Chapter 169: The Bear Brings a Cake to Noa

Chapter 169:
The Bear Brings a Cake to Noa

 

NERIN AND I had practiced too much and ended up with leftovers. Since we couldn’t feed the kids cake every day, I’d kept it preserved in the bear storage…and I figured that Noa could help me with that, so I went over to her place. She could help me get rid of my inventory by tasting it, and besides, if she only found out about the cake after we started selling it in the shop, she’d definitely throw a fit.

Back when we’d started selling bear bread at the shop, she’d scolded me about it. “Why didn’t you tell me!” Well, I would’ve if I had known about it. Actually, I wish they would’ve told me too.

 

The maid, Lala, welcomed me when I got to their estate. “Miss Yuna, what has brought you here today?”

“I brought over a delicious snack. Is Noa in?” I asked. She was in her room, so Lala led me over.

“Madame Noire, Miss Yuna had brought you a delicious snack.”

When we got into the room, Noa was sitting in a chair and reading a book. “Yuna?”

“I brought you a snack. Were you studying?”

“D-did you really?! I was just about to take a break, so…no!” Noa closed the book she’d been reading and cheerfully ran over.

Lala looked resigned.

“If you have some time, Lala, would you like to eat with us?” I had way too much in my inventory. The more I could get rid of, the better.

“Are you sure I can have some too?”

“Sure! We’re planning to sell it in the shop, so I’d like to get your impression too.”

“All right. Then I’ll prepare some delicious tea and join you.” Lala left to prep the tea.

“So Yuna, what kind of snack is this? Is it as delicious as pudding?” Noa’s eyes glittered.

“I think it’s more like a pancake. It’s good, but not in the same way as pudding.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

While we were waiting, Noa asked me to summon Kumayuru and Kumakyu to play, and her wish was my command. She played with them happily.

“Kumayuru and Kumakyu are so cuuuute!”

 

While Noa played with my bears, Lala came back with the prepped tea. I started preparing too, pulling an entire strawberry shortcake from my bear storage, slicing it up, and plating it. Lala poured the tea next to me.

“Yuna, what is this?”

“Like I said, it’s kind of like a pancake.” I lined the table with three slices. Lala placed a cup of black tea beside each slice.

“There’s even strawberries in between the pancakes,” Noa marveled.

“It’s called strawberry shortcake. It’s great with other fruit too,” I said. Then the two of them picked up their forks, cut a bite-sized piece of cake, and brought it to their mouths. The moment they ate the cake, their expressions changed.

“It’s delicious!”

“It really is. It’s so very soft, and deliciously sweet. Is it this white stuff that’s sweet? The moment you take a bite, the sweetness spreads all through your mouth. It complements the tartness of the strawberries quite well.”

Lala gave me a precise evaluation of the cake. Noa just relished every bite.

“Are you offering this snack in the shop, Yuna?”

“That’s what we’ve planned. You should come by to eat some, if you’d like.”

“Yes, I absolutely will!”

“After you finish your studies,” said Lala.

“Ugh,” Noa pouted at that but didn’t stop eating the cake. “It certainly is delicious, but it’s so sweet that you end up wanting something to drink.”

She sipped at the black tea Lala had poured us. Milk or juice would have worked just as well, but the black tea went nicely with it.

“This tea is a fine choice,” Lala mused as she sipped her own tea, “but this snack is so sweet that I’d like something a bit more bitter.” Yeah, I agreed.

But Noa had already added a decent helping of sugar to her own tea. “Do you think so? I think a sweeter black tea is rather nice myself.”

“Madame Noire, that is because you are still yet a child. Your tastes differ from an adult’s.”

“Ugh, they do not! I could drink bitter tea. I mean, if I felt like it.”

Noa finished off her tea in one gulp and asked Lala to pour her another cup. Lala smiled as she poured a new cup.

