I don't know what kind of person the one called the Ice Witch was.
If I only listened to Peurau's story, she simply felt like a bad person who habitually committed child abuse.
But the more I chewed over the story I had heard,
the more I thought something was strange.
After all, Peurau wasn't related to her master by blood.
If the Ice Witch truly hated Peurau, she could have simply cut off the relationship.
Moreover, Peurau said the Ice Witch didn't scold her at least when she was eating Topliya.
The reason Peurau held fond memories only for her master's Topliya was because among the days spent crying every day, the very moment of eating Topliya was salvation.
But let's think from the Ice Witch's perspective.
If she truly hated and despised Peurau,
she would have nagged and scolded her without fail even during meals.
But she didn't do that.
Why?
"Peurau, I'm asking just in case... have you ever been hit by your master?"
"Why do you ask such a thing?"
"The last puzzle piece to recreate the Topliya in your memories... it might be related to that."
I said, looking at Peurau seriously.
She made a puzzled expression, but answered with a small sigh.
"I haven't particularly been hit by my master."
"I see."
"So, can you complete the Topliya I want?"
Even as Peurau said that, this time she didn't stop eating the Topliya.
Even if it wasn't the Topliya from her desired memories, this time it seemed to suit her taste.
As I watched Peurau slowly spooning the Topliya,
I came to notice one fact.
Actually, it had been bothering me since we first met.
That cold mana gradually emanating from Peurau's body.
At first, I thought she was deliberately maintaining magic to make cold air emerge from her body.
Because she was tightly wrapped in fur clothing, rather than changing out of her homeland's clothes into something else, I had thought she was letting cold air seep from her body to regulate her body temperature.
And there was the lump of ice containing the precious last piece of Topliya that she always carried in her bag, after all.
But anyway, ice frozen with magic wouldn't melt as long as mana was continuously supplied,
and from a mage's perspective, wearing lighter clothes would have been more comfortable in many ways than unnecessarily emitting cold air from her body.
And the cold air that grew slightly stronger along with her emotions when she spoke of her master.
My instincts as a mage made me recall a certain possibility.
"Peurau... about that cold mana flowing through your body, did your master say nothing about it?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"That cold magic you're emanating, can you stop it completely for a moment?"
Ordinary mages don't deliberately surround themselves with such an aura.
I had studied various fields of magic,
and especially when it came to elemental magic, I possessed deeper knowledge than other mages, so I knew.
Of course, some mages deliberately used mana to display their power.
But that was like a poison dart frog using brilliant colors to advertise its danger,
a method used by mages who didn't want to be underestimated by others, and only in specific situations.
To me, Peurau seemed to maintain that state
whether it was snowing or raining, whether someone was watching or not.
At my request to stop the cold air flowing from her body,
Peurau could only look at me with an expression that said she had no idea what I was talking about.
"...As I thought, you can't stop it on your own."
"Wh-what... all of a sudden..."
"I'm sure you said you definitely ate Topliya without fail once a week. Perhaps it wasn't ordinary food."
I had found and replaced all the wrong ingredients.
The taste and scent were the same as the Topliya in her memories.
But something still felt lacking.
I asked Peurau.
"I think it's time to use it. That last piece of your master's Topliya that you have."
"What..."
Peurau made a surprised expression.
But I needed it to confirm whether my thoughts were correct.
"You have thought this through carefully, right? As you said at first, the Topliya made after melting this ice must definitely taste like what your master made. There won't be a second chance."
"Yes."
Even at Peurau's threat, I answered nonchalantly.
It wasn't just that I wasn't feeling fear toward her from the beginning,
but actually, I had a certain conviction within me.
The Topliya that was one step away from completion.
What was needed here now wasn't a new recipe or hidden ingredients.
And if I was right...
That clue was probably vividly remaining in the lump of meat left inside that ice.
"...Fine. I'll trust you. No one has ever made something this close to my master's Topliya..."
Peurau opened her travel bag and took out the lump of ice frozen with that magic.
A lump of ice so cleanly flash-frozen without a single impurity that the lump of meat inside was visible transparently.
