Chapter 26
As soon as I returned to the Siastor ducal residence, I made some food and placed it in front of him.
“What’s this?”
A red bird sat quietly on his shoulder—it had been a while since I’d last seen it.
On the table between us was a dish, steam gently rising from it.
The red bird tilted its head too, as if curious about the food I had brought.
Despite its fierce appearance, it was surprisingly cute—but this was a serious situation, so I straightened my shoulders.
Pointing at the dish with my finger, I spoke.
“This is called soy sauce egg rice.”
White rice, topped with an egg and drizzled with a glossy, soy-sauce-like sauce.
I called it soy sauce egg rice, but it wasn’t real soy sauce.
Even though this world felt like a K-romance-fantasy patch, soy sauce didn’t exist here.
Luckily, there was a sauce with a similar flavor.
A shame, but it couldn’t be helped.
Maybe I should try making soy sauce myself next time.
He swallowed hard.
Color bloomed on his face—something I hadn’t seen before.
He looked ready to grab a spoon and dig in at any moment.
That’s when I quickly covered the bowl with both hands.
Clink!
The spoon he had extended bounced away.
“Wait. Before that—if you want to eat, repeat after me.”
Dazhar’s lips twitched.
“What?”
“From now on, I will serve Lady Cillia with utmost devotion.”
“……”
“Don’t like that? Then how about this instead?
‘I will become Lady Cillia’s footstool.’
The duration is until Lady Cillia leaves this place.”
Dazhar’s golden eyes trembled pitifully.
The spoon in his hand shook as well.
He bit his lip, closed his eyes tightly, then opened them again.
After hesitating for a long time, he glanced at the spoon in his hand, then at the soy sauce egg rice I was blocking.
Slowly—very slowly—he began to speak, one syllable at a time.
“…Foot… stool…”
“What? I can’t hear you very well. Could you say that louder?”
“……”
“Knock, knock~?”
“Who—who would—!”
Whoosh!
Suddenly, he jumped to his feet and hurled the spoon in his hand far away.
The spoon flew gracefully through the air and clang! crashed onto the marble floor.
Thrown with such force, it slid across the floor like it was skating.
It kept sliding for a while before finally—
Clink!
—hitting the wall and stopping.
I watched the spoon’s short journey to freedom with deep admiration, then snapped back to my senses when I saw him fuming in front of me.
“Who would ever say something that ridiculous!”
He shouted angrily, then stormed out of the room.
The red bird that had been on his shoulder flapped up in surprise and landed on the sofa in front of me.
The back of his neck was flushed red with anger as he left.
He was angry enough to abandon his own bird.
“Hm.”
Well, I’d expected him to refuse anyway, so his reaction wasn’t surprising.
I sat across from the red bird in the now-quiet room and pulled the bowl closer.
Then I took out my spoon—the one I’d hidden behind the tray—and mixed the rice thoroughly before taking a bite.
“Mmm!”
As expected.
Soy sauce egg rice is always the truth.
I smiled in satisfaction and finished the whole bowl in no time.
“Your master is really narrow-minded, don’t you think?”
The red bird seemed to nod in agreement.
Feeling refreshed, I grinned.
Ah—my mood was great.
* * *
A few days later, I returned to the ‘Three Seconds and I’ll Poison It for You’ shop to return the strange stone Morokanil had left behind.
But he wasn’t there.
“Lady Cillia, you look especially cheerful today.”
“Oh? Do I?”
I took my eyes off the stone on the desk and looked at Karl.
He was carrying the sleeping Aksion on his back and seemed to be about to bring me some peeled fruit.
He set down a silver tray filled with rabbit-shaped apple slices.
“Yes. Is it because of the letter that arrived today? Ahem… this person named Retsi—uh—are they a man?”
Trying not to look at the letter in front of me, Karl kept clearing his throat.
I shook my head flatly.
“No. A woman.”
“My goodness.”
“Hm?”
Karl’s voice was trembling.
It was a familiar reaction.
I could already guess what he was about to say.
“Lady Cillia finally has a same-gender friend…!”
Karl clapped a hand over his mouth and lifted his head.
He inhaled deeply, blinking rapidly.
His eyes glistened as he stared at the ceiling.
