Chirp chirp—!
Was this the aftermath of collapsing into sleep the night before?
The number one sound effect you should never hear when waking up in the morning—peaceful birdsong—rang in my ears.
‘The tart... Maybe I can bring it a little late?’
I’m more tired than I thought. I really must be getting old.
Back in the day, even if I only slept four hours, I’d be fine as long as I had coffee and vitamin pills.
I desperately wanted to roll around in bed.
‘Still, I should go.’
It would keep for a day or two, but tarts were best eaten as soon as possible.
I had refrigerated it, but half a day had already passed... so the flavor must have dropped a little.
I staggered up and went down to the kitchen, only to find that breakfast time had already passed.
The apprentice chef elves seemed to have finished preparing breakfast and gone off for a short break.
It was roughly past nine in the morning, so even if I hurried over now, it would be ten.
I packed the peaches preserved in sugar and the lemon custard tart I had baked in advance last night.
Then I left the mansion at once and headed for the brewery.
Having been there once yesterday, finding the way was much easier.
The clear morning sunlight shone down without pause, and my mind gradually woke up as well.
Not that it did anything to smooth out my tired-looking face.
When I glanced at myself in a puddle along the way, I had some dark circles.
There were faint blood vessels in my eyes too. My skin was rough and dry.
‘But the tart is delicious, so all’s good.’
Even as I quickened my pace, I was careful in case the tart might break.
Every time I opened the tart basket now and then to check, an overwhelming dessert aroma came rushing out.
Sugar had been used in every step, and plenty of butter had gone in.
It was so sweet that I could taste the sweetness in my mouth just from the smell.
There was even the subtle harmony of fragrant herbs and fresh lemon custard cream.
“Huuup, haa...”
After repeating the act of sticking my nose into the basket and inhaling the scent several times,
I found myself at Eilenna’s brewery before I knew it.
Just as Elioren had done yesterday, I knocked hard on the door.
Bang, bang, bang—!
And before long, the door flew open.
Her light green hair shone even more freshly under the lemon-like morning sun.
But her gaze was a little languid. She looked tired, as if she had slept poorly.
“Ah, hello, Lady Eilenna.”
“Huh... huh?!”
Had she not expected the person at the door to be me?
Eilenna was extremely startled and fumbled about in a fluster.
Soon, her face turned as red as a well-ripened peach.
Ah, did I come too abruptly without saying anything?
It seemed my visit was rather inconvenient for her.
Otherwise...
There was no way Eilenna, the model-like, strong older-sister type who always said what she wanted to say, would be this flustered.
“I came too suddenly. I’m sorry. I made this for you to eat.”
“Huh? No... It’s not something you need to apologize for... What’s this?”
When I held out the tart basket I had brought,
Eilenna accepted it in a daze.
“It looked like you didn’t have much that would go well with wine, so I tried making a dessert. It’s a peach tart.”
“Really? You went through all that trouble. Thank you. I didn’t give you the wine hoping for something like this...”
“It’s all right. I made it because I wanted to. When you eat it, place the peach preserves inside on top of the tart.”
“Got it. I’ve never seen anything like this before...”
Since the tart and the peach preserves were still separated, I explained the method to Eilenna.
From the way she reacted earlier, she seemed uncomfortable that I had come.
I did want to see whether she ate it deliciously or not, but it was also true that I had shown up out of nowhere.
It would be polite to leave so she could eat comfortably by herself, right?
I turned my body halfway around and spoke while facing the opposite direction.
“Then I’ll be going. Sorry for dropping by so suddenly.”
“H-huh? No...”
Just as I was about to lift my foot off the ground,
Grab—!
“Urgh.”
“Ah, sorry! I did it without thinking...”
Eilenna grabbed my clothes tightly, and my neck was briefly choked.
When I hurriedly turned back, she said,
“Um... eat with me before you go. I’m fine with it.”
Eilenna’s face was still stained with a red blush.
Holding the tart basket I had handed her in both hands, she fidgeted
and stopped me.
***
Eilenna’s house had, no matter how you looked at it, the atmosphere of a “winery.”
Furniture made by repurposing oak barrels used for brewing.
A table made by connecting several oak barrels together and fixing a plank on top.
Dark brown and bright oak colors were mixed here and there.
It was the kind of interior some might think dreary, while others might say it was nice to be surrounded by wood.
‘Ugh, this is embarrassing.’
Though the owner of the house, Eilenna herself, was embarrassed by this interior.
To begin with, “decorating” had always been something far removed from her, and Eilenna had never paid any attention to embellishment.
She had thought that as long as Lilyrendra’s daughter was good at brewing, that was enough.
‘I should’ve brought in some pretty furniture...!’
She resented her past self.
Kang Jinwoo and she were of different races, and they had only known each other for a single day.
Therefore, the heartbeat she felt right now was absolutely not romantic interest.
That was what she thought.
Even so, the reason she was concerned about how her house looked was...
Because, one way or another, Kang Jinwoo was the kind of person she yearned for.
Someone with whom she could share passion, learn things she did not know, and grow together.
