The Cooking Princess - Chapter 23

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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 23

‘I’m grateful that he sincerely taught me swordsmanship, but…’

Still thinking that the combination of a villainess and sub-male lead was nothing short of a promised path to destruction, Chloe diligently prepared the aged flounder monster and sliced it thinly.

After sprinkling the carpaccio sauce she had prepared earlier on top, she was about to serve it when she paused for a moment.

“Would this seem a bit lacking in sincerity?”

When thinking of combinations with flounder sashimi and other foods, that would naturally be alcohol.

However, since both Chloe and Claude were minors, she couldn’t serve alcohol.

“What to do.”

Shaved ice would be better served as dessert, so it seemed better to make a simple side dish that could be eaten easily while having the flounder sashimi.

“I’ll make something simple.”

The time had come to apply the deliciously improved ‘potatoes’!

Saying that, Chloe busily took out potatoes and lizard eggs and began boiling them.

While waiting for the potatoes and lizard eggs to cook, Chloe finely chopped onions, cucumbers, and carrots and soaked them in salt water to let the seasoning penetrate.

After waiting a bit, she took out the hot potatoes and lizard eggs, let them cool sufficiently, then mashed them and mixed them with the pre-chopped cucumbers, onions, and carrots.

She also made a simple version of mayonnaise by mixing lizard eggs, lemon juice, and oil.

When all of this was mixed and seasoned with salt,

“Done!”

The potato salad was complete.

Chloe picked up a small bit of the finished potato salad to taste and admired her own work.

“Even though I made it myself, it really is delicious. And simple too.”

Chloe hummed as she moved to bring the food to Claude.

***

Claude silently looked at what appeared to be white fish flesh laid out before him, and something that had been finely chopped and mashed.

“What is this? Give me an explanation of the dishes.”

“Ah, yes. One is called ‘sashimi’ which is sliced raw fish, and the other is potato salad.”

Even after hearing the explanation, it felt like listening to an alien language.

At the fact that there wasn’t a single word he could understand, Claude raised his triangular eyes and shouted at Chloe.

“Hey! Explain it so I can understand!”

“Just as Your Grace first showed me a swordsmanship demonstration, shouldn’t you first taste the food before I give you an explanation?”

It wasn’t exactly wrong, so there was nothing to say, but Claude had no desire to eat fishy raw fish.

“I get all that, but why eat fish raw?”

“If you won’t eat it, shall I eat it first?”

Having announced that, Chloe picked up the white fish flesh as if to show him and ate it while savoring it as if it were delicious.

Did she have a hobby of eating raw what would obviously be fishy even when cooked?

‘What peculiar taste.’

He could immediately grab the plate and throw it while demanding something edible, but he planned to properly criticize it after eating it himself.

The original plan was to harshly criticize her when she held a sword so she would never again dare to say she wanted to wield one.

But honestly speaking from someone who knew swords, if Chloe didn’t take up the sword with that talent, that would actually be more regrettable, so that was on hold.

‘Since I couldn’t do that, I’ll have to crush her spirit with this instead.’

That way, his mother the Empress wouldn’t push him toward this insignificant girl anymore.

With that thought, Claude frowned with all kinds of expressions and stabbed the fish flesh with his fork before putting it in his mouth.

At that moment.

“…!”

When he took the first bite, his only impression was that it was just soft.

However, after the first bite, second bite, third bite.

As he ate the fish flesh that harmonized exquisitely with the mysterious sauce, Claude couldn’t bring himself to… say it was tasteless.

Chloe, who had ghostly intuition about his improved mood, asked with a bright smile.

“How is it? It’s tastier than you thought, right?”

Perhaps not wanting to admit that Chloe cooked well for the sake of his pride, Claude frowned with all kinds of expressions and this time moved his hand toward the potato salad.

‘This seems like a side menu.’

Proper cooking should be delicious whether it’s the main dish or a side dish.

Claude assumed that Chloe had been so focused on that ‘sashimi’ thing that she had carelessly made the side menu, and took a spoonful of the potato salad.

And then he fell silent.

At Claude’s ominously long-lasting silence, Chloe carefully opened her mouth to ask.

“Does it perhaps not taste good?”

He should give a positive answer to that question to crush her spirit.

But Claude couldn’t bring himself to say this potato salad was tasteless.

Instead, he confronted Chloe as if incredulous.

“You said potato salad.”

“Yes? Yes. That’s right.”

“But it doesn’t taste like the potatoes I know. Are you daring to lie to me?”

Even at Claude’s unreasonable nitpicking, Chloe answered with a bright smile.

“Ah, does the difference from existing potatoes show?”

“…?”

She even seemed excited about Claude’s nitpicking, which was bewildering enough. He tried to pull himself together and replied coldly.

“Yeah. It tastes completely different from potatoes.”

So shouldn’t the word potato be removed from the name, Claude was just about to sneer when.

“I’m happy you noticed!”

“What?”

Instead, Chloe brightened and welcomed his nitpicking, which Claude couldn’t hide his flustered expression at.

“Potatoes were so tasteless that I brought mages into the household to newly improve them. As expected, Your Grace the Duke noticed right away.”

Saying that, Chloe truly smiled like a well-fed cat.

Claude, who received that radiant smile head-on, briefly squeezed his eyes shut.

Without even realizing that his own ears had turned red, he opened his mouth with dissatisfaction as if to make some criticism about Chloe’s cooking.

Chloe listened to the complaints of Claude, who wasn’t a customer but was anyway a future customer.

The words that came from Claude’s mouth were truly unexpected.

“Annoying.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s irritating that you’re good at so many useless things, you.”

Whatever was so irritating about it, he huffed for a long while.

Chloe stared at him blankly and thought.

‘True to being the original work’s certified psychopath, I absolutely cannot follow his thought process.’

What was funnier was that Duke Claude’s spoon and fork movements were getting faster and faster despite his angry expression.

He had a nasty temper but seemed honest and innocent since he was still a child.

Watching that scene warmly, Chloe told Claude about the food ingredients.

“I served you fish-shaped monster sliced raw. It was difficult to catch from the northernmost part of our domain, but it tasted good. And the potato salad is indeed made with improved potatoes.”

She thought she was being wicked by revealing the ingredients after the food was already eaten, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘Most people have prejudices first when you mention monsters.’

Thinking that, Chloe quietly waited for Claude’s reaction.

She expected him to rage about being fed dirty monsters, but his reaction was unexpected.

“Something hard to catch tastes good? Well, that makes sense.”

He seemed to be pondering something with a somehow softened attitude, then spoke to Chloe in a subdued voice.

“…Hey.”

“Yes, Your Grace the Duke.”

Claude, in a truly uncharacteristic and timid manner, pondered something for a long time before finally speaking in a subdued voice.

“Is there… more of this?”

The ‘this’ Claude mentioned was the flounder.

He had highly evaluated the taste of the flounder even knowing it was a monster!

Surprised, Chloe widened her eyes and looked at Claude.

Claude’s ears were burning bright red!

‘Oh my. He was embarrassed to ask for more food.’

She had only thought of him as rude, but even the original story’s villainous sub-male lead had some humanity.

In any case, Chloe was moved by the fact that even after learning what the ingredient was, he had said the ‘flounder’ was delicious and asked for more, so she answered in a cheerful voice.

“Of course! How about trying some other dishes similar to this one?”

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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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