Hmm. I’d been trying to figure out all kinds of things when it came to the cake, but I hadn’t put any thought into what drinks to pair with it. Although milk or juice would work, black tea would suit adult tastes better. But we didn’t have black tea on the menu at the shop. Our menu was all about bread, so the only drinks we served were milk and juice.

If we just had tea bags to serve it with like we did in my old world, that’d make things so much easier, but of course we didn’t have anything like that.

“Lala, is this tea expensive?” I asked about the tea we were currently drinking. If it was already expensive, that’d make it difficult to serve at the shop.

“Yes, this is our finest black tea. It’s among Master Cliff’s favorites.”

“You’re kidding.”

She’d served me tea as expensive as that?

“Maybe I am,” Lala said with a mischievous smile. I really couldn’t tell whether she was serious or not from the look on her face.

“Umm, so would I be able to afford this tea? I think I’d like to serve some at the shop, so it’d be nice if I could get some that isn’t fancy.”

“Inexpensive tea is of low quality and lacks flavor.”

“Could I try it first? Just to make sure?” We weren’t serving aristocrats at the shop, so we could compromise on that a little. You can’t please everybody all the time.

“But Miss Yuna, do you know how to pour tea?”

I knew you couldn’t just dump out some leaves and douse them with boiling water, but no more than that.

“You can’t just pour in the leaves and hot water, right?”

“Miss Yuna, I won’t hear such tea blasphemy! You cannot savor the flavor of the tea that easily. You must determine the quantity of leaves based on the number of people being served, and you must control the temperature of the water.”

Lala started lecturing me about tea very seriously. Hmm, looked like you couldn’t serve good tea without working for it. I guess that’d make it hard to serve tea at the shop, no matter what kind I bought.

“Miss Yuna, are you listening? Pouring tea takes a certain amount of art. Tea thoughtlessly made is fit to be poured in the weeds.”

Wow, she was really serving the tea on tea. I looked at Noa—she looked totally unsurprised, just eating cake and drinking tea like it was normal.

 

After that business, as we ate the cake and chatted, Cliff came by Noa’s room.

“Father?”

Lala immediately stood up and bowed her head when she saw Cliff.

I spoke up at once. “I asked Lala to join our tasting, so don’t be mad at her.”

“I wouldn’t get mad over something as trifling as that, though I’m not sure I can say the same for our butler, Rondo. Now…what are you eating?” He looked curiously at the cake.

“It’s a treat we’re planning on selling at the shop,” I said.

“Is it good?”

“It was very sweet and good!” Noa piped up.

“Yes, m’lord. It can’t compare to the pudding from earlier, but it was delicious.”

“If you’re fine with sweets,” I said, “would you like some?”

Cliff stared at the leftover cake. “Yes, I suppose I shall.”

Lala prepared tea for Cliff as he sat down.

She moved beautifully. Even to the eyes of a tea amateur like me, it didn’t look like she wasted a single movement as she poured.

“It’s delicious.”

“Not too sweet? I was also thinking of making a slightly less sweet cake too.”

“I suppose it is rather sweet, since you ask, but it’s delicious nonetheless. But it does beg for some tea.”

Cliff sipped the tea Lala had poured.

“I’d like to serve tea at the shop too, but it seems like a lot of trouble to serve it. So…I have something I’d like to ask you for, Cliff.”

“What’s that?”

I looked at Lala. If I was going to serve tea at the shop, I wanted it to be good. “I’d like Lala to teach me how to make tea.”

“You’d like me to do that?!”

“Even if I buy really good tea leaves, even little mistakes in how I brew it will upset the flavor, right? That’s why I was hoping you’d teach me how to brew it properly, Lala.”

“What do you think, Lala? The tea you serve is certainly delicious.”

“Lord Cliff...” Lala seemed deeply moved.

“You may talk it over with Lala if you wish. If she has the time, I do not mind,” Cliff said graciously.

“How about tomorrow then? I should have the tea and the things you need to serve it ready by then.”

They also prepared some tea at a reasonable price that I could serve at the shop.