Ever since Anje moved in, the kitchen of Dilton Farm has been filled with a much wider variety of sounds than before.
There is Aiden’s deep, raspy voice giving instructions or explanations, and Anje’s high, thin voice asking questions in curiosity.
As the amount of food to be prepared increased for this number of people, the sounds of writing, boiling, and baking were longer and more fragrant than usual.
However, today the kitchen was unusually quiet and subdued.
“Sir, are you okay?”
Anje, who had been sitting on a chair, jumped up when she saw Aiden return after finishing first aid. He replied calmly, as if telling her not to fuss.
“It’s nothing.”
“Look at that. Wait a minute, you wrapped it in a bandage, didn’t you? Aren’t you badly hurt? Call a doctor quickly.”
The victim of the burn had a calm face, but Anje, who was unharmed, was fussing with a change of expression.
“Because of me…”
She felt a sense of responsibility for the burn on Aiden’s hand.
‘Because I said I wanted to eat something fried.’
A few dozen minutes ago, at her sudden request, he had taken out the huge deep fryer for the first time in a long time. And he prepared roundly sliced onions, thinly sliced potatoes, and even edible flowers from the field.
‘Can we eat flowers?’
‘You don’t really taste it, but you eat the smell.’
Aiden had firmly rejected Anje, who was about to cry.
“No, it’s my fault for not securing the fryer properly.”
It was rare for him to make such a mistake.
“Wasn’t it because I kept asking you questions about this and that? And… you blocked the hot oil that was splashing on me.”
“That’s…”
As she pointed out, if things had gone as planned, the pot would have spilled and the oil would have splashed on Anje.
However, the moment the pot wobbled, he reflexively pulled her in as if to embrace her, and as a result, she was unharmed without even getting one of her clothes wet.
“I’m just going to get one more scar, so it doesn’t make any difference.”
He shrugged and replied nonchalantly.
No exaggeration, his whole body, which he always covered with clothes, was full of scars anyway. He had only protected her out of concern for his niece.
TL/N: NIECE!!! LMAO!
“Still, it is. It doesn’t hurt, does it? Should I get some ice from the basement?”
“I’m fine with some medicine. Ice packs can make the wound worse if done wrong, so you don’t have to.”
Aiden was uncomfortable with the princess’s constant attempts to do something for him. She was the one who rarely apologized or thanked him.
“I’m sorry, because of me…”
Aiden was irritated by Anje’s apologetic expression.
“That’s not like you. You used to ask boldly, just like before.”
“What do you mean? I apologized, and now…”
Anyway, she was the one at fault, so she suppressed her temper.
“I… I guess I made a mistake by asking you questions all the time. It must be annoying to answer them all the time, so I’ll try to ask fewer questions from now on.”
“It’s not…”
He hesitated and finished his sentence.
“It’s not really annoying.”
He didn’t mind her asking questions with childlike curiosity in her eyes as much as he did at first. In fact, he was worried when she was quiet.
Anje’s lips curled up on one side.
“Liar. I heard that men hate women who ask too many questions.”
“Who said that?”
“My tutors.”
His red eyes showed a bewildered expression.
“Have they met many men?”
“But my father did too. He said he hates women who chatter and make noise. He told me to be more ladylike.”
When she was little, she would ask her father all sorts of questions whenever she happened to be in the same room with him.
Where had he been, had he seen the painting she drew while he was away, and so on.
The Duke was annoyed by such a barrage of questions and would send her off to another room with a gift he had bought, telling her to play quietly with it.
Since her father was the kind of man who was nice when he was in a good mood but would get incredibly irritable when he was in a bad mood, she developed the habit of holding back what she wanted to say to him.
Aiden clenched his fist. He had a strange urge to punch the Duke of Glasster for talking such nonsense.
“Do you think I’m like the Duke of Glasster?”
“You’re completely different.”
“That’s right.”
He said with a forceful tone.
“Whatever you ask me, I’m fine with it.”
“……Really?”
Anje’s eyes wavered. Seeing the half-believing, half-doubting look on her face, Aiden added to his words.
“It’s better to ask and not understand than to keep quiet when you don’t know something because it’s difficult to ask, or to do whatever you’re told without any questions and then not be able to apply it later.”
