Cock-a-doodle-doo—
Anje’s face turned as pink as a rooster’s comb. Aiden placed the gun back in the drawer and brushed aside his disheveled bangs.
“A commotion over a crowing rooster?”
Already disturbed by a nightmare, he had reluctantly fallen back asleep in the early morning hours.
The dream, starting with torment in the palace, had taken a eerie turn with the appearance of jailers from the prisoner-of-war camp.
The morning after such a dream wasn’t pleasant. Anje’s noisy entrance, exacerbating his mood, didn’t help.
“But it crowed extremely, extremely loudly.”
To her, he seemed nonchalant, sleeping peacefully despite the noise.
“It’s so loud; I can’t sleep at all. Can’t you make it quiet?”
The energetic rooster continued its morning alarm, unfazed by the accustomed sounds, unlike Anje.
“Twisting its neck should make it quiet.”
“Well, you don’t have to go that far.”
Surprised by Aiden’s blunt remark, Anje shook her head, not wishing for the rooster’s demise.
Aiden, trying to shake off fatigue, furrowed his brow. After rubbing his eyes once to ward off drowsiness, he thought about Anje’s current state.
“Anyway, even if it’s indoors, it’s chilly. Walking around like that, you might catch a cold—”
“Aaaah! You, you pervert!”
Anje, pointed out for her thin attire, hastily covered her chest with both arms and disappeared.
“Says the lady who barged into someone else’s room in her under garments.”
Although Aiden pointed it out with an absurd tone, Anje had already dashed into her room.
After a big yawn, he walked out into the corridor.
‘Well, anyway, thanks to the disturbance, I woke up early. Let’s go to work right away.’
Today’s plan was to plant kidney bean seeds. Having quickly dressed, he hesitated before heading downstairs.
‘Shouldn’t the lady have breakfast too?’
She probably felt hungry since last night. He wasn’t sure, but she likely didn’t have a hearty meal before the wedding.
Recalling the tightly laced corset from yesterday, he knocked on the yellow door.
“How about breakfast?”
Wrapped in a blanket, only Anje’s face peered through the door as she answered.
“Just leave it outside the door, I’ll eat it when I’m ready.”
Does she think of me like some kind of servant, expecting me to bring her food all the way to her door?
He coldly announced his refusal, thinking that serving the princess was none of his duty, especially during the busy spring season.
“I’ll leave it on the kitchen table on the first floor. Come down and eat when you’re hungry.”
“No, since you’re already making it, why don’t you just bring it here…”
Bang. He slammed the door shut, cutting off her words.
‘This princess didn’t even thank me for making her food.’
He had to berate himself for feeling a moment of pity for her, wondering if she might be hungry.
‘Well, If she’s really hungry, she’ll come crawling out on her own.’
He briefly considered the possibility that she might refuse to come out of her room and stubbornly stay inside.
‘She’s probably never gone hungry a day in her life, so it wouldn’t hurt to let her starve for a bit.’
He had no intention of putting up with this spoiled brat’s tantrums.
***
“Damn it, what am I supposed to do…”
Even after Aiden had finished breakfast and gone out to the fields, Anje remained locked in her room. She had to endure the humiliation of almost swearing several times.
“Alright. It’s not perfect, but… this should do.”
She muttered to herself as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was dressed in a rather sloppy dress. She had been trying for hours, but this was the best she could do.
Ever since she could remember, maids had always come to her in the morning and helped her get dressed. Naturally, these kinds of chores were unfamiliar and awkward for her.
Everything from tying the ribbons to secure the stockings to her legs, to fastening the crinoline around her waist, to covering the petticoat properly with the skirt.
It was especially difficult to pull the corset strings at the back by herself.
This was usually done by several maids working together, so it was quite a challenge for the delicate princess.
“I should have asked Sir Aiden for help.”
Anje muttered as she examined her waist. She was a fan of the so-called “tight lacing”, which cinched the waist as tightly as possible, and she was very dissatisfied with her current waistline.
‘But even if I asked for help, he would probably laugh it off and ignore me.’
‘He even ignored the simple request to bring me food.’
‘Breakfast is originally served in the bedroom.’
‘The etiquette of aristocratic society…’ Anje clicked her tongue in thought.
She kept thinking in terms of the standards of the nobility, but this was not the mansion of a noble family, and she herself was now of a status that was not good enough to be considered a member of the nobility.
‘I want to go back to the Dukedom soon.’
She carefully descended to the first floor, being careful not to let the hem of her long dress get caught on anything.
The creaky stairs groaned slightly with each step she took.
