The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 46

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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 Pastry Shop
Chapter 46

“I didn’t use milk, butter, or cream — but I’ll bake the most stunning dessert imaginable and serve it up so those blasted elves gobble it all down, and we’ll crush the pride of every other chef in this kitchen!”
“I beg your pardon? So you’re saying we should…?”
“Not ‘I beg your pardon?’ — ‘Yes, understood!'”
“Y-yes, understood?”
“Sigh.”

* * *

“To be honest, if I can’t use milk, butter, or cream, I’d rather not bake pastries at all.”

“Everything! Sugar and flour make the holy trinity with milk — my beloved three. And butter and cream are milk’s siblings, so…”
Asha had drifted off mid-thought, but her expression hardened as she stared at the stack of books piled on her desk. They were all about the Noctis Elves.
A small yellow chick waddled along, pecking at the spines above and below, before Asha swept Pibi aside with the back of her hand and opened the topmost volume.
“According to the Noctiusol Festival, they don’t drink milk or eat butter.”

“But we have to serve something no matter what, don’t we?”

Asha drew a long breath and pressed her lips together. There was a reason she’d come straight back and opened these books right after stoking Pavel’s enthusiasm.
“It’s just… that cook — Pavel, I mean — I think he’s being harassed because of me.”

“Pavel never used to bake pastries. He only made bread. So why would he end up taking charge of desserts?”
When she’d first met him, Pavel had despised baking pastries, so it seemed strange that he’d been assigned to handle desserts for such a demanding affair.
“Because I kept baking pastries in Pavel’s kitchen… the others probably thought I wasn’t the one actually baking them, that he was teaching me to cook, or something like that.”
And since the pastries made that way had even earned praise from the Emperor and the Crown Prince, the other cooks’ morale had soured understandably.

“Exactly! That’s what I’m saying. And learning about the Noctis Elves is also… connected to that.”
Yet the more Asha read about the Noctis Elves, the more nebulous her findings became.
“But I can’t figure out any of this.”
Objectively confirmed facts about them could be counted on one hand.
The Noctis Elves’ main settlement was within a circular basin called Uhv Hwison, their leader was chosen by lottery, their skin tone was a bluish-gray, and their ears came to sharp points; they lived in communion with nature. Everything else was written in superstitious language and an imperious tone.
“I wanted to figure out why they don’t drink milk…”
Asha had begun to mutter despondently when she noticed Pibi had fallen asleep in the meantime. The spirit lay with wings spread wide and belly exposed, dozing peacefully. It was comical enough that a spirit could sleep at all, but here was a tiny bird snoozing like a human.
“Pibi! Wake up!”

Pibi fluttered awake and looked around in alarm. Asha rested her chin on her hand and flipped through the pages absently.
“About the Noctiusol Festival — did the very first Noctis Elves really ride a sacred cow to the Northern Region?”
In a world with spirits, there was no reason a sacred cow couldn’t exist. As Asha spoke, Pibi perched atop the bookcase and looked down at her, letting out a scornful laugh.

“…!”

Asha grasped that Pibi was referring to the entire mythology surrounding the Noctiusol Festival.
“Why do you hate the Noctis Elves so much?”
It seemed closer to contempt or revulsion than mere dislike. This was the first time she’d ever seen the usually cheerful spirit show such feeling.

“Guilty? The Noctis Elves? What crime did they commit?”

Pibi cried out in exasperation, and Asha’s eyes went wide. She’d never encountered such a thing in any history book she’d ever examined.
“Tore heaven and… earth asunder?”
This time Pibi looked at her as if she were a simpleton, then ruffled its feathers in frustration.

“You have to tell me if you want me to understand.”

