The Cooking Princess - Chapter 63

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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 63

 

A confrontation between colleagues who worked in the same kitchen, and between master and disciple.

 

If Chloe weren’t a participant herself, she might have watched with great interest.

 

There were unusually many attendants moving around them, partly to monitor whether they might act out or fight again.

 

‘But somehow it also feels like they’re lurking around to see if there’s anything interesting to watch.’

 

Chloe kept her hands busy cooking while occasionally glancing in their direction.

 

Both had prepared red wine, with Vance cooking a meat dish and Daniel apparently using cheese and nuts as main ingredients.

 

Between making bread dough, creating mousse, baking bread, and frying, she was already busy, but paying attention to the Imperial Kitchen chefs’ psychological warfare made an hour pass in a blur.

 

“The second round is over!”

 

Fortunately, Chloe finished her cooking with about ten minutes to spare. This time, there were about three people who finished before Chloe.

 

‘At least the fried food won’t get cold.’

 

Vance completed his dish before Chloe, and Daniel barely raised his hand with just a few seconds remaining.

 

Daniel was sweating nervously but didn’t even glance toward Vance.

 

‘How tense.’

 

Chloe was naturally curious about her own score, but she became curious about how Vance and Daniel’s results would turn out.

 

***

 

“This round won’t need much judging.”

 

“Should we just give the prize money to whoever made this and send them home?”

 

“My, how did they achieve such a taste…”

 

The judging of the second round concluded quickly with overwhelming praise.

 

“I too would like to give the highest score to this dish in this round.”

 

The Emperor also pointed to one dish without dissent.

 

The Empress, who had become unusually quiet, silently kept drinking wine.

 

The nobles looked at the dish receiving lavish praise with longing eyes.

 

“What kind of taste could it be to get such reactions from everyone?”

 

“I really hope that participant wins. Then we could try it too.”

 

“The third round is really anticipated. What kind of dish will appear this time…”

 

While all these conversations were taking place, only the Empress stared at the food without any trace of a smile.

 

‘Chloe Garnet…’

 

That insolent girl who dared reject her son Claude and cling to Prince Shuel.

 

‘After all the favor I showed her, she doesn’t know gratitude.’

 

Whether from having tasted that brazen girl’s food several times, or because her irritation toward that girl had grown so much.

 

The Empress recognized Chloe’s dishes in both the first and second rounds.

 

‘The first one was impossible not to recognize.’

 

Unheard-of cooking methods and food, even the audacious idea of serving hot food in summer.

 

Who else but that bold girl Chloe Garnet could make such dishes?

 

So she planned to immediately throw harsh criticism as soon as she tasted the food to shape public opinion.

 

‘Those clueless priests, honestly!’

 

She knew from the start that bribing the Temple was impossible.

 

So rather hoping for naive and docile priests to come and be swayed by her, she requested the Temple to ‘send the most devout priests who keep their distance from worldly affairs.’

 

‘I didn’t expect them to be so rigid.’

 

Idiots came who couldn’t even recognize that since the Imperial Court was hosting this ceremony, they should pay attention to her, the Empress.

 

Moreover, the Emperor also seemed to recognize Chloe’s food, but ambiguously withheld his evaluation.

 

She thought the Emperor had surely accepted her advice that Chloe Garnet and the Garnet Family should be kept in check.

 

‘He absolutely has no intention of supporting me.’

 

No matter how much she was an Empress practically acting as Empress, and even bore the Emperor’s son.

 

No, precisely because she was the mother of one of the two princes the Emperor was considering as heir.

 

The Empress knew that as long as she was Claude’s mother, the Emperor also viewed her as a target to keep in check until the end.

 

But if she, as his mother, couldn’t support him, Claude, being illegitimate, would be completely pushed out of the succession competition.

 

Shuel’s fatal weakness was having no mother or maternal relatives to support him.

 

Conversely, that was the only advantage Claude had over Shuel.

 

Though recently he had been raising his reputation through battlefield achievements.

 

‘That’s why crazy fools come out saying he should just serve Shuel well as an excellent knight.’

 

More important than military power was influence.

 

And the Empress had desperately worked to ensure that motherless Shuel would be disadvantaged in that influence compared to Claude.

