“Why don’t you just live on water, only water!”
As Asha grumbled, Karnov covered her mouth with his fist.
“…Hmm. I’ve never tried it before, so I can’t imagine what it tastes like. But if you have already thought about it, the problem seems to have been solved.”
“You can’t decorate with cream. You have to think about that too. I have to try and see if the cake is really good.”
“…Are you suggesting that a cake you’ve never tried is the solution?”
Asha gave a stinging look and then suddenly limped without answering. Karnov sighed and raised his hands. It meant he got it so it was okay to stop.
Asha smiled and stood straight at once.
“We can make it now, right? And Lord Karnov will help me with that. Right?”
“…”
Asha strode into Pavel’s kitchen, saying so.
Pavel, who was sighing with a basin containing oatmeal soaked in water in his arms, raised his head and jumped up in surprise.
“Oh.”
“Pavel! Water! You’re spilling what’s inside!”
“Ah, yes, yes! No, but the…”
Pavel had already spilled about half of the water, and managed to pick up the basin just before he spilled the oatmeal inside. At the same time, his eyes were on Karnov. To him, who seemed to have been dragged against his will.
“You saw each other’s faces last time, right? This is Lord Karnov Neustadter. He said he would help me, so I brought him here.”
“What?”
Hearing this, Pavel made a face as if she had gone mad.
Asha deliberately turned on the water from the sink without elaborating. Karnov sighed and put his hand in the flow of the water.
But Pavel did not give up.
“Oh, no. Kitchen work is something I have to do, but how…”
“Pavel is out of his mind.”
“It’s fine!”
“Not really?”
“I said it’s fine!”
“The person who said it’s fine, is now putting their hands in the oatmeal bowl?”
Some oatmeal splashed as Pavel hurriedly withdrew his hand.
Asha looked up at Pavel and dragged him to the corner. Karnov stood at a distance with his arms crossed and just watched the two of them.
“That person made a contract with the Spirit of Death, that’s why they’re acting like this now. Just like last time.”
“Oh, no, it’s not like that…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“It might be like that, but…”
“No matter how you look at it, whether by Pavel’s age or anything else, Karnov is completely in control. Why are you so scared like this?”
“Karnov is taller than me. What are you talking about! Do you have a handful of mithril these days?”
“Anyway, Pavel, hmm? Is it right to discriminate against someone based on the contracted spirit they possess, or is it not?”
“What kind of discrimination is this?”
“Pavel. Were you that kind of person?”
“No, no! No! No! This is not discrimination, but one-sided fear!”
“That is wrong. You were wrong, come and apologize.”
“What? What?”
Asha dragged Pavel, who had a dim face, and stood in front of Karnov.
Karnov, who was waiting with her arms crossed, raised her eyebrows, but Asha ignored it and pushed Pavel’s back.
“Pavel, come on!”
“Oh, no…”
“Is it because you’re really scared?”
“Your Highness!”
Pavel’s voice sounded like a scream. At that moment, Asha rose to her feet and pricked Karnov’s cheek with her fingertips.
“…!”
“…!”
Karnov was also surprised and looked at Asha while holding his cheek, while Pavel’s expression was on the verge of fainting.
“Karnov, say something quickly, too, Karnov.”
“What?”
“Are you angry?”
“I’m not angry, I’m just amazed… What are you doing all of a sudden.”
“If it feels unfair, Karnov can do it too.”
Asha swallowed, raised her chin, and stuck out her cheek. Karnov, who unexpectedly raised his hand, hurriedly recovered it and shook his head.
Asha, who opened her eyes slightly, looked at Pavel with a face saying, “Look at this.”
Even if she did something like this, she showed that Karnov was not a threat to people.
At last Pavel took a deep breath.
“Ka… Lord Karnov Neustadter… I showed disrespect the other day. That… really… really… I sincerely apologize.”
“…”
This time Karnov seemed to be embarrassed. As if he never imagined this would happen. However, Asha smiled without giving him time to calm down, drew their hands one by one, made them meet each other, and shook them.
“Good children! I should give you an award.”
“That’s enough, Your Highness…”
“…”
“Stop with that ‘It’s fine.’”
“It really is fine.”
“…”
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Carrot cake like that… it really doesn’t contain milk or butter. Because the fat part is replaced with vegetable oil.”
“That’s right!”
“But…”
Pavel hesitated a little. Asha knew what Pavel had to say.
