The girl wore twintails today, with hair ties shaped like the popular character, Pudding Dog.

However, her abundant blonde hair, tied up high on either side of her full head, was already as cute as Pudding Dog itself.

Edogawa Conan, Suzuki Sonoko, and Mouri Ran were the first to enter the vast venue of the buffet, immediately spotting Aruchi Yuzu.

The three subconsciously applied a “cute neighbor girl” filter to Aruchi Yuzu.

Suzuki Sonoko even abandoned her pursuit of handsome guys and rushed towards Aruchi Yuzu first, demonstrating the depth of this filter.

But clearly, the cuteness wasn’t just a filter.

Aruchi Yuzu’s dessert was the “Angel Pudding: Pudding Dog Special Edition.”

The puddings were significantly smaller than usual and didn’t have caramel sauce covering the entire top surface like traditional angel puddings, with the caramel flowing down the sides. Aruchi Yuzu’s puddings mimicked Pudding Dog’s beret, with only a pointed beret-shaped caramel drizzle in the center of the top; the caramel didn’t cover the entire surface.

Chocolate sugar sculptures shaped like flower branches were used as bases, with the small, cute puddings placed in the center.

Then, using a cream two shades lighter than the pudding, a milky white color, she piped out rose petals around the pudding, using the sweetness of the specially made cream to replace the caramel’s role in providing sweetness around the pudding.

The finished product was a beautiful milky rose.

On the table in front of Aruchi Yuzu were stands for supporting the upright placement of the flower arrangements; they were filled with pudding flowers.

Aruchi Yuzu was holding a bouquet of ten pudding flowers. The pudding flowers were as exquisite as works of art, and Aruchi Yuzu, holding the bouquet, was also picture-perfect.

Contrary to Eisuke Soma’s advocacy for abandoning the self in cooking, Aruchi Yuzu advocated for the presence of the self. She considered desserts to be works of art, and the dessert chef was also part of the art. For a dessert to be considered perfect art, everyone who ate it must know it was her creation.

The competition at the buffet was about attracting customers; first through aroma, second through appearance. Pudding is a cold dish; the aroma doesn’t spread as far as some hot dishes. You need to get close to smell the sweet fragrance. Therefore, Aruchi Yuzu chose to attract customers with appearance first.

Clearly, she succeeded.

Besides the three acquaintances, many customers were attracted to her stall. People are always drawn to beauty.

A long line formed in front of Aruchi Yuzu’s stall. Only when some people decided to try other things because the line was too long did the crowd disperse.

Suzuki Sonoko was at the front of the line and was the first to taste the creative pudding flower: “Mmm! Delicious! This is the best pudding I’ve ever eaten!”

Aruchi Yuzu smiled, curving her lips, “Even the worldly-wise Sonoko says so; I’m a success~”

Edogawa Conan, after taking a bite, looked at Aruchi Yuzu behind the counter in slight surprise.

It was indeed a work of the highest level, created by a sixteen-year-old girl.

She learned from her mother the other day that Kudo Yukiko had been paying attention to the Aruchi family’s child for years, worrying about her sudden abandonment of the cello she had played since elementary school. Now, it seemed that she was doing very well.

The warm light from the crystal chandeliers shone on her, emanating a tranquil aura. The bustling crowd instantly quieted down.

After personally distributing the ten pudding flowers in her hand, the stall returned to a self-service model, with people taking a pudding flower from the stand themselves.

The dessert chef continued to make pudding flowers; she needed to make at least two hundred.

The puddings were made in advance; she only needed to assemble them now.

With one hand gently holding the flower branch and the other holding a piping bag, as if in harmony with the restaurant’s soothing music, her wrist moved elegantly and smoothly, creating a pudding flower in just a dozen seconds.

Beauty could really be eaten as a meal.

The eyes of the people in line followed the girl’s fingertips as they rotated. Her way of making desserts naturally attracted people’s attention. Just by watching, hungry stomachs seemed to be filled.

Then, the moment they received the pudding flower, hunger surged back, only to be filled by the sweet and soft milky flavor and the aroma of eggs.

Edogawa Conan noticed that Aruchi Yuzu seemed to look around every time she raised her head to insert a finished pudding flower into the stand. Was she looking for someone?

Puff also noticed. It flew high, looked around, and accurately landed on the head of a pink-haired girl.

“Found her! Esper-sama!”

Only Aruchi Yuzu heard the call. She happily smiled; her little Puff understood her.

“Kusuo, oh no, Kusuko-neesan~ Why don’t you come and see my pudding flowers~?”

“Too many people, I’ll go when there are fewer.”

“Oh, then you won’t be able to eat them.”

Aruchi Yuzu remained outwardly calm, but her mind started to be sarcastic, “No way, Kusuo, is the line at Erina’s shorter!?”

Saiki Kusuko: “…Hers is not often available.”

“Oh, you’re tired of me, right? No more novelty, right? You don’t cherish what you have, right?”

