A Celebratory Feast

The next morning.

I decided to go home. Since I had told the people at the ducal residence over dinner the previous evening that I would be leaving, I could head back right away. After breakfast, I immediately boarded the carriage.

There were about six weeks until the entrance ceremony, so I wanted to make the most of the time I could spend with my family.

Roger saw me off, and the carriage stopped near my house.

"Leon-sama, we have arrived. I will come to pick you up one week before the entrance ceremony."

"Thank you. See you later."

I got off the carriage and opened the door to my house.

"I'm home!"

When I said that, Mother and Father came rushing out of the kitchen. Marie and Ian-kun had already been in the dining room, so they came running over as well.

"Big Brother! Welcome home!"

"Leon! Did the exam go all right? Did anything happen to you?"

"Calm down, Mom. I was only taking an exam, so nothing was going to happen to me."

"R-right, of course."

"Welcome home, Leon. How did the exam go?"

Father asked with a calm, gentle smile.

"I passed the exam! Apparently, the entrance ceremony is in about six weeks."

"You did well, Leon."

Father said that and vigorously ruffled my hair. That was unusually rough for him.

"D-Dad, you're going to mess up my hair."

When I looked up at Father, he had an extremely happy, yet slightly sad expression on his face.

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry... I wanted to give you a huge celebration, but I guess I'm still sad that you're leaving home, Leon."

"Dad... It's okay. I'll come home often even while I'm at the Royal Academy! It's not like I'm going somewhere incredibly far away."

When I said that, Father finally smiled from the bottom of his heart. I reaffirmed my resolve to work hard so that our whole family could live comfortably in the future.

"I see, that's true. I'm sorry for saying something like that. Then shall we celebrate Leon passing today? Let's close the restaurant for the day."

"That's a wonderful idea! He passed the Royal Academy exam, after all. We have to celebrate in style."

"Congratulations, Big Brother!"

"Congratulations, Leon-kun!"

I was happy. It made me so happy to have people who were this happy for me.

"Thank you, everyone!!"

"Your father and I will do the cooking today. Leon, wait in the living room."

"That's right. We've learned lots of cooking techniques from you, Leon, and come up with original dishes."

Really!? Mom and Dad were amazing to come up with original dishes. All I'd done was recreate dishes I knew from my previous life, so they were far more impressive than I was.

"You two are amazing!"

"Look forward to it. Now, Leon, go to the living room."

So they sent me off to the living room. Huh? Marie wasn't coming either?

"What about Marie and Ian-kun?"

"They're helping us too."

"Really?"

"Yep! We're going to make delicious food! I can do it too, you know."

Marie said this with a broad smile, looking a little proud. S-so cute... My little sister really was an angel.

"Thank you, Marie. I'm looking forward to it."

"Yep!"

After waiting in the living room for about an hour, everyone came in carrying huge amounts of food.

It smelled amazing!

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Leon."

"We made lots of delicious food!"

Dish after dish was laid out on the table. First came the usual bread, soup, and water.

"This is today's main dish: fried steak!"

When Mom said that, the plate she placed in front of me held a beef cutlet. Amazing! I hadn't taught them how to fry meat, so had she thought of this after seeing the fried horse mackerel?

"When I saw the fried horse mackerel you taught me, I thought beef would be delicious fried too."

"I fried it. It turned out well, didn't it?"

"Yeah! It looks really delicious!"

"And we made a sauce too. You said before that tomato sauce went well with fried foods, so we bought some sun-dried tomatoes preserved in oil from a nearby household."

They even made sauce...! It had to be delicious. I wanted to eat it right away!!

"Big Brother, Marie and Ian-san made these!"

The plate Marie brought over contained cookies. Earlier, when Marie begged me for recipes for other sweets, I had taught her this one. Since there was no oven, we had to bake them in a frying pan, but I remembered them turning out fairly delicious.

"A merchant came from Grandpa's house the other day and left us some butter. And since you bought sugar for us, Big Brother, we made cookies!"

"That's amazing, Marie. I'm so happy."

These cookies had turned out really well. They didn't seem burnt, and they smelled wonderful. I couldn't wait to eat one!

"Let's eat before it gets cold."

"You're right. Let's eat. Now, congratulations, Leon!"

"Congratulations!!"

Everyone looked at me with smiles and said that.

"...Thank you. I'm happy."

I almost burst into tears, but somehow managed to smile as I said it, my face a mix of tears and laughter.

Then everyone started eating all at once. I decided to start with the beef cutlet. It had been cut into bite-sized pieces, so I speared one with a fork, dipped it in the sauce, and took a bite.

Crunch... munch, munch... This is insanely delicious!! Oh man, this is really good. The beef had been lightly salted, which went perfectly with the tomato sauce. If I put this in bread, it would make a delicious cutlet sandwich.

I wanted to try it as a cutlet sandwich too!

"Dad, could you cut the bread thinly with a knife?"

"How thin should I cut it?"

"Hmm... About this thin, please."

I indicated about a centimeter with my fingers, and Dad cut me two thin slices of bread. I spread tomato sauce on one, then put the cutlet between them.

Chomp... Oh man, this is delicious too! As expected, it tastes great with bread.

"Big Brother, does it taste good eaten that way?"

"Yeah, it's really delicious! The meat and sauce go perfectly with the bread. It tastes better together than separately."

"Really!? Then I want to eat mine that way too!"

"All right, all right. I'll cut some bread for you, so wait a moment."

"Thanks, Dad!"

"Jean-san, one for me too, please."

"Jean, I'd like one too, please."

It seemed like everyone was going to eat theirs as cutlet sandwiches. It was just a matter of putting a cutlet between bread, but somehow it made them incredibly delicious.

"Mmm! Delicious!"

"It really is. Just putting it between bread makes it so much better."

"Since you can eat it while walking, we might be able to sell them as takeout."

When I said that casually, Mom and Dad's expressions changed. Their eyes were suddenly gleaming...

"Leon! That could be a great idea!"

"You're right. We could try selling them for a few days. People in a hurry might buy them too."

They're really getting carried away...

"Leon, it'd be all right if we tried it, wouldn't it?"

"Y-yeah, of course. Good luck."

"Why don't we start tomorrow? Should we put them up for sale a little earlier than our usual lunch service?"

"That's a good idea too!"

The two of them became so absorbed in their discussion that I quietly slipped out of the conversation. Then I reached for the cookies Marie and Ian-kun had made for dessert.

Crunch... crunch-crunch... These are insanely delicious!

They were sweet and crispy, and made me so happy.

"Marie, these cookies are really delicious! Thank you too, Ian-kun."

"Really!? That's great!"

"I was a little worried since it was my first time making them. I'm glad they turned out well."

These were seriously delicious. To me, they were every bit as good as cookies from Japan. In fact, since Marie had made them, they were even better!

"They're really delicious! Let's make them together again sometime."

"Yeah!!"

And so my happy celebratory lunch came to an end. It had been truly fun and delicious. I was so happy...