Flower pastries were no great challenge for Pecorine, whose culinary skill ranked well above average. After Jhin explained the exact steps, she nailed the water dough on her very first try — the part that tripped up so many people — then evenly divided it into twenty small portions and covered them with a damp cloth to rest.
"Congratulations, first try and you nailed it," Jhin said, clapping in praise. "Now let's move on to the oil dough. Same steps as before, except this time you'll only need deep-forest wild boar lard and flour."
"Leave it to me!" Pecorine said, fired up, pouring the ingredients into the mixing bowl and starting to blend them right away — so absorbed she didn't even notice she'd gotten flour on the tip of her nose.
While she worked on the oil dough, Jhin wasn't idle either. He scooped out the cherry-blossom preserve, drained off the excess syrup, then mixed in roasted glutinous rice flour to form the filling, using ice-element magic to quickly firm it into a semi-solid so it would be easy to roll into small balls afterward.
All that was left was to wrap the oil dough inside the water dough, roll it out into a pastry skin, add in the filling, and send it into the oven.
By the time Yuiyui and Hyoizaburoo got home, Jhin and Pecorine had already used up an entire tub of cherry-blossom preserve, turning out at least three hundred flower pastries. The house was thick with the rich scent of cherry blossoms and honeyed sweetness.
Komekko had a flower pastry in each hand, alternating bites left and right. Just from the blissful look on her face, Yuiyui could tell how good these pastries must be.
The stunning taste and floral fragrance made her spot a business opportunity right away. She wolfed down the pastry in her hand in a few bites and said to Jhin, "Jhin, could you teach me how to make these flower pastries?"
"Of course, Mother-in-law. Are you planning to make them just to eat on your own?"
"No, I'm planning to sell them as a Crimson Demon Village specialty."
"Oh? In that case..." Jhin snapped his fingers, and Kyaru, catching on immediately, stepped over to his side. "I'll leave the business arrangements to Kyaru from here."
Yuiyui laughed behind her hand, waving at him. "We're family — why so businesslike?"
"There's a saying back home: even brothers should keep clear accounts."
"Not even one freebie?" "Nope." "Fine."
Her attempt to get something for free having failed, Yuiyui had no choice but to hash out the deal with Kyaru — all the while shooting a resentful glance at her eldest daughter, who was alternating sips of cola with bites of flower pastry.
She couldn't even talk her boyfriend into a discount for her own mother at a time like this. Serves her right for being flat-chested.
"Achoo!" Megumin nearly sprayed a mouthful of cola right into her father's face. Luckily, the instant her nose itched she managed to swallow it down — spraying it out would've been such a waste.
Just like the earlier sanitary-pad deal, the final profit split ended up sixty-forty — except this time Jhin took forty percent and the Crimson Demon Clan took sixty, since unlike sanitary pads, this kind of product was easy to copy and its market wasn't nearly as broad.
That night at bedtime, Megumin, Kyaru, and Kokkoro huddled together for a while, then chased Jhin and Pecorine off into Megumin's room, while the three of them stayed in the guest room to keep swapping information — though most of the time it was Megumin, the newest "driver" on the road, doing the bragging.
"I swear, I did not tell them to do this!"
"Pfft!" Pecorine burst out laughing at how serious his face was. "Of course I know that. All afternoon, except for dinner, you were in the kitchen making flower pastries with me."
"Heh, good, as long as you don't get the wrong idea." As Jhin said this, he noticed there was only one set of bedding in the room, and his smile froze on his face.
The bedding was just the right size for him to sleep with Megumin curled in his arms — but swap her out for Pecorine, and it would be a bit snug. Not that Pecorine was heavier, exactly; it was more that, figure-wise, she rather outshone the room's usual occupant.
Since it was summer anyway, even if the night turned cool, going without a blanket shouldn't give anyone a chill.
Just as Jhin was about to tell Pecorine he didn't need the blanket, she lowered her head, tugged at the hem of his shirt, and murmured, "It's fine if we sleep together."
"Ah... um, okay."
The two of them lay down back to back. Ever since arriving at Megumin's home, Pecorine hadn't slept beside Jhin in a long while. The long-awaited closeness, along with the warmth and sense of security radiating steadily from his back, soon lulled her into sleep.
When she woke in the morning, just as she'd expected, she found herself held in his arms. A sigh of contentment escaped her cherry-red lips, and she slowly closed her eyes again, choosing to doze a little longer in his embrace.
Yuiyui, who'd come to wake her daughter, instead found her son-in-law asleep with his arms around a busty orange-haired beauty, an exasperated vein all but throbbing on her forehead. She decided not to wake them, quietly pulled the door shut, and headed to the guest room — where, sure enough, she found her daughter sprawled in a truly terrible sleeping position.
She grabbed Megumin's ear outright, and amid her daughter's wailing, flashed a wicked smile. "At your age, how can you possibly still be sleeping alone?"
"Mom, what are you doing? Can't I even sleep in?"
"If you want to sleep, go sleep in your man's arms! Why come running to the guest room instead of being his pillow?"
"Isn't Jhin sleeping with Pecorine?" Megumin stared at her mother in confusion, her expression gradually shifting to horror. "You're not saying you want me to join the two of them..."
Smack! "Ow!"
Megumin clutched her stinging head, while Yuiyui, wearing a look of hopeless exasperation, said, "Can't you just get a bit further along with Jhin already? I'm still waiting to hold my granddaughter!"
"Could you be a little more tactful about it... who pushes their own daughter like that..." Megumin muttered, rubbing her aching head.
"Everyone says couples in love are inseparable, stuck together like glue — why are you two doing the opposite?"
"Stuck together like glue? Me and Jhin?" Just picturing the two of them acting all mushy like some lovestruck idiot couple out of a manga or novel gave Megumin goosebumps all over. She shook her head over and over in resistance. "That's just not how we work."
"Bullshit! Weren't you kissing him just fine that day at the sweets shop?" Yuiyui, worked up with frustration, let it slip.
"You — you were watching from nearby that whole time?!"
Megumin's fair little face instantly flushed the color of pig liver. She'd never imagined her own mother had witnessed her confession scene — and worse, that Yuiyui had watched the entire thing through, kiss included.
The humiliation was on par with the dark history Jhin already held over her.
Yuiyui slipped out of the guest room before her daughter could explode, figuring she'd probably need to take shelter at her best friend's place for the rest of the day.
Could this world get any worse? First her own mother had tricked her into delivering her boyfriend to someone else, and now it turned out she'd watched Megumin's entire confession too.
Megumin was so furious her hands and feet went cold and her whole body trembled. Whatever came after that, she'd forgotten — right now she desperately needed comfort from her boyfriend and a cola, or she wasn't going to feel like casting Explosion magic all day.
She stormed into her own bedroom, yanked the bewildered Pecorine aside, and burrowed straight into Jhin's arms, whimpering out her complaints to him like a helpless little crybaby.
But the moment Yunyun's voice drifted in from outside, Megumin instantly turned into a food-guarding kitten, storming out in a rage.
____
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🔥 New history: DanMachi: Inheriting the Legacy of Alternate Versions — posted on The_Mikudayo