CH 38

The autumn rose season was now over and our garden was in full bloom with the winter blooming red violas and white clematis.

This place was currently crowded with people.

Magic stone lamps hung from the pergola, and colorful strings and ornaments passed along the mansion were swaying in the faint breeze, adding onto the bright landscape.

All this was because…

Today was a memorable, silver-haired little girl’s birthday festival!–No, rather, it was the day of Alice’s 6th birthday party!

“Thank you for being here for my daughter’s birthday party today.”

The party had just begun and my father was giving a speech with a big smile on his face.

My mother was diagonally behind my father.

She had spent several days polishing and dressing up, and was showing off her elegant smile to the guests. Some of the visitors were sighing in admiration at her beautiful appearance.

As they should, because since that day a month ago, my family and the Heimer family had been preparing for this day with all their might.

There was no shortage of polishing up, especially for me and my mother. Was this a wedding or something? They made my whole body shiny, made a new dress, and even reviewed the latest trends and etiquette.

I wasn’t involved in some aspects of the project because I had been having study sessions led by Sister Thulite, but my parents were quite enthusiastic about the whole thing as it was my debut. I was happy about that.

“…Well, that’s about all I can say to start…Now let me introduce you to my daughter!…Alice, come forward.”

With a smile, my father calls out to me, who was waiting with Alphonse-san behind the planting.

A small round of squeals flew out from the ladies at the sweet smile my father gave at that moment.

While almost laughing at that, I smiled back at Alphonse-san who pushed me forward, and I slowly walked out with a specially trained and graceful smile on my face.

Standing in place, I took a breath and spoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Whether it has been a long time since we’ve met, or it is the first time we are meeting, I appreciate your continued support now and in the future. My name is Alice Rebecca Archelaus. Thank you for coming today.”

I made an effort to smile and speak slowly and gracefully.

Then, those who had caught a glimpse of me before squealed, and those who had never seen me before let out an exclamation of admiration.

……Hmmm, I guess the first step was a success?

I looked around the hall and saw that roughly fifty people had arrived.

As for the grouping of the seating order, those in the front were related by blood, the old nobles who sided with the Heimer family were in the middle, and the neutrals were in the back. The difference in facial expressions and warmth could also be understood rather well.

I was also calling out towards the neutrals to dispel their image of me. I hoped that they would be greatly surprised.

“Today we have prepared a standing buffet of food and snacks for you. We will also have entertainment. It is a small way of thanking you for coming to this celebration, but I hope you all enjoy it!”

As I concluded, the audience erupted into applause.

I bowed and stepped back and went to my mother’s side where she greeted me with a big smile.

“Alice, you were so magnificent! Your posture, your voice, and your expression were perfectly ladylike!”

I felt my cheeks blush, happy to see her squeezing my hands in a really joyful way and praising me so much.

However, the venue was now full of food and conversation, and one by one, people came to greet me. I became a greeting machine, away from my mother, and just kept on greeting people in the place that had been prepared for me.

The first to greet me was, of course, the Heimer family.

“Happy birthday, Alice. You look so beautiful, just like Eleanor.”

“Thank you, Grandfather!”

The first person who approached me was my Grandfather Richtlite, the grandfather of the Heimer family who embodied the beauty of aging.

This was the second time I had seen him since I had recovered, the first time being the time I visited Alice’s grave. That greeting had only been for a short time because I was still very weak.

By the way, it seems that Grandma has already passed away, and while Grandpa Richtlite was taking over some key positions in the Imperial Castle on his own, Uncle Oedipus had been given the responsibility of managing the territory.

“Congratulations. Yes, the dress being that color was the correct choice, after all.”

“Congratulations, Alice. If I had to give you a title…I’d have to say you are like the Ice Rose Princess of the moonlight…!”

“Oh, thank you!”

The next person was Uncle Oedipus who complimented the color of my dress, while the one who gave me that explosive title was Sister Thulite.

By the way, these two were the ones who designed my dress.

My parents weren’t involved and I was initially worried about this, but in the end, it turned out to be a neat and tidy dress with a light blue color like a gradation of ice, with a similar colored fabric to give it volume, along with a hint of gold embroidery on the hem.

They used the moonlight color of my eyes, the color of my father’s hair, and the same silvery white color of my mother’s hair all together to create an image of ice. The glamourous applications of ribbons and drapes represented the roses.

“Happy birthday. Well…you don’t look so bad, huh?”

“Happy birthday to you…Ummm…you look very pretty.”

The ones who continued to talk to me were Brother Onyx and Sister Athena.

I had met the two of them once before this birthday party.

Brother Onyx had black hair and gold eyes, and was a confident and humorous boy, just like I was told previously.

According to Sister Thulite, his first love was my mother, and he was quite flustered when he saw me, whose coloring and features were very similar to hers.

He was kind of embarrassed and acting in a boyish way, looking off into different directions while praising me.

Sister Athena also had black hair and gold eyes, and was a bit of a timid girl. She was only a year older than me though, so she seemed like a normal little girl.

She has a face just like Sister Thulite and wears scholarly black-rimmed glasses, so it was interesting to see that face with a timid personality. I hoped we would get to know each other better in the future.

After the greetings to the Heimer family were over, it was time to greet the relatives and upper nobles who seemed to be related to me one by one.

Brother Will and Aunt Felicia also congratulated and praised me a lot, so I was happy, but Brother Oluris’ face was not there after all.

Finally, it was the time to greet the neutral/intermediate nobles, and the intimate sense of distance between the relatable people from earlier had turned into an obligatory greeting.

In the midst of it all, my eyes caught on one person.

……Somehow, I feel like I’ve seen him before…?”

The figure was so far away from this greeting space that I could only see his profile.

His hair was ash white, as if they were the ashes after a fire had been burned out. He wore thin-framed glasses, and his face was slightly turned away to the other side, so the color of his eyes could be seen. He was a young man dressed in brown and black clothing under a dark green cloak.

Hmm? Is this possibly our future ML???

“Hmm…?”

As I twisted my head in a mysterious sense of deja vu, a cheer came out from one of the tables.

“Oh my–! What kind of sweet is this?!”

Surprised, I looked over and saw a crowd of people at the homemade bread corner.

When I approached them, I saw a well-dressed man with a woman who appeared to be his wife, frolicking in the center of the room.

“How fluffy…! And this honeyed fruit goes so well with it–!”

Oh. The masterpiece was being appreciated!

The woman was now eating a wheat bread risen with natural yeast made of fruit.

The bread is crisp and fluffy, with a hollowed-out layer of butter, topped with fresh cream and decorated with slices of fruit soaked in honey.

I had gotten access to ingredients similar to apples, walnuts, and lemons, so this time I used those three.

“I’ve had ‘Lyuke’ before, but this is very different…What’s is this aroma and texture?” The well-dressed man moans. Ufufufu.

I could see my parents’ smug faces in the distance, so I ran up to them and was picked up in a big hug by my father. He spun me around like that.

“You did it, Alice! The guests seem to love it. As expected of my special daughter and my wife!”

As he said that, my father kissed me and my mother on the cheek in turn.

The bread that was usually eaten in this world is called “Melan.” It was a hard black bread made from something that looked like rye.

In this world, the staple food was hard…?! It’s no wonder my Japanese blood was boiling.

For this party, I had more time on my hands, so I didn’t compromise like with the sandwiches. So, for the party today, I had improved on the hard white bread called “Lyuke,” which was eaten alternately with melan in the upper class.

“Even at the Young Mistress’ request, I cannot serve something rotten to my guests!” The chef I had put in charge of developing the natural yeast from fruit had spent three days and three nights crying and ranting about it.

I knew how to make it, but I had never tried it before, so I gave him the general idea and left the bulk of the work to the master of the experimental site, which was called the kitchen, while I was in charge of supervising.

After about half a month of struggling in the kitchen, the head chef and I, along with Alphonse and Connie, who had joined us before we knew it, smelled the yeast that we had made and accepted it. We succeeded in making the white bread fluffy.

As I mentioned before, although there had been some misgivings about the crazy cooking theories of my world…I was lucky that the head chef was a young man with a relatively flexible mindset.

Thank you, chef…I’ll never forget your sacrifice in struggling all night to control the temperature.

When I returned from my momentary reminiscence, I also heard someone mention the decorations and aroma on the fermented bread.

“This thinly sliced, circular apple is beautiful and delicious, but…what is that fragrant powder on it?”

The question was answered by Brother Will.

“It’s called kasha powder. It was a gift from the Virgil family in celebration of Miss Alice’s birthday.”

“Oh, if you ask me, that’s certainly Kasha…!” A man in the circle raised his voice.

This ‘kasha’ was basically cinnamon.

In this world, sweet breads were still scarce, so cinnamon flavored sweets were not common. If anything, it seemed that cinnamon was mostly still classified as an herbal medicine. However, after searching for a spice with mother and the Virgil family that would go well with our  “soft and sweet bread,” the kasha was the one we chose.

My mother, who had adopted the decorating scheme along with the kasha, looked modestly happy alongside my father outside of the circle.

Even though I didn’t make any real sweets, I was stillable to make the sweet bread at least.

I’m glad I made it in time…

I was so relieved that I didn’t even notice that the man with whom I just felt a sense of déjà vu, didn’t come to greet me after all. I had forgotten all about it.

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T/N: Lots of new characters introduced in this chapter! We also got to see some more cooking, hehe. Sometimes, the translations to the foods in this novel are a little difficult because they aren’t actually real words (like ‘lyuke’ and ‘kasha’), but I try my best (^__^)