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“Princess, what are you going to do with this?”
In the late afternoon, Sophia, Madame Narnia, Grandpa Tomby the gardener, and Dexon the chef, were all at the White Night Palace’s kitchen.
The four adults surrounded a sack and peered in.
The content of the sack was none other than plums.
As soon as they were harvested, the plums were stored in a warehouse with magic to prevent the fruits from rotting, so they would be in good condition even in the fall.
Rather, it ripened from blue plums to yellow plums just in time.
It’s sweet-sour and soft, perfect for making drinks.
“There are 10 ulslums in this sack that I have collected and stored. But what is she going to make with it…?”
Grandpa Tomby, who was tasked to collect the ingredients, was a very gentle-looking old man in his 70s.
Since he was young, he has been taking care of all the flowers and trees in the White Night Palace, so he knew about a lot of things.
However, it was clear that he did not know about the valueof plums.
“The flowers of this tree are beautiful, but the ulslums has always been a nuisance.”
See, that’s what he says.
Fortunately, there were a lot of plum trees planted in White Night Palace.
There was a place where plum trees were planted on both sides of the road, and as Sophia explained, it was called ‘the path of spring’.
Because the road was full of plum blossoms, it implies that spring had arrived.
However, when the flowers and fruits began to grow, this road immediately turned into a job for gardeners.
Ulslum.
It was a common word for ‘inedible fruit’ in this world.
There were inedible fruits other than the plums, but I asked to bring only those that were from the plum trees.
‘Even if we eat plums, they don’t taste as good as other sweet fruits, so it must have been treated as something we can’t eat.’
So, of course, plum drinks wouldn’t exist either!
“Until now, the ulslum is stored here?”
“It is the law that we should not throw away anything grown in the Imperial Palace just because it is useless… we kept collecting them and storing them in the warehouse. The next year, the old one was taken away in exchange for the new one.”
Oh!
So each sack was full of fruits.
I held a handful of fresh plums and snorted.
“I want more. I want to make medicine.”
“A medicine?”
Grandpa Tomby was bewildered.
Madame Narnia and Sophia also seemed surprised when they first heard me explain.
I don’t think that they ever thought that ulslum could be used as a medicine.
‘I just need a large glass bottle that has been sterilized in boiling water and a huge amount of sugar! The preparation is perfect.’
It was nearly evening as it took me a while to get everything I wanted, but it wasn’t time for bed yet.
I planned to sleep after soaking the plum extract.
“The dwagon taught me it should be with syugar.”
“Then shall we pour the sugar first?”
“Yes, and the ulslum.”
Madame Narnia and Sophia looked at each other and then nodded.
Even if they don’t seem to understand why, they would still follow it.
Because dragon excuses were universal.
“It’s like making jam or syrup, except it’s not boiled. I’ll wash it clean first!”
Sophia shouted loudly and rolled up her sleeve.
There were four adults, so making the plum drink didn’t take too long.
“We have to wash it slowly.”
“Yes. I will do my best.”
When I took out the plums from the sack, some were still green, and some were overripe and unusable.
The first thing to do was to remove and discard everything that was eaten by insects or has dents and pick out only the nice ones!
Then, chef Dexon took a large knife and slashed the plums to remove the seeds.
I have to make it as fast as possible to get the gem.
I’ll remove the seeds and get rid of even the slightest toxicity.
‘Fruits such as apricots, peaches, and plums have amygdalin in their seeds.’
When that amygdalin was eaten too much…
It can be toxic.
‘Well, unless they eat a few hundred plums at a time, they won’t die from it.’
If you can remove the seeds though, it’s better to take them out!
“Now, the sugar!”
“Yes, Princess!”
At my command, Madame Narnia brought the sugar.
Sophia filled the plum with sugar.
Grandpa Tomby put sugar-filled plums in a glass bottle, and as I was looking at them, my mouth watered.
‘…I want to eat pickled plums.’
Putting it on freshly cooked, shiny rice and eating it in one bite would be really delicious.
“Princess, should we fill it up?”
“No! If so, bang! It explodes.”
As the plums ferment, it produces gas which could lead to a disaster if there was not enough space left.
The point was to not be too greedy and only fill the glass bottle up to ⅔.
“Princess, do we need to wait?”
“Yes! Dragon said we had to sleep for 100 days befowe it finished!”
“Hehe, you’re so cute…!”
I brought my hand to my cheeks.
Chef Dexon struggled and he almost cried.
“Where did such a lovely person come from? So cute….”