(Part 5) Reincarnated as an Elf Mage’s Cell

The sun rises high in the clear sky, showering the bustling town marketplace with its rays. Vendors are stationed at every corner as far as the eye can see, doing whatever they can to attract the sea of potential consumers and keep them there.

Among those consumers, Lyrielle, alongside her apprentice, can hardly maintain their walking pace due to several stands pulling them in opposing directions.

Eden, using her tall height to her advantage, joyfully inhales all of the savory and sweet aromas into her nose. Consequently, the more she sniffs, the more saliva she has to be careful to swallow.

“Ms. Lyrielle, doesn’t the air smell so good? It’s making my mouth water!”

“From what I can smell, it is indeed wonderfully appetizing. Though hopefully my sinus will clear up completely while we’re here…(please).”, Lyrielle softly pleads while rubbing her nose.

“Hmm? Did you just whisper something, Ms. Lyrielle?”

“N-no, pay no mind. Let’s go over there, I can smell something sweet!”

Quickly shifting Eden’s attention away from her, Lyrielle points to a stand that’s decorated with pastel colors and rainbow sparkles. Eden wastes no time pacing herself ahead of her teacher, being led into the precise direction by her nose.

“Sniff, you’re right! Look, the line is short too, lucky us!”

Though they no longer walk side-by-side, Lyrielle and Eden excitedly speed walk over to the sweets vendor. As they get closer, they see a clear view of the one operating the business:

A lone, small girl who wears a slightly puffy pink cloak with black accents, awaiting her incoming customers with a toothy smile. Her thin black star-tip tail waves for her hands as they are occupied with displaying her plethora of goodies that lay on the table.

Eden, who takes that as an open invitation, makes a final leap to arrive at the stand as closely as she is physically capable of. Her eyes and head swivel left and right rapidly, and her tongue wipes access her lips, working overtime to clean up her drool.

“Welcome to Nara’s Love! You won’t find anyone who can make confectioneries like us since we use sugar that only demons can make. Nothing is sweeter, so please enjoy my love to your heart’s content without guilt!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”, Eden blurts out before the girl could finish pronouncing her final word. Now, all of her former restrictions were off; she lost herself searching through the confectioneries and whiffing the scent of each and every one. Her hard working tongue can no longer keep up.

In contrast, Lyrielle stands back a respectable distance observing with her fingers intertwined. She casually enjoys the scents and the view while lightly giggling at her apprentice’s jolly.

However, no good salesgirl would be satisfied captivating the heart of one customer and not everyone within her reach. So, the girl faced Lyrielle directly, leaving Eden off to the side to freely rummage as she pleases.

“Please don’t be shy, ma’am. There’s plenty of my love-filled treats for you to enjoy too…?! Please excuse me, but are you…Lyrielle? The renowned elf mage of the Halo party who defeated the demon lord?”

The girl’s shift to a bewildered tone makes the somewhat introverted elf bashful. With such sudden recognition, she lightly scratches her cheek and ever-so-slightly avert her eyes from the girl’s heart-shaped pupils.

“You don’t have to treat me any special way; those days are long gone, and I’d rather not draw unnecessary attention towards myself in such a crowded place. Although the more I look at you, the more familiar you seem…forgive me if I’m wrong, but are you–”

“Your intuition is correct, just as I expected. I am the demon lord Garth’s precious daughter, Nara!”, she exclaimed proudly with her hand on her chest. A sense of pride radiates from Nara, though not the arrogant snobby kind, but more of an innocent childlike pride that adults tend to find endearing.

At least, that’s what Lyrielle felt.

“Wow, it really is you! You’ve grown a bit since I last saw you, yet you are still so adorably tiny.”

“I can’t help that demons mature even slower than elves, but that makes us cuter, doesn’t it?”

“I can’t argue with that! So this is what you’ve been up to these days? Baking with…or rather, by yourself?”

“This is just a little hobby of mine that I’m still a novice at, I’d never do this alone. I’ll never be alone–never ever!”, Nara declares as she waves her finger.

“Well that’s great to hear, Nara. Please forgive my apprentice for carelessly rummaging through your goods; when she’s hungry, she throws all the discipline I taught her out the window.”

“Hehe, I place my passionate love inside each treat that I make, so I fully expect such behavior. In fact, I’d be disappointed if I didn’t elicit such reactions. Sooo…”

Like a magician’s sleight of hand, Nara draws Lyrielle’s eyes to her petite hands as they wave over the confectioneries on the table. Under the spell, Lyrielle finds herself unable to stop following the movement of Nara’s hands. Even if she truly wanted to, her own body would protest her refusal.

