NOVEL NEXT Chapter 387
Alicia, who might shed the title of the Duke’s Family’s precious daughter around this time next year, boasted of having tried a variety of foods.
It was a satisfaction derived from the time that would never return. And due to being the youngest daughter of a household that valued its young hands, Alfred fed her whatever she desired, while Zigmeser and Richard urged her to try this and that.
With Karem’s addition, Alicia’s ambiguous pride became even stronger.
“What is that smell?”
Before she knew it, thoughts of punishing the fluffy cloud and her gratitude toward Karem were pushed to the back of her mind.
Her footsteps, once eager toward the fluffy cloud, slowed. Todododo— she circled halfway around the fluffy cloud and headed for Karem’s right sack.
“Hm, cough cough. Princess, the Akusare Mushroom you liked so much has finally arrived.”
“Wait. Grandfather can wait.”
“Uh-oh.”
Zigmeser’s efforts to draw Alicia’s attention, with Karem’s worries in mind, were ruthlessly dismissed before they even began.
He sank silently to the floor, defeated.
Immediately, Alicia, trembling with anticipation, clasped her fingers in front of her chest.
“Alicia! You can’t eat all of that! It’s still the raw ingredient—no, I can’t let go of this.”
“Do you think of Alicia as someone who would just eat anything?”
As Alicia approached the sack with a pout, hands on her hips, she scolded Karem, who couldn’t let go of the paw he had used to suppress the fluffy cloud.
“Just let me taste it a bit.”
She felt far from relieved.
No, wait. Stay still! Taking advantage of Karem’s moment of distraction, he continued to struggle with the fluffy cloud while Alicia hummed a little tune and opened the sack.
“Eh, what is this?”
Alicia’s hand grabbed a handful of the contents of the sack.
As the small sesame seeds that couldn’t fit in her tiny hand spilled out, the once-bustling fluffy cloud paused, staring fixatedly at Alicia’s palm.
An aroma she had never encountered before!
The alluring scent wafting from the inner castle gates!
The food consumed by the Giant Dungeon Hamster, which either emerged or was born from the dungeon, varied slightly depending on the environment, but it was quite established.
It feasted on everything from tiny insects and roots to seeds, fruits, the flesh and bones of other creatures, and sometimes even stones.
However, thanks to Alicia, her palate, once corrupted, could never return to its former life.
To put it bluntly.
The fluffy cloud had been tainted by Alicia.
It was understandable.
With a tongue used to meals of wild creatures, if Alicia shared the delicacies she adored, there was no way she could look at the food she used to eat.
In terms of reasonably normal livestock feed, the most commonly consumed items would be fresh young grass or hay.
Even those, the fluffy cloud only consumed if they were premium hay meant for warhorses.
If there was anything mixed in that it disliked, it would sniff it out and cleverly avoid it.
The scent of sesame made the fluffy cloud’s nose twitch restlessly like a shrew.
In contrast, Alicia merely mused.
“…Seeds?”
To be honest.
She felt a bit disappointed.
“Hm… it smells nice, though.”
Alicia picked up a sesame seed that had slipped through her grasp and onto her palm.
The true identity of the smell was nothing special.
Just a seed slightly larger than a grain of sleep.
She tossed it directly into her mouth and, while chewing with her molars, a strong nuttiness exploded before dissipating into nothingness.
Matching her expectations, Alicia glanced at Karem. Her face was once again pouting.
“What do you think of Alicia?”
“Shall I be honest?”
“Um, Alicia won’t get angry.”
For a moment, Karem met the fluffy cloud’s bleary gaze, then looked at Alicia, who was squatting beside the sesame sack.
“You didn’t mean to eat it all just because you liked it?”
“…Hah!”
“Or perhaps you intended to take the sack and feed it to the fluffy cloud?”
After quietly listening, Alicia, letting out a short sigh, got up and shook her head.
“Honestly, Alicia isn’t looking for items in this raw state.”
Karem didn’t agree with that statement.
From what he had seen, it seemed like her appetite had vanished due to the taste not being as good as expected.
If what was in the sack tasted like cake, wouldn’t she have stuffed the entire sack into her mouth and ridden off on the fluffy cloud?
“What… this isn’t something to eat raw.”
“What then?”
“Well, you can roast them to extract oil or sprinkle them on bread before baking. You could even bake them into cookies.”
“Cookies?”
The last word sparked a slight interest, but her overall reaction remained somewhat lukewarm.
“Hm… I see. Fluffy cloud. Let’s go now.”
With that, Alicia grabbed a handful of sesame and went off toward the barn, soothing the fluffy cloud.
Watching her lead away the shiny, plump, furry rear of the fluffy cloud, Karem turned his gaze. Zigmeser was sitting thoughtfully atop a box of Akusare Mushrooms.
“Well, it seems to have resolved itself somehow.”
“Does the princess command this old man… to move?”
“Uh… Sir Zigmeser? Alicia has never said such a thing.”
At least, that was Karem’s understanding.