“That was nighttime and I was absolutely terrified — besides, it wasn’t the moment to ask questions about that!”
Originally, humans and spirits could converse with each other without any contract at all.
Asha’s eyes widened. The small bird tapped its beak against the notebook’s paper, its expression plainly irritated.
But then some foolish humans and a few stupid spirits got a peculiar idea into their heads.
“A peculiar idea?”
That the earth belonged to humans and the sky to spirits. That spirits should vanish from the ground, and humans should stop meddling with spirits.
“Why did they suddenly decide that?”
It was a dispute over land owned by a feudal lord.
“A feudal lord? ……Oh!”
Asha realized that spirit power had become entangled in the succession dispute Pibi was describing. There were contenders for the throne who couldn’t secure contracts with powerful spirits, and spirits who’d grown disillusioned with being manipulated by humans.
They ended up achieving their desire. They succeeded in dividing heaven and earth. The very thing that cleaved the two worlds in two was the Sword of Sin—split into five pieces of Prasti.
“Ah, I see now……. But what did the Noctis Elves do……?”
The elves hadn’t appeared yet in the story. Asha’s question seemed to be what Pibi had been waiting for, and the spirit continued.
To be precise, they thought they’d succeeded.
The chick’s expression was heavy with contempt as it moved its beak.
By forcibly dividing what had originally been one, Darkness was born.
“Darkness?”
That’s right. Imagine taking a perfectly finished cake and saying you want to divide the cream from the bread. Could you do it cleanly? Crumbs would scatter everywhere. That Darkness—like crumbs—attacked both humans and spirits alongside the Sword of Sin, and the continent was drenched in blood.
“Oh…….”
Eventually, with great difficulty, they succeeded in breaking the Sword of Sin into five pieces and sealing the Darkness away in the Northern Region. But because the seal was incomplete, someone had to take responsibility and maintain it. Naturally, then, those who committed the sin should bear that burden, shouldn’t they?
“So you’re saying the humans and spirits who agreed to divide heaven and earth back then took responsibility for it? But……?”
Asha tilted her head in confusion. Weren’t the Noctis Elves the ones trapped in the Northern Region?
Pibi spoke.
They became the Noctis Elves.
“What?”
While fighting against the Darkness seeping out in that harsh environment, humans and spirits fused into one body. That is what a Noctis Elf is.
Asha’s mouth fell open. It was an unbelievable story, yet Pibi had no reason to lie.
“You’re saying…… humans and spirits merged together?”
Exactly! It’s rather amusing, isn’t it? Gather together all those who insisted humans and spirits must be separated, and they end up becoming one body.
“Good heavens. You yourself denied that Noctis Elves could be half-breeds with humans. How is this possible?”
That’s a different matter entirely!
“Ah, I see…….”
How sinners added together created hybrids bearing Prasti remains a mystery to this very spirit.
The little chick clicked its tongue as if sulking.
What’s so laughable is that they erased their own history entirely and fabricated nothing but ridiculous mythologies to decorate themselves.
Asha sensed the exasperation radiating from Pibi and quickly changed the subject.
“If that’s the case, why don’t they drink milk during the Noctiusol Festival? Do they just match the rhythm of the made-up myth? But in the Northern Region where food is already scarce…….”
There is no sacred cow. There is no myth. And yet in the Northern Region, where food supplies are harsh, there’s a week when they deliberately avoid all dairy products for reasons of piety…….
There are only two reasons why people would restrict food intake.
“Either they get addicted to it…….”
Asha understood.
“Or milk gives the Noctis Elves stomachaches!”
The food disagreed with their bodies.
The Noctis Elves suffered from lactose intolerance.

* * *

Of course, learning that most Noctis Elves had lactose intolerance didn’t change much in practical terms.
The fact that the elves’ dairy restriction was limited to the Noctiusol Festival meant that as time passed, more elves became capable of digesting milk—but the persistence of the restricted period suggested it was a matter of faith rather than physical possibility.
“Sigh, I’ll have to ask them to leave the milk out of any trifle from now on……. But how should I handle this? Should I use plant-based oil instead of butter? But they won’t eat cream either…….”
Her first thought was a chiffon cake made with plant-based oil. It wouldn’t contain milk or butter, yet she could bake a sheet that was moist and light, soft and elegant in flavor.
But that seemed too plain to serve without any kind of frosting, and for entertaining the peace delegation, it simply wasn’t enough.
Asha quickly flipped through her recipe notebook that her family had sent her. Yet because she’d spent years yearning for butter and cream, every recipe in the book called for those ingredients.
“Ah!”
As Asha turned the pages rapidly, her eyes suddenly lit up at the final sheet.
That recipe was written last precisely because this cake contained plenty of things she didn’t particularly care for and lacked the things she loved.
“How about this?”
Asha opened the notebook and asked Pibi. The spirit lifted its head and slowly scanned the recipe with its black eyes, then chirped a satisfied “peep.”
“Perfect! Let’s go prepare it right away!”
Asha bolted up from her seat, and Pibi fluttered aloft to land on her shoulder. But her eager stride toward the kitchen stopped short.
Asha stepped around the corner of the corridor, then immediately spun back and hid behind a pillar. Two people were walking toward her from the opposite direction.
‘Kalno? What’s Kalno doing here?’
She recognized the man standing beside him too.
‘Isn’t he the commander-in-chief of the Northern Region campaign? His name was…… what was it? Gilhelm…… something.’

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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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