The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 35

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The Villainess Princess Wishes to Live in a Pastry House
Chapter 35

Asha read the name of the emotion that swirled around her. Astonishment. Admiration. A miracle….
‘A miracle…?’
All of it felt as vivid and sharp as midsummer’s cold seawater.
“…How long have you known?”
“How long? Well… Kalno’s Spirit is quite… quite famous. Is there anyone in the Empire who doesn’t know?”
Kalno looked so startled that Asha grew flustered herself, stammering out excuses.
“You knew and yet…”
“…?”
“…No, it’s nothing. It’s just that people usually… don’t…”
Asha, who had been tilting her head in confusion, suddenly remembered as if struck by lightning. In her preoccupation with her own circumstances, she had forgotten far too many things.
Why Kalno Neushetetter, despite his youth, had wandered through the battlefields of the Northern Region. Why, as a result, he had even abandoned the Succession Right to the Throne that had been passed down through the Neushetetter Clan for generations.
‘Because everyone was terrified of him…’

‘…’

‘Wait, what did you just say?’
But before Asha could press Pibi further, Pavel returned as if on cue with something to drink. Asha stood with her mouth agape, glancing back and forth between Pavel’s face and Kalno’s expressionless countenance, until she made a decision.
“Your Highness?”
She swept the Dacquoise onto a wooden tray and pressed it into Kalno’s hands, then picked up the two Glass Cups that Pavel had brought, one in each hand. The Iced Tea inside them sloshed gently.
“Um… Sir, thank you so much for lending us the kitchen! I have something urgent, so I need to go.”
Asha strode out of the kitchen before Pavel could say another word, then suddenly turned back. Kalno stood holding the tray, watching her blankly.
“Kalno! You promised to carry me to my room.”
“…While holding a tray in both hands?”
“Yes!”
Asha spoke with such certainty that the two men found themselves at a loss for words.

* * *

Of course, the request to be carried was merely an excuse, so Asha quickened her pace through the vast palace in silence, matching Kalno’s stride. They stopped only when the pain shooting up from her ankle overpowered even her deepest consciousness.
The hall of Tymir Palace stood empty and desolate.
“You said you had something urgent. Why did you come here?”
“…I walked without thinking…”
The claim of urgency was, of course, also a lie. All she could think of was finding somewhere with no one else around.

‘What is?’

‘…I wasn’t thinking that at all. And like you said, I’m hardly in a position to worry about looking after anyone else.’
From walking so briskly, the tea in the Glasses she carried had already lost half its contents.
“How much longer must I hold this?”
Kalno asked in a flat tone. Asha stared at him with a vacant expression for a moment. Then something like resentment began to creep up her throat.
‘Did I really think he might get hurt if he stayed in the kitchen any longer…’
“Give it here.”
Asha lifted the two Glass Cups onto Kalno’s tray and took the tray from him. He surrendered it without resistance. And when their fingertips brushed, though there was no sign of him flinching the way he had before baking the Dacquoise, she felt the air around him stiffen.
Only now could Asha fully comprehend it. The Spirit of Death contracted to Kalno Neushetetter. A spirit so dangerous that merely a touch could kill anyone alive, which was why everyone shunned him.
Truly, everyone.
‘Even his family never came close to him, if I recall…’
It seemed his own parents had even avoided him. A power so terrifying that even the sole heir could not be embraced—the “Spirit of Death” itself.
If blood relatives trembled and kept their distance, what of strangers? And with such an exalted station, they had the perfect excuse to withdraw under the guise of respect.
‘I just assumed he was naturally aloof and difficult, always seeming to dislike people…’
Asha suddenly felt the urge to bury her head in the tray she was holding. At the Victory Ball, the moment everyone avoided his presence, all the warnings he had given—not to come near him, how he seemed to dislike crowds—all of it.
‘…But didn’t Pibi say the Spirit contracted to Kalno isn’t the Spirit of Death? What does that mean?’

