Thank you to the previous translator thclown for the raws!
“Grandpa, if you’re going to do that, the slave will…”
“That previous agenda is boring now. Now, talk about the victory ceremony of the imperial troops sent to the north.”
The Emperor waved his hand. The previous agenda meant that this was the end of it. In the end, Alexei began to answer the Emperor’s questions as if he were moving chess pieces.
When the long question-and-answer between the two ended, the servant appeared with a tray supported. It was a table setting with contrast between a black cake in white pottery and white milk.
“I’ve never seen this cake before.”
First, the Emperor took a sip of cold milk and picked up a white porcelain bowl. There was a warm warmth in his hands. When he cut the cake in half with a teaspoon, a sauce of the same color as the cake flowed out from the inside.
“Oh, my god.”
The Emperor, who admired little and thought of the cake with a teaspoon and put it in his mouth, soon opened his eyes wide. In the meantime, Alexei also got a piece of cake.
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As Pavel said, all kinds of fresh fruit were waiting for them in the fruit and vegetable warehouse. The two chose oranges from among them and returned to the kitchen.
After washing the oranges clean, grate the peel gently and place it in an empty bottle with a handful of sugar. Then she was able to make orange-flavored sugar with this.
In an instant, the kitchen was filled with a sweet smell of sugar, a bitter aroma of chocolate, and a fresh orange scent. The harmony of this fragrance alone was enough to predict the enchanting taste of fondant chocolate made with orange sugar.
It was when Pavel looked up with a careful look on his face, labeling the sugar bottle with “orange sugar” written on it.
“What? Where’s the cake? There should be four left… Chestnut, did you eat two at that time? Oh, my.”
“What are you talking about? I was with Pavel the whole time. Didn’t someone just stop by and eat it when we went to the fruit and vegetable warehouse? We’ve been away for quite a while.”
Asha chewed the remaining orange pulp leftover in her mouth and answered back peacefully. Pavel’s face was gradually distorted by Asha’s leisurely movements.
“I never thought there would be two crazy chestnuts like you in the imperial palace!”
“The kitchen door is open and there are no people, but if something delicious is served, everyone wants to eat it.”
“Where do you get the assurance that the cake made from that little hand is delicious?”
“From Pavel’s expression? Pavel looked like you were going to die because it was delicious.”
“This is really…! No, not this. We need to find the cake!”
Pavel hurriedly opened the drawer, and began to check under and above the countertop. Asha took a step away and tilted her head.
“Are you so unhappy about giving it to someone?”
“You little chestnut! I’m responsible for every grain of sugar that’s made in this kitchen! If there’s a guy who’s eaten, I need to know what kind of guy it is…! Kid, you stay right here.”
Pavel, who was tearing his hair out, begged her and ran straight out of the kitchen. It seemed like he was trying to find out if someone had touched it while they passed by the kitchen. In the kitchen, which soon became empty, Asha snooped around, but the two missing cakes did not appear anywhere.
‘Can you just say that you found it by baking two more with the leftover dough?’
While Asha, unable to sympathize with Pavel’s reason for her confusion, thought about her carefree spirit, her spirit slipped into the embroidery of her nightgown as if the business was over.
It was then.
“Chef Marca! About this snack, His Majesty…”
The door burst open and an unfamiliar servant poked his head in. He seemed to be out of breath as if he had been busy. The moment Asha met the servant’s eyes, she felt her trivial thoughts fade to white.
Something was very wrong now.
Asha asked cautiously.
“By any chance… Did you take the two cakes that were here?”
“I, I did…”
“To where?”
“Evening snack for His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince…”
And this time, Asha’s face was as white as Pavel’s a while ago. Like a chain reaction, the face of the servant who saw her face also went white.
“B, b, b, because of that, His Majesty is looking for the chef, and is there something…”
Asha opened her mouth wide.
“His Majesty? His Majesty the Emperor?”
“Yes, yes, yes. He needs to see the face of the person who made the cake…”
The servant replied with a frightened look. The color slowly escaped from Asha’s face when she heard it, and her white face became whiter.
“No, why? Why? Why do you have to see the face of the person who made the cake?”
“T, that’s…”
The servant shook his head. Asha’s head spun.
Was this a good thing? Was it a bad thing? She was glad if it was a good thing, but if it was a bad thing…
Asha, who came to her senses, said at once.
“I, I made it.”
The servant looked at Asha with an incredulous face. But Asha was adamant.
