TPSR 08

Chapter 08

I was deep in thought.

“…As I expected, purified stones alone aren’t enough.”

No matter how many times I considered it, the conclusion was the same.

If I wanted to save Carlos, simply providing purified stones would not suffice.

Purified stones were a fundamental means of calming the clash between demonic energy and mana—but that was all.

They couldn’t restore a body that had already been ruined.

And even at a glance, Carlos’s physical condition was abysmal. Frankly, it was a miracle he was still alive.

‘It must be because his body deteriorated slowly over a long period of time.’

From what I had observed during my few days at the Grand Duke’s residence, he neither slept nor ate properly.

‘Of course, if the goal is merely to keep him barely alive, purified stones alone would be enough….’

But I didn’t want to leave it at that.

‘What I want is for the Grand Duke to live like a human being.’

If there was one thing I had gained from living my entire life as a princess, it was an astonishingly detailed understanding of demonic energy and purified stones.

‘Thanks to the emperor.’

Though it was not publicly known, the emperor also possessed mana.

While keeping the purified stones distributed to the people at a minimum, he spared no means to maintain his own body in optimal condition.

And I had attended him at the closest distance.

There was no one who understood better than I did how to manage a body exposed to demonic energy.

‘Though I never imagined I’d use that knowledge on someone else.’

I stretched my neck and looked out the bedroom window.

“…It would be best to do it now, right?”

There was a clear reason I had been unable to act despite thinking about it for so long.

Ever since my brutal first encounter with Damian, hostile stares had followed me wherever I went within the estate.

Damian didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was watching me.

At that point, he might as well have worn a sign on his face.

‘If I ran into him, who knows what he’d say, so I kept avoiding him.’

Fortunately, today Damian had been out since the morning.

“Alright. Let’s do it now.”

After sitting on the bed with a grave expression for a moment, I suddenly hopped down to the floor.

“First of all, food.”

When I arrived at the kitchen, it happened to be empty. I must have avoided mealtime perfectly.

“It’s huge.”

After staring wide-eyed at the vast space for a moment, I quietly closed the door and headed toward the storage room connected to the kitchen, suppressing my footsteps.

I had worried the pantry might be empty as well, but as expected of a ducal estate, it was lined with fresh ingredients.

“Let’s see—eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms….”

I rummaged through the corners, carefully gathering various seasonings and herbs before waddling back to the kitchen.

After dumping the ingredients onto the counter with a clatter, I searched for a knife—then suddenly felt troubled.

“…I can’t reach.”

That was the problem.

The kitchen in the Grand Duke’s residence was far too tall for me. I wasn’t even sure I could properly chop anything like this.

As I glanced around, a small wooden box caught my eye. After struggling to drag it over and climbing on top, I was finally tall enough.

“To think my pride would suffer because of my height.”

The emperor had liked my small, delicate frame.

He said he liked that his only daughter fit neatly into his arms.

In my desire to remain in his favor, I had restricted my diet to extremes, and by the time I turned twenty, I had achieved nothing more than a height well below average.

‘Now that I think about it, perhaps he simply disliked the idea of me gaining strength in any form.’

And now that I was seven years younger, I was inevitably even smaller.

“I wonder if I could grow taller if I start trying now.”

With that idle thought, I picked up the knife.

I boldly placed the ingredients on the cutting board—but soon found myself at a loss.

“Hmm…how big am I supposed to cut these?”

Though I had visited the kitchen constantly to attend to the emperor’s meals, I had, regrettably, never actually cooked myself.

Naturally. Which official in their right mind would hand kitchen utensils to a princess?

Besides, I wouldn’t have tolerated even a speck of dust on my dress back then.

“Hmm.”

I hesitated for a moment.

But it didn’t last long. Firmly pressing my lips together, I adjusted my grip on the knife.

“I’ll figure it out if I try. It can’t be that hard, right?”

After all, I had spent years going in and out of the kitchen watching the emperor’s meals being prepared. As far as I remembered, it hadn’t seemed particularly difficult.

“Eggplant gets cut lengthwise, and tomatoes into squares… I think.”

Digging through old memories, I began slicing the ingredients at random.

The eggplant turned out reasonably decent, though somewhat uneven in thickness. The problem was the tomatoes.

I clearly remembered the head chef cutting them neatly into cubes—but what lay before me now was something so thoroughly crushed it barely retained its shape.

Red tomato splattered everywhere, smeared and flattened, making the scene look less like cooking and more like the aftermath of an accident.

“…That’s not right.”

It clearly didn’t look edible.

“Let’s try again.”

Climbing down from the box with difficulty, I fetched more tomatoes from the pantry.

This time I resumed cutting more carefully, but unfortunately the result was not much different.

In fact, tomato juice burst out this time, staining my apron bright red.

“…Why is this so hard?”

The cooks made it look easy.

Wasn’t it easy?

I was standing there blankly, knife in hand, staring at the ruined tomatoes when—

“Oh my! Your Highness, what on earth is going on?”

A startled voice suddenly rang out from across the room.

Mia, who had been passing by the kitchen, was staring at me in shock.

Wearing an apron and holding a kitchen knife, I stood before her, with the devastated tomatoes sprawled out in front of me. She glanced back and forth between me and the scene, then hurried into the kitchen.

“I wondered why you weren’t in your room—so this is where you were? Oh my, your clothes are a mess…. If you were hungry, you should have said something.”

“I’m not hungry….”

“Then were you bored?”

“No.”

Who would cause this kind of disaster in the kitchen out of boredom?

I instinctively tried to protest but clamped my mouth shut.

No matter how I explained it, I looked strange.

‘How am I supposed to explain this?’

As the silence stretched on, Mia gave me a curious look. Her bright eyes seemed to poke at my cheeks.

Finally, I mumbled in a small voice,

“I was trying to…prepare a meal.”

“A meal? But didn’t you eat lunch earlier?”

“Not for me, it’s for….”