Chapter 157: 157 - Tiramisu

The coffee milkshake was an instant hit with everyone, and Mana successfully managed to negotiate a rather beneficial business deal to source coffee from the Sapphire Kingdom to the Emerald Kingdom – and in return, Raven taught the imperial chefs of the Sapphire Kingdom how to make coffee milkshake.

Even Bella, who had never liked coffee to begin with, fell in love with the flavour of coffee milkshake and polished off two entire glasses by herself.

Post breakfast, as promised, Mana went off to the imperial kitchens again to make tiramisu. Raven, naturally, accompanied her, and this time, even Jules and Bella and Rook went along to see what she was going to do. King Jaren and Queen Carolina and General Aquila also wanted to tag along and be among the first batch of people to sample what this grand sounding tiramisu was (and King Jaren already knew by now how exquisite and delightful the pastries introduced by Mana were – and Queen Carolina and General Aquila had also realised this fact to some extent by now) – however, the three of them were supposed to be dignified adults, with two of them being monarchs of their respective nations and the third one being a legendary and dignified hero of the Obsidian Kingdom with his fame being no less than that of any monarch – so they had to restrain themselves.

And poor little Azar was completely torn between wanting to go with his Mommy and Daddy to taste the new dessert and wanting to stick with his beloved Grandpapa – ultimately, Azar settled on his Grandpapa's shoulder as usual and imperiously ordered his Mommy and Daddy to make sure that they brought the pastries to him when they were done preparing them.

Mana and Raven could only laugh and promise to do as the little dragon commanded.

In the imperial kitchens, on the other hand, Mana flew around like a professional chef, with Raven at her heels and supporting her perfectly, as always, with the two of them working seamlessly together and adding a dash of this and a dash of that here and there, and soon enough a beautiful bunch of tiramisu was ready!

Mana was quite pleased with the outcome, and she was even happier with how well she and Raven were able to coordinate and cooperate without having to waste words unnecessarily. It was difficult to believe that this was the first time Raven was helping to prepare this pastry – or that he had even seen or heard of tiramisu before this – especially given how well he worked with Mana and how he practically seemed to read her mind on when she needed what.

For the other children, too, the perfect work in tandem and the flawless coordination and smooth movements of Mana and Raven was a wonderful sight to behold. Let alone Jules and Bella and Rook – even the imperial chefs, who were proud professionals of the most high qualification standards in the entire Sapphire Kingdom, and whose skills were almost as widely envied as the imperial chefs of the Emerald Kingdom – even these greatly experienced and highly qualified were amazed at how perfectly and seamlessly Mana and Raven were working – these two children whose entire lifespans were shorter that the work experience of these imperial chefs!

Very generously, Mana left some for the imperial chefs and then Mana, Raven, Rook, Jules and Bella took the rest of the pastries to the room where they knew King Jaren, Queen Carolina, General Aquila and most importantly, their little Azar were waiting eagerly.

Azar flew up as soon as he caught a whiff of the pastry.

Raven had done his calculations and come to the conclusion that the amount of caffeine in the pastry would not cause any harm to their precious little dragon even if he ate an entire plate of the pastries, so Mana was saved from the trouble making multiple batches of pastries.

Azar immediately attacked the plate Raven offered him and eagerly took a huge bite.

And then, with cream smeared on his cute little face, the little dragon announced, "Mommy! Daddy! Very good pastry!"

"Thank you, little one," Mana said with a big smile and rubbed Azar's small, dark head affectionately.

Queen Carolina took a bite of the pastry offered to her and her eyes widened in shock. "This – something so delicious can be made from our regular brown brew?" she asked in wonder.

Mana grinned. "Big Sister Bella now knows how to do this, and she will be rolling it out in all the branches of the pastry shops we have in the Sapphire Kingdom," she said.

She glanced at her dear Papa, who was not even paying attention to anything other than the pastry on his plate which was rapidly disappearing. "Big Brother Jules can also make these now," she added.

General Aquila, too, was stunned by the new pastry, and his plate was the fastest to be cleaned. "What about the pastry shops in the Obsidian Kingdom? Did either of my sons manage to learn how to make it? Will you be launching this pastry there as well?" he demanded.

Mana laughed. "Yes, of course. Rook is going to do that for us, aren't you?" she asked the younger brother of her fiancé.

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Rook nodded happily – his own face smeared with cream, not unlike that of little Azar.

"Very good," General Aquila said, pleased.

Then General Aquila shot a meaningful glance at Raven and raised an eyebrow, clearly asking if Raven knew how to make this pastry as well.

Mana smiled and looped her arm around Raven's arm. "Of course Raven knows," Mana said proudly. "He did half the work for the pastries everyone is eating now. But I'm not going to let Raven be away from me for more than a few minutes – so he's not going to go anywhere without me, and so he's not available to make pastries!" she announced.

Raven flushed, and King Jaren and General Aquila flashed Mana an approving look. Raven's downcast appearance from earlier was completely gone, and he was now looking much happier and content.

Once again, General Aquila thought that it was really a very, very good thing for Raven to have found Mana and the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom. They really had taken very good care of the boy – so much better than what had been done by the biological parents of Raven.

The tiramisu was a huge success – and in a few months, when Mana was sitting on a pile of gold and feeling rather like a cartoon character from the modern world who used to love diving into his mountains of gold, Mana would think back to this day and remember the expressions on everyone's faces.

Besides, the demand for coffee increased so much that the Sapphire Kingdom made pots of money, too – and Queen Carolina was so happy that she gifted a coffee estate to Mana and Raven!

But that was for the future – for now, the group dug into the pastries happily and everyone loved it.

Mana watched them fondly until all the pastries were gone. She ate two herself, and the maximum score was General Aquila's, who ate eight, followed by Rook, who ate six, true to his inheritance and following dedicatedly in the footsteps of his legendary father, even when it came to devouring desserts! King Jaren, Jules, Raven, Azar and Bella ate four each, and Queen Carolina ate two, and then declared that she wanted more at night after the banquet.

Which resulted in everyone demanding more – so the children went back to the kitchen to make more – and this time, Mana and Raven mostly supervised the other three instead of making the pastries themselves.

The second batch of pastries came out rather well, too. Mana was very proud.

Happy with their work, the group of children decided to return to their rooms and start preparing for the banquet later in the evening. All these formal and coordinated outfits took ages to put on and then there were all these accessories and make up and everything…

Just as the five of them stepped out of the imperial kitchens, however, Mana stopped abruptly as a piercing pain shot through her head all of a sudden and without any warning whatsoever. Mana closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply to get herself under control, but the intensity of the pain was just too much for her little body, and she staggered, utterly unstable. If not for Raven quickly putting his arm around her waist and holding her up, she would have fallen.

"Mana?" Raven asked anxiously. "What's wrong?"

Mana, who squeezed her eyes shut, trying her best not to cry out – she knew that everyone would worry even more if she did.

But at the sound of Raven's anxious voice, she forced her eyes open – and found that she was seeing double.

"Raven…?" she murmured feebly. "I – I'm seeing two of you. My head hurts."

And then the looming darkness took over Mana and she knew no more.

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