LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 12
As a scream pierced the pleasant atmosphere, the customers in the bustling first-floor restaurant were startled, all eyes diverting towards the source of the commotion.
Karem, Catherine, and Gordon shared the same bewildered gaze.
“What in the world is going on?”
“Unless I misheard, I think they just said something about a midwife.”
“Yes, definitely heard ‘midwife’!”
Suddenly, the door of the now silent restaurant burst open as if an explosion had occurred.
Behind the elven waitress who flung the door open, a wrinkled dwarf midwife stormed in, flanked by human women, exuding an intimidating aura capable of scaring off monsters.
“Little one, mercenary. It seems we need to head outside.”
“What? But dessert hasn’t even been served yet!”
“I doubt you’ll have the chance to finish eating. Hurry up!”
Catherine urged, prompting Karem’s head to tilt in confusion. However, she continued to press them.
Reluctantly, I stuffed an entire smoked herring into my mouth while Gordon grabbed a pie and stood up.
Meanwhile, the dwarf midwife, ignoring the gazes around her, shouted orders at the following dwarves and the human and elven women behind her.
“You all, quickly head inside and assist Veronica. The rest, clear out an entire room and clean up fast! Don’t forget to splash Drunken Fire! Now! Whether you’re dining or lodging at the inn, I want every guest to hear this!”
The dwarf midwife pounded the nearby table with her muscular arms, drawing everyone’s attention despite the passage of time seeming irrelevant.
“Veronica, the innkeeper’s wife, is going into labor, so everyone outside!”
“But we just started clinking our glasses-”
It was only natural for an aggrieved customer to voice their protest. After all, they had just begun enjoying their time after paying, so it was understandable to feel upset at being booted out.
But the dwarf midwife couldn’t care less.
“Out with you now!”
“W-wait!?”
“Oh dear, Ingé grandma! Please!?”
By the time Hamerson burst out, it was already too late.
Like a bear uprooting a turnip, the dwarf midwife effortlessly lifted the protesting customer with a single hand and threw them aside as if they were just a pebble.
Thud! Crash!
The hinges ripped off as the door flew outside along with its occupant.
With a powerful display of force and Hamerson’s pleading, the customers reluctantly started grumbling as they exited the inn, one by one.
Among them was Karem, who had already been urged outside.
“Looks like everyone made it out except for one person.”
“With a mother about to give birth, who’d have the time to stay?”
“Was there a forceful display, too?”
“Of course, there was.”
Gordon nodded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, this is unfortunate for dessert.”
“Right? I was looking forward to Sir Atanitas’s words.”
“Not that I’m leaving, but there might be an opportunity for you guys later on—”
Just then, a dwarf broke through the crowd exiting the inn.
“Hey! Quit shoving!”
“Catherine and the gang! Wait up! Make some room!”
“Oh, oh no! I’m going to fall!?”
It was Hamerson, who had just moments ago tried to stop the dwarf midwife.
Wiping his cold sweat, he approached Catherine, bowing his head apologetically.
“I’m really sorry. We haven’t even finished hosting our guests yet, and it came to this.”
“No problem. It can’t be helped. By the way, Hamerson, was Veronica pregnant? Congratulations!”
“Yes. Apparently, right after you left, she relaxed and immediately got pregnant.”
Hamerson, who seemed not to have been apologetic at all, suddenly brightened up with a wide smile as he glanced towards the inn.
“Oh wait!” he exclaimed, quickly rummaging through his pockets. With a look of urgency, he pulled out a key and held it out to Catherine.
“Here, Catherine. Take this.”
“A key?”
“Yes. I figured you wouldn’t have a place to stay yet?”
“H-how did you know?”
“Well, I’ve only been running this inn for about ten years, but still, I can catch on pretty quickly.”
Hamerson gave her shoulder a friendly pat.
“Wait! Ouch!”
“Alright, while you’re here, the group can stay there. As long as you don’t break anything, you have free rein to use whatever’s inside.”
“Hmph. I won’t refuse. But can’t I at least go inside?”
While examining the key, Catherine motioned towards the inn.
“Hamerson! Hamerson! Where on earth are you?!”
At that moment, Karem could hear the elderly dwarf midwife roaring angrily, shaking the inn’s walls. Hamerson, jumping up like a fish out of water on land, scurried back inside.
“Sir Atanitas, what kind of debt was it that made a dwarf offer food and lodging?”
“Ah, it’s nothing much.”
