Book 12 Chapter 11
The Child Who Weaves Hearts (5)
“You want to bake bread to send to Akie and Mire, along with a letter?”
Nen nodded so vigorously that it made me worry her neck might break. Dangerous!
“Hmm, wouldn’t that be difficult…?”
Reign looked troubled, resting his index finger on his chin.
At that, Nen’s head-shaking gradually slowed, and her face started to crumple into a tearful expression – very dangerous!
Still, it’s not right to say something impossible is possible…
“Refrigerate it for me!”
“I could try a refrigeration spell, but even if Mire is fine, Akie is too far away, so it’ll probably spoil.”
“Freeze it for me!”
“Then it’ll lose its flavor.”
Mirea placed a hand on Nen’s head, who was on the verge of tears.
“Don’t worry, Nen. We just need to make bread that has a long shelf life from the start.”
“Long bread?”
“Fermented bread.”
As soon as Mirea smiled, Reign snapped his fingers.
“Ah, fermented bread! That’s right, there was that.”
“What is fermented bread?”
“The Adrion continent is incredibly hot. So, breads that maximize shelf life were researched. Eating dry food all the time gets boring, so they used a moist method called fermentation.”
“No tricks! That’s evil!”
“It’s not a trick. There’s even bread with a deep history, existing 300 years ago during the tumultuous period.”
He said that, and then for a moment, he met Mirea’s gaze and smiled.
Surely, they were recalling the same memory.
The face of an old comrade who would open their eyes wide after taking a bite of a single rice wine cake.
“The legendary bread that the drunken old man, known as the strongest archer of all time, ate by the tens… I wonder if you’ve heard of it. It’s rice wine cake.”
Mirea’s last words were a direct quote of what Friede had said 300 years ago.
- I wonder if these imperial bumpkins have ever heard of it. It’s rice wine cake.
Those identical words unfolded the heat of the scorching wasteland at the ends of the earth 300 years ago, as if it were burning the land.
- Rice wine cake?
- Yes, it’s very delicious. The villagers offered it to me to take and eat. Behold my greatness.
- Great, great, greatness.
- Hmph, it’s obviously a rogue name that some chain-smoking shamaness would like. Don’t you have a cigarette bread? Try crushing tobacco leaves and kneading them into dough.
A pipe struck Rin right on the crown of his head as he snarked while reading a magic tome!
- Ack!
Amidst the commotion, Kiese, who had been silently dozing, opened his eyes slightly and sniffed. Friede cackled.
- Wow! Look at him, he woke up instantly because of the smell of alcohol. It’s creepy.
Kiese’s gaze carefully surveyed the wooden box containing the rice wine cakes. Lista smiled faintly.
- It’s rice wine cake, Kiese. It’s exactly the kind of bread Kiese would like.
Kiese sniffed it suspiciously once, then shook his head repeatedly and reached for the wineskin at his waist.
- Don’t do that, just try it. Try it, try it.
Shake, shake.
Then Pipi provided covering fire!
- Try it, try it, try it.
Shake, shake.
Even with Pipi flying around his face frantically, Kiese’s headshakes were resolute!
Finally, a vein bulged on Friede’s temple.
- Argh! You’re not a kid, stop messing around and just eat it!
- Eat it, eat it, eat it.
Friede imbued a spell and threw a rice wine cake.
The rice wine cake shot into Kiese’s open mouth, which was about to drink!
“……? …………?! ………………?!!”
After a lively series of facial expressions, Kiese began to frantically gobble down the rice wine cake with both hands.
At that moment, how surprised he was by the smile that had unconsciously formed on his lips.
How quickly he covered his face, wondering if his smile had been noticed.
It hadn’t been. Friede was roaring with laughter with Pipi, and Lista was telling Kiese to eat slowly.
‘Yes, rice wine cake…’
Now, a small memory from that journey that he could only recall.
A scene known only to them.
A secret known and recorded by neither history books that detailed the wars of the tumultuous period nor fairy tales that exaggerated the hero’s story, but only by them.
