Chapter 26: Assorted Cookies

Chapter 26:
Assorted Cookies

It wasn’t yet the Day of Satur, so Aletta was visiting a certain building just outside of the royal capital.

“Um, this is the place, right?”

The young demon girl had made her way to an old district of the capital, directed by the employment agency. This part of the city used to be quite lived-in, and ultimately was much nicer and well kept than the ruins Aletta currently called home. But because the citizens began moving to the newer districts of the capital, the area was now mostly empty.

Through the employment agency, Aletta had been introduced to a potential job as a housekeeper. The residence was home to an adventurer named Sarah who frequently left on journeys. She wanted someone to take care of the house and chores while she was away.

The person at the office said she was a good person, if more than a little odd…

The older woman working at the agency was rather kind to Aletta, and even presented her with this job opportunity, claiming it to be a good chance for her.

Apparently, personality had been more important than skill set for this particular job.

“To be completely honest, I don’t really trust you demons too much, ya hear?” said the agent. “But recently you’ve really cleaned yerself up. Plus, ya always make sure to do the work. More importantly, ya ain’t no liar. I figure it might not be a bad idea to introduce someone like ya to the young…er, to Sarah.”

And so, Aletta received a letter of introduction and directions to Sarah’s house. Apparently, she’d be the one to decide whether or not she wanted to hire the demon girl for the job.

Aletta stood before the door of the house, hopeful but still a bundle of anxiety. She checked herself to make sure everything was in order. While she was still wearing the same old clothes as before, the master gave her expensive smelling soap along with her pay.

“Keep yourself clean, got it?” he’d said.

And so, the young woman made sure to wash her body, hair, and clothes much more thoroughly than usual. In fact, Aletta was significantly cleaner than the average commoner at this point.

“Excuse me! Gelga from the employment agency sent me here!” Aletta strengthened her resolve and announced her arrival to the master of the household in a loud voice.

Even if things don’t turn out so hot, I’ll make it thanks to my job at the restaurant.

Aletta was nervous but not panicked. With a click, the door in front of her opened, and the master of the house appeared before her.

“Huh?”

“Wha?”

Both the demon girl and the women at the door immediately recognized one another and voiced their surprise in tandem.

***

Three days quickly passed following Aletta’s hiring at Sarah’s home. It was the Day of Satur, and the demon girl was working her hardest at the Restaurant to Another World. Like always, she arrived early in the morning at Nekoya, washed herself thoroughly, changed into her uniform, and began waiting on customers until just after midday.

“Okay. It’s your thirty-minute break,” said the master. “You’re free to relax until the long hand on that clock over there points straight up.”

“Yes, sir!”

The master usually looked for an opening when there weren’t too many customers present to give his waitress her break time. Aletta gripped the hot cocoa she received from him with both hands and took a seat in the small break room.

“Whew. Delicious.”

Aletta was careful to take small sips of the hot cocoa, so as to not burn her tongue. The liquid warmed her tired body. This sweet but slightly bitter drink had become a personal favorite of Aletta’s ever since she first tried it. Apparently, it was a product of the other world. Aletta had never seen the drink in the royal capital before, and that was said to be the most advanced and prosperous city in the entire nation. That’s why whenever she had the chance to get a free drink from the restaurant, she always made sure to order cocoa.

“I feel so happy!”

Aletta let out a satisfied sigh. In the last month, she’d had so much good fortune that it felt like some sort of dream. That wasn’t all though. Aletta herself had also changed.

Since getting hired by the Restaurant to Another World, the demon girl stopped wearing her hat even when in the capital. The primary reason for this was that every time she worked at the restaurant, she was able to wash herself with scented, otherworldly oils twice, once in the morning and once at night. As a result, her formerly unkempt hair looked quite beautiful, and she felt it’d be a waste to hide it. Through taking her hat off, Aletta also realized that it was better to work without one on.

