Chapter 2

"Lilith-sama, what are you doing?"

"I'm making caramel sauce."

"Twisting sauce? Not hard candy? Ah! If you turn up the heat so much, it will burn!"

"But caramel sauce is supposed to be a burnt color. It must be fine this way."

"However..."

"Move, move. I'm going to transfer this to the dish."

Lilith pushed aside Jeff, the anxious chef, and began transferring the "caramel sauce" into the prepared cup-shaped dishes. However, the sticky sauce in the pot wouldn't easily move into the containers.

"Ugh, this is so troublesome... And why won't it spread at the bottom...?"

"Lilith-sama, are you really sure this is okay?"

"Well, it should be fine. The taste will probably be fine."

"Sure, it's burnt hard candy..."

"Alright, next is the custard liquid!"

Lilith raised her voice with enthusiasm, heated the milk while adding sugar and mixing it, then carefully added the eggs and mixed again to prevent it from boiling.

Jeff, who didn't know what "pudding" was, still felt uneasy as a chef watching Lilith's casual approach. He muttered things like "Oh..." and "Be more careful..." while watching anxiously.

Ignoring Jeff's nervous state, Lilith began pouring the liquid into the containers where she had just put the "caramel sauce." There were five containers in total. She arranged them in a frying pan filled with water, covered the containers, and placed the frying pan on the stove. She had to give up on the silver, soft sheet that she had seen in her dream, which was supposed to cover the containers directly.

"Lilith-sama, what will you do next?"

"Well... when the water in the frying pan boils, I'll turn down the heat, and then... after a while, I'll turn off the heat and let it steam."

"...How long is 'a while'?"

"A while is a while. I'll leave the rest to Jeff. The liquid should set to a soft, jiggly consistency. Then, cool it down and serve it. It seems to taste better when chilled, but I'm being selfish and don't want to add extra heat to the ice room."

Lilith answered meekly, but what she said was quite unreasonable. Despite this, Jeff didn't complain and nodded with a sigh of resignation. From here on, it was time for the veteran chef to show his skills. Having dealt with Lilith's unreasonable requests many times before, Jeff had repeatedly experimented and mastered various dishes. Moreover, the food Lilith had invented—food that could be stored for years—had helped the world survive a global famine four years ago.

Since then, long-lasting foods like Freud's cheese had become famous and were highly traded among merchants. Of course, the manufacturing method couldn't remain a secret forever. King Dreaum knew that trying to hide it would only lead to unnecessary conflicts, so he didn't keep it a secret. However, even now, Freud's food is much more expensive than products from other regions. As a result, the Kingdom of Freud has been quite prosperous in recent years.

Naturally, neighboring countries couldn't ignore this. The Kingdom of Fontae in the east had apparently tried several times to make Freud a vassal state but couldn't due to the警惕 of the Aerus Empire in the west. However, the Kingdom of Fontae, unable to give up on Freud, decided to take drastic measures. None of those present could have imagined that this would significantly change Lilith's fate.