The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 13

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Villainess Princess Wants to Live in a Pastry Shop
Chapter 13

‘Right. I said I’d practice cake, but without cake ingredients, what can I do? I think I’ll make cheese scones instead. I’ll add a tiny bit of mustard powder, and for the dough…….’
Asha ran her hand over her own arm. She could knead dough if she really tried, but her arms lacked the strength—though it seemed Pavel would help with that.
“Is it okay to make something else if you don’t have chocolate?”
“What ingredients do you need?”
“Flour and a little salt…… cheese and bacon, mustard powder, butter and milk.”
Asha rattled off the ingredients that came to mind one by one, then hesitated at the last item.
‘Here, do you not have Baking Powder yet? Or Baking Soda?’
“Sir, you don’t have anything for making pastries rise?”
“Are you talking about yeast?”
“That makes bread rise, not pastries.”
“Is there a separate thing for making pastry dough rise? That’s exactly why confectionery won’t work here. There’s no history of it, no history.”
Asha grinned widely up at Pavel.
“……?”
“What did His Imperial Majesty say was delicious? Ah! Was it the cake I made the other day?”
“…….”
“Confectionery has a history?”
“……there is…… there is, there is—a deep, profound history…….”
As Pavel grew dejected, Asha smiled while turning the matter over in her mind. Chocolate’s raw materials had only just appeared, and with Baking Powder still unavailable, the culinary world here seemed to resemble that of her original world around the eighteenth century.
While the two of them bickered, Pibi, nestled inside the Button, sent a voice into her mind.
<Hmm, the powder you’re thinking of doesn’t exist here.>
‘Ugh…… Can I make scones without Baking Powder?’
<Why make it without?>
‘Because it doesn’t exist, I’ll have to!’
<You could just make what you need and use that instead.>
‘……!’
Asha felt as though lightning had struck before her eyes.
‘That’s right, of course! If I need something and it doesn’t exist, I can just make it!’
“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly staring at me like that, Asha?”
“I wasn’t staring. I was thinking. Is this kitchen really equipped with everything needed for cooking?”
“Of course it is.”
Asha’s eyes lit up. Perhaps—just perhaps—she really could make Baking Powder.
“Even things like powder medicine people eat when their stomachs hurt?”
“What kind of medicine does a child like you need?”
“It’s not for me. Do you have it or not?”
“……We do have it. It’s a medicine the Court Pharmacist obtained from Bekel Lake.”
Pavel’s expression stiffened slightly, but he promptly retrieved something. Not from the supply storehouse, but from the worn, small desk drawer in the corner where he worked.
A pouch the size of a grown man’s fist held the powder medicine inside. Asha’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between the medicine pouch and Pavel. There sat the fearsome old man, looking as savage as anything in this world, carrying an antacid powder in his pocket.
But what mattered urgently now wasn’t Pavel’s stomach condition—it was making Baking Powder. Given that the medicine came from a lakeside source, this was almost certainly the Baking Soda she was looking for. Baking Soda, which had the property of neutralizing acidity, had indeed been commonly used as an antacid in older times.
Asha spooned some of Pavel’s powder into a bowl, dipped her finger into it, and tasted it. She hadn’t actually expected that tasting it would tell her whether this was what she sought, but the moment the powder touched her tongue, a remarkably vivid awareness crystallized in her mind.
Which lake it had come from, what flavor it carried, and what properties it possessed.
‘Huh?’
<Hmm, that’s what you’re looking for.>
‘……Is this what I can sense in such detail because of our Contract?’
<Do you think I can only do something this trivial? I’m capable of far greater things—it’s merely because you are so small and fragile that I can accomplish no more than this. Do you comprehend my greatness?>
Asha chose to hear only what she wanted to hear, ignoring the rest, and asked what she was curious about.
‘……But if it’s a Contract, shouldn’t there be an exchange? What do you get from me?’
Come to think of it, something felt off.
Asha narrowed her eyes. The original story hadn’t explained Spirit Contracts in detail. But this kind of tremendous power being granted without any price at all somehow didn’t feel right—like the scales weren’t balanced.
‘Surely you’re not extracting my soul or something?’
Asha felt a flutter of anxiety.
<It’s not an exchange.>
‘Then what?’
Pibi’s voice was matter-of-fact. It sounded as though she couldn’t fathom why this needed to be explained at all.
“We all live together, so what’s the point of exchanging payment for conversation?”
‘……!’
“Though admittedly, no one’s managing to have a proper conversation right now.”
It was the sort of thing Asha would never have expected from a Spirit who usually did nothing but boast. As she sat there with her mouth hanging open in shock, Pibi tilted her head curiously.
Asha, worried her astonishment might be misread as admiration, hurriedly deflected with an “I see,” then quickly changed the subject. If she let even a hint of genuine emotion show, Pibi’s momentum would become unstoppable.
“What is it? Are you catching cold, Asha?”
At the sound of her mock cough, Pavel turned to look. Asha shook her head.
“No, I’m fine. But do you have something? You know, those little granules that settle at the bottom when you drink old wine?”
“Oh, cream of tartar?”
“Yes, that’s it!”
This time Pavel took a while finding it. He set a clump of cream of tartar on the counter and washed his dusty hands.
“Is this good enough?”
“Well… it’ll do for now.”
Asha stared at the two powders with a serious expression. If she mixed the baking soda—an antacid—with cream of tartar in the right proportions, she could achieve the effect of baking powder. The problem was that she didn’t know the exact ratio.
Then, at that moment.
“The antacid is one part, cream of tartar is two parts.”
Pibi’s voice, ringing through her mind with the proportions for baking powder, was positively solemn. It was like a grand symphony playing in the background.
‘Good heavens, this really is a recipe vending machine.’
She hadn’t realized a Sense Spirit could be this useful. But what she actually needed wasn’t merely the proportions. If the two powders mixed and underwent a chemical reaction immediately, the whole thing would be ruined. She needed something to prevent that in the meantime.
‘Would starch work?’
“For that, the ratio is cream of tartar two parts, antacid one part, and starch one part.”
The moment Asha mentioned starch, Pavel thrust a bag of cornstarch onto the counter. She poured two cups of cream of tartar, one cup of antacid, and one cup of starch into an empty container, sealed it, and shook it to mix.
At last, the powders of different colors and sizes had merged completely, uniformly, and thoroughly.
“Done.”
“What is this?”
“Could it be… magic powder?”
Asha’s voice trembled slightly as she held the world’s first baking powder. To have created it so easily, so simply!
“Magic powder?”
“A leavening agent that makes pastries rise beautifully. I need to give it a name.”
“Pibi Powder! Pibi Powder!”
Inside her mind, Pibi was shrieking with enthusiasm. Asha opened her eyes hazily.
‘And here I thought she’d complain about being named Pibi…’
But soon enough, Asha nodded. Without Pibi’s instant revelation of the ratio, she would have ruined several pastries.
“Fine, we’ll call this Pibi Powder. I made plenty so you can use it too, Pavel.”
“…You’re telling me to put this—my antacid and wine sediment—into pastries?”
Asha laughed brightly.

