CH 5

“Where’s the scale?”

“Peep?”

“You need to weigh how much you have to put in.”

“Peep peep!“

“You can’t just measure this sort of thing with your heart, you stupid bird.”

“Peep!”

It happened when Asha had went off in search for the scale while pretending not to hear the bird’s chirping.

“What are you doing here, kid?”

A man’s gruff voice suddenly came from behind.

Asha turned around in surprise.

A fierce-looking middle-aged man, wearing a white apron, looked at her and narrowed his eyes.

“Which palace do you belong to? Just what were you doing here? There was never a kid like you in Taymyr Palace.”

She gulped as she saw the man’s sharp eyes.

Just judging by the way he was swinging a ladle around as if it were his own front yard, the man who was wearing a white apron seemed to be the head chef here.

Asha was startled, holding back her hiccups and hurriedly opening her mouth.

However…

“I’m Asha, no, Anastasia Yuriev…”

“Whether you’re Anastasia or Yuriev, even if you’re some great noble, you dare to come into my kitchen without my permission and mess around?!”

The man’s fierce roar reverberated in the kitchen as Asha gulped once again.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Where’s the scale?”

“Peep?”

“You need to weigh how much you have to put in.”

“Peep peep!“

“You can’t just measure this sort of thing with your heart, you stupid bird.”

“Peep!”

It happened when Asha had went off in search for the scale while pretending not to hear the bird’s chirping.

“What are you doing here, kid?”

A man’s gruff voice suddenly came from behind.

Asha turned around in surprise.

A fierce-looking middle-aged man, wearing a white apron, looked at her and narrowed his eyes.

“Which palace do you belong to? Just what were you doing here? There was never a kid like you in Taymyr Palace.”

She gulped as she saw the man’s sharp eyes.

Just judging by the way he was swinging a ladle around as if it were his own front yard, the man who was wearing a white apron seemed to be the head chef here.

Asha was startled, holding back her hiccups and hurriedly opening her mouth.

However…

“I’m Asha, no, Anastasia Yuriev…”

“Whether you’re Anastasia or Yuriev, even if you’re some great noble, you dare to come into my kitchen without my permission and mess around?!”

The man’s fierce roar reverberated in the kitchen as Asha gulped once again.

Then, her yellow bird suddenly fluttered in between the two people. The man flailed his arms around whilst the bird flapped its wings, peeping away.

“What’s wrong with this chick bastard? Ugh, what’s going on! Is this something you brought in with you too?!”

“N-No, it’s actually the one who brought me here instead of the other way around. Also it’s a chicken, not a chick bastard…”

“Urk, what were you thinking, bringing animals into a kitchen? The only birds that can come into the kitchen are either dead birds or fire birds! No, you fucking bird!”

As soon as he said that, the bird’s buzzing became even worse.

The small bird was so energetic and nimble, that even the burly middle-aged chef was helpless against it.

Asha glanced at the chef who was falling back, step by step with a pitiful expression on his face.

After the match in the middle of the night had ended, the chef who was breathing hard had a face that seemed to hint at his obvious lack of oxygen.

The bird circled around her head gracefully and settled itself on her head, as if it had not been the cause of the commotion earlier.

Asha hurriedly waved her hands in the chef’s face, whose gaze made it seem as if he wanted to catch and roast every bird alive to eat.

“I…I really didn’t bring it.”

The chef glared at Asha with a scowl on his face, fuming as he huffed.

“Then is the thing on your head not a bird but a spirit? Hurry up and get the hell out of here before I catch it steam it for a quick meal!”

Although the chef, in his moment of confusion ended up hitting the correct answer, he did not end up noticing it and Asha did not intend to inform him that he was correct.

However, at that moment, the bird suddenly proceeded to fly toward the chef once again.

Asha just stared at the second round’s match between the chef and the bird.

The chef, who was struggling with his fists in the air, seemed as if he was on the verge of passing out in frustration.

Somehow, a triumphant looking bird leaned against the cooking table and looked at the chef, who was breathing heavily, then circled above her head like before.

Asha rolled her light green eyes.

“…if you let me bake some snacks, just once, then I’ll leave quietly after that.”

“Snacks in my kitchen? No way…”

The chef, who was about to shout out a word of refusal, hurriedly shut his mouth at the birds peep.

“…just this once. But the bird has to stay calm, and you need to thoroughly clean the kitchen before going back.”

“I don’t want to come back here twice either!”

Asha replied coyly and raised her hand to point at the shelves above the cooking station.

“Then, please bring out the scales.”

Chef Pavel pursed his lips and clenched his teeth tightly together and said, “If there’s anything you’d like to make, I’ll teach you how to make it.”

But the girl, whose soft peachy looking hair was flowing down her back, her reply was really something.

“I heard that Pavel isn’t in charge of the snacks though? Do you even know how to make them?”

“…”

In the end, Asha just asked him to prepare boiled water for her. She ended up treating him as if he was an errand boy, so to speak.

Although she was less than ten years old, Asha liked to think that her impression whilst speaking was a lot smarter than expected.

“Ah…the shell fell in.”

But her fingertips were definitely less mature and dexterous.

Pavel clicked his tongue.

She had only wanted to crack an egg with her small hands, but it looked like there was a piece of the shell that had fallen inside.

“…I can at least do the eggs.”

The girl pouted her lips and gently puffed out her cheeks at Pavel’s remark.

