The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 70

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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
Episode 70

Asha quickly grabbed his shoulders and shook them gently.
“Kalno, you can put me down now.”
“…….”
Kalno didn’t answer her, but only after he tilted so far that she nearly tumbled did he sigh and set her down.
It took a long while for the line to shorten before Asha could finally see the sandwich board standing in front of the shop.

“This…… what is this.”
The sandwich board featured elegant lettering and even a charming illustration of a fondant au chocolat. If the front hadn’t been packed with people, passersby would have stopped just to admire the drawing. At Asha’s dumbfounded voice, Kalno couldn’t help but laugh.
“Good heavens. ‘Asha’s Chocolate Cake,’ no less. And here I thought you’d come as a mere ‘customer.'”
“Be quiet, Kalno! How…… how did this happen?”

‘Well, yes, but……!’
She’d been naming pastries terribly lately, it seemed. Asha floundered between embarrassment and confusion for a moment before taking a deep breath and striking the smirking Kalno repeatedly.
“Let’s just…… just place an order.”
Unable to face saying “Asha’s Chocolate Cake” aloud herself, Asha pushed Lis forward.
Lis, who had apparently already learned the cake’s name when she’d come to observe the customers earlier, ordered three with a subtle smile on her face. Meanwhile, Asha quickly added two more to the order.
“I was hoping to see Sophia while we were here. But she seems terribly busy. We’ll…… have to meet another time.”
Seeing that Lis wore an expression saying ‘I must appear if you summon me,’ Asha quickly caught her arm again.
“I’m sure she would be delighted.”
“No, no. Absolutely not.”
Could anything be more vexing and burdensome than having the proprietor come by while you were working? Asha had no stake in the shop itself, yet she was certain she imposed far more of a burden on it than anyone else. Just as she was about to suggest they leave—
“Blegh! No! What…… what does this taste like!”
A cry pierced through the bustling crowd. At the same moment came the sound of something wet being hurled to the ground. All eyes turned toward the source.
A woman with her brow deeply furrowed wore clothes that didn’t quite fit her properly, and she began airing her complaints in a shrill voice about what she’d just spat out.
“What in the world is in this?! Not even rotting sewage tastes like this! Blegh! You’re selling this garbage for money? You’ve lost your mind!”
“Ma’am, if the cake isn’t to your taste…….”
“It’s not about the taste—there’s something foul mixed inside!”
The employee taking orders rushed out to appease the woman, but instead she only grew more frantic. The surrounding customers began to murmur nervously, and those waiting in line outside began quietly slipping away.
Asha too was initially so startled that she could only gape and stare, but when Lis tried to block her view, she snapped back to awareness.
“Wait!”
Amid the woman’s shrill shouts, the clearly flustered employee’s expression, and the murmuring that rippled through like background music, a youthful voice rang out and captured everyone’s attention.
Asha pushed past a startled Lis and rushed toward the cake the woman had thrown. After a moment’s hesitation, she plucked the top portion of the fallen cake and shoved it into her mouth.
“Ah, miss!”
“What are you doing……! Spit it out.”
As Asha was still chewing, Kalno brought his palm to her lips as if to catch whatever she might spit out. Asha only looked more horrified and pushed him away.
‘Spit it out?’
‘That’s nonsense!’
After that wordless exchange with Kalno, Asha swallowed what was in her mouth and turned to face the woman.
“There’s nothing wrong with this cake. Why are you acting like this?”
At Asha’s question, the woman faltered. Asha’s clothes had a modest design but were clearly made of fine fabric, and with an attendant beside her and a boy in elegant attire, she looked every bit a person of noble birth.
But the hesitation was brief. The woman quickly raised her voice again.
“You…… who are you! I don’t know what you ate, but what I ate……!”
“You just threw what you ate on the ground. It’s exactly what I ate. It tastes fine—why are you screaming?”
Asha refused to back down, raising her own voice. The cake strewn across the floor, the bewildered employee, the murmuring crowd—all of it kindled a fire within her.
“The part I ate was disgusting! And that’s because you hired some retired soldier who fled from war instead of a proper Patissier, so of course it tastes like…….”
The woman seemed about to shout something even louder. She might have, if Asha hadn’t pushed her with all her strength. No one expected her to resort to physical force, which is why short gasps escaped from various corners.
The woman, caught off guard, staggered backward and fell. But Asha couldn’t continue her tirade—at the very moment Pibi gave a frightened squeak, Kalno lifted her cleanly off her feet and handed her to Lis.
“Calm down.”
“I’m too—I’m way too—”
She’d never imagined that not knowing proper curses would be such a curse. As Asha pointed at the woman with trembling fingers, her lips moving uselessly, Kalno turned his back and approached the fallen woman, extending his hand. Even as she grasped it and stood, the woman continued to jab an accusing finger at Asha.
“What, how dare this impudent little—”
“How much were you paid?”
“What, what?”
“I won’t ask who hired you. I’m asking how much they paid you to come here and pull this stunt.”
The woman’s face, which had registered nothing but confusion at Kalno’s words, suddenly flushed crimson.
She tried to wrench her hand free as though the outrageous insult had set her ablaze, but found she couldn’t. Kalno had tightened his grip on the hand he was raising.
“Not in the mood to talk?”
“I—I didn’t—let—”
The woman twisted her wrist, but it wouldn’t slip free. Then, in an instant, a fine black powder began to scatter from around her hand.
The onlookers noticed nothing as her glove turned to ash and crumbled away in seconds. But the woman whose hand was being held felt it at once—death settling at her fingertips. The color drained slowly from her face as she stared at the inexplicable phenomenon.
“What—what is this—”
Kalno released that hand and seized her other wrist—the one still glistening with cake residue.
“This hand has no glove.”
No glove to turn to ash. Then what would burn away instead?
The woman’s face went deathly pale in an instant. She thrashed to free her arm, but it was useless. Her lips couldn’t even form a scream. Kalno gazed at her stricken expression, bent close, and whispered.
“Tell your employer that this is pointless.”
Only then did he release her hand. The woman clutched her wrist to her chest, staggered back through the crowd, and fled.