Catherine casually tossed the key in the air before catching it with a light response.
“I simply helped the daughter of a noble family from Bersengzeto elope with the youngest member of a rival noble family to the Kingdom of Seophone.”
“Ah, so she’s from Bersengzeto. I find that hard to believe.”
Gordon reacted as if he had heard the absurdity of a headless pig walking on two legs.
Karem knew that the place called Bersengzeto was across the sea, but that was all he understood.
“A noble from Bersengzeto? In the Kingdom of Seophone? I’d sooner believe a dead person coming back to life.”
“Gordon, is it really that unbelievable?”
“Oh, please. You have no idea how much the Bersengzeto nobles detest this kingdom. No, let’s say they loathe it!”
Gordon shook his head vigorously.
Karem, still puzzled but piecing the information together, noted that Veronica, the daughter of a noble from Bersengzeto, fell in love with the youngest member of a rival family, Hamerson.
To escape family pursuit, they fled to the Kingdom of Seophone. The situation seemed to conclude tidily enough.
“So, are you saying the dwarf couple ended up here in Borderster? But aren’t Seophone and that Berseng-whatever kingdom a bit far apart?”
He assumed such a distance would mean they couldn’t shake off the nobles’ pursuit. Yet Catherine scoffed lightly.
“Pfft, no way! It’s across the sea but finding a closer country than this would be tough.”
“Then, how far apart is it?”
“Even on a cloudy day, a regular boat only takes a day. On a clear day, it takes around half a day.”
“What? Just that distance, and they didn’t pursue them?”
Given the medieval era’s poor sailing technology, Karem found it strange they wouldn’t have pursued them, considering the weather could easily allow for a morning departure and arriving by lunchtime.
Seeing the pile of questions building up beside him, Catherine waved her hand dismissively.
“The proud and haughty Bersengzeto nobles despise this country far beyond imagination.”
“The noble family abandoned their precious daughter just like that?”
“Indeed. From what I later found out, they just covered it up and pretended she never existed. But dwelling on it gets complicated with history, so let’s skip that.”
Catherine wiggled the key in front of Karem’s eyes.
“First, let’s check out our temporary lodging in this city.”
Even after ten years, Catherine navigated the city effortlessly, identifying the address etched on the handle of the key, leading the way.
“By the way, if Veronica has a dessert, it’s surely going to be cheese custard tart, which is a shame.”
“Custard tart? You mean, from Bersengzeto’s custard tart?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, that’s unfortunate.”
With a trace of regret, Gordon gazed toward the now-invisible keg of beer at the Cal Inn.
Custard tart—he wasn’t entirely sure about what it was, but usually, it was commonly referred to as egg tart.
Just hearing Catherine’s description made Karem’s mouth water.
Egg tart—his favorite dessert was the egg tart sold at the franchise chicken shop.
A tiny pie crust filled with a mixture of honey and whipped cream that was baked. The dessert poured over with tart strawberries and drizzled with expensive cinnamon was a taste that came alive in his imagination.
Unlike other pie crusts, it was softer than a cookie thanks to the egg and butter, melting in his mouth with the sweet, creamy custard filling.
With every bite, it would lose its shape, bursting with tangy berries and that rich, sweet honey intertwined with a whiff of cinnamon.
The vivid descriptions painted by Catherine left Karem and Gordon’s earlier full stomachs growling with hunger for a treat they could no longer have.
Karem, feeling similarly disappointed about missing dessert, blurted out.
“Then we should swing by that house and make something!”
Instinctively, Karem declared this.
Gordon responded with a puzzled look.
“Huh? You, little one?”
“Y-yeah! Me!”
“For dessert?”
Karem wondered why Gordon seemed complacently skeptical, but his question was justified.
After all, cooking skills could be under scrutiny, but dessert was an entirely different realm.
Desserts were supposed to be undeniably sweet!
The most common sweetener on the continent of Europa was sugar—virtually unattainable for serfs—and honey, which was only occasionally available on lucky or special days.
Of course, in this fantasy world, there were other sweeteners, but they were as rare as sugar and honey or even rarer.
Such goods would naturally find their way into the hands of powerful figures—nobles, barons, or landlords!
“Oh, Gordon. Anyway, just give it a shot—”
“Are you telling me to believe you?”
“But if you’re that confident, then showing off your skills wouldn’t be too bad, right?”
Ending that thought, Catherine halted in front of a building.