“With cashew nuts… What are you going to do?”
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump.
Pavel grated the carrots without a break while asking questions. Asha glanced at Pavel, measuring the powder by type.
When Asha entrusted the cashew nuts to Karnov, Pavel briefly entertained the thought, ‘Should I smash the millstone and pretend it’s gone?’ for a split second. He abandoned the idea because he doubted whether his strength alone would be enough to break the millstone.
“It’s delicious if you put frosting made of cream cheese on a carrot cake, but cream cheese is made of milk, so we can’t use it this time, right?”
“Ah! That’s right…”
“If we don’t decorate it at all, you don’t think it would pass as a dessert for grandfather the emperor if he were to come for dinner?”
“He’s also… yes.”
How could he put it on the dinner table in that rough shape?
“So I thought about what would be good, and we grind cashew nuts, make them like butter, and put coconut cream in them. When it becomes hard by stirring it, we use it instead of cream.”
“That’s… that’s nice.”
“Right?”
“But it’s not good that he’s grinding cashew nuts with a millstone over there!”
The last word was a very breathless whisper. Asha pouted.
“What else can’t he do? Karnov is really good, too. Like that.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Are you afraid that Karnov will kill Pavel? As far as I know, Karnov doesn’t usually kill people. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine for the next five years.”
“That’s not why! He’s a deputy commander…”
“I can hear you.”
Karnov blurted out in the distance. Asha coughed in vain, looked at Pavel and winked toward Karnov.
‘Look, we’re all alive, even if we talk coyly. He’s not going to kill you?’
“Why do I feel like dying right now?”
‘It must be because Pavel has such a soft heart.’
‘…!’
“I hear you.”
“Seems like you didn’t grind the millstone hard enough. Is everything done?”
“…”
“…”
Asha, who pretended not to know that Pavel’s face was turning white, put sugar, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl and finally opened a bottle of coconut cream.
“Huh? Is this all you have?”
When Asha asked in surprise, Pavel stammered and made excuses. He explained that coconut cream was not a commonly used ingredient, so they only ordered it occasionally when it was needed.
“It seems like this could be solved by adding cashew butter and making icing, but what should I do…”
Would it be better to invest in the main cake than to add to the icing on the cake? Icing can be made next time…
It was when Asha was holding the container of cashew butter, struggling and pondering. She noticed what Pavel had prepared for the evening meal.
“Oatmeal!”
“Oh… Oatmeal?”
Asha nodded and reached out quickly. Pavel, who had been busy making carrot cake and had left his soaked oats untouched until now, belatedly regained his senses and tried to save the oatmeal, but it was too late.
“If we grind the oatmeal and squeeze the juice, it becomes oatmeal milk.”
“Is this…?”
Pavel opened his eyes wide and looked alternately at the oatmeal and Asha.
“Yes. It’s not real milk, so of course the Noctis Elves will be fine. It can be used to make snacks.”
After making the oatmeal milk and adding it to the cake dough, Asha pondered for a moment and foamed two eggs in moderation.
‘Noctis Elves aren’t vegetarians, so it’s okay, right?’
If she added eggs and baked, the cake wouldn’t crumble, and the taste would be softer. After mixing the eggs, Asha divided the dough in half into two bowls.
“What are you going to do with the split?”
“Bake one with cinnamon and the other without.”
“Oh! Cinnamon would definitely go well with this cake. There’s a lot of nuts in there. It will also control the fresh smell of carrots that may remain.”
“…Yes… but maybe the Noctis elves prefer not to put cinnamon in it.”
Asha murmured a little, but Pavel didn’t notice.
“No, this one… I can assure you that the one with cinnamon tastes much better. How can you compare one with added aroma to one without… Ahem, no. We should test it to confirm. Let’s divide it into two and bake them quickly! Hurry!”
Pavel coughed. Asha prepared two rectangular frames with a sullen face and filled them with cake dough.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“If the commander in chief saw her, he would know. She is very young and lovely.”
“…”
Gilhellam’s lips were plump. It was to gauge the sincerity of Prince Alexei, who spoke about Princess Anastasia.
“Probably only Asha would recommend a sandwich with spicy chicken to Karnov.”
“Puh.”
Gilhellam inadvertently laughed without even realizing it. Even after trying to cover up the half-heard sound, the prince still had a gentle expression on his face.
