Hot And Fresh Delivery Pizza, Straight To You! (6)

“…Pizza…?”

The young master spoke in wonder, his gaze completely drawn to the contents of the container.

Inside was today’s snack, with plenty of cheese and meat piled atop the crust.

The meat pizza gleamed magnificently.

“…Once again, you’ve brought out something that hardly looks like a snack at all…”

The head maid spoke in exasperation, but unlike before, she didn’t actually question whether it counted as a snack.

After all, the young master’s eyes were sparkling as he stared at it. There was no way she could stop him.

“How am I supposed to eat this, Shirley?”

“Yes, Young Master. It’s already been sliced, so please pick up whichever piece you like with your hands and enjoy!”

With that, I set down the basket containing the pizza (there was no way I could prepare an actual cardboard pizza box), and after hesitating briefly, the young master picked up a piece loaded with plenty of meat.

As he separated it from the rest, the cheese stretched out in a long strand, making the young master exclaim, “Oooh…”

For this cheese, I had blended one variety that stretched particularly well with another that had a richer flavor.

With mountainous regions in the east, this country had a thriving dairy industry, and its cheese was of exceptionally high quality.

And these particular cheeses had been presented as tribute to the Royal Palace, so naturally, they were exquisite.

Then, as I watched, the young master carefully inspected the cross-section of the pizza before gently putting it into his mouth.

His expression immediately lit up, and the words that followed were… well, there was hardly any need to say.

“Delicious!”

After all, that was what most people said when they ate pizza for the first time in their lives.

“Shirley, this is incredibly delicious! It’s really, really good!”

“Thank you very much, Young Master!”

The young master said that while polishing off slice after slice.

Children loved pizza, so perhaps his reaction was only natural.

“Bread and cheese obviously go well together, but there’s more to this flavor than that… There’s ketchup in it, isn’t there?”

“Yes, Young Master. It contains plenty of my special pizza sauce, made with ketchup as the base!”

I explained with a bright smile.

The pizza was made almost entirely from things the young master loved, so I had been certain he would enjoy it.

“I see. But it isn’t only ketchup. I can feel something with a slightly crisp texture too. What is it?”

“…………”

I responded to the young master’s question with a silent smile.

Young Master. That would be onion, the vegetable you absolutely despised.

After feeling that the pizza simply lacked enough savory depth, I had finally crossed the forbidden line.

That’s right. I had chopped the onion as finely as possible, thoroughly sautéed it to remove the smell and sharpness children disliked, and then mixed it into the sauce.

As expected, onion was a wonderful ingredient for building a foundation of flavor.

I hadn’t wanted to force him to eat something he hated, but knowing it would taste better this way and deliberately refusing to use it had simply been too difficult.

And yet here the young master was, happily eating pizza containing onions while repeatedly declaring how delicious it was.

In other words, the problem was how they were prepared. In that case, surely this was fine.

All I had to do was keep quiet about it. Besides, there was already onion in the ketchup anyway.

Adding finely chopped dried mushrooms might also have helped.

They seemed to deepen the savory flavor while also masking the taste of the onion.

“Ah… It’s all gone.”

The young master had devoured the pizza, which I’d made with a medium-sized pizza in mind, in the blink of an eye, and he sounded disappointed.

Naturally, I immediately made the following offer.

“Young Master, if you’d like, we also have pizzas with different flavors. Would you care for another?”

“Yes, of course I would! Bring them here!”

After receiving the young master’s delighted command, I turned toward Anne, my comrade-in-arms.

Anne, who had been watching with obvious excitement, nodded vigorously, lifted several baskets of pizza, and charged around the courtyard shouting, “Uoooooh!”

“…Shirley, does that actually serve some purpose?”

“Of course, Young Master. Pizza is wonderful precisely because it’s delivered from far away!”

I passionately explained this to the puzzled young master.

That’s right. Delivery was the very best way to enjoy pizza.

The restless anticipation after placing your order and waiting for it to arrive.

The moment the doorbell rang like the joyful proclamation of an angel.

And then, as you opened the box, the rising steam and that aroma that seemed like pure deliciousness given physical form.

All of those things made pizza feel special.

Then I accepted the boxes from the breathless Anne and lined them up in front of the young master.

And striking a pose together, we declared,

“Thank you for waiting, Young Master! Your piping-hot pizza has been delivered!”