"It takes a considerable amount of skill to cleanly peel chestnuts. Let's use magic to do this more efficiently." Trey said as he grabbed a chestnut and started peeling it. "I guess since Ace, Alice and Kira can't use magic, they'll have to peel it the hard way, with their hands." Deuce said.
"Hey, at least I'll be faster than you trying to use your magic to peel them! Right, girls?" Ace asked, turning to the girls for confirmation, but he and the others were left stunned at how well Alice and Kira peeling the chestnuts, cleanly and efficiently.
The two girls were so focused on their part that they were unaware of the surprised faces of their friends and senior. They didn't even seem to notice Grim taking two pieces of chestnuts and gorging himself on them.
"You guysh," he said with his mouth full before he stuffed the two chestnuts into his mouth, "'hould gus' 'hit back'n wa'ch ush show you how ihh done!" Ace managed to catch Grim as he attempted to take another chestnut. "Hey, don't just be snacking on them already!" he shouted, smacking Grim's paws away from the nuts.
He grumbled to himself as he got to work in peeling them while Trey and Deuce used their magic, though Trey couldn't help but laugh in amusement at how competitive the boys were being.
Even so, he didn't know whether they were competing with each other or trying to reach the girls' pace. Then again, watching the blonde-haired girl and the lioness focusing on their work was kind of cute. Alice was so focused on her peeling that when Ace called out to her, she squeaked when she snapped out of her reverie.
"Look, girls! I peeled it super good!" Ace proudly said as he showed them the small mound of peeled chestnuts in his bowl. A happy smile spread on Alice's face, and she clapped for him.
"Wow, they look great. Incredible, Ace-kun!" she congratulated him. Kira just hummed and nodded in acknowledgement. "I'm surprised. Looks like Ace is more dexterous than I thought." Trey said, impressed at the newbie baker. Ace huffed a laugh.
"Hehe, just a bit. Definitely when compared to Mr. No Nonsense and that cat over there." he said, pointing a finger at Deuce, who was trying his best to peel the chestnuts perfectly. Deuce turned and shot a glare towards the cherry red-eyed boy for that remark.
"Hey, I've peeled them neatly too! See, look!" he shouted as he gestured towards his own bowl of freshly peeled chestnuts. "Me too! Hey, compare these to Ace's chestnuts!" Grim exclaimed. Trey chuckled in amusement.
"Haha... There's still a bunch of these chestnuts to peel, I'm glad you guys are full of so much energy." he said before turning towards Alice. "You seemed to have no trouble in this sort of thing, Miss Liddell." The blonde girl gave a shy blush before nodding her head.
"Yes. It's all thanks to my aunt Helena. She helped teach me how to bake." she said brightly. "Does she work at a bakery or something?" Ace asked. Alice nodded. "Yes, my aunt owns a bakery." she replied. "She taught me the recipes."
"Your aunt owns a bakery?" Trey asked, now becoming interested. Alice nodded. "Yes. It was her dream to have her own bakery and she worked hard to get one. Whenever we visited her shop or home, she would always love to spend time baking with my cousins and I. Eventually, I developed a passion for it." she said.
"Haha, I'm guessing you found it to be a lot of fun." Trey said with a smile. "I have. Especially when I began to try out my aunt's recipes." Alice said. "I heard that her aunt's triple chocolate chip cookies and red bean buns are the best!" Kira added.
She licked her lips at the thought of her favorite treats. As they all went back to peeling the chestnuts, Alice took a moment to look at her friends and she suddenly found herself imagining the rest of her family being in their place. Her two younger cousins would be getting into one of their friendly matches with each other.
The same way Deuce and Ace were doing now. Her uncle Edward would be scolding them to stop making such a ruckus, and her aunt Helena and sister Ashley would tell them off in a stern, but loving way.
