Chapter: 16
At the foot of a mountain in the north.
The place known as the Station was, quite literally, like a train station, except it housed a transportation device called a portal.
Near the station, the Imperial Army was busy setting up camp.
And I, arriving just as they were conducting startup tests…
“Oh! Yustea!”
…was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm by Colonel Ragoni.
“Hello, Colonel. Thank you for calling me.”
“It’s my good fortune that you happened to be in the north.”
Colonel Ragoni hadn’t known I was staying in the north.
We exchanged letters through a merchant guild operating in the central region.
Whenever the guild crossed the northern border into neighboring countries, I would send or receive letters through them, while Colonel Ragoni used carrier pigeons to correspond with me.
“I hate to ask this the moment you’ve arrived, but I have a favor to request.”
“A favor?”
“Come to think of it… this is strange.”
Normally he never insisted on seeing me this badly, but this time he’d practically begged me to come.
As much as he loved my cooking, he wasn’t the kind of person who would summon me away from escorting an imperial prince just to make a meal.
He was famous for being exceptionally competent.
That was precisely why he’d earned a place in the elite Imperial Prince Guard.
Colonel Ragoni nodded gravely.
“Yustea… would you prepare His Highness the Fourth Prince’s meals?”
“The Fourth Prince?”
I had expected him to ask me to cook for him or for the soldiers.
But a prince?
Not just anyone could prepare meals for imperial royalty.
Only chefs personally selected after strict vetting by the Imperial Palace were allowed, and every menu had to be approved by the palace nutritionists.
Seeing my bewildered expression, Colonel Ragoni glanced around before lowering his voice.
“The Fourth Prince suffers from madness.”
Madness.
A mental illness.
I stared at him in shock, and he nodded.
“His Highness believes someone is trying to poison him. Because of that, he refuses to eat any food at all.”
“That’s…”
“Please help us. You’ve restored the strength of soldiers who suffered from mental afflictions before, haven’t you?”
So that was why he’d searched so desperately for me.
If the prince collapsed while under his protection, the entire responsibility would fall on Colonel Ragoni.
“Hmm…”
I thought for a moment.
“It’ll be difficult, but it’s worth trying.”
After all, I needed to get close to the prince and become his contractor.
I nodded.
Colonel Ragoni’s face brightened.
“Thank you. I’ll do everything I can to make sure the other princes don’t discover you’re here.”
“…The other princes?”
Of course, the Fourth Prince hadn’t come alone.
This expedition involved several princes from the start.
But there shouldn’t have been any prince on this northern trip from whom I needed to hide my identity…
“Don’t tell me…”
I looked at Colonel Ragoni.
With an awkward smile, he said,
“There are a few princes who might make things… uncomfortable for you.”
What did that mean?
In the original game, none of the princes who came here had ever been connected to me…!
Inside the makeshift kitchen tent.
Standing before the cutting board with an apron tied around my waist, I thought,
“Should I just run away while I still can?”
Reality had completely diverged from the game’s storyline.
Three princes had come to the north.
Second Prince Luciano.
Fourth Prince Ain.
Fifth Prince Gaspar.
“What an incredible lineup…”
Aside from Fourth Prince Ain, neither the Second nor the Fifth Prince had been scheduled to come.
Worse, both of them were extremely awkward people for me.
Fifth Prince Gaspar was the full brother of the First Prince—my first love and former fiancé.
And the Second Prince…
“No. Don’t think about it. It’s not like I can run away anyway.”
I shook my head.
If I fled now, I could never become a contractor.
Then I’d never reach Castle Esgarott or bring the Duke and the Guild Master together.
The better things went for the irregularity, the safer my own future would be.
Letting out a long sigh, I tightened the strings of my apron.
“Becoming a contractor comes first. As for the troublesome princes… I’ll avoid them as much as possible.”
Having settled my thoughts, I washed my hands.
Just as I was about to start cooking…
“So you’re the girl Colonel Ragoni brought in from outside.”
A gigantic man who looked at least two meters tall approached me, followed by several chefs.
Judging by the chef’s hat on his head, even this mountain of a man was a cook.
I lowered my head.
“Yes. My name is Yustea.”
Crossing his arms, the giant glared at me.
“What trick did you use?”
“Pardon?”
“What scheme did you use to bewitch Colonel Ragoni?”
“Oh… dumplings.”
“What?”
“The Colonel likes my dumplings. I used to work with the supply corps, and he’s enjoyed my cooking ever since…”
Before I could finish—
Crash! Clang!
The giant swept the bowls and cutting board off the table.
Cooking utensils scattered across the floor with sharp metallic noises.
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
His eyes blazed.
Behind him, the other chefs stared at me with mocking smiles.
So that hadn’t been a question in the first place.
