The Cooking Princess - Chapter 21

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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 21

Chloe made up her mind and persuaded her parents.

“This time, I want to meet him myself.”

“Chloe, absolutely not.”

“His visit was already so rude, I’m worried he’ll be disrespectful to you too.”

Of course, the Duke and Duchess were worried about Chloe, and Chloe broke out in a cold sweat trying to reassure them.

Only after promising that she would definitely tell them if anything happened was she allowed to go meet Claude.

Arriving at the reception room, Chloe greeted Claude as concisely as possible while following proper etiquette.

“I greet Your Grace the Grand Duke.”

However, making her efforts seem pointless, Claude received Chloe’s greeting with indifference.

“So you came?”

He put down the teacup he had been drinking from just moments before and spoke in a crooked tone.

“I heard you’ve been learning swordsmanship lately.”

Before Chloe could even answer yes, Claude sneered at her as if he found it utterly ridiculous.

“I suppose you think swords are a joke.”

To suddenly appear at the manor out of nowhere and say ‘you think swords are a joke’—really!

‘Did he come at the crack of dawn just to pick a fight?’

Truly befitting the original work’s officially recognized character with a ruined personality, Chloe secretly admired his behavior while rolling her eyes, then just kept her mouth shut.

It was because she had no good comeback.

‘Anyway, it’s true that I can’t handle a sword better than Claude.’

Perhaps gaining confidence from Chloe’s seemingly unconfident attitude, Claude urged her to go to Chloe’s training ground with an unprecedented triumphant demeanor.

“This is supposed to be a training ground? It would be better for letting dogs run around and play.”

The Grand Duke, who casually disparaged the Garnet Family’s training ground, lifted his chin with an utterly arrogant expression and said to Chloe.

“I’ll personally take a look, so swing it around.”

His attitude clearly showed he found it bothersome and didn’t want to do it, but since the Empress had ordered it, he would just go through the motions.

Chloe found his attitude disagreeable but obediently picked up her sword.

Since the Empress had told her to learn swordsmanship from Claude, she couldn’t refuse to cooperate.

Chloe spiritedly swung her sword as she had been trained.

Claude snorted as if Chloe’s form was pathetic.

“That’s not how you swing a sword. How sloppy.”

“Ah, yes.”

Chloe answered Claude’s words with displeasure while grumbling inwardly.

‘How well can a beginner do, really.’

Wasn’t Claude originally widely praised as a sword genius in the original work?

For such a person to come and say what? That her swordsmanship is sloppy?

Claude saw Chloe’s lips pouting and didn’t hide his sneer before saying this.

“I’ll show you an example. How about it?”

“Well, that would be great for me.”

As soon as Chloe finished speaking, Claude snatched her sword and showed off his fluid swordsmanship as if to show off.

‘I can only do the basics right now.’

It was certainly impressive, but Claude’s swordsmanship, which was clearly mentioned as ‘genius’ in the original work, couldn’t possibly be just this level.

Because this level was something Chloe could plausibly imitate.

“Can you follow along?”

“Huh? Yes. Wasn’t that why you showed me?”

At Chloe’s bewildered question, Claude returned her sword while snorting.

“No ability but plenty of pride.”

‘He’s thinking I won’t be able to follow along, right?’

Feeling down from Claude’s dismissal, Chloe wore an utterly sullen expression as she imitated the movements he had performed, somewhat clumsily but similarly.

Seeing Chloe’s clumsy but accurate movements, Claude’s initially mocking expression gradually changed to one close to shock.

Right at that moment when Chloe sensed something strange.

Claude grabbed Chloe’s wrist and forcibly stopped her swordsmanship, asking with a hardened face.

“Hey. What are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“How can you follow along in one try?”

Chloe looked at Claude, who spoke with an angry expression, with truly incredulous feelings.

‘So he deliberately showed me something I couldn’t follow in one try just to mock me?’

To deliberately show difficult movements that would be hard to follow, then throw a tantrum when she did follow them?

What kind of ruined personality is this?

When Chloe narrowed her eyes and glared at him, Claude also seemed to realize his slip of the tongue and quietly shut his mouth while avoiding Chloe’s gaze.

At that suspicious reaction, Chloe widened her narrowed eyes and looked at Claude with suspicion.

“It sounds like you were openly trying to make me look foolish?”

Caught in suspicion, Claude got flustered and raised his voice even louder.

“What, why. Do you have proof?”

Of course, aside from barging into the Garnet Estate at the crack of dawn, there was no objective evidence that he was trying to make Chloe look bad.

But there’s such a thing as atmosphere, isn’t there?

As she continued to glare at Claude with eyes demanding an explanation, Claude, feeling guilty, awkwardly added this.

“Just focus on your sword training. Don’t go around pinning baseless accusations on others, will you?”

Along with his words, he once again snatched Chloe’s sword and took his stance.

Unlike before, his expression was serious from the start, so it seemed he was going to properly show her something this time.

And what Claude showed in front of Chloe wasn’t the same flashy movements as before, but truly basic movements.

But despite being basic movements, the actions were so excessively fluid and beautiful that Chloe’s jaw dropped.

The graceful blade cut through the air.

Not intended to harm others, but swordsmanship that functioned as art in itself.

Basic swordsmanship.

Cutting precisely through the center, cutting diagonally, cutting at an angle.

That was really all there was to the movements.

But the movements that Claude connected as one, like a dance, were so amazingly beautiful that Chloe couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

The sword path moved irregularly yet fell into place very beautifully, moving freely.

Watching the swordsmanship that moved little by little with gentle swaying, admiration naturally escaped from Chloe’s lips.

“You really are definitely amazing.”

At Chloe’s pure admiration without any ulterior motive, Claude seemed a bit embarrassed and remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“…Well, yes. I am pretty amazing.”

It was truly swordsmanship befitting the original work’s sub-male lead.

It was worthy of the praise he received in the original work for having sword talent instead of being a psychopath.

“Not just ‘pretty’—this is really amazing, isn’t it?”

It was truly pure admiration without pretense.

The Empress’s desire to put her son on the throne probably also had to do with the Grand Duke having such amazing talent.

‘Though his personality is too cruel, so he ends up ruining all those advantages in the end.’

Whether Chloe was spacing out for a moment or not, Claude’s explanation continued.

“There are some guys who carelessly skip over the basics of swordsmanship and arbitrarily dismiss learning flashy techniques first.”

Claude clicked his tongue like an old man, saying he’d never seen anyone among those types who could properly use a sword.

Chloe agreed with his words too.

Anyone who saw his fluid ‘basic swordsmanship collection’ even once would agree with Claude’s words.

Having said that, unlike just showing her before, Claude began directly correcting Chloe’s swordsmanship by watching her posture after demonstrating himself.

‘He’s teaching me much more seriously than I expected?’

Anyway, it was true that Claude was competent, so she looked at Claude’s sword with sparkling eyes.

And she tried swinging similarly herself.

‘Oh.’

Even if not perfectly, it seemed like she could follow along to some degree.

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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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