Aletta was a demon, which was why she had two small black horns on her head. Choosing not to wear a hat meant the humans around her would be aware of her lineage. On the other hand, leaving them out in the open also seemed to signal that she was an honest young lady who wasn’t hiding anything. Much to Aletta’s surprise, this helped with finding work on her side of the door. Of course, this didn’t suddenly mean that there weren’t people who gave her dirty looks or refused to hire her. It was, however, easier for Aletta to outright avoid work with those kinds of people, instead finding places that were okay with hiring demons. In truth, the amount of trouble she ran into had gone down significantly.

A large part of this was due to how clean and well kept Aletta had become through simply washing herself and her clothes more regularly. The kinds of problems she encountered were completely different nowadays: the beautiful demon girl now found herself on the receiving end of human and demon men trying their best to pick her up.

Three days ago, Aletta began working as a housekeeper at her employer’s house. Her employer, a self-proclaimed treasure hunter, had her doing a variety of things around the small abode, such as cleaning, laundry, and other household chores. When Sarah went out, she entrusted Aletta with holding down the fort.

The house had a room full of the treasure hunter’s precious magical tools and the like. While this space was locked, allowing anyone to watch over a house with a room like that meant trusting the person. It only took a single glance at Aletta for the treasure hunter to place her trust in the girl, offering a total of eight copper coins a day as well as a room to live in. There was a single reason for the way Sarah treated Aletta.

She already knew Aletta quite well. Sarah, lover of minced meat cutlets, was a regular at the Restaurant to Another World.

And so, Aletta had said goodbye to her poor life in the ruins of the old city, moving into the spare room of Sarah’s house. Every seven days, she’d work at the Restaurant to Another World and then spend the rest of her time fulfilled and happy.

She even had a little time to relax.

“Is it really okay for me to eat this?” she wondered.

After taking a breath, Aletta reached over with her hand. Her target: a large metal box with an illustration of a puppy with white bird wings against a background of clouds and a rainbow. She slowly opened the container.

Inside were baked sweets from the other world called “cookies.” According to the master, they weren’t particularly common at restaurants like his. One would normally find them in shops designed for drinking tea. They were special sweets, so to speak.

“Which one should I pick?”

Faced with the assortment of brown baked goods, Aletta found herself lost.

The master told her that the cookies in the back were leftover samples his friend had given him, so she was free to eat as many as she wanted. Each baked cookie was crunchy and delicious, and the demon girl was fully confident she could just keep eating them forever. Nonetheless, Aletta didn’t have the courage to just go through all of them, free or not.

She decided to take as many cookies as she had fingers on one hand and limit it to that.

Aletta was practicing self-control.

“There! That should do it!”

After puzzling over her options for a little while, Aletta finally picked out five cookies from the box.

Her first pick was a cookie with white cream in it made from butter and sugar. In between the pieces of dough were dried grapes with just a pinch of alcohol in them.

Aletta also grabbed a large cookie whose dough was mixed with a spice called cinnamon and a bunch of ground bean-like things called almonds. Additionally, she picked out a cookie that shared the same color as her cocoa. According to the master, it was made using a black powder referred to as chocolate and a dried fruit called “banana,” which came from a mysterious nation where it was summer all year round.

The fourth cookie Aletta picked out was baked using sugar brewed from bright red berries. The final one the demon girl selected was made of cookie dough fused with leaves of black tea. It was extremely crunchy and came apart quickly in her mouth.

Of the fifteen different kinds of cookies in the box, Aletta managed to narrow down her picks to the five, painful as it was. She carefully ate one after the other, taking her time to enjoy their individual flavors.

Fruit ain’t got nothing on these! Aletta couldn’t help but think, after enjoying the flavor of the sweet cookie rolling around in her mouth. She thought back to the words of her new demon friend, a mercenary named Hilda.

“Sweets get more expensive by the season, often becoming more expensive than fruits at the market,” said Hilda. Aletta finally understood what she meant.

As she bit into the cookie with cream in the middle, the flavor of butter and sweet, white cream filled her mouth. The two different tastes left behind a rich flavor when combined with the airy texture of the cookie itself. Additionally, mixed with the sweetness of the cream was a spiciness, courtesy of the dried grapes, that brought the whole package together.