Since he was that kind of person, she thought it would be nice if she could make a good impression.
There was nothing bad about building up goodwill, after all.
‘Will he think it’s tacky...?’
Eilenna watched Kang Jinwoo’s expression after he entered the house.
Kang Jinwoo was looking around at the wooden furniture with sparkling eyes.
Seated at the oak barrel table, Kang Jinwoo sniffed and said,
“The interior is really wonderful. These are all woods that were used for brewing, right?”
“Uh... yeah! That’s right. It felt like a waste to throw them away.”
“You absolutely shouldn’t throw them away. Oak barrels that have stored wine carry a complex aroma in and of themselves, so some people even pay extra to buy used oak barrels...”
He said it was wonderful.
Eilenna had even been worrying that he might say something like, “You’re still a female elf, so isn’t the interior a bit too crude?”
But Kang Jinwoo praised it with pure admiration, without the slightest hint that it was mere flattery.
Not only that, Kang Jinwoo got hooked on the topic of oak barrels
and began rambling on by himself about things she had never heard before.
Thump—!
Eilenna’s heart beat hard.
The sound was so loud that even she startled herself.
‘Eek. Eeeek...’
At the sudden increase in her heartbeat, Eilenna struggled to calm down.
Right, the tart.
Let’s eat the tart.
He said it was sweet, so it should help her body and mind, right?
“A-ahem! Jinwoo. Could I ask you to set up the tart? I’ll bring some wine to go with it.”
“Ah, understood.”
Eilenna headed toward the wine cellar as if fleeing.
The wine cellar built underground had its temperature and humidity properly maintained all year round through spirit magic.
Perhaps thanks to that, Eilenna felt as though she could finally breathe.
“Inhale, exhale... What’s wrong with me?”
She was too nervous.
She hadn’t been this nervous even when the first wine she made was being evaluated.
But what was certain was that it was not negative nervousness.
It was not that her body was stiffening and trembling with fear and dread.
Her heart was pounding with happiness and joy, and it was difficult to control the corners of her mouth.
After catching her breath, Eilenna picked up a bottle of the sweet wine she had made, “Eseriel.”
She did not intend to drink much from the morning, so she would not finish even this single bottle.
Eilenna returned to the table with the wine.
Just as she was organizing wine etiquette in her head, worried that she might do something rude, before her eyes—
“You’re back. I’ve prepared it.”
“T-this is... a tart?”
Kang Jinwoo’s ambitious creation, the “peach tart,” was displaying its elegant form.
It was not as if she did not know what a tart was.
Elves simply did not make and eat them; she had experienced them before when she briefly went out into human civilization in the past.
However, the peach tart Kang Jinwoo had made...
looked very different from the tarts Eilenna knew.
Sweet desserts, with their ingredients and culinary knowledge extremely precious, had always been the exclusive property of high society.
Therefore, tarts filled with sweet ingredients did exist, but Eilenna had never encountered one.
Thus, the tart Eilenna knew was a hard, flat pastry made as a substitute for a plate.
An egg mixture with various vegetables and cheese was poured on top, and it was eaten as a meal.
She remembered it as a menu better than coarse wheat bread and watery stew, but not exactly a high-class dish.
‘It’s different from the tart I know. It’s so pretty... And,’
Cute.
An adorable tart the size of a small palm.
This dessert, gorgeously embroidered with brown, yellow, and pink, was both beautiful and cute.
The pastry of the tart was baked to a delicious-looking true brown.
Inside the tart, shaped like a shallow dish,
was a fragrance that made one feel good from smell alone. It was packed full of lemon custard cream.
And piled generously on top of that cream were the peach preserves.
‘So this is why he took the peaches yesterday.’
Peaches that boasted the highest quality thanks to the vitality of the World Tree and Eilenna’s ability.
If those luscious fruits were mixed with sugar and lemon juice, it was obvious they would break through the limits of sweetness.
Gulp...
Eilenna swallowed the saliva that had pooled in her mouth without her realizing.
The only thing better than sweetness was more sweetness.
That formula was extremely simple-minded, but it could not have been more correct.
Though she had not even eaten it yet, Eilenna felt the illusion of sweetness on her tongue.
And no wonder, for before her eyes right now was a delicacy that would turn every sweet food she had eaten until now into mediocrity.
“Now, shall we try it? The pastry is crispy, so it’ll probably be easier to eat if you just bite into it.”
“Okay... I understand.”
“Oh, right. Just a moment.”
As Eilenna reached for the tart, Kang Jinwoo said he had forgotten something and rummaged through the basket.
It was none other than,
‘Honey?’
Honey he had portioned out and brought.
It was already overflowing with sweetness, and he was going to drizzle honey on top of it too?
Was it really all right to eat such a luxurious dessert?
Hesitation wavered in Eilenna’s eyes, but over the peach preserves piled high,
Kang Jinwoo smoothly drizzled
a thick, golden honey.
“Now it’s done. Let’s hurry and eat!”
“Uh... okay.”
The gloss created by the sugar dissolved into the peach preserves.
However, it could not match the uniquely rich, sticky golden outline of honey.
