CH 45

Asha wanted to somehow dissuade the Emperor from calling the healer in a hurry, but she couldn’t do anything. She only knew the identity of the voice, which helped her. Shamal, the Spirit of the Wind who signed with the Emperor.

Shamal whispered to her behind the Emperor, changing his appearance into all sorts of shapes.

<Come see me often. It seems that being a grandfather is designed to miss his granddaughter.>

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

<How dare that insignificant breeze dare to speak to you!>

‘No, it’s possible to approach, you know…’

“What the hell is going on here? Why did you hurt your ankle more when you spoke with His Majesty…”

‘I really don’t know what the hell is going on…’

The bird squeaked as if it had rabies, and Lise went wild. Asha sighed briefly as she looked around the uproar, and shook her hand when she saw the tears around Lise’s eyes.

“Oh, no! Lise! Nothing really happened! I was just so happy and I suddenly got up without thinking…”

<How dare a mere straw-like breath do this to my contractor while I’m away!>

“You have to be careful. Look, even the lowly bird is worried like this.”

<What the hell is this stupid human being talking about!>

Asha regretted that she could not say that the yellow chick’s violent squeak was not tender concern for its owner, but that she was more of a nuthead.

“Really… nothing happened. Grandpa… His Majesty did what I asked him to do. That’s enough for joy.”

“What did you ask for?”

“I asked him to make Ivan a commoner.”

“Yes… Yes!?”

Lise opened her eyes wide with surprise. But Ivan, the party to this news, stood quietly in the corner of the room, listening. Even though Lise looked at Ivan and Asha alternately, Ivan was silent.

“So, the thing is, I’d prefer if we could find another place for accommodations instead of this one.”

Asha wanted to say, “a normal place rather than a different place,” but she held back.

<Accommodation? Alright, let’s give Shamal a new lodging! I’m going to fill a small water bottle halfway with water and lock it up with him!>

‘What the hell is that…’

<Since storms and tidal waves are his specialties, play around with them by making small whirlpools in the water bottle!>

With a sigh, Asha pushed the strongly peeping chick into the cage.

“And at this time. If Ivan is interested in something, why don’t you learn it?”

Asha looked at Lise and Ivan alternately. Ivan still had no change in his expression, and Lise had a serious face.

“Learning… What do you want to teach him?”

“So what Ivan wants. Well, poetry and literature are good, and you can bake with me. Or why don’t you learn swordsmanship and become a knight?”

“Swordplay…”

Lise’s voice became a little sentimental.

There was a separate reason why Asha brought up this and that now. For a week, she had been feeding Ivan a homemade scone every morning, and the door of his locked mind was about to open.

Phoebe also agreed with Asha’s opinion that if she energized him with proper exercise or pleasant hobbies, changes would come faster. Asha looked back at Ivan and asked again.

“Ivan, what do you want to try?”

“…I will do what you ask me to do.”

<Did you ask him what he wants to do? He wouldn’t even think about wanting to breathe.>

“People usually don’t think about breathing.”

<Well, go ahead and act all annoyingly self-righteous.>

Asha ignored Phoebe’s words and turned to Ivan again.

‘When you have a lot of thoughts, it’s best to move your body.’

<He’s in a state of mind where he has no thoughts.>

‘It’s the same when you have no thoughts. Moving your body gives you time to think.’

“Ivan, then, let’s be the best knight of the Empire! I’ll bake you a cake for dinner after the training.”

Asha cried, clenching Ivan’s hands. Lise coughed in a small ‘cough’.

Asha looked at Ivan, who stood quietly, holding a bowl of yogurt topped with honey on grains, cereals, and dried fruits with both hands. Ivan simply laid his eyes on her and stood there like a doll.

How can someone else possibly help with such a situation? Really? Phoebe, who read Asha’s thoughts, opened the cage door and flew to Asha’s shoulder.

“Peep!”

<How can you fix it on your own? That’s the harsher thing to do.>

‘But…’

She had been told she could do it, and she believed it, but her mind was confused.

‘Lise will be nice to you, right?’

Ivan, if he became a commoner, she was worried about finding someone who could cheerfully teach swordsmanship to a pale boy with blue skin.

However, Lise said she would look into it with all her heart, so she only believe that. But a few days later, Asha found out that Ivan wasn’t the only problem.

