"So we just... eat it? Really? Something that valuable, something that precious and rare and hard to obtain... and we just... eat the damn thing?"
"Yes. Or you could just drink it raw if you'd like. It's the same effect, really. From what I can tell about this flower, the petals are nothing special - just really pretty - and its the nectar instead that is valuable. I just thought you all would prefer something tasty and rewarding after a long days work is all."
Jahi let out an aggrieved sigh as she slumped her shoulders, the Demoness staring at the bottled nectar on the table with slight annoyance before just shaking her head and walking away, leaving me to stare at it as well.
"Different question... you said you wanted me to make honey cakes with this..? You do understand how difficult that is with a... 'kitchen' like that?"
Leone turned towards me and just smiled, nodding her head and saying "I've been craving something sweet - something more than just honey - and after fighting all day long, harvesting ingredients, and brewing potions, I just really~ want a cake~! Surely you could do that for me, Kat? Pretty please? Hopefully with some kind of sugar on top..?"
Giving the Vampire Princess a blank stare, I eventually sighed and carefully took the bottles of nectar, saying "Just so you know, the difference between honey and nectar is different taste wise. And composition wise; honey is thicker, nectar is... like sugar water. But..."
"You can make a cake?!"
My ashen haired loved lunged forwards to grab my wrists - doing so carefully as well lest she damage the bottle of rare nectar - and shook me gently to convey her excitement, making me smile despite feeling a tad bit annoyed at being volun-told into doing something, though...
Just seeing her smile and anticipation as she beamed at me was enough payment to make it worth while, and admittedly... a cake didn't sound too bad right now, especially not when the ingredients were surprisingly easy to find.
We had taken a large amount of grain with us - some Demons had been sent back out to grab our supplies and haul them back into the Dungeon for use - and we had also found some eggs, meaning all I really needed was some oil to make it fluffy, which was also easy to do since we had an abundance of different seeds in the area as well, so I could make seed oil.
It was... not what I expected to be doing in any Dungeon ever, but it certainly wasn't an unwelcome surprise at all; I've cooked before, and the only difference now is that instead of doing so in a dozen minutes, I'll be cooking for a few dozen minutes...
Even with magic available to me, prep work and combining everything together, then letting it bake took what felt like forever, especially as I began to get everything together with the bottle of nectar 'staring' at me, an invisible timer ticking down above it as the efficacy of the nectar slowly diminished.
Leone was certain that baking it wouldn't do much to the efficacy since other alchemical ingredients didn't lose their efficacy in flames, so long as it wasn't burnt, anyways...
She heated things up all the time when she was brewing potions, after all, so it only made sense that it would still work, though... obviously I was worried, but there was little I could do to dissuade her, and the others seemed to be looking forwards to something sweet too, just not as feverish in their desire like Leone was.
It was an interesting way for me to remember that before she met us, Leone wasn't preparing to go out and fight, or sleep in a tent and eat whatever we could scrounge together; she was a Princess, after all, and unless she herself desired it, she never would have needed to step foot onto a battlefield, let alone a Dungeon.
She should be eating cakes and drinking tea with the obnoxious and backstabbing snakes that call themselves Noblewomen, fighting not with magic and steel but with wits and charm, wielding her influence instead of her mana... though, I have a deep feeling that she wouldn't have been a typical Princess even if she had never met Jahi and I.
Leone would have yearned for more in life than just chatting and sipping tea with someone who was equally likely to either help her or kill her.
Those thoughts made it easier for me to get everything combined into a metal tray that Anput made for me, lathering the sides in a combination of oil and flour to prevent it from sticking before placing it into the oven, where I had a Demon sitting and controlling the flames, the yellow skinned man bought over with the promise of more sugar on top of his slice.
It was something that made me wonder if all Demons were as simple as Jahi was...
When it was in the oven, I pulled out my stopwatch and used it as a timer, handing it to the man and telling him to call me back over in 25 minutes on the dot before beginning to work on the real meal next, staring at the mountain of meat that rested on the cooking table, which when compared to the small mound of greens...
Looking around myself, I saw a few Demons look away as soon as my gaze landed on them, and I sighed as I saw the bundles of herbs and other vegetables they were hiding away, each one of them trying their damnedest to ensure we had a meat only dinner.
Sadly for them, I wasn't going to let it slide, and they all reluctantly returned the greens to the table and allowed me to make something that would actually do them some good, despite their firm belief that they were entirely carnivorous... despite having molars, the sign of a herbivore.
Again, were they all just simple with everything besides fighting and whatever vice took their interest?
Perhaps I would need to compile a report on it for future generations to understand these fascinatingly paradoxical 'creatures'...