Failure Alchemist – Chapter 55

Translator: Flowingcloud  Editor: Arocks141

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Author Note: Longer than usual (´ー｀A;)
Translator Note: Like usual, the author could’ve split this into two chapters, but nahhhhh.

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Together With My Entire Family!

 

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

As usual, I was bustling about preparing for the opening of my shop with the help of Katya-san.
I consulted with the carpenters based on the image of the three-story building that I had redrawn with Katya-san, then we had an agreement. The storage room for medicines had to be bestowed a special property—no time passage—using spatial magic, so I decided to have the room specially commissioned from a magic tool store.

After the construction work started, I went to check on the status of the work at least once a week.
When the kitchen on the first floor was ready, I checked with Mina the size and placement of the cooking utensils and cupboards.
When the atelier was finished, I checked with Marcus on the placement of the laboratory equipment and medicine cabinets.
With the help of Dan and Marcus, I have been working on creating new fields, sowing seeds, and replanting seedlings so that the fields can be successfully transferred over.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, I turned a year older, turning nine, and spent my last year at home running about.
Spring had passed with berries bearing fruit in the forest behind my house, summer had passed with roses in full bloom in the garden, and the autumn harvest season had arrived.

One evening, as I was going back to my room to go to bed.
It was dark, but I could see the back of Father standing alone in the garden.
His back looked so lonely that I put on a warm gown, then walked to the garden. My skin was exposed without a cloak, my cheeks a little chilly.

“Father,” I said as I squeezed the hem of the gown that Father was wearing.

“I thought the stars were beautiful, you see,” Father said as he looked up at the deep ultramarine night sky.

The moon was a pale crescent moon and hundreds of thousands of stars were twinkling as if in competition with each other.

Father bent down to my height, put his hands onto my sides, lifting me up. Then, he put his arms under my thighs to hold me so I could sit on his lap.

“Next spring, Daisy will head to your atelier, and Remus will go to the academy dormitory. The year after, Dahlia will move into the dormitory too… This house is going to get lonely, won’t it?”

That’s right, just as Father said, Onii-sama will become 12 next spring and enter the National Noble Institute in order to study as a full-fledged magician. Then, the year after, Onee-sama will as well.
The three children of the Preslaria family are leaving home in a hurry.

“…Children grow up too fast. I wish they’d grow up more slowly,” he said as he picked me up and hugged me tightly.

At that moment, a single shooting star flew across the sky, as if letting out tears on behalf of Father, who could not cry because he was an adult. ¹ I felt my heart tighten and buried my face in his shoulder.

“Father. I am lonely tonight and I don’t think I can sleep alone. Can I sleep with you?”

I looked up from his shoulder and begged him, which was rare for me.
Then, his thin lips slowly arched in the same shape of a crescent moon. Those eyes that gazed at me lovingly gently narrowed.

“Of course. Such requests are a children’s privilege,” he said, then kissed my forehead and we returned to the mansion from the garden with me in his arms.

◆

The next day, while sitting across from each other at a table in the kitchen, I secretly discussed with Mina.

“You want to prepare a dessert that would leave memories for your family?”

Mina tilted her head and pondered, then said, “Please wait a moment,” and came back with a book from among the several books in the back of the kitchen.

Then, she opened a page on the table where I was waiting and showed me. It was a page on how to make a thin batter for the base of a cake; I do not understand how this was connected to a memorable dessert.

Mina politely explained and suggested, “There is this kind of dough that is made by beating eggs to make it puffy. Why don’t you use this dough to bake a huge, wide cake, and insert some sort of cream between layers to make a big square cake that you can xxxxx with your family?”

The xxxxx portion is still a secret between Mina and me.

“That’s it! Chantilly cream! It says that if you whisk cow milk cream with sugar, it makes a delicious cream!”

“Let’s try that!” We looked at each other and smiled.

The next day, we made a prototype.
First, we made the dough.
Next, I put a bowl on top of a bowl of warm water, cracked and added an egg, added sugar, then whisked it with a large fork until it is white and thickened.
…It was really hard to whisk with a fork. It was quite a hard fight until it was completed. Mina, who was unable to just watch, skillfully helped me complete it with two forks.

I poured in the sifted flour into the whisked mixture, stirring with a spatula so that the flouriness disappeared. Then, I added warmed milk and melted butter.
Afterward, I poured the batter into a buttered baking dish and baked it in a preheated oven.
Since this was a prototype, I baked only one layer, and then cut it to make four layers.

Now, time for the chantilly cream. ²

I opened the lid of the outer box of the round wooden centrifuge and poured the milk into the glass container inside. Then, I set the glass container with the lid on the inside, closed the lid, and turned it around with the hand-crank handle attached to the centrifuge. Then, the glass container containing the cow’s milk spun around inside, and the cream and the liquid with the fat removed were separated. I repeated this process and took out as much cream as I needed.

