Chapter 4 – Part 3

Quickly selecting pre-blended tea leaves that would pair well with dessert, I encountered a problem.

“There’s no time to boil water!”

If I boiled water in the small kitchen as usual, I’d miss the post-meal tea time!

I quickly grabbed the tea leaves and rushed to the main kitchen. Luckily, there was hot water available there, and I successfully brewed the tea and brought it up to His Highness.

After finishing the tea time in a rush, I went back to the main kitchen to return the tea set.

Chef Kelsey asked me again,

“Erica, if you’re not too busy, could you help a bit more?”

“Yes, of course!”

Chef Kelsey entrusted me with a large pot. Archie, who had been stirring the pot with a long spatula, was shivering.

The pot was filled with a creamy soup, similar to the one I had brought to the Crown Prince earlier.

In the main kitchen, after His Highness’s breakfast was prepared, the servants’ meal was being prepared, and this soup was for that.

I took over from Archie and stirred the pot. The soup was thick, requiring a lot of strength in my arms.

Meanwhile, Chef Kelsey was directing the remaining staff to coat vegetables and meat with sauce and fry them in lard.

Once all the dishes were completed, Chef Kelsey spoke.

“We don’t have time to make a new dessert today. Let’s share the leftovers from His Highness’s meal.”

We gathered around the servants’ dining area next to the kitchen and began to eat. The dining area soon became lively as more people from different parts of the Crown Prince’s palace joined in.

Archie, rolling up his pale sleeves, said,

“Miss Erica, my arms feel like they’re going to fall off.”

“Mine too…”

My arms were trembling from stirring the soup so vigorously.

I ate carefully to avoid spilling any food. It tasted better than usual, perhaps because I had exercised before eating.

After finishing the meal and preparing to return upstairs, Chef Kelsey called out to Archie and me.

“Could you both come over here for a moment?”

Following her gesture, Archie and I walked back into the kitchen.

Chef Kelsey handed each of us two large cookies filled with candied lemon peel.

She patted our shoulders and said,

“You both have only recently joined the palace and must have been quite frightened yesterday. I’m very proud of you for working so bravely.”

‘I’m not a child! I’m an adult!’

But since Chef Kelsey was like a mother to us, she treated us like children.

The cookies were so delicious that I didn’t feel like contradicting her.

The kitchen was warm from the residual heat of the stoves, and the cookies were sweet in my mouth.

Behind us, the lively sounds of the servants’ dining area could be heard, with many people praising the delicious soup.

The events of yesterday felt like a distant dream.

***

The Crown Prince’s office was as usual.

Crown Prince Adrian, having finished his breakfast, was attending to various tasks, while Derek handled miscellaneous affairs beside him.

For example, ensuring that next week’s edition of the weekly newspaper *The Imperial Days* did not mention the commotion in the palace yesterday.

The occasional rustle of paper and the scratching of pen tips were interrupted by the entrance of the head maid, who walked in through the door opened by a guard.

She got straight to the point.

“Your Highness, several servants have expressed their desire to resign following yesterday’s events.”

She reported this and placed the documents listing the names of the resigning servants on Adrian’s desk.

Adrian glanced through the documents.

“None of the people I had been keeping an eye on are on this list.”

Derek remarked,

“Let’s wait and see. At least half of those who are absent today seem likely to quit.”

The head maid nodded in agreement.

“That seems likely. We will soon need replacements.”

“There will be some disorder until we thin out the ranks to a suitable level.”

Listening to their conversation, Adrian thought of Erica.

Despite being so frightened yesterday, Erica had shown up for work today with determination.

‘She didn’t look too unwell.’

Actually, she was so busy that she didn’t have time to think about yesterday’s events, but Adrian didn’t know that.

‘She must have been very shocked yesterday. I should have sheltered her inside immediately when the loud noise occurred…’

He regretted that Erica had to see the dining room in such a ruined state.

At that moment, he had been too busy protecting Erica from potential threats emerging from anywhere.

An invisible attack that had pierced the outer wall had grazed Adrian’s back and ricocheted off the ceiling, so his decision had been correct.

Being a direct royal, Adrian had escaped with only superficial wounds, but he couldn’t bear to think of what might have happened if Erica had been alone.

‘But if I had taken Erica and left the dining room earlier, there would have been no issue at all.’

