The Cooking Princess - Chapter 72

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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 72

She already knew that Shurya would reveal herself as the Saint and begin her active role after her debutante at eighteen.

So the appearance itself wasn’t surprising, but.

‘Did Shurya make her first appearance accompanied by the Merchant Prince?’

In her memory, Shurya had entered with holy knights to emphasize her position as the newly revealed ‘Saint.’

‘Why are the Merchant Prince and Saint entering together? What? Where exactly did things go wrong?’

Chloe couldn’t hide her confused feelings as she quietly watched the pretty Shurya, dressed in matching white clothes, make her glamorous entrance to the debutante.

Shurya appeared with her pink hair neatly down and wearing a thin, modest veil on her head, looking incredibly holy.

And right beside her, a somehow familiar silver-haired man was escorting Shurya.

‘Strange. The Merchant Prince I remember definitely had black hair?’

In this situation where the original story had gone awry in many ways, Chloe secretly tried to calm herself while checking the man’s face.

White, fluffy silver hair and pink eyes.

He was showing his annoyed and bothered expression without filter, and his face was all too familiar to Chloe.

‘…Eshir? Why is Eshir appearing here?’

Didn’t they just announce that the Merchant Prince and Saint entered together?

Why was the promising mage she had employed at the Garnet Estate now holding the Saint’s hand and escorting her? Unable to understand, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried hard to organize her thoughts.

‘What exactly is going on with this situation?’

The ‘original’ Merchant Prince that Chloe remembered had black hair and violet eyes.

Since there was a big difference in appearance from Eshir, who had silver hair and pink eyes.

Even when Chloe employed Eshir to improve and develop food products, she never once thought he would become the future Merchant Prince.

‘No, this is really driving me crazy. My future gourmet mates appeared at the debutante holding hands?’

Should Chloe now pretend not to know and join them?

Originally, the Merchant Prince position wasn’t Eshir’s, but she couldn’t even guess what had gone wrong for the next Merchant Prince to change to Eshir.

‘No wonder Eshir has been busy and hard to see lately. He was going to the Magic Tower to handle Merchant Prince duties…’

But then he should have said something!

Thinking the surprise was too much, Chloe felt a bit wronged.

Moreover, Shurya’s partner was definitely supposed to be some unknown holy knight, not Eshir.

She was very confused, wondering if it was okay to have this much original story destruction from the moment the female protagonist first appeared.

Anyway, the strange and magnificent combination of Saint and Merchant Prince drew tremendous attention in a different way from the original.

As soon as Shurya met Chloe’s eyes from afar, she didn’t ignore her but gave a friendly eye greeting.

‘From the freshwater snail soybean paste soup onwards, she seems to have become strangely kinder since eating my food.’

And right then, Claude also appeared in the Debut Hall.

“His Grace Duke Claude and Viscountess Mielle enter!”

If the original had changed completely it would be one thing, but Claude appearing arm-in-arm with the blonde viscountess was still according to the original.

Chloe began earnestly pondering alone why certain parts changed while other parts showed no significant difference from the original.

‘I don’t know why the Merchant Prince changed to Eshir, and I understand even less why that changed Merchant Prince appeared arm-in-arm with Shurya.’

Setting aside problems that wouldn’t reach conclusions immediately, Chloe decided to think step by step starting with what she thought she could understand.

‘Then why did Claude appear at his first debutante with the viscountess according to the original?’

This had a relatively easy answer.

Noble young ladies of suitable status to associate with high-ranking men like princes and dukes were relatively very few in number.

The ‘original’ Chloe was already engaged to Shuel at this time.

No one at this event knew that Shurya the Saint would appear here.

In other words, Claude chose the highest-ranking woman excluding Chloe and Shurya as his partner.

Unlike the original, Chloe wasn’t engaged to Shuel, but she still formed a debutante partnership with Shuel.

Organizing her thoughts this way made it clear.