Just by drizzling on that single bit of honey, the tart boasted a color on an entirely different level from before.
With trembling hands, Eilenna carefully picked up the tart.
It was an adorable size that seemed as though it might collapse if mishandled.
Slowly, making sure the peach pieces did not fall, Eilenna brought the tart to her mouth.
Haaap—
And took a bite.
Fwoosh—!
“Ngh, hnn?!”
Which flavor she felt first, which aroma took the lead—
as if refusing to give her even the time to judge such things, a tempestuous banquet of taste swept over her.
But Eilenna was a seasoned winemaker.
Her sense of taste and smell, trained through long years of making wine, were on a completely different level from ordinary people’s.
She gathered her wits and dissected the flavor of the dessert.
Over the crispy yet moist pastry canvas, rich with the scent of butter,
a bright yellow layer of lemon custard cream had been painted.
The richness of the egg yolk, which might have felt overwhelming, was firmly held in place by sugar and butter,
crunch, crunch—
and the lemon zest hidden inside the cream chewed refreshingly like a surprise gift.
This alone had already sent Eilenna’s heart to paradise,
but Kang Jinwoo’s peach tart showed her even greater heights.
Crunch—
Crisp—!
Neither too firm nor too soft.
It had a chewiness that let the teeth sink in, yet a yielding softness matched to the overall gentle nuance of the tart.
Sugar and lemon juice had seeped evenly into the depths of the peach flesh.
‘So... so happy.’
The exquisitely pickled peach preserves clung thickly around Eilenna’s tongue.
Eilenna seemed to have experienced the greatest happiness one could feel from food.
But at the same time, a question arose.
'Why was the honey added?'
It wasn't as though the dessert tasted bad with the honey added, but had it really been necessary?
It was already a dessert boasting a supreme flavor.
While the honey had certainly accentuated its appearance, to Eilenna, it hadn't made much difference to the taste.
Having savored the flavor, Eilenna finished the entire tart.
Gang Jinu watched her and opened his mouth.
"Lady Eilenna. Please try some with the wine."
"Ah, that's right. Thank you."
So absorbed had she been in the peach tart that she had completely forgotten about the wine.
Eilenna's wine, 'Eseriel'—refreshingly tart and incredibly sweet.
Gang Jinu had originally made the dessert for the purpose of pairing it with this wine.
The method for deciding what to eat with wine was quite simple.
The stronger it was, the stronger the pairing.
The weaker it was, the weaker the pairing.
Heavy food was matched with full-bodied wine,
and light food was matched with light-bodied wine.
There were many variables, but this was the basic formula.
Eilenna's wine was no exception to this formula either.
The sweeter it was, the sweeter the pairing.
With remnants of the tart still lingering in her mouth, Eilenna let the wine flow in.
*Glug.*
'Huh?'
She tasted it every day without fail to check on it.
It was a wine whose flavor she could clearly picture even without drinking it now.
Yet the wine that had just glided down Eilenna's tongue
delivered a taste and sensation that could not be dismissed as mere imagination.
*Shiver—*...
The corners of her eyes trembled violently.
Her heartbeat quickened once more,
and her mind was so filled with excitement that she could think of nothing else.
Mariage (marriage).
This word, meaning matrimony, was also used to describe wine and food pairings.
The perfect harmony of wine and food—a synergy that infinitely elevated each other's flavors.
A perfect match for 'Eseriel' that could not be found in Nuareudel, a culinary wasteland.
Eilenna had felt a glimpse of it.
*Swish—!*
All hesitation vanished from her hand as she reached for the tart.
What mattered now was whether a true mariage lay beyond that fleeting glimpse of flavor she had just felt, or not.
Casting aside even the modesty she had maintained, she bit into the peach tart.
That same sweet, fantastical taste.
Immediately after, she promptly drank her wine.
The sweetness of well-ripened peaches, and the refreshing tartness of apple and lemon.
Her wine boasted such immense sugar content that the Nuareudel peaches she had eaten as snacks felt bland in comparison.
'The tart... is holding its ground..!'
The peach tart had not been defeated.
Rather, it thrashed about in her mouth, striving to surpass her wine, 'Eseriel.'
Like a horse race that leaves your palms sweating, a thrilling showdown between tart and wine.
The battlefield was Eilenna's tongue, atop her taste buds.
'Ugh, incredible..!'
Just as her gustatory cells raised their sensitivity to the limit, taking in the flavor—
a single blow from the tart shattered the taut tug-of-war of tastes.
'Was this the reason the honey was added?'
The honey filled in the flavor slightly lacking from the fructose of the fruit and the sucrose of the sugar.
The sweetness of the honey, imbued with a concentrated richness granted by nature, bound the tart together as one.
Eilenna's mind grew hazy.
At the endless feast of sweetness, the wine too continued to flow in steadily.
'Aah... I can't anymore..'
*Glug—*
"Hieeeek."
"Gasp. Lady Eilenna?"
*Thud—!*
Eilenna's bout of heavy drinking, having gone mad over the taste.
The result was
her getting drunk before noon and slamming her head onto the table.