"Yes, it is an extremely precious fish. I only happened to obtain it by chance." Yuto spoke in a calm and gentle voice.
A trace of lingering admiration remained on Luka's face.
Seeing her older sister react like this, Miku felt a kind of proud happiness in her heart.
Sharing a delicious restaurant, a beautiful song, or a wonderful book with someone was, in truth, a strangely contradictory thing.
One looked forward to the other person recognizing its value, yet at the same time feared they would fail to appreciate it.
If that happened, both sides would feel somewhat uncomfortable.
For Miku at this moment, the little restaurant she recognized and admired had also managed to conquer her older sister, and that naturally filled her with a special sort of pride.
"I didn't see Ainz-san or Rimuru-san today," Miku asked curiously from the side.
Yuto gave a light laugh. "Ainz's home has a bit of a leak, so Rimuru went to help him repair it."
"Oh, I see." Miku believed him.
...
Meanwhile, at that very moment, inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick...
"Repair the surrounding terrain as quickly as possible! The Great Tomb's concealment must be restored properly!"
"Send personnel to scout the area!"
"All Guardians are to remain on high alert. Be wary of anyone taking this chance to invade!"
Under Ainz's command, the current Great Tomb of Nazarick looked almost like a construction site, with everyone working in full swing!
...
Back in the restaurant.
"Right, would you like to try a new dessert I learned how to make? It's free," Yuto smiled as he spoke to Miku.
Back then, part of the reason he had learned to make canelés was because Miku had wanted to eat dessert, yet his own skill in that area had been limited.
With the desire to enrich himself, he had gone to the Miyazono family's shop and learned how to make canelés.
When they had parted, Kaori had even said she would come visit him.
The canelé batter in the refrigerator had now been chilled for a full day.
It was ready to bake.
"Eh?! Why is it free?"
"Because this is my first time making it, and I'm not fully confident in the flavor myself," Yuto told her the truth.
Miku paused for about a second, then nodded excitedly.
"I want one!"
Yuto chuckled softly, then looked toward Luka beside her. "Would Luka-san like one as well?"
"Yes."
After the two sisters agreed, the other guests also seemed interested in Yuto's newly learned dessert, and one after another, they said they wanted to try it too.
Yuto accepted each request before walking back into the kitchen.
He remembered that he had made quite a lot of batter last night.
Opening the refrigerator, he took out the bowl filled with canelé batter and nodded to himself.
'Mm. This would be enough.'
The custard batter placed in the refrigerator yesterday afternoon had turned thick and semi-solid under the effects of time and low temperature.
Strictly speaking, it had not completely solidified. It still flowed, but at a crawl.
Yuto set the bowl of batter aside and took out the molds he had bought in advance.
They were copper molds shaped like tiny buckets. He scraped off a bit of beeswax and coated the inside of each mold before placing them into the oven.
This step melted the wax, creating a bond between the batter and the copper.
Later, the canelés would slide out without sticking. It would also lend the finished pastry a faint honeyed fragrance.
After a brief wait, the beeswax melted.
Yuto opened the oven door and removed them. A thin layer of yellow liquid now coated the insides.
Beeswax was a substance produced by bees to repair their honeycombs.
Aside from carrying a natural sweetness, it held a floral fragrance. In nature, it was a precious kind of sugar.
Yuto used a spoon to fill each mold with batter. He only filled them halfway; the batter would expand during baking, so half was enough.
There were twelve in total, leaving a fair amount of batter remaining in the bowl.
Yuto placed the twelve molds into the oven.
Baking canelés required precise heat control. During the process, the oven's heating direction and temperature needed adjusting midway.
It was a long process.
Since this was Yuto's first time making them alone, he stayed by the oven and watched the entire time.
Eventually, the canelés were done. Wearing heat-resistant gloves, Yuto took the tray out.
As the oven light dimmed, hot steam rose into the air.
Inside the molds sat fully baked canelés.
The surface of each had a golden, honeycomb-like texture, while the edges touching the copper had formed a crisp, caramel-colored crust.
They needed to be separated from the molds while hot. Otherwise, once cooled, removing them would become a chore.
Yuto turned one mold upside down.
Hiss... pop...
With a faint sound of separation, a caramel-colored canelé stood upon the plate.
That hard caramel shell resulted from the beeswax and alcohol in the batter reacting under high heat. Beneath that thin, crisp exterior rested a soft golden interior.
The white steam rising from it gave the dessert a dreamlike quality.
Yuto felt satisfied.
The finished product mirrored what he had produced when Kaori's father guided him at the bakery.
He hadn't messed up!
When he carried the twelve canelés out, they drew everyone's attention.
"Ah! They look so cute!"
Girls often judged food by its appearance first. The moment Shoko saw the canelés, she cried out in surprise.
"Canelés!" Miku recognized them as well.
Having toured the world, she had eaten representative desserts from countless places.
"I want one." Kanna's reaction was pure and direct.
"This is my first time making them, so please help me taste them." Yuto smiled and distributed the canelés to everyone.
Even Tohru received one.
Erina and Hisako, still resting, got a serving each.
Everyone took a bite, their expressions shifting to varying degrees.
"How does it taste?" Yuto asked. Since this was his first time making them, he cared about their evaluations.
"It's delicious!" Miku was the first to give her verdict.
The others followed suit, offering their praise.
At that moment, Yuto gaze fell on Shoko.
Her expression seemed strange.
The little girl's face was conflicted. In her eyes, a shimmer of tears formed, the rims growing red.
She looked like on the verge of crying.
Puzzled and heartbroken, Yuto reached out and rubbed Shoko's head.
"What's wrong, Shoko?" His voice was soft.
As he spoke, everyone else looked toward the girl.
Kanna held Shoko's hand.
Her usually blank eyes filled with worry.
"N-nothing... I just thought of Papa." Shoko sniffled.
She forced a small smile, but her eyes were dim.
Hearing Shoko's words, something stirred in Yuto's heart.
Yaeko had told him about this matter.
Because of Shoko's condition, her father had chosen to abandon the family. When Yaeko spoke of it, her tone carried a forced indifference, but Yuto had noticed the ripple in her eyes.
That kind of thing could never be faced with calm. If that was true for Yaeko, it was even more so for Shoko.
Shoko had always been obedient.
She never spoke about the pain in her heart. She did not have a father, but she still had her mother.
She had unconsciously pushed the word "Papa" into the deepest corner of her heart.
Yet when she tasted the canelé...
For some reason, Shoko had thought of that word.
Papa.
It was a blurry memory.
What did Papa look like?
Her memory was unclear. She had been young then, and she could only remember the warmth of that hand.
A bit rough, but warm...
As Shoko thought about it, tears began falling from her eyes.
Tear drops clung to her young face, making Yuto's heart ache. He reached out and covered Shoko's head with his hand.
Shoko raised her head and looked at him in confusion.
"If you want to cry, then cry." Yuto stroked her head.
At this moment, trying to comfort her with words felt unnecessary.
Shoko froze. Hearing his words, she reached up and touched her own face.
'Eh... Why am i crying?'
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
Yuto stroked Shoko's hair. Her tears grew heavier.
"Uu... uu... uu..." She wiped her tears with both hands, her voice hoarse.
Yuto sighed in silence.
Seeing Shoko's reaction, a possibility appeared in his mind.
The canelé recipe he had learned came from Kaori's father.
It was a dessert the man had studied and perfected for his own daughter. In other words, it carried the deepest love of a father for his daughter.
Perhaps because of that, the canelés Yuto learned from him had inherited a trace of that feeling.
After being made by Yuto's hands, that feeling had become faint.
But for Shoko, even that faint warmth was rich enough.