TCP 06

Chapter 6

‘They told me I should make other friends besides Rodessa and Latier…… It’s not an unreasonable point.’

The Duchess genuinely worried about Chloe’s social skills, and the Duke emphasized just how important connections were for Chloe, the heir of the ducal house.

Before she had recovered her memories, Chloe must have been quite a mess personality-wise. Despite her status as a duke’s daughter, she had very little interaction with her peers.

But the kids she had exchanged greetings with at the party were—really just kids……!

At least with Rodessa and Latier, she had memories from the past, but with the others, she barely had any connection at all.

‘Still, I wasn’t cold to them, and they all said they definitely wanted to come to the next party.’

So, she had built the kind of connections her mother talked about—not too badly, at least.

And in the first place, Shuel hadn’t even been present when she was greeting people, so when on earth had he arrived?

Chloe couldn’t quite organize her confused thoughts after the sudden encounter.

‘No, wait. You didn’t even mention that a prince would be attending. Does that make any sense at all?’

As Chloe inwardly resented her parents for inviting a member of the imperial family without telling her, she suddenly realized something.

‘Right. I did say I’d run away if someone from the imperial family showed up, didn’t I.’

Especially because getting involved with Shuel meant she was far more likely to suffer losses than gain anything, she had once jokingly said that she’d flee if they invited royalty.

‘So that’s why they just invited the prince outright without giving me any warning.’

Still, she hadn’t expected them to actually invite royalty. There was no way she could have guessed that the Duke would invite a prince to a party meant to show off his daughter’s cooking.

As Chloe stood there at a loss, overwhelmed by embarrassment and awkwardness, the prince—who had been watching her for a moment—spoke in a solemn tone.

“Lift your head.”

His clear voice, trying a bit too hard to sound authoritative, was still kind of cute, but Chloe showed no sign of it as she raised her head.

And inwardly, she flinched once again at his beauty.

The female lead, Shuria, only had the title of Saintess—her status itself was insignificant. That some unheard-of commoner would suddenly appear and take a man like this… For Chloe, a duke’s daughter who had lived believing herself the noblest and most superior, it would have been an unbearable humiliation.

And if that Saintess had no divine power and was a ‘fake’ Saintess at that, it would have been even more absurd and infuriating. Her jealousy must have been overwhelming.

In fact, even when Chloe believed Shuria to be a real Saintess, she had still bullied her using her friends and money.

‘I can tell just by looking at his face. Anyone would lose their mind over him.’

On top of that, Chloe had known Shuel far earlier than the protagonist Shuria and had already interacted with him.

Blinded by unrequited love, she had done things she never should have—and in the end, for that sin, the entire Garnet Ducal House had been wiped out……

‘Think. It would’ve been best if I’d stayed strangers with the prince, but we’ve already met. If I want to survive without losing anything here…’

She had to act differently from the original story.

She wanted to eat lots of ‘delicious’ food, enjoy wealth, and live a long, happy life.

So she needed to avoid contact with Shuel as much as possible. It would’ve been ideal if they’d never met at all, but since what was done was done, she hoped they wouldn’t get entangled from here on out.

‘I can’t get too involved, but I also can’t leave a bad impression.’

Just as Chloe was still agonizing over how she should treat Shuel—

“Are you feeling better? I did send a letter, but I was worried when I heard the Duke’s daughter had been ill.”

Shuel spoke first. Unlike the archaic style of his letter, his tone was fairly friendly.

“Th-thank you.”

Formal courtly phrases about apologizing for causing concern buzzed uselessly in her head, but none came out properly. Chloe realized anew that she panicked quite badly when caught unprepared.

She had sent only a perfunctory reply to his letter and forgotten about it—yet he brought it up first.

Feeling a bit awkward, Chloe changed the subject.

“By the way, when did you arrive? I didn’t see you earlier.”

“I came in a bit late. I greeted the Duke and Duchess, but I didn’t see you.”

“Ah…….”

She must have stepped out briefly right when Shuel arrived—or so she was thinking, when—

“The dish from earlier—did you make it yourself?”

“Yes.”

“That hamburg steak? It was really good. Finely mincing the meat made it easy to chew and swallow.”

“…!”

Chloe was startled by how detailed his assessment was.

He has a surprisingly refined palate. There was nothing like this in the original story. Then again, food hardly ever came up at all.

“And that dessert made from milk—was it called shaved ice?”

“Yes.”

“That was excellent as well. Honestly, it tasted better than anything I’ve eaten at the imperial palace.”

Chloe gasped softly.

“You flatter me.”

“No. If you weren’t a duke’s daughter, I would’ve wanted to hire you as my personal chef.”

“I’m honored…….”

“How did you come up with something like this?”

Receiving proper feedback and praise from someone her own age for the first time, Chloe felt joy welling up from deep within her heart.

Everyone had said her food was tasty, but being so used to bad cooking, very few people could articulate what, how, or why something tasted good.

Lowering her head in thanks, Chloe suppressed her urge to excitedly talk about food.

‘We’ve already met like this, and living as a noble, I couldn’t avoid meeting the prince forever anyway.’

She’d wanted to leave as little impression as possible—but he’d eaten her cooking, so that plan had already failed.

Still, there was a chance to fix things.

“I think it just worked out by accident. I tried making other things afterward, but nothing really turned out well.”

“Is that so?”

Chloe tried her best to ignore the slightly disappointed look on Shuel’s face.

“Yes. I haven’t had any good ideas since then either……”

In front of the adults, she’d been too embarrassed to say it, but now Chloe pretended to look dejected, claiming she probably lacked talent.

Shuel awkwardly tried to comfort her, and after exchanging a few more brief words, he said he should be going and left.

Seeing Shuel off, Chloe felt satisfied that she’d wrapped up her meeting with the male lead fairly successfully.

However, Chloe—who had never truly made friends in this life—didn’t realize something.

When a twelve-year-old genius duke’s daughter who created a shocking, never-before-tasted dish showed a fragile side that no one else had seen—only to him.

What kind of impression she left on a prince whose sensitive palate couldn’t even enjoy the food of the imperial palace.

After the party, Chloe’s daily life changed a little.

First, countless invitations poured in from nobles who had heard rumors about that day’s party. Even replying to them was a task, to the point that she needed the help of maids who could read and write.

“Chloe, this is all thanks to you!”

“Huh?”

Even a long-standing problem in the Garnet Ducal territory—one that had plagued them endlessly—was resolved in a completely unexpected way.

“A refrigerator?”

“That’s right! If we can commercialize this thing called a ‘refrigerator,’ not just our territory but the entire empire will be freed from illnesses caused by spoiled food.”

As interest in milk shaved ice grew, people naturally became curious about how the milk could be frozen like that, and soon the existence of refrigerators and freezers became known.

“If you put ingredients or food in a refrigerator, you can preserve them for a long time.”

As a result, not just freezers but refrigerators as well began receiving tremendous attention.

“People are clamoring to buy it, saying they’ll pay any price.”

“Are you really going to sell them?”

“Haha, of course! For something on this scale, the Mage Tower will cooperate as well.”

Hearing that even the Mage Tower—known for not lifting a finger unless it involved combat magic—would help commercialize refrigerators, Chloe realized the matter was far bigger than she’d thought.

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

“Dad. Then… could we give refrigerators to orphanages and clinics for free?”

“Orphanages and clinics?”

“Yes. No matter how many we make and sell, it’s still a magic item, so it’ll definitely be expensive. But the people who need refrigerators the most probably won’t be able to afford them.”