The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 19

‘Apologize properly, and then get along with him the right way. Understood?’

This time the candle dimmed to little more than starlight. Pibi’s pealing laughter was so loud that Asha had to press the embroidery on her sleeve several times to calm herself.

* * *

Asha asked Kiril to light several candles, then quietly slipped out of Aleksei’s bedroom.

“To the Kitchen.”

“Yes. It doesn’t feel right to just leave him while medicine isn’t working. I thought if there’s something like ginger cordial, it might help. The medicine doesn’t work on Aleksei because of Pafnir, but do you think something I make would be effective?”

Asha clenched her fist and hauled herself over the terrace railing with a grunt. She cut straight across the Garden and made her way to the Kitchen of Taimir Palace, where she found Pavel in casual clothes, his shoulder turned as he studied a notebook.
“Pavel!”
Pavel looked up, recognized Asha, and rose without asking what had brought her—and Asha went straight to the point.
“My cousin’s sick, so I wanted to make something for him.”
“Your cousin?”
“Yes. He has a fever and isn’t feeling well.”
“Dear heavens. Do you think your cousin even knows you’re going to all this trouble for him?”
“Hmm…… He probably doesn’t, but I can’t just leave him when he’s ill.”
Asha huffed and began listing the ingredients she’d been turning over in her mind.
“Do you have ginger and pear? Cinnamon and peppercorns too?”
“What are you planning to make with those?”
“With the ginger I’ll make ginger…… cordial, and then something with stewed pear?”
Cordial is made by simmering fruit juice with sugar and is most often used as a base for drinks. Pavel’s expression turned curious as to what flavor ginger cordial or stewed pear might produce, and he brought out the ingredients.
She rolled up her sleeves and began by washing the dirt off the ginger. As she worked at grating it intently, Asha suddenly remembered something and looked up.
“……But Pavel, shouldn’t you have clocked out?”
“Should have. About five minutes ago?”
“…….”
The only sound filling the kitchen was the rhythmic scrape of the grater against ginger. Asha paused, her hand stopping awkwardly as she reached for the next piece.
Pavel spoke.
“But I’ve never seen a cordial made from ginger before.”
“Ah, haha… it’s nothing… really, it’s not so impressive.”
……
“From now on, I’ll try not to cause trouble like this… I… I’m sorry.”
As Asha mumbled her apology, Pavel let out a laugh and thoroughly mussed her hair.
“Eek!”
“Such noise from someone so small.”
‘I can’t keep borrowing the Kitchen forever. I need to finish as quickly as… ouch!’
While mulling over these thoughts and grating ginger against the grater, she managed to scrape a bit of her fingertip as well. Tears welled up, but mindful of Pavel’s evening schedule and that she was already imposing, she only bit her lip hard and said nothing to him.

‘Be quiet.’
Asha grumbled pointlessly at Pibi and continued working. She grated all five hundred rosocs of ginger, and Pavel collected it all, strained it through cloth, and pressed out only the juice. The bowl filled with ginger extract.
“Now… we’ll have to wait a bit. Pavel, don’t you want to head home? I can tidy up and finish later.”
“Haha. Everything that happens in this Kitchen?”
“Is your responsibility… isn’t it.”
“How long do we need to wait?”
“Well… an hour or two? Then the starch will settle to the bottom and I’ll use only what’s on top. But even after that, there’s still…”
Pavel let out a long sigh, then waved his hand dismissively as if any further debate was tiresome.
“What are you using the pear for?”
At this well-intentioned change of subject, Asha’s face brightened at once.
“It’s also good for colds.”
“Where do you learn these things? From a book as well?”
“From the wisdom of our ancestors.”
“What, is there a ninety-year-old grandmother living inside you instead of a ten-year-old chestnut of a child?”
……

This time it was Pibi who burst into secret laughter where no one could hear. Asha clenched a button tightly, then released it and picked up the pear Pavel had brought. It was shaped like a small flask, smaller than an adult’s fist. When she mentioned needing to peel it, Pavel reached for the knife first.
Before Asha could so much as touch it, the pear lay bare. After a moment’s thought, she asked if he could slice it lengthwise.
“What do you plan to do with this?”
“Um… do you have one of those human-shaped cookie cutters?”
At the mention of human-shaped, Pavel laughed to himself again before turning serious.
“Why would I? I don’t bake.”
“Then what about those small decorative cutters for garnish?”
……
Pavel deliberated carefully, then rummaged through a shelf in the corner of the Kitchen and found a small pouch. Inside were several tiny cutters for stamping decorative shapes. Even the gingerbread man cookie cutter Pavel had claimed not to have was there.
“What do you plan to do with these?”
“Things look prettier, so they taste better.”
“Your cousin must be very young indeed.”
Asha paused a moment, then decided to play ignorant. She stamped out pear slices with the cutters and pressed two peppercorns into the face area and three into the body to form buttons. The upper ones were eyes, the lower ones a vest of buttons.
……
“…… It looks less appetizing than forbidding, doesn’t it?”
Asha said nothing. With two peppercorns embedded in the small gingerbread face, it looked like some manner of grotesque creature.
……
“…… Well, well, it can’t be helped. Your cousin is spirited, so she’ll eat anything.”
“But you just said prettier things taste better…”
“Don’t go shouting secrets aloud.”
“Such a small thing.”
In any case, all the pear gingerbread men had been transformed into wide-eyed creatures, and the preparation was complete.
“Put cinnamon and ginger in water, and once it boils, add the pear slices. Let them simmer until the pear is tender and it’s done. It’s good to eat when you have a cold, so you should make it to drink when you’re ill too, Pavel.”
“You must eat it often.”
Asha replied briefly while dropping the prepared pear into the boiling pot.
“What are you talking about? I hate ginger and cinnamon both. When I catch cold, I take medicine.”
……
She tossed in the remaining pear pieces and paused before clapping her hands together.
“Oh! Adults could also simmer it like this in wine instead of water.”
“Ooh?!”
At that, Pavel’s eyes widened and he hurried off to the wine cellar, returning with a long bottle clutched to his chest. Asha’s eyes narrowed.
“Such a drunkard.”
“The Imperial Palace is warm even in the depths of winter, but the road home from the Palace is cold. My manor is far away, after all.”
Pavel quickly made excuses and promptly mimicked the pear compote that Asha had made. It wasn’t particularly labor-intensive, and since cooking was Pavel’s trade, replicating it came easily. Especially since he’d forgone using the cookie cutter to craft those eerie gingerbread creatures.
“The ginger juice has settled.”
They left the pear and wine to simmer and turned their attention to the ginger juice, where white starch had begun to sink. They poured in sugar equal to the volume of ginger juice and brought it to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring gently. The process of skimming off the foam was long and tedious.
“Cinnamon….”
“Hmm?”
“Add cinnamon too.”
“Your expression makes it look like you’re adding poison.”
“I really hate cinnamon….”
“Then we’ll leave it out.”
“But they say it’s good for a cold.”
By the time the ginger cordial had fully reduced, the moon had risen. Asha tasted the still-steaming ginger cordial and fell into a moment of contemplation.
“What’s wrong?”
“The flavor is too strong…. What if my cousin won’t drink it?”
At that, Pavel also tasted the ginger cordial. With ginger and cinnamon together, it was certainly pungent and sharp.

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