“Making scones?”
Having examined the diced butter and surrounding ingredients atop the cool marble counter, Pavel had reached his conclusion. Asha nodded.
“What if we added cheese and bacon to make them savory?”
“What’s the mustard powder for?”
Even if Pavel was always singing the tune of not baking sweets, he’d baked thick savory scones meant as a meal substitute before—but it had never occurred to him to use mustard powder when making scones.
“Just one teaspoon. The scones will have cheese and bacon, so they’ll be rich, and the mustard powder will balance those flavors and deepen the taste. What do you think?”
“……….”
Pavel’s eyes narrowed. The one explaining the recipe to him while cheerfully cutting butter was a little girl, small even for her ten years.
“Pavel? You don’t sound convinced?”
When Pavel remained silent, Asha turned to look at him. He shook his head.
“No, it’s fine. But the bacon—do we use it raw?”
“No, we’ll slice it and cook it in a pan first. I’ll slice—”
She was about to say she’d slice it if he’d cook it in the pan, but Pavel had already pulled over three strips of bacon and seized a knife in his other hand. Narrowing his eyes as he looked her up and down.
The look said: ‘A knife? You?’
“Sigh…”
In the end, slicing and cooking the bacon fell to Pavel. His knife work was more than skilled—it was graceful—and the bacon transformed into uniform pieces on the cutting board in seconds. Asha hesitated for a moment, then asked him a question.
“…What sort of Spirit are you contracted with, sir?”
Pavel, setting the pan over the fire, glanced at her.
“Me? I have a Sword Spirit.”
“…I see.”
Soon the kitchen filled with the sizzle and aroma of bacon cooking on the pan. Once the flour and cold butter had mixed into a crumbly dough, she added three kinds of grated cheese, milk, and the cooked bacon, then repeatedly rolled and folded the dough. Asha’s grip wasn’t strong enough, and she nearly cried halfway through the kneading, but Pavel clicked his tongue and took over. After cutting it into bite-sized pieces and brushing the tops with egg yolk, she slid it all into the oven, and that was that.

“Don’t tell me you’re making scones for the first time too?”
Asha rose on her toes to peer at the oven thermometer, then nodded to herself.
“I told you, I only touched butter for the first time yesterday.”
“……But how did you know this recipe?”
“Well……. I saw it in a book. I read it and wanted to try making it.”
…….
Not long after she slid the scone dough into the oven, the Kitchen began to fill with a rich, toasted aroma.
“For something like that…….”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————