TCP 23

Chapter: 23

‘Thank you for sincerely teaching me swordsmanship, but…….’

Even so, thinking that the combination of a villainess and a second male lead was nothing short of a predetermined path to destruction, Chloe carefully cleaned the aged flatfish monster and sliced it thinly.

After pouring the carpaccio sauce she had prepared in advance over it, she was about to take it out when she suddenly stopped.

“Is this a little too lacking in sincerity?”

Considering the combination of sashimi and other dishes, the obvious choice was alcohol.

However, both Chloe and Cloud were minors, so she couldn’t serve them alcohol.

“What should I do?”

She thought shaved ice would be better served as dessert, and if that was the case, it would be better to make a simple side dish that could be eaten throughout the meal with the sashimi.

“I’ll just make something simple.”

It was time to make use of the deliciously improved “potatoes”!

Saying that, Chloe took out some potatoes and lizard eggs and started boiling them.

While waiting for the potatoes and lizard eggs to cook, Chloe finely chopped onions, cucumbers, and carrots, then soaked them in salt water so they could absorb the seasoning.

After waiting a little while, she took out the hot potatoes and lizard eggs, let them cool completely, then mashed them and mixed them together with the finely chopped cucumbers, onions, and carrots.

She also made a simple version of mayonnaise by mixing lizard eggs, lemon juice, and oil.

After mixing everything together and seasoning it with salt,

“It’s done!”

The potato salad was complete.

Chloe took a tiny bite of the finished potato salad and admired it herself.

“I made it myself, but it really is delicious. And it’s simple too.”

Humming happily, Chloe headed over to bring the food to Cloud.

Cloud stared silently for a moment at the white-fleshed fish-like thing placed in front of him and the thing that had been finely chopped and mashed.

“What is this? Explain the dish.”

“Ah, yes. One is raw fish sliced into pieces called ‘sashimi,’ and the other is potato salad.”

After hearing the explanation, it felt like he had just heard some alien language.

Realizing there wasn’t a single word he understood, Cloud narrowed his eyes and shouted at Chloe.

“Hey! I said explain it so I can understand!”

“Just as the Grand Duke first showed me a demonstration of swordsmanship before explaining it, wouldn’t it be better to taste the food first and then explain?”

It wasn’t exactly wrong, so he had nothing to say in response, but Cloud had no desire to eat raw, fishy meat.

“I understand everything else, but why are you eating fish raw?”

“If you won’t eat it, I’ll eat it first.”

After announcing that, Chloe picked up a piece of the white fish meat right in front of him and ate it as if to show off, savoring it as though it was delicious.

Was she the type who enjoyed eating something raw even though it would obviously smell fishy when cooked?

‘What a strange preference.’

He could have simply thrown the plate away and demanded that she bring something edible, but he decided he would eat it himself first and then properly criticize it.

Originally, his plan was to harshly criticize her when she held a sword so she would never dare say she wanted to wield one again.

But from the perspective of someone who understood swords, to be honest, if Chloe didn’t pick up a sword with that kind of talent, it would actually be a greater shame.

So he put that plan on hold.

‘Since I can’t do that, I’ll at least crush her confidence with this.’

Only then would his mother, the Empress Dowager, stop pushing him toward such a worthless girl.

With that thought, Cloud made a displeased expression, picked up a piece of fish with his fork, and put it into his mouth.

At that moment.

“……!”

When he took the first bite, all he felt was that it was soft.

But after one bite, two bites, three bites.

As he ate the fish meat perfectly blended with some mysterious sauce, Cloud simply couldn’t bring himself to say… that it tasted bad.

Chloe, who had noticed immediately that his mood had improved, smiled brightly and asked,

“How is it? It’s better than you expected, right?”

Perhaps because his pride wouldn’t allow him to admit that Chloe was good at cooking, Cloud frowned deeply and moved his hand toward the potato salad this time.

‘This seems like a side dish.’

A dish, whether main or side, should all taste good.

Cloud assumed that Chloe had focused all her attention on that “sashimi” and had made the side dish carelessly, so he scooped up some potato salad and ate it.

Then he went silent.

Cloud’s silence continued for an unnervingly long time, and Chloe carefully opened her mouth and asked,

“Is it perhaps not good?”

He needed to answer yes to that question and crush her confidence.

But Cloud couldn’t bring himself to say this potato salad tasted bad.

Instead, he questioned Chloe as if he couldn’t believe it.

“You said this was potato salad.”

“Yes? Yes, that’s right.”

“But it doesn’t taste like the potatoes I know. Are you daring to lie to me?”

Despite Cloud’s ridiculous nitpicking, Chloe smiled brightly and answered.

“Ah, can you tell that it’s different from the original potatoes?”

“……?”

She even seemed happy that he was criticizing her, which left Cloud confused. He forced himself to regain his composure and replied coldly.

“Yeah. It tastes completely different from potatoes.”

He was just about to sarcastically say that the word “potato” should probably be removed from the name when—

“I’m happy you noticed!”

“What?”

Cloud couldn’t hide his embarrassment when Chloe instead looked delighted that he had pointed it out.

“Potatoes originally tasted so bad that we brought in a magician and improved them. As expected, the Grand Duke noticed right away.”

Saying that, Chloe smiled with the satisfied expression of a well-fed cat.

Cloud, who saw that bright smile straight on, tightly closed his eyes for a moment.

Without even realizing that his ears had turned red, he opened his mouth as if he was about to criticize Chloe’s cooking.

Chloe listened carefully to Cloud’s complaint, since he was a customer—or rather, a future customer.

The words that came out of Cloud’s mouth were completely unexpected.

“Irritating.”

“Pardon?”

“You’re good at too many useless things, and it annoys me.”

He spent quite a while grumbling about why that was so irritating.

Chloe stared blankly at him and thought,

‘No wonder he’s officially a psychopath in the original story. I seriously can’t follow his train of thought at all.’

The funniest thing was that while Cloud’s face looked extremely angry, his spoon and fork movements were getting faster and faster.

He had a nasty personality, but since he was still a child, he seemed honest and innocent.

Watching him with a pleased expression, Chloe told Cloud the ingredients.

“I sliced a fish-shaped monster raw and served it to you. We had a hard time catching it from the northernmost part of our territory, but it tasted really good. And yes, the potato salad really was made from improved potatoes.”

She thought she seemed like a terrible person for revealing the ingredients only after he had already eaten the food, but she couldn’t help it.

‘Most people become prejudiced the moment they hear the word “monster.”’

Thinking that, Chloe quietly waited for Cloud’s reaction.

She expected him to go crazy, asking if she had fed him some filthy monster, but his reaction was unexpected.

“A difficult one to catch tastes good? Well, I can understand that.”

He seemed to think about something with a strangely softened attitude, then spoke to Chloe in a quiet voice.

“……Hey.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Cloud, unusually hesitant and timid, spent a long time thinking about something before finally speaking in a barely audible voice.

“T-this. Do you have more?”

The “this” Cloud was referring to was the flatfish.

Even knowing that the flatfish was a monster, he had acknowledged its taste!

Surprised, Chloe widened her eyes and looked at Cloud.

Cloud’s ears were bright red, as if they were burning!

‘Oh my. He was embarrassed to ask for more food.’

She had only thought of him as rude, but even the villainous second male lead from the original story had some humanity.

Anyway, Chloe was touched that he asked for more “flatfish” because it was delicious even after knowing the ingredient.

She answered in a cheerful voice,

“Of course! How about trying a few other dishes similar to this one too?”