TAPGB - Chapter 3
The Abandoned Prince's Ghost Bride
- Day 10 of the little boy's observation log.
Since the fire broke out in the kitchen, the little boy hasn't even come near the kitchen. It looks like he's scared of cooking. But now there are no more potatoes or sweet potatoes for the little boy to eat. In the end, the little boy chose carrots that he could eat raw.
While chewing the carrot, the little boy started crying.
I don't feel very well.
- Day 14 of the little boy's observation log.
As the days passed, the little boy's cheeks became thinner. Now that he has eaten all the carrots, there's nothing worth eating even raw. Moreover, more than half of the remaining food ingredients were rotten.
The growling sound in the little boy's stomach does not go away.
The little boy, who was constantly filling his stomach with only water, broke the egg as if he were trying to eat it. Oops, an egg that was left at room temperature for a long time must have tried to hatch and ended up turning into a chick, only to find a corpse.
The little boy was nauseous and left the kitchen.
- Day 16 of the little boy's observation log.
The little boy didn't eat a single meal today.
[If you do that, you'll end up dead. Ugh! Shit!]
I started screaming in my observation journal.
I just didn't feel like writing. I put down the pen floating in the air and flew to where the little boy was.
As I passed the wall, I saw a little boy curled up on a bed.
Growling.
The belly clock rang loudly in a room filled with silence. The little boy, who had risen in a circle, twitched and curled up even more. It looked like he was desperately suppressing his hunger.
The little boy hadn't eaten a single meal since lunch yesterday, and for the previous four days he had only eaten one meal of raw food, and the only food he ate was food that had no nutritional value whatsoever.
As a child, he survived even if he couldn't eat. If he were an adult, he would have collapsed long ago.
[Mr. How many days has it been since he came?]
I went to my room again and checked my observation log. I started writing the day after the little one came, so today is the 17th day.
It's already been more than 15 days. It was said that ingredients are procured once a month, so there are 13 days left, approximately 2 weeks.
[Damn it, how come they don't come visit him even once?!]
I was angry. They obviously knew that the child didn't know how to cook, but they left him alone in this big mansion.
I was shocked when I saw that he was left alone on the day of the wedding. Hey, I guess they'll come back once a week and check if he's alive or dead. I thought.
No wonder they caught a person, or rather a ghost.
[What if he starved to death like that? I just can't do it. If this continues, I'll have to pay an invoice.)
If he were an adult, I wouldn't care if he died or not, but he's a kid who can't even read.
If a child dies of starvation and ends up here like me, I just care.
This is absolutely not meant to help. l said I was doing it because I didn't want to create an evil spirit like me in the mansion.
I quickly went down to the kitchen and looked at what ingredients were left.
[I guess I can make bread or oatmeal.]
It was a good idea to organize things little by little while the little one was away.
Spices such as salt and sugar were already organized in glass containers, and other ingredients were also placed in their respective places.
First of all, since the little boy hasn't eaten proper food for a few days, I need to make something good for his digestion.
[There is only oatmeal, right?]
I immediately took out oats, salt, etc. I lit the brazier, brought a pot, and roasted the oats.
[Live, live, I do all the cooking.]
Of course, ghosts cannot feel hunger. Since I can't eat food, I don't have anything to cook. Nevertheless, I had seen the humans living in the mansion cooking, and I had memorized all the books in the library, so the cooking methods were stored in my head.
[Ouch! Ride! Ride!]
However, since I can't smell it there's no way to tell if it's burning or not unless I see smoke.
I reflexively tried to grab the frying pan handle, but when I saw my hand pass through, I shyly used my mana.
[Because of the little boy, I keep forgetting that I am a ghost.]
The reason I can catch objects and clean the mansion even though I am a ghost is because I know how to use magic.
Normally, you can use magic using the mana in your body, but in my case, since I don't have a body, I use the mana floating around me rather than the mana in my body.
After living as a ghost for about 300 years, I know how to do that. I picked out the charred oats and ground them finely.
[Now just pour in the milk and we're done!]
Milk is extracted from goats that occasionally visit the yard.
I can't smell it, but it seems to be somewhat believable. But I thought It would be boring like this, so I sprinkled salt on it.
[How much should I sprinkle?]
The recipe booklet only said to season it appropriately and season it accordingly. But since I couldn't eat food, there was no way for me to taste it.
[Um... This much? No, just a little more?]
First, I hit it with a stick and swelled it. When the time was right, I put the finished oatmeal on a plate.
[Now, how do we say this?]
If I suddenly leave it next to the bed, it will start looking for people again.
What should I do? I pondered for a while.
[Ah! All you have to do is make it smell!)
Since the little boy is hungry, he will definitely react sensitively to the smell of oatmeal.
I quickly grabbed some oatmeal and went to the little boy's door. Then I opened the door ever so slightly and let in a gentle breeze.
Was it like that for about a minute? The mountain towering above the bed twitched.
"...Delicious smell."
It worked.
The little boy swallowed his saliva and got off the bed. I grabbed the oatmeal and headed down the stairs before the kid opened the door.
