Sevitis looked at Eulalia’s hand tightly gripping her own, then glanced at the soft osmanthus silk cake in the lunch box on the other side.
She actually quite liked sweets— a preference that had persisted since her orphanage days— and the osmanthus silk cake before her was her favorite treat back then.
Back in those days, she was frail and sickly, and the orphanage where she lived was built in a remote, impoverished countryside.
Compared to the other children, who could only gnaw on hard black bread with bitter wild vegetable soup every day, her three meals included a bowl of glutinous rice porridge with a few red beans— the best treatment the director could afford to nourish her body.
Even knowing that, she still hated that sticky, gooey rice porridge, as well as the earthy taste of the red beans.
After Eulalia learned about this, on a moonless, windy night, she quietly grabbed Sevitis and extended their greedy hands toward the osmanthus tree outside the window.
The golden-haired girl nimbly climbed the tree to pick osmanthus flowers, while the black-haired boy stood nervously underneath, catching the falling petals with a bedsheet.
Then, before the director woke up, the two sneaked into the kitchen like thieves, using the boy’s originally unpalatable glutinous rice and red beans to start cooking.
And so, through their secret cooperation, “osmanthus silk cake” was born in this world.
Even now, Sevitis still couldn’t figure out where Eulalia had learned this skill.
Later, when she went to the Duke’s mansion and asked those experienced top-tier chefs, the answer was always “We don’t know how to make it”—they hadn’t even heard of it.
So, seeing her favorite dessert again after five years, Sevitis’s traitorous throat unconsciously swallowed.
‘This woman is really hateful, pulling this trick at the last moment! Does she think this can control me? It’s just a commoner’s snack made from cheap ingredients!’
‘I’m already a noble young master who has tasted hundreds of top-tier desserts in the Duke’s mansion! How could I possibly bow to this wicked woman over a box of mere osmanthus silk cake!’
Sevitis stared straight at the lunch box, gritting her teeth in final resistance.
“I won’t—”
However, before she could finish her defiant declaration, Eulalia, who had been prepared, forcefully blocked her.
“Mmph—!”
Sevitis’s blue-violet eyes instantly went wide.
Eulalia used her free hand to pinch a piece of osmanthus silk cake and, with lightning speed, directly stuffed it into Sevitis’s slightly open mouth.
“What are you—”
Sevitis’s mouth was stuffed full, and she mumbled incoherently. She wanted to be tough and spit out the dessert, to show her unyielding willpower.
But Eulalia smiled and covered her mouth, refusing to let go no matter what.
Sevitis desperately tried to pry her hand away, only to tragically discover—she couldn’t budge it!
She had almost forgotten—this woman looked delicate, but her strength was absurdly immense!
As saliva broke it down, the unique sweetness of osmanthus and the softness of red beans slowly spread through her mouth, assaulting Sevitis’s long-starved taste buds.
With no way to resist, Sevitis could only swallow the osmanthus silk cake in her mouth humiliatingly, tears of grief and indignation in her eyes.
After confirming that this little black-haired cat had eaten every bit of the pastry, Eulalia finally let go with satisfaction, leaned in with a smile, and asked, “How is it? Delicious?”
Sevitis jerked back, stuck out her pink tongue, and shouted with disgust, “Bleh! Disgusting!”
“Good, that means it’s delicious~”
Hearing her response, Eulalia let out a cheerful, soft laugh. Then, she held the entire lunch box up in front of Sevitis.
“There’s plenty more here. I can’t finish it all by myself. Do you want some?”
If it were before she had eaten, Sevitis would definitely have been able to refuse stubbornly.
But now, the long-lost sweetness had completely awakened her appetite.
The word “no” got stuck in her throat, unable to come out.
“Since you can’t finish it, I suppose there’s no helping it. This young lady—I mean, young master—will reluctantly help you take care of it! I’m just saying, I don’t want to waste food!”
Sevitis looked away and forced herself to find a lame excuse to save face.
“Mm-hmm.” Eulalia nodded in agreement, as if she really understood.
“Tch…”
“What was that sound?” Sevitis pricked up her ears warily.
She thought she heard someone clicking their tongue nearby. But in this deep mountain forest, shouldn’t it be just the two of them?
Just as Sevitis turned to look, Eulalia shoved the lunch box directly into her face.
“Eat quickly. It’ll go bad if you leave it out too long.”
“Didn’t you hear that just now—”
“Oh, I get it.” Eulalia blinked, cutting her off. “Sevi wants me to feed you again, doesn’t she? If you want it, just say so. You’re so shy.”
Sevitis shuddered all over, snatched the lunch box, and started stuffing osmanthus silk cake into her mouth like a starving ghost, completely losing any grace in tasting it.
Whether it was because she was really that hungry, or simply scared by Eulalia’s words about “feeding you by hand,” she couldn’t say…
…
The two of them sat back down on the wide stone.
After Sevitis devoured an entire box in a whirlwind, Eulalia produced another box from somewhere as if by magic and handed it over.
