Moonlight Candy

Just from watching me make a frying pan, Kurumi looked like her soul had left her body.

“If you’re going to be like that, I’m worried about what comes next. Can you put sugar into this?”

I handed Kurumi a small wooden dish I took out of my coat pocket.

“W-What are you going to do?”

“I told you earlier. I’m making sweets with water and sugar.”

At last, I unleashed that job.

“Alright. If I’ve got the Eastern ‘Baked Sweets’ skill, we’ll be fine.”

As I spoke, I poured water into the frying pan using the leather flask I pulled from my pocket.

For some reason, Kurumi bowed her head apologetically.

“S-Sorry! I-I said there’s no way you could make sweets with just sugar and water… B-But it’s true! Y-You can’t make sweets with just sugar and water…!”

“Why are you taking it that way? I’m not mad. Just give me the sugar.”

“Y-Yes…”

Trembling, Kurumi poured the sugar from the paper bag into the wooden dish.

It felt like I was shaking her down, and I felt a little bad about it.

While she did that, I started a fire using the Hiroeda Fire-Starting Stand and fed kindling into the forest-stone stove in the outdoor cooking area.

Watching that, Kurumi once again forgot herself.

“E-Eh… wh-what…? N-No way… Y-You lit a fire that easily…!? W-With no matches… l-like magic…!?”

“If you freak out over everything, the road ahead is going to be rough. Where’s the sugar?”

“H-Here! P-Please!”

I took the dish of sugar she offered with stiff tension and poured it in a steady stream into the frying pan of water.

I stirred with a wooden spoon, making sugar water.

Kurumi stared down at the pan with a face that clearly said, “It’s just sugar water after all…”

Then I had an idea.

“Actually, since we’re at it, we might as well have that too.”

Once I think of something, I can’t not do it—so I turned the heat down and stepped away from the stove.

“Y-You’re in the middle of cooking…! W-What are you doing now?”

“It’ll only take a second.”

I stepped away so wood shavings wouldn’t fall into the frying pan.

Wood shavings meant the next job: Woodcrafter.

Changing jobs, I took out a scrap of Gisu wood from my pocket.

When I drew the Great Boar Large Knife, Kurumi stumbled back with a squeak.

But the moment she saw the woodworking forming in my hands, her cheeks turned pink.

Even though she’d just backed away, she suddenly leaned in closer.

It was exactly like a stray kitten’s reaction when someone it thought was scary offered food.

“C-C-Could that be…!?”

“Yeah. That ‘could be’ is exactly right.”

The moment she picked up the heart- and star-shaped wooden frames, Kurumi’s face returned to that dreamy look.

“Waaah… they’re so cute…!”

But then she snapped back to reality.

The next instant, she reacted like I was a ghost and backed away again.

“N-Not just stonecraft, b-but woodworking too… A-And everything you make is higher quality than what the School Store sells… W-Why would someone amazing like you… b-be in the Special Training Class…?”

“No idea. Ask the principal and vice principal. Now, can you give those molds back? I’m going to use them.”

“Y-Yes… um, umm… w-what are candy molds even for…?”

“To pour the mixture we’re making into them and shape it, obviously.”

“H-Huh? Y-You’re going to s-shape sugar water…? E-Even if you do that, sugar water is still sugar water…”

“Just watch.”

The sugar water in the pan had reduced to the perfect consistency.

I lifted the frying pan and poured it evenly into the molds.

“Now you cool it for about five minutes, and it’s done.”

“U-Um… even if you cool it, sugar water is still sugar water—huh?”

Kurumi’s mouth fell open as a solid lump popped free from a mold.

One after another, hardened translucent pieces dropped out of the molds.

Kurumi caught them in her hands, unable to stop staring.

“E-Eh!? E-eh-eh-eh!? E-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh!? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!?”

With a breathless expression, she shouted,

“Th-This… th-this is…! W-What on earth is this sweet called!?”

“It’s a kind of candy passed down in the Eastern lands. Among Eastern pastry chefs, they call it ‘the smallest and greatest sweet.’ The base ingredients are only two, but that’s why you can create endless variations by adding other ingredients.”

Kurumi gazed at the pale-yellow candy like it was a jewel shining in moonlight.

“Beautiful…! To think you can make something this pretty with just sugar and water…!”

“The flavor is simple, but not bad. Try it.”

“Y-Yes! Th-thank you!”

Kurumi popped a heart-shaped Moonlight Candy into her mouth.

“O-So gooooooddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd!?!?”

The next moment, it was as if her entire body turned into hearts—her whole face flushed red.

And as if it were leaking out of her, she started flinging heart marks from all over her body.

Before that excitement could even settle, she backed away from me with a startled shuffle.

With a mouth so wide it looked like her whole face had turned into a mouth, she babbled in panic.

“N-No way, no way, no way…! Y-You can make something this delicious with just sugar and water…!? Wh-Who are you, Leopin-san…!? Stonecraft! Woodcraft! Fire-starting and sweets! You can do everything, and it’s all perfect…!? T-To think someone this incredible exists in this world…!? A-And why are you in the Special Training Class!?”

At last, the shock overwhelmed her completely, and she collapsed with a thud.