Chapter 42

In my past life, sometimes I would make egg sandwiches. They were egg sandwiches, but not the type with mashed boiled eggs. My egg sandwiches used slightly sweet tamagoyaki1 as the filling. A simple egg sandwich with only tamagoyaki inside.

I was born as a son of a Duke and lived as one, so this would be my first experience in the kitchen in this world. All I had to do was to cook the egg, then sandwich it in between two slices of bread. A very simple cooking.

Or it should be. I was already near tears.

What can I say, there was no frying pan for tamagoyaki here. The rectangular frying pan where you can cook the egg and then roll it2. This time, I was not going to actually roll them, but I wanted to cook a thick omelette. How was I supposed to do it with a round frying pan? From the get-go, I was about to fall into despair.

“It’s okay. You can also do it with a round frying pan. Let’s pour in a lot of egg batter, and then we can cook a thick omelette. After that, you can just cut it into squares.”

“Really…?”

“Yes, it’ll surely turn out good.” Nozart was consoling me beside me.

Inside the kitchen, the head chef was watching us from a distance away with a pale face. Behind the head chef, several other chefs were standing at attention. In response to each of Nozart’s order, they moved as fast as lightning.

When Nozart said ‘bowl’, various sizes of bowls appeared; when Nozart said ‘cooking chopstick’3, they took out multiple sets of it. Nozart who was standing beside me was like a demon king who ruled over the kitchen.

When it came to preparing refreshments for Al, surely there would also be Bailard, Jade and Zernite. Although it was only refreshments, those four are boys in a growing stage who could eat a lot. There was a need to prepare in large quantities. I cracked open an egg and put it in a bowl.

There was a gasp from next to me; Nozart was holding his chest.

“Nozart, what’s wrong?”

“No, when I watched Fania-sama earnestly crack the egg, it was so adorable, my heart is so full.”

What the heck? Nozart had seen me growing up from when I was little, so he must be looking at me like his own son? grandson?

When I nonchalantly swept my gaze around, every single chef also had a hand on their chest. WHY?

Next would be the seasoning. Sugar and salt. Soy sauce and MSG4 that served as secret ingredients didn’t exist here, so I tried putting in this country’s unique seasoning. Probably the resulting taste would be different from my past life, but it was better to have them than nothing to make it taste good.

It was bad manners, but I used my little finger to lightly taste the egg batter. Um, it’s not cooked yet, so I just don’t know if this is good or not. Let’s try cooking it then.

I borrowed a big frying pan…

“Not good. Not good. You shouldn’t handle fire. It’s dangerous. Here we’ll have head chef Scheet to cook it the way Fania-sama wants it.” Suddenly I was stopped by Nozart.

“I’m still lacking in some ways, but I’ll try hard to satisfy Fania-sama’s wish.” From the back, the head chef, still with a pale face, quickly approached us and lowered his head down.

The kitchen of the Royal Palace was customized for the professional cooks, so the cooking stoves were built high, it was hard to use. Furthermore, I had never used a charcoal cook stove in my past life, how could I know how to control the fire.

However, if it was cooked by someone else, could it still be called handmade by me?

“Thank you. But allow me to do the parts where I can handle it by myself.”

I had the chef pour the egg batter into the frying pan. It was difficult for me — height-wise. Even then, I tried my best in cooking it. Nozart and the head chef by my sides looked like they would have a fit of anaemia, but surely even I could cook eggs.

The frying pan was big, and the fire control was difficult; it resulted with a whole lot of burnt tamagoyaki. I was not exactly a big-eater, so this would probably take me a whole day tomorrow to finish eating them. Nevertheless, I managed to cook some beautiful tamagoyaki. The final step was to sandwich them between bread slices.

Next to me, Nozart was silently glaring at the chefs that screamed ‘Why are you handing a loaf of bread to Fania-sama? Why didn’t you slice them beforehand? What would you do if Fania-sama cut himself?’, but I was oblivious to that.

————————

“Phew, I made it in time.” Bailard entered Alfred’s office.

“Yeah.” Following in his wake was Zernite.

Although Zernite is still inside the royal capital, he is supposed to be in the main church situated quite a distance away from the Royal Palace. And Zernite, wasn’t he at the training ground outside the royal capital?

Just what kind of means did they use to quickly reach the Royal Capital? Warp? You two, do you have warp ability?

“Both of you, didn’t you say you’re not coming to the Royal Palace today?”

“Yup, today we’re not here for work. We’re here just to have Fania’s handmade food.” “Yeah.” The two close aides answered the Prince’s sarcasm like it was nothing.

“Are you thinking that I’ll ever give the food Fania cooked by himself to you?”

“Ahahaha, don’t say that~ Alfred-sama, you really know how to joke, of course I’ll be eating it!” “Yeah.”

Bailard never intended to listen to whatever his master was saying. Zernite who had only uttered single words since entering the office felt the same.

“Isn’t this the first time for Fania to personally cook? I can’t wait!”

“I didn’t know that Fania can cook.”

“I shall eat them clean no matter if they’re burnt to charcoal.”

The close aides got hyped up by themselves. By their side, Alfred was simulating ways he could adopt so that he wouldn’t have to hand Fania’s cooking to these people.

