LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 13
The house that Hamerson offered to stay in looked so clean and luxurious that it made Karem, who had only ever lived in a place that resembled a pigsty, drop his jaw in astonishment.
“What on earth is this sheet?”
The bed Karem claimed was so big and spacious that it could comfortably accommodate an adult, let alone a young boy. The plush bed was trite in its lack of decoration, but it seemed sturdy enough that even bouncing on it didn’t produce a sound. Was it filled with goose feathers?
Comparing it to the half-rotten wooden plank Karem had used as a bed before fleeing the village felt almost cruel.
Beyond the bed, every piece of furniture in the room—from the table to the chairs, the storage for water plants, and the wardrobe—seemed to be made of high-quality wood.
Ugh. Staying in a house like this with the money I have… no matter how hard Karem racked his brain, the conclusion remained that it was impossible.
After all, as an orphan, before he even managed to acquire a house in the inner castle with the little money Karem owned, entering it would be a challenge.
If he somehow managed to scrape together the money he had, there might be a way, but this money was precious settlement funds, and he couldn’t afford to waste a single coin.
The thought of casually asking Catherine and Gordon for a little gold was absurd—what kind of orphan asks for gold?
The rumors would be endless.
“Ah, forget it. This is just complicating my thoughts.”
With his mind muddled by thoughts of money and an uncertain future, Karem jumped off the bed.
In an effort to clear his head, he decided to head down to the first floor and make his way to the kitchen. When his thoughts got jumbled, the best remedy was to keep moving.
Anyway, since he had decided to showcase a dessert, Karem would make that dessert.
As Karem descended to the first floor, he passed carefully through the living room where Catherine was reading a parchment roll with a serious look on her face.
He carefully made his way past her to avoid interrupting her reading and entered the kitchen directly. And he was in awe.
The kitchen was in excellent condition, as if it had been well-maintained over time.
If it weren’t for a few elements, he might have mistaken it for a medieval-style standing kitchen.
The kitchen was adorned with luxurious wood, and various cooking utensils and tableware clearly made of copper were abundant, along with exquisite, different textured dishes.
In one corner of the kitchen rested an oven among a pile of firewood.
It was meticulously finished; there wasn’t a single part that needed cleaning from top to bottom.
The pantry and storage were filled with various hams, sausages, seasonings, dried fruits, and containers full of hardened bread. There were also large jars of honey and boxes stacked with butter.
And then there was a certain object—no, a specimen—that stood out among all the honey jars on the U-shaped shelf.
“So, what kind of egg is this…?”
Egg.
Karem rummaged through the kitchen, wondering what else he could find, and discovered a few of these things in one section of the pantry.
The egg placed in the large bowl on the table was as white as snow, but it didn’t seem that different from a regular egg.
Except it was the size of an average adult’s head.
“Ostrich? I wonder if there are ostriches around?”
For some reason, there was a peculiar cooking hammer that looked like a miniature version of a combat warhammer among the utensils. Obviously, if this thing that resembled an ostrich egg had a shell as hard as it appeared, you would need something pointy like that hammer to crack it.
Karem picked up the hammer with both hands and, with all his might, finally managed to break the shell.
As the egg shook from the impact, Karem quickly poured all of its contents into a large copper bowl.
Splash! Splash!
As expected for something resembling an ostrich egg, the white began to pour out of a small hole.
Just as the whites filled the bowl, a large yolk popped out with a sound like pop!, like a wine bottle being uncorked.
“Wow, with this many, the village could throw a feast.”
Was it said that one ostrich egg was equivalent to a dozen chicken eggs? Certainly, the overwhelming amount of whites and yolk in the pot was substantial. Considering the ratio, it was about 60:40?
Now, what should I make? As Karem gazed at the undulating white and yolk in the bowl, he pondered his recipe.
If there’s something indispensable in dessert, it would be flour, butter, milk, and sugar.
After all, to make it sweet and smooth, sugar and milk are a direct hit.
However, sugar was a precious commodity, and there was no milk in the kitchen.
He could consider going out to buy some… but Karem promptly shook his head.
In the medieval times without modern refrigeration, unless it was fresh milk just squeezed in the morning, it was just waiting for food poisoning to occur.
Even in modern times with advanced refrigeration technology, dairy food poisoning happens frequently.
Though the weather had cooled down, Karem simply couldn’t trust the milk here.
At that moment, an idea struck Karem about what he could make given the situation.
“Ah, Castella.”
A relatively simple bread that only needed eggs, flour, sugar, and butter.
He could simply substitute honey for sugar and be done with it. Though preparing the ingredients would require considerable labor, it was already late.
The moment he thought of fluffy Castella, Karem’s body started moving on its own.
As the oven was heating, Karem took out the copper bowl and opened the lower storage to check the flour sack.
As long as it was fine flour with no foreign substances, the type didn’t matter.
