Chapter 4

“Yes, they said she’s pregnant.”

“Oh my, oh my.”

Pyria and the clerk, sharing a secret, stifled their laughter together. Pyria’s smile was especially deep.

A few days later, Pyria received a beautifully wrapped gift. When she opened it, she found several lovely embroidered handkerchiefs and a fine card inside. It was from Madame Nocturn.

To Miss Lanelli.

I haven’t been in touch for a while. Thanks to your concern and care, an angel has come to me. Right now, I have to be careful, so it’s hard to go out, but I’ll visit you soon and greet you in person.

It’s all thanks to you, Miss Lanelli. Thank you so much.

– Amy Nocturn

Mr. Nocturn, who brought the gift box, bought a whole box of desserts with a flushed face and went home.

Afterwards, the couple became loyal regulars at Pyria’s shop.

Sometimes, Madame Nocturn would introduce new customers.

It was always “that kind of customer.”

As word spread, the shop officially launched ‘Rose Sweets’ as a product.

Madame Nocturn named Rose Sweets herself, saying the first Mont Blanc cake she received had a rose decoration, and that roses suit special reds.

Pyria loved the name as well.

Somehow, ‘Rose Sweets’ sounded much more elegant and discreet than calling it ‘Love’ or ‘Red.’

After that, Rose Sweets became the specialty of Lanelli Candy Workshop.

At first, only customers referred by Madame Nocturn came, but soon even people from distant regions sought them out.

Pyria slightly reduced the effectiveness of Rose Sweets.

There was always a risk of misuse.

Pyria’s belief was that s*xual satisfaction should be a mutual joy, not a one-sided pleasure.

She also imbued a special magic.

It would only work if eaten with someone one truly liked.

The magic was so strong that even if forced to eat it, unless there was genuine affection, no s*xual attraction would be felt.

Also, it was sold by reservation to control quantity, and designed to spoil quickly so it couldn’t be stored long-term.

These were minimal safeguards so it couldn’t be easily abused.

Rose Sweets was a very romantic dessert, but sometimes it was used for quite sad purposes.

Couples in a rut or distant relationships would buy it to test each other’s affection.

Of course, if the person who ate it put in the effort, some things could be overcome.

As its name suggests, Rose Sweets always featured a red rose decoration.

Sometimes it was a rose-shaped ornament molded in a form, sometimes a rose drawn with red icing.

So people often thought the rose contained a special sweetener.

But that was wrong.

The special sweetener was in the ‘red sugar’ used in the pastry. This red sugar was not real sugar, but a magical elixir for fairy amusement.

Fairies, who live for hundreds or thousands of years, are a very curious race.

However, fairies lack the ability to imagine things on their own.

So fairies, though curious, quickly grow bored and enjoy teasing humans.

For those fairies, the queen who protected their kind created a potion called ‘red sugar.’

Red sugar allowed fairies to enjoy light illusions and amusements.

Pyria, being a quarter-fairy, didn’t know about this at first, but she learned it by chance from another fairy.

That fairy was very curious about human objects, especially desserts.

“I want to try this as chocolate. Yes, in a rose shape. I think it would be even better if it’s bright red.”

Pyria made it just as the fairy wished.

The reaction was very satisfying. After that, she often made it for the fairy and eventually learned how to make red sugar herself.

At first, Pyria didn’t even taste the red sugar. Her mother had taught her, “Always be careful with fairy things.”

Her mother, also a half-fairy, was more human than fairy.

Since her mother had given her such a warning, Pyria never thought to try it herself at first.

But after one request, then another, curiosity got the better of her.

“Just a little taste won’t hurt, right?”

She dipped just a tiny bit on her tongue.

It tasted less sweet than ordinary sugar.

She scooped half a teaspoon and rolled it around her mouth. Still, she felt nothing special.

If anything, the scent of rose oil mixed into the sugar was stronger.

“Nothing special. It’s just sugar.”

But that night, Pyria realized the meaning of the saying, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

It was a night that swung between heaven and hell.

At first, she felt a mild fever.

There was a slight tingling in her lower abdomen.

“Is it that time already?”

She wondered if her period was coming. Checking the calendar, it wasn’t, but maybe it was just a bit early or late.

Maybe it was just a particularly bad ovulation pain this month.

It didn’t seem bad enough to take medicine, so she brewed a cup of ginger tea and soaked in hot water.

But she shouldn’t have done that.

The warmth from the ginger and the heat and steam made her breathing grow heavier.

By the time she realized something was wrong, her whole body had become overly sensitive.

“Hng… This is… strange…”

With trembling hands, she barely managed to wash off the soap and put on her pajamas.

Even that was difficult.

The sensation of the smooth silk fabric felt unbearably stimulating.

“Ah! Ugh, what is this…”

Her lower abdomen tightened in knots.

A slight sense of shame mixed with the itchiness in a place she couldn’t speak of.

With trembling fingers, she pressed between her legs to the sensitive spot.

Even the lightest touch brought relief and a rush of excitement.

“Hng…”

Her vision flashed white.

Her shoulders shook at the sticky feeling on her fingers.

Her whole body blushed with embarrassment, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.

“Just… a little more… ah…!”

Satisfaction was brief. Her threshold for sensation rose so quickly that just rubbing gently couldn’t bring back the feeling she’d just had.

Her fingers, wandering along the tightly closed seam, slipped inside in an instant.

“Haa… Hng…!”

The satisfaction lasted only a moment before hunger surged again. Instinctively, her fingers moved faster and dug deeper inside.

But the hunger came on much quicker than any satisfaction, making it hard to bear.

“Haa, please… save me…”

Pyria writhed alone on her bed.

She had never had a lover, always busy with work.

She hadn’t even prepared a toy for her own pleasure, and now she regretted it bitterly.

That night, until she finally collapsed into exhausted sleep, Pyria continued to suffer.

Afterwards, she became extremely cautious when handling it.

To keep the secret from leaking, she always hid the red sugar in a subspace and made desserts for fairies alone.

The day Madame Nocturn visited was also a day Pyria was making desserts with red sugar.

Since heavy rain had stopped customers from coming, she hung up a ‘Closed’ sign and started making fairy desserts early.

It was pure coincidence that she let Madame Nocturn inside, who had been standing in the rain, staring at the ‘Closed’ sign.

After hearing her story, Pyria sprinkled red sugar over the cake, acting out of curiosity and sympathy. Fortunately, it turned out to be a huge success.

Afterwards, as she dealt with customers introduced by Madame Nocturn, Pyria learned the effects of red sugar more clearly.

It responded better to someone with romantic feelings.

The more one ate, the stronger the effect, but instead of unpleasantly increasing sensitivity, it heightened s*xual curiosity.

Thanks to that, even if a relationship didn’t improve, some people gained the resolve to make a decision.

They finally decided to end their relationship.

As she developed more desserts, Pyria gradually improved the red sugar.

She couldn’t ignore the risk if red sugar fell into someone else’s hands.

The raw red sugar was always made alone and stored in a subspace.

By combining red sugar with rose water, rosehip oil, ice sugar, and several herbs, then refining and drying it, she created pink sugar.

Pyria named this pink sugar ‘Rose Sweets.’

Its effect was much weaker than red sugar, but the response was quite good.

With the reduced effect, couples could enjoy it lightly.

She didn’t have to be as cautious as before, which made things easier for Pyria.

Sometimes, when she was insanely busy, she could even let the pastry chef handle the work.

Of course, she never left bags of it lying around the kitchen.