The Fascinating Cheesecake - Part Two

Lately, the number of blokes striking up conversations with Shuri has been increasin’.

Following Gungrave’s orders, I’ve had me subordinates keep an eye on ’em. Among ‘em were guys brazenly tryin’ to get close to ’im, and when I beat ‘em to a pulp, turned out some were even handed cash by Niewbist’s King to secretly poach ’im.

I gave those guys punishment without a single word of debate, but Shuri hasn’t noticed a thing. If possible, I’d rather ’im stay unaware just like this.

If he found out about such slimy schemes, he’d only get hurt.

These days, me title changed from Infantry Captain to Infantry Grand Captain, and word’s spread far and wide that Kuuga is amazing.

Yet I found meself in a somewhat gloomy mood.

Why’s that? It’s a simple matter.

Lately, there’s been a feud breakin’ out between Rir-chan and Arius.

Course, if it were just a regular fight, I’d keep me mouth shut. Nothin’ good comes from stickin’ yer nose into others’ business. It’s me rule not to interfere till the parties involved come ask for advice.

Still, though. Fightin’ over sweets is somethin’ kids do, right?

“Arius. Rir made these tools. It is decided that Rir gets to sample it first.”

“Rir. You get him to make your favorite highball steak almost every single day, don’t you? If so, wouldn’t it be fair to let me sample my favorite thing first this time?”

“Arius devours boiled tofu like crazy. Eating sweets will make you fat.”

“Rir, if you keep eating nothing but highball steaks, your belly will stick out too.”

Terrifyin’. Am I really the one who has to resolve a dangerous situation that escalated from such a silly squabble?

The root of the matter lies with Shuri.

Ye see, after makin’ connections with Niewbist merchants and securin’ sales routes for ingredients, we started gettin’ heaps of eggs, flour, and sugar.

Around that time, Shuri tried makin’ rolled omelets as a test.

He made two kinds—one with sugar and one with dashi broth. I ate ’em too, and the dashi ones were more delicious. The sugar ones were a bit too sweet for me.

Gungrave and Teg were on the dashi side too. But Rir-chan and Arius were on the sugar side.

Even me unit got divided into the sugar faction and the dashi faction, squabblin’ day and night over which one’s better. It’s silly, so I don’t participate. Dashi is the absolute best for rolled omelets. Course, I don’t say that out loud. Don’t wanna get dragged into the fray.

Just then, Shuri let somethin’ slip.

He said he might try makin’ sweets.

Sweets. The sweets I know are overwhelmingly sickly sweet. Sweet to the point where rolled omelets can’t even compare. Sweet enough to give ye heartburn.

The value of sweets is determined by the amount of sugar used in ‘em. The more sugar ye pour in, the higher quality and better it’s considered.

However, they’re so sweet ye don’t even feel like eatin’ ‘em. That’s the commoners’ perception. Seekin’ those out is reserved for noble lords and aristocrats.

Rir-chan and Arius, bein’ women, naturally love sweets. They get wildly excited even over a single hard candy. Honestly, I don’t get what’s so tasty about ’em.

At any rate, when they gathered the necessary equipment to bake sweets and were about to start, those two fought over who gets to eat first. Gungrave beat a hasty retreat early on and ordered me to resolve the situation. I felt a urge to kill ’im right then.

By the way, Teg tried to stop ‘em and got knocked out cold. It was a beautiful kidney blow. He’s probably not dead. Though he’s twitchin’.

“You two, calm down a bit. Why don’t ye have ’im make two of ’em so ye can eat ’em together?”

“However, are not sweets meant to be crafted one by one?”

“Indeed, this is war. Sweet number one—the holy war (jihad) over that very first bite.”

“A battle we cannot yield (reconquista) is right here.”

S-Silly.

Ye say it in such grand ways, but in short, ye just wanna eat first, don’t ye?

Realizin’ there was no stoppin’ ‘em once they got like this, just as I was at me wits’ end, Shuri stepped right between the two of ’em holding a ladle in one hand.

“You two, please leave it at that.”

“Shuri, this is war. Do not interfere.”

“Indeed, this is our holy war (fight). Please do not get in the way.”

“Then you don’t need any sweets. I’ll stop making them.”

“Arius, let us eat together.”

“That sounds wonderful. The world is at its best in peace (love & peace).”

I witnessed the ugly change of heart in humans whose stomachs were held hostage.

Feelin’ a sense of weirdness from the two who acted as if no fight had ever taken place to begin with, I decided to partake in the treat meself since it was ready.

By the way, Gungrave tried to have some brought to ‘im later, and Teg was lookin’ over here from afar in between training sessions. You blokes, just come over honestly.