The large cookie with the “almonds” in it smelled sweet. This went well with the unique flavor of the dough. Just one of these cookies was enough to be satisfying. While it was slightly harder than the other sweets that Aletta picked out, it could also be dipped into the cocoa she was drinking to make it easier to chew on. It was delicious regardless of how she chose to eat it.

Meanwhile, the dark brown cookie was ever-so-slightly bitter. However, the bittersweet chocolate and the banana flavor came together perfectly. Additionally, both the banana and the chocolate shared a sweetness that was still different in nature. The two flavors worked together to further strengthen the cookie’s deliciousness.

The cookie with the bright red sweet and sour berry sugar was less sweet than the others, and even a bit hard to the touch. It was beautiful to look at, not unlike a small piece of art. The transparent berry sugar looked like small gemstones. It was pretty enough that Aletta almost felt bad about eating it.

As for the cookie infused with black tea leaves, it quickly came apart after a single bite, spreading its delightful aroma and the thick, buttery sweetness throughout Aletta’s mouth. The dough was much more fragile than that of the other cookies, absorbing the liquids in her mouth and quickly dissolving. It didn’t take long for the aroma of tea to occupy the inside of her mouth. This was a definite plus.

With each cookie Aletta ate, she was reminded of just how delicious “sweets” truly were. This was especially the case given that she’d never had the chance to eat them in her short time in the world. They simply couldn’t be compared to your average fruits. That was why Aletta simply sat in silence, enjoying their flavor.

At the Restaurant to Another World, Aletta was treated to three amazing meals, and this singular moment in time felt just like those. She couldn’t have been happier.

Of course, all good things must come to an end.

Despite taking her time with each cookie, it didn’t take long for all five of them to eventually take up space in Aletta’s stomach.

“Aw, all done already?”

With her cookies now gone, Aletta sipped on her cocoa and glanced over at the cookie container in the corner. At least half of the cookies remained in the box. In fact, there were still some of her favorites left over.

“…Nope! I can’t!”

But there are still so many left. I’m sure I could have a few more…

Aletta quickly shook her head and said goodbye to her temptations. If she were to go back in for more, she knew for a fact she’d end up finishing off the box. She’d completely fill herself up on cookies.

Regardless of what the master said, Aletta felt it was a bad idea. Now was the time to practice self-restraint.

She sighed. “Back to work I guess.”

After confirming that the long hand on the clock was nearly pointing directly up, Aletta stood up and tried to forget about her internal strife. While she still had some time left, when she thought of the master out in the dining area handling both the cooking and customers simultaneously, she felt bad just sitting around.

“Excuse me! I’ve finished my break.”

“Gotcha. You know, you could’ve taken a little more time. Ah well. Could you take this to the young lady over there? You know the one.”

“Of course!” Aletta happily replied as she grabbed the fruit parfait from the master.

***

Seven hours later, Aletta’s time at the Restaurant to Another World came to an end.

“Um, I’ve finished changing.”

Like always, Aletta made sure to take a shower after work and change into her freshly washed normal clothes. When she checked in with the master, she was still slightly pink from the hot water.

“Great. You did good today. Here, your pay…and a congratulatory gift, too.”

After checking to make sure Aletta was nice and clean, he handed her a brown paper envelope with her pay alongside a light blue bag.

“What’s a congratulatory gift?”

Aletta instinctively took the bag in question, but she was confused. The bag had characters from the other world written on it, as well as an illustration of a puppy with wings. The light blue paper bag had a handle on it and was quite heavy. Aletta was curious as to what was inside.

“Oh, I’m guessing you folks don’t do this over there, eh?” The master came to this conclusion after seeing her reaction to his words. While the world over there had the concept of “years” based on how long it took to revolve around the sun (he wasn’t actually sure if the other world was round or not), and the notion of “months” existed (thirty days equaled a month, and there were twelve months in a year), the concept of “weeks” did not exist. This meant there were probably other customs and standards that didn’t exist there as well. The master turned to his employee.

“Aletta, this morning you told me you found a steady job over on your side, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. That’s right, but…”

She vaguely remembered mentioning this to the master earlier that morning.

