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It was the first weekend since the Student Council election, and Alfe and I were busy making sweets in the kitchen for the first time in a while.

“Mmm, smells good. I really do like your cookies best, Leafa.”

Alfe narrowed her eyes contentedly as the sweet, fragrant aroma wafting from the oven filled the kitchen, skillfully cutting out cookies from the dough.

At the beginning of the third term, we had bought enough ingredients to make a large batch. By the time we were done with everything we had on hand, Alfe and I had each been left with a mass of dough about the size of our faces, but it had finally been reduced to something we could hold in our palms.

“Are you getting tired, Alfe?”
“Not at all! I could do this with you all day, Leafa. What about you?”
“Same here. And when this wonderful smell starts filling the room, it feels pretty rewarding, too.”

When we first gathered all the dough together, I’d braced myself for how much work it would be, but thanks to Alfe, I’d actually been able to enjoy myself while we cooked.

We had used Creeper Powder again this time, so we had to roll the dough out fairly thin in anticipation of it becoming light and puffing up as it incorporated air. It hadn’t been much trouble, though. I’d probably gotten the proportions of the powder a little better this time than before. The dough also stretched smoothly with just a little flour dusted over the rolling pin, which made things much easier. Alfe seemed to feel the same way, and she began rolling out the last of the dough while humming to herself.

Just then, a shrill beep from the oven announced that the cookies were done.

“…Ah, looks like they’re ready. I’ll put the next batch in.”
“Thanks, Alfe.”

The baking sheet in the spare oven was neatly arranged with the next batch of dough, waiting its turn. Alfe picked it up and hurried over to the oven. When she opened the door, the sweet, fragrant aroma that had been filling the room became even stronger.

“We should be able to bake everything in about three more batches.”

As she swapped the baking sheets, Alfe channeled aether into the oven.

“Yeah. Since the dough is thin, it bakes quickly, so that worked out nicely.”

I carefully transferred the freshly baked cookies onto a cooling rack, then glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It was almost four in the afternoon.

“Come to think of it, is Marie’s birthday party really today?”
“I think it starts at six, right?”

Alfe nodded at my question.

Marie had invited us to her birthday party two days ago, but so far, she’d only told us the date and time.

“She said we’d know the location when the time came, but should we contact her with the Enigma?”
“Farah has it, right?”
“Yeah. Farah was invited too, so she said she’d contact her if we still didn’t know where to go by the time it was almost time.”

If the location hadn’t been given because it hadn’t been decided yet, that would be one thing, but I suspected it was probably being kept secret. Marie seemed to love surprises, so she had probably come up with all sorts of ways to surprise us for her birthday party as well.

“Well, knowing Marie, she’ll probably call us over the academy’s PA system again before long.”
“Maybe.”

Apparently reassured by what I said, Alfe smiled and returned to cutting out the cookies. I worked alongside her, cutting out cookie shapes as well. It was a simple task, but cutting out as many hearts as possible from evenly rolled dough was surprisingly fun. The fact that I found myself thinking about how to make the most of the dough reminded me of drawing simplified formulas in alchemy. It was interesting to see how much creativity you could put into working within a fixed area.

“Ah, I’ve got quite a bit left over.”

Alfe had been just as meticulous as I was with cutting out the shapes, but as she gathered the remaining dough back together, she briefly stuck out the tip of her tongue in an adorably sheepish gesture.

“Then I’ll take care of that.”
“Thanks.”

As Alfe placed the rounded dough beside the dough I had rolled out, she stared intently at my work.

“Something catch your eye?”
“No. I just thought the shapes you cut out look like a pattern. They’re really pretty. If we baked it like this, we might even be able to transmute something.”
“That would be pretty interesting.”

At Alfe’s comment, I stopped working and looked at the dough in front of me. The neatly cut hearts certainly did look somewhat like the pattern of a simplified formula.

“Senior Melua would probably love this if she saw it.”
“Probably. But it’d be hard to eat, and the connecting parts are so thin that they’d probably fall apart, so I’ll just put them together.”

