Chapter 27
“WOW, IT’S FIRST THING in the morning, but you guys are already fired up. Did something happen?”
Now that a ray of hope had broken though the desolate clouds of their sugar-free diet, the dining hall was overflowing with mirth. Having come quite a bit late, Bruce poked his head inside inquisitively.
“Naaah, we were just chatting a bit about food…”
Quite a lot had gone down, but now sweet food had finally made its return to the menu. After quickly explaining as much to Bruce, Mira took her seat, signaling that the meal would soon begin. And with their master having taken her seat, the sisters quickly followed suit. The vibe of the room, which had previously been something like a victory celebration, changed completely as the dining hall was transformed into a quiet breakfast space.
Seeming to not quite understand what was going on, Bruce said, “Sweet stuff for breakfast?” But, looking at the French toast sitting on the tables, he smiled and added, “My favorite!”
“And for soup, we’ll be having vegetable salad stew,” Floedina said, bringing over the pot from the kitchen. It contained the special stew which was infused with the savory flavor of both meat and vegetables.
She then put a plate at each table and began pouring the stew into each one. Perhaps it was all in Mira’s head, but her hand looked a little tense.
But wow, this is my first time seeing anything like this.
Salad stew was one of Floedina’s original dishes. It consisted of various vegetables that were cubed into about the size of small dice, which were then piled high and topped with a stew made of beef stock in place of dressing, making it both light and rich.
The first time she heard about it, Mira was rather surprised. However, it seemed that the sisters considered such food to be a fairly luxurious option for breakfast. And having vegetable salad stew in addition to the sweet French toast seemed to have put them in a particularly good mood.
Going to each and every table in turn, Floedina poured the stew onto the plates. While she was doing so, Christina proclaimed, “I’ll have extra meat!” When this resulted in her getting extra tomatoes, she looked stunned.
Yes, tomatoes. While the French toast had usurped the conversation, the vegetable salad stew was in fact the star of Floedina’s main breakfast quest of “Operation Get Alfina to Like Tomatoes.”
Unlike her normal recipe, this time the stew had heaps of tomatoes. Stewed to perfection and soft as could be, the tomatoes were ripe for the eating. And yet, as they’d been cut into large pieces, the emphasis on them was readily apparent.
Finally, the stew made its way to Alfina and was poured onto her plate. And, at that very second, a very visible change came over her normally cool and collected countenance.
I’d heard she wasn’t a fan of tomatoes… But she must really not be a fan…
Watching to see what kind of reaction she’d have, Mira perceived a very definite change in Alfina. Her dislike of tomatoes, as well as her contempt for Floedina, who knew of this very dislike and yet had served them to her nonetheless, flickered clearly in her eyes.
Floedina’s doing a good job of keeping her composure.
Despite the daggers being stared at her by Alfina, Floedina kept her cool and said, “There is still a little bit left,” before putting the pot down. However, as if she was suddenly hit by a wave of terror after sitting down, she shuddered as the smile fell from her face.
Locking eyes with Floedina, Mira silently conveyed that she was proud of her for a job well done and nodded as if to say she could leave the rest to her.
Seeing Mira reassure her, Floedina smiled faintly as if to suggest that it was now her turn as what remained of her strength drained from her body.
“It’s sweet… It’s so sweet…!”
As soon as breakfast began, not only Elievina and Elezina but every single one of the sisters immediately dug into the French toast and shivered in delight as they basked in the sugary goodness. Despite what she might say, Alfina seemed to like sweet things as well, as her face lit up faintly and a smile broke upon her face.
It was a sweet and delicious breakfast dish. And yet, it wasn’t one that you could sum up nicely with just a word or two. The bread had been specially cooked using an extraordinarily rare type of egg, and having been prepared with a special cooking method, the French toast was on a whole different level than anything that Mira could’ve expected.
“Whoa, this is super tasty!” Mira said, needing only a single bite to understand that it was nothing like the French toast she’d eaten before then. Because some time had passed since it’d been freshly cooked, it’d cooled down and therefore tasted even more pudding-like. At this point, it almost felt more like dessert than breakfast food.
And so, after they hadn’t tasted any such sugary thing in well over a decade, this particular French toast was the perfect dish to celebrate the end of their prohibition on sweets.
Slowly, Elezina savored each and every bite.
Floedina looked extremely pleased with herself for having cooked the dish.
Charwiena was delighted not only by how it tasted, but by its pudding-like texture.
Elievina, who looked as if she couldn’t understand why everyone was making such a big fuss over a simple piece of French toast, was nevertheless celebrating on the inside.
Selestina seemed to want to save the best for last, as she began quickly scarfing down the rest of her breakfast after taking but a single bite.
Then there was Christina who, having already polished off her French toast, was now eagerly eyeing Selestina’s plate. However, her opponent was the weapons master, Selestina, in whose hands even a humble butter knife was a deadly weapon. And so, if she made any move toward Selestina’s plate, she’d likely regret it the very next second.
However, Selestina didn’t seem to really have her guard up. And so, Christina gently moved only her vegetables to Selestina’s plate.
Long-repressed feelings and emotions swirled throughout the dining hall when Bruce, who didn’t understand what all the commotion was about, jauntily said, “This really is something else.”
And so, things went on like this until breakfast was about half over. Everyone had their own ways of consuming the breakfast, but just about everyone had dug into all of it. That was when Mira noticed something. One of the sisters, namely Alfina, had yet to touch her salad stew.
That isn’t good…
While she slowly ate her breakfast, Alfina kept occasionally shooting Floedina angry glances, as if to ask what the big deal was. Every time she did, Floedina would turn her gaze toward Mira, pleading with her to come to her aid.
The timing of the operation had been left in Mira’s hands, as they’d predicted that Floedina would be unable to act at times like this. But most importantly, it was best if Mira were to be the one to act, as she wielded the most influence over Alfina.
She said she was pretty confident going in, but she really put her money where her mouth is with this vegetable salad stew or whatever she called it.
Trying to figure out the best time to begin the operation, Mira took another bite of the salad stew.