The master nodded and explained, “On this side, we give a gift when something good like that happens. Not every single time, but you get the idea. Sorry I couldn’t get you something better.”

“N-no, this is wonderful. Thank you. Wait, this is…?!”

Aletta listened to the master’s explanation of his world’s strange customs as she peeked inside the bag in her hands. She raised her voice in surprise.

Inside the bag was perhaps the one thing in the world that Aletta currently desired.

“I could tell you were holding back in the break room, so I figured you might like this. You enjoyed the cookies, right?” The master cracked a smile after seeing Aletta’s response to her gift.

A month had passed since hiring Aletta at Nekoya, and he’d figured out a handful of things about her. For example, he noticed she would pick at the cookies little by little every time she took a break. It took about three days for a large bin full of cookies to empty out. The master wished his regular staff had that kind of self-control.

“U-um, yes, but…isn’t this really expensive?”

Aletta had grown used to seeing the symbol on the box in her bag: a puppy monster of some kind with wings. The container itself was smaller than the one in the break room, but judging by its weight, it was packed with cookies.

The master nodded in response to Aletta’s well-meaning question. “Ah, well, yeah. It is pretty expensive. It’s supposed to be a gift after all.”

According to his childhood friend, the same man who made these cookies in the first place, this assorted selection of cookies was one of the Flying Puppy’s long-term sellers since it first opened shop during the time of the previous owner. Sometimes he would change the types of cookies inside the box, but it was always beloved by the people who went out of their way to buy one. In fact, they were so popular that his friend often got requests from department stores and even weddings. The master knew the cookies tasted good, as he’d been eating them since he was a wee lad, but generally speaking, he tended to buy them not for himself, but as a gift to others. They were quite a bit more expensive than the cookies you’d find at a convenience store or a market.

According to the man behind the cookies, “We can’t produce at the same levels as those big makers can, so all we can do is offer a taste worth the price of admission.”

“Is it really all right for me to accept something so valuable?” Aletta asked.

The master gave Aletta ten silver coins for her work like it was no big deal. If this same man was saying the cookies were expensive, they must be terrifyingly pricey. Just going by the taste alone, she could certainly see how that’d be the case. Aletta trembled just a bit as she looked to the master.

“Of course it is. My pal said he’d love for you to grab a box for yourself one of these days if you enjoy his work, but that there is a gift from me. You’ve got no reason to feel bad. You’re my only staff member on Saturdays, so I don’t see any problems with spoiling you from time to time,” the master explained, confidently nodding his head.

Over the last month, Aletta had worked steadily and seriously. While there were certainly elements of the master’s world that she wasn’t quite used to, she was excellent with the customers and had proven herself to be a reliable worker. From what the master had heard, the young woman was living in some poverty on the other side of the door. It couldn’t hurt to do at least this much for her, right?

“Um, um, thank you so much. I’ll take good care…er, I’ll make sure to enjoy it!” Aletta accepted his generosity.

“Haha, try not to take too long on that, all right? If you keep the container sealed, the cookies should last about three months or so. But once you open it up, you got about two weeks to finish them off. Oh, and the silica gel… There’s some translucent pellets at the bottom. Those aren’t edible, so be careful,” the master cheerfully explained, chuckling.

This was how Aletta got her hands on “otherworldly cookies.”

…Little did she know that they would lead her to yet another fateful encounter that would change her life.

***

A small but sturdy and beautiful horse carriage stopped on the corner of the old city district in front of a certain house.

“We’ve arrived at Lady Sarah’s abode, Mistress,” the coachman and butler informed Shia, who had been sitting in the back of the carriage.

“Is that so? Thank you. I’ll be on my way, then. Come pick me up in a little while,” the young lady delivered her orders to her butler.

“Understood. Take care, Mistress Shia.”

Whenever Shia visited this particular house, or her family in general, she preferred to be left alone, even by her butler, who had long served the Gold family. He was well aware of this fact as he helped her off the carriage and left her to her business.

“I hope you’re doing all right, Sister,” said Shia.

