“Hmm, what I wanted to do with my family...”
Bianca played with her hair and hesitated for a while.
It seemed like the words never left her mouth.
"Huh? What is it that makes our Princess unable to keep her mouth shut like this?”
As I asked subtly, Bianca twisted her stomach as if she was even more embarrassed.
“Well, that’s... It's something I've wanted to do every time I pass by the park on a carriage ride in the capital...”
After a moment of continuing her words, the child cried out with her big eyes tightly closed.
"I... I really wanted to have a picnic with His Highness the Grand Duke and Her Highness!”
Cedric and I made eye contact and blinked slowly.
"Picnic...?”
"Yes yes! A picnic!”
Bianca kept chattering with a flushed face as if she was excited just thinking about it.
“I saw it every time I passed by the park in the capital city on a horse-drawn carriage. Families go out to the park, enjoy nature together, and even take a nap on each other's laps! Hmm, what else was there... Ah! You brought some delicious food and shared it with us?”
“I know what a picnic is. But that's only possible in the capital during warm spring or summer...”
I looked at Bianca, who was very excited, and awkwardly raised the corner of my mouth.
"...This is the North. Especially now, the weather is so cold that even standing outside for 10 minutes makes your bones ache...”
That was absolutely no exaggeration.
Especially because the weather has gotten colder these days, so much so that my hair was frozen as soon as I went out without drying it.
An outdoor picnic in this weather...
Just imagining it gave me goosebumps.
“Bianca, if you really want to do it, do it indoors...”
It was a time when I was trying to put my sorry feelings aside and see her.
"Yes. I know this is the North, Your Highness. But that...”
Bianca tilted her head and looked up at me again.
“What’s the problem?”
She looked like she had no idea what was going on.
Faced with a difficult situation, I secretly looked at Cedric.
‘You refuse. I really, really hate being hated by Bianca!'
I sent a signal with my eyes, but for some reason, Cedric also had a puzzled look on his face.
“I think an outdoor picnic would be fine, don’t you think?”
It was a moment when my complacent thought that Cedric would have the same opinion as I was completely shattered.
‘What’s wrong with these people? Could it be that mixed-blood demons... Can't you feel the cold?'
Suddenly, that thought even occurred to me.
After a moment of being dazed, I shook my head to come to my senses.
Now was not the time for this.
Didn't I suddenly end up playing the villain who would refuse Bianca's picnic offer?
‘Cedric, this was the plan from the beginning...?'
An unreasonable desire to win began to bloom.
Why do I always have to pretend to be the villain just to clean things up?
'I don't know. This time, I'm just going to throw it away. If you don't like it, just reject it on your own, right!'
I pursed my lips for a moment, then looked at Bianca and smiled broadly.
“Okay, Bianca! Tomorrow my whole family will be there. Let’s go on a picnic!”
“Wow! Really, Your Highness?”
“Yes, then? Of course!”
I looked up at Cedric with a confident smile.
But this time too, he looked like he had no idea what was going on.
***
The next morning.
The kitchen of the Mansion of Light was busy as always.
At first glance, it may seem like they are moving around randomly, but the kitchen staff always maintain order under the direction of the chef.
The chef really liked his location and his workplace within the Mansion of Light.
Those are probably the only things he doesn't complain about, as he is always called a complainer because he has a lot to complain about.
He found things to complain about in almost every other area and continued to doubt until the very end.
Maybe that's why, even among fellow employees, there weren't many people who thought positively of the chef.
‘For whom are we eating such delicious and nutritious food? They don’t even know how thankful they are...'
In short, he was a person who stood up and said no when everyone else said he was right.
Recently, there was a topic that kept getting on his nerves.
It was the changed reputation of those around Grand Duchess Rebecca.
Of course, he also acknowledged that she looked more comfortable than before.
'Well, no matter how much it is, the testimony is too exaggerated, isn't it?'
Instead of treating the mixed-race demons whom Rebecca hated so much as human beings, she 'sincerely' took care of them with kindness and care.
‘You idiots. What's so disappointing about the Grand Duchess that she genuinely treats us like human beings? She's just doing it to show off because she's doing welfare work or something.'
Moreover, who is Rebecca?
The fact that she stopped abusing the half-blood demon so viciously is surprising, but she even treats them with kindness?
That was impossible unless the substance inside the shell changed into another soul.
