When Sandora and I hurried over to Silvia's Dessert Cabin, she was busy tidying the counter. It seemed she had just seen off a batch of customers. On the worktable by the counter, there were still several homemade tools Silvia used specifically for making pastries. She had not had time to clean them yet, and they were smeared with brightly colored jam.
Silvia's little shop often carried an air of tranquility, but it was by no means completely devoid of customers. The Mass-produced Pao Pao in the military camp, the Misaka Sisters a few streets away, and, with the development of the Macro World, the growing number of bratty kids from various worlds at the Empire Military Academy were all loyal regulars. Though they were not numerous, they still gave this strangely situated "Restricted Area Shop" a bit of reputation and popularity, so Silvia did not have to rely on welfare just to fill her stomach. Usually, around ten in the morning was when the Mass-produced Pao Pao in the camp changed shifts. At that time, Silvia's shop would always receive several waves of Shilin Mainframes. Those Mass-Produced Hosts, with their somewhat peculiar behavior patterns, lived simple lives. Even after developing the completely un-Mass-Produced-Machine-like hobby of "sweets," they only came here to pick out the cheapest pastries or candies. I had run into Mass-Produced Machines lying over the counter more than once, waiting for Silvia to wrap up a few pieces of the most ordinary white cream cake for them. But today seemed different—the tools on Silvia's worktable were the sort used only for freshly prepared pastries, and she had even used the best jam. She had obviously just completed a major project.
As for how I knew it was the best jam—if I had not held Sandora back, she