Shia quickly adjusted her dress and looked at the house in front of her. It was one of the many homes her family owned throughout the royal capitol and had renovated to make into livable spaces. After succumbing to her “fever,” Shia’s older sister proclaimed to her family that she would make a living on her own. This was the house they had pretty much forced upon her.

Yes, this was the house that Shia’s “fever-stricken” older sister, Sarah Gold, lived in.

***

Sarah was Shia’s elder by five years, and the unfortunate victim of their family’s dreaded sickness, “William’s Curse”—also known as adventure lust. While Shia was the fourth generation of the Gold family, the tale of the curse had been passed down through the ages like a lullaby. Hearing those anecdotes, or perhaps because the blood of a true adventurer ran in their veins, many Gold children who grew up hearing the story of how the first generation would go on to abandon their connections to the family business (one tied to nobility no less) in favor of becoming a treasure hunter or adventurer.

Rather than live a rich and luxurious day-to-day life in the capital, those afflicted with the curse opted instead to spend their time crawling through old ruins and caverns filled with all sorts of dangerous monsters. They worked alongside the sketchiest of folk but also operated by themselves. In most cases, those afflicted by the “ailment” eventually lost their lives. That’s how terrifying William’s Curse truly was.

The legendary William had started the family business from pretty much nothing. Even his son and second generation of the Gold family, Richard, didn’t have it particularly easy. At the time, they weren’t close to the business giant they would eventually become. It was necessary for them to do that sort of dangerous work, especially considering they mostly dealt in selling precious elf relics and magical items that they found on their own.

But the times had changed.

The Gold Firm had long since established itself as a business that treasure hunters and adventurers could trust not to screw them out of a fair payment, unlike others that preyed on their lack of business acumen. When a treasure hunter or adventurer got their hands on a valuable relic and ended up in the capitol, they would almost always head straight for the Gold Firm. The Golds would then purchase those items off of them and use the appraising skills they’d honed over years of experience to figure out what sort of object they were dealing with. Once the object was identified, the Gold Firm sold it to a collector or perhaps a knight or mercenary seeking magical equipment. They would occasionally even sell to high-level adventurers. If an adventurer or noble requested it, the Gold Firm would contact one of their mages and have them make comparatively simpler magical items to sell.

These practices were what allowed the Gold Firm to accumulate the massive wealth they did. There was no longer any need for a family of nobles to go digging through dangerous ruins in search of treasure.

Being a treasure hunter meant encountering danger at every turn. The only members of the family to become treasure hunters, retire in peace, and pass away due to natural causes were William and his son Richard. It was terribly ironic that the two men who became treasure hunters out of necessity managed to survive the job, while the many others who came after them met their ends at the hands of monsters or all manner of ruins. Some left for adventure and were simply never seen again.

To Shia, William’s Curse wasn’t just some nebulous, distant threat. If things had gone according to plan, Shia’s uncle, her mother’s brother, would have become the next head of the household. Unfortunately, before the young girl was born, he had been eaten by a monster. Meanwhile, Shia’s beloved cousin, in many ways like an older brother to the girl, went to explore some ruins and never returned. Even now, his body remained undiscovered. But perhaps closest to home was Shia’s older sister, Sarah.

And so, Shia made it a point to check in on Sarah whenever she heard Sarah had returned home in the capital. She had to see for herself that her older sister was okay, that Sarah wasn’t pushing herself too hard.

“Um, I’m terribly sorry. Lady Sarah is currently out right now.”

…Though on occasion, Shia was met with days like this.

Shia had never seen the girl in front of her.

“Um, you’re Lady Shia, are you not? It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Aletta. I’m Lady Sarah’s housekeeper.”

The housemaid likely saw Shia’s resemblance to her older sister and came to the logical conclusion. The girl named Aletta did her best to politely introduce herself. She wasn’t clad in the traditional uniform of a Gold family servant but was instead in her own clothing. It was damaged here and there but was clearly well washed and clean. Over her clothes, she wore a simple apron.

Judging by the black horns peeking out from Aletta’s strangely well-kept blonde hair, she appeared to be a demon. They weren’t terribly common in the capitol, especially not as normal shopkeepers or artisans. Most of their kind were found doing sketchier jobs, things like treasure hunting or mercenary work. Aletta seemed disconcerted by the sudden visit from her master’s family.

