The Cooking Princess - Chapter 26
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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 26
Shuel’s expression gradually hardened at that unilateral rejection.
“The Empress might be one thing, but you don’t belong to the Imperial Palace.”
Shuel met Claude’s declaration that he wouldn’t leave with his own declaration.
“The Grand Duke has no reason to meddle in Imperial affairs one by one, so please leave now.”
When Claude didn’t seem like he would retreat obediently, Shuel added with a stern face.
“What are you doing? Escort the Grand Duke outside the palace. If he refuses, drag him out.”
At that cold command, the attendants standing near Shuel were restless.
And it was right at that moment.
“It seems you want to get engaged to that wench, Your Highness the Prince.”
The Empress’s utterly chilling voice echoed through the garden.
‘This is ruined.’
It was ruined alright, but after experiencing this chaos firsthand, Chloe naturally felt sympathy for Shuel.
‘Having to live in this kind of chaos all day long. I really, truly feel sorry for him.’
Chloe herself only occasionally got wrongly involved and was forced to visit the Imperial Palace, but if the situation at home where you live is this chaotic, how stressful would that be?
She understood why Shuel in the ‘original story’ considered Saint Shurya his salvation.
Thinking this, Chloe hurriedly observed Shuel’s mood.
Unlike before when he had become subtly dejected and timid, he seemed to have improved a bit, which puzzled Chloe.
‘He seems a little calmer than before.’
Still, it didn’t make sense for a prince who was just a child to stand up to the Empress, so Chloe was pondering how to intervene.
“Engagement is not something to be decided hastily. I simply cannot understand the Grand Duke rejecting my words.”
It was a valid point.
In the current situation where the Empress was dead, it was possible for the Empress to scold him under the pretext of Shuel’s ‘discipline.’
However.
A situation where a Grand Duke, who wasn’t even royalty, dared to reject her proposal in the Imperial Palace and pick a fight saying he accepted the Prince’s proposal instead, was something that could never happen and should never happen.
It was just that Claude was so arrogant and the Empress’s power reached the sky, so they hadn’t formally made an issue of it before or now.
Claude’s face turned bright red when his painful spot of social status was stabbed.
But the Empress came out with shameless audacity.
“The Grand Duke might not listen to the Prince’s words. More than that, the Princess who embarrassed the Grand Duke is truly detestable.”
‘Right. This is the problem.’
The Empress that Chloe had dealt with so far was not someone you could have a conversation with.
The Empress openly took Claude’s side and mocked both Shuel and Chloe together.
“A combination of a lacking prince and an impudent princess. The late Empress would have been so pleased to see this, wouldn’t she?”
Claude’s subtle way of bringing up dead parents seemed to resemble the Empress.
At the Empress’s harsh words that even brought up the already dead Empress, Chloe couldn’t hold back and blurted out what was in her heart.
“At least our parents were pleased.”
“…What?”
The terrifying Empress’s and cold Claude’s glares, and Shuel’s worried gaze all poured down at once.
‘Ah, I did it again.’
She didn’t want to get involved in Imperial fights, but why couldn’t she hold back whenever dead parent remarks came up?
Chloe resented her Confucian values and opened her mouth again to salvage the situation.
“When I told them about His Highness the Prince’s proposal, they were so delighted. So if His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress are also pleased, it would be the greatest honor for me.”
She left out the Duke and Duchess’s reaction to Claude’s earlier proposal, and similarly included an indirect sarcastic meaning that she didn’t care about the Empress’s feelings.
“Their Majesties’ joy would naturally be Your Majesty the Empress’s and Your Grace the Grand Duke’s joy as well, wouldn’t it?”
Indeed, the Empress, who had rolled around in high society for decades, seemed to catch the meaning in Chloe’s words and turned bright red.
But she wouldn’t be able to criticize or punish Chloe for this.
Whatever the suspected inner meaning, the revealed meaning was words expressing respect for the Emperor and Empress.
If the Empress found fault with these words, Chloe planned to counterattack with ‘Are you saying Your Majesty the Empress doesn’t wish for His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress to be pleased?’ and additionally tie in all of Claude’s actions of treating the Imperial Palace like his own home.
The reason she hadn’t told her parents about Claude’s arbitrary behavior was because the Imperial Palace would definitely protect Claude anyway.
How could Chloe be so certain? Because there had already been countless such cases.
The eldest son of a nobleman who was assaulted by Claude and severely injured, a lady who was deeply hurt by Claude’s harsh words and stayed secluded in her estate, not coming out to society…
Despite his young age, the victims of Claude’s misdeeds were too numerous to list individually.
However, Claude received no punishment, and the incidents were treated as minor disputes and left unresolved.
So even if Chloe had confessed this fact to the Duke and Duchess, it would only have deepened her parents’ worries without providing a fundamental solution.
‘But now it’s different.’
If she tied it up saying the Empress insulted the Emperor and Empress while taking Claude’s side, and then told her parents about Claude’s misdeeds.
The Duke and Duchess would prepare to attack both the Empress and Claude at once without hesitation.
Of course, she knew that one such remark couldn’t deal a fatal blow to the Empress or Grand Duke. The Empress’s power wasn’t so flimsy as to crumble to that extent.
The Empress would know this too, so Chloe didn’t really expect to be able to corner the two of them using this as an excuse.
“…Yes. If Their Majesties are pleased, it would be great joy for me too.”
She just wanted to let the Empress know.
The fact that Chloe wasn’t just some young, easy girl, but was ready to fight back anytime if provoked.
“But you’re truly overconfident. Just because your parents were pleased, you expect His Majesty to be pleased too.”
‘Oh.’
The Empress struck back sharply. It meant ‘Are you putting your parents, who are mere nobles whether dukes or whatever, on the same level as His Noble Majesty the Emperor?’
If she misspoke here, now Chloe would be in a difficult situation.
Just as Chloe was quickly racking her brain, Shuel spoke first.
“He will be.”
“…!”
She thought he was intimidated by the Empress, but he was an unexpected ally.
“I know my parents well. Of course I think they’ll be pleased.”
Shuel continued speaking resolutely even with his face pale.
‘What right do you, the Empress, have to claim you know anything about the Emperor and Empress when I, their son, am here?’
Who would have thought that Shuel, who seemed weak, could use such high society rhetoric?
The Empress also seemed caught off guard, widening her eyes before showing a twisted smile.
“Yes. Since the Prince has such deep filial piety, that’s certainly good news for Their Majesties.”
“…”
“I hope that admirable heart is well conveyed to the late Empress as well.”
The Empress, who scratched at Shuel with dead parent remarks about the already deceased Empress until the end, left with Claude.
“Let’s go.”
Claude, who had been stubbornly holding his ground ignoring Shuel’s words, followed the Empress’s words without complaint.
“…”
Of course, his gaze toward Chloe wasn’t pleasant until the very end.
Claude, and the Empress who suddenly appeared.
They were all difficult opponents, but with relief at somehow getting through it, Chloe let out a deep sigh.
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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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