boy as a sign of acceptance. Then the boy bit the butler. And then he immediately expressed his curiosity.

“What are you trying to do, Master?”

“There is a good way. People tend to get excited when they discover a new world that exceeds their expectations. “I think he will probably meet me.”

***

The dessert to make is blackberry tart. Personally, I prefer strawberry tart, but strawberries in fall are impossible.

The warehouse that will be built using Lurin’s time-stop magic is still far from being built.

If that magic warehouse is created, you will be able to eat fresh food anytime, anywhere, regardless of the season. Freshly harvested or freshly caught, not frozen.

Of course, that’s not important now.

A dessert that the lord’s wife would love. As the bait, this blackberry tart was the winner.

Blackberries are different from blueberries. Blueberries are so difficult to cultivate in the soil that even in modern times, cultivation methods were discovered only in the 1900s. So, it is a fruit that is still difficult to find in this world.

In contrast, blackberries belong to the rose family, so they have been commonly eaten in Europe since BC, and blackberries are often used in modern tarts.

After getting blackberries from the market, I was making cream puffs, which are the key to the tart flavor, when the dragon came straight into the kitchen.

“What are you doing?”

“Why is our dragon so interested in kitchen work? Did you try it once before and it opened your eyes to cooking? “Then what about dinner tonight?”

“no! That’s not it, why don’t you stay in the kitchen too long when there are no customers!”

“what? “Unlike others who are busy, I am very busy.”

“It’s exciting. But is that a dish for me? I will forgive you if it tastes good, seeing the sincerity you put into making it even though there are no customers! Hi-Hi.”

Rurin walked back and forth behind me, showing curiosity about the cooking. So I put cream puffs on my fingers.

“It’s true that our dragon should taste it first. “Now ah.”

“Was that white thing something to eat? iced coffee!”

Without any hesitation, he bites my finger and sucks up the cream puff.

Then his eyes became stars.

“it’s good! Sweet, no, sweet, sweet! “Your fingers are salty.”

Lurin added some useless words and attempted to charge with the cream puff.

“Just taste it! That’s not how you eat it! “Stop, dragon!”

I tried to stop it, but there was already a handful of cream puffs in my palm. In an attempt to stop her, she turned around to face me, who was close to her back, and thrust her palm into my face.

“Heeheehee! “It’s an attack!”

“Hey dude?”

Then, he quickly dodges his body, runs out of the kitchen, and starts eating the remaining cream puff in his hand. I can’t believe I was completely defeated by the Appetite Dragon.

Of course, you have to take revenge.

I walked behind Rurin, wiping the cream puffs off her face with my hands.

He started counterattacking the face of the dragon, who was sucking the cream puff from his finger with a happy face. And I rubbed it vigorously. Hehehe.

“Khuong?”

It makes strange noises and glares at me. My face and Rurin’s face are covered in cream puffs.

“How dare you?”

“you. “You look like a child!”

“What dude?”

Rather, the dragon laughs. Yes, this dragon is crazy. it’s crazy. You look like a child. A moment that sends a chill down your spine as you feel like you have lost something.

Lulin even jumped at me.

Whoa whoa!

He suddenly grabbed my waist and charged at me, causing me to fall backwards. I feel like my strength has increased, perhaps thanks to recently absorbing the mana of the dragon orb.

“This is delicious. So what’s on your face is mine too!”

Rurin dabbed the remaining cream puffs on my face with her hand and started sucking them. She sits down with me lying down and even touches the cream puffs on my nose with her lips. A soft tongue, incomparable to a finger, touches the tip of my nose. Tickle.

“Sweet!”

I got hit with a cream puff on my face. Being laughed at. I can’t even believe I was put down and made fun of by the tongue.

This is ridiculous.

I can’t just suffer like this.

I raised my upper body with the strength of my abdominal muscles. Because our faces were so close together, Lurin’s forehead and mine inevitably collided.

Whoa!

“Aaaah! sick!”

Rurin screamed and I also felt pain. I snorted while enduring the pain.

“It’s a hundred years too early for you to be playing with me. “Dragon.”

“A hundred years? “A hundred years is no big deal?”

A dragon caressing its forehead and asking a question. Actually, a hundred years to a dragon is like half a year to a human. I said something wrong.

“You just stay still.”

“Huh?”

I gently licked the cream puffs from Lurin’s ears. Since the nose was hit, I am the ear.

This includes:

Ears to the nose.

“you?”

Lurin then showed a reaction for the first time and flinched.

“It’s strange for you… Huh? Hehe! “Huh!”

After licking the cream puff that had gotten into her ear thanks to the bloody battle with me, I looked at her face and Lurin lowered her head with a surprised expression.

My ears turn red again. It’s the same reaction as when I licked blood in the northern forest.

“Something is strange with me. you!”

Then he stood up, touched his ears, and tilted his head.

“What’s strange? “It’s strange.”

I said that, but it was really strange and I dropped my body. Then I took a towel and wiped Lurin’s face and then mine.

Rurin steps back, covering her face with a towel.

“Go and wash your face. “I’ll make you something more delicious.”

“You were really strange. “If you do it again, I think you’ll understand better!”

He comes again and looks up at me. So I resolutely opened my mouth. From a dragon perspective, a thousand years is faster than a hundred years.

Anyway.

“Come bigger.”

“What do you mean! I am all grown up. On the subject of humans!”

“On the topic of dragons?”

I handed the finished blackberry tart into the noisy dragon’s mouth.

“What is this?”

“It’s delicious.”

“Right.”

The dragon forgot his line and began to focus on the blackberry tart.

This is the original Lurin.

Looking at that scene, my heart sank.

Because, just for a moment, he looked like a woman.