The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 73

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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 73

‘Ah~!’
So that was why—Pibi had been calling only Kalno by his name, when the Emperor himself was called Lord by her. That must have been it.
‘Is Prasti among the Opera members? Or could it be…….’
Pibi shook her head.

‘Then she’s the employer after all?’
Prasti—someone who would interfere with her little shop? Alexei had already given Asha a hint about the identity of the person who had hired Joya.
‘What should I do? Can I do it the same way as with Ibven?’
Ibven, who had recently recovered a thread of his emotions, was still devoted to his Sword Training. It seemed that working hard and achieving something had become his will.

‘Good. Then I’ll…….’
The moment Asha and Pibi had thought that far.
“Your Highness! His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has come to visit.”
Lis, who had stepped out and returned, called from beyond the door, her voice startled. Asha’s eyes widened.
“Grandfather? Here?”
“He’ll be arriving shortly. We need to prepare to receive him at once.”
Asha stood holding the spatula, staring at Lis with a bewildered expression.

* * *

“It’s because of Grandfather.”
“……What?”
Mikhail turned his head, his brow furrowed. It had been Alexei, his eldest grandson, who had suggested taking Asha to see the Opera. The Emperor had readily agreed when told his cousin wished to show her an enjoyable performance.
But on the way back, something unpleasant had happened that had spoiled Asha’s mood. As Emperor, he had personally summoned Lis, Asha’s maid, to interrogate her, but learned little of substance.
At a loss for how to lift his granddaughter’s spirits, he had decided to visit her himself during the afternoon tea hour. This was the present situation.
And his granddaughter had set before him a stack of about ten pancakes, saying they had just been baked.
“You’ve already heard the whole story from Alexei anyway, haven’t you?”
“Ahem.”
The Emperor cleared his throat.
Surely he should have already grasped the solution before coming to visit his granddaughter? Fortunately, Alexei had told him everything plainly.
That someone had falsely denounced Asha’s shop—the one she had opened under contract with Baron Sarato—that this person had taken the stage at the Opera Asha attended, and that the actor was hired by Valery, the Emperor’s own son.
“How is that my fault? Do you mean to scold me for poor parenting?”
“How could I possibly do such a thing to Your Majesty?”
It sounded like she intended to have sharp words with Valery instead. The Emperor looked at his granddaughter and mentally revised his treatment plan regarding Valery.
“If you’re not scolding me, how is any of this my fault?”
“It’s about Joya!”
“Joya?”
The Chief Chamberlain whispered softly from beside him.
“Your Majesty, that is the name of the Opera singer.”
The Emperor nodded.
“How is that my fault?”
“Why would Joya have done such a thing? It was because she had no child support, wasn’t it?”
“That is my fault?”
“If your subject suffers in anguish and makes a choice they should not have made, whose fault is it?”
Just moments before, the granddaughter had been pouting like a petulant child, but now her voice rang with the severity of Justice herself, pronouncing guilt and punishment.
Words from the mouth of a ten-year-old girl that were hard to believe, and all the more cutting for their discord. The Emperor, who had been cutting his pancake with his fork, stopped mid-motion and gazed at his granddaughter quietly.
In the meanwhile, Asha was consuming her own freshly baked pancakes and berry compote with aggressive determination.
“……Yes, it is my fault.”
“That’s right. It’s Grandfather’s fault.”
The Emperor was reluctant to admit that he felt relieved simply because the word his granddaughter used had changed from “Your Majesty” back to “Grandfather.”
“Then what would you have me do?”
“Niki’s father has run away somewhere, they say.”
The Chief Chamberlain bowed slightly beside the Emperor again.
“Joya’s son is Niki.”
The Emperor nodded.
“Would you be satisfied if I had that man brought to you?”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t want to live with a father who abandoned me and ran away. I don’t even want to look at him.”
“Then shall I have him killed?”
“Oh wait! Give him money instead.”
“Money?”
Asha told Lis to bring vanilla ice cream. With all her strength, she scooped out one generous helping and placed it in the Emperor’s bowl, then pushed the bowl a little closer to him and smiled brightly.
“Since Niki’s father ran away without taking responsibility, he should pay it back in money!”
“Very well.”
“But what if Niki’s father just promises to pay and keeps putting it off?”
The Emperor set down his knife entirely. His granddaughter gazed at him with an innocent face, then took a large bite of pancake. The Emperor sighed, picked up his napkin, and wiped the syrup from the corner of Asha’s mouth with his own hand.
“I shall provide child support to Joya directly, and I will ensure that Niki’s father repays every coin I spend. Whoever Niki’s father is, he won’t dare defer a debt owed to the Emperor.”
Asha added one more scoop of vanilla ice cream and broke into a broad smile. The Emperor watched his granddaughter laugh and silently clicked his tongue.
‘Her heart is far too soft.’
That opera singer Joya had spouted nonsense outside a shop simply because she lacked money—as though it had scarcely happened at all.
“Speaking of which, I hear you’ve agreed to attend a tea party hosted by the Marquess Tataritsa’s daughter.”
Asha, who had just been eating ice cream and pancake at once in a somewhat cheerful manner, paused and looked up.
“Well, to be precise, the Marquess’s wife sent me a letter. She said her daughter is the same age as me and invited me to visit. It sounded fun.”
“Is it not because the Marquess’s wife praised the cake from the patisserie you unveiled?”
“Haha.”
His granddaughter laughed sheepishly, evidently caught. The Emperor waved his hand to show he wasn’t pressing the matter and gave a meaningful glance to the Chief Chamberlain—an order to have a new dress made for his granddaughter to wear to the tea party. As the conversation shifted to the tea party, the shadow that had briefly crossed his granddaughter’s face seemed to fade.
“By the way, you lost your gloves?”
“Oh! Yes, I was terribly upset about it.”
The Emperor clicked his tongue again. His granddaughter was clearly incapable of lying convincingly. The way she darted her eyes gave her away every time.
“I’ll have new ones made for you as well.”
His granddaughter mumbled that it was fine and smiled sheepishly. The Emperor ordered all the remaining pancakes on the plate sent to Astartad Palace, then rose from his seat.