Alice smiled. Though it was a different experience this time, baking with others...with them was quite an enjoyable one. Her smile faltered a bit when she began to think about her family back home. Alice had hoped that they were okay and were still doing things together as a family, even if she wasn't there to join them.
"This is the last one... There! Great, we're done!" Deuce shouted with joy as they had peeled every last chestnut they had collected and their bowls were filled with fresh nuts, giving off a pleasant scent. It was a lot of work, but they did it!
"Thanks for your hard work. It's amazing that we were able to finish to quickly even with helpers who couldn't use magic." Trey said. "Heheh, that's why you should always count on me, y'know!" Grim said. "Alright, next we have to purée it." Trey said. Ace stared at him. "Eeh?! There's still more we gotta do?!" he shouted.
Sometime later, they've managed to purée all the chestnuts. "Ah...!! We're finally done puréeing them all!" Ace said as he nearly fell over the counter, exhausted from the work. He questioned how people in the baking business could even do all this and not get tired from it all.
He had to peel nearly all the chestnuts and he was already wanting to find the nearest chair and take a nap. Kira let out an exhausted sigh. "Ugh! Tell me about it! My arms feel like limp noodles!" she groaned.
"My arms are aching..." Deuce said as he massaged his sore arms. "You've all worked so hard. I'm so proud of you both." Alice said as she gave them each a pat on the head, earning her a blush from both boys. "Haha. Good job. Your hard work will make it tastier." Trey praised.
He was finishing up with the marron base of the tart. Alice helped as well since they were making so many for a lot of people and mixed the dough together. "I'm already full from the smell, y'know~." Grim said as he was mesmerized by the salivating smell of the chestnuts.
"Oh, no, you don't, tuna breath." Kira said as she cautiously held him back, just in case he was going to try and eat them. "Next, we need to mix butter and sugar into the chestnut paste, then add the secret ingredient: oyster sauce." Trey explained.
The moment Trey mentioned the word "oyster sauce" as the secret ingredient, the four teenagers all stared at him as if he had gone bonkers. "Oyster sauce?!" they all shouted. Kira stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Yuck! Since when is oyster sauce a secret ingredient for desserts?!" she asked.
"Yep. The umami of the oysters adds a deep richness to the cream. Specifically, I use this "Walrus Approved Young Oyster Sauce". Famous patisserie all use this in their tarts." Trey replied with a straight face and a smile.
"B-B-But, that's...." Alice said, not believing what she was hearing right now. She sincerely hoped that Trey was joking because as far as she knew, oyster sauce would ruin the dessert's flavor, thus resulting in the whole thing turning into a complete waste. Something that Aunt Helena refused to do to with any of her treats.
Now that he mentioned it, she didn't remember seeing Trey putting any of that stuff into the marron base. "Seriously...? It tastes pretty salty." Deuce asked. "Then again, people even put chocolate in curry... Yo, maybe this'll taste all right." Ace thought aloud.
If people can put chocolate into curry to make the flavor even more rich... then maybe, it's the same thing with desserts and oyster sauce? "Um...excuse me?" Alice asked, raising her hand. Trey turned to her. "Yeah?" he asked. "Trey-senpai, surely you must be joking, right?" Alice asked.
"Tarts certainly wouldn't taste delicious with oyster sauce." Please let this be a joke! Please tell her he wasn't being serious! Trey glanced at her. The two stared at each other for a moment before Trey's shoulders started to shake.
Because of the way she was looking at him, he just couldn't keep a straight face anymore. "...Pfft. Ahahaha! She's right, of course it wouldn't! Who would put oyster sauce in dessert?" Trey laughed. "Oh, thank goodness." Alice said, letting out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness! She knew...she knew he had to be joking.
Regardless of whether he was being serious or not, it wouldn't matter now that Alice thought about it, because she was sure that Aunt Helena would've hung him by his collar on her pan rack if she ever heard him joke about stuff like that.
