Bon Appétit

TL/N: Soybean Lumps known as Meju (메주) is from fermented soybean and is mainly used to make a lot of Korean paste, such as gochujang, soybean paste, ssamjang, etc.

Luana had no choice but to run outside. She was puzzled about what she was even doing right now. But there was nothing else to say.

“Yeah! After all, there are many stars in the sky!”

Unfortunately, the stars were out of sight because of the dark clouds.

“It’s windy!”

It was windy, but it was a cold breeze. Gradually, the eyes of the knights watching Luana were getting irreverent, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t go back inside even if she were treated as a madwoman!

“Did His Grace allow you to go outside?”

“He did! If he didn’t allow it, how can I come out on my own?”

Still, a knight went inside and asked if it was true. Then he looked at her with a confused look.

“It’s true.”

“Really?”

Luana sat down in the hallway and smiled clumsily. Fortunately, the knight she was familiar with, Lugard, brought her a blanket so she could wrap it around her body.

***

‘What’s really going on?’

The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it was.

“Hmm.”

When Luana ran out, the Duke rolled the purple bottle in his hand with a cold expression. Luana was a princess who had been abandoned since she was a child. So she only knew a few people in the castle. For the longest time, the nanny who cared for her was the person she had known.

‘Did she bring this high-quality drug on her own? It couldn’t have been.’

Then the answer is that someone got the drug and handed it over to her.

It wasn’t that Luana wasn’t at fault, but he needed Luana right now. Of course, that doesn’t mean he can’t kill her. It was not difficult to properly destroy a person within the range he could move. But strangely, he didn’t want to.

Legion thought she was peculiar when he approached Luana as she was an abandoned princess because no one had ever been so comfortable with him except the Emperor. That’s why he didn’t want to make things ruined. He couldn’t imagine being scared and unable to approach.

“But the person who sent this drug is different. Raven,”

TL/N: Raven is a shadow knight who works and obeys the master’s request.

“Yes.”

The Duke threw the drug bottle to his servant.

“Investigate.”

“I will obey your orders.”

That’s enough. Now the raven will find the source of the drug as soon as possible.

“I can guess who it is.”

Who would use the abandoned princess? Only a few people related to the princess could think of using her, and the Duke’s thought was on point. Soon after, the Duke saw the information sent by the raven and laughed, raising the corners of his mouth.

“I’ll keep him alive for now.”

He didn’t even know his subject. He hated being swayed by someone and even more hated than it was someone worse than himself. However, the King of the occupied kingdom tried to make a move on him, and Legion was offended by the act.

And there was only one word for the weak who offended the strong.

It is ‘death.’

***

The king spoke in a nervous voice.

“Is the child doing well?”

“She’ll be fine. No man refuses women.”

“But she’s being a little too much.”

“Sometimes people have a unique taste.”

The Queen answered to reassure the King. The Queen dissuaded the King, who tried to send a poison and recommended something else. She was timid yet bold in this situation. It is not only the King’s life that flies away when they are caught.

Everyone needed something safe, even if caught. Of course, she did not act that way because she cared for Princess Luana, the abandoned princess. It was just a matter of taking care of one’s own safety.

“It will be fine.”

She said that again and comforted the King, but suddenly the sound of a knight in armor walking came from outside. An ominous premonition pounded through her chest.

“Queen.”

The Queen was not the only one to notice him; the King did too. The two leaned close together and trembled with anxiety. Eventually, the sound of footsteps ended, and the door opened. They could see a man’s figure through the dark hallway. And that was their end.

***

Making Soybean Lumps

First, prepare soybeans suitable for making soybean lumps and wash them in water. In this process, beans that are not edible are omitted.

“Hooooo-“

Luana moved her hands eagerly, washing vast amounts of soybeans.

After all, she couldn’t sleep last night. She remembered the Duke’s face that came close to hers last night whenever she tried to sleep. So she folded the blanket and headed to the kitchen.

After that, she took out many beans she had prepared in advance and started making soybean lumps! It was an act of thinking that those unimportant thoughts would disappear if she felt tired, but it was ineffective.

She would sometimes pause while washing the beans, reminiscing about last night. The Duke’s pretty ruby eyes, pointed nose, and smooth-looking lips.

‘What a tempting lips, a tempting lips!’

Luana, who had thought so far, picked up the water bottle right next to her and poured it over her head. She doesn’t know why she did that yesterday.

Splash!

The cold water soaked her from the top of her head to her toes, and she felt like she had finally come to her senses.

“What were you thinking?!”

