I Became the Crown Prince's Exclusive Pastry Chef

“What did he say?”

David’s voice rang in the background.

The crown prince looked back at me again and repeated with a peaceful expression.

“I said I’m going to work here”

“….”

“I’m working. Me.”

“…Back then…didn’t you say that you… weren’t going to?”

I said in a low voice and with a lowered gaze.

The crown prince raised his eyebrows high.

“What?”

“Well now of course you have to work for us!”

I’d crafted this whole plan in the first place so the bakery wouldn’t be torn to shreds.

But the bakery was already in shambles. Shelves thrown to the floor. Covered in flour. Ruined.

“You have to pay us back for all this…mess!”

It was almost comforting to think that things turned out just as they had in the original story.

That the crown price could tear apart the bakery and get a job; that despite my interference, ultimately nothing has changed.

“I-Irene… Are you asking him to work for us?”

David asked with a stunned look.

“Yes. Who else could I ask to repay us for this? I don’t think anyone in the whole world could hand over the money to fix all this!”

The crown prince coughed in vain, pained by what I had said.

He couldn’t possibly afford the reparation fees, seeing as he was saving to prepare for war.

“I-I mean… Is there anything we could ask him to do instead?”

David didn’t seem to like the crown prince.

“Yes, we’re going to start a delivery service.”

“A delivery service…?”

“Yes, a delivery service. So, we’ll need to have a delivery man.”

“Delivery…man?”

A vein sprouted on the crown prince’s forehead.

I turned my eyes away as quickly as I could. I thought that if our eyes met, I’d be in trouble somehow.

He sighed.

“…Fine. Well, he owe us something, at least… So, I guess it’ll work. We’ll get to work… together!”

David walked towards the two of us with his shoulders stiffened, trying to appear professional.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“What?”

“What’s your name? We should know your name.”

“……”

He hesitated.

“You can’t even tell me your name when I ask?”

David looked alternately between the crown prince and me.

The crown prince could not reveal his real name.

But, I couldn’t understand why he was so nervous that he couldn’t have just chosen a fake name by now.

“But that red hair…seems a little bit familiar…”

David’s words only hardened the crown prince’s slightly panicked expression.

Now a fugitive, he had come all the way here to hide. In order to do that properly, it was essential to camouflage his identity.

In his hesitation, I tried to remember his name.

‘”Jo-”…”Joe-”…what was it again?’

I was pretty bad with names. Even while reading novels, I would just give characters fake names and remember them by those aliases, only known by me.

‘Jo……..’

I scratched my head and opened my mouth.

“Joseph.”

David and the crown prince’s eyes glued themselves to me, uttering the first name I thought could work.

“Jo…seph?”

“Yes, I told her earlier. My name is Joseph.”

I gave him a free pass out of the doghouse.

The longer he hesitated, the more David was going to doubt him.

“Joseph….Joseph…huh”

The crown prince’s expression of surprise was subtle. But David was too busy thinking to notice.

“Your name suits you! Joseph!”

David smiled and patted the crown prince on the shoulder.

The crown prince’s expression slowly began to contort.

* * *

After kicking out those two defeated men, we began cleaning up the mangled bakery.

It turned out that they were bullies who had come to harass me after our earlier interaction in the tent.

But I couldn’t even find a single sample to give Rosie since the bakery had been so thoroughly trashed.

All I could do was apologize, so ashamed of how things had turned out.

“I’m so, so sorry, but there’s just nothing left…”

“By the way, my lady, which house do you belong to…?”

She hesitated at first after hearing David’s question, but eventually answered it quietly.

“Seiren…”

“Oho…! I just had to ask, to make sure. Nice to meet you, miss. I am David, the owner of David’s bakery.”

David winked at Rosie with a cheesy look.

I felt queasy. And I think Rosie felt the same, seeing one of her eyelids twitch.

“Ha… Ha… Yes. Nice to meet you, David.”

“How did you meet Irene?”

“Seiren?”

The crown prince looked at Rosie. He and she were the same; both of them, royal.

But the two did not speak. Instead, Rosie approached me and whispered.

“Does he work here, too?”

Was this the beginning of a beautiful romance between the main characters????????? Was this their inciting spark??????

I nodded violently.

