Chapter 692

Essential for shaved ice.
Starting the very next day, I spent my nights working hard on shaved ice sauces and syrups.

Of course, some of the mangoes I’d bought from Prince Kaldor got turned into sauce.
The rest I cut into dice-sized chunks for toppings.

I also had a stock of various berries turned into loose jams, so I decided to use those. To match them, I kept churning out condensed milk.

It’s really just simmering milk and sugar while making sure the bottom of the pot doesn’t burn, but as much as I’d love to make a big batch in a stockpot, wasting it all if I messed up would be too heartbreaking. So I decided to make small amounts every day in a little saucepan.

Condensed milk is essential for shaved ice.
Sure, you can do without it, but with it, the richness goes way up.

And even when I boiled it down too much by accident, the “failures” turned into caramel sauce or soft caramels, so nothing went to waste.

Actually, once certain people—and certain sacred beasts—found out you could make caramel that way, they started deliberately “messing up,” and my condensed milk production was constantly delayed.

Next came matcha syrup.
For that, I asked Sei.
Carefully whisked with a chasen, so the aroma stayed rich and there were no lumps.

“I’ve never made syrup out of matcha before…”

Even with his hesitation, the matcha syrup Sei produced was excellent. As expected of him.

As for me, when I thought of matcha, there were some toppings I just had to make.

First, red bean paste.
Since I’d stored some before adding sugar in the inventory, I could adjust the sweetness depending on what I wanted to make.

For shaved ice toppings, sweeter is better—cold makes sweetness harder to notice, after all.

Then, shiratama dango.
I’d found shiratama flour at the Bastea Company in the territory and bought it right away.

I had Kurogane handle the kneading and boiling.
Apparently he doesn’t mind repetitive tasks like making them all the same size and weight, so he churned them out steadily and reliably.

… Or so I thought, until Byakko-sama started plopping red bean paste on top of the finished dumplings and eating them. That set everyone else off, and in no time the shiratama were gone.

Kurogane fumed, “Wasting my effort like that!”—but since he had eaten them too, he wasn’t innocent either.
Not that I could say much, since I’d also snuck a few myself…

As a penalty, Byakko-sama, who had started it all, got sent to buy more from the Bastea Company.

“Hah! It was delicious, so no problem at all!”

He even came back the next day with twice the amount I’d asked for. So I decided to save some for after shaved ice season too.

I also tried making amber sugar candy.
Just agar, sugar, and a bit of fruit juice if you like—it’s a simple recipe.

Sparkly and pretty, I figured it would be a hit with the girls.

I was still busy searching for other fruits that might make good toppings when a message came from the duke’s house.

What—? The shaved ice maker is finished, and I should head to Ojisama’s workshop this weekend?

Wait, already!?

What do you think about this chapter?