Yet somehow, she pats her cheeks, snapping out of the trance.

“As much as I’d love to indulge, I have to abstain for now. I know that if I eat even one sweet, my sweet tooth would cast a spell on my brain…”

"But it'd really make my day to see the magnificent Lyrielle eat my treats–it’d also be good for business, of course! You’d do me and yourself a huge favor! Don’t let your dear apprentice enjoy her sweets alone; wouldn’t that make her feel guilty?”

Hearing her being mentioned, Eden rushes over by Lyrielle, her arms completely filled with a variety of sweets.

“Hmmm? Oh not at all–Iwvdncreatuwll!”

Nara, using blinding speed, stuffs a slice of peanut butter and coconut infused cake into Eden’s vulnerable mouth. It was so fast that Eden tried to finish her sentence without realizing that her words became nonsensical.

“See? Look at her struggling to delight in that free sample with her cute puffy cheeks. She needs the companionship of her teacher!”

“Uhh…umm…I…uh…umm…”

Lyrielle’s attention splits among Eden’s intensive chewing expression, Nara’s insistent pressure, and the allure of the sweets between them. It’s no surprise that her mind cannot formulate a coherent response.

“Still unsure, I see. Theeeen, how about we ask your body to decide?”

Once again using her high agility, Nara holds up a maroon cookie right under Lyrielle’s nostrils. A fresh steam emits from the cookie and flows into her nose. Not even a full second later, a drop of drool leaks from her mouth, which she quickly swallows before it could escape.

“Looks like it’s screaming ‘yes’! You’re in luck, I’ll give you this special cookie for free! Please take it–it tastes best when it’s warm and fresh, you know. All I ask is for a positive review and good word-of-mouth.”

“...gulp”

Communication through words is now a low priority for Lyrielle’s mouth, for she is too occupied using it to swallow the endless overflow of spit it is producing.

As much as Lyrielle tries to resist with her conscious mind, her physical body opposes her harder and harder. Until–

CHOMP!

Her mouth automatically opens widely beyond its normal limit, then her teeth clash against each other like a trap with the cookie caught in between.

Fortunately, Nara narrowly avoids getting her hand bitten off in the process, though her eyes widened in genuine fear for a half a minute. While she is busy wiping the sweat off her forehead and regulating her heartbeat, Lyrielle’s cheeks blush and puff up as she savors the sweet cookie.

At this very moment, nothing else exists–it’s just Lyrielle and the cookie from paradise. After a minute of savoring every last crumb, she returns to reality with a deep swallow.

“That was the softest, sweetest cookie I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating! I fully endorse your brand. I’ll be back tomorrow–alone.”

“Hey, no fair, Ms. Lyrielle, bring me too!”

“If you pass your test without mistakes, then perhaps.”

“I have to get a perfect score?!”

“I didn’t say that, just don’t make any mistakes. Better train very well this evening and not slack off, right?”

Eden takes a delayed deep breath, but quietly huffs, retiring whatever words she planned to come out of her mouth. Instead, she grabs something off the table, just out of Lyrielle’s vision.

“...fine. But for now, I’d like four of these cookies! What do you think?”

Suddenly, Eden shoves a small bag of bright reddish cookies up to Lyrielle’s nose. The scent from the cookies aggressively invades her nostrils, triggering an equally aggressive response.

“A-a-ACHOO!”

Despite normally being polite, Lyrielle’s nose did not lend her the luxury, so her sneeze was aimed in a random direction–Nara’s.

“Oh no, I-I’m so sorry Nara, please excuse my ill-manners–”

“It’s okay, none of it got on the treats…I think. Those cookies are my ‘volcano’ cookies; they live up to their name with their intense cinnamon spice, don’t they? So please don’t worry, it’s my fault for not warning her. You can put your money on the counter over here, while I go wipe my face, okay?”

Nara smiles, winks, and gives her customers a thumbs up. Although her smile was initially wry, she managed to overwrite it.

“S-sorry again. Thank you so much, and please take care, Nara! And as for you young lady, let’s go now. I’ll have to teach you not to shove food in others' faces; you can forget about offensive elemental spells for the rest of the day!”

“Aww...so more of that exercise?”

“Times nine!”

“Sigh, yes ma’am.”

As requested, Lyrielle leaves her payment on the counter, making sure that not only her money covered both her and her apprentice, but there was extra included beyond the requested price. With that matter of business squared away, she drags along Eden by her sleeve–her face elated, Eden deflated.

As they leave further and further away, Nara watches them while finishing up wiping her face clean.

With hearts in her eyes, Nara licks her lips.