Chapter 191

The Alicetia Cookie Incident
Alicetia closed the novel she had borrowed from Keena and let out a sigh. The story was a typical light novel set in a school. It ended just as the transfer student girl and the protagonist got together.

It was the continuation of something an otherworlder happened to possess, written by another otherworlder. She couldn’t help but wonder: what about the copyright?

After reading many novels, she had come to the conclusion that the childhood friend position should be the strongest, yet a random new girl always came in and stole everything.

Alicetia began to consider things through the lens of her previous life as Iris.

If some strange girl approached her childhood friend and fiancé, Takuto, what would Iris have done?

The answer was simple. Eliminate her. Iris would have used her financial power to buy out the company the girl’s parents worked for and have them transferred overseas, or pay them off to “move away.” If that didn’t work—she’d simply make her disappear.

“So basically, the childhood friend is always persecuted.”

Alicetia felt a bit lonely. She didn’t have a childhood friend of the opposite sex. Gilbert and Draconia would never have allowed such a person to exist. And in this life, she had never wanted one.

“First of all, just entering someone’s house uninvited—what is wrong with this girl’s nerves? Even close friends need manners, and she hasn’t even confessed? She’s so spineless.”

Alicetia couldn't believe they weren’t dating despite her going to wake him up every morning.

And for some reason, childhood friend characters often seemed to be rough and careless.

What about herself? For once, she pondered something girlish—and then despaired.

“I’m fatally lacking in this thing called ‘feminine charm.’”

Yes, she decided that what she was missing—while spending her days doing research or paperwork, and slaughtering monsters in her spare time—was feminine charm.

However, she had no idea how to acquire it. A girls’ gathering, the traditional ritual to boost such charm, was impossible since her friends were all in Ostland.

Then what about inside Arland? The only people she knew were meatheads and fanatics. Ordinary girls weren’t included in that circle.

What else could she try? Gardening? But Alicetia had once planted a man-eating plant, so gardening was now forbidden. The plant had been fed an abnormal amount of mana during her care and became a botanical disaster.

Then sewing? Embroidery? That was also a no-go. She got bored and embedded magic circles into her embroidery, which led to Madame declaring her exempt from embroidery. Something had happened, though no one knew exactly what—but embroidery was definitely out.

Music, then? But in her past life, people had said she played with all the emotion of a machine, so that too was probably hopeless.

“No way… I’m really this lacking in feminine charm?”

She shouldn’t be bothered by it—nothing bad would happen even if she lacked it—but somehow she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Yes, even though she had no one she liked, even though the real Alicetia wouldn’t care in the slightest, it still bothered her immensely.

“But I’m supposed to be a genius. Cooking… Since Mother is catastrophically bad at it, I’ll try making sweets. That should be easy.”

But then she thought of Sylvia, the magical cook whose concoctions could make even Draconia roll his eyes back and foam at the mouth, and she began to lose confidence.

In her past life, she had learned a little, but only got as far as peeling vegetables. The extent of what Iris could manage was pouring milk into cornflakes.

Still, Alicetia decided to take action. First, she headed to the kitchen. Based on the time, the cooks were probably on break and not preparing anything. She inferred this from past experience raiding the kitchen to steal sweets (unsolved crimes due to lack of evidence).

And just as she predicted, the cooks were sitting in chairs on break. Alicetia threw in a smoke grenade.

“Whoa! Smoke again?!”

“Get outside, just in case!”

Using concealment magic, she hid herself so the fleeing cooks wouldn’t see her, and soon they all ran outside.

“This time we’ll catch Her Highness for sure! Call His Highness!”

Until now, Alicetia had always crafted a perfect alibi, so she was only considered the prime suspect. But this time, she boldly occupied the kitchen. She immediately sealed off the entrance with a barrier and vented the smoke through the windows using magic.

Gilbert arrived right away.

“Hmm, there's a barrier up. Hey, Alice, this time I won’t let it slide.”

Even though no snack ban had been issued, he found it strange that the kitchen had been attacked, but still called out to her. Alicia also showed up.

“Come on, Princess. Please confess to everything up until now.”

