“Hah, hah…”
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—
It had already been twenty minutes since I’d fallen into a trance and started shaking my hand to create a white, sticky liquid.
From the muscles between my fingers to my forearm and deltoids, every last bit of strength had drained away.
And yet my violent hand movements did not stop.
Every now and then I added a little cooking oil, checked the consistency, and kept stirring.
Splish-splish-splish—!
I added a little World Tree sap, too, to get rid of that raw-egg fishiness and lend it a fresh fragrance.
Instead of vinegar, I used lemon juice to lighten the heaviness of the oil as much as possible.
Now, if I added salt little by little and adjusted the seasoning…
“Uaaah!! Done!”
It wasn’t as thick as what you’d get from a factory on modern Earth,
but a sufficiently viscous mayonnaise had been completed.
I wiped the mayonnaise still clinging to the whisk with my finger and tasted it.
‘Wow, this is irresistible.’
Slice, slice—
An emulsified sauce made by mixing cooking oil and lemon juice—two things that normally wouldn’t blend—through the help of egg and acidity.
Since the main ingredient was oil, a greasy, heavy energy wrapped itself tightly around my tongue.
Unable to withstand that violent flavor, I ended up cutting up a raw carrot and dipping it in.
Crunch, crunch—
Mm, delicious. How long has it been since I ate like this?
Even plain raw vegetables became a decent snack as long as you dipped them in mayonnaise.
Looking forward to the endless foods this sauce would bring me, I registered mayonnaise on the [Mana Market].
Whoooosh…
Contrary to the sensation of mana draining away when I purchased ingredients from the [Mana Market],
an indescribable energy seemed to fill my body.
This strange feeling of satisfaction was quite addictive.
When the ketchup is finished tomorrow, I’ll have to remember to register that too.
Then now… shall I make toast for real?
Splish-splish-splish—!
First, I cracked a whole bunch of eggs, removed the chalazae, and mixed them well to make beaten eggs.
Then I divided that into two portions, mixed milk into one, and left the other with just salt and sugar for seasoning.
I soaked thickly sliced white bread in the milk-and-egg mixture, letting it seep all the way inside.
French toast, a dish created so people could eat stale bread without aversion.
If you only looked at the background of its birth, it was the same principle as soaking hard bread in soup during the Middle Ages.
The difference was that my French toast was going to be deadly soft and sweet.
It would be best to let it rest for at least an hour, but today I’d have to be satisfied with simply pushing its cooking order to the very end.
While the French toast was resting, I prepared the sauce that would go into the ham-and-cheese toast.
That sweet-and-tangy I* Toast sauce that any Korean would have tried at least once. Yes, that one.
According to stories floating around on the internet, people said you had to add kiwi dressing to get that flavor.
It was true that adding kiwi dressing made it easier to reproduce the taste, but it wasn’t essential.
In this place, I couldn’t find pineapple, let alone kiwi.
The origin of kiwi was surprisingly China, and it only became widely known to the world in the early twentieth century.
In many ways, it was an ingredient difficult to find in an otherworldly medieval fantasy world.
Calling it “the I* Toast sauce” was too long, so I’ll just call it “that sauce.”
The flavors people found stimulating in that sauce were sweetness and tanginess,
and the body that heavily tied those two together into one.
In other words, if I secured the elements that could satisfy those tastes, it wouldn’t matter even if I excluded the fragrance of kiwi.
Scrape—
Scrape—
I added a generous amount of sugar to a little mayonnaise and mixed it well with a spoon.
Mayonnaise was basically an oil-based emulsified sauce, so it was difficult to completely dissolve ingredients like sugar, but that didn’t matter much.
If you spread it on freshly toasted bread, the heat would melt the sugar anyway…
Crunch, crunch—!
And even if I mixed it only to the point where it had that sandy crunch like now, it was enough.
The texture right now was, how should I put it, like playing with sand after mixing in the tiniest bit of water.
Now, if I adjusted the consistency by adding lemon juice little by little, it would be finished.
Slurp—
I dipped a bit of the sauce and tasted it.
It was sweet, salty, and tangy, and it came close to that sauce’s flavor, but something felt lacking.
If I had one suitable spice to add fragrance here, it would be fine…
‘Oh, should I try adding this?’
While I was wondering what would be good, an idea flashed through my mind.
I took out a small glass bottle from the bag I’d brought from home.
A powder of crushed leaves, dried crisp and a deep green in color.
At a glance, it looked like dried parsley, but it was none other than World Tree leaves.
World Tree leaves had an excellent deodorizing effect, but their fragrance was too strong to use universally.
So I’d made this thinking, What if I just dry it thoroughly, crush it finely, and use it like parsley?