Next, I added sugar to the separated cream and put it in a bowl. Next, I added the sugar to the separated cream and put it in a bowl, then inserted a larger bowl of ice water underneath and stirred it again with a fork. I whisked thoroughly until a “horn” was standing. ³

This is the first prototype.
I asked Mina, who had an image in her mind, to make the shape.
She placed the flat dough and spread chantilly cream on it. Then, she piled on more dough, cut off all the sides of the square, and neatly shaped it. Afterward, she finished the cake by spreading chantilly cream on all sides of that beautiful square block of dough.⁴

…When I think of how this will quadruple in size, its appearance will be quite lonely.

“Hmm, I think you should put some decorations on top.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“Let’s try it first,” Mina said and cut the cake in half.

The cut side was covered with layers of dough and cream.

“Hmm, I’d like it to have a more- how should I put it – impressive cross-section when it’s cut.”

Mina seemed dissatisfied. Perhaps she wasn’t impressed, but the tip of her tail peeking out from under her apron did not move at all.

Mina divided the two slices of cake onto plates and placed them in front of each of us with a dessert fork.
I took a bite.
When I stuffed my cheeks with the chantilly cream and batter, it was smooth and melted in my mouth. Yes, it’s delicious. It’s delicious, but…

“I’d like to see a little more sweetness or texture accent…” Mina said what I had been thinking as if speaking for me while she was beside me.

“Jam! Why don’t we strain the blackcurrant jam with a spatula to remove the berry fibers and spread it on the bottom layer of the batter?” I suggested to Mina.

“Ahh, that sweet punch would be good!”

Mhm, Mina nodded. “Then…” she muttered and thought for a while.

“In this season, how about pear… pear compote thinly sliced and sandwiched between the layers of chantilly cream? I have some preserved compote, so let’s give it a try!” ⁵

Then, we made the second prototype with blackcurrant jam and pear compote in between and tasted it.

““It’s delicious!””

The red color of the blackcurrant and the presence of the pears emphasized the monotonous cross-section of the slice.
In my mouth, the strong sweetness of the blackcurrant jam and pear compote added an accent to the monotonous cream. The pears also had a nice crunchy texture.

“What should I do with the top’s lonely appearance? I want to decorate it with something.”

Mina and I tilted our heads in puzzlement.

“Ah, what if we fill a funnel with a dark paste sauce and write a message on it? It would make a lasting impression! How about a blackcurrant sauce so it doesn’t upset the balance of flavors?”

◆

Thus, the day of the surprise came.

“Is this today’s dessert? It’s so big.”

Father’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw the cake that the server had brought on a table with casters attached.

“Oh my, there’s something written on it!”

Mother read the words on the cake.

[Our family will always be together!]

Surrounding the words were baked goods in the shape of a flower.

To put it bluntly, the words were written poorly. However, even if I wasn’t very good at it, I believe I put in a lot of feelings for my family: Father, Mother, Onii-sama, and Onee-sama.

“That’s Daisy’s handwriting, right?” Onii-sama grinned.

“I thought I was going to be lonely the coming spring. But, I feel relieved for some reason when I see this,” Onee-sama, who would be staying home for an extra year, also showed me a smile.

“Well then, let’s have a cake cutting as a family! Let’s work together as the whole family!” I asked the family sitting around the dining table to stand up.

I asked my family members sitting around the dining room table to stand up so that Father and I could take the cake knife and cut Mother’s cake together.
Mother and Onii-sama cut Father’s cake together.
Then, Onii-sama and Onee-sama cut my portion, Onii-sama and I cut my Onee-sama’s portion, and Onee-sama and I cut my Onii-sama’s portion.

The cake was more popular than anything I had ever made before. I, also, felt that it tasted better than any other delicious things I had ever eaten.

Thus, spring approached, when our garden was disheveled with new leaves sprouting and flowers blooming, two children, including me, left the Preslaria family.

Atelier Daisy.

This is where my new life will begin.

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

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Translator Note: This is the end of Volume 5: “Store Opening Preparations and Alchemist”! Overall, this is just an arc about healing Katya and becoming friends with her. Nothing substantial, but thankfully, not that many cringe portions. Fun fact, this is where the first volume of the light novel adaption ends too. I guess this means I’ve translated an entire light novel volume (technically). First time in ages. Well then, see you all next volume for some more cute adventurers with Daisy.

1. Flowingcloud: You must have never seen me shed my manly adult tears.
   Arocks141: Or me shed my undead tears. Yes, I know undead don’t have tears, but that’s what eye drops are for.
2. Flowingcloud: Chantilly cream is simply sweetened whipped cream. This was roughly mentioned in Chapter 29. I kinda(?) mistranslated this (it was just too confusing to read), thus I fixed the translation to make it more legible.
3. Flowingcloud: Basically, when it looks like this: https://www.meg-snow.com/customer/milkbook/img/content03_img07.jpg
4. Arocks141: So, to commemorate the act of leaving her parents, she bakes a wedding cake?
5. Flowingcloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compote