Whenever a snack ban was declared, the resulting kitchen raid incident always pointed to Alicetia. Even with all the circumstantial evidence, she would fabricate an alibi, so they couldn’t get mad at her. But this time was different.

“I am about to carry out something called ‘baking sweets’!”

Those words didn’t just horrify the two of them, but also turned the faces of the cooks and knights pale. Sylvia’s cooking was a thing of terror. And now her daughter wanted to make sweets.

“To the terrorist: Cease resistance immediately and surrender. If you do so now, we won’t press charges. We won’t tell Mother or Madame either, so just surrender.”

Gilbert raised his voice. Everyone behind him nodded in agreement. Better to let her go than risk a magical culinary disaster.

“Who’re you calling a terrorist?!”

Alicetia protested, but no one cared. Stopping the creation of magical food was the top priority.

“Princess, it’s still too soon for you. You need the basics! Start with the basics! So please, come out!”

“Even I should be able to make cookies. And I will raise my feminine charm!”

“Wait… What do you mean by raising it? Don’t tell me… You’ve fallen for someone? I won’t allow it!”

“There’s no one I like. But I realized I lack this thing called feminine charm.”

Everyone present thought the same thing: “Here we go again—classic Alicetia.”

But even if it was just another one of her random whims, they couldn’t allow her to create magical food.

"Wait. Let's start with the basics. Jumping straight to cookies is too soon."

"Then you don't get any, Big brother."

"Very well, make as many as you like!"

Gilbert plopped himself down right there with a resolute expression on his face. He was determined. He must be like Draconia, who must finish every bite of Sylvia's magical cooking. It was in their blood.

"Wait, Your Highness, are you serious!?"

"Alice's first homemade dish is mine. I've had a good life."

Gilbert had already accepted death. That’s how badly he wanted his little sister’s homemade cooking (sweets). And not just any—her first attempt.

Alicia realized persuasion was futile.

"Everyone, fall back. Even if it’s sealed by a barrier, we don't know what could happen. Declare Level One Alert in the royal castle and seal off the kitchen sector."

"Understood!"

Knights and cooks ran off crying. Alarms echoed throughout the castle, and bulkheads descended across corridors.

"Wait! I haven’t gotten out yet!"

One cook, too slow to escape, pounded on the bulkhead with tears streaming down his face.

"I'm sorry... we won't forget your sacrifice."

Once an alert is activated, raising the bulkheads isn’t easy. There was no way to save him.

After a while, humming could be heard. Rare for Alicetia. But to Alicia, it sounded like a song of terror.

"Princess... you do know the basics of cooking, right?"

"Who do you think I am? Of course I do. It's an originality no one can match."

"That's not it! The recipe. Please follow the recipe!"

"First, I’ll add this magic potion I got from the basement lab from Eibon (unauthorized) as a secret ingredient... whoa! The dough's moving—stop! Don’t run!"

After mixing in a mysterious potion (ingredients unknown), the dough started moving like a slime and attacked Alicetia.

Gunfire rang out from the kitchen. Alicetia had retaliated. What started as single shots quickly turned to automatic fire, then deep rumbling sounds. It was like she was firing a gatling gun inside.

About twenty minutes later, it went quiet.

"Whew, finally calmed down... hmm? It feels weirdly hard. I can't mix it like this... I know, I’ll use a drill."

The sound of drilling and metal grinding echoed from within.

"Your Highness… could it be the Princess surpasses even the Queen...?"

"I’m... prepared."

"Hey, let me out too~!"

Beside the still-pounding cook, Alicia also began pounding on the bulkhead. Her spirit had broken.

Strange noises, inhuman groans, and explosions echoed for a while, but that was a minor matter.

Roughly two hours after the 'cooking' (alchemy?) began, it was complete. Alicetia lifted the barrier and invited in Gilbert—who awaited with lifeless eyes full of anticipation—and Alicia, whose expression looked like she had given up on the world. The cook had fainted partway through.

"Alicia, was the kitchen always like this?"

"No, it’s completely different."

The kitchen was brand new. Everything had been replaced. Only a few cooking utensils remained from the old setup.

"I know this—cleaning up after cooking is part of cooking."

Alicetia nodded, satisfied. Her thoughts of feminine charm had long since drifted into the void.

