The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] - Chapter 350

Chapter 350: Creamery Experiment
To be fair, Ollie did remember his appointment with his father. He swore he did. It was just that—well, he forgot about it again the moment his survival was guaranteed.

Also, it was difficult to remember even his name after Luca showed them this miraculous dessert called ice cream.

He didn’t even know how to process it at first. “Wait, it’s cold, sweet, and soft? At the same time?”

Apparently so.

This was after the heir tried thinking of interesting things to introduce to everyone. He wanted to celebrate his mother’s return with something that might be more memorable, so he thought of trying this out.

But the biggest hurdle wasn’t enthusiasm. It was milk.

“If we don’t have enough, we won’t be able to make a big enough batch for everyone,” he muttered under his breath.

So they checked the milk tank earlier that day, tallying every bit of milk they’d collected over the last five days. And Luca stared thoughtfully at the ledger.

Ollie hovered nervously over his shoulder. “Do we not have enough, brother?”

“I’m not that sure, brother. This would also be my first attempt at making it according to the recipe…”

“I do hope we have enough butter though…” he trailed, remembering how it was a sought-after commodity that was being guarded like people’s lives were at stake.

Thankfully, the biggest consumers were either busy or weren’t physically there the last few days to actually dent the supply, so this might just be enough.

In fact, just enough to be the perfect amount for experimentation. He didn’t want to commit the entire stock to a dessert no one had made here before.

They gathered in the creamery’s main room, a wide space with polished metal counters, oversized mixing vats, and the faint scent of butter and warm milk clinging to the walls.

“Alright,” Luca said, rolling up his sleeves, “we’re making vanilla ice cream from scratch.”

He gestured at the ingredients laid out neatly before them: pasteurized whole milk, a smaller jug of their own self-made heavy cream, measured sugar in a bowl, a pinch of salt in a tiny dish, a vial of vanilla extract, and eggs—freshly collected, each one pristine after the blood sweat and tears of the collector.

Luca looked at the recipe book again and decided to make the custard base as recommended.

The others, well, just the cadets, since this was supposed to be a surprise, were trying to imitate what he was doing as the milk and heavy cream were heated first.

Each of them worked slowly, pouring their own milk and cream into separate saucepans set over steady flames. Luca stirred gently, his motions precise as he guided them through each step.

Ollie leaned over his identical pot. “Wow.”

“Try smelling it again once we add the vanilla, brother!” said the smiley cook, who was genuinely excited about this that he even asked Xavier for a bit of help!

After adding sugar and a bit of salt, Luca gave an advanced warning about not putting the entire egg in.

“We have to be careful with the yolks,” Luca said as the others stared at him for instructions. “If any whites get in, it says here that it’ll throw off the texture.”

It took a bit of getting used to, and Jax had to get Luca to check because he felt like some might have escaped his personal quality check.

“Is it okay if it looks like this?” Jax held up a suspiciously chunky yolk.

Thankfully, it passed, and they were ready to proceed to the next step, which was supposed to be tempering. And everyone watched as Luca slowly drizzled the warm milk into the bowl while whisking it with the egg yolks.

“We can’t cook the eggs, so we have to do it like this.” He demonstrated while pouring everything back into the pan while stirring over low heat.

“Don’t stop stirring,” Luca murmured, his eyes sharp. “We need to thicken it, but it’ll curdle if it gets too hot.”

The silence stretched taut, broken only by the faint rasp of wooden spoons scraping the bottom of pans—a sound as fragile and anxious as their collective breaths.

Technically, the atmosphere was tense because these people were trying hard to control their strengths, and Ollie was likely the only one who wasn’t threatening the safety of the bowl.

What he was threatening, if anything, was that vanilla extract.

But the extract was saved because Luca finally said that they might be ready if the mixture looks something like the one in the photo.

He strained it into a clean bowl, cooling it over an ice bath as Ollie fanned his work with a tray.

“That’s gonna turn into ice cream?” Ollie asked skeptically.

“Eventually,” Luca said. “We still need to churn it.”

It was work. And the blonde who tried first, while initially beaming, wilted after five minutes after realizing that he was not built for this.

“That’s why machines exist,” Luca laughed, leading them to the industrial ice cream maker installed in the facility’s corner.

“But I was hoping we could try it with a small batch first, so that we can change things a bit if we don’t like it.”

Jax was wondering why until their teacher said that it would be frozen overnight, and they’d only be able to see the results tomorrow.

Now that was horrible, and Ollie’s eyes widened at this delay.

“We can’t taste it today, brother?!” He asked, horror practically echoing off the walls.

“Well, ideally, it’s possible, but it would take a while unless we use the other method described here.” He showed them the next page before grinning, his eyes sparkling at his other surprise.

Xavier actually got this for him after he noticed his little chipmunk’s hesitation.

Food-grade liquid nitrogen, which the prince had to source from cryopreservation laboratories.

But with a reaction like that, maybe he should consider buying more, especially with how this one would likely be a staple.

“You mean… we get to eat it today?” Asked the blonde who represented the mouths of the giants, who only stared hard at him.

Luca grinned. “If we’re careful.”

Xavier actually volunteered for this as the person who was immune to the cold, while Luca made sure that the kitchen’s vents and exhausts were working well to deal with the liquid nitrogen.

The little wife was asked to stay away and instruct from a far, so he could only watch as Xavier poured in controlled streams into the churning custard.

It was like magic. And that’s something considering how they witnessed his husband freeze Tortie. But watching the custard freeze into ice cream was something else.

It wouldn’t be the first time he would be able to eat ice cream, for he did get to taste it when his adoptive parents would get him some. It was just that normally, it was a precursor to someone’s passing, so it was really just now that he was able to appreciate it like this.

He’ll make new memories with ice cream.

One that was apparently filled with lots of squealing and tears as his good brother nearly fell on his buttocks after his first spoonful.

Ollie slapped a hand over his heart. ” I-I think I just ascended.”

Luca laughed softly, relief and pride blooming inside him as he watched their delighted reactions.

Even Xavier let out a rare, satisfied hum.

Gisella and Cece peeked into the creamery later in curiosity, only to find four grown men slumped on the floor around empty bowls, staring at the ceiling like philosophers as they pondered the probability of them surviving a fourth helping.

Luca just chuckled softly, spooning himself a serving as he looked out the window.

“Cacao trees,” he murmured aloud.

Jax glanced over. “What’s that?”

“Chocolate,” Luca replied. “I think we’re going to need them.”

Oh, they would.

Really would.