‘I’ll just have a meal and go upstairs and write a letter to my father.’
She planned to write in detail how terrible and miserable this place was, and how desperately she wanted to go back, in order to evoke sympathy.
‘That’s what everyone said. My father… loves and cares for me very much.’
Since he had been buying her expensive clothes, cosmetics, and precious metals since she was a child, and had been trying to arrange the best marriage in the empire for her, he would surely take some action.
‘Although he had said harsh words that she had failed to seduce the emperor, it was just a spur-of-the-moment remark, and it would be forgotten over time.’
‘I am the most beautiful woman in the Albion Empire, and I am my father’s only blood relative.’
Her father had reached out to countless women in the hope of having a son, but he had not even been able to have a common illegitimate child.
Anje firmly believed that he would not let his only daughter, who was valuable for her noble blood and beautiful appearance, rot away in the countryside forever.
‘Where is the kitchen… It doesn’t seem to be here.’
The room she entered through the first door she saw after descending the stairs was a drawing room, with black cloth draped over the furniture.
She met the eyes of a beautiful woman’s portrait and quickly closed the door and went further into the hallway.
Creak―
Anje opened the right-hand door, which was decorated with birds and leaves, and was relieved to find that she had finally reached her destination.
Growling―
Although she didn’t show it to Aiden, Anje’s stomach started to rumble loudly the moment her heart, which had been startled by the rooster, calmed down.
As a person with a short mouth, this feeling of hunger was rare for her. It was partly because she had been empty stomach for a long time, but it was also because the loose corset had relieved the pressure around her waist.
Anje, who had been looking around the space that Aiden used as a kitchen and dining room, spoke up about the impression that came to mind.
“It’s…not bad.”
When she was at the Duke’s mansion, she never thought to enter the kitchen because she thought it was a space for the lower class to use.
She simply tasted the food that the servants brought to her one by one at a table with a white tablecloth under a dazzling chandelier.
Using a napkin made of fine cotton, with gleaming silver utensils and adorned with elaborate pottery plates made by craftsmen, with elegant and refined gestures.
This dining kitchen had a completely different feel from such a glamorous space, but it exuded a warm atmosphere that revealed the owner’s love and care everywhere.
The pots, pans, bread pans, and measuring cups hanging on one wall were made of copper or iron and had been polished so much that they shone brightly.
The cupboard on the same wall was filled with various spice jars, but Anje, who was a stranger to cooking, couldn’t even guess what they were for.
The cast iron kettle and ladle hanging on the fireplace and the white and blue earthenware pots on the shelf each showed their own individuality while still going well together.
Moreover, the fact that all of these things were very neatly organized gave a clue to the character of the owner of the house.
“What is this?”
Among them, the large black object in front of the fireplace caught Anje’s attention the most.
The rectangular structure with doors on the left and right front had four sunken spaces, and a separate pipe-like thing was on top of it.
“……A stove?”
Anje, who had been gazing absently at the chimney, which was intended to vent smoke outside, guessed the answer uncertainly.
It was because the heating stove in her room had a similar design.
Her guess was partly right. The ‘cooking stove’ she was looking at was an object that served as both a heating stove and a cooking utensil.
A useful tool that can warm up a room by putting in wood or coal, and at the same time act as an oven or range with its heat.
It was also a tool that Anje had never had the chance to come into contact with before, a tool for the common people or servants.
Growling―
Anje clutched her stomach at the sound coming from the ship again and groaned. Putting aside what it was used for, she wanted to put anything in her mouth.
‘It was on the kitchen table.’
Right next to the stove was a wooden table decorated with a red checkered tablecloth. Something covered with a white cloth to prevent bugs was definitely the ‘breakfast’ he had mentioned.
“I’ve barely survived… What is this?”
Anje, who quickly pulled away the cloth, frowned with a dumbfounded voice. A completely different menu than she expected was waiting for her.
The yellow and thick liquid ‘dish’ was cornmeal porridge that farmers often eat for breakfast.
A simple dish made by mixing coarsely ground cornmeal with water and boiling it, then finishing it with a knob of butter and finely ground cheese.
Anje was initially taken aback by the appearance of the cornmeal porridge, which the nobles rarely had the chance to come into contact with.
It was a food that was edible when eaten warm after being cooked, but the porridge, which had hardened and cooled down because she came down too late, was really…
“…It’s tasteless.”
It was so tasteless that Anje didn’t hesitate to criticize it. She put down the spoon with a sullen face and belatedly found the note Aiden had left.
“If it’s too bland, you can mix in molasses and eat it.”
The neat and round handwriting was unexpected.