“Might I enter and wait inside?” asked Shia.

“Oh, of course! Please, come right in!” Aletta nodded her head not once but twice to the young girl’s proposal.

Shia entered the guest room and immediately sat down upon one of the cushioned seats.

“I’ll be right out with some tea!” Aletta, still not quite used to the job, hurried into the back.

Shia watched the housekeeper retreat, tilting her head internally. “Sarah, when in the world did you go and hire a demon girl?” she muttered.

One normally didn’t hire a demon as a housekeeper, particularly because the job required a certain level of trust.

As the youngest daughter in a family that dealt in buying and selling magical items to a large number of adventurers, it made sense that Sarah didn’t particularly fear demons. Still, their kind often lived in rough conditions, which meant they were frequently ill-mannered and crude. Those of the species who went on to become relatively well-known mercenaries or adventurers with money to spare might have been different, but demons like Aletta who lived in poverty and had no power to call their own tended to be that way.

“Poverty is the start of all evil,” she said. This was a well-known saying in the world of business that Shia inhabited. “But if Sarah hired her, she’s probably all right.”

Shia sorted through her thoughts as she whispered to herself. Three years had passed since Sarah became afflicted by William’s Curse and left home to become a treasure hunter. While she was several generations removed from the blood that flowed within his veins, Sarah undoubtedly had talent. It only took three years for the clueless young noblewoman to become a talented treasure hunter.

In that time, Sarah had developed an eye for people, perhaps even more so than Shia, who worked for the family business. If her older sister thought this demon girl was a good person worth trusting, than perhaps she was. Still, Shia couldn’t help but wonder how Sarah came to that conclusion.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Aletta returned to the guest room holding up a tray carrying a cup of tea and…

“Are those baked sweets?”

Shia tilted her head as she saw the five baked sweets sitting atop a rough-looking plate made of wood. After Sarah became an adventurer, she devoted herself to her work and saving money on her own as a treasure hunter. She wasn’t exactly one to indulge in sweets. They typically didn’t last very long, and this was the first time Shia had been served something other than tea upon visiting.

“That’s right! They’re called cookies. I guess you could say they’re a special sort of treat.”

Since Shia was a “special” guest, Aletta decided to offer her the last five cookies from her box, as much as it pained her to do so. She wore her best “business” smile.

“Please, help yourself,” she said. “The tea is hack tea.”

Hack tea was known for its bitter yet refreshing flavor. It was also relatively cheap to obtain compared to others of its kind. Aletta placed the plate of cookies and tea down in front of Shia with a surprising smoothness and grace. She had honed these skills at her other job, thanks to the master.

“Really? Well, thank you.”

Truth be told, Shia wasn’t terribly fond of hack tea without any sugar or honey. It was too bitter for her tastes. That said, she knew it would be rude not to touch what had been offered. She was the daughter of a merchant, and she’d been taught not to make the people she shared company with uncomfortable. Shia grabbed the tea cup and took a sip. Just as expected, the bitter flavor of the tea filled her mouth and nostrils.

I don’t completely hate it, but…

She preferred it with some manner of sweetness. This prompted her to look down at the baked “cookies.”

…They must be sweet, right?

The young woman once again glanced at the plate of treats. They appeared to have been baked with wheat or some sort of flour. The light and dark brown cookies were relatively few in number, all things considered.

They appear to all be different types. As far as I can tell, they seem well crafted if nothing else.

Shia, having never heard of “cookies” before, took her time analyzing the food in front of her.

One of the cookies was leaf-shaped, with white sugar scattered across its surface.

One had some sort of dark brown paste sandwiched between two thin pieces of light-yellow biscuit.

Another cookie had a dollop of bright orange in its center.

Yet another was shaped like a puppy with wings and had what appeared to be dried grapes in it.

The final cookie had a black and white pattern checkered across its surface.

It went without saying that each of the five treats on the plate in front of Shia was far more carefully crafted than the average confectionary. They were beautiful, and if they tasted anywhere near as good as they looked, they’d be more than fit to serve to nobles.

