“D-Does this look red to you?”
Aiden stopped in surprise at Anje’s hysterical reaction and took a closer look at the color.
“It’s red…mixed with gold?”
“Yes, it’s not just red, it’s strawberry blonde! Repeat after me, strawberry blonde!”
Proud of her rare hair color, she couldn’t stand being treated as a “redhead” in broad daylight.
Even redheads…
“I see, you must have a fiery temper because you have red hair.”
“It’s not red!”
As he said, there were many bad prejudices about redheads. Such as being quick-tempered, quick to anger, or stubborn.
He teased Anje for a while, and then, unable to contain her anger, she muttered the difficult word “strawberry blonde” a few times.
“Okay, I memorized it, so stop getting angry.”
He tried to provoke her further at the sight of Anje’s cheeky grin, but in fact, he liked the way the red light that was slipping through his fingers was mixed with the soft gold.
“I’ll admit that your hair color is the most beautiful and rarest color on earth.”
“I don’t feel any sincerity in your tone.”
Anje found an excuse to get revenge on Aiden.
“What are you doing with your ash-colored hair, calling someone else’s hair red like a radish?”
“I didn’t say that it looks like a radish… Wait, what?”
She cornered him against a tree that he couldn’t escape and stared at his silver hair intently.
“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen this hair color even in the capital. Except for people with wigs or old people.”
“…It’s acquired. I used to have black hair.”
He answered stiffly and then took a few steps away from her. His stomach churned as if he had indigestion, perhaps because of the smell of soap and flowers mixed together that came from her.
He pressed the point between his thumb and index finger with his nail. It seemed that he had eaten lunch too quickly after all. In such cases, folk remedies were the best.
“What happened to you? Did you use the wrong bleaching agent?”
“I don’t know the exact reason, but when I came back from the war, it was like this. Maybe the water there didn’t suit me.”
Aiden tried to talk about his hair as lightly as possible, but Anje blinked, unable to hide her embarrassment.
War. So maybe it changed like this because of stress. She didn’t know there was such a story behind his unusual hair. Anje apologized and bowed her body.
“I’m sorry. I was talking nonsense.”
Aiden felt a deep sense of relief as his hand finally fell away from her. He felt much better, wondering if the folk remedy had worked.
“No, it’s okay. It’ll turn silver when I get older anyway, it just turned early.”
Anje looked at him closely from a short distance away. He asked nervously, fidgeting with his feet.
“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s burdensome.”
“Hmm…”
She suddenly smiled shyly and replied.
“I think that hair color suits you well. I imagined you with black hair, but it’s not that great.”
It was meant to be a compliment, but instead of relaxing his expression, he frowned.
“Why are you making that face?”
“I feel a bit stiff, could you pat my back for me?”
His heart pounded even harder and his stomach churned even more than before. He felt like his face was getting hot, and it was very strange.
TL/N: MY BOY IS GETTING BUTTERFLIES IN HIS STOMACH XD
“Oh, bend down a little. I’ll give you a good pat.”
Anje mercilessly patted his broad back. Her hands were as small as maple leaves, but they were strong from her recent farm work.
By the time a few red marks had appeared on his back, Aiden raised his head, which had been buried deep in his chest.
“I think I’m okay now.”
“Your face and ears are a bit red, are you really okay?”
He touched his face. As she said, it was warm.
“I think it’s just blood rushing to my head, it’ll go back to normal soon.”
“Is that so? If you want to rest, just tell me. I’ll help you to your room.”
“I’m really fine. I’m all better.”
He tried to prove his words by moving his arms around. His appearance was so healthy that the anxiety on Anje’s face disappeared.
“Should we go do our afternoon
now?”
“Yes, this afternoon…”
As he gathered the empty bowls and cups into a basket, he remembered what he had to do today.
It was a fact he had discovered while cleaning up dinner last night: they were out of butter.
“I’m going to make butter this afternoon.”
“Butter? You make it yourself? At home?”
“Yes, did you think it grew on trees?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? I thought we bought it from a place like town.”
“How did you think it got to town? Was it made in a factory?”
“Oh, come on, Don’t tease me for being curious.”
Making butter was something she had never tried before. It should be fun.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Yes, yes.”
Folding the blanket that had been on the floor, Aiden asked something that had been on his mind.
“Did you… put on perfume today?”
“No, you said it was dangerous for me to wear perfume in the spring. You’ve scolded me several times.”
The bees that flew around to collect honey were cute from a distance, but she didn’t want to be chased by them.
She had already ignored Aiden’s warnings and secretly put on some perfume she had been saving, only to be attacked by bees and run away in blue-faced terror.