What he brought out was sugar, flour, cheese, eggs, and butter. Plus an item called biscuits, a sweet he had made earlier claimin’ it was practice for baking sweets.

Only, there was one strange thing.

A white, fluffy, mysterious substance.

“Shuri, I get things like flour, but what’s this white fluffy thing?”

“This? This is whipped cream. I had a hard time making it.”

While sayin’ so, he crushed the biscuits into fine pieces, mixed ’em with butter, and pressed ’em firm for some reason.

Then he asked Arius to chill it for ’im.

After that, he began frantically mixin’ the cheese, whipped cream, sugar, and eggs together.

What on earth is he doing?

“Shuri, what’s that?”

“Haah, haah… This… is… made… like… this.”

Ain’t he completely out of breath?

After a considerable amount of time passed, it seemed it was finally finished, so he added flour and gave it one more mix.

Then he poured it into the hardened biscuit base from earlier and baked it in a newly made thing called an oven.

A short while later, it was completed.

“I want to let it cool down first, so we’ll eat it another day.”

The sight of the two women makin’ faces as if the end of the world had come was quite memorable.

On a later date, we were invited to a ceremony in Oritor.

The reason was to serve as guests of honor for a royal exhibition match between the Oritor Royal Guard and the Knights Templar.

However, normally there’d be no reason for us to be invited. Course, we played an active role in the Salt Road Defense Line previously, and ye could say they won thanks to us.

However, according to insider info, the Oritor Royal Guard and the Knights Templar were on bad terms, and supposedly set up this official match to settle things between ’em.

Apparently, the captain of the Royal Guard and the commander of the Knights Templar are brothers. Both are extremely skilled combatants. I hear their magic and swordplay are both top-tier.

When Shuri heard that story, he said the two organizations should just work together.

“If everyone thought like you, Shuri, things would be much easier.”

“That is true. By the way, what is the reason we were invited to this ceremony?”

“D’ye remember? Last year, there was that battle over the profits of the Salt Road, right? Partly to thank us for that, we’ve been invited as guests of honor for this martial arts match.”

“That feels a bit like they are trying to mark their claim on us.”

“Ex-actly. Their goal is to invite our band as guests of honor and show off to everyone around how close they are with us.

Watch meself. There’s a chance you’ll be targeted too, Shuri.“

That the nobles wanna get friendly with our band is strictly their own business.

As for the Knights Templar and the Royal Guard, their sole desire is to crush me.

This time, it was decided I’d perform in an exhibition match.

And against either the commander of the Knights Templar or the captain of the Royal Guard.

Watchin’ the matches beforehand, I could tell the subordinates on both sides were exceptionally well-trained.

Can I really win against commanders who lead troops like that?

As me match drew near, I was in the waiting room.

The guest of honor seats were visible in the distance.

For some reason, Shuri was here too.

“It will start soon.”

“Aye, I don’t mind whichever one I fight, but it depends on how they make their move.”

“Actually, Gungrave-san also asked me to do a favor for him.”

“Oh? What’d he ask?”

“He asked me to make sweets for the dignitaries during the exhibition match.”

Oh, is he talkin’ about the thing he made the other day?

Shuri pulled several of ’em out, sliced off a piece, and handed it to me.

In the distance, it looked like similar pieces were bein’ distributed at the guest of honor seats.

The sliced piece formed a strange, triangular shape.

Like a triangle of yellow and brown combined together.

“For now, Kuuga-san, please take this as a taste test.”

“Is this… cheese? When ye say cheese, I can only think of something to go with alcohol.”

Cheese as a snack with alcohol. That’s irresistibly good.

Come to think of it, Rir said before that combinin’ cheese with highball steaks gave her a revelation (apocalypse). I didn’t quite get what she meant, though.

When I tried slicing it with a spoon, a strange feeling washed over me again.

“This is… firm on the bottom and gently soft on top.”

“Slice it from the top with a spoon and cut through the bottom crust together. Please try them together.”

I see, so ye eat the crust and cheese together.

Slice it out with force and bring it to me mouth, and I was shocked.

Sweet, but not sickly so.

Yet it has the richness of cheese and cream. Same goes for the biscuit and butter.

That’s all there is to the sweetness of this dessert.

First, the upper part has a melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Fluffy, so delicate it crumbles right on the tongue.

Yet when ye bite down with yer teeth, there’s a solid texture.

That’s the texture produced by the bottom crust.

The top holds a subtle sweetness and melting richness side by side.

The bottom has a savory texture and a crisp, fleeting sweetness.

The sweets circulating in the markets around town can’t even hold a candle to this.

Truly, it’s the absolute best.

