The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 4

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

The Villainous Imperial Granddaughter Wants to Live in a Bakery
Chapter 4

“I miss Mother and Father more than that.”
Over the ten years she’d lived as a child, the wheedling, petulant tone she’d carefully cultivated to avoid drawing attention served her well. At Asha’s words, Lis smiled warmly.
“You miss your parents? The Imperial Prince and Imperial Princess Consort should arrive at the palace soon.”
As Lis spoke, she stroked Asha’s hair.
“I thought they’d come together with you…”
There was something wistful in Lis’s murmured voice. Asha tilted her head.
‘Wait? But Mother and Father said they couldn’t come…?’
When Yuriye’s escape—if it could even be called an escape—ended quickly and Asha was about to board the carriage heading for the Imperial Palace, her attendants had urged her parents to come along as well.
But Yuriye and Irina had refused the offer with faces that looked ready to shed tears of blood, sending only her ahead to the Imperial Palace.
‘I understand the reason now.’
Yuriye had made the firm decision never to set foot in the Imperial Palace. She now understood that this conviction had been unwavering since before Asha was born, and had only grown stronger after her birth.
“After sleeping ten nights, you’ll be able to see them soon.”
“Ten nights?”
“No, no. Five nights! Once we get through today, that’s already one night gone.”
With that, she folded down one finger and gave a smile that was meant to console. It seemed she’d decided that five nights was both the longest stretch of time a child could comprehend and the furthest future they could reasonably bear to wait.
Asha couldn’t bring herself to point out to Lis that it had taken six nights to reach the palace, so even if her parents had left home yesterday, they couldn’t possibly arrive within five nights.
“The Imperial Prince has a contracted Spirit, doesn’t he? That Spirit will bring you together.”
“Even though it’s just a small bird Spirit?”
“It has wings, doesn’t it? Now, you should sleep so that one night passes, yes?”
Lis smiled with affection and drew the quilt over her. It seemed she had no intention of answering questions about when Asha might return.
“I have some business in the Main Palace kitchens for a bit, so if you have nightmares or need me, pull this rope.”
Lis indicated the thick cord at the head of the bed. The duty attendants of Tymir Palace would hear the bell and either come themselves or summon Lis.
“You’re going to cook at night?”
“No.”
Lis shook her head, then hesitated a moment before brushing back Asha’s bangs and whispering.
“The Empire has been at war until now. But they say it’s ended. So they’re going to have a celebration party soon, and I’m going to help prepare for it.”
It was an explanation simple enough for a child to understand.
“Is it a really big party?”
“Of course. Kalno Noishuetter is coming home too.”
‘…What?’
With that, Lis patted the quilts above her for some time before leaving the room. The moment the surroundings grew quiet, Asha shot up in bed. Sleep didn’t come at all.
‘Kalno Noishuetter…!’
It was a problem Asha had completely forgotten.
Even if it was the ‘original work,’ she’d seen it more than ten years ago, so she’d assumed she only remembered the general impressions and the plot outline. But the moment his name registered, memories of Kalno came flooding back with startling clarity.
In the original story, when the Imperial Granddaughter Anastasia had been swept up in her surroundings and begun to threaten Aleksei, naturally those close to Aleksei hadn’t looked upon her kindly. Among Aleksei’s close associates, Kalno Noishuetter had been a formidable figure in many respects.
Though the first son of the Noishuetter Family, he’d spent his years on the battlefield before even reaching adulthood, and he’d devoted all his military achievements to his closest friend—Aleksei.
‘They were close from childhood, after all.’
Kalno himself held some distant claim to the Right of Succession, yet before even reaching adulthood he’d abandoned it and supported Aleksei. So when another Imperial Granddaughter appeared and repeatedly became an eyesore, what else could he do?
Kalno had ground down the Imperial Granddaughter Anastasia as if to pulverize her very bones. And then, when the Imperial Granddaughter Anastasia finally began her fall, it was Kalno Noishuetter who had set that descent in motion, accelerated it, and turned it into a derailed rollercoaster!
If one were to sculpt the antithesis of tenderness, affection, gentleness, and magnanimity into a statue, it would likely bear his likeness. And now this same Kalno Noishuetter was returning from the war.
The preparation of the banquet made sense too. Honoring war heroes was only natural. But it took the Main Palace kitchens themselves to spare because among those war heroes was a nobleman with a claim to the Right of Succession.
Precisely because Kalno Noishuetter was coming home.
‘No, wait. Whether he comes or not, I won’t meet him. I’ll be going home soon anyway!’
She did want to bake pastries. But in this Imperial Palace, where life could end at any moment in ways unforeseeable?
‘Not this time!’
The home might be dirt poor, but someday there would surely come a time when sugar and butter could be found. This time her parents were on her side, so she just had to stay alive. For that, above all else, she needed to escape this Imperial Palace quickly.
Rustle.
While Asha tossed and turned, lost in these thoughts, she suddenly held her breath at a sound from right beside her.
‘Did I mishear?’
But she soon realized she hadn’t. One of the peacock feather patterns on the quilt she was covering herself with had turned a bright chick-yellow.
As Asha lifted herself and tilted her head in confusion, the pattern became increasingly three-dimensional, and the yellow bird that had been embroidered suddenly popped up with a chirp.
“Huh?”
The bird circled once above her head, then flew to the terrace and fluttered its wings. The windows swung wide open at once, and winter wind from outside came rushing in.
“Huh? What? You weren’t a Spirit… No, wait, come back here!”

