Chapter : 05
But that laughter did not last long. At Camilla’s hand, which suddenly grabbed him by the collar, Gelard flinched.
‘I have a bit of a nasty personality, you see.’
If someone disliked me, I disliked them too. I wasn’t kind enough to keep putting up with baseless accusations and ridicule.
If Camilla had done something wrong to this man before she entered this place, then she would have been willing to tolerate this kind of criticism to some extent.
But as far as she knew, Camilla had never done anything of the sort to the chef, Gelard.
In other words, the reason this man was behaving so rudely right now was simply because he had looked down on his opponent. It was the kind of bullshit one could only pull when they underestimated someone.
Squeeze!
‘I’m a woman who has grabbed people by the collar hundreds of times for acting.’
Strength naturally filled the hand gripping his collar.
This body might not have been her own, but her skills hadn’t gone anywhere. She knew exactly how to grab someone by the collar with the perfect force.
Gelard’s body naturally bent forward.
“W-What are you doing?!”
Gelard, who quickly came to his senses, shouted with all his strength.
He was the king inside the kitchen. To be grabbed by the collar in front of so many people—what in the world was this…!
“Listen carefully.”
But Camilla paid no attention. Instead, she pulled even more tightly on the enraged Gelard’s collar.
“This is the height.”
“…Pardon?”
“When I won the bet, this was exactly the height.”
Camilla brought her face close to his.
“If you look down on me with those damn eyes one more time…”
At her low whisper, Gelard unconsciously swallowed hard.
“I’ll completely destroy your knees and make you crawl around for the rest of your life.”
“T-The Duke won’t let you get away with—!”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll probably get punished. Maybe I won’t even be allowed out of my room for a few days.”
“So, please, just let go of—!”
“What about it?”
“Pardon?”
“It’s not like this is the first or second time I’ve been through something like that. So what?”
“N-No, that’s not what I meant! The Duke—!”
“I’ll just get punished a little.”
The corners of Camilla’s lips curled up slightly.
She was mindful of the Duke of Sorfeel, but she had absolutely no intention of letting others use him to threaten her.
“You think he’d actually kill me just because I crushed you?”
“……!”
“You think I can’t do it?”
Ha… She absolutely looks like she could…
Seeing Gelard merely move his lips without being able to speak, Camilla gave him a sweet smile before casually releasing his collar.
However, Gelard couldn’t straighten his bent posture, as if his entire body had frozen.
He felt that if he straightened himself now, his knees really would be crushed.
“Then I’ll use the kitchen well.”
Leaving Gelard behind, Camilla returned to her place. Then, in a very small voice, almost as if talking to herself, she called someone.
“Ferrol.”
[Yes.]
The kitchen ghost, Ferrol, who had been floating around nearby, approached Camilla.
“You’re ready, right?”
[Of course!]
“Let’s begin.”
No sooner had Camilla finished speaking than Ferrol’s two hands smoothly overlapped with both of hers.
“I heard Lord Rudville made a great contribution to this operation. Apparently, his performance was remarkable. Here are the relevant documents.”
As he listened to his aide’s explanation, the Duke of Sorfeel calmly read through the documents.
“He’s doing well.”
“Yes, as expected of Lord Rudville.”
The Duke of Sorfeel set down the report with a satisfied expression.
“……”
His gaze soon turned, almost out of habit, toward one particular place.
A vase filled with baby’s breath.
It was something Camilla had brought.
It was a sight he had often seen when his mother was alive.
His mother, who particularly loved baby’s breath, would often personally arrange bouquets of it and place them in her study or bedroom.
‘I’m not particularly fond of flowers, but…’
Seeing the baby’s breath in his study gave him a strange feeling.
He suddenly remembered Camilla’s face from the morning they had gone out for a walk not long ago. She had been holding a huge bundle of baby’s breath in her arms and smiling brightly at him.
Had that child ever smiled like that in front of him before?
‘Besides, it’s already been more than a week.’
He had thought it would only last a day or two.
But for more than a week, Camilla had decorated both his study and bedroom with baby’s breath every single day without missing once.
“It’s not bad.”
“Pardon?”
“Does Camilla still not eat properly these days?”
“Ah…”
At the unexpected question, the aide, Jakter, widened his eyes slightly.
The Duke of Sorfeel had asked about Camilla’s mistakes or misconduct before, but this was the first time he had ever asked about her well-being in such an ordinary, everyday manner.
Even when he ordered someone to do something for her, he had never once shown any interest in Camilla herself…
“I’ll find out immediately.”
Jakter answered hurriedly, his voice slightly flustered.
Knock, knock.
Just then, someone entered the room after knocking.
It was a man in his early thirties—the butler, Lube.
In his hands was a tray of snacks.
Lube politely bowed his head before quickly placing the food on the table.
“What’s all that?”
“I prepared it because I thought you might be hungry.”
The Duke of Sorfeel looked at the clock and nodded.
Whenever he stayed in his study for a long time, Lube would occasionally bring him some simple food.
“I’ll enjoy this.”
A more delighted expression appeared on Jakter’s face than on the Duke of Sorfeel’s.
He had eaten dinner rather hastily, and his stomach had been growling for a while already.