Pavel skillfully added three more eggs with one hand.

“What are you making?”

“Hmm, something similar to a chocolate cake? Put the hot water in another bowl.”

“Chocolate? What’s chocolate?”

The girl who was already surprised when she saw the whisk at first, looking at it as if she was saying ‘What’s with this mass of tree branches?!’, then turned around with an even more shocked face.

“That’s chocolate. Does Pavel not even know what’s in his own kitchen?”

“This chestnut-sized brat…”

Pavel had a feverish look on his face, but instead of getting angry, he picked up the object that the girl had pointed at, which looked like a brick.

He knew had known what this was. However, he had forgotten this thing was in his kitchen until now.

Baron Saratov had said it was a valuable item, but it had been too bitter so it was an ingredient that had been neglected until now.

Although he had also been told that in the south, people had grinded it and drank it with sugar or honey, however, murky tea was not his cup of tea.

However, he hadn’t been able to throw it away since it had been a valuable item.

“Are you going to use this bitter thing?”

“…it tastes bitter?”

The girl opened her eyes wide in surprise. The girl’s eyes that were green like fresh saplings blinked as she cut off a little of what she had in her hand and put it in her mouth to taste.

Her face crumpled into a frown in an instant.

“Eck.”

“Look, I told you it was bitter! Haha, this is the taste of life. Do you understand now, you tiny brat?”

He threatened her as much as he could, but the girl didn’t seem to care and casually opened her mouth.

“When are you going to get me that water?”

“This brat, seriously!”

Pavel tried to squeezed his fists tightly together before swallowing a groan.

If the situation had been as usual, Pavel would not have agreed to play house like this with such a young kid.

“If it wasn’t for that damn bird or spirit…”

The yellow chick who was sitting on the girl’s shoulder was staring at him with its threatening black eyes.

However, the girl who had no clue at all what was going on continued chattering on.

“Double-boil the 220 rossos of chocolate over there and the 220 rossos of butter and…”

The girl stopped talking for a moment and turned her head away.

The place her eyes had landed on was the white jug which was currently sitting in ice water.

“With the cream too. Hmm, 50 rossos of cream should be enough.”

“Hmm, you put in equal parts of chocolate, butter, and eggs, right?”

“Correct!”

On top of that, unlike what he had thought was just an elated child playing house, the small girl who was continuously reciting a number of plausible steps to a recipe seemed to be doing better than he expected. Pavel’s curiosity was gradually piqued.

In the meantime, the girl poured the chocolate and eggs that he had double boiled and then slowly started to mix them together with a spatula.

As the mixture became thicker, the amount seemed to be too large and unmanageable for the girl’s arms.

Pavel decided to have mercy on her.

“Clean it up. I’ll do it for you.”

“No, I’ll do it. Uncle, you just bring me the dry ingredients.”

“W-Who are you calling uncle?!”

“I’d like 60 rossos of flour, but it would be better if you had cake flour instead.”

“Where are we right now, of course we have it!”

The dry flour was then added into the girl’s dough. After mixing it slowly, the girl’s thick cake batter was soon completely finished.

“Finished…ah, I forgot to preheat the oven.”

“Do you think I would ever lower the heat in my kitchen oven?”

At his proud words, the girl opened her eyes wide, running to the oven where he had pointed at.

The girl looked at the oven on the wall from all different sides and angles, then turned back to look at him.

“Wow, can I control the temperature of this too?”

The question was so innocent that Pavel faltered and hesitated for a while.

While this tiny fairy-like girl kept acting like an adult, now it was as if she had seen magic.

“How does this work? I don’t even see a hole to put the firewood in.”

“Firewood you say, are you perhaps someone who came from the Otroph era?”

The Kingdom of Otroph was a kingdom that had ruled the empire around a thousand years ago. Now, of course, it had been a long time since it had been destroyed and eradicated.

“This oven is powered by the heat from the magic stones. Using the powder of a refined magic stone as the base material, they make the wiring system…no, you understand what I’m saying, right? Anyhow, of course you can control the temperature!”

“Something like a hot wire?”

The girl muttered.

Pavel was once again flabbergasted, left wondering if she had understood what he was saying, but the girl quickly changed the subject and began to explain the mould she need to use to bake the snacks in.

Pavel pulled out five or six white pottery bowls whilst contorting his face at the confident request of the girl, giving her the bowl that was the size of an adult fist.

The amount of dough they had made was considerable, so there was still some left after filling up all six pottery bowls of the same shape.

“Pavel, you said you don’t bake snacks, right? Then do you bake bread?”

“I make everything that goes into the mouth of the Crown Prince.”

“But you don’t bake snacks.”

“That’s not my job!”

“Really? Then set the oven to the temperature for bread.”

Hearing the girl’s extremely nonsensical replies, Pavel felt that since earlier, although his pride had been slowly chipped away, piece by piece, it would be impossible to catch the young girl, who was small like a mouse.

Pavel merely controlled the baking temperature silently.

“Please put this in the oven for eight minutes!”

Although Pavel pretended to rap the child on the head, he still put the tray in the oven and set the hourglass to eight minutes.

The girl was also interested in the hourglass.

It was.

“What about this one? Is this operated by a magic stone too?”

“Of course, the grain of sand only runs for a specific amount of time, then the bell will ring when the time is up…”

“Why didn’t you put it on the oven?”

“Why do I have to put it on the oven?”