* * *

Having followed the bird quite far, Asha now glanced around nervously, wondering how on earth she’d find her way back.
From deeper within the darkened room with its tile-lined walls came the faint sound of boiling water, and a dim glow pushed back the shadows. Various cooking implements hung along one wall. When she eased open a drawer in the storage cabinet, she found kitchen knives arranged neatly by type, and several sets of silverware besides.
“A kitchen…?”
This appeared to be a kitchen in Tymir Palace.
For an Imperial Palace kitchen, it was remarkably modest. As she crept inside and looked around, the very bird she’d been chasing descended onto the counter in front of her.
“You!”
The small bird that had emerged from the bedding was unmistakably her Spirit, so it would eventually return to her anyway. She’d meant to let it go wherever it pleased.
Yet the reason Asha had chased after her Spirit in the end was that she had no good excuse for Lis if her pajamas got shredded to rags. The Spirit in bird form—barely the size of a chick on her palm—was surprisingly strong, and it tugged at her pajamas as if to tear them to pieces.
“All right, that’s enough. Come back now……”
Asha was about to scold the bird when she caught sight of what it was carrying in its beak, and her eyes widened in astonishment.
A tiny chick barely the size of a child’s palm was presenting the rarest spectacle: dragging something the size of an adult’s forearm—a dark brick-like object.
‘Wait… is that chocolate? Where on earth did it find this?’
Meanwhile, the little bird rummaged through the kitchen as though it owned the place, gathering various items and heaping them onto the counter. Overcome with curiosity, Asha found a stepping stool, climbed onto it, and began examining what the bird had brought.
“Chocolate, butter, eggs? This white stuff looks like flour… yes, flour. And this must be sugar?”
She touched a pinch of the fine white powder to her tongue and tasted sweetness. A crystalline sweetness bloomed across her mind—the very same sweetness that had swirled around her during the Spirit Ceremony this morning.
It was quality sugar, refined from well-cultivated sugarcane, boiled down, and dried.
‘Has my palate always been this refined?’
She sensed that if she savored the taste a little longer, she could discern even its region of origin. Then her eyes met the yellow bird’s black pupils. Something hovered at the edge of memory, almost there, almost there……

– I miss Mama and Papa……. Even the Imperial Palace is so cold……. I want to go home. I want to eat cake……

“…… You mean these are cake ingredients?”
The moment the bird heard this, it nodded vigorously. At the same time, Asha’s eyes darted around the kitchen, and she clamped both hands around the bird.
“You want me to bake a cake here? Do you have any idea what could happen if we’re caught?”
What good is being the Emperor’s granddaughter? That Emperor radiated an aura that made you think not a drop of blood would flow if you pricked him. She’d seen her cousin’s smiling mouth and cold eyes up close. In the palace of such an Emperor, using the kitchen freely seemed like the last thing she should do.
Besides, she was the Imperial Granddaughter Anastasia, destined to monopolize the suspicion and hostility of everyone around her. She didn’t want to do anything that might attract others’ notice.
“No, wait—hey, just a moment! Just a moment! Why are you crying? Don’t cry! What did I even say to……”
But in response to Asha’s words, the chick-like creature began weeping, tears rolling down its face as it let out soft chirping sobs. Seeing this, Asha fluttered about helplessly and finally threw up her hands in defeat.
It wasn’t that Asha didn’t want to bake pastries. Her mother taught the neighborhood children something like martial arts, and her father earned money by painting or copying manuscripts and selling them.
But merely maintaining their old, shabby house consumed a substantial sum. Buying sugar by the sack was a dream she’d never dared to dream. Once she’d barely scraped together enough food to feed them generously for a month, whatever coins remained went entirely to buying Asha’s clothes and hiring musicians—so truly, there had been no opportunity for money to accumulate.
Yet even in such a household, her parents waited for her. Asha’s desire to return home was genuine. But once she went back, baking pastries would remain an impossibility—that too was the truth.
“Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll bake it. Here goes. If I say it’s for Grandfather, he won’t scold me too much.”
The moment the bird heard this, its tears stopped abruptly, and it broke into laughter—clear and bright as a bell. The bird seemed to understand every word humans spoke.

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