“Yes. As you can see, Joseph also works here. He’s our delivery man. He’ll be the one going to yours tomorrow, Miss Rosie.”

“H-him?”

Rosie whispered in my ear again.

Certainly, she was whispering because she was thinking that he was handsome.

“The one that made such a mess in this store?”

“Haha… That’s just… Oh, that was a misunderstanding.”

“It’s okay, Irene. You don’t have to be embarrassed. You work so hard at this bakery, just to live a comfortable life.”

Rosie held my hand as tears welled up in her eyes. I smiled awkwardly.

“Haha. It-it’s okay. Anyway…. Joseph works here with us. He’s a great delivery man.”

“Yes. Well…. Irene…! Um…!”

Rosie matched my eyes with an unbelievably hopeful look in hers. I began to feel a little uneasy again.

“For the delivery… I’d really love it if YOU could come, Irene!”

“Yes…?”

“You’ll come, won’t you? And deliver everything to me, yourself? Not anyone else, just you?”

“What? You want me to deliver it personally?”

“Yes! I just so badly want to talk to you again? There are so many things we didn’t get to talk about today. I want to know everything about your life! About your dreams!”

I had no choice but to nod at her request. I couldn’t say no to her.

“Then… it’d be a little hard to get out in the morning… so I’ll stop by before lunch.”

“Thank you!”

Rosie smiled brightly, holding a single loaf of now stale bread.

I glanced at the crown prince.

“Joseph! This is too heavy for a lady to hold. Can you hold it?”

“Agh, no, it’s alright!”

‘Agh…?’

Rosie freaked out a little, refusing the help. I decided not to push it.

“Oh, alright!”

“Oh, then, shall we take you home?”

David squeezed in through the gap between us. He escorted Rosie out, holding the door wide open for her.

Rosie, right as she was about to leave, turned back and smiled at me.

“See you tomorrow, Irene!”

Then glanced once at the crown prince, and then she left.

Suddenly, the bakery was empty. With only the crown prince and me inside.

I fell onto the sofa and sighed.

‘The way Rosie looked at the prince…’

It was almost like she had been looking at a bug.

The crown prince asked me coldly:

“Why did you say a name for me?”

“I didn’t think you were in a position to tell us your name…”

“Do you know who I am?”

The crown prince moved his hand towards his waist before I even had a chance to respond.

I gulped. I knew there was a dagger hidden underneath his shirt.

I took a deep breath, trying to stay as calm as I could.

“I can tell just by looking at your clothes.”

“Tell what?”

“Well, that you’re either a con man… or a slave… on the run…”

The moment I said this, his hand removed itself from its place clutching his waist. Fortunately, he seemed to have taken on a look of confidence.

“Neither, actually… You’ll never know if you stay working in this small town for the rest of your days.”

“…well. I don’t need to, nor do I want to know.”

“Keep that attitude if you want to keep your life.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. I think of my life as precious.”

“By the way… are you okay?”

The crown prince approached me. He spoke gently, though, without looking directly at me.

“What do you mean?”

“I think you’re bleeding.”

He pointed his finger towards my knees.

A splotch of brown blood appeared to have hardened between the fibers of my gray dress. I must’ve cut myself with some shard of a container or shelfwood, or something while cleaning up the bakery.

Surprised, I rolled my dress up to my knees. He swung back, shocked by this.

“Oh, you’re right…”

“Does it hurt a lot?”

He asked me with his back turned and eyes averted.

“A little bit.”

I didn’t even realize that it hurt until I saw the wound itself.

As soon as I found the wound, though, it suddenly stung. A lot.

I looked down to examine the gash.

“Do you have any antibiotics, or bandages, or anything?”

“Do you think you’ll have to go to the doctor for this?”

“It only stings a little… What if I get tetanus?”

“Tetanus?”

“If the wound is infected, and if it festers… would I have to cut off my leg?”

His shoulders stiffened, hearing my worries vocalized.

“If you don’t mind… I can turn around and look at your wound.”

“Alright, please look.”

He slowly turned around and knelt down.

He examined the wound running across my knee.

He frowned, as if there was nothing to see.

“…This wound should heal with some water.”

“But it really hurts.”

“…I have some medicinal herbs stored away in my hiding place. Wait a moment, and I’ll bring some over.”

“…can I come with you?”

“What?”