If one thawed it with delicate magic rather than simply cutting off the mana supply to melt it,
that lump of meat would likely possess the taste and aroma as if it had just been taken out of the master's Topliya.
"Should I melt it like this?"
Peurau asked, placing the ice on the counter.
"No, just cut off the mana you're supplying. I'll take care of the rest."
"But..."
"It's fine."
Peurau nodded and cut off the mana supply maintaining the ice.
I placed my hand on the ice and muttered softly.
"Defrost."
When cooking, there are many occasions where ingredients must be frozen or thawed.
I, who had researched to the extreme any magic used for cooking,
utilized thawing magic in a way that minimized damage to frozen ingredients.
Precise mana control through Meta Control.
I thawed the ice while preventing unnecessary moisture from seeping into the ingredient.
"You..."
Peurau murmured as she watched me melting the ice with magic.
She knew it was a restaurant run by a mage,
but she must not have thought the level of mana control would be this high.
After a short while, when the ice had almost completely melted.
I placed the shrunken lump of ice on my palm.
And using mana even more delicately,
I restored the lump of meat inside the ice as if it had just been scooped out of a stew.
"Hmm..."
Though I had melted quite a large chunk of ice, the surroundings were clean without a drop of water.
The meat on my palm was merely cold,
and when I brought it to my nose and smelled it, the condition was excellent.
"So? What are you going to do now? You really can't turn back anymore."
Peurau's voice trembled slightly.
The trace of the last Topliya her master had made.
She had finally melted and used what she had sealed inside the ice and cherished dearly.
Even if she changed her mind and froze it again now,
it couldn't return to the perfect state it had when first frozen.
I brought the lump of meat on my palm before my eyes and gazed at it for a moment.
And then I put that meat whole into my mouth.
"Wh-what are you doing!"
"Calm down. Did you think I'd use this as a cooking ingredient? As the chef, I have to taste it to find the last element missing from the Topliya."
"That may be true, but..."
Peurau, who had jumped up from her seat in surprise, sat back down.
I chewed and chewed the Topliya meat that had been preserved in ice for a long time.
It wasn't even a full bowl; I couldn't figure out the entire recipe just by eating this one lump of meat.
Nevertheless, the reason I insisted on eating this lump of meat
was actually to verify another possibility unrelated to cooking.
Closing my eyes, I chewed the meat with a spicy aroma in my mouth,
and I felt faint traces of mana from the meat.
And those traces of mana were exactly what I had been searching for.
"This confirms it."
"Wh-what?"
"Your master... might not have been as bad a person as you think."
At my words, Peurau snorted as if it was absurd.
"Are you trying to lecture me now like 'your parents actually didn't mean it~'? I came here to eat my master's Topliya, not to hear such things from you who knows nothing."
"No, this is important."
"You haven't forgotten, have you? That you just devoured my master's last Topliya."
The chill flowing from Peurau's body grew stronger again.
"Please calm down and eat the next Topliya? This Topliya will be the last one."
"...I'll say it again, there are no second chances now."
Peurau said coldly.
I immediately began preparing the last Topliya to serve her.
* * *
A mage who has reached a certain level in magic studies
can trace the traces of magic used by another mage.
The last clue that was lacking to make the Topliya of Peurau's memories.
It wasn't in the ingredients or the recipe, but in a mage called the Ice Witch.
It didn't take long to prepare the Topliya again.
"Here, it's done. This is... the answer I can present to you."
A bowl of Topliya, served once again before Peurau.
Peurau looked at me with a puzzled face and asked.
"It's exactly the same as the Topliya you gave me earlier? Are you mocking me? I can see the whole kitchen from here."
"No, it'll be different from earlier. Just try it."
"...If you're deceiving me, I won't let it go."
Peurau, with a face full of doubt, brought her spoon to the Topliya.
Slowly scooping up broth together with meat, she brought it to her mouth.
"...!"
And the next moment, uncontainable surprise spread across Peurau's face.
"How is it? It's now close to the taste in your memories, right?"
"It's exactly the same... yes, this is what my master's Topliya felt like."
The movement of her spoon gradually quickened.
After scooping and eating the Topliya several times, Peurau asked me.