‘Right. I understand for certain.’

Chloe’s actions were having a tremendous influence on what parts of the original were preserved or broken.

‘Eshir is also connected to me anyway.’

No matter how much she thought about it, there was no silver-haired, pink-eyed Merchant Prince in the original.

But Eshir suddenly becoming the Merchant Prince could only be attributed to Chloe’s own influence, no matter how she thought about it.

Just as she was thinking this and moving to approach Shurya and Eshir.

“Princess.”

Claude, who had apparently abandoned his partner somewhere and was alone, spoke to her from a much closer distance than Chloe expected.

Chloe was very surprised inside but tried to manage her expression.

“Yes, Your Grace. What is it?”

“Nothing, just. You came with His Highness the Prince after all?”

At that strange attitude, Chloe narrowed her eyes.

And feeling something familiar, she looked over Claude’s outfit.

When he first appeared in the hall she hadn’t been conscious of it, but he too was dressed mainly in navy blue.

To deliberately wear clothes matching the Prince’s, then dress similarly in color himself before approaching and even speaking to her.

It could only be called malicious.

Chloe answered Claude’s question with her lips trembling.

“Yes. I came with His Highness the Prince…”

“It seems His Highness the Prince ultimately chose the Princess from among all those young ladies.”

It was a strange statement that could be misheard as Shuel having looked at other women before switching to her.

Before Chloe could say anything in response to that ridiculous slander, the second son of House Erlain, one of the Duke’s lackeys, smiled slyly and flattered Claude.

“Birds of a feather, Your Grace.”

And another man quickly added flatteringly while glancing at Chloe as if for her to hear.

“Surely the minstrels wouldn’t have made up such stories for no reason.”

…It had been fine to attend the Magic Tower and Imperial Palace agreement ceremony as Shuel’s partner.

However, Claude’s misconduct there had led to rumors of subtle competition between Shuel and Claude to win Chloe. The problem was some tabloids still writing that ridiculous fiction and minstrels singing about it.

‘But I’m the victim here!’

The people now strangely antagonizing Chloe were looking down on her, thinking she was playing the field between Shuel and Claude.

‘I never played the field! I wasn’t even interested in the first place!’

Chloe refuted in the calmest tone possible.

“Oh my, believing minstrels’ lyrics. You must have so much faith in your heart. If all that faith were directed toward God Enril, He would be so pleased.”

It was strong sarcasm telling them to worship God if they had that much time.

Since Chloe had actually volunteered diligently for years and attended church regularly, the young nobles couldn’t dare refute and their faces turned bright red.

Then they finally answered.

“Well, surely no one matches you, who came out wearing similar clothes to both His Highness the Prince and His Grace the Duke that day.”

At those words, this time Chloe was left speechless.

Here… even if she retorted that Claude copied her outfit, it would be ruined.

Why? Because they already viewed Chloe unfavorably, so even if Claude had copied her, they would drive the point that it was also because of Chloe’s playing the field.

Because even while having her debutante with the Prince, Chloe ultimately wore clothes similar to Claude’s!

Shuel, who could be reinforcement to save Chloe, seemed to be urgently discussing something with the Emperor.

‘There won’t be any reinforcements for now.’

If she let this slide, she would become the unprecedented villainess who two-timed both a Prince and Duke, so she absolutely couldn’t let it pass.

Right, there was a breakthrough available.

‘If I seduced the Prince as you say, why would I bother with the trouble of playing the field with Claude, who is relatively lower in rank?’

However, saying that would probably lead to a real proper fight, so she had been hesitating until now.

Her other friends were avoiding Chloe’s gaze and just reading the mood since a high-ranking Duke was involved.

‘Do I have to prepare for a fight after all.’

Just as Chloe was about to open her mouth thinking that, Eshir’s characteristically annoying voice interjected into the commotion.

“You can’t just call it playing the field because you couldn’t have her yourself.”

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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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