“Is that so? But there’s a flower-like scent…”
Why did she have a faint, pleasant scent?
Anje wondered if the scent of the perfume she used to wear still lingered. She sniffed her own wrist a few times, but there was only the scent of laundry soap.
“Were you just sitting under the flowers for a long time and got it wrong?”
“I guess so… yeah, that must be it.”
He nodded without thinking anymore. Excited to try making butter, Anje was already walking ahead as if skipping.
Her appearance was like a butterfly fluttering around, and he put a smile on his lips.
His sense of smell was already messed up, and now his vision was too. It seemed that spring was confusing all of his senses.
* * *
“Oh my.”
“My arms are going to fall off.”
“But what can I do about it? I can’t help but sigh.”
Turning the lever attached to the large wooden barrel, Anje couldn’t hide her bored expression.
She had found it somewhat interesting to skim off the thick cream that had risen to the surface of the milk that had been left overnight and put it into the churn. After all, both the churn and the cream were new to her.
However, after that, it was an endless succession of lever turning, like using a washing machine. Simple repetition. It was what Anje hated most.
“Don’t dawdle.”
Creak, creak-
“But don’t turn it too fast either. The point is to turn it at a regular and steady speed.”
“I got it, so stop nagging me. How long am I supposed to turn it?”
“30 minutes to an hour. It depends on the weather.”
“Oh my.”
“…And it also depends on the mood of the person making it. They say that if you turn it with a gloomy mood, that mood will be transmitted and it will take longer to make.”
It was something his grandfather often told him. He too used to pout and say that turning the churn was boring.
“If it’s hard, I’ll do it once-”
“Oh, wait a minute. Something feels different?”
There was a weightiness to the handle that made it feel like something was caught on it. Anje, with a pounding heart, peered inside the churn lid that Aiden had opened.
“Wow.”
A white mass was stuck thickly to the wheel that turned like a water mill connected to the lever. The color was the same as the liquid she had poured into the churn earlier, but the texture was completely different.
“It’s become whipped cream. I think you’re about a third of the way there.”
Anje, encouraged by the change she had seen with her own eyes, began to turn the lever again.
After a few dozen minutes, she couldn’t contain her curiosity and looked inside the churn again. The white color had turned slightly yellowish, and there was a pungent smell.
“Look at this, Sir. It’s turned into butter, butter color.”
“Just a little more and it will be done.”
Finally, there was a clanging sound from inside as the buttermilk and butter were completely separated, and Anje, opening the lid, let out a cheer.
The inside of the barrel was completely covered in golden butter.
“What do I do now? Can I eat it like this?”
“We’re not there yet. Have some patience, princess.”
When he opened the stopper on the side of the churn, buttermilk dribbled out. Aiden carefully collected the liquid.
“This will come in handy when you spill ink on your clothes again.”
“I won’t do that anymore.”
It took another hour to scrape the butter out of the churn, rinse it several times in water, and completely squeeze out the moisture.
Thankfully, Aiden took care of this process.
“You turned the churn, after all.”
“That’s right, my arms are killing me.”
“Plus, if you don’t completely remove the moisture, the butter will have a sour smell.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you even more, Sir.”
In the meantime, Anje was fiddling with the wooden pads that had been disinfected and wondered what they were for.
“When do you use this?”
“Right now. It’s a tool for shaping butter.”
Aiden took the pad from her and began to break the large lump of butter into smaller pieces. Then he handed her a piece and the pad again.
“Tap it like this to remove any remaining moisture.”
“L-Like this? Or harder?”
“You can tap it lightly.”
With each tap of the freshly made butter, she felt like she was playing a percussion instrument. She eagerly tapped the pieces that Aiden handed her to remove all the moisture.
“That’s about it. Now add the salt… Oh, it would be nice to mix some herbs in with a few as well.”
“Are you going to make herb butter? That sounds delicious.”
Normally, he would make butter by mixing salt with the butter and then shaping it into a square like soap. For herb butter, he would simply add dried thyme and follow the same process.
“It’s easier than I thought.”
“It takes a long time, but the process itself is not difficult.”
“I think I can do it myself―wait, what’s this?”
Anje’s eyes widened at the new tool Aiden had brought out.
“It’s a butter mold. If you get tired of just making it square, you can put it in here and shape it.”
Aiden showed her how to do it first. He put a lump of butter in the mold and pressed it down, and a flower pattern was engraved on the butter.
Anje quickly reached out her hand.
“Can I try?”
I knew the princess would like this kind of thing. Aiden handed her the butter mold gently.
* * * *
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