Kuro was our very first arrival the moment the stall opened. Between the sound-isolation magic tool Elise-san had recommended and Kuro’s own recognition-inhibiting magic, the surrounding crowd didn't seem to notice her at all.
"Tre, Cento, Sien—thank you for your help today. Give it your all, okay?"
"Oka~y!"
"Yes, Lady Kuro." "Understood."
After greeting the three members of her family, Kuro turned to me with a cute, beaming smile. Even without using sympathy magic, I could tell just how much she had been looking forward to this.
"I’ve been so excited to try your Baby Castella, Kaito-kun! I couldn't wait a second longer, so I hurried right over."
"I’ll say you hurried. You were definitely lurking nearby, weren't you?"
"Ahaha, that's a secret."
"Well, anyway, Kuro, since you're our very first customer... we have the plain Baby Castella and the ones with chocolate inside."
"Right. I’d like a hundred bags of each, please."
...What on earth is she talking about? Did she really just say a hundred? That’s two hundred bags total. It’s like having two hundred customers descend on us all at once.
Even if we started baking right now, it would take far too much time. It would be a disaster if we couldn't serve other customers in the meantime. As these thoughts raced through my head, Kuro continued with her bright smile intact.
"Oh, it’s fine! I’m not in a rush. I’ll just take one bag of each for now. I’ll come back near closing time, so you can just hand over the rest then."
"Oh, if that’s the case... I suppose we can just bake them during the lulls throughout the day."
I thought she was making an outrageous demand out of nowhere, but if she was fine waiting until closing, we could just bake them at a steady pace and store them in the Magic Box. We already had some pre-baked stock in there, so we should be able to manage.
For now, we set to work on the two bags she wanted immediately. Since they were for Kuro, Tre-san and I stepped up to the irons.
Tre-san took the plain batch while I handled the chocolate, and we baked them quickly. Cento-san and Sien-san packed them into bags and handed them over to Kuro.
"Thanks! Mmm, what a lovely smell. They look delicious. Well then, I’ll just—!?"
With a cheerful smile, Kuro popped a Baby Castella into her mouth, but the smile vanished instantly. Her eyes grew as sharp as a bird of prey tracking its quarry.
"...This is different. This is unlike any Baby Castella I’ve ever eaten. The ingredients are different. As far as I know, it would be impossible to produce this flavor with any combination of known materials... Did Shiro create entirely new ingredients for this!? This taste has pushed the Baby Castella to an entirely new dimension. It’s an evolution of the very foundation... It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call this the Dawn of a New Era for Baby Castella."
Seeing her like this, it really hits home that she’s Ein-san’s master. She’s just like Ein-san when she starts lecturing about maid culture—spewing a torrent of incomprehensible nonsense with absolute, life-or-death gravity.
"However, the base flavor of the material is too dominant. Normally, if you tried to add or knead something else into it, it would be overwhelmed by the ingredients. Even this chocolate one—Wait, what!? It wasn't overwhelmed? Against the flavor of ingredients at this level... This is..."
"..."
What should I do? She was muttering her analysis of the Baby Castella with the most serious face I had ever seen. With her radiating such a bizarre, intense atmosphere, no other customers were going to come anywhere near our stall.
Kuro was projecting an aura that made her seem unapproachable—or rather, it made people hesitate to even speak to her. The rest of us were at a total loss, unsure of how to handle the situation.
"Yeah, yeah. Could you save the weird lecture for when you get back? You’re in the way standing there, you know-ssu."
"Shaltier, wait. Right now, I’m contemplating the Infinite Possibilities of Baby Castella..."
"I'm not talking about possibilities or whatever-ssu. I’m saying you're an obstacle... Alright, removal."
"Ah, wait a second! On second thought, I should order another ten thousand bags..."
"Are you trying to kill Kaito-san and the others from overwork!? Rejected, rejected!"
...I’ll take back my earlier concerns; I was truly glad she was here as our mascot. I couldn't expect much from her in terms of attracting customers, but she was the absolute best for a bouncer-like position. Her ability to forcibly remove Kuro in that state was incredibly reliable. I really needed her to keep up the good work for the rest of the day.
At any rate, I was relieved that the first crisis had passed. However, as the saying goes, "out of the frying pan and into the fire"—troubles like these tend to come in pairs. I really hoped the rest of the morning wouldn't be a non-stop parade of problems.
"How heartless, my Sworn Friend... Why was I not summoned to this Abyssal Invitation?"
...And here comes the next one. Wasn't that flag collection a bit too fast?
Serious-senpai: "So this is where Amel makes her entrance... She looks like she’s incredibly dejected."
???: "She’s a bird-kin, but she’s got a really strong puppy vibe, doesn't she...?"