LSK 4

Chapter 4

Although the Crown Prince was a genius when it came to martial arts and military tactics, deep down, he was still a fourteen-year-old child.

That was the conclusion I had reached after actually meeting him.

Because of his position, he had grown up with a mature personality, but whenever he argued over the smallest words and acted rebellious, he looked exactly like a child his age.

If the Crown Prince still ordered his subordinates to fast even after hearing what I had said, then he really was nothing more than an ordinary child.

“……Do whatever you want.”

The Crown Prince stood there for a long while with a shocked expression on his face after hearing my words. Then, leaving only those words behind, he walked out of the dining hall.

“Haa……”

With the tension finally gone, I collapsed onto the dining table.

I had acted strong and confident, but I thought I was going to be crushed by his killing intent.

Just then, one of the soldiers who had been watching us until now asked me:

“What are you plotting?”

Ah, right. The Crown Prince wasn’t the only one who hated Celebi.

Of course, their killing intent was nothing compared to the Crown Prince’s, but the soldiers’ hostility was still quite frightening.

“You’re worried about us? Even a passing dog would laugh at that. Just yesterday, you insulted us by calling us guard dogs. Did you suddenly decide to change your attitude?”

“Exactly. There is no way that evil woman would willingly cook something for us. She must have done something to the food.”

One problem after another.

I had already used up all my energy dealing with the Crown Prince, so I had no strength left to convince them.

Even though the Crown Prince had given them permission, if they still refused to eat the food, there was nothing more I could do.

I couldn’t force the food into their mouths.

It was a shame after all the effort I had put into it, but I had no choice but to throw it away.

“What plotting? I stayed beside her the whole time and watched to make sure she didn’t do anything strange. She didn’t.”

“Vice Commander?!”

For the first time, someone spoke up in my defense.

I quickly raised my head and looked at the owner of that voice.

Ah, it was the man who had taken me to the kitchen to put me in a difficult situation.

So, this man was the Vice Commander.

He took a seat about two places away from me and, without hesitation, scooped up some of the soup I had made and put it into his mouth.

The man they called the Vice Commander swallowed the food and said to me:

“Not bad. You’ve spent all this time following His Highness around like a puppy, but you’ve got a pretty decent skill.”

“……”

His words were still rather sharp, but was he actually trying to defend me in his own way?

Of course, telling a noblewoman that she was good at cooking was practically an insult, but I could tell that he hadn’t meant it that way.

My mood immediately improved, and I gave him a small smile.

“Thank you.”

“Huh? Uh…… yeah. Hey, you lot, don’t just stand there. Come and sit down.”

“B-but……”

The soldiers still seemed hesitant.

I couldn’t blame them. They probably didn’t trust me.

But when the Vice Commander glared around at them with sharp eyes, every single one of them sat down in less than a second.

Wow…… They really were well-disciplined soldiers.

At least now I could finally have a proper meal.

Although I was already full, I wanted to enjoy this moment a little longer, so I picked up my spoon again.

I think I’m going to throw up……

I had a bad feeling, and sure enough, I ended up getting indigestion.

That was the most murderous dining table I had ever experienced in my entire life.

Because of the Vice Commander, no one openly insulted me, but I still saw it.

The soldiers kept staring at me throughout the entire meal with sharp, hostile eyes while roughly cutting their steaks.

Their eyes clearly said they wanted to cut me up just like that piece of meat.

Maybe it was also a warning that if I tried anything funny, they would cut me up just like that steak.

I kept swallowing the food without even knowing whether it was going into my mouth or my nose, and in the end, this was what happened.

After finishing all the cleaning in the kitchen, I finally collapsed onto a bench.

The Distian soldiers passing by seemed to look at me with pity, but I didn’t even have enough strength left to snap back at them.

Still, one good thing was that, perhaps because they knew they owed me something, none of them openly picked a fight with me.

They say beasts can be tamed with food.

For some reason, a phrase I had once heard without paying much attention to in my previous life suddenly crossed my mind.

When I looked up at the sky, the sun was already beginning to set.

It had taken longer to clean everything up than it had to prepare the food.

Despite their bad feelings toward me, everyone seemed satisfied with the meal itself.

The Vice Commander was probably the only one who openly praised my cooking, although it was questionable whether what he said could even be called praise.

Even though they had grumbled the whole time, everyone had completely emptied their bowls, and I had secretly held back a laugh.

It was incredibly fortunate that the first place the Vice Commander had taken me was the kitchen.

Cooking ranked eighth among the 105 skills I possessed.

For reference, growing cacti was ranked seventeenth, while imitating the voice of a singer who had already gone out of fashion was ranked fifty-sixth.

In other words, cooking was one of my few skills that was actually worth mentioning.

