Chapter 8
This Scent Feels Familiar
The food didn’t suit me!
Even after vomiting, I suffered severe stomach pain, so the maid, looking flustered, hurried off to bring medicinal tea.
“You were at least able to digest things until yesterday, but now you’re vomiting… this is serious,” the maid said as she draped a blanket around my body. The warm cup in my hands eased the chill from my fingertips.
It was only after coming to Owen that I realized Owen’s food didn’t agree with me.
The dishes on the first day in Deirton were all spicy. Even the white soup was so spicy that my lips tingled. Sitting at the table with Cedric, I would tightly close my eyes whenever I had the chance without him noticing.
After that, the food wasn’t spicy. But to me, it was either too strongly scented… or too bland. The strongly scented dishes were the non-spicy menu items typical of Owen, while the overly bland ones were dishes the chef prepared to accommodate my inability to handle strong flavors.
Only after coming to a foreign country did I learn that Lundra cuisine tends toward rich and sweet flavors, and that not every country shares the same taste preferences.
I didn’t want to appear as the fussy princess who suddenly appeared at the duke’s estate and criticized everything. I thought I could slowly find dishes that suited me. Up until yesterday, I was even determined—challenging myself to discover food I liked.
But starting this morning, I felt nauseous. I felt bad for vomiting up the carefully prepared dishes. A guest who inconveniences the staff because of picky tastes… I must look exactly like a demanding princess. Even while feeling sick, I felt a little dejected.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror. After throwing up everything I’d eaten since morning, my face was pale.
I couldn’t do a magic call with my family looking like this. Still, I worried they’d be waiting to hear from me, so I decided to write a letter instead.
I wrote that I was still adjusting to Owen, so I couldn’t easily travel into the city where the magic communication center was, and that I was sending greetings by letter instead. I wrote several times not to worry, that I was adjusting well. Magic would carry it to the Lundra palace within a day.
After the maid left to send the letter, I sat at the table by the window. My room in the duke’s residence was on the third floor, with a good view of the garden. Flowering trees swayed outside the window.
If I went closer, would their scent be stronger?
A breeze entered through the open window, and my nauseated stomach settled slightly.
What should I do about dinner…
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
Thinking it was the maid returning from mailing the letter, I answered without listening to the voice of the person knocking. The door opened, then closed softly.
“If you’re alright, I brought another round of—oh?”
I turned and locked eyes with Cedric, standing by the door.
“I didn’t realize it was you, Duke.”
Just staring would be rude. I blinked a couple of times and smiled at him.
“Would you like to sit here?”
“I only came in because you told me to enter before I could announce myself.”
Cedric walked over neatly and sat across from me.
“Yes. I thought it was one of the staff. The person helping me stepped out briefly. What brings you here, Your Grace?”
Cedric looked at my face for a moment before responding.
“I had outside duties yesterday and through this afternoon.”
“You must be busy. You don’t need to worry too much about me. If I trouble you too much, I’ll feel like an unwanted guest.”
Cedric clasped his hands together. His pale hands caught my eye. Unlike the other knights, he had no scars on the back of his hands—though when I held them before, he did have calluses.
“You are not troublesome. And I do not think of you as a burden.”
“I see… and are you busy these days?”
“About as much as a typical lord.”
“Yes~.”
I dragged out my tone playfully as I smiled. I had only been joking, but he countered every point precisely. His crisp manner of speaking was unexpectedly amusing.
“Did you come to explain that?”
“I came to ask whether you would like to go out for dinner.”
“Go out?”
I tilted my head slightly.
“I found a restaurant in a nearby shopping district.”
It seemed Cedric was concerned about my inability to eat properly.
“You heard that I’ve been having trouble eating?”
“That is correct.”
“Ah, how embarrassing. I really don’t mean to be picky. I didn’t know I had such a sweet tooth.”
Sigh. I sighed inwardly.
“It happens. Will you dine out with me?”
I was hungry. Embarrassment or not, I nodded.
