Chapter 57: Tiramisu

Chapter 57:
Tiramisu

On that particular Day of Satur, the great priestess Katalina, servant of the Lord of White, turned to the boy who had summoned her.

“Oh, son of the Great One, child of white. What is it you need from me on this occasion?”

Truth be told, Katalina was more than aware of the reason she had been called upon this morning. But she made her polite inquiry nonetheless.

Among the priests and priestesses of the Lord of Light, master of the light and growth, Katalina was of the highest caliber. She had the power to transform into a dragon. There were few humans in this world who she truly respected and held in reverence.

The boy in front of her was one of those very few.

“Enough with the pleasantries. You know why I summoned you.”

The boy’s skin was so white that he appeared otherworldly. Below his silver hair were two pairs of golden dragon eyes, vertical pupils and all. He paid no heed to Katalina’s respectful attitude, proceeding to give his orders.

The boy knew that he had been chosen by the merciful Lord of Light. He was the “child of white” who had been sent before the Lord’s followers.

The merciful Lord of Light, one of the almighty Ancient Six who governed the world, loved humans.

This love persisted, in spite of the fact that of all the races who lived on the continents and worshiped the Ancient Six, humanity was the weakest both physically and magically.

***

It was for the benefit of those weak humans that once every hundred years, the merciful Lord of White would descend to greet their followers.

To prepare for the day, the Lord of White would select a newborn child to infuse with their own blood. This child would have no awareness of its condition.

If it was given to a grown human, the Lord of Light’s blood would cause their soul to be torn apart, turning them into a raging beast. Yet if the blood was given to a newborn child whose heart was still empty, they’d be able to age and live like other children.

And so the “child of white” would be born, possessing powers of the Lord of White that even the greatest of priests and priestesses could never hope to wield. It was this “child of white” who would guide the believers.

***

And the child of white born ten years ago was obsessed by a certain otherworldly confection.

“Nekoya.” The boy addressed Katalina, pronouncing the name of the sacred place. “You must go there and obtain ‘tiramisu’ for me. What a troublesome door… How dare it reject me.”

The child turned his gaze toward the door, clicking his tongue in disgust.

Approximately three years ago, the child of white, infatuated with the restaurant’s confections, had ordered its master to follow him out of the door and come into the other world. Yet as soon as the man attempted to step through, a red-clad woman appeared before him, tossing him out as if he were a cat that wasn’t allowed indoors. Since that day, the door had rejected the child of white.

If he tried to touch the door, his hand would simply pass through the knob. The child of white could not open it, no matter how hard he tried.

The child of white became fearful.

Apart from his beloved mother of white, there were no beings on the planet who could stand against him. And yet the red-clad women had overpowered him, as if he were an ordinary human.

And so the child of white was sending a priestess he trusted (for the most part) off to the foreign land to obtain his favorite confection.

“Understood,” Katalina nodded. “I shall be on my way.”

Katalina couldn’t help but be pleased about the mission, as her black human eyes began to transform into golden dragon eyes with vertical pupils, and her back sprouted two white dragon wings covered in slender feathers.

She took to the air.

“I’m counting on you,” said the child of white. “Ah, and I believe the yearly celebration known as Valentine’s Day is soon. Should it happen to be that day in the other world, acquire some chocolate.”

With her objectives known, Katalina soared toward Nekoya’s door.

Thanks to her wings, Katalina was capable of traveling distances in moments that would take normal humans two days. The priestess descended upon the wastelands.

The mid-summer sun shone down upon the arid lands, where spiky cactus plants hoarded water in their huge leaves. It was a wasteland so barren that even corn and sweet potatoes couldn’t be grown in the soil.

While there were proper roads relatively nearby, there wasn’t a traveler in sight. That helped to keep this wasteland’s secret, well, a secret.

“That boy can be such a handful sometimes…” Katalina muttered to herself, landing before the oak-wood door. She retracted her wings, and her eyes became human once again. She sighed.

The door was protected by an illusion spell that the child of white had cast, powered by the light of the sun. If Katalina hadn’t had dragon eyes, she would never have been able to see through it.

That said, he’d gone a bit too far with it. Any who approached the door unprepared, high-level priests and powerful monsters alike, would be bathed in the light of judgment.