To be honest, the lunch box’s capacity was astonishing.
An average adult male would have been full after one box, and even if they could eat more, they’d get sick of the sweetness.
But for Sevitis right now, that wasn’t a problem. With her current body’s digestive ability, she could easily pack away two boxes, or even ten.
Sevitis narrowed her eyes, chewing the pastry, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curling into a satisfied smile.
During that week as a savage in the forest, she either drank spicy monster blood or chewed on disgusting monster meat.
Her sense of taste had nearly atrophied, and all she could think about was what she would eat once she got out.
When she finally made it to the academy, she hadn’t had the mind to improve her meals.
When hungry, she’d just take a swig of monster blood from her storage space.
‘Yeah, I really need desserts to soothe my wounded soul. This long-lost taste finally makes me feel like I’m alive as a human again.’
“Chomp, chomp.”
Smack!
As she chewed contentedly, she slapped away with all her might that sneaky hand that kept inching toward her side.
“Chomp.”
Smack!
“Chomp.”
Smack!
…
‘Seriously, doesn’t this woman’s hand hurt?’
To completely stop Eulalia’s restless schemes, Sevitis had used full force when slapping her hand away.
But Eulalia didn’t even flinch; instead, she seemed to enjoy it and kept reaching out.
This gave Sevitis absolutely no satisfaction in revenge.
She continued chewing the pastry, but her eyes secretly glanced over.
Then, she saw Eulalia’s other palm glowing with a soft light over her own reddened hand—and in just one second, the swelling disappeared without a trace.
‘Damn, healing magic?!’
‘You, a Saint Candidate of the Theocratic Nation, use the holy magic granted by the goddess for something like this?! And you cast it without a ritual! With talent like that, you could be saving the world—doesn’t your conscience hurt?!’
Sevitis instantly felt the pastry lose its flavor, and her chewing became rougher, as if she weren’t biting osmanthus silk cake.
Suddenly, Eulalia withdrew her hand, her gaze falling on the corner of Sevitis’s mouth.
Then, under Sevitis’s wary stare, Eulalia suddenly leaned in, extended a fingertip, and gently wiped away a bit of red bean paste stuck to Sevitis’s lip.
After that, she withdrew that finger and, as Sevitis watched in disbelief, poked out her little tongue and licked off the bit of paste.
Sensing Sevitis’s petrified gaze, Eulalia tilted her head, looked at her own finger, and then seemed to realize something with an “ah” of understanding.
“Sorry, I was just trying to help you wipe it off. I didn’t expect you to be so attached to that bite… Well then—”
She smiled, holding that freshly licked finger out slowly to Sevitis’s lips.
“There’s still a little bit of flavor left. Should I give it back to you?”
Sevitis: ???
‘What does that mean? She wants me to lick her finger?! And she already licked it?!’
Boom—
Sevitis felt a certain string in her brain snap completely.
She knew it—this woman didn’t give her sweets out of kindness. It was all to make fun of her in the end!
‘She really wants to just bite this woman’s finger off, show her that these fangs aren’t for show!’
But looking at that crystal-clear fingertip so close to her face, and Eulalia’s sincere blue eyes, Sevitis found she couldn’t bring herself to bite.
Her entire face flushed bright red, even her long neck burning hot. She clenched her teeth and trembled all over.
“You—!”
Eulalia, seeing this, didn’t pull back. Instead, she thoughtfully pushed her finger another inch forward, almost touching Sevitis’s lips.
“Why aren’t you eating? Didn’t you save that bit at the corner of your mouth to enjoy slowly?”
She genuinely seemed to think so, but Sevitis certainly didn’t. She felt her head become a bomb.
Bang—!
She exploded.
Sevitis sprang up from the stone like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, backing away two steps.
“Hiss—ha!”
She let out a fierce growl at Eulalia, the two little fangs at the corners of her mouth fully bared from agitation.
Her originally smooth black hair ruffled from the airflow, and even the string tying her ponytail snapped with a “pop” from the surging magic.
Under the interweaving of night and moonlight, the tips of her loose hair faintly showed a trace of white, and deep within her blue-violet eyes, a hint of red gleamed.
But after seeing the golden-haired girl blink blankly, Sevitis retracted her fangs and bit her lower lip tightly.
“You despicable creature… Once I win the wager, I’ll repay every single humiliation from today tenfold!”
“Just you wait!”
Leaving behind a hasty threat, Sevitis didn’t even have time to wipe the remaining crumbs off her lips.
She spun around and ran frantically down the main road without looking back.
On the giant stone under the night sky, only the golden-haired girl remained alone.
Eulalia held her finger, still suspended in midair, watching the petite fleeing figure in the distance, blinking her blue eyes in confusion.
“Why did she get so angry all of a sudden…”
She withdrew her finger, tilted her head in bewilderment, and murmured softly.
“Could it be… because I ate that bit of red bean paste she was saving?”
This…. this is peak.