So, what do they taste like?

After analyzing the beautiful, mysterious treats in front of her, Shia couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. She grabbed the leaf-shaped cookie with the translucent sugar scattered across its surface. With the aftertaste of the hack tea still lingering in her taste buds, she brought the cookie to her mouth.

What?!

Shia’s eyes widened in shock. The cookie was far less sweet than its appearance suggested. Instead, it tasted of baked wheat and butter. In terms of what was expected from sweets for nobles, its sweetness was subdued. But Shia knew.

This… Why, it’s magnificent.

Shia took another bite of the cookie. What surprised her most was its texture. By stacking multiple thin layers atop one another and baking them, the cookie was easy to bite into, while also soft enough that it came apart without much resistance. The subtle sweetness also fused together with the strong butter and wheat flavor.

Shia couldn’t help but take a sip of her hack tea. Its refreshing bitterness helped to clear her mind and tongue as she thought to herself.

…Are all these just like this one?

Upon realizing that this might very well be the case, Shia adjusted her posture and stared at the remaining four cookies. Could these all truly be just as delicious?

With that question running through her mind, Shia reached out to grab another cookie.

Is this really baked? It’s so much more lightly colored than the others. And what is this dark brown stuff?

The next cookie Shia decided on was the light yellow one with the dark brown paste sandwiched in the middle. She couldn’t even begin to theorize what the stuffing in the middle tasted like. Filled with a sense of expectation and anxiousness, she bit into the cookie and once again nearly lost her balance in surprise.

What is this?! The stuff in the middle pairs wonderfully with the cookie!

Indeed, the crispy outside layers were intensely sweet, tasting of butter and milk. Meanwhile, the dark brown stuff in the center was distinctly sweet yet bitter. By themselves, either one of these would be an excellent confectionary in and of itself. Together, however, they brought out the best in one another, creating something truly special.

Th-these “cookies” really are incredible!

Filled with a sense of pure excitement, Shia looked at the remaining cookies…and ate them.

I knew it!

Her gut instinct was right on the money.

The treat with the orange dollop in the center—just as Shia had suspected, the orange bit was brewed mikun sugar. She surmised it was likely made through boiling a mikun together with sugar, resulting in a tremendously refreshing flavor. Before this cookie was even made, the pâtissier most certainly mixed mikun skin into the cookie dough itself: it was a concentrated mikun assault on her senses.

The puppy-shaped cookie had dried grapes mixed into it, but they weren’t just any dried grapes. They had been soaked in fairly strong alcohol of some sort, which gave the sweet fruit an additional bitter bite. This proved to be a good match for the cookie itself, which was far sweeter than the rest. Needless to say, it was delicious.

And then there was the final cookie, the one with the checkered pattern. This, too, was impressive. Unlike the other treats, it was rather simple; it seemed to be made from heavy dough. It was tougher to bite into than the others, and the black parts of it had a unique sweet and bitter flavor to them.

Shia eventually finished all the cookies on her plate and closed out her cup of tea. As it turned out, the hack tea, with its refreshing, unsweetened taste, was the perfect way to cleanse her palette.

“That was delightful…” She let out a satisfied sigh.

No matter how one looked at it, these weren’t any ordinary confectionaries. They were nothing like the “high-class sweets” that prized volumes of sugar over all else. These were perfectly balanced.

“Where did you get these?! Did Sarah buy them herself?”

Shia immediately began questioning Aletta, who was standing nearby. These weren’t the sort of delicacies a commoner, never mind a demon, could easily get their hands on. Whoever made these treats was at least as skilled as any one of the cooks at the famed Alfade Company, said to be an equal match for even the king’s own chefs.

No, whoever made these may very well be even more talented than them.

“Huh?! Um, well…” Aletta stumbled over her words.

Shia didn’t know about the Restaurant to Another World, and Sarah had asked her to keep it a secret from her little sister. The young woman wasn’t sure what to say.

“…If you don’t want to answer, I understand.”

