“Then I made the right decision to tell you.”
“You sure know me well, Glacé.”
“Of course,” he said. “I’ve been your older brother for sixteen years, after all.”
My brother might’ve seemed absent-minded, but he was actually very sharp. One might actually need to be wary of him.
“What about you, Mille-Feuille? What do you think about the burden that dragonkin women carry?” Glacé threw my question back at me.
“I think that the men need to learn how to clean up after their own messes,” I answered.
Glacé looked like he was taken aback by my response at first...but then he started trembling and held his belly in mirthful laughter.
“Glacé, did I say something strange?” I asked.
“No, no, you’re absolutely right. It would be great if there were something we men could do about our draconic transformations.”
Transforming used a massive amount of mana, leaving the man exhausted. To remedy this, Suppression Magic was used to transfer a woman’s mana to a man, and then the woman would suffer from mana depletion in the man’s place. It was absurd and unfair, but this was the reality for us dragonkin.
“What do you want to do about it, Mille-Feuille? How do you think we dragonkin should handle ourselves?” Glacé asked.
“I’d like it if dragonkin women could live more comfortable lives, at least.”
“I see.”
“What about you, Glacé?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what we even could do about it...”
For a moment, I considered telling Glacé about the ointment and the candy I had made, but I had no guarantee that what Glacé was saying was truly how he felt. I decided against mentioning them—I had no idea if I had even succeeded in making either of them in the first place.
“Mille-Feuille, you sure seem different lately,” Glacé remarked.
“Really?”
“It feels like you’ve matured somewhat.”
“I don’t know about that...” I said.
I knew it was only because I now had the memories of my previous life within me. It was like I had fused with Charlotte’s memories, and he must have sensed that as a change in me. But of course, I had no plans of disclosing anything about that to Glacé.
“Would you talk to me again if you have any more thoughts like these?” he asked me.
“If I feel like it.”
“You’re so cold to me.”
“We’re not close siblings, you know,” I retorted.
“There’s only two of us, so we should get along more,” Glacé said in a half-hearted comeback. He then returned to eating his dessert.
I wanted to turn in early, so I took a bath and went to my room.
Parfeil brought me the hot milk I had requested. Its sweet scent helped calm my nerves.
“Thank you, Parfeil. You may leave.”
“All right, milady. Good night!”
“Good night to you too,” I said in return.
I confirmed that the door was closed and went out to the balcony. Tonight was a full moon, so the ointment and candies we had made this afternoon were both bathing in plenty of moonlight.
I noticed the faint reflection of the moon in my cup of hot milk. I cast Enchant on the milk to let it absorb some mana as well. I drank the enchanted milk and felt the mana flowing inside my body. I recovered the mana I had used up in class and while making the ointment and candies in an instant. The unease I had been feeling also vanished.
“Huh... This might be more effective than I thought...”
The milk had only stayed in the moonlight for a bit, but my mana had recovered by a significant amount. I hadn’t expected it to be so potent. Had no one thought about absorbing mana from the moon via the food they consumed?
I had the idea that it was fine to take the ointment and candies inside too. I’d originally believed that they would take a while, but they were already ready to use.
I used the Evaluation Glasses on the concoctions. The pimple ointment was evaluated as “low quality (slight mana recovery; reduces pimple inflammation).” Meanwhile, the candies were said to be “low quality (slight mana recovery; reduces inflammation).” For something I had made for the first time, even reaching an evaluation of “low quality” felt like a success.
Now what should I do with the hot milk? I had already recovered plenty of mana with just one sip, so I knew I probably shouldn’t drink any more. Absorbing too much mana was bad for the body as well. However, I didn’t want the mana-infused milk to go to waste.
As soon as the idea struck me, I had to act. I hid from the eyes of the attendants and headed to the underground kitchen. I checked inside the cooler and confirmed that the ingredients were all there. After that, I took out some butter, honey, and sugar and mixed them all with the milk in a pot. Then, I lit a fire and heated the mixture up until it was sticky. Once it had cooled down, I poured it onto some wax paper. I used an ice magicstone to cool it down completely and then cut it into bite-size pieces.
I examined the finished caramel candy I’d made with the Evaluation Glasses. The evaluation read, “low-quality caramel candy (slight mana recovery; delicious).”
“‘Delicious’...?”
In any case, all was well as long as the milk hadn’t gone to waste. I wrapped wax paper around the candies and stuffed them into a jar. I was sure Madeleine would love it if I shared some with her.
Upon returning to my room, I heard some noises from the hallway. My mother and father must have returned already. I quickly turned off the lights and tucked myself into bed.
I felt like I’d had quite a satisfying day. While I was having trouble reconciling with the fact that I was recalling things that had happened in my past life, it wasn’t all bad. Would there ever come a day when I would be thankful for these memories?
Only the heavens knew what was in store for me.