LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 14
Fortunately, the slightest hesitation in Catherine’s heart vanished as soon as she stepped into the kitchen.
The sweet, rich aroma of honey enveloped the entire kitchen.
The hot smell, infused with countless wildflowers and fruits blooming in autumn, permeated the air.
The culprit behind this enticing scent was undoubtedly Karem, squatting before the crackling firewood, a thin skewer in hand, eagerly staring into the oven, waiting.
Having come so close to the source of the aroma, the absence of any burnt smell indicated that Karem had indeed succeeded.
Catherine approached the oven with a face full of curiosity.
“Is this the dessert you mentioned?”
“Waah! Sir Atanitas!?”
“Ah, I was just wondering if you carelessly dumped a bucket of honey in while trying to make dessert.”
“I wouldn’t be that forgetful.”
Karem quickly corrected himself in response.
Though Catherine wasn’t entirely oblivious to the strange words that slipped from his lips, that wasn’t important right now.
“I had all the ingredients except for milk. So, I made what I could.”
“Of course, with no milk around since it’s all being made into cheese, it makes sense. Wait, you made it without milk?”
“Yep. It’s called Castelan.”
“Castelan. Castelan, you say?”
Catherine surmised that what was in the oven was a type of cake.
But to make a cake without milk? How?
Regardless, Karem poked at the contents of the cake mold resting in the oven.
As he felt the texture with his fingertips, he swiftly put aside the skewer and donned thick oven mitts, pulling all five cake molds from the oven before any heat reached his hands.
Karem clacked the molds down on the table several times before flipping them over onto the cutting board.
There was no need for shaking up and down.
Thanks to the buttery grease, the Castelan easily separated itself from the mold and gracefully tumbled out.
With a soft thud,
Catherine involuntarily closed her eyes at the sight revealed in an instant.
However, thanks to her proud analytical skills, the image was already deeply ingrained in her mind.
The surface, charred to a dark brown from direct contact with the oven’s heat, looked even more appetizing.
Perhaps because it had just come out of the mold, the sweet aroma wafted even more strongly.
Ignoring Catherine’s reaction, Karem took a knife and cut the Castelan into pieces, about the thickness of a finger he was familiar with.
His hands worked gently, careful not to crumble it apart.
As time passed and Catherine regained her inner peace, she opened her eyes once more.
Just then, as if waiting for this moment, sunlight streamed through a gap in the overcast sky, illuminating the cross-section of the Castelan on the wooden plate.
Even for Catherine, who had experienced countless cuisines from various nations, it was shocking.
The reason why the cross-section was a deeper yellow than fresh duck eggs was due to the honey and Snowrunner eggs.
It was evident from the Snowrunner egg shells resting in a corner of the kitchen, the contents, and the empty honey jars.
As the thin, orange-hued slice caught the sunlight, it shone brilliantly for a moment like gold.
Amazed by the first-ever Castelan presented in the continent of Europa, Catherine gasped in silence.
No matter how much she tried to keep her composure, her body seemed honest, as if her physical age matched her impulses, and her fingers moved restlessly.
How could a woman refuse dessert?
“The dessert from lunchtime is a bit late, but would you like a snack before dinner?”
“Hmm, well, sure. It wouldn’t be polite to refuse the offer. Hand over that Castelan.”
Karem promptly placed a piece of Castelan on a bright wooden plate, cutting it into small pieces and offering it to Catherine.
As her fork drew closer, Catherine’s eyes gleamed more intently, analyzing the gleaming golden fragment.
Whether it’s cake or bread, it’s natural for there to be holes due to the fermentation process.
The same went for the holes in cheese.
However, the piece of Castelan approaching her mouth was unlike any other bread or cake she’d encountered.
The intricate structure tightly intertwined like castle walls was so dense that the holes were nearly invisible.
Similar to pound cake, but it was so soft.
Despite her urgency to maintain composure, Catherine could no longer hold back and quickly placed the piece of Castelan in her mouth.
From the sensation of cutting with the fork, she was certain it would be incredibly soft.
But could it actually be this soft? It felt quite different from other desserts that utilized custard.
No, perhaps it wasn’t custard at all. With each bite, the air pockets and walls collapsed like a gentle cascade, enveloping her entire tongue.
As it lost its shape, the rich sweetness of honey hidden within the Castelan unveiled itself. Catherine understood why this delicacy was named Castelan.
Such a creation surely warranted at least a count to eat. No, if a gourmet noble were present, they’d eagerly dive in with a knife.
At that moment, a question suddenly flickered through Catherine’s mind.
“Sweetness aside, this is incredibly soft compared to anything else.”
“Yes. It took a lot of sweating to make that.”
“How in the world did you achieve this softness?”
Having lived for hundreds of years and tasted a myriad of foods, even her vast experience and knowledge couldn’t explain the wonder before her.