Shia could tell with one glance that it wasn’t that the demon girl didn’t know, it was that, for one reason or another, the girl couldn’t answer her question. If news got out about these confectionaries, it would cause something of a stir. All the gourmets across the capital would rush the store in question.

While this may be great for business, there were those who hated being mobbed by insistent customers. If these cookies were made by the hands of one such craftsman, Aletta’s reaction made plenty of sense.

Hopeful, Shia asked Aletta, “Then let me change the question: Do you think you could get more of these?”

“U-um, probably. But I think they might be super expensive. They filled a lovely metal box about this big. There were all kinds of other cookies, too.”

Aletta used her hands to describe how large the box was. Since the master had said, “buy a set from him if you enjoy the cookies,” she assumed they were for sale.

But at the same time, he also described them as being “quite pricey.” If from the master’s perspective they were “quite pricey,” they must’ve been “impossibly pricey” for someone like Aletta.

“Really? Might I see the box?” asked Shia, her interest peaked by Aletta’s description.

“Yes, of course! I’ll be right back” Aletta nodded and scurried to the back, returning with a light blue metal container.

“Here. You just had the last of the cookies that were inside.” Aletta’s cheeks were bright red as she placed the box in front of Shia.

“I see. You’re right, this does seem quite expensive.”

Shia opened the box with the drawing of a winged puppy monster on it and felt a tinge of disappointment upon seeing its empty insides. She imagined what it would look like filled with cookies like these, then did the calculations in her head. She sighed at the results.

***

Sweets were, by their very nature, expensive. Just the five cookies served earlier would run about one or two silver coins. While they weren’t nearly as heavily sweetened with sugar as what Shia was used to, they were clearly made using all manner of wonderful techniques. The ingredients had to have been first-class material. Shia wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they cost two or three times more than the average confectionary.

This was especially the case when one considered that the treats were being sold in a beautiful metal box that would be worth purchasing by itself. It might be worth even more than Shia imagined.

“…All right.”

After listening to Aletta’s explanation, Shia came to a decision. She calmly pulled her wallet from her person and took out a single coin.

“You don’t have to rush. Whenever you have the chance is fine. Could you buy me one of these?” Shia gently handed Aletta the coin.

“Huh?! But this is a gold coin!” Aletta let out a sound not altogether dissimilar from that of a scream as she looked down at the gold coin in her hand.

Gold. The demon girl had only just recently seen it in person for the first time. The one demon regular who dropped by the Restaurant to Another World every time it was open, giant pot in hand, always paid for her meals with gold. A single bowl of the woman’s favorite soup ran one silver coin. To fill the giant pot she brought with her ran two gold coins. Just one alone was clearly an incredible amount of money.

“Yes, it is. It’s my whole allowance for one month, so please don’t lose it. I doubt a box will cost an entire gold coin, but…I imagine it’ll probably run you somewhere between forty to fifty silver coins for a single box. That one gold coin should be more than enough to cover that, since it’s worth about hundred silver coins, give or take. You can give me the change back afterward, but don’t worry. I’ll have some more to thank you for completing the job.”

Once Shia made a decision, she acted on it immediately. This was the one thing she had in common with her older sister. While Aletta may have been a demon, Aletta was also Sarah’s trusted housekeeper. She highly doubted Aletta would just run away with the money.

“I-I understand,” Aletta replied and nodded, seemingly overwhelmed by Shia’s determination. She took the gold coin from the girl.

Shia looked Aletta straight in the eyes. “I’m really counting on you.”

“Oh? Well, if it isn’t Shia! What’re you doing holding my housekeeper’s hands?”

Shia’s original objective, seeing her older sister, had completely and utterly slipped from her mind.

***

Days later, Shia would once again find herself shocked by not only the amount of cookies in the metal box but also the types and the overall cost.

It was understandable. Aletta came back to her with a box of ten different types of cookies for a mere single silver coin. She found out that a box twice as big, with fifteen different types of cookies, only ran two silver coins. These prices were affordable even by Aletta’s standards.

***

And so, the Restaurant to Another World’s counterpart of sorts, the Flying Puppy, gained a brand-new fan.

Not that the man who ran the place had any clue…