Just a moment ago, Alicia had suggested postponing things, and while she might have forgotten, having taken the fluffy cloud away…
Zigmeser, feeling that he had been left behind, finally regained his senses after quite some time.
*
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*
There are those who rapidly expend their energy the moment they set foot outside the house for any reason.
And Catherine was certain that Karem was one of those people; enough to gamble his career and knowledge as a Grand Wizard.
Whether it was a side effect of ten years of serf life or not, Karem hardly ventured outside the castle.
Usually, he was dragged out by the Felwinter siblings.
Or he would follow Catherine or Mary out.
Other than that, it was only Zigmeser.
Karem had never gone outside of his own volition.
So it was only natural for Catherine to suspect that this fellow must have been someone who stayed inside in his previous life.
Had Karem known this, he would have protested valiantly. This misunderstanding stemmed solely from a gap in their respective perceptions.
Currently, the “home” Catherine had in mind was Winterhome.
Whereas Karem’s notion of home was confined strictly to the Wizard’s Tower.
Of course, that was still quite large for Karem. The biggest house he had lived in his past life was a 3LDK apartment’s top floor.
Then in this life, let alone that.
Karem didn’t even have a proper house—he lived in a barn.
With such memories and experiences, Karem could never perceive Winterhome—an entire small city—as a “home.”
Now approaching three years and still unable to fully explore it (which was primarily Karem’s fault), most places remained unvisited.
The only places Karem could navigate alone in Winterhome were the Wizard’s Tower, the warehouse, the greenhouse, the Great Hall, the family kitchen, and Zigmeser’s private kitchen.
And even that left only the kitchen if we exclude outdoor spaces.
So for Karem to venture out on his own, even despite Zigmeser’s suggestion, was certainly a cause for curiosity and anticipation.
With that in mind, Catherine headed to the kitchen.
“So… what is this?”
“Sesame.”
Her curiosity and anticipation shattered to pieces.
“Sesame… sesame, huh.”
Catherine regarded the bowl containing just over half a portion of sesame with a puzzled expression. It seemed to resemble coarse sand granules at a glance.
“I see. So this is what they call sesame.”
“Did you know?”
“Did I? What is it? Yes, what was its original name?”
Catherine lifted her gaze from the bowl and shrugged her shoulders lightly.
“I only remembered after you said it.”
“Then what have you been calling it all this time?”
“I called it a bread topping.”
She answered, as if it were obvious.
“I must’ve used it so frequently that I momentarily forgot its name.”
Really now, is it used commonly in Servianus?
Karem shook off the fatigue that had suddenly rushed upon him.
Iceland is part of Seophone Island.
It was only natural that they’d not be familiar with it in a culture that primarily uses sesame or has little use for it.
“More importantly, having this much sesame— it’s enough to last for months.”
Catherine seemed somewhat exhilarated upon seeing the sesame after a long while.
“I never expected to see sesame here.”
“Hm. It seems that in your previous life, you indeed used the ingredient quite extensively?”
“It was essential, to be honest. Just like red pepper powder.”
“Red pepper powder.”
That was a term familiar to Catherine as well.
“Karem, that was what you called the Fire Witch Finger, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Though it’s not exactly the same item.”
“By the way…”
Before Karem could mention the sack of sesame he brought, Mary entered as she had just put it in the refrigerator.
“What do you plan to do with all this sesame?”
“I intend to roast it to extract oil.”
“Are you planning to bake bread—wait, what did you just say?”
Mary instinctively raised an eyebrow at Karem’s audacious assertion, suggesting he wouldn’t use an ingredient meant to enhance the aroma when baking.
“I said I was going to roast it to extract oil.”
“…That isn’t without merit. Sesame is ultimately a seed, much like a nut.”
As long as the pressing machine works well enough, Catherine’s words of feasibility were something Mary found hard to accept.
“You can significantly enhance the aroma of freshly baked white bread with this marvelous seed—”
“I’ll use one sack as it is.”
“Oh, well then, I have no objections.”
Mary nonchalantly walked past Karem, as if questioning when she had ever opposed him.
“Since it’s a purchase made by Karem, after all.”
“Well, in that sense. Mary?”
Karem nudged the bowl towards Mary.
“Could you roast the sesame that went into the refrigerator?”
“…Right now? It only just went in a moment ago.”
“That’s because you took it without asking.”
“Fine, then. After roasting, what shall we do next, as I mentioned before?”
“We need to extract oil. So naturally the mill—”
“No need to go to the mill.”
Mary sharply cut him off.
“The mill? That’s simply unacceptable.”
“Karem, what do you think the House Fairy’s magic is?”
It made one think at least three times a day that one wished they had talents in magic instead of Divine Power.
“Of course, we have the magic to extract oil from seeds.”
“Do I really lack talents in magic?”
“The great red one has said something quite similar.”
Mary interjected, tilting her head slightly.
“As if an ordinary passing dog has more talent than Karem.”
Karem felt hurt.