I was feeling a bit intimidated by the sheer density of baby castella stalls, but Kuro took me by the hand and pulled me toward them anyway.
"Let’s try a bit of everything, one by one!"
"Sure... yeah."
By "everything," she meant different types of food, right? Surely she didn't mean we were going to sample every single baby castella stall in order? It was just a coincidence that the first one we hit happened to be her favorite... right?
Despite my growing sense of unease, I followed Kuro to the stall.
There were three sizes available—small, medium, and large. Without a moment's hesitation, Kuro opted for the large and took the paper bag from the vendor.
"Here, Kaito-kun. You have some too."
"Ah, thanks."
I took a piece from the bag she held out and popped it into my mouth.
"Yeah, it’s good. It really captures the festival atmosphere."
"Right? Everything tastes so much better when you eat it at a place like this."
Kuro smiled and agreed with my assessment... while simultaneously accepting a fresh paper bag from the vendor. Wait. What happened to the bag she was just holding?
"Want another one?"
"Ah... uh, yeah."
I took another one from the bag she offered. I could have sworn I just saw something impossible, but... maybe it was just my imagination?
"...Mmm. As I thought, the flavor changes slightly when the ingredients are different!"
"..."
Still beaming, Kuro accepted another bag from the vendor. No, seriously—what happened to the bag she just had?
Stunned by the bizarre sight, I watched as she held the bag out a third time. I took a piece... but this time, I didn't eat it. I just stared at her.
The second I finished taking the castella, Kuro folded the empty bag, handed it back to the owner, accepted a new one, and was already folding that one as well.
Was this a magic trick?! Where did the contents go? It was supposed to be a full bag! Don't tell me... she was eating them? At a speed so fast I couldn't even perceive it?
"...U-Um, Kuro?"
"Yeah?"
"...How many bags is that?"
"...Let’s see. I think this is the tenth?"
She was counting in bags, not individual pieces. I understood the words, but my brain flatly refused to process the reality of the situation.
"...O-Oh. I see."
"Yep! Oh, can I get about fifty more bags to go? ...Mm, thank you. Keep the change!"
I stood there in a daze, watching as Kuro stowed a mountain of paper bags into a black vortex and handed a Gold Coin to the vendor.
I might have slightly underestimated Kuro’s passion for baby castella. And this was only the first stall... If she kept eating at this pace, just how many was she going to go through in a single day?
"Come on, Kaito-kun! Which baby castella should we try next?"
"..."
"There are so many, it’s hard to choose!"
Do you see the problem? It wasn't a choice between A or B; it was a choice between baby castella or... baby castella. The idea of following up baby castella with even more baby castella was a bit too avant-garde for my simple tastes.
But, of course, Kuro—the woman who could arguably be called the Spirit of Baby Castella—wasn’t about to wait. She pulled me by the hand toward the next stall.
We made the rounds of several more vendors—all of which were, predictably, baby castella stalls—until Kuro suddenly came to a halt.
"Kaito-kun! Look, look at that!"
"Huh? ...'Ice Cream-filled Baby Castella'?"
"That’s amazing! It’s definitely going to be delicious! Let’s go!"
"O-Okay..."
Did we really need to turn every single thing into a baby castella? Still, I was starting to get a bit tired of the maple-flavored ones, so an ice cream-filled version didn't sound half bad.
Kuro seemed genuinely intrigued; her eyes were sparkling as she tugged on my arm. She was incredibly cute.
Chuckling at her childlike excitement, I walked toward the stall and—
"Welcome—Gyagh?!"
I instinctively punched the idiot in the penguin kigurumi the moment she appeared. Seriously, what was this moron doing? She was practically a permanent fixture. I’d seen her at the festival every single day since the gates opened.
"Oh? So this was Shaltier’s shop."
"Y-Yes... I mean, Kuro-san? No reaction at all? I just got punched in the face the moment we met... This is a textbook case of domestic violence..."
"Eh? But Shaltier... you’re letting yourself get hit on purpose because you’re happy Kaito-kun is paying attention to you, aren't you?"
"..."
As Kuro dropped that blunt truth, Alice turned her head away, still wearing the kigurumi, trying to avoid Kuro’s eyes. I knew that Alice could easily dodge someone like me if she actually wanted to, and that she wasn't taking any actual damage... we were just playing around, basically. But having it spelled out like that was a bit embarrassing.
"A-Anyway, please, have some! The first one is on the house!"
Perhaps Alice was embarrassed too, because she forced a change of subject and handed ice-cream-filled baby castellas to Kuro and me.
I expected it to be cold, but the castella I received was nice and warm. When I took a bite, the ice cream inside was freezing, creating a wonderful contrast between hot and cold.
It tasted a bit like a pancake with ice cream on top, and the cold center did a great job of cutting through the sweet aftertaste of the castella dough.
Mmm, I have to hand it to her. As expected of Alice, it was delicious.
"A-Amazing... The dough is still warm, but the ice cream inside is cold! Shaltier, how did you do this?!"
"Heh heh heh... Two words: Status Preservation Magic!"
"What?!"
"I’ve applied Status Preservation Magic only to the ice cream inside. I’ve set the condition for it to deactivate the moment it touches anything other than the castella dough."
"I see! That way, the spell breaks the second you bite into it and your teeth hit the center..."
It was a clever idea. Applying the spell only to the filling... I felt like that had a lot of potential.
"Exactly! If I use this method, I could even put liquids inside if I felt like it!"
"What?! That’s incredible! Then I can finally make those black tea or miso soup versions I gave up on!!"
Stop. Stop right there, you idiot... Don’t go passing on new technology to the Spirit of Baby Castella. Who do you think is going to be the victim of those experiments?!
As that thought crossed my mind, Alice spoke up in a dubious tone that stood in stark contrast to Kuro’s rising excitement.
"Yes, precisely... However, Kuro-san."
"Yeah?"
"Can we maybe just... not do those two? I guarantee they won’t taste good."
"...But I want to be a seeker who pursues every possibility. I want to explore the ultimate depths of the baby castella."
"Please discard that ambition immediately. The world does not need it."
Wait. Something was wrong. For some reason, Alice was the one sounding like a sensible, rational person.
Even after being told they definitely wouldn’t taste good, Kuro’s obsession with trying them anyway was terrifying. To be more specific, the future where I would inevitably be forced to eat them was terrifying.
Dear Mother, Father—Usually, Alice is the one acting like an idiot... but when it comes to baby castella, Kuro is the one who's truly abnormal. I've wondered this so many times before, but that passion... where on earth does it all come from?
Underworld King: "The Miracle Baby Castella Carnival... has begun!"
Serious-senpai: "...It’s not mentally sweet, but physically sweet? I’m honestly not sure how to react to this."