As I absentmindedly watched the sunset while thinking about such pointless things, I suddenly remembered someone I had forgotten.

Come to think of it, the Crown Prince hadn’t touched any of the food I had made.

Well, it was known that the Crown Prince had reached such a high level that he could easily go several days without eating or drinking.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel hunger.

“……”

I think I went too far earlier.

For a moment, I had lost my reason and genuinely gotten angry at a child despite being an adult myself.

I took out the cookies I had made for dessert.

I had secretly kept them in my pocket so I could eat them later if I got hungry.

I knew there was no way the Crown Prince could be tamed with food, but I wanted to give him at least a small snack as an apology for what happened earlier—or perhaps because I had another motive.

The Crown Prince probably wouldn’t accept my kindness willingly.

He would probably suspect that they were poisoned or that they contained an aphrodisiac again.

Ah, but what if he misunderstood for no reason?

It would be troublesome if he thought I still liked him.

In a normal relationship between people, if someone took care of you, you would naturally feel grateful toward that person and perhaps even develop some affection for them.

But the relationship between the Crown Prince and me was the complete opposite.

Because of his past trauma, the more the Crown Prince felt that I liked him, the more he would instinctively hate me.

It was nothing more than a simple act of kindness, but if I gave him the cookies, he would misunderstand and think I was doing it because I liked him.

Then the Crown Prince would hate me even more.

But even if I did nothing, he would hate me anyway.

In other words, he was completely impossible to deal with.

“Annoying brat……”

Those words nearly came out of my throat.

While I was lost in thought by myself, I heard someone scolding me.

“What are you doing lying there? You’re a noblewoman, yet you have no dignity at all. Tsk.”

“Hello.”

I tried to get up and properly greet him, but the Vice Commander was looking at me with an expression that seemed to say I was pathetic.

Ah, only then did I realize that I had been lying far too comfortably on the bench while still wearing my dress.

I straightened my back and sat properly on the bench.

“What are you doing in front of soldiers who are already frustrated? Ah, or were you deliberately showing yourself off and I just interrupted you? As the rumors say, you really are a lewd woman.”

“There probably isn’t a single person in Distian who feels lust when looking at me.”

“They feel lust even when they look at worn-out boots. They’re beasts.”

The Vice Commander clicked his tongue and spoke with complete certainty.

“No, I don’t think so. Earlier, I happened to hear them talking as I passed by. They said that no matter how pretty she looked, Lady Celebi was creepy, and that she seemed to have no sense of chastity……”

“Haa.”

With a calm expression, I emotionlessly listed all the insults about Celebi that I had heard in just one day.

The Vice Commander quietly listened to me, and his expression gradually turned shocked.

“I swear, these bastards……”

“You heard all that and still stayed quiet? Are you stupid? They sure had plenty to say when they were ordering the Commander around.”

Maybe it was just my imagination, but there seemed to be a tiny bit of concern mixed into his scolding words.

It seemed like he thought I might have been hurt by what they said.

“As you said, aren’t they beasts? Conversation is something you have with people. Even if I defended myself as hard as I could, they would only hear it as a lie.”

“……”

And more importantly, their words hadn’t hurt me at all.

After all, they weren’t even talking about me.

There was a distance of about a hundred million light-years between Lady Celebi’s personality and mine. So even when I heard bad rumors about her, I could simply listen to them as though I were hearing about someone from a completely different world.

I was also used to being insulted.

And, to begin with, there was no truth in what they were saying.

Saying that she had no sense of chastity?

If Lady Celebi, who had devoted herself completely to the Crown Prince, heard that, she would be furious.

Considering everything she had done to the Crown Prince, the cute term “devoted love” was definitely not appropriate.

But from my point of view, Lady Celebi seemed to have been more faithful than anyone else in this novel.

Of course, that was only if we put aside all the various things she had done to the Crown Prince.

“Anyway, I was summoned by the Commander, so I’m leaving.”

Hearing that he had been summoned by the Commander, I suddenly had a good idea.

Ah, why not use this man as a messenger?

He was going to see the Crown Prince anyway.

I suddenly grabbed him as he was turning away and put the cookies into his hand.

The Vice Commander stared at them silently for a while.

“……Sorry, but you’re not my type.”

What kind of misunderstanding was he having?

Before the misunderstanding could grow any worse, I quickly added:

“Please give them to His Highness on your way there. They’re instead of a meal.”

The Vice Commander looked down at the cookies with a thoughtful expression and said:

“Why don’t you give them to him yourself? No matter how much he dislikes you, he’s a kind-hearted person. I’m sure the Commander’s opinion of you would improve.”

What he said made perfect sense.

Raven, the Crown Prince, was a good person.

After all, it was rare for the hero of a novel to be a bad person.