* * *

“What is all this, Imperial Heir?”
Asha gave Kalno a sidelong look at his teasing question. The kitchen she had received from the Emperor was open in layout, but it belonged to the innermost sections of Tymir Palace, Alexei’s residence. Which meant it was not a place just anyone could wander in and out of.
And if one had to name someone who could move through such a kitchen as though it were his own home, for Alexei it would be Kalno, his friend, the next Duke of Sedvoyer, and the man who had earned great merit in the recent war.
Asha responded in time with Kalno’s banter.
“Pancakes made with plenty of milk, sir. I’m still baking up the rest of the batter—would you like some too?”
“…You still have batter left?”
Kalno looked back and forth between the plate Asha held out and the large bowl sitting on the work counter, then abandoned any pretense of formality.
“How is this made?”
Asha assumed Kalno was merely showing polite interest, but she launched into a detailed account of how the batter came to be.
First, you warm the milk in a pan while mixing flour and yeast. A spoonful of sugar too, and you heat the milk until it’s warm but not boiling, then blend it with the flour mixture.
While waiting for the batter to rise, you fetch a handful of strawberries from the cold storage—only the ones that have ripened to a brilliant red and gleam like jewels.
As you remove the stems and cut them into pieces, you spread sugar in a pan over heat and let it caramelize. When the sugar has melted like caramel, you pour in the cut strawberries and cook them briefly, squeeze in lemon juice, and remove from the heat—a fresh strawberry compote is born.
“After that, you just have to bake the risen batter. Which is what I’m doing now.”
“Do you bake this many whenever you’re in a bad mood?”
“Who says my mood is bad?”
“Alexei does.”
“Did Kalno come to the palace because of my mood?”
“So it’s true your mood is off.”
Asha tried to deny it, but then she looked at the twentieth pancake she was baking and stopped.
“A little…”
“Why? Because of that singer?”
“Goodness. Is there no such thing as privacy here? Or is it just that you and Alexei share absolutely everything with each other?”
Kalno, who had popped one of the baked pancakes into his mouth, continued with an enigmatic expression.
“The latter isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s the former.”
“Tch. It’s not really because of Joya. It’s just…”
“Just?”
“Promise you won’t laugh.”
“I can’t promise that.”
Asha gave Kalno a sidelong glance, then sighed and poured the last of the batter from the bowl onto the pan before opening her mouth to speak.
“Just listen then. Well, actually it’s really nothing much. It’s just…… I’ve never heard anyone say pastries don’t taste good before.”
“……?”
A look of bewilderment crossed Kalno’s face. Asha noticed it and, her cheeks flushing, fixed her gaze intently on the pancake’s air bubbles.
“When I came to the Imperial Palace, that was the first time I’d ever made pastries. And ever since then, everyone’s only ever said they tasted good…… It’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say otherwise. That someone would say they don’t taste good…….”
“Besides, that Opera singer Joya wasn’t speaking from the heart anyway. She made a deal to say things like that in exchange for money.”

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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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