The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 24

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Confectionery
Chapter 24

“Your friends are all chefs, aren’t they? No, wait—of course you have some. Those chef friends of yours. I have a favor to ask. Could you show them how wonderful Pibi Powder is when used alongside their work? Give them a real demonstration.”
Here in the Imperial Palace, her allies were likely only Alexei, Lis, and this head chef. If that was the case, she needed to make money while she had supporters on her side!
‘Why did the Emperor leave me here? And why did he call Alexei in to decide matters about my maternal grandfather? Besides, this maternal grandfather never once came to see us in ten years, and now that I’m in the palace, he suddenly shows up——’
“…Pavel?”
Asha had been mentally listing every complaint about both grandfathers when she suddenly noticed Pavel had gone quiet. He wore an awkward expression and was avoiding her eyes.
‘What was I saying? Oh, right—I need to sell Pibi Powder, so I was asking him to promote it to his friends——’
Asha understood in that moment.
“You… you don’t have any friends, do you, sir? Really?”
“Who said I don’t!”
Pavel’s protest came out loud enough, but he couldn’t muster much conviction. And Asha realized why he hadn’t yet seen through her disguise: there was no one around him who could have told him. Not a soul.
“If you have no one close enough to brag about something remarkable like this, then you don’t have friends.”
“Are you really ten years old, Asha?”
“Of course. Ever seen a ten-year-old as adorable as me?”
“I’ve certainly never seen a ten-year-old as strange as you.”
“So you really don’t have any friends, Pavel?”
“What about you! Do you have any friends!”
“…”
“…”
Asha gazed back at him with melancholy eyes.
“Pavel…”
The middle-aged chef had asked a question far too pitiful to pose to a ten-year-old girl, and at last his head drooped.
Asha pressed on.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve wondered—don’t most people usually have helpers or something? Disciples, say. Do they not want to work with you either?”
“How could they possibly feel that way! The children begging to be taken as my disciples could line up all the way from here to the Vichegda River!”
“Then why didn’t you take any on?”
“Because I don’t want to! I hate all that bustle and clutter! I can’t stand having noise around me!”
Asha regarded him with clear, quiet eyes—eyes that seemed to ask who exactly was the noisiest person in this room. An awkward silence fell between them, and Pavel’s hands flew up in panic.
“Well, friends! I’m not completely friendless! I do have them, I do—I certainly have someone——”
“You do?”
“Ugh.”
Pavel turned away, making no effort to hide his look of agony at the prospect of saying it aloud.
“They don’t much like me…”
Asha clapped her hands together.
“Oh, that’s even better!”
“What?”
“If someone who dislikes you suddenly becomes successful, they’ll be furious. They’ll be absolutely dying to know your secret.”
“Why would using Pibi Powder make me successful?”
“Because you’ll be able to make nicer pastries, faster, and in greater quantities than before.”
“What use is baking more pastries? This is the Crown Prince’s palace.”
“And the Crown Prince likes sweets.”
“Neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince cares for pastries.”
“They do.”
Asha spoke with such unwavering confidence that Pavel hesitated for a moment.
“How… how could you possibly know that? We’ve hardly ever served pastries for dessert, and no one has asked for more——”
“Because you haven’t offered them much! But I can tell. Trust me. They really do like them.”
Since she kept feeding Alexei Scones and pastries, she’d gauged the Emperor’s preference from his reaction after tasting Fondant Chocolate.
“Just. Listen. To. Me! Use Pibi Powder to bake pastries, and spread word that Pibi Powder is good. If you find a child with plenty to say, plenty of talent, lots of friends, but just lacking opportunity—you should take them on as a disciple. You ought to have at least one.”
For word to spread, you’d need someone discerning enough to appreciate what Pibi Powder could do. Pavel narrowed his eyes, looking down at Asha, and muttered.
“Plenty to say, plenty of talent…”
He stroked his chin thoughtfully and spoke.
“Asha, do you have many friends?”
“None. I only just came to the palace recently. Even back home, I didn’t have any.”
“Yet you lectured me about not having friends.”
Asha shrugged her shoulders.
“There was only our house nearby anyway. And even if there had been others, they wouldn’t have been friends with us.”
“Why not?”
“People didn’t want to spend time with our family. Father loved his drink, and Mother went around hitting people…….”
Asha let the words drift away and imagined a different future—escapist daydreaming, really, to flee from the fact of her grandfather’s arrival.
‘If I make money from this, I could change the house, expand the kitchen, and spend my days baking sweets to my heart’s content. As for leaving the Imperial Palace……well, I’ll figure something out.’
“……Would you like to work in the kitchen?”
“Huh?”
Lost in her own thoughts, Asha looked up to find Pavel watching her with a somewhat serious expression. She blinked.
“No, I can’t. I’d cause a mess.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got my own work to do!”
“Your own work—as if that tiny little thing counts as work.”
“I only came here on my break anyway.”
“Tch, is that so?”
Asha couldn’t even imagine what expression Lis would make if she announced she was going to work as a kitchen assistant.
Just then, the timer chimed—the cupcakes were done. Pavel sighed again at the fact that the expensive teacup had been baked in the oven once more, but he acknowledged there was nothing to be done now that things had come to this.
In the meantime, Asha’s troubled expression had grown lighter as she mixed Sugar Powder and Lemon Juice, dusting them decoratively over the cake.
“It’s finished.”
“……The cake rose so beautifully.”
“That’s the power of Pibi Powder. Can you feel it?”
“I get it, I get it!”
Pavel waited for the teacup holding the cake to cool a bit, then brought two teaspoons.
While the tiny girl scooped up a full spoonful of cake without a trace of tension or worry, Pavel lifted his spoon with slightly trembling fingers.
The outside was a little crispy, but the inside was soft as silk, and the spoon slid in with barely any resistance. Delicate black tea fragrance bloomed gently across his palate, and the sweet cake crumbled moistly on his tongue. Just as the sweetness peaked, the icing of Sugar Powder and Lemon Juice added a bright tartness that seized his taste buds entirely.
There was nothing for it but to take another spoonful immediately.
‘……This is really…….’
How could a girl who fumbled every time, who could barely crack an egg, make a cake that tasted like this? Pavel, who had been silent for a moment, suddenly realized the girl was watching him with an odd expression.
“Ahem, what—why are you looking at me like that?”
“Um……it seems really delicious……?”
“……It’s edible, at least!”
“Right, right. I understand.”
The tiny child, barely half his own height, was grinning so contentedly that Pavel found himself irritated—and yet amused by his own irritation. But for some reason, he could never muster any real force when facing Asha.
Moreover, each bite of cake seemed to dissolve away any negative feeling like snow in spring. The girl glanced at him and pointed to one of the cups containing cake.
“Can I take just this one? I’ll bring the cup back.”
“Take it where? Who’s it for? Your cousin?”
“Yeah, my cousin…….”
“Are you and your cousin still……like that?”
The little girl let out a long sigh, both hands clutching the teaspoon tightly. Judging from how she usually seemed, you’d think she got along swimmingly with not just her cousin but his distant relations too…….
“It seems to be getting better. I don’t think it’s bad anymore, either.”
Pavel burst into laughter. Listening to this girl speak, she always sounded so unflappable and mature, but seeing her deliberate so seriously over her relationship with her cousin—it struck him as perfectly, unmistakably her age.
“Right then. But you have to bring the cup back.”
“Of course!”
The girl beamed and left the kitchen with the Cupcake in hand.
It wasn’t until several days later—precisely when the Crown Prince’s attendant brought back the cup the girl had carried off—that Pavel finally understood the source of that strange unease.
He had simply assumed that because the girl occasionally wore an irresistibly endearing expression, the attendants must have been indulging her out of convenience.
Pavel grasped the full truth only days later, at the triumphal ceremony welcoming back the soldiers who had returned from finishing the war in the Northern Region.