“Ah.”
“So it means it’s easier to work together,” she said, shaking off her unexplained disappointment and asking.
“Then can I ask you anything I’m curious about in the future?”
“Yes, of course.”
Suddenly, a new thought came to his mind.
“But why do you keep asking me questions when you think men hate being asked a lot of questions? Are you trying to get hated on purpose…?”
“Oh, no, it’s not like that?”
For Anje, who had started working to impress Aiden, this was a misunderstanding she didn’t want.
“There were so many strange things that I couldn’t help but ask… and you always answered them well.”
Sometimes his tone of voice made her feel like crying, and although he was a completely different type than the men she was used to, like Phillip or her father.
“But you seem to be surprisingly patient and kind… Oh, wait?”
Somehow, the conversation had turned into her complimenting him.
“I must be quite patient to put up with someone like you.”
“Ugh!”
The embarrassing feeling she had felt for a moment quickly disappeared.
“And I like to act like I know everything, so I don’t really mind teaching an ignorant person.”
“I think so too.”
Anje strongly affirmed.
“Arrogant.”
“I don’t think you’re in a position to say that.”
Wasn’t the princess more arrogant? He thought about it as he looked around the kitchen.
“Anyway, the oil got spilled…”
“I cleaned it up. What else can I do?”
He thought for a moment and replied.
“My hands are like this, so I don’t think I can make fried food… Can you chop the onions smaller?”
“Smaller… how small do you mean?”
“About a quarter of the size they are now.”
She had helped Aiden in the kitchen a few times before, but she had only provided simple assistance. This was the first time she had actually held a knife herself.
She nervously placed the trimmed onions on the cutting board.
“Take a deep breath because you’re more likely to get hurt if you’re tense.”
“Ha, hoo.”
“Gather your left hand into a round shape… like a cat’s paw.”
Thanks to his thorough guidance, Anje could now successfully chop onions.
“I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Since I started, I’ll finish it.”
Completing the first step gave her confidence. He, who was about to stop her, read the determination on her face and began to give instructions.
“Then… Could you please get out the ovenproof dish?”
The oven-baked onions and potatoes were not a very complicated dish, and Anje, who had already watched similar cooking processes frequently next to Aiden, was able to make them easily.
He kept an eye on her and prepared bread and sausages to eat with it. It was a bit inconvenient to work with only his left hand, but fortunately it wasn’t that difficult.
“Sir, How do you like my cooking? It’s delicious, right?”
“I haven’t even put it in my mouth yet.”
He, who had been teasing her, took a bite of the potatoes and onions with his fork. The well-cooked vegetables went well with the cheese sprinkled on top.
The flowers carefully decorated on the outside of the plate seemed so like her that he felt like laughing.
He deliberately cleared his throat and hesitated, then gave her a compliment.
“It’s cooked well.”
“So, it’s delicious?”
He rolled his eyes at her insistence on saying it was delicious, but nodded coolly.
“Yes.”
She smiled broadly with a satisfied expression. She was proud that he had acknowledged her cooking.
On top of that, it didn’t seem bad for her first attempt at cooking. The flower arrangement was also nice and pretty.
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.”
“Well…”
He swallowed the sausage that was in his mouth and replied.
“Soaking the injured part in water for too long isn’t good, so would you help me with the laundry?”
“That… that’s all!”
Anje found everything else quite fun, but laundry time, which came once a week, was not fun.
“Well, I don’t want to entrust you with my underwear either.”
“Right?”
When the situation was reversed, he could understand the reaction she had been disgusted with before. No matter how fond he was of her, that was a bit…
“So, what do we do?”
“Hmm.”
He seemed to be pondering until they finished their meal, and finally came to a conclusion around the time they were drinking their tea.
“Let’s call Mrs. Meg.”
“Mrs. Meg?”
Anje tilted her head at the name she had never heard before.
“Yes, in this neighborhood… although it’s a bit far… she used to help me with housework when I was young.”
She had heard from him that she was a local woman who raised her younger siblings as a single mother and now occasionally worked as a washerwoman or cleaner in her spare time.
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