It was a tad much.

Katalina stealthily undid the dangerous spell.

The Lord of Light was a merciful being. It was doubtful that they would ever want to bring about such a tragedy.

Katalina knew the child of white would eventually recast the spell, only to have her undo it again.

“…All right, time to get going.”

After making sure the deadly spell had been totally disarmed, Katalina reached for the handle and opened the door.

In the arid desert, she was the only one present to hear the sound of the ringing bells. The priestess stepped through to the other side.

***

Just beyond the otherworldly door was a dining room. As usual, it was filled with all manner of customers loudly enjoying their meals.

Aw, too bad. I guess it’s still early.

Katalina noticed that there were no signs signifying it was Valentine’s Day. The observation briefly sent a chill down her spine. How unfortunate; the child of white would be disappointed.

She took her time looking around the dining room. Before Katalina even found an open spot, a young lady clad in an otherworldly uniform came up to greet her.

“Welcome to Nekoya!”

The young lady before her had natural goat horns, not dragon. This identified her as a follower of the abominable million colors of chaos. Where Katalina came from, her kind were its worshippers.

But this was another world. Any kind of altercation was against the rules of this establishment; Katalina was well aware of this. So she addressed the waitress politely.

“Hello. I’m actually ready to order.”

“Of course! What would you like today?” Aletta responded.

It wasn’t particularly rare for customers to come in and immediately place an order. Aletta figured that the woman with the cocoa brown skin and cream-colored hair was simply one of those customers who preferred takeout.

“I’d like a whole tiramisu to go, thank you. But I’ll also be having some here—could I get a slice along with some kalao bean…er, cocoa?”

“Absolutely! Thank you very much. Those’ll be right out!”

Watching Aletta retreat to the kitchen, Katalina’s attention suddenly caught on a terrifying presence in the restaurant. There was a being carrying food to and fro to diners, a waitress like Aletta, but with a darkness around them like an encroaching shadow. Who was this strange being?

Katalina managed to regain her focus and started looking around the restaurant.

Where should I sit…?

Katalina wasn’t just any priestess of white. She was the great priestess tasked with attending to the child of white.

Over there’s a Blue… Hm, I should probably avoid sitting next to Lucia as well.

There were two places she definitely couldn’t sit. The first was a spot beside a priestess of Blue, a woman with dragon legs eating some sort of meat dish beside a human man in strange clothes. And she certainly couldn’t sit near the great priestess of Red, a lamia that Katalina had crossed fangs with many times in the past. The follower of Red was accompanied by a male human priest, indulging in some sort of meat dish with eggs.

She didn’t want to assume that priests who worshiped the gods of other lands were automatically her enemies. But Katalina couldn’t afford to let her guard down.

Which means…

After thinking it over, Katalina identified where she wanted to sit and made her move.

“I’m sorry, Celestine, do you mind?”

She walked over to a group of priestesses of the Lord of White, who she’d seen here many times over the years.

At first glance, these priestesses didn’t resemble the Lord of White’s typical followers. They wore thick, strange ritual garments, although it was the middle of the summer, and odd necklaces of gold or silver.

Yet the power of light they held within their bodies undeniably marked them as priestesses of the Lord of White.

It was clear to Katalina that these women were among their lord’s most powerful servants.

“Oh, of course. We’d be thrilled, Lady Katalina.”

Celestine, the senior priestess of the group, smiled. Around her neck she wore a golden necklace. Katalina could sense incredibly strong power from her.

In Celestine’s eyes, Katalina’s light garb in the middle of winter indicated she was a priestess of the Sand Nation, always prepared for the powerful heat of its sun.

She’d also never seen Katalina with a Sigil around her neck. Celestine surmised that, like herself, Katalina was embarrassed of the fact that she couldn’t resist the sweet allure of Nekoya’s confections. Yet even without the Sigil, Celestine would have been able to tell she was a high priestess, based on her powerful aura.

Perhaps that’s why she felt such a sense of camaraderie with her.

“Lady Katalina, will you be having the usual?” Celestine asked.

“Yes. What about you?”

The pair smiled at one another knowingly.

