Freeloading (BONUS)

The night gradually receded giving way to the rising sun, adding some bustle to this tranquil world!

Rindō Kobayashi woke up in a daze, finding herself in an unfamiliar place, feeling disoriented for a moment.

"It's all my fault, I drank too much last night!"

Covering her head, she reminisced about bits and pieces of last night.

Realizing what happened, she blushed slightly.

Then, holding the blanket tightly, she sensed a particularly fragrant warmth in the air.

Despite being in an unfamiliar environment, she didn't feel unsafe. On the contrary, there was a stimulating feeling in her heart.

This was the first time she had stayed overnight at someone else's place, and that person happened to be an extremely handsome man!

So, her emotions were somewhat unsettled.

"Hmm! What's happening to me?"

Finally, Rindō Kobayashi let out a deep sigh.

She was well aware that the tavern owner was no ordinary man.

The world he belonged to, his stage, was bound to be vast, not something limited to this tavern.

In fact, he was the kind of person whose silent dedication to the tavern would profoundly impact the world and this great culinary era!

So, she couldn't help but greatly admire him and, just a bit... perhaps, have a tinge of affection in her heart?

...

Creak!

At that moment.

Zane, who had been awake for a while, gently pushed open the door of the room.

Hearing the faint sound of the door opening, Rindō Kobayashi, who was lost in thought, quickly pulled the covers over her head and pretended to be asleep.

After closing the door and entering the room, Zane couldn't help but smile faintly as he saw Rindō Kobayashi on the bed.

Hah, pretending to be asleep, can you really fool me?

"Rindo, wake up! The sun is almost shining on your backside!"

Then, Zane quietly walked to the bedside and called out softly.

Rindō Kobayashi still didn't react, her eyes tightly shut.

Even her breathing was steady, making it seem like she was truly asleep.

Looking closely, her long crimson hair scattered like clouds, despite pretending to be sound asleep, couldn't hide the faint emotional cloudiness around her eyes.

At the same time, a ray of sunlight outside fell directly on her face, enhancing her cuteness!

Unconsciously, Zane was a bit dazed.

It wasn't until he realized that his calling didn't wake up Rindō Kobayashi intentionally that he gently pinched her cute nose.

"Ugh!"

Feeling uncomfortable, Rindō Kobayashi had to open her bright eyes, and then she gently patted away the hand that was teasing her.

"Awake?"

"Hmm!"

With a slightly reddened face, Rindō Kobayashi stole a glance at Zane before lowering her head and pondering, "Chef Zane, I really troubled you this time!"

"It's okay, you don't have to worry."

"It's my fault. I knew you liked to drink freely at the tavern, but I didn't stop you, and it ended up with you passing out in the tavern."

"Fortunately, there are many vacant rooms on the third floor."

"It's perfectly fine for you to sleep here overnight."

Seeing the bashful Rindō Kobayashi, Zane just smiled lightly and replied nonchalantly.

"Alright!"

"Thank you!"

Hearing this, a hint of a smile appeared on Rindō Kobayashi's face unintentionally.

Subsequently, Zane got up, and with a somewhat muffled voice continued, "Now that you're awake, freshen up and leave!"

"After all, my tavern doesn't open during the day, and you can't just stay here, can you?"

"Huh?"

"You want me to leave?"

Rindō Kobayashi immediately sat up!

"Yeah!"

"Letting you stay overnight was a last resort!"

"Now you're awake, why do you want to linger here?"

Just about to leave, Zane was taken aback by Rindō Kobayashi's words!

Oh gosh!

This Rindo.

Could it be... she wants to stay around me?

...

"At the very least, let me have breakfast at your place, okay?"

After saying this, Rindō Kobayashi looked at Zane expectantly, but seeing no response, she felt a bit dejected, thinking to herself, was it too much to ask for a meal?

"Breakfast? That's fine."

"I just developed a new dish. You can taste it and give me feedback!"

Saying this, Zane turned and left the room, not paying much attention to Rindō Kobayashi's following reaction.

"What?"

"You agreed to let me have breakfast?"

 "And you... you're going to make a new dish..." Hearing this, Rindō Kobayashi's eyes immediately lit up.

She quickly stood up and followed him eagerly!

...

Time passed quickly.

In the tavern's kitchen, Zane, preparing to make Thousand-Layer Pancakes, began kneading the dough!

Having prepared two types of flour, 630g of low-gluten flour and 420g of high-gluten, he added the low-gluten flour to 99 degrees Celsius hot water, quickly stirred with chopsticks, then kneaded after it cooled down.

Next, he added the high-gluten flour to 20 degrees Celsius room temperature water and continued kneading.

When both batters were slightly formed, he combined them to form a new dough!

This made the pastry for the Thousand-Layer Pancakes semi-cooked.

This type of semi-cooked pastry is both soft and elastic, suitable for making scallion pancakes and Thousand-Layer Pancakes. It's soft, has many layers, and doesn't harden when cooled.

However, even with the semi-cooked pastry, Zane didn't want to use the usual method to make Thousand-Layer Pancakes.

After taking out the dough, Zane took a deep breath. Then, his gaze turned sharp as he continuously kneaded the dough with one hand. He then supported the dough with a finger and began rotating rapidly from the center with his fingertip!

With this spinning force, the large piece of dough gradually became a thin pastry!

"What?"

"How is this... possible?"

Seeing this, Rindō Kobayashi was startled!

She had never seen anything like this in her life. After all, who uses this method to knead dough?

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Gradually, under this spinning force, the pastry became thinner and larger.

Even in the end, the diameter of the entire pastry exceeded 3 meters.

Its thickness... could not be observed with the naked eye, but it was definitely thinner than a piece of paper, as if it could be pierced with a gentle poke from chopsticks.

Although the thinner the pastry for Thousand-Layer Pancakes, the better.

However, making a pastry so thin requires extremely high skill and experience and a chef's patience!

Seeing this, Rindō Kobayashi could hardly contain her excitement.

------

Powerstones, please.