“This is… incredibly delicious. When ye say sweets, I thought it was natural for ’em to just be sweet.”

“I barely used any sugar in this. I wanted you to taste the natural deliciousness and sweetness of the cheese and flour.”

“I see. I really like this kind of sweet.”

Ain’t no lie, nor polite modesty.

I genuinely like this sweet.

Even without overloadin’ it with sugar, there aren’t many sweets that let ye taste this much sweetness and flavor.

Even for someone like me who’s bad with sweet things, it’s the supreme sweet I can eat with delight.

By the way, the two women are eatin’ it with melting expressions on their faces.

They’re definitely gonna request it again.

“By the way, are ye handin’ this sweet out to everyone?”

“Yes, I’m serving it to the Royal Guard, the Knights Templar, the key ministers, and the King.”

Ho, then they’re gettin’ to eat somethin’ real good.

Somehow power bubbled up inside me, so guess I’ll go give it me all.

Shoulderin’ me sword, I stepped onto the stage, but for some reason both the Knights Templar commander and the Royal Guard captain were standin’ right before me.

Feelin’ puzzled, I cast a glance at Gungrave, and he gave me a troubled “sorry” sign.

“Pardon us, Kuuga-dono. I am Blitz Rynebell, Commander of the Knights Templar.”

“I am Hiryu Rynebell, Captain of the Royal Guard.”

“I’m Kuuga. Nothin’ grand enough to warrant formal introductions, though.”

“No, during the previous battle, I bore witness to your martial prowess.”

“Truly a warrior worthy of being called a demon god.”

Blitz, a rugged, rock-like man with cropped red hair, and Hiryu, a slender, willow-like figure with red hair tied back.

Though polar opposites, their strength radiated off ’em clearly.

“Believing I could not stand against a demon god like you alone, I came to participate together with my elder brother.”

“Forgive us, Kuuga-dono. We too have our pride. Even if called cowardly for ganging up two against one, there are things we cannot afford to lose.”

Well, noble affairs are always like that, I s’pose.

“And we would like you to make one promise.”

“What’s this, askin’ for favors in a situation like this?”

“I am well aware it is cheeky. The mysterious sweet we received in the waiting room—we heard it was crafted by your cook.”

Ye mean Shuri?

“If we win, we wish to take that cook into our service.”

…Huh?

“That sweet was magnificent. So much so that it mended our rift.”

“Therefore, we wish to welcome that cook and have him prepare meals in our nation by all means.”

…I silently looked at Gungrave.

That sign he gave me meant: go completely wild on ’em.

“Fine by me. However…”

Raisin’ me sword into a high stance,

“…that’s only if ye can win.”

I declared to ’em.

Shuri is our family.

I ain’t handin’ ‘im over to anyone. I won’t let no one poach ’im.

It’s because of his cooking that I stand here today.

I ain’t gonna do somethin’ like sellin’ out me family.

And I show no mercy to anyone tryin’ to steal from me.

“…Brother.”

“Mm, what terrifying spirit. Nay, ’tis demonic pressure.”

Both Blitz and Hiryu drew their swords.

Then, without a word, both kicked off the ground at once!

Blitz came out first, thrustin’ his sword straight at me throat.

“Don’t make me laugh!!!”

Makin’ full use of every bit of technique and body control I possessed, puttin’ maximum weight onto me sword, I swung it down all at once!!

CLANG!!

Swung at what could be called divine speed, me sword snapped the opponent’s blade clean in two.

“Im-Impossible!”

While Blitz was flustered, Hiryu delivered a horizontal slash toward me.

The downward-swung sword…

From the rotation of me ankle to the rotation of me knee.

From knee to hip.

From hip to shoulder.

From shoulder to arm—transferred perfectly.

Once again, a divine-speed upward slash cut through Hiryu’s sword right from the middle.

“Th-That can’t be!”

Before the two could counterattack, I drew the short sword at me waist and thrust it at both their throats.

“Wanna keep goin’?”

The two seemed to resign themselves.

The referee gave the signal to end the match.

“It’s me victory. Give up on the cook.”

Sticking a nail in ’em right away, I stepped down from the stage.

According to what I heard from Gungrave on a later date…

Those two were apparently already using magic.

They had enhanced their swords and physical abilities, yet non-magic user like me delivered slashes that blasted right through their magic.

Supposedly, some among the key ministers were planning to poach Shuri too, but after seein’ me match, they immediately kept their heads down.

Even I was surprised at meself.

At that moment, unable to let Shuri be stolen away, I pulled out all the strength and technique in me body for that slash.

It was a slash delivered with me absolute full, unleashed power.

After much training, I would come to master that very technique.