Making Cookies

A little while after lunch, once Ian-kun had gone home and my family of four was relaxing, I began to speak.

"Mom, Dad, Marie. I passed the Royal Academy entrance exam, so I'll be moving to the central district in about six weeks."

"I suppose so. Moving is a lot of work, so we'd better get started early. Have you decided where you'll live? Did someone from the ducal family introduce you to a place?"

Huh? Hadn't I told them I would be living at the ducal residence?

"The ducal family will let me stay at their residence. Didn't I tell you?"

Oh no...

Mom was really angry! What was I thinking, forgetting to tell them?

"Leeeon! I told you to mention things like that as soon as possible!"

"S-sorry! I thought I had told you."

"If the ducal family is letting you stay there, shouldn't we at least go and greet them? Does that mean we have to go to the ducal residence? But commoners like us would just be turned away, wouldn't we?"

Mom's anger subsided, and she now seemed to be growing flustered.

"Mom, calm down. I don't think introductions are necessary. I'll give them your greetings on your behalf."

"Will that be enough?"

It would probably be fine. Mom and Dad didn't know anything about etiquette, and the people at the ducal residence would probably be troubled by a visit from them instead.

"It'll be fine. Don't worry."

"Leon, even if we don't go to introduce ourselves, should we at least give them some kind of gift? We could give it to the person who always takes you there and brings you home, right?"

Hmm... I couldn't think of anything we had that the people at the ducal residence would appreciate as a gift...

Perhaps some homemade sweets? I didn't know whether they would eat them, but even if the ducal family didn't, the servants would probably enjoy them.

Cookies would be easy to carry, so maybe I should make cookies.

"I think we should make some cookies and give them to the ducal family. They're easy to carry, and they won't spoil right away."

"Then we'll make cookies the day before you move. Leon, will you help us?"

"Yes! Of course I will."

For a while after that, nothing happened, and our peaceful days passed. I spent my time going to tell Marcel-san I'd been accepted into school and visiting the forest.

I planned to use a mild poison to practice detoxifying magic, but there weren't many varieties available until spring or summer, so I decided to wait a little longer.

After those peaceful days, moving day was finally just a day away! Today, we were going to make cookies together.

I had gone to the central district yesterday and bought a large quantity of sugar and butter, so we could make plenty today.

"Leon, could you explain how to make them again? I didn't watch very carefully the last time you made them with Marie."

"Yes! First, the ingredients are flour, sugar, and butter."

"I've prepared all of those."

"As long as you have the ingredients, they're easy to make. You just mix all three together, shape the dough, and bake it."

The hardest part was getting the quantities right. Judging by how our last batch had turned out, we needed quite a lot of sugar, as well as enough butter for the dough to set firmly.

"For enough flour to fill this big bowl, maybe a small plate's worth of sugar and the same amount of butter? I think it would be best to experiment as we go."

Then we put all three ingredients into a bowl and mixed and kneaded them thoroughly.

Phew... Is this about right?

"I think this should be enough. Now all that's left is to shape them into bite-sized pieces and bake them in a frying pan!"

"They're pretty easy to make. However, since they use so much butter and sugar, I doubt they'll catch on around here."

That was true. It would probably be a long time before they became popular around here. There still wasn't much of a culture of sweets here, after all.

"It'll be difficult for them to catch on around here. But if we're only making them for ourselves, keep making lots. We can get butter from Grandpa's house, and I'll buy plenty of sugar and keep it here."

Marie was completely hooked on sweets now, after all. I'd have to buy sugar whenever I came back.

While I was discussing that with Mom, Dad got ready to bake them.

"Then Mom and Leon can keep shaping the dough. I'll bake them."

"All right."

"Yes!"

I kept shaping the cookies. Once I had finished about half of them, I took out something I had secretly bought in the central district. Then I pressed it into the tops of the cookies.

"Leon, what is that?"

"This is called an almond."

"An almond?"

"That's right! It's delicious even by itself, but I think it will taste good in cookies too. I'll make a few almond cookies as a test."

"I see. I'm looking forward to them."

When I went to the central district to buy sugar yesterday, I found something resembling almonds at another shop. When I asked the merchant about them, he said they had only recently begun to be imported and weren't selling very well yet.

He let me taste one, and it tasted remarkably like almonds from Japan. It was just a little smaller than the ones in Japan.

I thought they would go well with cookies, so I bought a bag. They were fairly expensive, but I had money, so I could afford this little luxury.

"Dad, the ones with almonds might be harder to cook through, so could you bake them more thoroughly than the regular ones?"

"All right."

That gave us about a hundred regular cookies and twenty almond cookies.

We each ate one to taste them.

I started with an almond cookie. Crunch... This is insanely delicious! The extra baking made the toasted flavor a little strong, but that made it even better. Almond cookies worked wonderfully too.

When I looked over at Mom and Dad, they were just about to try the almond cookies as well.

"Mmm, this is delicious! Almonds go really well with them."

"Yeah, the texture is interesting. They're subtly sweet, and they taste delicious too."

It was a relief that they liked them too. These would be fine to take to the ducal residence.

"They're delicious. Perfect! I'll put them in the basket to take to the ducal residence, then."

I lined a newly purchased basket with a new cloth and arranged the cookies neatly inside. I put in seventy regular cookies and ten almond cookies. We would eat the rest as a family. Marie would be happy too.

"This is such beautiful cloth. Where did you buy it?"

"In the central district. I thought it would be rude to use cloth sold around here when taking them to the ducal residence."

"That makes sense. The texture is wonderful too."

This cloth had cost more than ten times as much as cloth sold around here. It was expensive, but its appearance and texture were excellent. It wouldn't look out of place even at the ducal residence.

"All right! Once I give this to Roger, everything will be perfect."

"There's quite a lot left. Is that all you're giving them?"

"Yes. Let's eat the rest together!"

"That will make Marie happy. You're a good big brother, Leon."

Dad said that and vigorously ruffled my hair. Dad, you've been messing up my hair way too much lately!

"Dad, you're going to mess it up again!"

"Well, what's wrong with that?"

I pulled free from Dad's hand and arranged the remaining cookies on a plate.

"I'll take these to the living room, then! Marie is probably waiting. Dad and Mom, come soon too!"

With that, I left the kitchen and headed for the living room.