“Did you meet her at His Majesty’s birthday ball? Oh… I was so worried you’d never make another friend besides Lord Cedric, but before I died, my dream finally came true. Sob. This is all thanks to the foresight of Her Majesty Emperor Scarlet.”
“U-uh… Karl, Aksion’s head is tilting too…”
“Oh! Lord Aksion!”
If he ever found out that Retsi was Emperor Scarlet, he’d probably faint on the spot.
After confirming Aksion was still sleeping peacefully, I brushed off Karl’s now-familiar reaction and finished my reply.
Retsi’s letter briefly asked how I was and said the garaetteok we’d eaten that day had been very delicious.
[“…And Sir Hael is still limping around. Every time I see him, I burst out laughing, which makes handling state affairs—(scribbled out)—daily work rather difficult.”]
I replied that I was glad I could make her laugh and wished Sir Hael a speedy recovery.
After sealing the letter and stamping it, I sent it off with a servant, then headed to the front yard of the annex where we were staying.
‘Seriously—how did he know my name?’
More than a month had passed.
And yet, that dandelion-angel man—Morokanil—still floated around in my thoughts.
‘Was he a noble who attended the ball?’
Thinking back, many nobles had subtly avoided me.
If that were the case, it made sense that he knew who I was.
‘I am infamous, after all…’
But then why show me such kindness?
The nobles at the ball had fled from me like I was a plague doctor.
‘Even Dazhar tried to use my bad reputation as a shield.’
Would someone really go out of their way to help a person like that?
It was strange.
‘Whatever.’
Click, click.
I leveled the soil in the garden with a small hoe, clicking my tongue.
This temporary vegetable patch existed because my farming-obsessed body got restless if I didn’t farm even for a day.
‘We said we’d meet again someday. I’ll see him eventually.’
Letting go of my thoughts about Morokanil, I greeted the next visitor.
“Cillia! Did you have a good trip to the palace? How are you feeling?”
“Oh—C-Cedric.”
It was Cedric.
Seeing his fluffy pink hair and round glasses made old memories threaten to resurface.
‘Cilliaaa… waaah…!’
Gasp!
I forced myself to focus on the present.
Life is lived in the present.
If you cling to the past or the future and fail to ground yourself in the here and now, you end up buried in anxiety and regret.
Calming my mind, I set down the tools in my hands one by one and greeted him steadily.
“Welcome. I feel very refreshed.”
“Wow! That’s great. See? I knew sending you to the ball would work.”
He whispered conspiratorially and gave me a little wink.
He seemed oddly playful for someone who had once been bullied by this body.
What he meant was probably that I’d gone to the ball, beaten someone up, and felt better afterward.
But the real reason I was in a good mood was because I’d gotten back at Dazhar.
No need to explain that.
So I just nodded.
“It wasn’t bad.”
“Hehe. See? No one knows you better than I do.”
Well—he had been bullied by Cillia for more than half his life.
He probably thought this body was pure evil.
“By the way, what brings you here?”
Cedric adjusted his round glasses and smiled.
“I thought I’d spend some time with a friend. You’ve been working nonstop.”
“Hm.”
Was it Friend Day or something today?
I glanced at Cedric’s face—it practically said, “I am very kind and good”—and finished taking off my gloves.
“Come in.”
“Yay.”
Cedric followed cheerfully behind me.
Soon, we were seated in the sitting room with Karl’s black tea between us.
“Is that a vegetable patch you’re working on separately?”
“Yeah. Just as a hobby.”
“That’s very productive, Cillia.”
“Well…”
His bright smile felt oddly burdensome, so I looked away.
We chatted for a while—Cedric bringing up topics, me answering—until he suddenly mentioned something unexpected.
“Crack Day is coming up soon.”
Crack Day.
The same words Retsi had said to Dazhar days earlier.
It appeared in the original novel, so I knew what it was.
But the fact that Cedric knew surprised me.
Only transcendents and high-ranking imperial officials even knew of its existence.
Wait—high-ranking officials?
‘Now that I think about it, Cedric said he came here as the education supervisor for food development.’
Did he actually have a high position?
Tilting my head inwardly, I asked casually,
“By the way… What’s your position?”
Cedric smiled gently as he answered.
His pink eyelashes lowered prettily with his smiling eyes.
“Me? Chancellor.”
“…?”