Asha treated her ankle until Lise was satisfied. Finally, her ankle injury was cured, and when she ran to the kitchen of the Taimir Palace to write a recipe note that she had hugged and slept with, the kitchen was simply buried in gray clouds.

“Pa, Pavel?”

“…Why do you look more nervous than I do?”

“Why is Pavel… Why are you so nervous?”

Pavel was sighing deeply.

“Aren’t the Noctis Elves coming this time?”

“Uh… they are.”

Asha chewed her lips. There were more than one or two problems with the Noctis Elves. Even Ivan was rumored to have elven blood, and Alexei, busy preparing to receive the elven delegation, offered to assign Karnov to assist her…

‘Karnov isn’t really coming, is he?’

Pavel sighed again while Asha had a moment of wild thoughts.

“I’m also in charge of desserts to entertain these envoys.”

“Didn’t you say that hospitality is held at the main palace? And you’re in charge of Alyosha in this palace?”

“It was originally like that, but the main chef is in charge of the main dish, and I’m in charge of dessert. The head chef of the palace… spoke about it…”

“Huh? Isn’t that a success?”

But Pavel had a grim expression on him. Asha noticed something was wrong.

“Do you know about Noctis Day?”

“Noctis Day?”

“The Noctis Elves… It’s like a founding myth, so to speak. It is said that the first Noctis Elves rode cattle to the North. That’s why worshipping that cow… They say there’s something similar to faith…”

“Hmm. I’m starting to have a bad feeling?”

Usually, worship is not to eat. As Asha swallowed a dry spit, Pavel also looked depressed.

“Normally, I eat everything. Isn’t the northern region incredibly cold? It’s not like there’s a choice in what to eat. However, I’ve heard there’s a festival where we don’t even mention anything related to cows in reverence to the ancestral deity…”

“No way, right?”

“Hahaha…”

“Could it be happening right now?”

“Sob…”

At last Pavel buried his face in both hands and sobbed. As the middle-aged chef whimpered, Asha only pursed her lips.

“Really? Really? Oh… they don’t eat anything? Anything related to the cow? Milk… Milk, too?”

“Technically, dairy products… The sacred cow’s milk is said to be something that God must drink… Then, as it expanded, they don’t even touch cows at all during this festival. Not just meat, but also broth, milk, butter, cream cheese, yogurt, anything… They don’t consume any of it…”

“…but Pavel is in charge of dessert?”

“…”

Pavel had seemed to be worrying for the past few days, but it seemed that this was the problem. Is it possible to bake cookies without using dairy products? Asha, who had been looking back to that point, grabbed Pavel’s arm with a serious expression.

“Pavel, no matter how you look at it, isn’t this bullying?”

“…Ah, no.”

“You said you didn’t have a friend. It’s not just that you don’t have it, but that the kids are determined to bully you?”

“I’m telling you, it’s not true. And to describe them as children, they are all old enough to have children at home…”

“Do you want me to go and scold them?”

“Uh… How?”

“I’ll change the name tags for salt and sugar.”

“…!”

As far as she knows, the emperor eats food simply and leaves nothing behind, so the chef over there will wake up at night seeing an empty dish served with the wrong seasoning. But her dreams are quickly shattered by Pavel who shook his head.

“Why? Don’t do it?”

“What kind of trouble are you going to get…”

Pavel banged his head.

“So I don’t know what to do.”

Preparing dessert without milk, butter, or cream…

“But those elves who come as delegations won’t eat dessert, so won’t they say they don’t need it?”

At Asha’s words, Pavel banged his forehead on the counter, raised his head, and wiped it with a dishcloth.

“Even if they don’t eat it, I have to prepare it.”

Pavel couldn’t help but cry. He also repeatedly banged his head on the counter and wiped the hit area.

Asha, who had been watching him for a long time, knelt down next to him.

“……but that’s it. In this situation, if you serve a nice dessert, can’t you flatten the noses* of the kitchen guys in the main palace?”

[*TN: Coming from the action of raising your nose high when looking down at something/someone so Asha means knocking them down a peg by flattening their noses.]

“…Yes?”

“Isn’t that right?”

“But I can’t use cooking to compete with others…”

“If you can’t use it for competing, then what?”

“You have to make it with the purpose of making people happy…”

“You’re not happy right now. Am I right or wrong?”

“Y, yes, but…”

“Okay, then let’s make cookies in a way that makes you happy.”

“Uh… How?”