How Can You Pay Back The Kindness I Raised With Obsession?

“Sister…”

“Shhh.”

Luna, hiding behind a corner of the building and peeping at something, put her finger on Luca’s mouth. Luna’s eyes were fixed on the wagon in front of the warehouse. It was just an ordinary wagon but while the mule tied to the wagon was grazing leisurely, and the owner of the wagon was nowhere to be seen.

Every day at 5 p.m. a wagon delivering groceries arrives at the Grand Duke. It takes about 20 minutes to empty the wagon. Then the owner of the wagon unfailingly chatted with the workers of the Grand Duchy. Even now, through the wide-open warehouse door, they could hear the voices of adults chuckling.

“Got it.”

Luna whispered low and tugged on Luca’s hand. Running cautiously after his sister, Luca’s arms was a stuffed rabbit waving its long legs.

“Ako…”

As he climbed into the wagon, Luca stuck his forehead in a barrel of wine.

“Shhh.”

Luna, glancing nervously toward the warehouse, pushed Luca up. Like last time, they succeeded in hiding safely in the wagon. The two children crouched among empty wooden barrels covered in rags, waiting for the coachman to return. Soon the chatter stopped, and they heard footsteps walking into the wagon.

They won’t get caught, will they?

The children sat hugging each other and held their breath. Soon, however, the wagon began to rattle and he breathed in relief. Rattling, the carriage swayed along the even gravel path. No different than last time, Luna lifted her shoulders, which had curled up freely. Soon after, the carriage stopped. He could hear the murmur of speech as if it was the back door of the mansion. Now if they pass through here, outside the mansion, it means freedom.

Luca whispered in Lulu’s long ear in her arms.

“Lulu, we’re going to go to Hazel now.”

“Nope. You can’t go.”

The rags swept away and the sunset light poured in. As soon as the sun scorched and slipped open his closed eyes, the children’s faces became contemplative. Elliot chuckled, looking down at his younger siblings who were about to run away from home again.

‘No matter how smart you are, a child is a child.’

Clothes stolen from the children, a wagon coming at 5 p.m. They thought they could fool him again in the same way as last time. In fact, he was not deceived. The last ‘runaway’ happened while Elliot was away from the Grand Duchy because of an expedition. When the troublemakers were brought into the boudoir, the maids who had been waiting in the corridor in contemplation often approached in a hurry.

“Change their clothes right now and bring them to the dining room.” 

“Yes, Your Highness, the Grand Duke!”

Elliot instructed the maids to take the children to their respective rooms and gave instructions to the maids.

“Excuse me, Your Highness.”

When the children disappeared, the maid and the butler approached and bowed their heads. It was a very shameful face. After all, it was up to these two to keep an eye on the children who repeatedly tried to run away from home after visiting them from the witch’s hut.

“In addition to the ban on tuxedo cats, in the future, we will thoroughly check those who leave the Grand Duke and their luggage.” 

“Yes, Grand Duke.”

Entering the mansion was already thoroughly inspected. You never know when a threat will come to your younger siblings from the outside world. He was just trying to protect them because he knew that, but there were a lot of misunderstandings. But maybe seven and five year old children are still too young to understand that.

* * *

Sitting at the dining table, Elliot focused his eyes on his younger siblings seated on either side.

“That’s what you wanted tonight.”

There was only one menu on the table, which was too large to sit with the two little ones.

“So please stop the hunger strike and eat everything you have left.”

Even though he had spared the witch as they wished, the children complained that they were starving. At their age, starving even one meal a day was unacceptable. Of course, if it was a hunger strike by children, a piece of sweet chocolate would quickly mend them. The problem was that they have become too dependent on chocolate.

‘How many times have I given it to them this week alone…’

Even when they ate normally, they were picky eaters. The strategy was wrong since if he starved, he thought they could eat chocolate, and he even tried to seduce them with it.

‘Why is it more difficult to stop my siblings’ foolish schemes to be foolish than to stop the elaborate schemes of the Yellow Family?’

Elliot looked at his younger siblings with sullen faces and nodded slightly at the cook standing next to the table. The middle-aged man, instructed, opened the lid of the large soup Tureen between the three. As the steam that had been rising from the luxurious jar edged by gold leaf dispersed, a brown soup appeared. It was a beef stew that the children had been singing for days. Soon the servants were busy and placed a bowl of soup with stew in front of the three of them.

The cook watched anxiously as the two little demons of the Grand Duke raised their spoons. The prince and princess from the Duchy had not eaten properly for days.

