Reborn As Noble

Chapter 1619: Sweetness and Longing ( 1619 )

Felicia glanced around the hall and spotted Delya at another table, sitting beside Gracelle. Delya wore her usual dreamy expression, one palm pressed against her cheek, her spoon resting between her lips with a mouthful of chocolate cake. Her eyes were half-lidded, lost in bliss.

”Mm~ Delicious~”

Gracelle smiled, glancing at her own plate. Small cakes layered with glistening fruit jelly caught the chandelier light, the colored layers glowing like stained glass. She reached for her spoon and scooped a generous bite, the jelly trembling slightly on the tines, the fruit pieces sparkling within.

She lifted it to her lips, took the whole spoonful, and closed her eyes as she chewed. A soft hum of pleasure escaped her.

”Mm. This is really good.”

Felicia moved toward their table, her steps graceful, her tail swaying slowly behind her. She stopped beside them and glanced over the spread. Plates of layered cakes, bowls of glistening jelly, small tartlets crowned with cream, and more.

She smiled and tilted her head.

”Careful with the sweets, Delya. You’ll gain weight if you keep eating like that~”

Delya scooped up another spoonful with her usual dreamy smile.

”Big Sister Felicia, you know demons never gain weight no matter how much we eat~”

Gracelle, who had been enjoying her fruit cakes slowly, turned her head sharply, surprise flickering across her face.

”W... what?”

Delya and Felicia both glanced at her. Delya blinked, spoon still halfway to her lips. ”Mm?” She swallowed, wiped her lips with her napkin, and tilted her head.

”Yes?”

Gracelle stared at her. ”R... really?”

”Really what?” Delya twirled her spoon.

Gracelle leaned forward, her brow furrowing. ”Demonkin don’t gain weight if they eat sweets?”

Delya smiled. ”Not all of us. Demons come in dozens of kinds. Horned, scaled, flame-blooded, shadow-born. And each one is different.” She gestured lightly with her spoon. ”Pure-blood Royals like my family, we have a different nature. Our bodies process food quite differently. We simply don’t store it the way humans do.”

She tilted her head. ”It’s similar with beastkin. They can eat plates and plates of meat and never gain a single pound. Their bodies burn through it differently.”

”Ehhhhh!?”

Gracelle’s eyes went wide. She turned toward Felicia, her expression caught somewhere between disbelief and betrayal.

”Well...” Felicia raised her palm to her lips and stifled a soft laugh. ”Not quite. There are beastkin races that do gain weight. Some of them gain very easily, actually. But not our race. Not the royal line of the Beastkin Nation. Our bodies are different, just as Delya said.”

Gracelle glanced down at her half-eaten fruit cake. The creamy layers glistened under the chandelier light, the fruit jelly catching the glow like stained glass, the cream soft and rich where her spoon had cut through it.

She pursed her lips. Her shoulders slumped. The edge of her spoon rested against her chin as she mumbled under her breath.

”So unfair...”

Delya smiled softly.

”Mm... I don’t think we need to worry much about the sugar. Danna-sama mentioned it before. The sugar Armand makes doesn’t have what he calls ’chemicals’ or ’ultra-processed’ things. It’s made from sugarcane stalks, and then it goes through his magic machine. Within seconds, it turns into pure sugar crystals. Nothing is added. Nothing artificial. Just sugar, in its purest form.”

She scooped another bite of chocolate cake.

”He said it’s much better for the body than the sugar made the slow, old way. No additives, no bleaching. Just clean, simple sweetness.”

Felicia nodded.

”I did ask Husband about that once. What he meant by chemicals, bleach, and additives. He tried to explain it to me.”

She chuckled softly, her tail swaying slowly behind her.

”But I couldn’t understand a single thing. He summoned a whiteboard right there in the middle of the courtyard and started writing all sorts of things. Formulas. Symbols. Diagrams. He drew lines and arrows and circled things and kept talking about molecules and reactions and elements and decomposition.”

Felicia laughed softly again.

”He was so excited, though. His eyes were bright and his voice was quick and he kept turning around to point at the board. So I just sat there and listened. I didn’t understand it, but I loved hearing him talk like that.”

Delya smiled dreamily, biting down on her spoon.

”Mm~ That’s what I love about Danna-sama.”

She pulled the spoon from her lips slowly and let out a soft, happy sigh.

”He’s like that with everything he loves. When he explains a thing that no one else can understand, his whole face changes. He gets so excited, so eager to share it, even if we can’t follow a single word.”

She glanced at the desserts spread across the table.

”There are so many things here that came from his recipes. The cakes, the jelly, the cream, the tarts. The way the layers are made, the way the flavors are balanced, the techniques he uses. No one in this world makes desserts like this except Armand. He taught the chefs himself. He taught them how to shape the cream, how to layer the fruit, how to make the jelly shimmer and set without losing its color.”

Her smile widened.

”Danna-sama told me a lot about desserts I had never heard of before in my whole life. Things like ’mochi,’ ’dorayaki,’ and ’taiyaki.’ Or sweets shaped like flowers, or little fish, or leaves~”

She lifted a small piece of chocolate cake and held it up toward the light.

”He took one out of his dimensional storage once and gave it to me. Something called ’daifuku.’ A soft, round thing wrapped around something he called sweet bean paste. And he just sat there and watched me eat it. Waiting for my reaction. Like a child waiting to hear if his gift was liked.”

She giggled softly.

”And it was delicious. Soft. Sweet. Nothing like what we have here. I told him it was wonderful, and his whole face lit up like I’d given him the greatest compliment in the world.”

Gracelle leaned in, eyes wide with fascination.

Felicia smiled and continued.

”There’s also something he called takoyaki. When I asked him what it was, he said it was round balls of batter, cooked in a special pan, with pieces of octopus inside. He said they’re golden and crisp on the outside, soft and savory on the inside, topped with a sweet sauce and something called dried fish flakes~”

Gracelle tilted her head.

”Since we’re on vacation in Armand’s private island right now, and the vacation will probably continue for a few more days... maybe we should ask Husband to make it for us.”

Delya’s eyes brightened.

”Mm! That’s a good idea!”

She pressed her palm against her cheek, a dreamy smile crossing her face.

”Ah~ I can’t wait to taste more of his desserts.”

Felicia let out a soft exhale.

”But our husband is busy, right?”

( End Of Chapter )