The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 145

Chapter 145: Raspberry Pie and the Cook’s Future

August was shown into the office, and immediately Ed brought tea and a dessert.

Usually, at this time of day it was light refreshments, but today, having been forewarned of August’s visit, Ed seemed to have baked sweets as a treat.

“This is raspberry pie. It uses raspberries brought by a child from Melt Village.”

The cross-section was bright red, with glistening, rich syrup seeping out. Beside the pie was a dollop of white cream, and a sprig of mint provided a nice garnish.

“Thank you, Ed. Rest until dinner preparations. You don’t look very well.”

“No, I’m fine! But thank you very much!”

As soon as he said that, he coughed lightly, quickly apologized, and left the room.

“Is he unwell?”

“He says it’s nothing serious, but his throat hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days. Besides, he’s incredibly busy and I don’t think he’s getting enough rest.”

While the number of residents in the lord’s mansion hadn’t increased, the completion of an administrative building for internal affairs management and dormitories for the chief administrator and civil officials within the mansion grounds had dramatically increased the number of visitors to the lord’s mansion.

Each dormitory has women hired from the villages who are in charge of cooking, but the civil officials often have meals at the lord’s mansion as a reward for their work.

If meetings and consultations with Melfina run long, light refreshments are sometimes served.

While I felt there was a limit to entrusting all those preparations to Ed alone, the question of whether increasing the number of cooks would actually benefit Ed has caused time to slip by.

“I sometimes eat meat pies, but a fruit pie? It’s incredibly red.”

“It’s surely delicious. Theodore and Lloyd, come and sit. Let’s take a break.”

The two, still not entirely used to eating with Melfina, hesitated slightly, but eventually settled onto the three-seater sofa where August was seated.

Cutting a piece of the pie with a fork and adding cream, I put it in my mouth. The tartness and sweetness of the raspberries, generously simmered in sugar, spread throughout my mouth. Still warm from the oven, the taste and aroma were exceptionally pronounced.

The raspberry filling was almost too tart, but the cream gently neutralized it, resulting in a mellow flavor.

The crisp pie crust was a nice accent. The strong butter flavor was likely due to brushing it with browned butter after baking.

Freshly baked pie is guaranteed to be delicious, but even in my past life, where all sorts of delicacies existed, this would undoubtedly command a high price.

“Melfina?”

“…It’s so delicious I’m speechless. Everyone, please.”

At Melfina’s words, everyone simultaneously plunged their forks into the pie. After cleansing our palates with tea, we were about to take another bite when we all realized we had fallen silent.

“Marie?”

“…I was lost in thought, believing this to be the taste of heaven. This is… no, I can’t put it into words.”

“Is this a sweet made with sugar? I’ve heard of it, but it’s unbelievable.”

August said thoughtfully, then took another bite of pie and sighed.

“The pie crust itself is quite different from what I know.”

The “pie” eaten throughout the Francesca Kingdom is quite different from its past life counterpart. It’s a type made by wrapping fillings in dough kneaded with lard and strong flour, baked in an oven, with the hard, baked crust serving more as a container for the filling than something to be enjoyed itself.

For nobles, eating the pie crust is considered uncouth, and it’s given to the servants, but if even the servants don’t eat it, it becomes food for stray dogs or pigs.

Since a little weak flour has become available, it’s become one of the delicacies of the lord’s mansion.

“It’s incredible. Considering the effort that went into this single dish, it feels like I’m eating jewels.”

August lifts the plate and stares intently at the pie. While it’s not good manners, I can understand his feelings.

Sugar is recognized in this world as an incredibly expensive tonic. Knowing how much sugar is used in this pie would undoubtedly astonish even August, who usually maintains an unflappable demeanor.

“This pie is delicious not just because it uses sugar. The balance of tartness and sweetness is well-adjusted, preventing the cream from being too rich, and this crisp pie crust, which is very prone to burning, is baked to such a perfect golden brown. Even with the recipe, it’s not something anyone can make.”

Melfina taught the basic recipe and precautions, but sweets require particularly delicate measurements and techniques; above all, experience is essential.

Lately, even though Melfina rarely participates in cooking, the result is nothing short of magnificent.

“Melfina, if you don’t intend to let him go, you should not let just any visitor eat this. Few would try to interfere with a Duchess’s personal cook, but it would be troublesome if a member of the Royal Family were to ‘request’ him.”

“I doubt the Royal Family would ever come to such a remote place as this, and in that case, they would likely bring their own cooks.”

However, I understand August’s warning.