I cut shapes out of the remaining dough, combined it with Alfe’s leftover dough, and rolled it out again.

“What should I do next?”
“Could you handle the wrapping? It’s not exactly a present, but if we bring these along, we can eat them later.”
“Okay♪ Senior Marie will surely be happy.”

Alfe nodded with a smile, washed her hands, and began wrapping the cookies that had been cooling on the rack using the greaseproof paper and ribbons we had prepared. While she was doing that, the cookies in the oven finished baking, so she swapped out the baking sheets for me.

Now that I was done cutting out the shapes, I decided to help Alfe. We’d ended up making quite a lot, though. Would we have enough greaseproof paper?

“Hehe, we made a lot, didn’t we? Now I kind of want to sneak a taste.”
“Go ahead. If we’re going to hand these out, we should know how they taste, too.”

As I said that, I picked up one of the freshly baked cookies and held it out to Alfe’s mouth.

“Mmm, it’s delicious.”

Alfe swayed from side to side with a smile, then held out a cookie to me in the same way.

“Here, say ahh.”

I’d been planning to eat it myself, but since she was offering it to me, I figured I might as well accept. I opened my mouth wide, ready to take a bite, when—

“I knew I smelled something good!”

The kitchen door suddenly flew open.

“Gnh!”
“Wowww! What a dream come true, Belle~”

It was Vannabelle and Numelin. I hurriedly chewed the cookie Alfe had just fed me, but the two of them were far more captivated by the cookies in front of them than by what we were doing.

“Hmm? What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. What brings you two here?”

Since they didn’t seem inclined to tease me about Alfe, I asked them in my usual tone. Vannabelle and Numelin fidgeted as they pointed at the cookies.

“What do you mean, what brings us here? It’s this smell! They were crazy delicious last time I had them, and these look even better!”
“I haven’t been able to forget that taste~”

Apparently lured in by the aroma, the two of them gazed at the cookies with undisguised longing.

“We were just wondering if maybe we could have a little taste, you know?”

I couldn’t help laughing at how unusually reserved Vannabelle was being. As we grew closer, it was interesting to see her own consideration and sense of manners gradually come through. Usually, it was the other way around.

“You don’t have to call it a taste. I’ll give you some properly, so don’t hold back.”
“Yesss~!!”
“Yaaay~! We’ve been waiting for this~!”
“But you have to help with the wrapping.”

Alfe put her foot down as Vannabelle and Numelin looked ready to pounce on the cookies I had offered them.

“Can we eat first? The cafeteria’s closed, and I’m starving~”
“Today’s makeup class was Mr. Tanutanu’s military training, and it was brutal~”

I’d heard about the makeup class, but why was the cafeteria closed?

“I didn’t hear anything about the cafeteria being closed.”
“Yeah, apparently it was reserved for some—”

Before Vannabelle could finish, the chime for the academy’s PA system interrupted her.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Vannabelle’s ears perked up as she listened intently to the announcement. Before long, Marie’s high-pitched voice rang out.

“Thank you all for waiting~! Today, I, Marianne Von Versailles, am proud to announce that I have personally planned and produced the menu at the commoner dormitory cafeteria! Everyone who has been invited, as well as anyone else who would like to join us, is more than welcome to come! I’ve prepared a whole looooot of absolutely wonderful food for you~!”
“Wha!?”

Vannabelle let out a strange cry, but her ears were flapping excitedly.

“Huuh~, Senior Marie planned it~? Why at the commoner dorms~?”
“…I wonder why.”

Even as I played along, I already knew the reason. I exchanged a smile with Alfe.

“We can’t enter the noble dorms, but the commoner dorms don’t discriminate against anyone. I think she wanted everyone to be able to celebrate with her.”
“Celebrate what?”

Vannabelle and Numelin tilted their heads in confusion. Taking Marie’s intentions into account, it was probably best to keep it a secret for now.

“I think you’ll find out once we get there. Let’s finish wrapping these and go too!”

Alfe had apparently arrived at the same conclusion as me and urged us on happily.