"Screw you! I was actually starting to take you seriously there!" Ace shouted in rage at his senior, who was still laughing at them. "Haha! If you took a second to think about it, you'd realize something was up~." Trey said, smiling.
"Don't just accept things without a healthy amount of skepticism. Consider this a lesson from me, okay~? At least Miss Liddell here had a sense of doubt." Alice slightly giggled. "I had no idea you were quite the jokester, Trey-senpai." she said with a smile.
"This guy looks nice, but he really can tell lies like they're nothing..." Grim commented. "Now we take some cream and—Oh!" Trey suddenly let out a yell. He turned to look at one of the ingredients he had brought. As he took a double take, his eyes widened and he grimaced. "Something up?" Ace asked.
"You all gathered so many chestnuts that I got ahead of myself and made too much marron paste. We don't have enough cream to mix into it." Trey said, feeling like an idiot for not thinking ahead for situations like this. "It's alright, Trey-senpai. Isn't there a place nearby where we can get more?" Alice asked.
"I can go out and buy some. Is it sold at the school store?" Deuce asked. "Should be. You can buy practically anything there. Mind if I ask you to pick up a few other things while you're there?" Trey asked.
He then took out a pen and some paper and began to write down a list of the few items he needed for the tarts. "Two cartons of milk, a dozen eggs, some aluminum baking cups, and about five cans of fruit..." he said as he wrote down the needed groceries.
"Wait, you've got a store here?" Kira asked. "What kind of student store...?" Alice started to say. "I don't think I can carry all that alone. Would you mind coming with me, Alice-chan?" Deuce asked, turning to the sky blue-eyed girl and catching Ace's attention.
"Oh, of course. It's my first time going to the school store." Alice said with a smile. "Hey—!" Ace began. "I'm going, too! I'm so tired of endlessly mixing flour!" Grim said as he pushed the mixing bowl away and hopped right onto Alice's shoulder. The three of them left the kitchen with Ace calling out to them.
"Hey! Hold on, Deuce! If she's going with you, then—gah!" Ace tried to run after them, but Trey quickly grabbed him by the back of his blazer and stopped him. "Oh, no, you don't. You're staying right here to help. Don't start forgetting why we're doing this." Trey said firmly as he began to drag him back.
"Wha—? Hey! Alice-chan!!" Ace protested.
The walk to the student shop wasn't that far from campus. Their destination turned out to be an ordinary, modest-looking red brick house with a large purple sign shaped like a top hat out front that read "Mr. S's Mystery Shop" in bold yellow words.
Painted on the sign was a white skull wearing its own black top hat. The store looked more like a second-hand pawn shop, certainly not a place to go pick up two cartons of milk and some eggs. While it looked nice on the outside, once they entered inside the shop, they saw it was anything but ordinary.
"Pardon us. ...Wow, this place is amazing! There's a crystal skull, grimoires, and... What kind of taxidermy is this...?" Deuce questioned with wide eyes as he stared at the unidentifiable stuffed animal that stood beside the door.
The inside of the shop was filled from top to bottom with all sorts of eccentric merchandise. Large masks, a giant piano, a large crystal ball on the front desk, shelves filled with books and bottles, everything. An abundance of products ranging from food to magic items.
This store had everything; a whole lot of things Alice couldn't even begin to guess what they were. And despite the disarray and clutter of unusual items, there was something magical in the air that made the hair on the back of Alice's neck stand on end.
"Is this really a student store?" Alice wondered in awe. "Woah~! Do they really sell cream here?" Grim asked as he looked around the shop. "Hey, my li'l lost imps! How goes it?" an upbeat Cajun voice suddenly asked as a pair of slender arms wrapped around the two students.
Alice and Deuce both let out a startled scream as they quickly whirled around to see who had just popped out of nowhere and came face-to-face with the owner of the school store. "Ffgna–?! You scared me!" Grim shouted, clinging tightly onto Alice's shoulder as they faced the owner of the shop.