A while passed before a chamberlain came to inform that Fania was coming. As soon as his entrance was permitted, there was a sound of a small knock and from behind the door. Fania’s face peeked in to see inside the room.

He must be concerned whether he was disturbing Alfred during this time or not.

“Al, is it okay now?”

He’s looking over here with a slight upward glance, so cute. Nothing but cute! Cute through and though! Not only Alfred, the other close aides were clutching their chest, trying to withstand the cute attack.

“Of course it’s okay. Fania, you don’t have to be so reserved.”

Hearing Alfred’s answer, Fania broke into a wide smile and he entered the office room. In his hands was a big basket; perhaps it was a bit heavy that he nearly staggered. Following behind him, Nozart also worriedly accompanied him.

“You see here, I brought some refreshments for Al. You weren’t there during breakfast, so here.” With a huff, he put the basket on top of the table used for when entertaining visitors located in the middle of the room.

“I’ll be happy if you eat them when you have time.”

“No need to wait, Fania has come all the way to bring them to me, I’ll eat them right away.” Alfred approached Fania, and prompted him to sit on a 3-seater sofa.

“Fania’s cooking, I simply can’t wait to taste it.”

“Wah, what did you make?”

“I’ll take this honour to eat it.”

The three close aides were cheekily sitting on another sofa. They had already seated themselves beforehand.

Nozart then prepared black tea for the number of people present there.

“Tch!”

“Mn, what’s wrong, Al?”

“Nothing, I’m just looking forward to tasting it.”

“Ah, but this is my first time making it, so it’s nothing complicated. If you don’t find it palatable, you don’t have to force yourself to eat it.”

Thinking back about it, everyone here were people of high nobilities. Everyday they ate meals full of luxury; sandwiches made by Fania that contained only eggs might seem simply unrefined. He probably was overwhelmed by embarrassment at this moment for bringing something like that.

“Urmmm, as I thought, it doesn’t look tasty, you see, I’ll bring them back after all.” Fania was flustered and reached out his hand to grab the basket.

But it was too late. The sandwiches were already distributed to everyone.

“Aaah, so yummy. Fania, thanks!”

“Ufufufu. Fania’s cooking, so tasty~”

“It’s good, it’s good.”

“I’m so deeply moved.”

Each and everyone stated their comments and smiled to Fania. Alfred softly patted on Fania’s head next to him.

“Really? Those are not merely perfunctory comments? You don’t have to be that considerate.” Fania could hardly believe everyone’s comments, but unfortunately there was no one to answer Fania.

Why? They were busily scrambling for the rest of the sandwiches.

“Alfred-sama, don’t constantly eat them!”

“Ah, that one was the one I was targeting!”

“Don’t take two at a time!”

“That’s mine, let go of your hand!”

Seeing the fierce battle unfolding before him, finally Fania believed that everyone liked the refreshments he brought over.

“Ghukk!” Amidst the arduous battle, Zernite suddenly crouched down as he held his chest.

Everyone was wondering why he became like so and followed Zernite’s line of sight; there, they saw Fania with upright triangular ears as he earnestly swayed a tail wrapped in fluffy fur… or they thought they saw. Seeing everyone eating and snatching away the refreshments he brought, Fania was expressing his joy with his entire being.

“Cu-cuteeeee~~” Bailard fell in surrender.

“That’s… a foul play.” Jade had one knee on the ground.

When it came to Alfred, he scooped Fania who was sitting beside him up. Then, he moved, intending to go somewhere else.

“Eh Al, what’s wrong? Put me down.” Fania was startled, he wanted to go down, but Al was simply not listening.

“Alfred-sama, where do you think you’re taking Fania?” Bailard’s voice was deep.

“Um, this just can’t be helped, alright.”

“There’s no ‘Can’t be helped’. Tomorrow is Monday, okay. Are you intending to make Fania take another day off from the academy?” Bailard didn’t have a single hint of allowing Alfred to do what we wanted.

*Rumbles* Alfred and Bailard fiercely stared at each other, something was whirling between them.

On Alfred’s back was a yellow tiger baring its fangs, while on Bailard’s back was a white bird (very strong-looking) opening its wings. Those didn’t actually appear, but it did feel like a death match would take place at any moment.

“Sc-scary…” Fania, in Alfred’s embrace, trembled in fear.

“Fania-sama, it’s time.” Nozart suddenly appeared and he took Fania from Alfred’s arms.

“What are you doing!” Alfred was furious, yet Nozart’s face remained unperturbed.

“Oh, it’s not what you think. I was the one who asked Nozart. Well, I shouldn’t disturb Al at work, so I asked him to tell me when it’s time. Al, I’m sorry for disturbing you. Do your best at work. Everyone too, see you.” With Nozart’s assistance, Fania, whose feet finally touched the ground, waved his hands to everyone, and immediately left the office with Nozart.

From Fania’s viewpoint, he was being considerate so as not to be a nuisance, however, he didn’t notice Alfred who was slumped to the floor with his head hung low.

In the kitchen, little did Fania know that there was a ferocious battle among the chefs over Fania’s leftover burnt tamagoyaki (the ones he thought of collecting later).