Noa picked up that spoon and ate a mouthful of the pudding.
“It’s delicious.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“This is my first time eating something this good.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“No, not at all. This is the first time I’ve tasted something so melty, cold, sweet, and delicate.”
“Well, women and children tend to like those flavors, I guess.”
Noa wasn’t just flattering me—she really seemed to be savoring it as she ate.
“Oh, looks like I already ate it all.”
The cup was already empty. She looked at me silently and full of greed.
“Just one more, okay.”
“Thank you.”
When I handed off another pudding to her, there was a knock at the door.
“I’m coming in, Noa. I heard that Yuna came by.”
Cliff came into the room.
“Sorry for just dropping in,” I said.
“I don’t mind. What are the two of you doing?”
“Yuna is sharing a sweet she made with me that’s called pu-ding.”
“Pudding?”
Noa took a bite of her newly acquired pudding. She was smiling like a little kid. That alone justified coming here.
“Is it really that good?” Cliff asked, looking at his daughter’s smile.
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
“Noa, would you be kind enough to let me have a bite?”
“No way,” Noa refused him outright.
“Noa.”
“No. It was a present from Yuna.”
“Yuna?”
Cliff looked at me hungrily. It just wasn’t right for an adult to look at me like that.
“Agh, all right already. Please let me know what you think when you’re done. It’s still a prototype, so I haven’t fine-tuned the flavor yet.”
“This is just a prototype?” said Noa. “But it’s already better than any other sweet I know of.”
“Well, I’m calling it a prototype, but I just need to adjust the sweetness.”
I passed a pudding to Cliff, who took a bite of it.
“What…is this?”
His face changed.
“I haven’t had a confectionary this delicious before, not even in the royal capital.”
Maybe this world didn’t have a lot of great confectionaries, then? Well, I guess they wouldn’t be able to help it if it was that hard to get ahold of eggs. Cliff and Noa’s spoons never stopped moving.
“Thank you for the treat, Yuna. It was very good.”
“Was it? That’s good. Was there any part of it you would have wanted improved?”
“No, I don’t think it has a single fault.”
“It’d be fine even if you just told me you wanted it a little more or less sweet.”
“For me, I think I’d like it a little less sweet. The first bite is delicious, but it starts to become overpowering after a while.”
“Do you think so? I thought it was delicious, though,” Noa said.
“Well, palates vary among adults and kids and between genders after all. I’m going to use you both as reference.”
“Are you opening a store or something?”
“I’m not planning to right now. It’s just that I was thinking I could help orphans in their future careers if, say, they wanted to cook or make desserts instead of raising birds.”
“You’re thinking that far ahead?”
“I was just thinking about how, if there was a business around, I could have a pudding without going out of my way to make it myself.”
“So you’re guiding the children, then? You’re a much finer adult than I am.”
I took their empty cups back from them and put them in bear storage.
“Well then, is there anything else you needed?”
He had specifically come to his daughter’s room to meet me, and I doubted he’d come just to see me.
“Yes, I have a favor to ask. Could you escort Noa to the royal capital for me?”
“To the capital?”
“Yes, we need to attend the king’s fortieth birthday celebration, but a certain someone gave me a mountain of work to do, and I suspect I won’t be able to head out until the last minute. If that happens, we’ll be on a very strict itinerary, and I’d rather not put my daughter through that.”
“When you say someone caused you a lot of work…you’re not talking about me, are you?”
“I’m thankful, I really am, but it’s true.”
That was a false accusation at best. The stuff with the orphanage was all Cliff’s oversight as the lord. It wasn’t my fault at all. Since I was the one who uncovered the crime, he really should have been thanking me.
But the royal capital, huh.
“Will there be other escorts? How would we go there?”
If there were other escorts, I’d consider turning it down, since it would be a pain. Traveling by carriage would be even more of a pain.
“Just the one who took down the black viper—I think you’ll be more than enough. And you have your beast summons for transportation, don’t you?”
“Does that mean I get to ride the bears?!” Noa let out a burst of joy.
“I heard your summons are faster than horses. If that’s the case, you could run if you encountered any danger.”
I wanted to go to the capital anyway, so I didn’t have a reason to refuse.
“Well then, when do we leave?”
“If you want to go early, tomorrow should work fine. I’m sure Noa wants to see her mother sooner rather than later.”
Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t seen her mother in the house before. No one mentioned her, so I’d assumed she had passed away, but I guess I was wrong.
“Does your mom live in the capital?” I asked Noa, who seemed excited.
“Uh-huh, she works there.”
“In that case, want to head out tomorrow?”
“Really?”
“You want to see your mom as soon as you can, right?”
I ended up accepting the role as Noa’s escort to the capital.
“In that case, could you wait a moment, Yuna? I have something I’d like you to take to my wife,” Cliff left and then came right back with two letters and a large box. “Could you deliver this to Ellelaura?”
“What’s that?” I pointed at the box.
“It has the goblin king sword you gave me inside. If the unexpected happens, please give it to Ellelaura. I wrote down the details in this letter, so she’ll know what to do when you give it to her. Also, please give this