Even knowing she was acting up, Saiki Kusuko felt a pang of guilt, but her feet honestly remained in line for Nakiri Erina’s soufflés.

“Next time, I’ll give you one head start.”

Aruchi Yuzu forced a smile, “One? You’re stingy. You pretend to be calm, but your competitive spirit is no less than Kousuke-nii’s. Truly siblings.”

Saiki Kusuko said without blinking, “The third man in line is planning to take your pudding and poison his competitor.”

Aruchi Yuzu’s movements paused for a moment, then she pretended to continue piping as if nothing had happened.

First one.

Second one.

Third one.

The third one was an ordinary middle-aged man. Unlike the casually dressed people around him who seemed to be on vacation, he was wearing a suit, the kind most commonly seen on rush-hour trains, like a salaryman going to work.

When it was his turn, his movements hesitated, but he still reached out to take a pudding flower.

He smiled in Aruchi Yuzu’s direction, but she didn’t even raise her head, concentrating on the piping in her hands.

The people behind him urged him to hurry up and leave. His face darkened slightly, and he “tsk”-ed before quickly turning and leaving.

The man’s pace slowed from heavy to light. He stopped a woman who looked about his age.

Her hair was still mostly black, with only a few strands of gray. The woman had kind eyes; her expression was surprised when she saw him.

They talked, but their voices were low.

“Kusuko-neesan, start a live stream.”

“…”

Aruchi Yuzu put down the pudding flower in her hand and took out a silver, irregularly shaped rectangular object from her equipment bag, about the size of two hands.

She pulled the rectangular object apart from both sides; a small antenna-shaped object was in the middle groove. The smaller end was magnetic; Aruchi Yuzu turned around and stuck the small thing to the back of the refrigerator door.

The people around her still thought she was in the middle of making desserts, that she had run out of some ingredient and was preparing it again; it looked perfectly normal.

“Did Mr. Miyashita also reach a cooperation with Totsuki?”

“Yes, otherwise, why would I be here?”

“Congratulations then. You finally achieved your wish.”

“Cooperating with Totsuki is really good. We’ll be supplying the same company from now on. You’re a senior; I got you the most popular pudding here. Try it and see whose eggs were used.”

“How can I accept this? You’ve been in line for so long.”

“If you don’t accept it, it means you don’t welcome me as a business partner, Ms. Shibasawa.”

“Alright, this little girl really knows how to make them. Our eggs can be made into such beautiful things. These cooks deserve a lot of credit. Oh, the roses even have dewdrops.”

The woman was about to speak when a silver object hovered in front of her, stopping her from eating the pudding while causing her to show a surprised expression.

“Kusuko-neesan, learn from Puff! Where’s the tone? The emotion? Don’t read it like a textbook! All the suspense is gone!”

“…”

Live stream ended.

Aruchi Yuzu smoothly rotated the bendable handle of the antenna, making the larger, round end of the antenna face the dark gray surface of the refrigerator. With a fingerprint unlock and activation, Ms. Shibasawa’s surprised face was projected onto the refrigerator door.

Edogawa Conan, who was closely watching, nimbly jumped onto the counter, stretching his neck to see what she was going to do.

Aruchi Yuzu controlled the direction of the floating object, turning it to face the man.

The man seemed to realize something and ran towards the exit.

Aruchi Yuzu calmly gave the command, “Tranquilizer dart, confirm target.”

The floating object moved incredibly fast, almost leaving an afterimage, firing a hair-thin tranquilizer dart from 5 meters away.

Edogawa Conan: A little familiar.

Aruchi Yuzu nodded towards the black-suited exam supervisors nearby, “Call the police; he poisoned the pudding.”

Regardless of the storm caused by her few words, Aruchi Yuzu stepped away from the counter, quickly walking towards Ms. Shibasawa, taking the pudding flower from her hand, and calmly handing it to the supervisor who had come over to question her, “The evidence is still here; the cameras should have captured him putting the poison wrapped in rice paper onto the cream petals while walking.”

The supervisor seemed to say something into his earpiece, “Confirming the need to call the police; uncertain if it’s really poison.”

Aruchi Yuzu added, “That man isn’t an invited Totsuki supplier. Otherwise, everyone here would know that the entire venue is under 360-degree surveillance without blind spots. Choosing to kill someone here is like putting the evidence on his face.”

Soon, a new team of men in black suits rushed into the venue. A man wearing white gloves took the pudding flower from Aruchi Yuzu’s hand, and the rest surrounded the unconscious man.

The leader of the black-suited men asked, “What did you do to him?”

Aruchi Yuzu obediently replied, “Just a tranquilizer dart. He’ll wake up once the effect wears off. It’s just that… the dosage… was probably enough to knock out a grown black bear.”

Edogawa Conan, who had followed, exclaimed in shock, “Normal people don’t casually carry tranquilizer darts! And that thing that floated!”

Saiki Kusuko, in the crowd, calmly held the soufflé she had obtained, muttering inaudibly, “What makes you think you have the right to say that.”