What mattered was the eggs.
It wouldn’t hurt to have good flour, and fortunately, the flour in the storage was in good condition.
After taking out a jar of honey and a box of butter from the shelf, Karem immediately pulled out a measuring cup and a bowl, starting to separate just the whites from the bowl full of egg whites and yolks.
The most crucial part of the Castella was the meringue.
Unlike a typical cake, the smoothness of Castella was based on a different foundation.
While the former relies on the invisible fermentation of yeast combined with countless tiny egg bubbles, the latter occurs during the process of meringue expanding under heat.
“The problem is the whisk…”
It couldn’t be helped. If there wasn’t something, it had to be replaced with what was available; that went for both cooking and tools.
Karem reluctantly picked up a bundle of thin twigs.
Unbeknownst to Karem, the bundle of twigs was meant for evenly mixing flour and other powdered ingredients.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
As the numerous slender twigs flailed violently through the bubbles, froth began to rise significantly.
As Karem felt his arm cramping, the bowl that was once full of egg mixture began to bloom into a fluffy white frothy cream, meringue.
Switching arms just as the other one began to cramp, he whipped the twigs vigorously until the transparent egg foam had risen like a white cloud.
Perfect meringue doesn’t fall from the bowl.
Gently flipping the bowl to check its flawless state, Karem scooped out a portion of the meringue.
After mixing the remaining meringue with melted butter and honey, he then added the yolks once the meringue began to take on a very pale yellow tint and mixed it well.
By the time the meringue transformed into a pale orange, Karem felt his whole body tingling with fatigue.
Working in the kitchen was essentially hard labor.
Being tired was only natural.
“But a dessert is worth that effort…!”
Immediately without pause, he began to sprinkle flour little by little while mixing it with a spatula until it was evenly combined.
Once the prep was complete, Karem promptly pulled out a deep rectangular baking mold, buttered it, and lightly dusted it with flour.
He wanted to avoid the situation where the Castella would stick and have to be scooped out with a spoon.
Just as the oven became well-heated, Karem quickly poured the batter evenly into the prepared mold.
Taking into account how much it would rise, he filled the mold a little less than required.
And then he promptly put it in the oven.
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“Hmm, it seems I should put this down for now.”
Catherine, feeling sore around her neck and shoulders, rolled up the scroll and absentmindedly voiced out what had been on her mind.
The gloomy sky visible outside the window remained unchanged. But judging by the logs in the fireplace, perhaps a couple of hours had passed?
Having read enough books over the last few hundred years to fill a small castle, yet she found it impossible to adapt to sitting still for long periods like other scholars or wizards.
However, that didn’t mean Catherine disliked reading.
On the contrary, she preferred it over most clerks.
Especially reading old scrolls wrapped in a blanket in front of the fireplace, just before they crumbled apart, was the best.
Yet, much to Catherine’s dismay, her body rejected this.
While there might have been some physical differences, could it be that with her young body being filled with vitality, it was due to reaching a level of salvation at such a young age?
Catherine pondered these thoughts as she relaxed in the sofa while glancing at the fireplace.
Although there had been interruptions, the reduction in numbers actually allowed them to arrive at Borderster faster than planned.
Although it was just for a day, conversely, it allowed her to rest leisurely like this.
Had things gone according to schedule, Catherine shouldn’t have paused in front of the fireplace but should have headed straight to Iceland within two days after finishing her commission.
“Ugh, what’s that smell? Suddenly?”
Just then, while lost in various thoughts, Catherine noticed a waft of sweetness brushing past her nose along with a breeze.
Speaking of which, that little one who traveled with them had mentioned making a dessert.
Catherine had silently nodded in agreement to Gordon’s words of letting him try if he could.
Of course, she never believed he could. She merely viewed it as childish bravado.
The meals they had during their travels had been delicious, but there was a world of difference between meals and desserts.
However, Catherine and Gordon’s thoughts had undoubtedly been betrayed in a good way.
Otherwise, there was no way that sweet scent could invade the entire living room, piercing through the smell of burning firewood.
“What on earth is he making to produce such a smell—”
No matter how well Hamerson lived to have settled in the inner castle, there was no way he would be using sugar.
Catherine could assert that the smell’s essence was honey.
He couldn’t possibly have decided that dessert just needed to be sweet, could he?
Not just drowning everything in honey, right?
Oh come on, she could assure herself that wasn’t the case.
The Karem she had encountered, a former serf, had no suspicious aspects in his character.
He possessed abnormally mature reasoning skills for his age, and given the right ingredients, he could likely whip up a dish worthy of any noble’s kitchen.
If you set those aside, Catherine would think of Karem as… oh, but those things were the most important.
In any case, given all the experiences she had encountered so far, the boy was not the type to play around with food.
Yet in this world, nothing was absolute.
Carrying a hint of unease, Catherine headed towards the kitchen.