So Cedric and I arrived at a restaurant specializing in Lundra cuisine. A natural “Wow!” escaped my lips. The staff guided us to a reserved room under the name of Duke Deirton.
“There are restaurants themed around foreign cuisine! I’ve never eaten outside the palace, so I didn’t know.”
“Yes. There are a few more like this.”
The familiar appetizers excited me. I popped a syrup-glazed potato into my mouth.
“Then that means there must be Owen-style restaurants in Lundra too?”
“Most likely.”
With each main dish that arrived in a row, my heart beat a little faster. I twirled creamy pasta around my fork.
“This is delicious. Even better than what I had in Lundra. The sauce is especially good.”
“Is that so.”
The mulled wine served alongside it was wonderful. Chilled mulled wine—what a clever twist. The waiter refilled my empty cup.
“Did you eat well when you were in the Lundra Kingdom, Your Grace?”
“All foods from the Lundra Kingdom are familiar to me.”
For the first time in a while, Cedric responded with more than his usual variations of yes, hm, oh, ah.
“You’ve visited Lundra before?”
“I know someone who likes sweet food.”
Oh? Rachel came to mind. After studying at the academy for several years, she also ate Lundra dishes well whenever she stayed at the palace.
“You must be very attentive to others.”
“I am not particularly interested in other people.”
“But you remember someone else’s food preferences?”
Cedric’s gaze drifted.
“There was someone whose preferences I couldn’t help but learn.”
“How romantic.”
Cedric didn’t answer. I finished the meal with a soft cookie topped with melted chocolate.
After leaving the restaurant, Cedric and I boarded the carriage.
I’d struggled with nausea all day, but with such a pleasant ending, today felt like a happy day.
“Since it was practically my first meal today, thank you sincerely for making it such a perfect one.”
“Your first meal?”
“It wasn’t literally the first. But since I threw up both breakfast and lunch, it might as well have been.”
“You vomited, Princess?”
“Oh my!”
I gasped and covered my mouth with both hands. I had assumed he already knew I’d thrown up since he knew I couldn’t eat earlier.
I practically just told the host of the house that I vomited up all his household’s food. Would he now see me as a troublesome, high-maintenance princess?
“The staff only mentioned that you had difficulty eating.”
“Ah, that makes sense. It would’ve been awkward for them to tell a gentleman that a grown woman vomited.”
Hearing my explanation, Cedric smiled.
“Why are you laughing, Duke? Is this your first time hearing a princess admit to vomiting?”
“Did I laugh?”
“A little?”
He brought a hand to his mouth.
“I wasn’t thinking about the vomiting you mentioned.”
“Then what?”
“You called yourself a grown woman.”
Oh my! Laughing there only makes it worse.
“How rude of you. Are you that much taller than I am, Duke?”
“Hm.”
Hmph. His large frame was clearly visible as he sat across from me, but I pretended not to notice.
Cedric knocked on the small window connected to the coachman’s seat. He instructed the driver to stop. I looked out the window as the carriage slowed. We were not yet close to the duke’s residence.
“Princess. How about walking the rest of the way?”
“You’re leaving me behind because I said you were rude?”
The question was half-joking, half-serious. The duke’s residence wasn’t far, but still—wherever I went, I was escorted. I had never wandered alone like some adventurer.
“You said you vomited, so I thought walking might help.”
“Ah, I see.”
“It’s not as far as it looks.”
My stomach likely suffered from all the vomiting. My fingers had felt weak all day too. A walk didn’t sound like a bad idea.
Cedric held my hand as I stepped down from the carriage, and the refreshing night air greeted us.
“Do you enjoy walks, Princess?”
“Yes. I do.”
“I’m glad.”
Cedric gently curled his fingers around mine and walked at my pace.
A spring breeze blew through Owen. The wind carried the scent of flowers. I’d only smelled it for three days, and yet… somehow, it already felt familiar.
Well… that sort of thought.