"I see... cleaning the kitchen is a good thing... or maybe it's destroying the evidence."

"Ugh, even the wallpaper is new."

"Behold. This is proof I can cook too."

Alicetia removed the cloche—the domed lid—on the table. Inside was a neatly arranged batch of beautiful cookies.

"What a marvel. You've done a fine job. My little sister must be a genius at cooking."

Gilbert praised Alicetia with vacant eyes. His SAN value had likely already dropped below zero.

Alicia, who still had just enough sanity left, argued back.

"Please calm down, Your Highness. The cookies are radiating a rainbow-colored aurora."

Indeed, Alicetia's cookies were flawless. There were no burn marks, and they were baked perfectly through. However, they were emitting a rainbow-colored aurora. Gilbert stubbornly refused to acknowledge reality, telling himself that there was nothing strange about cookies giving off an aurora.

"Hmph. If you’re going to complain that much, then I won’t share them with you, Alicia."

Puffing out her cheeks, Alicetia turned away. Alicia knelt down in response.

"No! I definitely want to try them too!"

If Alicia were being honest, she did want to taste Alicetia’s very first homemade dish. Ideally, she would’ve preferred something a little more standard, instead of cookies glowing with mysterious auroras. She had wanted to teach her how to cook from the basics and produce something clearly edible.

But if it was edible—even if it was poison—she’d eat it. If it was Alicetia’s homemade dish, then that was all that mattered.

Lifting the plate, Alicetia brought it over to them. The two took a cookie into their mouths.

"Hmm, this is surprisingly tasty."

Gilbert’s SAN value recovered.

"Yes, it’s delicious… sniff… I’m so glad our princess is good at cooking."

Alicia chewed through tears. Sylvia’s cursed cuisine assaulted SAN values through sight, smell, and even sound. Compared to that, cookies that only emitted a rainbow aurora were practically gourmet.

But reality is cruel.

"NUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!"

Gilbert let out a roar. His body overflowed with mana and fighting spirit.

"Power… it’s surging through me!"

And just like that, Gilbert smashed through a thick bulkhead with a single kick and ran off somewhere.

(Looks like it’s no good after all.)

Watching this, Alicia realized her fate was sealed.

Then dizziness hit her. Her mana became unstable, and she could no longer stay on her feet.

"U-ugh..."

*Pop!* With that sound, Alicia grew a third tail. Time began to slow. Alicetia gently placed the plate back on the table, then in a flash zipped behind Alicia, grabbed her under both arms, and lifted her up.

Then she carried her back to her room and thoroughly fluffed her. Yes, Alicia had become a three-tailed fox. However, aside from the original tail, the two new ones lacked moisture. So they were aggressively fluffed.

Alicia was a half-blood of the fox spirit tribe and the elves. It seemed her fox spirit blood had awakened.

But Alicia did not know the truth. Her mother was once royalty of a nation called the Beast Paradise, which had ruled over all beastkin. And those of the fox tribe with more than two tails possessed tremendous power.

That power was the very reason the Beast Paradise met its downfall. The multi-tailed fox tribe carried the curse of an incredible regenerative ability—essentially immortality.

Though the fox spirit tribe was extremely powerful, their abilities typically did not pass to their half-blood descendants. But no one knew that Alicia, as a mixed-blood, had inherited the full traits of both her parent races.

As a child, Alicia had been captured and sold into slavery, separated from her parents until she arrived in Arland. Even in Arland, she only exchanged letters with her parents who now lived quiet lives, and had little real contact with them. As a result, she remained unaware of her own power. Her mother, the last of the multi-tailed fox tribe, had never told her daughter about their power—fearing it might draw calamity.

This secret would one day lead to tragedy. But for now, the unconscious Alicia was being thoroughly fluffed by Alicetia.

After that, Gilbert demonstrated superhuman performance in both politics and training for about a week. However, after a week had passed, he hit his limit and collapsed, bedridden for three days.

The cookies left behind in the kitchen were jointly sealed by the Kingdom's Mage Corps and the Technical Development Bureau, and hidden away deep in the royal treasury. Thanks to the sealing magic, they would never spoil.

Gilbert, meanwhile, recovered in three days—but it appeared that both his mana and physical abilities had increased significantly.

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