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~Chapter 21~
The kitchen staff stared at the meal plan Elodie had written.
They couldn’t find any words.
At first, everyone had been giggling, expecting to see something cute from the little one, but the contents quickly made them serious.
“You’ll need to practice your spelling.”
Aizen picked up the pen and corrected Elodie’s hard-worked “kkotgaru” to the proper “flower powder,” then asked,
“If you want to live a long life, you need to eat well, right?”
He looked at her as if he couldn’t tell whether she was joking or serious.
Elodie, who had really tried her best, felt wronged.
“This is all I ate.”
It was supposed to be just a doctor game—did she really need his approval?
Wasn’t it too much to expect so much from a field mouse?
Elodie had only insisted on a meal plan so she could keep an eye on the duke’s food for poison in the future!
“You lived on only these things?”
Only these things?
It’s not like she could write “go steal kitchen scraps or dig through the trash.”
“Is this really nutritious?”
“It’s enough for a field mouse.”
“So you want me to eat mouse food?”
She’d only just learned she was a beastman—how was she supposed to know what people ate?
Elodie made a little moan as she tried to think of “human food.”
She had seen plenty of fancy dishes in the palace, but since she never cared about them, she couldn’t remember their names or what they were made from.
“Radish? Carrot? Cucumber?”
“Those are ingredients.”
“Then grill it.”
“…”
“Boil? Steam?”
“…”
“Just joking.”
The more she spoke, the colder the kitchen grew, so Elodie closed her mouth.
Aizen looked down at her, speechless.
“…This is a bit much.”
To make the strict Duke of Valkyrisen say something like that!
Elodie felt oddly proud, but she couldn’t quite enjoy it.
She’d only eaten cooked food if she was desperate enough to steal it when starving—so it made sense she didn’t remember much about it.
‘Sera always made sure I had something to eat, but she hardly ever gave me people food…’
She said cooked things might hurt her.
Elodie wanted to live a long life with Sera, so she never asked for people food.
“So, you’ve really never eaten proper cooked food before?”
Elodie just stayed quiet.
“Honestly, it seems like you should be the one planning a diet, not me.”
Aizen poked her cheek as he said this.
At that moment, the head chef Tauros spoke up after staring at the meal plan.
“Little one.”
“Yeah?”
“Should I bring you some walnut pie and almond milk?”
“Almond milk?”
“Milk made from almonds.”
Now that she thought about it, it was a very straightforward name.
Walnuts and almonds…
Isn’t that just the same as eating nuts and wheat together?
‘What’s the difference once it’s in your stomach?’
Still, Elodie found herself nodding.
It was nothing like what she’d expected.
‘I will never disrespect human cooking again.’
She had never tasted anything this delicious in her life.
Elodie realized she really had been a frog in a well—or rather, a field mouse in a mouse hole.
Her eyes started to water for no reason.
“It tastes better than bread I picked up from the trash…”
“What? You even ate things like that?!”
Tauros was shocked, but Elodie was too busy enjoying the pie to hear.
Compared to the old, moldy bread she’d had before, the pie melted in her mouth.
‘No wonder I thought food was always tasteless when I only ate scraps.’
She felt like she’d wasted half her life as a mouse—or as a person.
Suddenly, she heard sniffles.
She looked up and saw the chef, cooks, and kitchen helpers all crying.
Elodie’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What’s wrong with you all?”
“Little one, I’ll make you so many delicious things from now on.”
“I don’t really need that…”
“We’ll make you every kind of food! As long as it has nuts, is that all right?”
The staff, suddenly full of energy, hurried off to cook.
Tauros, especially, started doing a fire show with his frying pan.
‘Was I really afraid of these people?’
Elodie suddenly felt silly for being scared.
“Is it really that good?”
Aizen, watching her with curiosity, asked.
“Grandpa, do you want some?”
Elodie stabbed a piece of pie with her fork and held it out.
Aizen frowned a little but accepted the bite.
“How is it?”
“It tastes like pie with walnuts in it.”
“Hmph…”
Well, someone who’d always eaten good food probably wouldn’t care.
He was born a noble; he’d never gone hungry, only eaten the best.
Elodie stared up at him.
“Grandpa, is there nothing you like?”
“You, who put sunflower seeds in a diet plan, are asking me that?”
Was he making fun of sunflower seeds now?
Elodie wanted to get angry, but looking at the pie, she couldn’t argue.
How did they make the outside crisp but the inside soft and melting?
“Grandpa, I think the meaning behind what you like is important.”
Just like how she’d recently started liking clothes with cute fur on them, even though she never cared about clothes before.
Sera used to say things like this too:
“I wish Elodie could eat with me.”
“Every time I try something new, I think of Elodie.”
“Field mice shouldn’t eat this, right? Too bad.”
Whenever there was something tasty, Sera said the first thing she thought of was Elodie.
Elodie still remembered the excitement from those days.
Hearing Sera’s happy sounds made her feel good too.
She never cared about people food, but in those moments, she wanted to try it.
She’d imagine the taste and wanted to share that small happiness with Sera.
“Grandpa, do you have things like that too?”
“…”
When she was so hungry she might die, she once found a root, soaked with tears.
The first wheat grain Sera ever gave her.
A peach Sera secretly snuck from the kitchen, hiding her puffed-up cheek as she gave it.
How could someone as old as Aizen not have any memories like that, when even Elodie had them in only 15 years of life?
“No.”
Aizen answered firmly.
Elodie didn’t back down, her round eyes staring up.
“Is it because the meaning disappeared, so you stopped liking things?”
Did she go too far?
Did she cross a line?
Aizen pressed his lips together tightly, then pinched Elodie’s cheek and pulled hard.
“You really are a cheeky brat.”
“Ow!”
“That’s enough playing. Eat whatever you want.”
He stood up with his cane, leaving without looking back.
‘I just wanted to say thank you.’
At least now, she knew the kitchen wasn’t something to be afraid of—though the way she learned was a bit rough.
Still, if he didn’t want to talk, it was best to leave it alone.
Elodie rubbed her sore cheek and nodded quietly.
“There’s nowhere in this castle you can’t go. If anyone dares to be rude to you, tell me.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Your friend is welcome too, so don’t worry about it.”
Aizen ruffled her hair—marveling at her ears that stood right up no matter how he tried to flatten them.
Elodie just looked grumpy as it happened.
“Just don’t go to the Serenity Wing. That place… even for you, it’s dangerous.”
“Serenity?”
Didn’t the name itself mean peace and calm?
Why would it be a dangerous place?
“What’s there?”
Elodie couldn’t stop her curiosity.
Aizen paused, staring into the distance.
“My third grandson.”
He said it as he left the room.