“Why don’t you try some too, Your Grace?”
“Hmm?”
The Duke of Sorfeel looked at the butler with a puzzled expression.
Normally, once he had put the food down, he would leave immediately.
But today, for some reason, he was standing nearby and urging him to eat.
The Duke of Sorfeel stared silently at Butler Lube for a moment before getting up and walking toward the table where the food had been placed.
“It’s soup.”
Beside it was freshly baked bread to eat with the soup.
“……”
However, as the Duke of Sorfeel looked at the soup, his eyes widened slightly.
‘No way…’
Uncharacteristically, he hurriedly picked up a spoon, scooped up a large spoonful of soup, and brought it to his mouth.
After swallowing the food, his expression became even more astonished.
“This soup…”
It was the same soup he had eaten long ago.
The very soup he had loved dearly!
It was a dish he had never been able to eat again after Ferrol, the chef who had worked for the ducal family for a long time, died in an accident.
He had heard that Gelard, Ferrol’s apprentice and the current chef, had tried everything he could to recreate the taste, but had ultimately failed.
And yet now, the very soup he had thought he would never taste again was sitting before him.
And it tasted exactly as it had back then.
“Wow… This is really delicious. How can soup have such a deep flavor?”
The clear, golden-colored soup contained not a single visible ingredient.
Yet the richness of the flavor that spread through his mouth the moment he tasted it was difficult to describe in words.
“So he finally managed to recreate the taste.”
The Duke of Sorfeel assumed that the current chef had finally managed to reproduce his master’s flavor.
But hearing this, the butler gently shook his head.
“Chef Gelard did not make it.”
“The chef didn’t make it?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Butler Lube continued with a broad smile.
“Lady Camilla.”
“…Who?”
“Pff—!”
The Duke of Sorfeel’s eyes widened even further, while Jakter, who had been drinking the soup, immediately broke into a series of dry coughs the moment he heard Camilla’s name.
He examined the soup again with an expression of disbelief.
“Lady Camilla made this?”
As if he had expected that reaction, the butler smiled once more.
Neither the Duke of Sorfeel nor Jakter could get rid of their blank expressions for quite some time.
“T-This…!”
Chef Gelard could hardly continue speaking.
The moment he saw the soup Camilla had finished, he doubted his own eyes.
That golden-colored soup!
How could he possibly not recognize it?
‘Ha… Even the smell!’
It was identical.
It was unbelievably similar to the soup in his memories!
Gelard scooped up a large amount of soup with trembling hands and brought it to his mouth.
“……!”
Clatter!
The ladle he had been holding fell straight to the floor.
He was always going on about how kitchen utensils had to be kept clean, yet the shock was so great that even after dropping the ladle on the floor, he couldn’t bring himself to pick it up.
It was that taste.
It was definitely that soup!
The soup his master, Ferrol, had made long ago!
Because of his master’s sudden death, he had never received the recipe.
And yet that very soup was now sitting right in front of him.
And it had been made by none other than Camilla!
Even though he was seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it.
“How does the soup taste?”
Camilla, who had been quietly watching him, approached him.
“H-How…!”
He had been standing there with a dazed expression, but only then did he finally regain his senses.
Gelard asked in a highly excited voice,
“How did you make this?! How in the world?!”
A blazing fire burned in Gelard’s eyes as he stared at Camilla.
He had spent countless hours trying to recreate this soup, but the results had always been disastrous.
He simply couldn’t get anywhere near that taste.
But how…?
“You’re too high.”
“Pardon?”
“I said you’re too high.”
“What are you—”
Camilla poked both of his eyes with two fingers.
Then she lowered her hand.
“Lower your eyes.”
“……!”
The moment Gelard understood what Camilla meant, his eyes began shaking uncontrollably.
“My neck is starting to hurt.”
Camilla began massaging the back of her neck with one hand, pretending that it hurt.
“……”
Slowly…
The eyes that had been opened wide lowered.
His knees also bent slightly, bringing him down to a height where Camilla wouldn’t need to raise her head.
Naturally, he also brought both hands together politely in front of himself.
“D-Does this mean you’re going to teach me now?”
It was an extremely humiliating sight to display in front of all the kitchen staff, but that wasn’t important right now.
“Teach you what?”
“The recipe for this soup.”
“Why would I?”
“…Pardon?”
“I never said I would teach you the cooking method too.”
“……!”
Looking at Gelard’s horrified face as it turned pale, Camilla untied the apron she was wearing and tossed it aside.
“Lady Camilla!”
Gelard desperately called out to her as she headed toward the kitchen exit.
He couldn’t let her leave like this.
He had to obtain that recipe somehow!
“Well, I might teach you.”
“R-Really?”
“If you look pretty.”
“Pardon?”
“If you somehow manage to look even a little bit pretty, maybe I’ll teach you later.”
With that, Camilla dusted off her clothes and left the kitchen.
Gelard stared blankly after her.
Only after a long while did he slowly turn his head and look at the kitchen staff lined up to one side.
“How am I supposed to make this face look pretty?”
“That’s imposs—Ugh!”
The kitchen’s youngest employee, who had no sense of timing, was elbowed in the side and silenced.
The others could only force awkward smiles.