There was no distinctive taste of cream, and it certainly wasn’t the flavor or texture of custard?
Karem quietly handed her a bowl with meringue inside.
“This… fluffy cloud is…?”
“It’s meringue.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
The meringue in the bowl looked as if someone had scooped up a handful of light orange clouds drifting in a sunny sky as the sunset began.
The light orange hue indeed came from the honey.
The cloud-like appearance was achieved by whipping the egg whites.
But throughout her long life, Catherine had never encountered anything resembling such clouds.
“Young one. I’m just asking out of curiosity.”
“Yes?”
“You didn’t use magic, did you?”
“…If I had, I wouldn’t be here right now, would I?”
That made sense. Catherine slapped her forehead absentmindedly. If he had used magic or possessed talent or was a wizard hiding his identity, she certainly would have noticed.
No, even before her, Gordon would have realized and questioned Karem’s identity long ago.
A mercenary of his caliber would have instinctively grasped it for survival.
“Then what exactly is this—”
“I did use an unidentified egg over there—”
“Huh? Oh, it’s a Snowrunner.”
“Snowrunner? Oh, the skewered meat?”
Catherine questioned back with a tone that indicated she had never heard of it before, but accepted that it could be possible.
After all, having lived her life as a rural serf, it was only natural not to know.
Especially since Snowrunners were a native species that only lived in Iceland.
While there were relatives like the Sand and Forest Runners, they only inhabited specific regions of the continent of Europa.
“Yes. The meat from the skewers at the inn is Snowrunner meat. Imagine a gigantic bird the size of a horse with legs about twice your height. Given that Iceland is nearby, you might see them in winter.”
“Are you telling me such a bird existed in the Kingdom of Seophone?”
“To be precise, it only exists in Iceland. Or it could be in another country.”
While Karem fed Catherine the Castelan, she pondered for a moment.
A bipedal bird that laid eggs the size of an adult’s head and could feed at least twenty people. She felt like she’d heard this somewhere before.
Specifically, it was something akin to an ostrich.
“By the way, are you saying this orange cloud was made from Snowrunner eggs?”
“Well, eggs become solid when cooked, and bubbles rise when they are cooked, right? So I thought I could forcefully create bubbles to solidify it.”
To be honest, Karem didn’t really have much to say if someone pushed further here.
He was merely applying recipes he remembered, not studying food preparation science or related applied sciences.
“I’m a drop-out!”
Fortunately for Karem, it seemed Catherine was satisfied with the explanation.
“Whoa, to think you could create such bubbles with just those ingredients. What a brilliant imagination.”
“Well, it would taste better with milk.”
“Alright. I’ll go out right now—”
“Let’s just try eating it this way first.”
Catherine attempted to get up to find out the way to make it taste even better before Karem suddenly plunged the ladle into the bowl full of meringue.
“No way, are we really just going to eat it as is—”
“Let’s try eating it this way first.”
With a long copper ladle filled with meringue, resembling a sunset, Karem unhesitatingly slathered meringue all over the piece of Castelan, which had a small corner cut off.
The golden sponge-like rectangular surface was hidden beneath the mound of meringue, as if it were snowing upon a vast plain.
Though made from raw egg whites, Catherine had no time to feel any discomfort.
After all, who could resist the astounding turn of ideas displayed right before their eyes?
While the continent of Europa did have numerous desserts, as abundant as the nobles themselves,
Of course! One of the simplest ways for nobles to display their family’s power without coercive force was to host parties showcasing precious dishes.
But Catherine could stake her magic life on this.
There was no doubt this would be delicious.
As Catherine was about to push herself up from the table, she let her arms go limp and comfortably sank back into her seat while Karem immediately brought the Castelan topped with sunset-hued meringue to her lips.
Even with the minuscule holes already present, the astonishing softness was shocking.
The supersoft meringue deeply penetrated every minute opening, enveloping her in dual layers of sweetness without any clash.
No, it felt as though they were merging as if they had been waiting to become one.
As she chewed the Castelan, the crumbled pieces intertwined smoothly with the meringue, washing away any lingering sense of foreignness down her throat.
Catherine could proudly declare that after reaching the realm of immortality, she had savored all that could be enjoyed within the realm of normalcy.
From the radiant dances around the campfires during harvest festivals in rural villages to the grand parties in royal courts, her experiences were diverse.
Having enjoyed those so well, what remained was the most familiar thing.
Having endured too many experiences, she had grown indifferent to stimuli, one might say.
To put it bluntly, Catherine was experiencing a moment of enlightenment.
Yet in that moment, she desperately wanted to monopolize something after a long time.
Thus, seriously, Catherine proposed, no, declared to Karem,
“You, become my exclusive cook.”
“…What?”
Karem’s mind froze for at least a few seconds after hearing those words, abruptly cutting off the Castelan he was eating.