‘Even now, it’s amazing to think about. That we could laugh so much over just a piece of bread…’
That companionship with them, when even such trivial daily life was enjoyable.
I miss it.
That day when all of you walked together through the same time, I miss it so much.
“So, how about we learn the recipe first and then start?”
Someday.
After learning about the severance of ties.
Hoping that such times would shine brightly for Nen too, he rolled up his sleeves and decided to put in the effort.
“But who would teach me the recipe? Can I go to a bakery to learn? The conscience of a competitor…”
“No need to go learn. I already learned it all before.”
“Just by hearing it, will that be enough?”
“I even tried making it myself.”
“When?”
“While waiting indefinitely for a certain child at the Papal Curia.”
Someday, on the day he returns.
So that on that day when everyone gathers again, he wants to share the memories and laughter of that day with homemade rice wine cake.
Setsunen looked through her heart into the words Mirea had hidden with a wistful smile, and the scenery of that memory that was ultimately never fulfilled, and tilted her head.
“First, beer. It absolutely must be draft beer. About 2 cups. And half a cup of sugarcane juice, 3 eggs, corn flour, and raisins are also needed for the proper taste.”
Someday.
On the day of her coming of age, when she would understand the meaning of the smiles these two shared.
The memories that made Setsunen of Noehang wear a wistful smile thus accumulated, layer by layer.
“First, you need to season the beer. Nen, can you pour all the beer into the plate? Be careful not to spill it.”
“Poured it!”
“Then, add a little salt to one cup of sugarcane juice and stir it until everything is mixed. Good job, you’re doing well. Now we’ll make the rice wine cake dough.”
Flour and corn flour were filled into the dough pot, then all the beer that had just been stirred was poured in.
“Now, let’s add the eggs and mix it well. Like ‘chak-chak-chak-chak’.”
Sweating profusely.
With flour all over her hands, arms, and face.
Reign silently watched her diligently, very diligently, making the dough.
“Now we have to wait for it to ferment. It’s late, so do you want to sleep a bit? I’ll wake you up.”
Nen vigorously shook her head at Mirea’s suggestion.
“Heart!”
“Huh?”
“No! Because I have to put my heart into it!”
Nen stared intently at the dough, continuously muttering, “Become delicious, become delicious.”
“This one is just for testing, so it’s not for Akie and Mire…”
Mirea chuckled even as she said that, and Reign also wore a pleased smile.
Fermentation was only completed at dawn.
Nen, who had fallen asleep at some point, couldn’t hide her astonishment when she saw the greatly swollen bread.
“Ah, evil stole Nen’s bread!”
“That’s the bread. It’s finished fermenting. Now, if you sprinkle lots of raisins on it and mix it diligently again? Then it’s complete, you just need to steam it in a steamer.”
She said the key was to wrap a cotton cloth around the steamer lid to prevent steam from condensing into water and dripping onto the bread.
What came out perfectly onto the cutting board was a yellowish bread… the bread of that day, with a sour, savory, alcoholic aroma.
Even now, closing his eyes, it had a smell that made him feel as if Friede’s voice would be heard.
“Leave the cutting to me.”
As Mirea twirled the chef’s knife, eight streams of ultra-fine sword energy manifested on its blade!
*Pabababababak!*
The sight of the rice wine cake, perfectly divided into 8 equal parts with a single stroke, steaming profusely!
“A-amazing!”
As Setsunen clapped like a seal, Mirea contentedly stroked under her nose with her index finger.
“Hee hee~ This much is nothing.”
Reign soberly realized.
It was a moment that reminded him anew of the fact that messing with the lady of the house could truly mean death, and the reality that marriage was a crazy endeavor.
Now that he thought about it, 300 years ago, he used to lament with Friede that there was no way to leave the hero’s party except through death… What kind of crazy thing had he, of all people, done?
“Then the chef should taste it first, right? Nen, try it. Your 'heart' that you made.”
There was no problem until the moment Mirea smiled faintly and handed the rice wine cake to Nen.
Not even the moment Nen bravely took a bite.
