The Cooking Princess - Chapter 16

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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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The Princess Who Cooks

Episode 16

The Duke looked at his daughter, who stood confidently before him with sparkling green eyes, and pondered.

“You want to go to the Far North.”

“Yes!”

He certainly trusted his daughter.

Her desire to go to the Far North this time wasn’t just a whim—there must be a valid reason.

His daughter was exceptionally clever and logical for a twelve-year-old.

But…

‘The Far North is very dangerous.’

It was truly very dangerous.

There were even monsters of unknown identity still existing there, and there was no telling when or how the monsters might harm young Chloe.

“First, tell me your reason.”

Chloe answered clearly, as if she had been waiting for those very words.

“The fish we can catch now don’t suit my taste. So I’m going to catch fish-like monsters and modify them to be edible!”

Hearing her bold ambition to catch monsters because there was nothing to eat, the Duke calmly opposed.

“No.”

“What? Why?”

At those words, Eshir felt relieved alone, while Chloe couldn’t accept that her trip to the Far North, which she thought would naturally be permitted, had been blocked so quickly, leaving her stunned.

“Is it because I said I’d eat monsters? I’ve thought it all through…!”

“No, Chloe. That’s not it.”

As a duke who was weak when it came to his daughter, her shocked expression pained his heart, but that was one thing and this was another.

“It’s too dangerous. There’s no telling what variables might exist there, so I don’t want to send my daughter to such a dangerous place.”

“Ah…”

Those were clearly the eyes of a father worried about Chloe, so she couldn’t bring herself to argue back and just hesitated.

“The reason your mother and I have tolerated your actions until now was because we were confident you would be safe even if you failed.”

But at the Duke’s firm answer that he couldn’t send her to the Far North, which was crawling with dangerous beasts, simply to obtain specimens, Chloe fell silent for a moment before answering.

“Then…”

“Then?”

At the Duke’s question, Chloe’s large green eyes sparkled as she added:

“Dad can come with me!”

“What?”

***

Through persistent pleading, Chloe succeeded in coming to the northern part of the Garnet domain with Eshir and her father.

Pierre had considered coming along too, but he agreed with her father’s firm statement that they couldn’t put another family’s precious heir in danger, so she just asked him to take good care of the sprouting crops and arrived at the Far North.

“Never, ever leave Dad’s side. Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

The Duke repeatedly urged her, seemingly unable to stop worrying about Chloe. Of course, Chloe was in an excited state, filled with dreams of finding new ingredients, so she was only half-listening.

The northernmost part of the estate was a polar region consisting of snowy plains and glaciers.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

Chloe shivered in the cold, pulling her fur coat tightly around her. She desperately missed down-filled long padding.

“Chloe, what exactly are you planning to do here?”

Chloe met the eyes of her father, who was looking down at her with concern.

The Duke seemed ready to drag Chloe out of this cold place immediately and confine her in the warm castle.

‘I can’t let that happen.’

Having come this far. Chloe firmly resolved to find at least something resembling flounder.

“For now, could you watch what Eshir and I do here?”

“You two?”

“Yes, and please help us if it looks dangerous. I’ll stop immediately if Dad tells me to.”

The Duke reluctantly agreed. Having come this far, he intended to help Chloe find what she wanted as much as possible.

And if she became frustrated from not finding anything, then he would comfort her and return home together to safety and comfort.

‘Anyway, it’ll be hard to do anything for long in this cold.’

Of course, this was a thought he could have because he underestimated Chloe’s determination.

“Eshir, from there to there. Catch everything!”

“Eshir, search deeper places than there too!”

“Eshir, look under the ice here too!”

“Eshir!”

The Duke had to wonder if his daughter was unfairly overworking the young mage. That’s how thoroughly Chloe made use of Eshir’s magic.

“Are you kidding me?! If we stimulate this place any more, bigger monsters will come up, and then we won’t be able to handle them!”

Of course, Eshir had his own temper, so he didn’t just take it lying down.

The sea monsters the two had caught while bickering had piled up abundantly on the snowy plains.

Sometimes Eshir would use magic to knock them unconscious, and sometimes the Duke would cut down monsters that came up on land still alive and thrashing with a single stroke.

After Chloe carefully examined the appearance of each sea monster caught from the unfrozen waters even in the snowy plains.

Finally, Chloe found what she was looking for.

‘It’s flounder!’

Not just flounder.

‘This place is a complete goldmine. There’s even salmon and tuna here?’

She had wondered why the fish from her previous life weren’t visible in this world.

While she could easily find similar species of animals and plants even if their taste was significantly different, fish had been particularly hard to find.

The fish from her previous life that she thought didn’t exist were right here, existing under the name of ‘monsters.’

Of course, they all looked a bit more scary and fierce than the fish from her previous life.

‘Anyway, they’re similar enough!’

Unlike her previous life where flounder was caught in the western Pacific like Korea or Japan, and salmon in the North Pacific and Atlantic, the fish here (Chloe was starting to forget that these were monsters) all seemed to live in cold seas.

Chloe held her pounding heart and cut a small piece of flesh from the flounder-like fish to taste…

“Chloe!”

“This really careless princess.”

She was caught by the scruff of her neck by Eshir just as she was about to taste it.

Even though the hired mage was grabbing his daughter roughly, the Duke wasn’t angry but rather seemed relieved that he had stopped Chloe.

“Ah, why!”

Whether Chloe screamed or not, Eshir examined it carefully before answering.

“Monsters are poisonous.”

Saying that, Eshir frowned and sighed deeply while casting some magic, then returned the flesh of the flounder… no, the monster.

“Most monsters have poison in their flesh and blood, you know? If you want to eat it raw and die quickly, go ahead.”

‘Aha.’

Chloe conveniently thought that the fish of this life must have poison like the pufferfish from her previous life.

“I’ve detoxified it, so eat it as you like. I’ll cook it for you.”

Eshir looked ready to conjure fire from his hands immediately.

“No? I’m going to eat it just like this.”

But there was no way Chloe, a flounder fanatic who had finally obtained flounder, would start her first bite with grilled fish.

At Chloe’s bold answer that she would eat a ‘monster’ raw, Eshir couldn’t hide his shock and shouted.

“Are you crazy?”

It was shocking enough that she wanted to eat a monster, but to eat it raw on top of that.

Eshir stared at Chloe in horror as if watching a grown adult crawling around on all fours.

Even the Duke, who always believed in and supported Chloe, looked at her as if suspecting his daughter had lost her mind.

…Chloe wasn’t unaware of how her words might be received by them.

Even Chloe herself, while searching everywhere for ingredients, had never once considered monsters until Eshir brought it up.

Considering the common sense of people here, Chloe, who was now making a fuss about eating monsters, would be like someone in the 21st century saying…

‘Cockroaches taste like shrimp? Then if I eat them raw, they might taste like raw shrimp! I should try eating one!’ …and then putting a live cockroach in their mouth.

Of course, grilling or boiling cockroaches wouldn’t make them seem normal either.

But if someone said they’d just kill it and eat it like that, they’d really seem like a crazy person you wouldn’t want to associate with.

‘And that crazy person is me right now…’

Chloe almost felt a bit of self-loathing, but without being discouraged, she stubbornly tried to put the flesh of the flatfish monster into her mouth.

“Ah, seriously. If you’re going to eat it, at least cook it first!”

“Chloe! Didn’t you promise not to do dangerous things? Do you know what could happen if you eat that!”

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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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