The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 69: Sun Cakes

As spring went into full bloom, the sun lit up the streets of Darland, and traders flocked to the city, its markets became much more bustling.

Marien was walking down a line of stalls, looking at goods and searching for something interesting. Perhaps even worthy of becoming a gift for Reynard.

The goods were mostly too generic for her taste—she had seen them already both in Blue Bismuth School and here, in Darland.

But then, a delicious smell caught her attention and led Marien toward a large portable kitchen, where five cooks were selling some sort of food.

This stall took up a large part of a market square, as someone had put tables nearby, and an entire crowd was either eating nearby or standing in lines. To her surprise, Marien saw that there weren’t only poor and middle-income citizens, but also some rich people, many of them sending servants to buy food from the stall for them.

Several other similar stalls were open nearby, but they were less popular.

Curious, Marien approached the stall. She quickly saw a familiar face there.

"Bor, is this you? What a meeting!" she said, approaching the other person.

Bor was a magus from the Order of Winter, twice Marien’s age but half of her talent. He was bald like an egg, tall, and never seemed to know how to treat Marien, so he treated her politely. Right now, he was sitting at a a mug in front of him and a small cake in his hand.

"Miss Windblown, hello. Uh... Merry Sunstice to you, I suppose."

"Hm? Is this a local celebration? And what are you all eating?"

Marien looked at the food in Bor’s hands, which he quickly turned to show her. It was a round cake, but shaped like a sun, except for a few bites taken off.

"Sun cakes. This one is with salted salmon right from the sea!" Bor boasted. "I come here every year. This stall is actually kept by one of the best chefs in the city, and they have the best ingredients of all sorts. People like the city mayor or the order’s heads get sun cakes cooked for them personally, but everybody else usually comes here. Poor people stand in their own line for cakes with cabbage and chicken eggs, and rich people eat their sun cakes with salmon and Midnight Skylark’s eggs that only nobles and magi can afford."

Marien’s eyes immediately lit up.

"And they are only cooked today?"

"Yes. I mean, you can cook them at home... But it’s not the same. It’s tradition."

Marien nodded, getting even more inspired.

’This sounds like a really rare delicacy! Something you won’t get in another city, on another day. I must get my hands on one. On the best one, naturally! And Reynard is sitting in the workshop today, forging. Well, I won’t let him miss this opportunity!’

Marien off-handedly thanked Bor for his information and went to stand in the shortest line. There were only a couple of other people in front of her, and it soon became clear why.

The cakes sold in this line were expensive even by Marien’s standards!

A menu sign standing on the counter had a list of positions. The cheapest was fifty gold pieces, for a cake with salted salmon and sour cream. The most expensive was two hundred gold for a cake with Midnight Skylark’s eggs, Emerald Blossom buds, and dough made with Crystal Water.

Each of these items was an expensive alchemical ingredient. Marien remembered that Emerald Blossoms were used in tiny amounts to make common life-strengthening potions. To waste them on ordinary cooking...

Sounded absolutely wonderful.

And resulted in an absolutely cosmic price for a cake!

"I want two sun cakes with Midnight Skylark’s eggs!" Marien declared, putting four large platinum coins on the table.

Each of these had a nominal value of a hundred gold. The cook took them and moved to the side to make her order.

Marien watched the entire process. The smell made her swallow her saliva. When the cook gave her two cakes, each wrapped in a silk handkerchief, Marien wondered if she should just eat them both.

She stepped aside and unwrapped one, feeling suddenly too hungry to even walk aside from the crowd. But just as she was about to make a bite...

"What do you mean, ’they are all out’?! You can’t even make a sun cake for me?!"

"I deeply apologize, sir, but this menu position was very popular today, and the Midnight Skylark eggs are limited in the city. Just now, a young lady bought two Midnight Skylark sun cakes, and this was the end of our stock..."

Marien lifted her eyes and saw a magus turning to look at her.

He was a tall, youthful-looking man, wearing a thick robe with symbols of the Order of Snow sewn with golden thread all over its hems. His aura told Marien that he was at a Final Cycle Albedo.

The man’s face immediately lit up with disdain.

"You! You must be that wench that keeps meddling with the Order of Snow!" he declared, pointing at her. "Did you see me coming and bought two cakes before I could get any?"

Marien scowled right back.

"And you accuse me on the spot! Who even ARE you? You must be someone who doesn’t dare to show his ugly face out of his order’s walls too often, or I would have remembered you."

With the corner of her eye, Marien saw Bor walking through the rapidly thinning crowd to get closer. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I am a Second Rank Member of the Order of Snow, Konrad Duval." Konrad raised his chin. "Give me your sun cakes and leave my city immediately, or I will personally execute you for the crimes against my order."

Bor choked on air and began walking away.

Marien raised her chin even higher, although it was still lower than Konrad’s. She wished she could fly.

"I don’t accept orders from ugly snowflakes! If you challenge me to a fight, I will gladly take it!"

At the kitchen stall, a pale-faced cook came over with a sun cake in his hand.

"Sir, lady, we-we have found some leftover eggs... Here’s a Midnight Nightingale sun cake..."