‘Then what is it?’
The Spirit of Time.
‘How could a Spirit of Time go around killing people?’
‘Ha, you fool. Simply accelerate time, and it’s done in an instant.’
‘Ah…!’
Asha looked up at Kalno, who was regarding her with an unmoved expression, and suddenly found her courage—which meant she promptly thrust a Dacquoise into his mouth.
“Ugh! I told you I don’t care for sweets—”
“Just try it anyway. I made it myself today.”
“All I did was whip the egg whites to foam… but still…”
Kalno’s words trailed off. Asha watched this with satisfaction. There was no need for Kalno to voice his thoughts aloud—she could see them in his eyes.
‘Hmm… is it just so-so? Or is it actually delicious?’
She had been confident that seeing emotion so clearly in someone’s eyes meant words were unnecessary, but the feelings emanating from Kalno were subtly different from what she saw in Pavel or Alexei.
Far calmer and more composed than theirs…
“…Does it taste bad?”
“…It isn’t unpleasant, precisely.”
“Then do you want to take half of it?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Oh.”
Asha let out a vacant sound.
Seized by the thought that she needed to leave the kitchen immediately, she had hastily gathered only the pastries, piling them thickly onto the tray. She had nothing to wrap them in.
“And if you’re giving it away, give it all.”
“Wow? That’s pretty bold.”
“…No one would eat it anyway.”
“Are you seriously telling me right now that the pastries I made aren’t very good?”
“It’s as if I made them.”
“What—I mean, how can you say that like… alive or… no, anyway, that’s not right! Kalno only helped a little. And you just said a moment ago it wasn’t something you made!”
Being still a child in this world, with limited vocabulary at her disposal, Asha felt tears threatening from sheer frustration. She glared at Kalno.
“Offering half the pastries doesn’t mean you helped halfway. It was supposed to be a little extra on top for your help.”
“…You truly don’t understand what I’m trying to say?”
Asha understood well enough. Whatever he had touched, no matter how briefly, no one would want to eat.
‘…Really?’
Fragments of memories from long ago, impressions that had flickered past in mere moments, had now become the story of a single life rather than simply tragic background. Asha felt her chest tighten and forced the feeling away.
‘There’s no one decent here. Not Alosha, not Kalno.’
Asha held her chin high and spoke.
“Does your hand…”
She wanted to ask if radiation came pouring out of it or something, but again the precise word wouldn’t come to her. Asha pressed her lips firmly together.
“Is there mud coming from your hands?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You washed your hands clean and made the pastries. I don’t see what the problem is. Anyway, I’ll split the baked pastries with you, so let’s go to my room. I should have packaging there.”
“…Do as you wish.”
Kalno sounded as though he’d given up in exhaustion. Asha huffed and turned her head, took a step forward, then stifled a small cry.
Her ankle had been improving, but in her eagerness to walk just now, it seemed to have twisted again. Kalno frowned and turned to look at her.
“…Are you asking me to carry you again?”
“N-no, that was a genuine gasp of pain—it just came out.”
“So when you came from the room to the kitchen earlier, that wasn’t genuine?”
“That was because you were making me angry.”
“…Pardon?”
“Anyway, why did this even hurt in the first place? It was a rather lonely night a few days ago… I was so hungry I made a sandwich and ate it, and then on the way back to my room…”
“I’ll carry you. Let’s take a walk through the imperial palace while I’m at it. Will that do?”
“‘Will that do?’ Really, what a strange habit~”
“…I… wish… to carry you.”
Only then did Asha nod with a smile. But since Asha had to hold a tray laden with two glasses and an abundance of Dacquoise, Kalno instead found himself shifting his approach—holding her in his arms rather than carrying her on his back. He asked quietly, as if hesitating for a moment.
“…Are you truly comfortable with this?”
“If you don’t want to, forget it.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s about you…”
“If Kalno really doesn’t want to, then I suppose I can’t help it. You can put me down.”
Kalno clenched his jaw and looked up at the ceiling once, then drew a deep breath and lifted Asha into his arms. His expression and sigh were rough, yet his hands were surprisingly gentle. This time it was Asha who spoke first.
“But still, it’s a bit late to ask now… you’re really not finding me heavy?”
Even as Asha told herself she was being unreasonable, she couldn’t refrain from asking.
“Didn’t I say you were a sack of wheat?”
“Well…”
“That much, I can do.”
Kalno, holding her against him, gazed straight ahead with an expressionless face. Yet around him, something continued to shimmer—a luminous current, pale and clear, held in check; but particles of light leaked through in small, insistent bursts, as though they could not be contained.
‘Ah…….’
Only then did Asha recall that night when he had pushed her away. The night she’d grabbed his collar and startled Kalno had thrust her back.
Because no one had ever drawn so close to his side before, that was why Kalno had been so shaken then…….