‘Oh, of course. As expected, it was a good thing I didn't change the betting conditions until the end!'
A big bet has been going on among the residents of the Mansion of Light for several months as to whether the rumor that Grand Duchess Rebecca has changed is true or false.
At first, many people put up money to say that the rumor was false.
However, as time passed, more and more people subtly changed their positions, and before he knew it, he was the only one left betting that the rumor was false.
Is that all? Now they were even angry at him for even making such a bet, telling him to stop immediately.
'When are they more excited to bet? It's really not funny.'
Now all he has to do is hold out until the rumor is proven to be false.
If he was lucky, he might be able to keep all the money that many users had donated.
It was at that time that the chef was vigorously whipping egg whites and humming his song.
“Chef! Clean up your surroundings right now! Hey, there, there! Pick up that oyster shell and throw it away right now!”
The head maid who suddenly burst into the kitchen shouted in an urgent voice.
The chef was just confused by her bustling attitude.
“What on earth is going on, Chief Maid?”
Even as he was asking that question, the outside of the kitchen door was noisy with the sound of an unknown crowd.
“No, I don’t know... Oh my goodness! Looks like you’re already here, you’re here!”
The maid stopped what she was trying to explain and started talking in gibberish before she hurriedly ran out the door of the kitchen again.
Strangely enough, her face was flushed with anticipation.
'What on earth is happening?'
The sound of a crowd, as if someone was coming, gradually got closer.
And finally, the kitchen door was wide open.
‘That person...'
The chef rubbed his eyes and raised his head again.
“Your Highness?”
Even though the chef kept rubbing his eyes, the person standing in front of him was Rebecca.
Even if it was she who was stuck in her corner, going back and forth between the kitchen and the living room, her face was instantly recognizable.
Moreover, as if to make it more realistic, aren't the butlers and head maids of the Mansion of Light lined up on either side of her, and the employees in charge of various jobs lined up behind her?
As one, they looked at Rebecca with adoration on their face.
At the same time, they often shot a fierce look at himself, the chef, as if telling him to hurry up and say something to His Highness.
"Ah... Hello, greetings. I am in charge of the kitchen of this Mansion of Light...”
“Chef Ecole, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. Eco...”
For a moment, he tried to unintentionally chant his name after Rebecca.
The chef's eyes slowly opened wide.
‘The Grand Duchess... How do you know my name?'
A woman's beautiful hand was politely placed in front of him, whose mind was filled with question marks.
“This is the first time we’ve talked in person like this, right? Nice to meet you, Ecole.”
The chef looked at Rebecca's hand blankly, but then came to his senses and offered his hand.
Then, seeing Rebecca holding his hand and shaking it, he became even more bewildered.
However, this may also be part of Rebecca's showmanship.
'I'm different from those fools who are easily fooled.'
The chef puffed out his chest and cleared his throat.
“Thank you. But what's going on here...”
The employees who were watching frowned at his seemingly arrogant attitude.
However, Rebecca only glanced around the kitchen with an expression of interest.
“I’m going to have a picnic later this afternoon.”
“If you need food to enjoy on a picnic, I can prepare it right away.”
“That’s not it, I want to cook it myself.”
“Aha, yes. Directly...”
The chef craned his neck like a turtle for a while and looked at Rebecca.
"Yes? Directly...?”
"Is it so. This is my first picnic with His Royal Highness the Grand Duke and Princess Bianca. Picnic dishes are simple, so I want to make them for my family.”
He wasn't sure if he understood the Grand Duchess' words correctly.
It was so absurd that he felt like he was lost.
However, as soon as he saw the affection filling in the eyes of the users, it seemed like they had not heard anything completely wrong.
“The Grand Duchess cooks for your family yourself... You are so romantic, Your Highness!”
“How happy will Princess Bianca be when she finds out about this?”
“She might be so moved that she might cry!”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure His Highness the Grand Duke will like it very much.”
At that point, the chef felt much more unfamiliar with the change in attitude of the residents of the Mansion of Light than with Rebecca's change.
Haven't they been desperately praying for the chance to kill Rebecca for the past few years?
They looked up to Rebecca with affectionate eyes, as if they were looking at Cedric...
'It's not the Mansion of Darkness either, but the users of the Mansion of Light?'
It was definitely a jaw-dropping incident.
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