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——"There! Finally got 'em all pureed!" Ace cheered, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "My arm is killing me..." Deuce sighed. "Nice work. It'll be all the sweeter for your pain!" Trey chuckled, leaning against a counter. Easy for you to say when you didn't even break a sweat...
"The smell alone already has me droolin'..." Grim awed, wiping away some drool from his mouth. "I just need to add butter and sugar to the chestnut paste, and a sensible splash of oyster sauce -that's my secret ingredient!" I have a hard time believing that to be honest. The amount of salt in oyster sauce would completely ruin the tart.
"Oyster sauce?!" The Idiot Duo exclaimed in shock. Do they really believe the man who just forced us to do manual labor for him? So naive..."Yep. The umami of the oysters gives the cream a deep, savory flavor. I use this one here: Walrus-brand Young Oyster Sauce. All the best bakers use it in their tarts." Trey lied.
"Really? But isn't oyster sauce like, super salty?" Deuce asked. He was on the right track. "Some folks put chocolate into curry, don't they? Maybe it's the same idea." Then there's this dumbass.
"Pfft... Ah ha ha ha! I'm totally lying! No one in their right mind would put oyster sauce into a pastry." Trey laughed, clutching his stomach. "What?! So you were just yankin' our chain?" Ace shrieked. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Ah ha ha! I mean, if you'd used your brain, you'd have realized how ridiculous it was! Let that be a lesson to you. Don't believe everything you hear." Trey wiped away his tears. "Feh. And here I thought that human was actually somewhat decent." Grim scoffed, jumping onto the counter next to me.
"Next, I'll put in the cream... Oh!" Trey's face slightly paled. "What's wrong?" Ace asked, which is a (for once) reasonable question. "You guys gathered so many chestnuts that we may have overdone it with the chestnut paste. I don't think we have enough cream to mix in." Trey explained, crossing his arms with a frown.
"Then I'll go buy some. Do they sell it at the school store?" Deuce asked. There he goes, being all heroic. "They sell pretty much everything, so... probably. Can I have you pick me up a few other things? I need two cartons of milk, two packs of eggs, some muffin cups, five cans of fruit..." Trey continued the list.
"I don't think I'll be able to carry all that back. Y/N, could you come with me?" Deuce asked turning to me with a slight blush on his face. "Sure." I answered simply, shrugging. "Then I'm comin' too! I'm getting dizzy from all this stirrin'. I need a break!" Grim said, stretching his limbs.
—►►—
"Hello, can I get some he- Whoa. This shop is wild. They have crystal skulls, grimoires, taxidermied... Uh, I don't even know what animal that is!" Deuce shivered, looking at a taxidermied mongoose with a hat. "You think they really sell cream here?" Grim shuddered.
"Greetings, my stray imps, How fare you today? Welcome to Mr. Sam's Mystery Shop. What among my humble selection interests you? A charm from a secluded land? The mummified remains of an ancient king? A cursed tarot card?" The shopkeeper smirked, flipping up a tarot card with "The Lovers" on it. How peculiar.
