Chapter 244 – Bear-san Does Some Taste-Testing (2/2)

「Yes, but you must calm yourself or you will scare her away.」

Zelef-san said and bonked her head for the third time.

「…Uuu, my head hurts」

「Yuna-dono, when you have time, please take some time off for Shaila. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to chat as you’re both girls.」

For a shut-in like myself to deal with someone so energetic… it might be hard even though we were both girls.

I would much rather talk to someone a little bit more reserved, but I couldn’t really say something so selfish out loud, so I decided to just jump straight into the taste-testing, and ignore the request for now.

On the table, there were several freshly baked cakes and breads lined up neatly. They must have timed it with Eleanora-san’s arrival so that was why they had just been baked. Wasn’t this a bit too much? On the other side of the room, I saw another table also neatly lined with cakes and bread. Did I have to try all of these? I was just a young girl, so I couldn’t possibly eat all of it.

「!Yuna-san, please taste this」

Oblivious of my conflicted feelings, Shaila immediately served me a slice of cake.

It was a simple strawberry shortcake. Even though I didn’t know if I could finish them all, I humbly accepted it.

Eleanora-san and I taste-tested cake after cake, and slowly, my belly began to bulge. I usually liked eating cake, but I could only eat so much of it… Eating food was only enjoyable when done with moderation; cramming it all at once would bring all sorts of unpleasantries.

「So, Yuna-san, what do you think of this cake? I thought of it myself…」

I tried a slice of the cake she offered me.

「Mm, this mixture of sweet and sour is quite good.」

「!T-thank you very much」

「Yuna-dono, please try this as well.」

「!This too, please」

They all presented their dishes to me.

Perhaps I made a mistake in taking part in this taste-testing… It was too late now to do anything about it, though, so I could only take my time putting each piece in my mouth, hoping I wouldn’t burst.

For each dish I stated 「This is my inexperienced opinion, but I think that…」and, without beating around the bush, presented them with my opinions, such as: this is delicious, the tastes don’t match well, this is pretty good, it’s too sweet, you skimped too much on the salt.

The three of them busily jotted down everything I said, as if I really was some sort of food expert.

「My, Yuna-chan, you’re so popular.」

「Stop teasing me Eleanora-san, and help me eat.」

「I’m eating…」

Eleanora-san’s plate was empty, so she wasn’t lying. It was very strange: both of us were always served at the same time, yet whether it was a cake or a piece of bread, she finished each one before me without any trouble. She must be the same as Mylene-san…. When they were eating something they liked, they could eat as much as they wanted, their stomachs were like bottomless wells.

On the other hand, I was doing my best just trying to persevere.

In conclusion, most of the dishes were delicious.

While they had indeed prepared each dish based on my recipes, they also carefully and expertly added their personal take to it. The whipped cream decoration on the cakes was very skillfully applied as well.

「We tried our best but couldn’t draw the Bear-san on it as well as we hoped we could.」

「Yes, we apologize for that. If only we could see how your people in Crimonia do it…」

「It sounded like it was such a cute cake, so we had to try it, but the result…」

「?…」

I didn’t understand what the three of them were talking about.

Since when did the cakes from my shop have Bear-san decorations on top?

「!?Yuna-san, could you please show us how it’s done」

「?Umm, what exactly are you talking about」

「Eleanora-sama and Head Chef both told us how your store uses whipped cream to draw Bear-san on cakes. They also said those were very popular amongst the customers.」

「?…」

「Yes, I saw some children ordering it, and they looked really happy when they ate it.」

I really didn’t know anything about such a cake.

Was this Elena-san’s doing? Where had she learned of it, though? It was very much like those ketchup drawings on omurice that could be found at maid cafes in my world, but I didn’t recall ever telling her about it.

.Actually, I did remember drawing one before

While we had been making Misa’s birthday cake, I was fooling around and drew a Bear-san on the cake, which Fina then took home to give to Shuri. Shuri couldn’t have gone to Misa’s birthday party, so I drew it for her, hoping that it would make her happy.

Somehow, Elena-san must have heard about it and taught herself how to draw Bear-san on cakes? Well, it wasn’t like I had intended to keep it a secret, so I didn’t really have too much of a problem with it.

「We also thought we could make children happy if we could serve something like that to them, so we tried our best, but the result is nowhere near what we wanted…」

「.I have no artistic talent myself, so I can’t really teach them that」

.Zelef-san answered, slightly embarrassed

.I looked over at Eleanora-san

「If I could draw, I wouldn’t have had to show the craftsman your picture book to have him make the sculptures.」

This restaurant had already unexpectedly committed to the Bear-san theme, and now they even asked to draw the bears on cakes for them… It almost made me want to strangle myself.

On the other hand, Shaila was looking at me with such innocent, pleading eyes that it hurt my heart.

If I showed them how to do it, it would feel like I was digging my grave, but if I didn’t, I would be disappointing everyone who worked so hard for this shop…

「?Does it really have to be a bear」

「Yuna-chan, are you planning to keep it as a special service for the children of Crimonia?」

「…Not because of that, but」

Just what had I gotten myself into… Well, it was all my fault, but still…

「.Yuna-san, please teach us」

.Shaila said while bowing deeply

She kept her head down, while I was trying to find a way out, but the other chefs didn’t offer me the chance and also bowed. Staying silent at this point was making me look like a huge bad guy.

「.Please do it for the children」

「Alright…」

I sighed and began drawing a cute bear with whipped cream.

「Yuna-san, you’re really good at this.」

「!I see, that’s how you do it. I must note this down」

Shaila quickly took notes while I was drawing while the other chefs just watched me intently.

It was just a drawing of a Bear, they didn’t have to be so focused on the lines I drew.

「.Thank you very much. I will go practice right away」

Shaila said and started copying the bear I drew, prompting the other two to do the same.

?Did I end up making the wrong choice in the end

Author’s Notes:

Volume 3 pre-orders have already been opened at many different places.

For some reason, on Amazon’s site, the web version has the front cover, but the hard copy doesn’t. I’m not sure why…

Anyway, for this volume, I added four bonus short stories for the hard copy.

I’m still deciding which stories to give the bonus to, so this is more of a notice how it’s been going rather than a full release notice. Please do wait patiently for that one.