The Cooking Princess - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Claude having business with Chloe at this point in time.

‘Whatever business it is, it probably won’t be good for me.’

Chloe’s eyes narrowed.

Claude paid no attention to Chloe’s reaction and only said what he wanted to say.

“If you can meet when there’s business? Then I’ll just have to create some business.”

Those words sounded as if he would deliberately create non-existent business just to meet Chloe.

Noticing the other nobles holding their breath while watching the confrontation between herself and Claude, Chloe barely swallowed a sigh and asked irritably.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Anyone listening would think I’m bullying the Duchess.”

‘When you are bullying me.’

At Claude’s shameless words, Chloe pressed the back of her neck firmly and replied.

“If inducing strange scandals isn’t bullying, then what is? So what business have you been following me around for?”

At Chloe’s words getting straight to the point, Claude frowned and shamelessly added.

“The Duchess doesn’t seem to have any intention of listening to me. Shall we talk one-on-one? When there are many listening ears,”

“Your Grace has no intention of listening to me either, so must I absolutely listen to Your Grace’s words one-on-one?”

Claude found fault with Chloe’s sharp question.

“Are you putting on a pathetic show of keeping up appearances when you don’t even love His Highness the Prince?”

Cold sweat ran down Chloe’s back at the thought that people might really see this as a love triangle, but she succeeded in handling it composedly.

“I love His Highness.”

Having said that, she wondered if it was right to say this in front of other people and Claude before properly revealing her heart to Shuel.

‘But it’s sincere.’

At Chloe’s straightforward green eyes, Claude frowned and asked back.

“What are you talking about?”

“It may have started as a political marriage, but now I truly love him. Will this be an answer?”

At those words, Claude’s eyes seemed to burn fiercely.

“Ha!”

She could tell he was angry, but Chloe couldn’t understand what exactly he was so angry about.

‘Could he really like me?’

But were Claude’s actions so far really actions one would take toward someone they liked?

He had tormented Chloe by any means necessary.

If he liked her, he couldn’t treat her well, but acting worse than an elementary school student. Surely he wasn’t going to say now that he actually did it because he liked her?

‘Of course, since the original story has completely gone off track, Claude could like me. But I have no obligation to respond to those feelings.’

Chloe glared at Claude silently,

and Claude also glared at Chloe silently.

And right then.

“What’s this situation right now?”

Shuel, who had briefly left to have a political discussion with an elderly marquis, asked as if bewildered by the confrontation between Chloe and Claude.

Right.

Chloe wasn’t the only one at this party.

‘He followed me even to where Shuel was, and I was trying to take action before Shuel would worry.’

In the end, the confrontation with Claude caught Shuel’s eye.

Having heard the general situation, Shuel pressed his temples as if he had a headache and spoke coldly to Claude.

“If you have business with my fiancée, go through me.”

Now it wasn’t the Duchess and Grand Duke, but the Prince and Grand Duke facing off.

At their confrontation, the nobles all looked at them with excited faces, and the tension became even more taut.

Right then it was.

“The, the Empress wishes to attend…”

The other nobles were already holding their breath in this soap opera-like situation.

And in such a situation, none other than the Empress wanted to join.

Not knowing how much more chaotic things could get, Chloe unconsciously pressed her forehead and sighed.

“Hah…”

When the gentle-natured Duchess, who rarely got angry, sighed while pressing her forehead, the noble who hosted this party looked at her nervously, not knowing what to do.

And he seemed to ponder for quite a while about what to do.

It seemed he was concerned about Chloe and Shuel if he let the Empress in, and worried about Claude if he turned the Empress away.

Shuel let out a deep sigh, as if he could already guess what the Empress would say once she entered this party hall.

“Hoo.”

And he smiled gently at the noble who was still worrying pitifully and kindly added.

“Chloe and I are fine, so tell her to come in.”

“Yes, yes. Your Highness the Prince.”

At the Prince’s consideration, the noble quickly answered, worried the Prince might change his mind, and let the Empress into the party hall.

With the announcement that Her Majesty the Empress was arriving, the Empress entered the party hall.

As soon as she appeared, the Empress seemed momentarily flustered by the cold atmosphere as if cold water had been poured.

But her hesitation was brief, and seeing Claude, Chloe, and Shuel standing together, she seemed to vaguely guess the situation.

“Oh my. It seems there was some conversation surrounding our daughter-in-law?”

Technically, as the Empress, she could call Chloe daughter-in-law.

But the situation was delicate, so her ‘daughter-in-law’ comment sounded a bit different.

“What’s going on with our son again?”

“What do you mean what’s going on? His Grace and I had nothing happen.”

But the Empress continued to corner Chloe while pretending to be extremely benevolent.

“Claude has been going to the Garnet Estate since dawn for sword lessons.”

Shuel seemed to want to watch the conversation a bit more.

“After running around the fields together so much, to have this reaction. I’m disappointed, Duchess.”

Then, at Claude’s following words, Chloe finally forgot about appearances and shouted out loud.

“No, please don’t say things that will make people misunderstand!”

Claude’s ‘tarnish Chloe’s reputation’ strategy seemed to have succeeded at first glance.

But what would he gain now by ruining Chloe’s reputation even at the cost of throwing himself as bait?

‘…Oh no!’

If Claude, having successfully tarnished Chloe’s reputation, came forward saying he would take responsibility for Chloe, that would be a huge loss for Chloe.

And it would be a big loss for Shuel too.

Before Chloe could say anything, Shuel struck first.

“I’d prefer you not tarnish my fiancée with baseless words.”

He added with a sigh.

“There was an incident like this before. You keep stubbornly using the same method.”

Even though Shuel came to Chloe’s defense, people still looked at Chloe with suspicious eyes.

And right now, neither the Merchant Prince nor the Pope who would protect Chloe were here.

‘He really planned this deliberately?’

His will to somehow remove the Garnet Family that was Shuel’s strength,

or make them his own power was burning vividly.

At Claude’s chilling ambition, Chloe hardened her expression and spoke sarcastically.

“I don’t know what fault you’re trying to find again, but even if I were to break off my engagement with His Highness the Prince, my engagement to Your Grace the Grand Duke will absolutely never happen.”

Chloe spoke coldly and added mockingly.

“Unless we take in a son-in-law.”

At the kind answer that she would rather take in a lower-grade groom than marry him, Claude still glared at Chloe with cold eyes.

The timing wasn’t good.

Before, one could say that Claude was unilaterally obsessed with Chloe and finding fault again.

But now, having pushed out the Empress from the center of the Social Circle and risen to an even higher position, everyone was paying attention to Chloe.

‘He deliberately insisted on the same method to plant bad suspicions at this particular time.’

If the story about the love triangle between Chloe, Claude, and Shuel happened once, it might be overlooked, but if it happened twice or more, people would start thinking ‘maybe?’

Claude’s expression looked relaxed.

As if he was waiting for Chloe to fall into a trap.

‘Then why did he suggest talking one-on-one? Was he deliberately setting a trap, assuming I would refuse?’

Chloe looked at Claude with confused eyes for a moment, then left the party hall with Shuel.

‘Even so, Shuel will eventually be appointed as crown prince and become Emperor.’

Thinking it was Claude’s last desperate struggle born from a sense of crisis, Chloe barely managed to calm her anxiously stirring heart.

And some time later, news arrived that Claude had achieved victory in yet another war.

“C-Count, Your Grace… this is terrible!”

Along with accusations that the Garnet Family was plotting rebellion.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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