"What happened? It definitely seemed like the same Topliya as before..."
"The Topliya your master made for you... the last seasoning was magic."
"Magic...?"
"The cold mana flowing through your body, you seem to be controlling it well now... but you wouldn't have when you were young."
I had heard of it before.
Stories of children whose flowing mana couldn't be controlled on their own.
Occasionally in this world, children are born with mana flowing backwards or uncontrollable.
And most such children die before surpassing age seven, showing symptoms similar to mana sickness.
Peurau must have been one of those children.
Peurau's master, the Ice Witch, I had heard was a renowned mage in the northern continent.
Such a woman couldn't have failed to notice that when she first adopted Peurau.
The cold mana seeping from a newborn baby's body and the chill caused by it.
Left as is, she would surely die.
"Your master probably... knew about your innate unique constitution and adopted you because of it. The reason she taught you magic harshly from a young age was likely to cultivate the strength to control that cold mana you possess, which is extremely difficult to control. Otherwise, you would have eventually died as if afflicted with mana sickness."
"I... mana sickness...?"
"To be exact, it's not mana sickness. It's a congenital mana abnormality. Such children are born occasionally. Their mana quantity far exceeds that of normal people, but they can't handle that mana. If ten are born, nine die before passing infancy. To me, you must have been one of those children."
The last lump of Topliya meat preserved in ice.
Clearly remaining there were traces of some magic the Ice Witch had injected.
It was a flow of warm mana bearing the fire element (火),
exactly opposite to the mana Peurau possessed.
"She must have been impatient. If you didn't quickly grow accustomed to magic and control that mana, your life would have ended. Your master probably had no choice but to use harsh methods by any means necessary to raise you as a mage."
"...I can't believe it."
“And that Topliya, the flavor you’ve been remembering… It still held the flow of warm mana your master had infused into it. It was a kind of temporary antidote that could calm the cold-natured mana you possess. Until you could control your mana on your own, she must have been feeding you that Topliya to keep it subdued for the time being.”
Originally, traditional Topliya does not contain Flamberos, the spicy pepper.
But the Ice Witch altered the Topliya recipe,
creating a new dish with Flamberos, an ingredient of a hot nature.
Then, at the very end, she infused it with her own mana so it could calm Frau’s condition even more effectively.
In truth, the Topliya Frau had eaten every week was, for all intents and purposes, a recipe devised by the Ice Witch specifically for Frau,
so that she could live a little more comfortably while controlling her mana.
“…That can’t be true. There’s no way that cruel woman would have thought of something like that…”
“If your master truly hated you, she would have scolded you even when you ate Topliya. But how was it, really?”
“…”
“You said that after eating Topliya, you somehow felt at ease. That’s because this special Topliya had the perfect effect of calming the mana inside you. Now that you can control your mana yourself, it doesn’t seem like your life is in danger even if you don’t eat Topliya… but it looks like your master kept making Topliya for you every week until the very end, even after you became a mage and no longer needed to eat it.”
After hearing everything I had to say, Frau stared blankly.
I didn’t know what she was thinking right now.
Just because she had learned the truth about Topliya now,
it didn’t mean the countless days of tears she had endured since childhood would be erased.
Frau sat there without a word, lowering her head.
Then, with trembling hands, she picked up her spoon again,
scooped up some Topliya, and began to eat.
“…Sniff… It’s spicy.”
After eating about two spoonfuls,
Frau muttered in a trembling voice, her head lowered toward the bowl.
“…It’s too spicy… It’s because it’s spicy… Like an idiot…”
Unable to continue speaking, Frau’s shoulders shook.
Her head was bowed so low I couldn’t see her face, but she was definitely crying.
“Um… customer? Are you okaaaay?”
“Shh, don’t bother her. Just come over here and stay still.”
The soggy-seaweed ghost Aris, completely unable to read the room, approached Frau with a worried look,
so I quickly brought Aris into the kitchen and lightly flicked her on the head.
For a while, the only sounds in the restaurant were Frau eating Topliya and her quiet sobs.
So that Frau could finish her meal in peace,
I simply went deeper into the kitchen, out of sight from the counter seats, and waited.
* * *