* * *

Roaaaar!
The roar was so deafening that Asha’s ears rang. She flinched at the thundering sound, but then started badly—actually started—when a hand wrapped around her shoulders.
Because on her left was only Alexei, so this arm must belong to…….
“Startled?”
Right now! Yes, I’m startled right now! Asha’s lips moved soundlessly before she shook her head quietly.
“The heroes are coming!”
“Kalno! Kalno! Kalno!”
“The heroes who defeated the Noctis Elves!”
Cheers that were almost screams rang out with metallic clarity. The knights and soldiers within the Imperial Palace stomped in rhythm, and you could feel the vibration from the impact.
‘I didn’t want to come out…….’
Just hearing the name Kalno Noischetter was enough to turn her stomach, so there was no question of appearing at some gathering in his honor. She had no wish to catch his eye either.
Yet Alexei, and even the Emperor himself, seemed to assume without question that she would attend. When she’d pleaded a slight indisposition, the Imperial Palace had promptly dispatched a physician.
The physician reported honestly that the Crown Prince was in excellent health.
‘As if I’d live to see pity become my lot……’
They disregard me for having no connections! Though truthfully, even if I had them, I wouldn’t have confessed such a thing to anyone.
When she glanced sidelong, Alexei sat gazing straight ahead, his expression unmoved save for the arm draped across her shoulder.
“……You’re not nervous at all, are you?”

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