 

‘But if the Garnet Family joins him.’

 

The Garnet Family had kept a low profile to avoid being swept up in political strife.

 

But due to Chloe Garnet’s unexpected actions, the two had become close.

 

If they became engaged, or even if they didn’t go that far but became close friends.

 

The Garnet Family would follow the wishes of Chloe, their only heir and beloved daughter.

 

‘I wonder if they’d be swayed by one girl, but then again, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be.’

 

Whoever ascended to the next emperor’s throne, the Garnet Family’s support wouldn’t waver. Unless Duchess Chloe Garnet suddenly went mad and tried to assassinate Shuel.

 

So from the ducal family’s perspective, it wouldn’t matter if they supported Shuel following the Duchess’s wishes.

 

‘That must be prevented.’

 

To do that, she had to destroy the relationship between Chloe Garnet and Prince Shuel.

 

This competition was the foundation for that.

 

Tarnishing Chloe’s reputation, using that as an excuse to prevent her from approaching Shuel, and keeping the Garnet Family from interfering in the imperial succession struggle.

 

So in this second round too, she was determined to disparage Chloe’s food.

 

“It’s truly a flawless dish.”

 

“Why is there only one? I want to eat it again.”

 

The excited chatter of the priests pierced her ears. The Empress couldn’t suppress her rising irritation and deeply frowned. She drank more wine to hide her distorted expression.

 

‘It’s annoyingly delicious.’

 

It was bread with finely ground sweet potato inside. That bread was even fried. Whether sugar was sprinkled on top or something else was done, the sweet and crispy texture was exquisite.

 

‘At this rate, even if I find fault, it’ll just look like I’m picking fights.’

 

Even the Emperor emptied his plate instantly with a very satisfied expression.

 

The dishes that came after were, unfortunately, little more than supporting acts.

 

The judges couldn’t forget the impression of the earlier fried bread and tasted other foods with lukewarm expressions.

 

This made the Empress even more unable to hide her disappointment.

 

‘With such a stage set, that Sous Chef should have definitely demonstrated his skills.’

 

There were dishes that seemed to be from the Chef and Sous Chef. They were foods that showed familiarity and experience from cooking with these ingredients many times, with flawless ingredient use and cooking methods.

 

Still, they weren’t as impressive as the fried bread Chloe presented.

 

The frying was so exquisitely timed that she tried to find fault by saying any slightly more cooked parts were burnt, but every part was uniformly fried to a golden color.

 

The winner of the second round was already decided without even looking.

 

The Empress felt her mouth going dry and bit her lips tightly.

 

‘Fine. That girl’s journey ends here anyway.’

 

Perhaps being wary of her, she had felt Grania Garnet, Count and Millenia Garnet, Countess watching her throughout the judging.

 

It was utterly ridiculous. There was nothing they could do anyway.

 

‘The Imperial Palace is in the palm of my hand.’

 

No matter how much people outside the Imperial Palace struggled and schemed, they couldn’t discover everything the Empress planned inside the Imperial Palace.

 

‘You must have let your guard down since nothing happened so far, Duchess?’

 

A twisted smile was deeply etched on the Empress’s lips.

 

‘It’s just beginning now, so enjoy it thoroughly.’

 

***

 

During the break before the third round.

 

“Oh no, this is terrible…”

 

Chloe, who opened the box to check ingredients for the final dish, muttered with a blank expression.

 

She tried to stay calm, but her hands were trembling.

 

‘Calm down, you expected this, didn’t you?’

 

Actually, she hadn’t expected it.

 

Who would have thought it would come to this at the last moment.

 

“Duchess? What’s the matter?”

 

Seeing Chloe’s expression, Vance approached cautiously and asked, but Chloe was in complete panic, unable to even hear his voice.

 

Vance saw Chloe’s pale face and moved a little closer, looking together at where Chloe’s gaze was directed.

 

“Gasp…!!”

 

A shocked gasp escaped from Vance’s mouth as he checked Chloe’s ingredient box.

 

“The sugar….”

 

Chloe muttered in a devastated voice.

 

“The sugar has turned completely black….”

 

The white sugar in Chloe’s ingredient box had turned pitch black, as if it had been covered in ash.

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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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