* * *

The moment the woman disappeared, Kalno quickly tidied the area and summoned a carriage to take Asha and Lis away. Attention was already beginning to gather.
Even inside the carriage, Asha fumed for a long while. And as her anger waned, she tugged at Kalno’s hand and muttered in a dejected voice.
“Sophia must have heard all that.”
Kalno tried to evade as Asha suddenly brought up an unrelated concern and reached for his hand. But the movement was clumsy, and she caught him before he could escape.
With a gloomy expression, Asha unfolded his hand the way one might smooth out laundry, and gently brushed away the fine ash dust clinging to his palm with her sleeve. Kalno flinched but did not pull his hand away.
“What would Sophia have heard.”
“What that woman shouted—”

—The part I ate tasted like garbage! You hired some patissier reject, some retired soldier who ran from war, and that’s why the taste is—

Sweets could taste bad. They might not suit someone’s palate. But how could anyone say such things?
“Sophia must have been terribly hurt.”
“Sophia didn’t desert. That’s a fact. Why should that wound her?”
“A knife still cuts, even if the blade strikes a lie.”
“Then she shouldn’t let falsehoods cut her.”
“……”
Asha glared at Kalno, then struck his hand sharply, twice. She brushed away the last of the ash dust and tossed his hand aside as if discarding it. Kalno looked at her with what sounded like suppressed laughter and spoke.
“Well, what am I to do?”
“What do you—what?”
“What would it take to lift your spirits? Tell me.”
Asha’s mouth fell open at his question, then narrowed into a glare, and finally she whipped her head away.
“There’s nothing you can do about my feelings.”
“How troublesome.”
“Don’t talk like Alexei.”
“Does Alexei always indulge your whims like this?”
“Are you saying you’re trying to indulge my whims right now?”
“Half-heartedly?”
“Hmph. Useless.”
With that, Asha turned her head sharply away again.
“And besides! I’m not pouting right now!”
Even as Asha said it, she knew it sounded unconvincing. What did a ten-year-old girl look like with that much anger on her face? Yet when Kalno replied, his voice was surprisingly earnest.
“I know. That’s why I said half-heartedly.”
“……Hmph.”
“If you go back all worked up, Alexei might not let you out again.”
“Alexei wouldn’t do that.”
Asha muttered her retort while touching her cheek, trying to smooth away her expression. But by the time the carriage reached the Imperial Palace, the faint melancholy lingering on her face had not wholly disappeared.
As Asha had said, Kalno could do nothing to lift her spirits.

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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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