Fortunately, the little boy smelled the smell and followed me into the kitchen little by little.
Just before the little boy came in, I put the bowl of oatmeal on the table and hid myself in the tea cabinet.
"Rice?"
The little boy's face brightened when he saw the steaming oatmeal. Soon he started burying his nose in the bowl.
[Wouldn't that burn his tongue?]
"Attatte.....!"
[Look at him. I knew he would be like that.]
He, who couldn't keep his mouth still because it was so hot, calmed down a little and started blowing.
"Ugh."
I cringed when I heard the word salty. It looks like a lot of salt was added.
[From next time. I will put in less than that.]
Whoop, whoop, whoop! Chop chop!
However, the little boy ate the oatmeal so well that everyone who saw him was proud. Although he said it was salty, he must have been quite hungry.
When the entire bowl was emptied, the little boy was looking at the empty bowl from afar.
There was more oatmeal next to me, and as I was wondering what I was doing, clear water droplets fell into the bowl.
[Why, why are you crying?]
I was completely embarrassed.
"Delicious. So delicious..."
I was speechless for a moment.
How sad and difficult it must have been. He married a ghost at a young age, was left alone in the mansion, and could not eat properly, so it must have been incredibly difficult for him.
The little boy cried silently for a long time. He cried and ate another bowl of oatmeal, washed the bowl clean, and stored the remaining oatmeal in a corner.
After he left, I couldn't leave the kitchen for a long time.
[Okay, let's stop doing this now.]
I threw the observation journal I kept in a corner of the kitchen into the fire. The 15-day diary turned into ashes in an instant.
Still, my heart felt relieved.
[First of all, let's save the child.]
After observing it for 15 days, it seems like I've become attached to him. I was curious about what kind of expression the little boy, who always cried and had a gloomy expression on his face, would smile.
***
"Ah. I'm thirsty."
As soon as Lucian woke up, he felt insanely thirsty. Maybe it's because the oatmeal he ate yesterday was salty.
First, to quench his thirst, he drank the water he had left next to the bed. After emptying the cup, his thirst subsided.
"Hehehe..."
He recalled what happened yesterday and burst into laughter.
"Who on earth could it be? Is this the person who was there on the first day?"
Actually, yesterday he thought he was going to die. He is hungry, he can't cook, and he has nothing to eat. It would have been okay to go out and eat some grass, but he didn't want to go that far.
No, rather, he wanted him to die like this. Because he thought it would be easier to die than to live alone in this large mansion with no one around.
But when death was right around the corner, he was scared. He hoped that anyone would reach out to him.
And a miracle happened.
"But why doesn't he show up?"
Lucian was curious why his benefactor, whose face, name, and gender he didn't know, didn't show up. Is it possible that he can't reveal his identity because of orders from the imperial palace people?
"I want to at least say thank you."
Lucian, who was fiddling with an empty cup, looked depressed with his shoulders drooping and then shook his head.
"Let's look for it again!"
Growling.
He regained his energy and loudly shouted his aspirations, but his belly clock rang without notice.
Even though there was no one around, Lucian blushed and felt embarrassed.
"Hmm, shall we eat first?"
Considering the amount he had left yesterday, the food should be able to last until this evening.
He thought that if he ate it all, he would run out of food quickly, so he should share it well.
Just before Lucian left, a large pile of laundry caught his eye.
"After I eat. I have to do the laundry."
Lucian doesn't know how to do it, but all you have to do is soak it in water and take it out, right?
Before, he was resentful of having to do everything on his own, but now he felt proud that he had become an adult.
Lucian came down the stairs with excited steps. So he went to the kitchen and prepared to eat oatmeal...
"... Uh?"
Lucian blinked at what was spread out on the kitchen table.
"Bread and meat!"
There was a wonderful, steaming breakfast in the kitchen. It was freshly baked bread, bacon, broccoli, and corn soup. Even where he lived before, he had never had such a hearty breakfast.
They all smelled so good that he started drooling without realizing it.
Lucian quickly sat down, wiping the saliva overflowing from the corner of his mouth, and he took a bite of the bread.
"Huh huh... like! Wow, It's delicious!"
Smoke came out of the mouth as if the bread had just come out of the oven. The bread melted smoothly and disappeared without chewing for a long time, and the nutty flavor made it pleasant to the tongue. Lucian gently dipped the bread into the soup.
As he ate it, a fantastic combination began to dance in his mouth.
"This and that! Everything is delicious!"
Even the thick bacon was fantastic. After tasting them all one by one, Lucian found some green broccoli. It was his first time seeing broccoli and he had no idea what it was.
"I guess this one is delicious too, right?"
So, without any fear, he took it in one bite. Lucian's smiling face gradually hardened and soon became dull.
"Ugh. It tastes awful."
This is betrayal. He can't believe there's all this terrible stuff amidst such delicious food. Lucian had a long staring contest with the broccoli and then pushed it aside. And he treated it as nothing and inhaled all the rest. The bowl was empty in an instant.
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