“Sorry for the wait!” The waitress bustled over. “Here’s your pound cake and black tea set! And here’s your Tiramisu and cocoa!”

These priestesses shared another kinship: They had both been defeated by the evil known as “cake.”

The waitress gently placed a plate and a cup before Katalina. Atop the plate was a square confection with overlapping layers of white and black—soft, black cake with kalao powder kneaded into it, and white “cream cheese” made from cow’s milk. It was truly beautiful.

Sprinkled on top of the cake was a topping of ground kalao beans stripped of their oil.

It’s about time I get started. After all, I have to make sure this is good enough for the child of white!

Excusing herself to her dining companions, the priestess began to eat.

The first thing she reached for was the cup filled with brown cocoa. Katalina carefully took a sip of the still steaming liquid, inhaling its sweet aroma.

The scent of warm milk infused with kalao beans blended perfectly with sugar.

Mm. The lack of oiliness is just wonderful.

The great thing about this kalao milk tea was that it didn’t taste particularly oily, although it had a higher oil content than milk by itself.

The kalao beans that Katalina was familiar with were naturally very oily. This did mean the plant had nutritional value and could even be used as a type of medicine. Yet it was simply a bit too rich to be used in an everyday drink. Katalina wasn’t particularly fond of it.

But this cocoa milk tea was different.

After the oil was squeezed out of the kalao beans, they were then ground to dust and blended with milk. This made it extremely easy to drink.

Next up is the tiramisu.

Katalina took her time enjoying the hot cocoa before turning to the main attraction. Picking up a shining silver spoon, she scooped just a bit off the top of the cake—a spoonful of white cream sprinkled with kalao dust.

The moment she put the spoon to her mouth, her face lit up.

I’ll never get over this taste… I just wish we could make this stuff in our world.

She loved the sweet and sour taste of cheese blended with sugar. It had a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Katalina also detected a bittersweet note—the kalao dust on top of the white cream, serving as an accent to the other flavors.

And so Katalina bit into another spoonful, almost as if the cake was beckoning her.

This time, she made sure to scoop up a big piece of the black cake that made up the inner layer of the tiramisu. The actual cake was infused with some sort of otherworldly bitter tea called coffee that Katalina was unfamiliar with. Unlike the kalao beans, the cake itself was simultaneously sweet and bitter.

When it comes to cakes, tiramisu is the way to go. No doubt.

All the cakes at Nekoya were incredible, but tiramisu and its plethora of flavors knocked them all out of the park. Each layer was a different experience; and when you ate all the components together, the whole flavor profile transformed.

The layer beneath the coffee-infused cake was some kind of egg-based custard cream.

A dash of alcohol had been introduced to the mix, its unique hot, bitter flavor fusing well with the custard’s extreme sweetness.

And then there was the bottom-most layer, supporting the whole dish. It was a crunchy, aromatic fried dough of some kind. Given how soft the cake and cream were, it provided a pleasant contrasting mouthfeel.

All of these different layers came together to create the ultimate flavor. This complexity was what made tiramisu so bewitching, Katalina thought to herself. The cake was quickly vanishing from her plate.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Katalina drew the waitress’s attention.

“Could I get another plate of tiramisu, please?”

“Of course! Coming right up.”

Now she was completely in her element.

***

After enjoying her cake and chatting with the Lord of Light priestesses, Katalina returned through the door, tiramisu in hand.

“I suppose I should hurry home.”

She let out a sigh as the dragon wings sprouted from her back. She’d chatted with her friends for far too long; quite some time had passed since the child of white ordered her to bring home the cake.

He was undoubtedly furious. Katalina would have to hurry.

“What a handful that boy is. I can’t believe he’s making me, a great priestess, run around like an errand girl.” Katalina shook her head. But she smiled.

The reason for that smile wasn’t just the “special bonus” she got by doing this errand.

“…I suppose this is the only way I can be a mother to him, after all. There’s only so much you can do when your child is an all-powerful being.”

Katalina rose into the air on her dragon wings. She was flying home so that she could give this treat to her son, the child of white. He might have become someone terribly important as soon as she had brought him into this world. But at the end of the day, he was still her beloved little boy.