‘I’m going to be cut off like a nanny.’, thought the chef.

Originally, there were not many dishes that could be made because there were a lot of dishes to avoid. In addition, the rules set by His Highness the Grand Duke were very strict, and cooking ingredients could not be brought into the mansion at will. But the chef had been working there for a decade because it’s the best job in the empire. From the salary to the employer’s network. Moreover, it was understandable that His Highness the Grand Duke was tricky.

‘Ok, fair enough.’

Recalling what happened years ago, the cook wiped the sweat running down his forehead with his sleeve. Just after that crisis, another crisis came.

‘A stew with carrots that I’ve been avoiding for years and never putting it on the table… Isn’t this really getting cut?’

In addition, in the original Grand Duchy, it was basic to have five-course dishes from appetizers to desserts. It was unprecedented for them to eat commoners’ food like that. The Grand Duke said it was a waste of food and asked the children to post only one thing they wanted. It may seem comfortable, but the fewer the menu, the less opportunities he has to appeal to young employers.

“Are you sure you want to eat that?”

The chef had to work really hard to capture their taste with just one spoonful, since if they didn’t like that first spoonful they wouldn’t eat. And that’s why it was so rare for the Grand Prince and Grand Princess to want a dish made with one of their most hated ingredients: carrots. What’s more, the beef was aged and top-grade tenderloin. Instead of water, they even poured generously into the fine red wine of the South.

‘Nothing compares to the chowder that a cunning witch that boils cheap ingredients at will.’

Lost to a witch. It was something his pride, which had taken his first steps as an imperial chef upon graduating from the empire’s premier culinary academy, would not allow it. No, it’s a humiliation to have to be compared in the first place…

“Whoops!”

Watching the Grand Princess and the Grand Prince scoop up a large spoonful of stew and put it in their mouths, he forgot his courtesy and gasped and screamed. But it wasn’t just the chef who sounded rude. All the patrons waiting in the dining room, even the ever-noble butler, were amazed. The two children’s spoons were topped with a large piece of carrot.

‘Not beef, but carrots first?’

He couldn’t have mistaken that orange thing for meat. Among the workers looking back at each other in surprise, Elliot just watched his younger siblings quietly. When the carrot finally entered their mouths, everyone’s surprise multiplied.

“You eat that!”

He was about to let go so that he didn’t have to worry about being cut off anymore.

“Wham. Bitter taste from carrots.” 

“Lunabel Blaine, talk like the Grand Princess you are.”

“Oh my, carrots taste awfully bitter. Does the soil of patronage taste like this?”

It was the moment when Elliot, fed up with his clever siblings actions, held back a sigh and closed his eyes.

“Whoops…”

He opened his eyes to the sound of a long violation of dining etiquette, and Luca was spitting out a carrot that he had chewed on a napkin. At least Luna swallowed even though she complained.

“Luca!”

Because he lived with a witch, he forgot the dignity of a nobleman. He taught him again that it’s against good manners to do such things at the table, but Luca only cried.

“It’s not this.”

“Harold, you should cut the carrots into small pieces and boil them.”

Luna even taught a chef with decades of experience that he didn’t know how to cook carrots.

“We got a chopped carrots dish for you, Grand Princess.”

The cook pulled out the trump card he had secretly prepared for that occasion. He nodded to the assistant behind him, and he was soon returned from the kitchen with a cake.

Seeing a small marzipan carrot on top of the cake, Elliot raised one eyebrow at an angle, as if questioning the cook.

“That’s carrot cake.”

The cook, who had prepared the dessert without his permission, bowed down.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke, I apologize for the preparation without asking…”

Elliot nodded helplessly. Their eyes were already wide and what made them so happy was, of course, the carrot cake. Contrary to his seemingly cold appearance, he was weak-hearted in front of his younger siblings. They were eager to eat, but he couldn’t even clean up what was in front of me. Besides, if it weren’t for that, they might be starving all this evening.

“Wow…It’s carrot cake.”

However, the younger siblings took only one bite of the carrot cake they had been looking forward to and put down their forks.

“Nope! This is not!”

It was surprising that Luca, who had always been timid, made a loud noise.

“Give me carrot cake.”

“Grand Princess, this is a carrot cake.”

“I’m talking about Hazel’s carrot cake.”

Luna’s stinging gaze turned to Elliot, who soothed Luca.

“You brought it.”

“Luna, that was ten days ago. Will the cake last ten days?”

As soon as she told her that she had already been spoiled, Luna jumped out of her seat.

“Luca, let’s go.”

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Translator Note: