Chapter 8
For Elise
A smooth, wrinkle-free red carpet stretched down the center of the audience chamber. After making eye contact with me, Asel began walking slowly forward. As we reached the midpoint together, Asel dropped to one knee and set his sword down beside him. I awkwardly got down on both knees as well, setting my bundle of cooking tools down with a thud.
“Are you the Saintess whom the knight order praised to high heaven?”
The King’s voice rang out. I bowed my head lightly.
“I’m more of a nutritionist than a Saintess. I heard Princess Elise is critically ill.”
At my bold tone, the audience chamber fell deathly quiet as if cold water had been thrown over it. From the line of nobles on the right, one noble snapped his fan shut and let out a sneer.
“A filthy wench who doesn’t even know proper etiquette. Furthermore, to enter the audience chamber carrying such a shabby bundle is the height of insolence!”
Since the line on the left consisted of people wearing sweet red bean bread hats, the line on the right wouldn’t be associated with the church at least. They were probably high-ranking nobles. I began glaring at the man who had spoken.
I didn’t know exactly who he was, but if he tried to block my way, I was prepared to trip him up. However, Asel, who was maintaining proper posture beside me, nudged me lightly.
“Saintess. That comment just now was a bit impolite…”
Asel had his eyes shut tight. Beneath his fallen strands of hair, his long eyelashes fluttered nervously below his eyes.
“Oh, ooh. Is that so? Then let me try again.”
I whispered to him, then took a deep breath.
“I greet the Sun of the Kingdom. I am the person called ‘Saintess’ summoned by the First Knights Templar from the sanctuary. Though my appearance looks humble and far from that of a Saintess, it became so due to living outdoors.”
This time, Asel bowed his head deeply as his shoulders began to shake. Anyone could see he was laughing. Did I do something wrong? No, if that was the case, it would have been nice if he had taught me the proper greeting beforehand!
As I looked at Asel with panicked eyes, a grave voice sounded from up front.
“Raise your head.”
I gladly raised my head. Only then did I behold His Majesty the King’s royal face and the pale-complexioned woman sitting beside him. She was a young woman with skin like crisp potato chips, so much so that I instantly understood what was meant by her skin being dry and rough.
His Majesty began to say something, but strangely, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from that woman. A bizarre feeling wrapped around my body. Slowly moving my eyes up and down, I examined the exhausted-looking woman.
I noticed a refreshment bowl I hadn’t seen earlier due to her complexion. Squinting my eyes for a closer look, a refreshment resembling Korean ‘jelly’ was placed inside. Jelly? Before I even realized it, I jumped straight up.
“Pardon me for interrupting, but may I take a look at the contents that Her Highness was eating?”
The air in the audience chamber froze in an instant. Asel reached out his hand in panic to stop me, but I was already striding toward the table of the woman presumed to be the princess I saw in the quest window.
“Saintess! This goes against etiquette!”
Asel’s urgent voice struck the back of my head, but my eyes were fixed solely on the glistening lumps piled in that bowl.
The bowl held pink jelly doused in a transparent, sticky liquid and heavily dusted with white sugar powder. As I approached, a subtle, fishy smell of animal fat mixed with a sharp, cloying sweetness that stung my nose.
I pressed down on one of the jellies with my finger. Sitting right between a solid and a liquid, it felt unpleasantly squishy.
“What is this?”
At my question, the noble who had yelled at me earlier for being impolite sneered.
“It is a secret remedy passed down by a hermit sage! A sacred item that will cause Her Highness Princess Elise’s skin to bloom like a flower once more. It is made by refining pig hooves and snouts ten times and preserving them in sugar!”
Pig hooves and snouts. Refined ten times…
Nutritional data quickly scanned through my mind. In short, this was a ‘pure mass of fat and a crystal of advanced glycation end-products.’
“You… kept eating this?”
I looked at the pale-faced woman, Princess Elise. She was trembling with her small hands holding a fork, seemingly frightened of me. The areas beneath her eyes were dark, and her cheeks were full of breakouts. Even the edges of her lips were cracked, with drops of blood oozing out.
It was a textbook case of an ‘inflammatory reaction caused by excessive sugar intake.’
“Saintess, is there some sort of problem?”
The grave voice of His Majesty the King brought me back to my senses. But if I pointed out the problem right here, it was obvious that the group of presumed nobles standing on the right would throw a fit and deny it. Without hesitation, I flatly prostrated myself before His Majesty the King.
“Your Majesty. I have a request. Please allow me to stay for a single day and check all the food Her Highness Princess Elise consumes.”
“What did you say?”
I knew it was an out-of-the-blue request. He might refuse. But with a patient right in front of me, I couldn’t just let it slide.
His Majesty the King leaned his chest, which had been held upright, toward my direction.
“They say you resolved the illness of the First Knights Templar. Very well. First, tell me what it is you have seen.”
Ah, do I really have to say it after all? Remaining prostrated, I reported truthfully.
“The reason her skin has turned stiff like tree bark is highly likely because she has consumed too much ‘sugar.’ Since it might not be due to sugar alone, I believe I must stay here for a day to identify the exact cause.”
The breath touching the floor covered me again. It was hot and humid. At that breath, my heart began to beat faster and faster. As expected, murmurs spread from behind.
“Are you saying, right now, that the ingredients supplied to the royal court by us nobles are flawed?”
Protests erupted, saying that nobles supply the royal ingredients, and questioning those ingredients was an act that would outrage both heaven and earth.
“Your Majesty! Her Highness must eat that food to recover. The reason her skin is rough right now is so that once that skin peels awayājust like a bird breaking out of its eggshellāshe can return to her noble appearance!”
Curses almost boiled up from deep inside me. Complete nonsense. This was undeniably an inflammatory disease. When I was back in Korea, whenever I ate a lot of delivery food and sugary snacks, breakouts would inevitably pop up on my skin too. I was certain of it.
I knew this would happen, but I didn’t expect it to be to this extent. Tsking inwardly, I raised my head this time and glared fiercely at the direction where those words had burst out.
“What did you just say?”
I slowly raised my prostrated body. Without even thinking of dusting off the dirt on my knees, I stared straight at the noble who had just spouted that nonsense.
“Break out of its shell? Is the princess a reptile now? Slipping off a molt or something?”
At my chilly response, the noble’s face twitched violently. I turned my head toward the King.
“Your Majesty, that is not treatment; it is ‘torture.’ To call skin cracking and oozing pus from inflammation a rebirth? If it gets any later, Her Highness’s life could be in danger.”
The audience chamber fell into instant silence. The moment the word ‘life’ was brought up, His Majesty the King’s eyes shook violently.
“Very well. Just one day. Saintess, I grant you full authority to inspect the princess’s meals. However, if there is no improvement in the princess’s condition, you shall apologize with your life. Chamberlain! Guide the Saintess to the kitchen and provide everything she needs!”
“Your Majesty! Please reconsider!”
The screams of the nobles struck my back, but I did not turn around. Asel gathered my bundle and quickly followed behind. I grumbled softly to Asel, asking if there was some strange rule in this place where you had to stake your life on everything you did.