“You mean black cake, right? I made it.”
He was an Emperor who was nicknamed the Emperor of Thunder for his lightning-like temper. What if he was calling the chef because something bothered him? It was too harsh for the chef, who just couldn’t resist the child’s stubbornness and made him make snacks in the kitchen. Asha clenched her fist tightly.
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The servant, who was in charge of guiding her to the study where the Emperor was said to be, was already looking at the face of the end of the world because he couldn’t help but to attract all the world’s anxiety.
When a girl with small peach-colored hair said she had made the cake – so when she said she would go see His Majesty – the servant naturally shook his head violently.
Then, he took the cake made by this child to the Emperor, who he did not know. Emperors who have contracted with the King of Spirits from generation to generation are immune to all poisons, so no matter what food he took, nothing would have happened. But that doesn’t mean there were no problems. It was no different than a death sentence to him.
And for such a servant, a really clear death sentence fell quickly.
– Anastasia.
– What?
– I’m Anastasia Yurivena Irinova. I wanted to make snacks for my grandfather, so I baked them.
At that time, the servant realized that this is what stops thinking when a person faces a fact that was difficult to accept.
‘This skinny little girl is the Princess?’
He thought the girl would be a noble. Although she was skinny like a branch, there was something in her eyes that made it clear she was raised loved, her noble demeanor, and the way she dressed in classy fabrics.
In addition, since she was staying at the palace at this time, he thought she was probably one of the young maids and children of various royal descendants.
But the royal family?
The thought that it was nonsense flashed through him, but his doubts were short. Chef Pavel Marca couldn’t have let her use the kitchen unless she was part of the royal family. He was a bold man who never blinked at nobles.
On top of that, he looked back at her, and even pink hair like a peach and light green eyes were the same as the description of Princess Anastasia. Eventually, the servant had no choice but to guide Asha on the way, swearing at his dull self that he finally realized.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to jump into the Vichegda River right now?’
The servant’s hand trembled as he held the door handle of the study where the Emperor would be. And finally, the door to the study opened.
Asha opened her eyes wide and glanced around. The dim study lit up little by little as they went in.
The Emperor sat leaning against a chair with a large translucent shawl over his shoulder. Then he said without raising his head.
“I asked you to bring the chef, but why did you bring the Princess?”
It wasn’t even to her, it was to his servant. The Emperor didn’t even stop turning the book. Asha replied instead, while the servant hesitated, wondering whether to cry or laugh.
“I made it!”
“…what?”
Only then did the Emperor raise his head. Asha swallowed her saliva with tension but rather thought it was an opportunity. A chance to say what she wanted while keeping a perfect distance from the throne!
“I wanted to give it to you, so I made it.”
Of course, that wasn’t true at all, but Asha talked softly without time for the Emperor to fight back.
“I reluctantly borrowed the chef’s kitchen and worked hard to make it. I wanted to give you something before leaving the Imperial Palace. I made sure to bake a snack…”
“You mean Yuriev taught you not only to study writing but also to bake cookies?”
“No, no!”
Asha waved her hand in a hurry.
“I haven’t even seen sugar and butter at home. I only eat carrot porridge every day.”
“…ahem.”
Asha smiled innocently, and the Emperor coughed low and turned away.
“So you made this when you first saw sugar and butter?”
There were two empty bowls on the table pointed by the Emperor. Asha nodded vigorously but was relieved inside. Seeing that the bowl was clean and empty, the cake she made must have been delicious.
“There was a book at home that showed how to make cakes, and I read it! There are a lot of pictures and it’s fun, so I read it diligently.”
I don’t like studying, I can’t even become an heir to inherit the throne, and I have no intention or intention to compete, all I want is to bake cookies. Asha intended to express it with great enthusiasm.
However, the Emperor immediately asked as if he was not interested in Asha’s intention at all.
“Hmm… What is the darkening ingredient of this cake? I’ve never seen it before.”
A faint apricot-colored air flowed around the Emperor as he said those words. Something that looked a bit like the orange stream that soared like a fountain around Pavel, who ate fondant chocolate.
“Oh, that’s… a baron gave it to him, the chef said…”
“Baron? You mean Baron Saratov?”
“Oh! Yes! That was the name.”
After that, the Emperor continued to ask this and that, but Asha could not determine the reason why the Emperor entirely called her.
‘The cake… … Did it taste good?’
“All right. I can’t just receive it from my granddaughter as an Emperor.”
“What?”