“Sometimes I think of that. I wonder if she’s not ten years old. Haha, I know what I’m saying sounds absurd.”
“What…”
The crown prince cut a dark-colored snack in half, pushed it into his mouth, and slowly swallowed before speaking.
“That child’s tantrums are not really tantrums. She pretends to throw a tantrum to comfort me. Sometimes she even lies. When she thinks I might be worried, she lies and says it’s not a big deal, that she’s not hurt or in pain, and that everything is fine.”
“Oh…”
Prince Alexei had a calm smile on his face.
“The only person Karnov can approach and the only person to talk to Karnov first is Princess Anastasia… So, there’s no need for you to ask me to be lenient towards that child for Karnov’s sake.”
Gilhellam could do nothing but soothe his pounding chest in silence. The two imperial heirs, entangled in the struggle for the throne. He believed that his five-year-old cousin was not just a child but a mere evil, an enemy to be reckoned with.
That’s why Gilhellam had rushed there in such a frenzy. To see how the crown prince saw Princess Anastasia and what her position was in the palace, and to protect her…
“She’s the only cousin I have. I won’t forgive you first if there’s anything that makes that child cry, like a little pea.”
“…”
“Instead, I would like to thank you for your kindness to Karnov.”
“T, There’s no need to be formal.”
Gilhellam shook his hand in bewilderment. However, the crown prince did not withdraw his words and was still looking at him with a soft face.
Gilhellam belatedly learned that the snack Alexei was eating that day was made by Princess Anastasia. Alexei made it together with her, and even that it was a burnt snack because of his power.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
“…Hey, but if we do that… Do you understand their preferences? Oh, by chance…”
Pavel’s eyes glanced at the faraway Karnov. He must have run into the Noctis Elves a lot, so they seemed to think that they might be able to infer through him. Asha smiled and waved her hand.
“It’s not like spending a few years in the north will turn someone into an Elf. It’s not like that.”
In the meantime, Karnov pulled out the cashew nut butter. The frosting on the cake was completed by mixing finely ground cashew nut butter with lemon juice and coconut cream and stirring hard.
Asha, who had finished preparing and waited until the cake came out, she took out an old notebook from her pocket and started organizing the things she had made today.
“W…hat’s that?”
Pavel, who noticed that the shabby notebook was full of recipes, glanced up. Asha laughed softly.
“My snack notebook.”
“Do you only have snacks? Is there something different?”
“Anything else?”
Pavel coughed awkwardly when Asha asked with a smile.
“I don’t mean to ask, but… what is it… I was wondering if I could do something like look inside…”
“Unfortunately, only snack recipes are written.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else?”
“There really isn’t!”
“But why do you only make snacks?”
Pavel’s sudden shift of topic caught Asha off guard, and she opened her eyes in surprise.
“No, even if you cooked something else… You must have had talents…”
When Asha made cookies, Pavel thought that it was difficult to express in words other than talent. Of course, the royal family or the nobles may not appreciate the idea that someone like the princess has the talent to make cookies.
At Pavel’s murmur, Asha answered briskly.
“Because I like snacks!”
“Because you like… But no matter how much you like it…”
“Why did Pavel become a cook? If you had stayed still, you would have inherited the title of count.”
“…!”
This time, Pavel was taken aback. With a gaze that seemed to ask, “Did you understand?”, Asha nodded her head. Pavel seemed uncertain and hesitated in his response.
“Well, it’s because I want to be a chef, too. What I mean is, why do you only eat snacks?”
“Actually, that’s what I want to ask you? Why doesn’t Pavel bake snacks?”
Pavel opened his mouth to respond to Asha’s question but quickly closed it. Asha closed her eyes and smirked mischievously.
“Is it because you don’t have ‘History’?”
“Oh, no. Rather than that.”
Pavel looked awkward.
“It’s hard to explain. Well, you know. Cooking is something that needs to be eaten, and it can be refined, but with snacks, it’s not exactly the same…”
Pavel’s words grew dim. In truth, it wasn’t that he had a particular aversion to snacks and hadn’t touched them. It was just that compared to baking or other types of cooking, pastries were not regarded with as much social significance, and he hadn’t given them much thought or attention until now.
And it was only because he had voiced such thoughts and incurred the wrath of his cooking mentor, who taught him how to cook, that he had kept his distance even more.