Melfina, as a Duchess, is fine, but Ed is a commoner, originally from a rural village, without a strong backing. While he’s protected under Melfina’s care within the lord’s mansion, it’s not good to attract too much attention.

“Still, the Enkar region is developing with each visit. Haven’t the number of watermills increased again?”

The watermills built along the river for milling flour are steadily increasing in number. Even within the lord’s mansion grounds, two watermills are installed for milling and oil pressing.

“If you only count the contracts for watermills and the river port, there are far more. We will have as many as possible built by autumn, and the rest will be done next year.”

“Development is good, but isn’t it a bit rushed? Even though the Duke’s family is trying to control it, you can’t stop people from talking. Investing so much during a period of economic stagnation is likely to attract undue attention.”

What August says is true. Although the number of people immigrating to the Enkar region is gradually increasing, most are currently those coming and going as day laborers, and it’s uncertain whether the immigrants will remain permanently. It’s not advisable to invest too much in infrastructure.

However, even when we recruited craftsmen last year, few responded. The Enkar region, located in the far north, is simply not attractive as a place of work. If there are other job opportunities in the capital or its surrounding areas, prioritizing them is understandable.

Currently, craftsmen are gathering in the Enkar region largely because of the famine, which has caused the economy to stagnate, and there are no other jobs.

—Next year, the Holy Maiden is supposed to descend, and the famine will be resolved.

Once the famine is over, sugar production will begin under the leadership of the Duke’s family. Then, the Oldrand territory will enter an unprecedented boom. The economy will circulate, and more people will be building new buildings or carrying out repairs.

The craftsmen will once again prioritize work in their home base of Soarasonne – a future Melfina can see.

Before that, facilities that can be completed must be completed, and those that cannot be completed in time must be contracted in advance.

Just building a wall around the administrative district centered on the lord’s mansion will take several years, and considering that we will eventually fortify the Enkar village, that project will be a massive undertaking spanning over a decade. It would be extremely problematic to have the contract finished midway and have the stonemasons and other technicians leave.

From the outside, it’s unavoidable that Melfina appears to be rushing.

“Yes, it might be a little too fast. Even the chief administrator and civil officials seem to be under pressure, and the lord’s mansion itself is also burdened.”

I put my hand on my cheek, let out a sigh, and lowered my gaze to the pie.

“The number of visitors to the lord’s mansion has increased, and if we don’t take countermeasures soon, Ed might collapse.”

The number of maids has increased to three. Anna, the senior maid, works briskly, and I feel she has become much more reliable than before.

On the other hand, with the increase in traffic, Ed’s burden has only increased.

“I considered hiring additional cooks, but we just had that incident the other day.”

If we add more cooks, they would be professionals hired by nobles. They would likely be older, and I don’t want to make Ed, who has supported the lord’s mansion until now, feel uncomfortable.

“Wasn’t it that he didn’t have any ‘talent’ in cooking-related fields? If he can make something like this, I feel that talent doesn’t really matter.”

“Being a noble, you naturally think that way.”

For nobles, the presence or absence of magical power or talent is not so important. The appraisal Melfina now uses conveniently was once a source of complex, as she had only acquired rather insignificant talents.

But for commoners, for whom receiving a blessing is not a given, talent is a kind of status.

Receiving a blessing means having received expectations from parents, the merchant’s house, or master where they trained, and having talent means having partly met those expectations.

Perhaps having some kind of talent might make it easier to decide one’s future path – choosing a location based on that thought was short-sighted.

“I think it might be a good idea to have him train elsewhere until he turns sixteen. In this case, ‘elsewhere’ would mean the Duke’s house or a similar noble house in the north. Even if he doesn’t have any budding talent now, working amongst first-rate cooks might create possibilities.”

“…Yes.”

For Melfina, whether Ed has any culinary ‘talent’ or not is irrelevant.

If Ed doesn’t want to cook, I’d rather have him help Rad or Cliff with their work and bring in a new cook for the kitchen.

From the day I came to this land, the feeling of not wanting to lose the people beside me is much stronger.

—A terrible selfishness.

If Ed continues to feel inferior about not having talent, striving to seize a chance is certainly not a bad thing.

Even if he doesn’t develop talent in the end, it might be better to train surrounded by many cooks than to stay in the lord’s mansion where there is no one else to compare his skill against.

“I’ll casually ask Ed.”

It’s the employer’s right to guide the path of their employees, but I don’t want to do that to Ed.

Even though he’s young, he’s working admirably as the cook of the lord’s mansion.

He should decide for himself what he wants to do in the future.

The raspberry pie was truly delicious.

So tart it was almost heartbreaking.