I added about a spoonful of World Tree leaf powder to the sauce.
Then I tasted it again…
“Got it!!”
Amazingly, the flavor of that familiar I* Toast sauce came out!
The tanginess and green fragrance that the lemon juice alone hadn’t been able to satisfy were filled in, creating a perfect balance of flavor.
In undried World Tree leaves, a refreshing mint scent was dominant, but drying had weakened that fragrance considerably.
However, the warm, sweet nuance of fragrance hidden beneath the mint had instead been concentrated, turning it into a spice completely different from the fresh leaves.
Maybe The Giving Tree was actually talking about the World Tree.
The author of that fairy tale must have been from Noirudel.
Expressing my gratitude for the grace of the World Tree, I resumed cooking.
Sizzle—!
I spread butter on a well-heated pan and fried the beaten eggs I had prepared earlier into a thick layer.
The original recipe had sweet corn in the egg pancake, but I didn’t have any, so I skipped it.
The protein in the egg mixture firmly coagulated with a sizzling sound.
The thick, soft egg pancake, whose texture would be its charming point, was taken out before it browned.
If I cooked it long enough to gain color, the texture would become firm, and it wouldn’t suit the ham-and-cheese toast.
Now I only had to toast the ham and bread as they were,
and since the cheese just needed to be placed on raw and assembled, the ham-and-cheese toast was done.
I wiped the pan once, then generously added butter again.
Unlike the egg pancake, which I cooked over medium heat, this time I adjusted the flame to low.
Then I picked up the French toast that had been soaking in the milk-and-egg mixture.
Drip—
The milk-and-egg mixture had soaked deep into the core of the bread.
When I lifted it with my hands, the bread seemed like it would collapse under the weight of the heavy egg mixture, so I quickly put it onto the frying pan.
Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle—
It couldn’t come out as if it had been fried in oil, and there couldn’t be too much Maillard browning either.
I had to cook the inside of the French toast, which had been sliced 3 centimeters thick,
and if the Maillard reaction happened too quickly, there was a risk it would burn.
Unlike cooking oil, butter burned quickly if the heat got even slightly too strong, so I had to pay even more attention.
Still, as long as I set it to low heat, it wasn’t a particularly difficult dish.
When I was little and smelled sesame oil, the aroma seemed so delicious that I tried drinking the oil raw.
Naturally, oil only had fragrance and was tasteless oil, so I was disappointed.
‘Ah, memories of savory yet greasy sesame oil!’
In my opinion, Western butter occupied exactly that sesame-oil position.
This guy, too, as long as you applied heat and melted it, gave off such a savory and sweet fragrance that it drove you insane.
For reference, I have a childhood memory of thinking, Butter must really taste sweet, right? taking a big bite of it, and immediately spitting it out.
In any case, the flavor of the egg mixture sizzling away in butter was making even my brain feel fluffy.
Soft, pillowy French toast cooked to tenderness, sprinkled with sugar and honey, enjoyed to its sweetest—
“Game over. You just pull the shutters down.”
I dared to say it was the ultimate sweetness, a flavor that let you consume all the sugar you needed for that day.
The surface of the French toast, grilled slowly over low heat alone, had formed a subtle light-brown Maillard crust.
I closed the lid to cook it through to the center,
and adjusted the burner to a level that made me wonder, Can I really make it this weak? Why isn’t it going out?
Since there was already residual heat in the heated frying pan, it had to be almost at candle level to be just right.
While the French toast was finishing appetizingly,
I assembled Eilenna’s portion as an egg-and-cheese toast without ham,
and mine as the original ham-and-cheese toast.
On white bread toasted golden with butter, I spread that sauce, then placed the egg pancake, ham, and shredded cabbage on top.
Then I gently laid cheddar cheese over it and covered it with the remaining bread, completing it.
They say a familiar taste is the scariest. I don’t know who said it, but they were a hundred times right.
Tremble, tremble—
Before my eyes stood the supreme menu item of a modern South Korean toast franchise.
While countless toast shops rose and helplessly fell, “I* Toast” had proudly held its place.
It was a taste like a flower garden, one that made you understand how such steadfastness had been possible.
I was so afraid that tears streamed from my mouth and my hands trembled…
‘Ah, the French toast.’
I almost let my eyes roll back and burn it just like that.
I moved the French toast, which had benefited thoroughly from the oven effect thanks to the closed lid, onto a plate as well.
French toast eaten with all sorts of sauces such as sugar, syrup, or jam.
I topped it with the most basic sugar, solid butter, and honey.
Grrr—
Since I’d stopped by the Academy in the morning and still hadn’t eaten lunch, I was incredibly hungry too.
“Lady Eilenna, it’s ready!”
Carrying a heap of completed toasts, I headed toward the dining table.
Gulp—!
And there,
for reasons separate from hunger, sat a beautiful elf swallowing madly.
Eilenna was waiting with unfocused eyes, entranced by a blissful smell she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
***
After shopping, Eilenna sat at the dining table and rested.
Back when she was in Noirudel, she hadn’t gotten tired even after working in the vineyards from morning until afternoon and working on brewing at night.
But once she had come outside the World Tree’s sphere of influence, her stamina had sharply declined.
Clatter, clatter—
If she got exhausted this easily, what sightseeing of the capital was she even talking about?
Jinwoo was focusing on cooking like that, saying it was something he had to do even if it was tiring… and what about her?
‘Phew… I’m such an idiot.’
Kang Jinwoo’s friend and an excellent partner (in her own opinion).
Even though she was older, far from leading him, she had gotten excited on her own and become exhausted on her own.
As Eilenna wandered through that swamp of self-reproach, a savory smell suddenly slipped into her nose.
The fragrance of butter, eggs, and milk finding their proper places and being cooked just right.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar smell, and because of that, it was even more effective.
Sniff, sniff—
As that aroma seeped into her weary body, Eilenna found herself sniffing without realizing it.
“Lady Eilenna, it’s ready!”
In the middle of that, Kang Jinwoo approached, announcing the completion of the food.
Huh? Wait. It was definitely the smell of butter, eggs, and milk…
But the closer Jinwoo came, the more this sweet, fluffy fragrance asserted its presence. What on earth was it?
Thump—!
A variable.
And an extremely nasty one at that, an ambush hidden inside a familiar smell that struck where she least expected.
Eilenna was hungry, yes, but she was captivated by that unexpected sweetness.
“Heh, heeek…”
“I’ll explain first before you eat. This is…”
Kang Jinwoo, who had brought toast in both hands, placed the plates on the table,
and began explaining this and that.
But… Eilenna’s focus had already completely twisted.
“I’ll give you the recipe later too, but for the French toast, the ratio is one part milk to three parts beaten egg…”
‘I want to eat I want to eat I want to eat I want to eat’
“Grill it over the weakest low heat until both sides turn light brown. For the finish, close the lid and cook for three minutes…”
‘I want to eat I want to eat I want to eat I want to eat I want to eat’
Kang Jinwoo poured his heart and soul into explaining the French toast recipe.
However, none of it reached Eilenna’s ears.
At this moment, her sight, hearing, and smell were all… allocated to the plate of golden toast.
Only the single thought of “I want to eat” filled her completely.
Feeling puzzled when no answer came back no matter how much he explained the recipe, Kang Jinwoo glanced at Eilenna.
“Huuuuh!”
“Jinwoo… can’t we talk after eating?”
“L-let’s do that. Please have this.”
The face of Eilenna that Kang Jinwoo witnessed was the crystallization of desire, difficult to put into words.
Overwhelmed by that craving, Kang Jinwoo granted permission to eat.
Haaaap—!
Eilenna’s pure white hands gleamed with the butter from the egg-and-cheese toast.
She firmly grabbed it with a tap so the toast wouldn’t wobble, then took a big bite.
And in that instant,
“Huh?”
The fresh fragrance of the World Tree, felt as the thick blanket of white bread was severed by her teeth.
Before Eilenna’s eyes, which had regained reason thanks to that fragrance,
the World Tree of Noirudel, which she had definitely left behind only a few days ago, shimmered.
It was the feeling of being abruptly splashed with cold water in the middle of a fantastical dream.
Tremble, tremble—
Suppressing an emotion that might have been joy or fear, Eilenna chewed the toast in her mouth thoroughly and swallowed.
The sauce was sweet and tangy, and thanks to the dried leaves of the World Tree, its refreshing aroma was not excessive.
The freshness, which might have flown away otherwise, was firmly held in place by the oil-based sauce with its heavy body.
The saltiness and sweetness assigned appropriately to every ingredient raised the level of completion in the assembled dish called toast.
The butter-softened white bread and the tender egg pancake cooked with exquisite doneness had a pleasant consistency.
But midway, the crisp texture of raw cabbage refreshed the mouth so that one could eat egg-and-cheese toast endlessly.
Nom, nom, gulp—
Without resting for even a moment, Eilenna devoured one egg-and-cheese toast in an instant.
And then she realized.
‘This is… a dangerous taste.’
The classic combination of bread, butter, and eggs.
They were ordinary ingredients full of familiar flavors, but once they passed through Kang Jinwoo’s hands, the story changed.
For a brief moment, it was a taste so shocking that she saw an illusion of the hometown she had left behind.
Eilenna had learned.
The terrifying fear held by a familiar taste.