NOVEL NEXT chapter 43
43 – Time to Make Fermented Kimchi
It has been three days.
That’s how long she has been deprived of meat.
She reduced the usual amount of meat she consumed, and increased the amount of vegetables.
A salad made with fresh vegetables.
Side dishes made by stir-frying the herbs.
She even reduced her usual rice portion to a mere quarter, scooping only half a bowl into her rice bowl.
From her perspective, it was a revolutionary meal.
Each time the bitter and bland taste of the vegetables stimulated her palate, her expression frowned.
It’s not that it didn’t taste good.
It was just that, by chance, she worked at a cookhouse.
And in that place, countless greasy dishes were wafting their unique aromas.
For the carnivorous elf who was starving for meat, it was an extremely tempting scent.
The golden brown body line of the fried, thinly battered pork cutlet.
The beautiful bulgogi set meal, exuding an alluring, provocative reddish hue.
The crispy and moist fried rice, lightly pressed on the grill.
The contrast of the crispy exterior and the even whiter flesh glimmering inside the grilled pork belly and other dishes.
Every time she passed a table, the customers’ food enchanted her sense of smell.
“Uuuuugh…”
Moreover, the customers, taking generous spoonfuls and exclaiming its deliciousness.
Where else could there be such an atrocious torture like that food show for a hungry person?
Although it wasn’t their intention, Andrea felt her blood drain day by day as she watched them feast.
‘I have to endure.’
Ab. So. Lute. Ly. endure.
What is the pride of an elf?
Pristine skin and delicate flesh, along with a moderately slender figure, isn’t it?
Andrea, who had slightly thicker arms and legs compared to ordinary elves, didn’t feel burdened by it at all.
It even gave her a bit of a healthy look, perhaps?
But what if she gained weight and became plump here?
Would that still be considered healthy?
If her already modestly firm abs turned soft and squishy, would she be able to handle that?
Absolutely not.
Her pride as a warrior wouldn’t allow it.
“It’s delicious. I love the vegetables.”
She forced the vegetables into her mouth like cattle and hinted at its tastiness several times.
But it only lasted for a while.
“Haah, hah.”
The moment she saw Lucas eating the spicy pork belly in front of her, her superhuman self-control began to waver.
‘It must be delicious.’
The numerous delusions that started with a single thought.
‘It must be really delicious.’
Spread uncontrollably without limits.
In her imagination, Andrea tormented the spicy pork belly in various ways.
Every time she licked the red sauce in her imagination, the spicy taste stimulated her taste buds, and saliva overflowed in her mouth.
After licking off all the sauce on the surface of the imaginary meat, its snow-white insides revealed themselves.
He takes the trembling sensation of embarrassment and puts it directly into his mouth, chewing on it.
A slightly rich and tender flesh fills her mouth.
One point of imaginary meat, no, two points.
She eats it again with vegetables seasoned with chili.
In the realm of imagination, meat and vegetables intertwine, licking each other’s bodies with their saliva.
Ah.
Delicious.
Insanely delicious.
The more she imagines, the closer the meat comes.
“Oh? Why is the meat approaching?”
“Eat. You might collapse if you don’t.”
Lucas’s gaze, genuinely concerned, turns toward her.
Am I really that serious?
She belatedly saw her own appearance.
Even lips that seemed eager to eat the approaching meat.
“Eat and then exercise.”
“….”
Saliva drops from the tip of her tongue.
“If you’re worried about gaining weight, eat this and help me prepare ingredients together in the early morning.”
She felt a sense of relief at his words.
It’s okay.
It’s still okay.
She picked up the chopsticks holding the meat.
Like a fish hooked on a fishing rod.
She put the chopsticks in her mouth and licked the meat and chopsticks together with her tongue.
She couldn’t afford to miss even the slightest hint of seasoning on the chopsticks.
A stimulating and thick liquid.
The moment it touched her palate, the rich oil of the meat, blended with pepper, soy sauce, and more, created a savory taste that bewildered her tongue.
To savor the seasoning to the fullest, she moved her tongue around.
Only after licking off all the seasoning on the chopsticks could she finally remove the meat from them.
“Mmm….”
With each chew, the flowing juices and meat oil were far more exquisite than she had imagined.
Wasn’t it said that reality surpassed imagination?
It had been so long since she tasted meat oil that her head was spinning.
“Haahh.”
Shivering, she exhaled a moist breath.
“Delicious….”
Unlike the long and dull moments of asceticism, the meat disappeared in an instant in her mouth.
She, who was savoring the lingering taste of the vanished meat, looked at Lucas’s chopsticks with fascinated eyes.
The red seasoning smeared in the middle of the chopsticks.
Even if she couldn’t eat more meat, at least that.
Andrea, holding Lucas’s hand, extended her tongue and licked the body of the chopsticks.
The tingling and spicy taste of the seasoning stimulated her taste buds.
“Hey, stop that. Seriously! Andrea!”
“Huh?”
“Just eat the meat. Why are you licking that?”
“Well, but I’ll gain weight.”
“It’s okay. I told you before. Eat more and exercise more.”
“It’s tiring to prepare ingredients in the morning….”
“But you can enjoy delicious meat to your heart’s content.”
“After working in the morning, can I eat meat?”
“Sure.”
Lucas’s permission was the last refuge to alleviate her guilt.
Since Lucas allowed it, I can eat.
The boss, an expert in this field, said so, right?
You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?
Perhaps it was a careless thought.
She picked up a new pair of chopsticks and grabbed a piece of meat, no, three pieces.
