Volume 2 - CH 30

Lady Sophia, the young Lady I work for, was seated at a table in one corner of the meticulously tended courtyard located in the secondary residence of the Rosenberg Marquis household, located in the royal city. The table was drizzled in the sunlight filtered by the trees above.

Set out in front of the lovely young girl was a mille crêpe1 and black tea, both of which I made myself.

“For today’s teatime, I’ve prepared mille crêpe for you. As for the black tea, it is brewed using the tea leaves that we began cultivating inside the Rosenberg Marquis household’s fief.”

“It’s called mille crêpe? It smells super sweet and delicious.”

She cut off a small piece of the mille crêpe and brought it to her mouth. The change in her expression right after she took a bite was downright dramatic. Lady Sophia’s eyes sparkled, their colour changing due to her happiness.

“…It’s delicious! The texture is wonderful as well. Since it has the word ‘crêpe’ in its name, is it made out of those kinds of crêpes stacked up on top of each other?”

“Yes. The recipe is slightly different but fundamentally, it’s just like you said. It takes a lot of time and effort to make so it’s not really suitable for commoners…”

When I hinted at the fact that it would become popular with the nobility due to its beautiful appearance, a smile made its way to Sophia’s face. Judging by the reactions of the persons involved as well, there was no doubt that the crêpes attracted attention. If they released a new cake made out of these crêpes, it would probably draw even more attention from the noble young Ladies. My Lady probably noticed that I made the mille crêpe after I had predicted that outcome.

“I simply wished for you to enjoy crêpes in a different form, my Lady. Of course, I’ll leave the decision on what to do with this recipe to you, my Lady.”

My wish was for Lady Sophia to spend her days happily. Therefore, it didn’t matter to me whether she used the recipe to increase her own influence or whether she would just enjoy it by herself.

“Then, let’s enjoy it, just the two of us, for a short while, Cyril.”

“Me as well?”

I tilted my head in puzzlement, wondering what she meant. As if responding to my confusion, she held out a fork with a mouth-sized piece of the mille crêpe stuck on it. Realizing her intentions, I chided her. 

“That’s not very proper, my Lady.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t have done something so improper. I am simply asking you to test it for poison, Cyril.”

She wore an elegant smile but the face of a mischievous child was peeking through the depths of her eyes. She had already eaten a piece earlier in the first place so there couldn’t possibly be poison or anything of the sort in it.

However, it was an interesting excuse.

With a wry smile that said: ‘Guess I have no other choice then, do I?’, I made sure that there wasn’t anyone in the vicinity. Then, grasping my Lady’s hand that was holding the fork, I sunk my teeth into the mille crêpe in front of me.

“Ah…Cyril?”

She certainly didn’t think that I would heartily eat the cake she had offered me herself. Her graceful smile crumbled and her translucent white cheeks were tinged with red.

“Do not worry, my Lady. It might be a little too sweet but there’s no poison in it.”

“Huh? Oh, I asked you to taste it for poison, didn’t I… It’s a little too sweet, you said? I thought that the sweetness was just the right amount…”

As if she was feeling uncertain about her own palate, her lovely face clouded over. Although she excelled in keeping up appearances, the young Lady who frequently changed her expressions in front of me over trivial things was really endearing.

“Cyril? Why are you laughing?”

“Ah no, it is nothing. More importantly, it’s only natural that you would feel that the sweetness is just the right amount, my Lady, seeing that I made this mille crêpe for you.”

Lady Sophia liked her food a little bit sweeter than I did. So inevitably, the cake that I had made for her would taste a little too sweet to me.

“I see…That’s the reason why it is sweet just the right amount for me, isn’t it?” 

Looking impressed, my Lady cut off another piece of the crêpe, piercing it with the fork. However, just as she was about to put it into her mouth, she stiffened.

“…Lady Sophia, would you like to use another fork?”

“Huh?! T-that’s not necessary.”

“Is that so…?”

“T-that’s right. Isn’t tasting for poison something that is done quite often to begin with?”

Certainly, it wasn’t unusual to taste food for poison but it wasn’t done by using the same fork. I thought that perhaps my Lady found it unpleasant after all but she opened her mouth wide and bit into the cake.

Then her face turned bright red, but she kept her facial expression composed as if nothing had happened at all. 

My Lady began to speak, her voice was just a little bit squeaky.

“Come to think of it, Cyril, won’t you open a pastry shop?”

“Me?”

“Yes. With your level of skills, opening a shop that would become popular in the royal city would be easy, right?”

“Since I only make desserts for you, my Lady, I don’t really want to open a pastry shop. Moreover, Libert is in the middle of preparations to open his own shop-” 

Right when I said that, I got an idea and turned towards my Lady with a smile on my face.