Unlike Karnov, who is an outsider to cakes, Pavel would know.
“You’re saying it’s too unsophisticated, right?”
“Well, yes, I guess…”
The cake itself using carrots was made using carrots, the sweetest vegetable among common people who could not use a lot of sugar, to try to sweeten it somehow.
Present something like this to entertain a guest?
It’s as good to get the chef devoured instead of the cake.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I spoke well?”
“Spoke?”
“Well, they say that the Noctis Elves live close to nature in a simple, non-flashy way while communing with nature.”
“I think I’ve heard that before.”
“For those Noctis Elves, wouldn’t it be better to taste something less processed than finely ground flour or refined sugar? What do you think, Karnov?”
Asha, who was thinking with Pavel, looked back at Karnov.
Karnov, who was leaning against one wall and watching the two talking, thought for a moment and nodded.
“Well, there is some reason to it.”
“Yes, but even so… Will the head chef of the main palace allow it?”
At that point, Asha also bit her mouth tightly. But she also had something in mind.
“What if His Majesty gives you permission?”
“What?”
“If His Majesty permits it, what will the head chef do?”
“I… I don’t understand why it suddenly happens like that…”
“Otherwise, you can say that His Highness the Crown Prince allowed it.”
Karnov, who was listening quietly, slipped in.
“It is of course a tremendous felony to impersonate the name of His Majesty the Emperor or His Highness the Crown Prince. You have to take good care of it. Normally, we would be digging graves.”
“I am not impersonating them! Of course I’ll get permission.”
Asha glared at Karnov in anger, pushed him away, and headed for the fruit and vegetable warehouse.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“Um… Head Chef, will it be all right?”
Fjord Buicker, the head chef of the Ashtad Palace where the Emperor resided, looked back at the assistant with a grim look.
The assistant, who had a worried look on his face, shrank in surprise.
“Why are you so worried that it won’t be okay?”
“No, it’s… This peace mission dinner dessert. Chef Pavel isn’t a pastry chef…”
“He’s not? He does everything secretly, what is there that he doesn’t do?”
Fjord leaned back in his chair, put his feet on the counter, and raised his eyebrows.
When Pavel Marka’s father, Rus Marka, or Count Petrov, tried to put Pavel into the imperial palace, Pavel resisted and said, “I don’t deal with desserts.”
So, he couldn’t and wouldn’t be the Emperor’s chef.
Eventually, when Pavel couldn’t break his father’s stubbornness and entered the Imperial Palace and became the chef of Crown Prince, Fjord would secretly look at him with a happy face.
He understood that he didn’t want to make trivial desserts, and Fjord could have applauded the spirit of expressing it, but in any case, it put him in a position where he couldn’t challenge himself.
Although desserts are considered inferior and insignificant in the culinary field within the Empire, one cannot become the Chief Imperial Chef, who oversaw everything, without mastering pastry-making.
It was definitely like that…
“Didn’t His Majesty call Chef Pavel himself the other day and ask him to serve dessert?”
“That… I heard it was made by Her Imperial Highness Anastasia herself.”
“Who said that?”
“The rumor…”
“It’s not just a rumor.”
“R, really?”
“It’s a false rumor, you idiot! Do you think Her Highness, a noble princess, would waste her time baking cookies as a joke? And do you think she would create a cake that has never existed before? She’s only ten years old, for heaven’s sake!”
Fjord cried.
It wasn’t until after seeing the assistant wince him that Fjord waved his hand in annoyance. The assistant ran out of the kitchen as if dodging him.
Fjord made sure that all the people around him had disappeared, and quickly lowered his feet, which he had deliberately put on the countertop, to show off his dignity to the assistant. Then he began to polish the countertop with a dishcloth.
‘And that’s not the real problem.’
Fjord recalled the face of the prince, which seemed vaguely similar to the Emperor’s. Valery Kayeruth, Marquis of Shapiroqin.
Surprisingly, Emperor Mikhail was not interested in food. He was a person who did not enjoy various and delicate flavors and thought he should not.
The Emperor didn’t even need to plant an aide in the kitchen. Because poison didn’t work on him. And in the Imperial Palace, the place the emperor doesn’t pay attention to is in line with the saying that it is a place that is alienated.
Fjord’s frustration was indescribable, knowing that he thought he had climbed to the top of the tower with all his might, but when he climbed it, it was just the top of a snow-covered mountain with no one.
