落とし穴２５掘：またさぼりの日々
### Pitfall 25: Days of Slacking Off Again
**Days of Slacking Off Again**
**Side: Yuki**
Well, the Demon King’s Castle has been conquered, and now it’s just a matter of waiting for the Rumel invasion force to collapse. That’s the job of the Allied Forces, though; unless something truly dire happens, there’s no reason for me to step in.
At this point, the Rumel invasion force is essentially checkmated. If they had managed to capture a city or a fortress in Rumel, they could have used it as a base, but thanks to the Heroes, they haven’t seized a single inch of Rumel territory.
Well, I don’t want to deal with the fallout of them putting up a desperate, messy resistance, so I plan to send Surakichi-san and the others to quietly prune the retreating Rumel forces.
That’s the plan, anyway.
It’s been two days since the fall of the Demon King’s Castle. Even if word of the enemy’s defeat takes a week to reach Rumel, I still have at least another week of downtime. Getting an army to turn around and retreat is quite the tedious affair.
As for the Allied Forces, they are currently enjoying the lavish hospitality of the demons, throwing banquets while simultaneously planning countermeasures against the Rumel invasion force. Among them, the generals who defeated the nameless monster said to have devoured the Demon King are being hailed as heroes, but that’s neither here nor there right now.
“...I’m bored.”
“Bored, aren’t we?”
Seraria and I are lounging on the veranda, sipping tea. It’s so convenient having a workspace you can commute to from home. Plus, having a double to handle the grunt work is just wonderful.
“Well, I like taking it easy, so I don’t mind. But if you’re bored, Seraria, why not head over to the Allied Forces and get some work done? You’ve got more on your plate than I do.”
“No, thank you. I’ve left the Weed unit of the Allied Forces to Quar, so it’s fine. I’ve also instructed my double to give me a play-by-play of the other leadership meetings, so there’s no problem.”
I wonder about that. The head of the Weed army... well, she is Elju’s sister, and effectively the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces. Elju is only the commander in name, after all; she can’t actually lead an army.
“Then go play a game.”
“...I’ll hold off on that until this whole affair is over. I did clear it, after all, and I’ll master it later.”
“...That’s probably for the best.”
Apparently, showing her a Level 1 challenge run and a speedrun really lit a fire under her. But she’s showing some restraint now, likely because she’s still feeling the effects of pulling an all-nighter and then sleeping for a full day. I’ll keep the fact that a sequel has been released a secret until this is all over. If I tell her now, another all-nighter is guaranteed.
“What else is there to do, I wonder...”
“Hmm. Oh, that’s right. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at baking. Is there anything simple I could make?”
“Baking, huh? What brought this on?”
“It’s simple. I brew my own tea, don’t I? But I’ve never made the sweets to go with it. Tea and sweets are supposed to be a set, and it feels a bit lacking to only be able to do one, don’t you think?”
“I see your point.”
I can understand that sentiment. Though, I suppose being able to brew tea is enough to pass as a lady’s hobby, she was probably told that baking should be left to the professionals. Seraria was royalty, after all; I imagine she had a hard time practicing how to brew tea herself.
“It was my mother’s hobby. You heard it from that old man, right? That my mother and the others were adventurers, including that deadbeat father of mine.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I do recall hearing that.”
“Because they were adventurers, they had a strong sense that they had to do everything they could for themselves. That didn’t change even after they became the Queen and concubines. After all, they even took care of us themselves.”
I imagine the people who were supposed to be taking care of them must have been troubled in more ways than one.
“My mother used to brew tea for me, too. Even as a child, I could tell it was delicious. And the sweets she served with it were, too. But it’s a shame. Both of my mothers passed away early. The only thing I managed to learn was how to brew the tea.”
“So that’s why you want to bake.”
“Yes. I know I can’t replicate my mother’s cookies, but I want to feed my own children something homemade.”
There’s no reason to say no to that.
“Well, you might not be able to make your mother’s cookies, but you can certainly make Seraria’s cookies. We have plenty of ingredients here, so we can experiment with all sorts of things.”
“Fufu, you’re so reliable at times like these. You’re right. My mother’s flavor belongs only to her. I just need to borrow my husband’s strength and create my own cookies.”
“Yeah.”
Still, I’ve never baked before. I know the ingredients, but it’s not like cooking where you can just toss things together in a bold, haphazard way. It’s a tricky business where you have to mix the right proportions, or it won’t turn out as a proper sweet. I’m sure it’s just like cooking once you get used to it, but since I’ve never bothered to measure and mix properly, I’ve never touched it until now.
“So, I printed out everything I could find.”
“...There are so many kinds of cookies, aren’t there?”
Exactly. I knew vaguely that there were many types, but I didn’t expect there to be over ten basic categories. And that’s not even counting the fillings like chocolate—that’s just the different methods of making the dough. Drop cookies, refrigerator cookies, molded cookies, cutout cookies, piped cookies, bar cookies... and so on. Cutout cookies are self-explanatory, but the rest are a mystery to me. What even are refrigerator cookies? And bar cookies are just... well, like those energy bars.
“Well, the instructions are all here, so let’s just give it a shot.”
“Right. We should follow the instructions first before we try any arrangements.”
Yeah, Seraria doesn’t seem like the type to fail at cooking. You have to be careful with people who try to improvise on their first attempt; basics are everything.
And so, we started baking cookies. The result:
“Big Brother, it smells so good!!”
“Big Sister, what is this!!”
“...What a wonderful scent.”
“Big Brother, is this the smell of cookies?”
“Are these homemade cookies?”
One by one, the family returned from their work...
“We did make quite a lot, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, I wonder if we can even finish all of this?”
Everyone nodded at Tori and Riel’s words. And for good reason—the kitchen was piled high with a mountain of finished cookies.
“Well, it was my first time, and I got a bit carried away having fun with all the different types.”
“Indeed. There were so many kinds that I ended up making too many.”
In the end, we finished some during our post-dinner tea time, and the rest were handed out as gifts to everyone’s respective workplaces.
Everything in moderation, as they say.
Cookies, at least, aren’t quite as dangerous as a full-course meal when it comes to food porn. And since I haven’t described them in such agonizing detail, I think we’re in the clear.