Adrian’s thoughts circled around endlessly. The wound under his clothes, wrapped in clean cloth, stung.

The head maid, ensuring the door to the office was securely closed, continued speaking.

“After this incident, I believe things will be quiet for a while.”

Derek added,

“Indeed, it should be quiet. Her Majesty drove a sword through that person’s heart. It will be quiet forever.”

“We can’t be certain. There was no body left.”

“Can you call that a human if it survives in that state? And even if it manages to survive using some trick, it wouldn’t dare come near the palace again, right?”

“That’s true. If it has any sense, it will avoid the palace even if it goes anywhere else.”

Adrian silently agreed with those words.

The head maid continued speaking.

“It’s a relief that no one was injured.”

“That’s exactly it. As expected of Her Majesty.”

Derek described the Empress’ battle, making sound effects with his mouth.

“When that guy went swoosh, Her Majesty went bam! It happened so fast that I couldn’t tell what was going on, but Her Majesty was truly amazing. She was so great that words can’t even describe it!”

“Ah, yes…”

The Imperial family was known to possess strength beyond that of humans, making them immune to injuries or illnesses.

While this was widely believed, they were not completely immune to wounds and diseases.

Their durability and recovery were just incomparable to ordinary people, so even Adrian would get minor injuries when sparring with the Empress.

However, the extraordinariness of the Imperial family was often exaggerated, and thus even Adrian’s closest aides were unaware of the wound on his back.

Since Adrian did not consider it a significant injury, he simply bandaged it to prevent blood from staining his clothes. Such a wound would disappear without a trace in just a few days.

At present, Adrian’s concerns were elsewhere.

‘I want to cheer up Erica, but how can I do that?’

After a moment of contemplation, he came up with a rather good idea.

‘For the next tea time, how about delving deeper into a topic Erica likes?’

* * *

The kitchen was busy again with preparations for His Highness’s lunch, but I was leisurely looking at tea leaves in the tea storage room.

There were a few people who arrived late for work, so they told me I didn’t need to help with the kitchen work anymore.

For His Highness’s post-lunch tea time, I brewed the first flush tea freshly harvested from the Imperial Palace.

His Highness spoke.

“You mentioned that this tea has a particularly rich umami flavor.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

It was a conversation we had just the day before yesterday, and he remembered everything. I couldn’t tell if he was meticulous or just nitpicky.

“Do you know why that is?”

‘Ah, no idea!’

However, it was a poor response to simply say I didn’t know to a superior’s question. Offering an alternative was a decent response, but ideally, I should know everything.

‘I have no idea why it tastes like this.’

It was certainly not due to the climate of the Empire’s capital. Growing tea in this place with such cold winters would never produce this rich umami flavor.

After a brief moment of thinking, I carefully replied.

“……I think we could find out by visiting the Imperial tea plantation.”

His Highness’s face brightened slightly at this.

“Then, how about visiting it this afternoon? I happen to have an appointment at the Empress’ Palace. It would be good to have afternoon tea there.”

His enthusiastic approval made my eyes sparkle.

His Highness added more to it.

“Come to the palace gate around three o’clock. I will have a carriage sent for you.”

He even provided a carriage!

The head maid was right.

She said if I asked His Highness to visit the tea plantation at the Empress’ Palace, he would make time in his schedule and even provide a carriage.

It actually happened.

‘I’m sorry I doubted you, head maid!’

I never knew His Highness was this passionate about exploring green tea flavors.

It seems His Highness likes tea even more than I had guessed!

After finishing the tea time and returning to the tea storage room, my mind was already wandering to the tea plantation behind the Empress’ Palace.

“The Empress’ Palace should have all the tea sets, so I just need to bring the tea leaves, right?”

I thought it might be okay even without bringing the tea leaves, but I brought one just in case. It was green tea leaves with a lion emblem on the tea caddy, and I also brought a matching hourglass.

“Is it three o’clock yet? Is it still not? When I checked the clock earlier, it was two-thirty. Why is time passing so slowly?”

I fiddled with the tea caddy like playing Tetris and then went down to the main gate of the Crown Prince’s Palace even before the promised time of three o’clock. A two-horse carriage with large wheels was waiting for me.

The red-haired coachwoman jumped energetically down from the coachwoman’s seat.

“Are you the young lady of Count Marnel? His Highness the Crown Prince sent me.”