As a bonus, she raised her hand and slapped her own cheek. After she hit her cheeks, she seemed to be more energized.

“Beans! Let’s wash the beans!”

She was so happy she suddenly had money that it would take a long time to buy soybeans in bulk and wash them all by herself. So she had to move fast. Even if she wanted to borrow a cat’s paw*, she had to finish washing it herself.

TL/N: Cat’s hand is an idiom that means she was swamped, and even she’d want to borrow the cat’s paw.

However, when I washed the beans, they would come back to square one.

“Snap out of it!”

Slap!

Luana slapped her own cheeks again and started doing her task with her red cheeks. Then Lugard, looking at her like a madwoman, left, and Henry came in. Recently, Luana’s escort was being watched alternately by the two. Personally, she liked the polite Loun who was with her when she made the chicken, but neither of them was terrible.

All three were not as good as the Duke, but they were so handsome that her eyes became bright when they were together, mainly because Henry was a handsome man with blonde hair and green eyes.

“Hey, did you hear the news?”

“What news?”

Luana asked, looking at Henry with her eyes widened because she hadn’t slept all night long.

“The King and his wife were executed at dawn. Their bodies were hung in front of the gate.”

At those words, Luana’s gloomy eyes widened in a round shape.

“All of a sudden?”

“Yeah.”

“W-why did that happen?”

“I don’t know. But since the raven moved, something must have happened. Don’t you know?”

She seemed to doubt her sudden departure from the Duke’s room last night. But even if there was something to point out, Luana couldn’t say it with her own mouth.

‘I groped the Duke’s chest after he drank the drug… I can’t confess like this!’

“I don’t know!”

Luana replied that she did not know again and again and turned her attention back to the bean.

“Hmm. Aren’t you sad?”

It was a serious question. Henry probably asked her because he thought of her own position as princess.

“Unfortunately, it’s not that sad. I’m sorry to hear that, though.”

“Really?”

“I never saw them before I got dragged out before.”

The reincarnated Luana had no sense of attachment to the royal family. She has to do what she has done so far to make her feel a part of it. I couldn’t even see their faces correctly, and she couldn’t be sad.

Although Ingrid, who Luana met later, treated her quite kindly, she felt more like the heroine of a novel than an older sister.

“Well, that might not be too sad.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

She was quiet again.

“But did Lugard hit you?”

“No?”

“Then, what’s going on with your cheeks?”

“Oh, this is proof of self-reflection.”

Then Luana picked up the water bottle again and splashed it again. Every time she thought of him, a faint heat rose in her body. The firewood in her body, which had been dry for a long time, seemed to be on fire now.

Seeing that, Henry widened his eyes.

“You are really strange.”

“What?”

Luana blinked and asked, but Henry only replied with a smile. Then he sat and watched her wash the beans.

‘If possible, help me.’

Luana pouted her lips and clapped her hands together.

***

After barely finishing the beans, Luana starts to soak the beans in water. While waiting, she looked up at the sky; it was already morning. It was a temporary absence. She couldn’t make the Duke’s breakfast because she was frantically washing the beans.

Luana thought something would happen, but the Duke didn’t say anything. Luana fell into agony as the picture of his lips came to her mind again. That was how she spent her morning, but she thought she couldn’t think about that until lunchtime came. Since she had heard the news of the King and his wife, she was even more in thought.

‘No matter how comfortable I am with my life, I don’t want to get ripped into pieces and hung at the gate!’

For that reason, she began to ponder her menu carefully.

‘Braised beef short ribs?’*

TL/N: Braised beef short ribs (갈비찜; Galbijjim) is made with short rib made with beef or pork.

‘No, there’s no soy sauce. Now that the beans have been washed to make soybean lumps, it will take a long time to complete. A dish that doesn’t contain Korean seasoning that you can make right now… I need that menu.’

‘Pot-au-feu*! Let’s make that.’

TL/N: Pot-au-feu, “pot on the fire” is a French beef stew.

It took some time to make the dish, but it would be perfect if Luana started now. She immediately brought a variety of beef.

Some meat slices, beef briskets, oxtails, and bone marrow. Those meets are lined on the cutting board. Then Luana brought out a lot of fresh vegetables.

For now, she was the king in the kitchen.

‘First, boil the water.’

Then Luana adds the beef brisket and waits for it to come to a boil over low heat.

‘When the foams rise, remove it.’

The heat slowly shakes the lid on. After that, Luana adds sirloin, pork neck, onions, minced garlic, bouquet garni*, salt, and pepper and brings it to a boil again.

TL/N: Bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs usually tried with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews.