♛
It was because of Stella’s order. The maid sighed deeply as if she knew.
“There’s a problem in the kitchen. The tea party has started, and I don’t have time to find someone else. As long as you don’t show up in front of the princess, It’ll be okay.”
What the hell happened to make her look for someone urgently?
Daphne was one of the maids who treated me kindly and called me by name, so I couldn’t say no to her when she needed me. I was forced to take her hand.
“What’s this…”
When we arrived, the kitchen was a mess. A screaming chef and a crying maid. And there were broken plates and crumpled cakes beyond recognition.
Other workers were confused, but no one was able to fix the mess.
“Calm down!”
The noisy kitchen became quiet when Daphne shouted. However, the silence didn’t last long.
“Aren’t you going to calm down now?! What about the cake? The party has already started!”
“Huh, so-sorry.”
The chef, whose face was already red, burst out in anger. The maid sitting on the floor cried and apologized.
I could roughly figure out what happened. I think it’s because the cake fell while moving it and everything spilled on the floor.
“This wasn’t a problem that could be solved by fighting amongst ourselves.”
The chef could no longer refute what she said. He knew that the cake that fell on the floor wouldn’t come back to its original state even if he became angry.
‘I thought she was an ordinary maid, was she in a different rank?’
Daphne calmly tidying up the situation wasn’t something she had done once or twice. She correctly identified priorities and gave orders.
“Tell the maid Delphina about the kitchen situation.”
“Yes.”
“First, go out and serve other desserts.”
The people in the kitchen naturally followed Daphne’s instructions. The flustered maids came to their senses and quickly removed the plates, while the other maids went out with pre-made macarons.
“Even if we serve the other desserts first, we still don’t have enough time to make a new cake!” Said the chef, who still had a red face, but had calmed down a little.
“You know there’s a cake we made separately for ourselves? Couldn’t we serve that?”
“That’s right, there was that cake!” The maid with her ponytails gave a cautious opinion.
The kitchen assistant next to him agreed, but the chef shook his head.
“No. I couldn’t show it to a tea party. It looks bad, and there’s no fruit on it.”
“You could start putting the fruits on it now.”
“There’s no fruit available now. The princess told me to make it big, so I already put all the fruits in it.”
Daphne frowned and agonized. There were many other desserts prepared, such as macarons, scones, and chocolates, but the cake was the main item at the tea party.
“Couldn’t we get some fruits from the main palace?”
The maid, who seemed motivated, asked immediately, but the chef shook his head again this time.
“It needs to go through procedures, so if I go now, we should be able to get it by evening.”
It’s just a process to get the fruits. It was frustrating, but he said that because food expenses were paid within the budget set by each palace, procedures were necessary when receiving new supplies.
“Why don’t you decorate it with flowers?”
When I gave my opinion, the eyes of the other workers were drawn to me all at once. It wasn’t a bad idea, but their gazes were filled with questions about not knowing how to decorate with flowers.
No one blindly opposed my opinion. While preparing for the tea party for two days, I was in charge of all kinds of chores because I was stronger than most servants, and it was thanks to their little trust.
“Flower?”, Daphne tilted her head, asking me back.
“Where’s the gardener? I want to ask you something.”
“I’ll get him!”
The maid with ponytails quickly left the kitchen.
“How big was the cake?”
I calmly organized my thoughts. What would it take to decorate a fruitless whipped cream cake enough for a tea party?
‘It’s a plant grown in a greenhouse, so it should be edible.’
Why wasn’t there a flower show in Korea? The non-toxic flowers were edible. It should be grown without the use of pesticides, but there are no pesticides in this world, so all the plants in the greenhouse are organic!
However, if there’s no culture in the history of eating flowers in this Empire, it was bound to be rejected. I’m not going to put the flowers on the cake, I’ll use them to decorate the plate.
“Cut the cake into squares according to the number of people and place the plate on a white plate without any decorations.”
The maid asked the gardener to check if there was rosemary, thyme, and pansy and collect them. The gardener went out with a proud face, saying his hobby was growing herbs… I was lucky.
“Do you have any whipped cream left?”
“Whipped cream. We could make it now! It’s pretty easy to make!”
“Do you have any color powder?”
“When I made macaroons, I ran out of coloring powders.”
Usually, people dry pollen and powder it, and then use it to make food coloring for desserts, but there was little time left. What ingredients are there to replace the colored powder?
“If you’re going to color it, use Julienne!”
The kitchen assistant said, bringing up Julienne.
Julienne, vegetables could produce a red juice and was not strong in taste, so it was perfect to give color to food.
As I nodded my head, things went smoothly. The chef cut the cake, and the kitchen assistants worked hard to make whipped cream.
When I mixed the juice from grinding the vegetables with the whipped cream, it turned pink. In the center of the square cake, I tried to make a rose flower shape as much as possible with whipped cream.
I thought it wouldn’t come out pretty because there was no tip in the pastry bag, but the chef was surprisingly good.
‘As expected, a craftsman doesn’t choose tools.’
The gardener came back really quickly. And the number of herbs brought was quite a lot. After I washed the herbs and pansies handed by the gardener, the maids who were watching began to help.
“Do you have any macarons left?”
“It’s all broken.”
I left the cleaning of the herbs to the maids, and I crushed the crumbled macaroons into smaller pieces and sprinkled them on the rim of the cake.
It was a little sloppy, but the cut line felt a bit close! I went into the finishing touch.
I garnished the rim of the plate with the herbs washed by the maids and asked the chef to squeeze a small rose onto the herbs with the remaining whipped cream.
It’s a work that expresses rose vines! The cake was placed on a white plate decorated with herbs, pansies, and pink whipped cream, so the cake’s sloppiness felt a little dispersed.
“You’re pretty good!”
Daphne’s expression brightened when she saw the finished work. The chef didn’t like it either, but he was convinced that he thought this was for the best.
“How’s the cake?”
“What happened to the cake?”
The maid of honor has arrived. She checked the condition of the cake first, as she had already heard the story briefly. The maid had the same expression as the chef.
“Was this for the best?”
“I couldn’t procure any fruit right now…”
The chef, who had just been shouting, muffled the end of his words with a timid voice. The maid sighed deeply and ordered the cake to be moved.
“Mayerie, come and move this with me.”
“But the princess…”
“I’ll tell the princess about it. Vinka hurt her ankle so she couldn’t walk.”
If the maid says so, I won’t be kicked out of the palace. I pulled the serving cart with the other maids and moved to the greenhouse.
‘Ah, Ellex!’
It reminded me of his forgotten existence. The last time I told him we won’t see each other again, I felt like I was jumping into hell voluntarily.
I tried to rationalize it thinking, ‘Should I kill him?’ But I couldn’t help but slow down as I got closer to the greenhouse.
When we arrived at the greenhouse, we immediately saw a table with aristocrats in splendid outfits. It was only a small tea party hosted by the princess, but many prestigious nobles attended.
Among them were the villains of the novel, Marquis Eustoma and his sister, Lady Iris, as well as the children of the socially renowned countess.
I was relieved as I looked around the nobles who attended the tea party. Ellex wasn’t here.
‘Of course. It doesn’t make sense that Ellex would attend the party.’
I set the cake on the table and waited to leave this place. When the next dessert comes, we have to collect the cake plates and go back.
Was it sherbet after the cake? As I was thinking about the order of the desserts, I heard the conversations of the nobles.
“Did the princess wear the dress I saw last time? Oh, I asked because it suits her so well.”
Oh, they’re asking if she would wear the dress she wore last time. It’s no joke to ask about it.
The social world was not called a swordless war for anything. It was the Lady from the count family, a noble member of the faction, who hates Stella.
‘Well, since the Marquis of Eustoma came today, I guess that’s why they’d believe in that and attack the princess like that.’
The status of the Marquis of Eustoma, which has continued to rise recently, was said to be comparable to that of the Duke of Kolnuta.
On the other hand, the Imperial Family was attached to the Duke of Kolnuta and barely maintained power, so they would seem easy.
“I got a new one this time. I heard purple was popular these days.
“It’s so pretty. I also bought a new sapphire earring to attend the tea party hosted by the princess today.”
“Oh my, the color was so bright.”
‘Whoa, they’re excited.’
The Marquis of Eustoma and his sister, Lady Iris, stood still and made a lot of noise around. Stella kept a smile on her face and watched them.
‘But shouldn’t the Imperial nobles stand up for Stella?’
However, the other young girls belonging to the Imperial were quiet. Usually, when the same faction was attacked, they would protect it.
“By the way, didn’t you say that the Duke would also attend?”
“That’s what I heard, but unfortunately he didn’t attend.”
“That’s right. The Duke doesn’t attend private parties.”
“Yes, for a tea party like this.”
“…”
Oh, they’re crossing the line. The smile eventually disappeared from Stella’s face.
There was an unusual atmosphere. What they just said was definitely frivolous. As I said, the party hosted by the imperial family didn’t matter to nobles.
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