“I don’t think I can wait too long… it’s throbbing, and it…it hurts.”

He tilted his head, laid his hand on my knee, and spread open the sides of my wound.

“Ack!”

I let out a piercing scream as I shoved him away with my foot. Out of this stabbing, stinging pain, tears welled up in my eyes.

He rose suddenly, as if surprised that I had kicked him.

“It looks like there’s something stuck inside. We need to get it out.”

“What’s stuck? Something is stuck? Does that mean you’re going to open my wound?”

“…I can’t do it yet. Stand up.”

“Can I come with you?”

“Sure.”

I got up, like he asked. It was a little hard to get my legs to stand, though, perhaps because he was actively broadening my wound.

But I didn’t think he would take me with him if I showed him how annoyed I really felt.

So I put up with him.

‘If I follow him, maybe I’ll find them…’

Yes, I wanted to go with him so he could heal my wound, but there was another reason why I so desperately wanted to follow him.

His hiding place was situated near a special portion of the mountains.

From the moment I first came to the village, I wanted to go there.

Because I knew that there was a certain rare ingredient to be found there.

‘If only I could get my hands on that ingredient… I’d be rich right away…’

With a will of steel, I continued walking on. Though, my knee hurt quite a good deal, and it was hard to keep up with his gait.

Before I knew it, I was so far behind him that I could hardly see his back.

“Hey!”

We had been separated by such a distance that I had to scream to get his attention.

He circled back, hearing my cry.

“Why are you going so slow?”

“It hurts more than it did before.”

“Wait here, then. I’ll run.”

“No, let’s go together! Just hold onto me.”

It was hard to even stand alone. I grabbed onto his arm.

At present, leaning on the crown prince was my only source of comfort.

“Let’s go.”

“…I’m so tired.”

He was annoyed, but he didn’t push me away.

“How did you know the daughter of the Marquis of Seiren?”

“I met her by chance.”

He nodded his head.

After a moment’s reflection, he said:

“I have a question.”

‘I wonder if he knows his destiny?’

Well, he was a lovely man, a breathtaking face, and a pleasant voice.

“Taken?”

“Huh? Miss Rosie? No. Definitely not…”

“No, you.”

“What?”

“Are you taken?”

He asked again with a very serious look.

Without an answer even forming in my head, I just stared at the crown prince.

It was a question so unexpected that I genuinely had no idea what he meant.

“Don’t tell me… are you and David together?”

“…Are you crazy?”

“Well, that’s good enough.”

“What’s ‘good enough?’ Why would David and I be together?”

“The two of you look pretty close. Well, maybe in more of a sibling-ish way. Yeah. Are you siblings?”

“We’re not siblings, no.”

“But I also don’t think you’re even from this village, either.”

“…Well. I’m not from this village, no. I’m an outsider. I like it here. I’m just trying to settle down.”

He and all of his questions were making me anxious. They made me feel doubtful of myself.

“Where are you from, then?”

“…I don’t know. It’s a place with informal borders.”

“A place with informal borders?”

“Yes, my grandmother and I lived there together, but she has since passed away. So I left, an orphan. I don’t know who it was that was supposed to be watching over that area .”

I lied so as not to draw his suspicions. It was my own disguise.

But there was no big lie to hide.

In this world, I was just an outsider who didn’t know the ways of “this place” well.

It was true that I had lived together with my grandmother. And it was also true that she passed away.

“…Where did “Joseph” come from?”

“…it’s my best friend’s name. My best friend from…back home.”

He coughed, glossing over the exchange. He nodded briefly.

“Let’s go to the Seiren manor tomorrow.”

Sure, she’d told me that she wanted me to come. But she didn’t tell me to come alone…

And I knew I needed to make sure the two of them spent a lot of time together. It’d be good if they were on good terms.

“Get on my back.”

“What?”

“You won’t be able to walk here anymore.”

He was right. The path we were following would soon be too steep for me to climb with my legs in such a poor condition.

And I couldn’t come all the way here just to go back now.

He picked me up with ease, almost sending me up in the air for a second.

“You’re not as light as I thought you’d be.”

“Wh-what?”

His neck leaned back into its natural position, leaving his face looking right at mine. It was the first time I had seen his face so close.

His smooth skin felt soft and cozy.

I turned my head, faking a cough.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･:.｡..｡.:･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

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