Volume 2 - CH 73

A sweet smell fills the kitchen of the ice cream shop on holiday.

Today, Alme was making pastries to improve the parfait.

She stayed in the kitchen all morning and baked cookies and made pudding.

She made some caramel flakes while waiting for it to cool, and just finished cutting the fruit. She will skip making jam and use commercially available ones.

Once she had everything she needed, she took out the milk ice cream container from the freezer.

It’s time to begin.

The fruit parfait she served to Falk the other day was a mini parfait in a cocktail glass, but the one she is making today is a regular-sized parfait.

She decided to use a goblet glass, which is longer and more vertical than a shallow-bottomed cocktail glass.

It is not that big, but it can make a bigger parfait than the last time.

First, put the caramel flakes at the bottom. Make a layer of strawberry jam on top and another layer of caramel flakes. Next, spread blueberry jam on top.

Then put fruit ice cream on top. This time she chose strawberry ice cream, blueberry ice cream and cranberry ice cream.

Arrange three small, bite-sized balls in a circle. This completes the layer of fruit ice cream.

At this point, the glass is about 80% full. From this point on, it is time to start arranging the top. The glamour of the parfait is determined by the top part, so this is where the real work begins.

Place a large layer of milk ice cream on top of the fruit ice cream layer. When nicely rounded, serve the pudding next to it.

The pudding was a mini pudding that she made first thing in the morning and chilled. It was difficult to get the heat just right, but she was glad it turned out well. It is bite-sized and cute.

Once the pudding is served on a small plate, it is lined up neatly next to the milk ice cream.

While checking the balance, place the fruits so that they fill the gaps between the glasses.

The fruits used are strawberries, blueberries and cranberries, just like the layers of the glass.

Garnish with sliced ​​strawberries, then sprinkle with blueberries and cranberry granules.

Finally, milk ice cream is decorated to Shirotaka-chan specifications and a star-shaped cookie is added behind it.

This completes the Shirotaka-chan berry parfait.

“Matching colors would be a stylish finishing touch.”

Looking at the finished parfait, she nodded.

Strawberry and cranberry red are the main colors, with blueberry purple as the accent color. The first big parfait turned out to be quite stylish.

This would be an even more spectacular and wonderful parfait if accompanied by red fireworks. She was able to successfully get an order for small fireworks the other day, and she couldn’t wait to see the finished product.

“If I want to match this parfait, I should make pink cookies with a strawberry flavor.”

After evaluating the appearance, Alme put her spoon in the parfait. She chewed it with a crunch and relaxed her expression.

“Yes, it’s delicious! I want to add whipped cream, too. I’ll ask the milkman about it next time.”

The milk used for milk ice cream is procured from the milk shop in the city. Does that milkman also make fresh cream? She would ask next time.

Also, it would be nice to have gelatin to make mousse and jelly, and chocolate… but these are hard to come by.

That’s because neither gelatin nor chocolate for confectionery are sold wholesale to the common people’s market.

In that case, she would be purchasing directly from the supplier, but she didn’t know if they would respond to small orders from small independent shops. Most of the time, it’s orders from big confectionery shops and restaurants.

But she’ll figure out how to stock it soon. Putting gelatin aside, she definitely wanted to make chocolate ice cream.

After all, she made milk ice cream, then it’s only natural to make its counterpart, chocolate ice cream. As an ice cream shop owner, she wanted to have both types of ice cream in her shop.

While I was thinking about this and that, she ate the parfait.

……She felt like she has been eating too much lately, but this is also her job, so she’ll close her eyes to it.

After finishing the prototype and tasting of the berry parfait, she started cleaning up while taking a break from eating. But the work was immediately interrupted.

With a clang, the doorbell rang.

She checked through a side window and saw that it was Ena and Aiden who had come to visit. Alme hurriedly opened the front door.

“Ena, Aiden, hello! Aiden, are your injuries better?”

“Oh! I’m all better. Charikot is also scheduled to be discharged from the hospital soon.”

“That’s good to hear. Please come in and I’ll serve you some tea.”

“Sorry to bother you!”

“Sorry to bother you on your day off.”

Alme invited them both into the shop and asked them to sit down at a suitable place. Aiden had been injured in the battle, but Alme was glad to see that he seemed to be in good health now.

“If you had come sooner, I could have served you both parfaits, but…I’m so disappointed that I ate it all myself.”

“What is it? You’ve been working on another one?”

“We didn’t come here to get ice cream, so don’t worry about it.”

She served them a pot of tea and Alme sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

After settling in, Ena broke the ice.

“I’m here today to give you a little update! It’s our wedding party, we were thinking of having it sometime in the near future. I’m not sure what Alme’s plans are, so I came to talk to you about it.”

“Oh, that’s fine! You don’t have to worry about my schedule. I’ll match it with the two of you. When are you planning it?”

“What about next month?”

“It’s after a big battle, and I don’t think demons will appear for a while. It’s better to do it as soon as possible, how about it?”

According to Aiden, after the thick magic fog appears, it seems that the fog will stop appearing for a while. Even if it appears, it’s a thin fog, so only small and weak demons appear.

Alme smiled and agreed to the suggestion to have a party while it was still peaceful.

“I’m fine anytime. I was looking forward to it, so I’m rather happy!”

“Thanks. We haven’t finalized the location yet, but we plan to rent the second church plaza in the East District.”

“It’s a casual garden party for family only, so you can invite friends and acquaintances if you want.”

“Then, may I invite Mr. Falk to join us?”

“Oh, oh…! I don’t mind, but I’d like to ask him to be polite, without any formalities or social status, please”

As long as he uses transformation magic, no one would find out that he’s Shirotaka, and the real Falk is not a pompous person, so she thought that he’ll be fine even if he’s at a commoner’s party.

When Alme explained that, Aiden also agreed.

“We’re going to have a party where everyone brings their own food and drinks, but I thought it would be great if Alme was in charge of the dessert. What do you think?”

“Of course I’ll help! I’ll prepare a lot, but just let me know how many people are coming when it gets closer. I’ll make the best ice cream I can.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’m looking forward to it!”

Earlier, she thought it was frustrating that she couldn’t treat Ena and Aiden to the parfait prototype, but it might have been a good thing.

Alme decided to unveil the parfait at their wedding party. She decided to make the most beautiful parfait and present it to them as a gift.

She would make delicious and fun ice cream that would bring smiles to Ena, Aiden, and everyone at the party.

When she was smiling thinking about such things, the two of them suddenly brought up another topic.

Ena and Aiden both looked at each other and then gave each other a very subtle look.

“…So, Alme, here’s another story…”

“Yes? What happened?”

“Well, it’s really hard to say, but on the way here, I found something a little strange…”

“…something strange?”

Seeing the two of them with a different vibe, Alme also turned to a serious face. The story of Ena and Iden that followed was funny.

“This is Alme’s only ice cream shop, right?”

“Huh? Yes, of course.”

“Somehow along the main street, there is another ‘Titty’s Shop’ that is built…that’s not your second store, is it?”

“Huh!?”

Alme widened her eyes and let out a loud voice. She wonders if it’s some kind of strange phenomenon that there’s another one…

Ena explained the details to the dumbfounded Alme.

“There is a new store on the main street with a big sign that says ‘Titty’s Shop’. It even has a banner hanging from it that says, ‘A new, exquisite sweet, an icy dessert that even nobles are crazy about’.

“What!? Why!?”

What is going on here? It would be understandable if the name of the stores happened to be the same, but is it possible that even the products are the same?

There shouldn’t have been any other shops that sell ice desserts, but…

…This is a bit of a mess and needs to be investigated.

Alme stood up with a solemn face, and Ena and Aiden patted her on the back encouragingly.