Unable to complain to the Colonel himself, they’d come here to vent their anger on me.
They wanted to watch a helpless girl suffer under hazing.
If I burst into tears and ran away, even Colonel Ragoni, who’d brought me here, would lose face.
Quietly, I crouched down and picked up the utensils.
The giant sneered.
“I’ll ask one more time. How did you charm the Colonel?”
“I already told you. He likes my cooking.”
I answered calmly while placing everything back onto the table.
The giant’s face twisted.
The watching chefs let out disbelieving laughs.
“Well, would you look at that.”
“She’s not an ordinary little girl. Look at those wide eyes.”
The chefs jeered as they egged the giant on.
He stomped toward me, shaking the ground beneath his feet.
“No matter how well you’ve wrapped Colonel Ragoni around your finger, this isn’t a place someone like you has any right to enter.”
“…”
“If it’s the prince’s meals, then qualified chefs like us should prepare them.”
“…”
“So stop trying to steal someone else’s opportunity and get out.”
Trying to steal someone else’s opportunity.
Apparently, that was what angered them most.
The northern expedition was grueling.
Any chef assigned here was probably one of the lower-ranked cooks in the Imperial Palace.
They’d hoped to use this chance to impress the princes.
Then I suddenly showed up and took their opportunity away.
When I remained silent, the giant raised a hand as big as a pot lid.
“Are you deaf?!”
“So he’s actually going to hit me?”
Well.
In that case…
The chefs grinned, thinking I’d been frightened.
Instead—
“Colonel! Colonel Ragoni!”
“…!”
“…!!”
—I shouted for the Colonel at the top of my lungs.
“There’s violence in the kitchen! I’m so scared! The chefs are— Mmph!”
The chefs panicked and immediately covered my mouth.
Apparently they hadn’t expected that reaction.
“W-What are you doing?!”
What was I doing?
Reporting them, obviously.
They’d expected me to cower in fear.
Sorry, but no.
I’d been thrown out of the Andres family and survived every kind of hardship imaginable.
I’d faced much worse than this.
And I’d learned something.
If you endured everything quietly, people simply treated you like a convenient punching bag.
My philosophy was simple.
Use whatever resources you could.
The chefs desperately clung to me, their faces pale.
But it was already too late.
Colonel Ragoni, who’d been eagerly waiting for my dumplings, burst into the kitchen like a bullet.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“C-Colonel…”
The two-meter giant instantly shrank.
Everything afterward unfolded exactly as expected.
Colonel Ragoni stormed in breathing fire, and the giant chef along with the others received the scolding of a lifetime.
“You’ve been entrusted by the Imperial Palace itself, yet you’re letting your personal greed interfere with decisions made for His Highness’s safety?”
The giant couldn’t say a word.
He’d already tried making excuse after excuse and had each one shouted down.
“We merely offered the girl a few words of advice, and she misunderstood—”
“Then let me hear that advice.”
“We admit the atmosphere became somewhat hostile because we were concerned about His Highness…”
“Then I’d like to see exactly how hostile it was.”
“We were appointed directly by the Imperial Family. No matter who you are, Colonel, you can’t punish us as you please—”
“I’ll report to the Imperial Palace immediately that you’re the incompetent fools who’ve left the Fourth Prince starving for five days.”
Every time they opened their mouths, Colonel Ragoni shot them down with another furious glare.
A complete knockout.
In the end, they were left clinging to the Colonel’s trouser leg, begging for forgiveness.
With the chefs wailing in the background, I worked at the counter before finally looking up.
“Colonel.”
After thoroughly crushing the chefs’ spirits, Colonel Ragoni turned toward me with a gentle smile.
“Yes, our Yustea. Do you need anything for your cooking?”
“No. It’s already finished. Would you like to taste it?”
At those words, both the Colonel and the adjutants glaring behind him rushed toward me.
“I’ll do the tasting!”
“It’s a hot dish. If our superior burns his tongue, that would be terrible. I’ll take the risk—”
“Stop your nonsense and move.”
Rank won in the end, and the Colonel claimed the tasting.
He devoured the hot scorched-rice soup so quickly that he burned the roof of his mouth, twisting in pain.
Even so, he immediately raised a thumbs-up.
“Perfect. Taste test complete.”
Now it was time to meet the Fourth Prince, the one said to suffer from madness.
Carrying a tray of food, I headed toward Ain’s tent.
“So this is my first time seeing Fourth Prince Ain.”
Even when I’d been Lady Andres, I’d never caught so much as a glimpse of one strand of his hair.
Many members of the Imperial Family avoided public appearances, so I’d never found that strange.
Besides, since there were hardly any rumors about him, I’d never imagined he’d been living in seclusion because of madness.