“Lady Sophia, let’s do some social studies.2”

“Oh, what kind of social studies are we going to do this time?”

The cornerstone of my teaching methods was to ‘See it in practice and learn from it.’ Since we had held several sessions for social studies up to this point, Lady Sophia showed interest in what this one will entail from the start. 

“Let’s prepare a wig,” I stated, as my Lady’s eyes sparkled.

***

Located on the main street of the royal city, there was a diner.3 Leena, the pretty girl attracting customers to the shop, was waiting on tables, flitting around the shop in a hurry. 

The shop had been open for only a few years but it gradually gathered popularity due to its delicious food. Although the number of customers had been rising slowly but steadily for a while, recently, the number of customers had seen a drastic rise.

The reason for this was the construction work located diagonally opposite the shop. The workers employed at the construction site came into their shop as customers.

If only that were true, it would be something to be happy about…

There was a visible shadow lurking on the girl’s smiling face, as she ran around the shop in a hurry, her red hair fluttering behind her. A few days ago, her father, the owner of the diner, collapsed due to overworking himself. Although he wasn’t able to get up from his bed at the moment, fortunately, his life wasn’t in grave danger. If he rested properly, he should fully recover before long. 

However, this small restaurant was only run by three people – the father, his wife and his daughter, Leena. Since Leena’s mother was in charge of the cooking, they were able to manage somehow in that department but they just didn’t have the time to go stock up. At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to keep the diner running.

Besides, Leena thought, turning her gaze out the window and looking at the construction site diagonally opposite their shop. Apparently, the LaCour Company, which was so famous that there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know its name in this city, was opening a shop there. Moreover, according to the gossip of their customers, it was going to be some kind of a food shop.

Despite her father telling her that if it was a The LaCour company shop, its target customers would surely be wealthy people, so they wouldn’t become their competition, Leena was still unendingly worried about them stealing their customers away. Since her father had collapsed, she couldn’t say with certainty that he didn’t feel anxious about it either.

Leena’s family was by no means wealthy. Her parents owned the business and it was Leena’s dream to inherit it but if they experienced even just a slight setback, all of it might disappear, just like a bubble popping. Precisely because of this, her whole family had to overcome this crisis together.

She probably shouldn’t have been waiting on tables with this kind of fighting spirit, because as she was carrying a drink refill to a certain table, her hand slipped and she ended up dropping the cup.

In an instant that seemed to have lasted forever, the cup fell onto the table and as the glass knocked against the table, the drink spilled over.

“I-I am so sorry!”

The apologizing Leena froze in place as she looked at the person the drink ended up splashing upon. She must have just turned ten, perhaps? Although it was a young girl with the same red hair as hers, from the appearance of the girl who wore a dress adorned with high-quality embroidery, Leena was able to surmise that she was obviously born into high-ranked nobility.

W-wh-wh-wh-what do I do now?! Reimbursement?! I have to reimburse her, right!?

Among expensive clothes, there were ones that Leena wouldn’t be able to buy even if she worked her whole life for them. It was natural that Leena would freeze and conjure up future scenarios of getting into debt and falling into slavery. 

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In place of the frozen up Leena, a young boy that was sitting across from the young girl stood up and began to nimbly wipe off the liquid that had splattered onto her face. The same boy glared at Leena sharply.

“What are you doing standing there in a daze? Bring a cloth to wipe the table with, please.”

“E-excuse me!”

Leena barged into the kitchen in a panic and grabbed a dishcloth lying there and returned to the table. By that time, the young Lady had already stepped away from the table and was letting the young boy wipe the stain on her dress.

“U-um, I will help you.”

“No need, I’ve got it covered. More importantly, would it be possible for you to lend us a room?”

Now that the boy had mentioned it, she noticed it as well. They were obviously attracting the attention of the people in the vicinity. They couldn’t allow for the young Lady, covered in the spilled drink, to stay exposed to the public eye any longer.

“I deeply apologize. There is a room at the back, I will lead the way.”

“No need. I shall ask that person worriedly glancing our way therefore you needn’t trouble yourself with that. More importantly, you should clean up the table.”

At that time, Leena wasn’t composed enough to notice that he said it out of concern, telling her to put the other customers first. Leena directed a sideways glance at her mother, who came to check out what was happening after overhearing the commotion. Looking pale, she guided the two customers to the back. On the verge of tears, Leena began to wipe the table clean.

Thank you for reading! I’ve been seeing some comments about people missing the main story and wanting to read it, so I decided to make a poll!

I hope it will work fine for everyone! The poll will be open until next week, so a lot of the readers have a chance to vote. I will either continue working on the Side Stories or the third volume depending on the poll results! 

Since the poll is running until next week, next week’s chapter is going to be the second part of this side story.  Then, depending on the result, I will either translate the prologue of Volume Three or the next parts of this side story.