She put them in her mouth along with the vegetables.
It was a rebellion against the long-held restraint.
‘Full in the mouth, it’s filled…’
It was about the meat.
In a moment, the elf Andrea’s limiter on her craving for meat was released.
“Mmm! Mm! Ah!”
Delicious. It’s delicious. The meat is delicious.
“My stomach is so full.”
Andrea, who had devoured the meat recklessly, patted her now plump belly.
“Isn’t it too much to eat?”
Andrea laughed at Lucas’s words.
“It’s okay. As I said earlier, I just need to work harder.”
Helping with the morning ingredient preparation is not a difficult task.
Ultimately, the amount of food consumed by the elf Andrea increased due to the transition from a carnivorous diet to a mixed one.
Sadly, that is.
“So?”
Princess Diana looked down at the senior knight of the Imperial Princess Knights, Depo, who was kneeling before her.
He was the knight who had left for Lucas’s hometown to find him.
She thought he would surely return with Lucas by his side.
“Sir Lucas has not arrived at his homeland, the Lorang estate.”
“Is that the reason why you returned to the palace alone?”
“Yes… I apologize, Your Highness.”
A sigh escaped involuntarily.
Was the person who claimed to be her knight always this incompetent?
The audacious Lucas.
She suddenly remembered when he was a cook in the past.
-It’ll be delicious. I’m confident.
Lucas held out a dish with a menu she had never seen before.
-If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll put a cast on my hand.
-What does it mean to put a cast on?
-It means I’m confident that it will be a success without fail.
The image of the first kimchi stew she had tasted was still vivid in her memory.
As far as she remembered, it was quite delicious.
-It’s delicious.
Enough to forgive his impudence for daring to challenge her.
It was the same as before.
Daring to challenge her authority.
She had clearly told him not to lie.
“Captain Luke, Andy.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“How did this happen? I’m certain his discharge report said he was going to the countryside to open a restaurant?”
“That’s what it said. I even confirmed it with him personally.”
Andy, who was listening to Luke’s report, added another comment.
“There was also no report of him taking a new knight’s oath.”
“No sign of him in his hometown, yet he didn’t join another order of knights either… Could he have joined a mercenary group? There’s no need for that. Not for a knight, anyway.”
The princess stared at the leader of the Royal Knights, Luke, with a blunt gaze.
“Commander Luke, how is a discharged knight who reports false information about his whereabouts punished?”
“It varies depending on the severity of the false report, but the minimum is a fine of 500 gold. Depending on the gravity of the crime, it could even lead to exile or execution.”
“Execution, huh… A fitting way to repay the crime of deceiving the princess, don’t you think?”
“…”
The two glanced at each other, trying to gauge the princess’s mood.
“Hmm, what kind of punishment should be handed down for this deceptive little cook-knight who fooled me?”
The princess tapped her finger against the armrest of her chair, a smile creeping up the corner of her lips.
Hehehe.
The princess, feeling pleased, laughed softly.
He was indeed a man who deceived her.
Not only did he deceive her, but he also fooled the beloved members of her order of knights.
She should be furious.
However, for some reason, this man’s lies amused her quite a bit.
Why could that be?
‘It’s because they’re harmless.’
There were only two types of people who lied to her.
Those who sought her favor.
And those who lied to gain an advantage, at the same time putting the princess in danger.
Nobles who wished for the princess not to become an empress and nobles who invested in her, hoping that she would become the future empress.
The palace was always filled with the venomous gazes of those who claimed to be loyal while bowing their heads to her, or those who blindly displayed hostility, trying to oust her.
In that palace, she felt a genuinely harmless lie for the first time in a while.
It had always been like that.
From the moment she became a knight.
Even now, when she was not by her side.
-Your Highness, you’ll spill that all over your clothes if you eat like that.
-Your Highness, would you like to eat?
-Your Highness, being picky is troublesome.
He had no intention of harming her or winning her favor.
His reactions were always the same when she praised his food several times.
-Then please provide more supplies. The kids are hungry after training.
It wasn’t that he had joined the palace or another noble family.
He had completely disappeared.
The lie that he had gone back to his hometown must have been to escape from himself.
‘Why?’
Did I do something wrong?
I don’t think I was particularly unhelpful.
‘I did give him too much work.’
He handled the food for over 500 people all by himself.
According to the chef currently working at the princess’s knight team’s kitchen, at least 10 more people are needed.
He said even more is necessary to make quality food.
Up until now, Lucas had been handling such hard work by himself.
He was a talented individual.
‘I took him for granted.’
She must be exhausted.
That’s why she ran away from her.
“How cute.”
It was a pleasure she hadn’t felt in a long time.
The audacious thought that she could really run away from herself was truly adorable.
“Yes, that would be nice.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, since you dared to lie to me, you must pay for that sin with your body, right?”
“……”
“I think a 10-year sentence as the princess’s escort knight, no, make it 15 years, would be appropriate. And we should make sure that the contract extension is absolutely impossible to cancel.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
When she caught Lucas, the expression he would make kept coming to mind.
She thought of the kimchi stew he would make for her.
***
“What is this?”
Andrea asked.
“Can’t you tell? It’s green onions.”
“Well, I’m not saying I don’t know that….”
Andrea, who could feel the spiciness of the green onions through her nose, held her nose and made a whining sound.
“What did you bring that for?”
“What do you mean? I brought it to make green onion kimchi.”
“Green onion kimchi?”
“Yes, green onion kimchi.”
It’s been a long time since she made green onion kimchi.