Arriving at the tent, I opened my mouth.
Or rather, I was about to.
“So where the hell is that tracking device, Brother?”
Had I not heard that savage voice, followed by the sound of someone being thrown across the room.
I recognized the voice instantly.
“The delinquent!”
It was Fifth Prince Gaspar.
There was only one person Gaspar would call “Brother.”
And this was Ain’s tent.
“The one getting thrown around must be Prince Ain.”
In other words…
The princes were physically fighting each other.
Even knowing Ain was losing to Gaspar, I couldn’t simply rush inside.
Gaspar was infamous for his brutality.
I’d personally witnessed him stab a nobleman’s eye with a dinner knife.
He was that reckless.
Even if I barged in to stop him, I’d only end up getting beaten alongside Ain.
“I need to get someone else.”
But unlike before, I couldn’t rely on Colonel Ragoni.
He didn’t have the authority to stop Gaspar.
“Then the only option left is…”
“Need some help?”
The voice behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.
I spun around.
A man wearing a hooded robe looked at me.
Brilliant silver hair.
Calm crimson eyes beneath sharp, elegant brows.
A perfectly sculpted nose.
Gracefully curved lips.
A body so perfectly proportioned that he looked less like a living person than a masterpiece crafted by a genius sculptor over an entire lifetime.
Other than Guild Master Aslan, I’d never seen such a breathtakingly handsome man.
Yet my body stiffened as though death itself had appeared before me.
“…Prince Luciano.”
The Second Prince.
It was him.
I quickly bowed.
“My greetings, Your Highness.”
His low voice drifted down over my head.
“Do you need help?”
“…The situation inside the tent seems serious. Prince Ain may be waiting for his elder brother’s assistance…”
“I was asking you.”
“…I…”
“My former sister-in-law.”
“…!”
I’m doomed.
Inside the tent, two princes were fighting.
Outside stood the Grim Reaper.
Yes.
The only person as troublesome as the violent Gaspar was Second Prince Luciano.
Luciano was the First Prince’s greatest rival.
My father had ordered me to support my fiancé by obstructing Prince Luciano.
Back then, the foolish Yustea believed she had to obey her father’s every command, even if he ordered her to drink poison.
So I’d worked hard to get in Luciano’s way.
And unfortunately…
I’d succeeded more than once.
To Luciano, I must have looked like a sworn enemy.
Glancing toward the tent, I spoke carefully.
“Um… if I remind Your Highness that I’ve already been thrown out of my family and am worth less than a dust-covered potato these days… would that lessen your resentment even a little?”
“Hardly. You were the sister-in-law who stole the credit for the campaign against the barbarians that I risked my life to win and handed it all to my brother.”
“Could you perhaps take into consideration that after trying so hard, I was discarded like trash in the end?”
“I wonder. What would you say about the sister-in-law who took the Founding Emperor’s sacred sword, which His Majesty intended to bestow upon me, and presented it to my brother instead?”
“If I told you I desperately want to slap my past self, and that I’m fully prepared to let you slap me if you wish…”
“Do I look like the sort of madman who hits women?”
“Of course not. But are you perhaps aware that inside that tent there’s someone committing fratricide by beating his brother instead?”
I was truly running out of time.
Another loud crash echoed from inside.
“I’m terribly sorry. I know I’ve committed unforgivable sins. But could we postpone settling our grudge? I’ll come to you tonight and offer you my neck if necessary, so please…!”
If anything happened to Prince Ain, the northern expedition would end immediately.
Then I’d lose my chance to become a contractor and meet the Duke of Esgarott and the Guild Master.
More than anything…
I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing I had done nothing.
Just as I finished speaking—
Shing.
The unmistakable sound of a sword leaving its scabbard rang out from inside the tent.
If swords had already been drawn, there wasn’t another second to waste.
I was just about to rush inside when—
“This puts you in my debt, Yustea.”
Huh?
Prince Luciano walked past me.
Everything suddenly seemed to move in slow motion.
When he reached the curtain serving as the tent’s entrance—
CRAAACK!
With the sound of timber splitting apart, half the tent collapsed.
The sword in Luciano’s hand had sliced clean through one of the support beams in a single stroke.
A fierce wind swept through.
The canvas fluttered away, revealing the two princes inside.
The prince sitting collapsed on the ground was Fourth Prince Ain, the one said to suffer from madness.
Standing over him with a sword pointed at him was Fifth Prince Gaspar.
Seeing Luciano standing casually before the ruined tent, Gaspar let out a mocking laugh.
“Summer isn’t even here yet, but the bugs are already crawling around, Brother.”
“Don’t belittle yourself so much, Gaspar.”
…Maybe I really should have run away earlier.
The situation was one step away from complete chaos.