No, not even the moment her cross-patterned eyes widened and she devoured the rest of the rice wine cake in one go.
‘She’s just like Kiese…’
It was then, as Mirea and he exchanged smiles amidst such memories, that the incident occurred.
“Al, al, al…”
“Huh?”
“Bring me more rice wine cake right now! Do you wanna die?!”
Excuse me?
He couldn't believe his ears.
“Excuse me, what did you just say?”
Nen began to pound furiously on the dough shelf with her adorable little hands!
“This darn house! Bring me more rice wine cake right now before I wreck everything! (Evil)!”
Mirea covered her mouth with both hands.
“Reign, Nen has turned into a drunken old man! But what do I do! Even her drunken antics are cute!”
“Hey there, cute little mister, how about a ma~a~a~a~a~gnificent rice wine cake together tonight? Big sis will treat you.”
“This time, a meddling old lady?! What is this? Didn’t we bake it long enough for all the alcohol to evaporate? No, where did I make a mistake… What is this beer? Why is it so strong?”
Around the time Mirea’s head turned completely white, Reign was carefully observing the situation.
“I see… Always being with the thoughts of so many personalities, it might have manifested as her own personality within her intoxication!”
“Is this the time for analysis? Nen’s tongue is starting to get twisted now! Try to stop her. I only know how to knock her out by hitting her neck.”
“Honestly, someone else causes the trouble, and someone else cleans it up.”
The moment he closed his eyes, a red light overflowed from beneath his eyelids. When he opened his eyes again, pure white flowers bloomed above his pupils.
Bell Quirius, manipulating the cognitive areas of nerve cells with hallucination magic.
A magic only possible when one can confirm brain information in real-time with Bell Quirius, allowing one to fall into sleep quickly and comfortably…
*Poof.*
Just as all the commotion was about to end, with only the answer to the equation needing to be derived, Setsunen scurried over and clung to his leg.
“I’m sho shorry to Abba…”
“……?”
“Nen also wants to be a cool dragon like Akie unnie and Miru… but I’m shcared…”
Mirea grabbed Reign’s arm. It must have meant to stop the magic, and he knew it without her saying so.
This was sincerity (眞心).
The feelings Nen’s personality had hidden deep in her heart, revealed in the intoxication that pulls distant things close.
“But it’s sho nice to be with Abba and Umma! Because you always shupport Nen…”
At those words, Mirea’s eyes widened, and they quivered with emotion. Among the three dragon siblings, no child had ever called Mirea “Mom”…
Nen, having said that much, fell asleep clinging tightly to his leg.
After patting Mirea’s shoulder, he picked up Nen’s small body in his arms and headed for the annex.
It was truly moving to think that the tiny baby, once as small as a bean, had grown large enough to fill his arms.
As he opened the door to the annex, a whispered sleep-talking flowed from Nen’s mouth, as she breathed softly.
“Shomeday… Nen also… wants to be able to shupport other people to the end…”
In those young days, if he fell asleep reading in the magic tower’s library, he would always wake up in his bedroom in the morning.
Because his master always moved him.
Back then, did he also talk in his sleep like this? He wished he could have conveyed even a little of his true feelings through sleep-talking. He smiled a sad smile.
“You will be.”
He laid Nen on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and said.
“Did you know? Dragons live according to the name they are given. The name Setsunen was given directly by the Black Sun Calenden, and the meaning of that name is.”
Aejung (哀情).
It means ‘a heart that pities’…
“So, you can be like that. No, you will become an even greater being.”
You cannot be compared to me, who am merely a spring breeze that announces spring once and then vanishes.
“Someday, the whole world will find solace through you.”
Yonghyun himself did not know why such a sad smile appeared on his face when he said those words.
Only his soul remembered. The whispers, smiles, and touches he had received 20 years prior.
From his mother, who in the solitude of her soul, would carry her young son, sleep-talking with cries for his old friends, to his bedroom and lay him down, stroking his hair.
- Reign, someday, the whole world will find solace through you.
Like spring rain falling as a light of life upon a long drought… that is the wish of birth contained in your name.