Chapter 308 Melting Heart
Rihito, who was writing in a guest room at Maiden's Tower, felt hungry and decided to take a break. He realized he had missed lunch after having a light breakfast and working in his room all morning.
As he stepped out of the room, he could faintly hear the voices of women coming from upstairs.
"Oh right, they said all the maids would gather in the empty room on the third floor today."
Thinking it wasn't worth calling the maids for something so trivial, Rihito headed straight to the kitchen.
When Rihito entered the kitchen, he saw the cook, Hannah, starting to prepare dinner.
He noticed Hannah's daughter, Charlotte, was also there, peeling onions to help her mother. Although she wasn't very skilled, her careful peeling was quite endearing.
"Ms. Hannah, is there something light I can snack on? I'm a bit hungry."
When Rihito spoke up, Hannah jumped in surprise and paused for a moment.
"Oh, I'm sorry for startling you. Should I have knocked?"
"Knocking in the kitchen sounds a bit strange, doesn't it? I'm sorry, I was just so focused on cooking."
"Don't worry about it. I won't get any closer."
In truth, Hannah was a woman who had escaped from her husband's violence to join the women's village. Because of this, she felt fear when unfamiliar men got too close.
But when Sara collapsed and was brought into Maiden's Tower, the moment Hannah saw the young Sara suffering from a high fever, she forgot her fear and rushed to Rihito, who was holding Sara. It was terrifying to think that a girl who was only 5 years older than her daughter was in pain. As a mother with a young daughter, her feelings easily overcame her fear of men.
Because of this, Rihito became a relatively normal man to Hannah, someone she could talk to. However, even now, she would flinch if he spoke to her unexpectedly.
"Is the other female cook not here today?"
"There was a problem with the delivered ingredients, so she went to the grocery store."
"I see. If it's just you, Ms. Hannah, I can't ask for too much."
"Thank you for your consideration. But, Sir Rihito, it's fine. Um, we have some leftover soup from lunch, and the scones will be ready soon, so please take a little."
"Scones, huh?"
"Yes, it's tea time for the young ladies."
"Oh, is it already that time?"
"Sir Rihito, you forget to eat when you get too focused on work."
"This is a bad habit of mine that hasn't changed even after living for over 300 years."
"Hehe. If it takes that long to change, isn't it an incurable disease?"
"That seems to be the case."
While keeping an appropriate distance, Hannah had opened her heart enough to exchange light banter with Rihito.
"From now on, should I arrange for meals that are easy to eat to be delivered at set times?"
"That would be great, but wouldn't it be a hassle?"
"Hehe. It's not a big deal. Plus, once I started working here, I found I had a lot of free time, so I actually get a bit bored."
"Really! Even though you make such elaborate dishes every day?"
"Well, I only do jobs related to cooking. Even if I wanted to help out, there are golems here. Also, I was really happy when they told me I could use the ingredients however I wanted, so I just want to try out different recipes. Actually, I even looked at the cookbooks that Sir Rihito collected."
"Oh, there was a time when I thought about trying to cook myself. I'm the type to start with the basics, so I bought a cookbook, but it seems I didn't have any talent for it."
Actually, that was a bit of a lie. Rihito could cook well in his previous life. However, he couldn't figure out how to use the kitchen in this world. Even though he usually made tea with magic, for some reason, he didn't think to use magic this time and struggled a lot. Because of the dish he made at that time, he ended up rolling around in pain a few hours later.
Hannah took the scones out of the oven and started placing them on a cake cooler.
"So you're not serving them fresh out of the oven?"
"I think letting them cool a bit makes the flavor settle. Of course, eating them fresh out of the oven is really delicious too. Anyway, it seems the young ladies are really into it, so it might take a little longer."
"I want to eat them right now!"
"Hehe. I've also made clotted cream. There are 2 kinds of jam. Oh, and we still have some maple syrup left from yesterday."
Then Rihito thought seriously with a serious expression.
"Umm... right now, I feel like I want a full meal more than just tea, so I want to eat freshly baked scones with soup. I even want to spread some butter on them. Is that wrong?"
"I think you can eat it however you like, but if you want something like that, should I bake some leftover bread from lunch?"
"Bake bread? Wait, did you get a recipe from Sara or something?"
Actually, in this world, there's no concept of sliced bread or toast. So, bread that isn't freshly baked becomes hard, and it's common to eat it by dipping it in soup.
"Speaking of which, Miss Sara was surprised too. I've been baking leftover bread and eating it for a while now. I think it's better warm than eating cold bread."
"Wow, Ms. Hannah definitely has a knack for cooking."
"Really, Sir Rihito says the same thing as Miss Sara. Miss Sara told me to 'dip the bread in a mixture of eggs, milk, and sugar, then fry it in butter,' and when I actually made it, it was really delicious. Plus, the recipe calls for a surprisingly generous amount of sugar. Oh, I also learned a similar recipe for bread pudding. My family and in-laws are farmers, so I couldn't enjoy such luxuries before, but I've really been having fun cooking since I came here!"
"Haha. So you suddenly made French toast, huh? That's really tasty. But you could also try using less sugar in the egg mixture and serving it with jam or cream; that would be interesting too!"
"That definitely looks delicious. I think I'll try making it next time. Since you gave me such a nice idea, I'll bake this bread with a little garlic-infused olive oil. Sir Rihito, you like garlic, right?"
"I love it!"
Hannah chuckled, warming up the leftover soup while quickly slicing the leftover bread and toasting it in a frying pan. At the same time, she skillfully made an omelet in another pan, which left Rihito, watching from the side, in awe.
'Wow, this is the work of a pro.'
As Rihito started eating the meal, neatly prepared in a short time at the table in the corner of the kitchen, he began to think that half the reason he wanted to stay at Maiden's Tower was because of Hannah's cooking.
However, Hannah herself didn't believe she had the skills to be a castle chef. She thought she was only hired at Maiden's Tower because Sara felt sorry for her with a child in her arms.
It was true that the reason she was brought to Maiden's Tower was because Helen and Cordelia, the female educator, found Hannah covered in bruises. As soon as Sara saw Hannah, she had her sit on the guest sofa in the entrance hall and used healing magic to treat her entire body.
And after hearing Hannah's situation, Sara immediately decided to hire her as a live-in maid. Of course, she also assigned a room for her and her daughter Charlotte so they could live together. As for Sara, she didn't mind if they spent their time as guests, but Hannah strongly insisted that she couldn't stay without working, so she told her, "Then I want you to do what you're good at."
As a result, Hannah became the cook at Maiden's Tower. From the very first moment they tasted her cooking, the maidens became obsessed with it. Now, wthey can't even imagine life without Hannah.
Hannah's cooking isn't as refined as the main house's chef, but it's simple and values the taste of the ingredients──it's the "taste of home." After Sara fell ill, the number of people living at Maiden's Tower increased, and a middle-aged woman named Ava was hired in addition to Hannah, but Hannah remained the main cook.
By the way, speaking of being obsessed, an unexpected person became infatuated with someone surprising.
"Hannah! Where's Charlotte?"
It seemed like it was tea time, and Chloe came all the way to the kitchen. Surprisingly, Chloe had become smitten with Hannah's 3-year-old daughter, Charlotte.
Charlotte definitely had strawberry blonde curly hair and was a very cute girl. Hannah and her daughter came to Maiden's Tower a little before the hunting tournament, but from the moment Chloe saw Charlotte, she was captivated. Chloe started visiting the tower almost every day, squeezing in time to play with Charlotte. Maybe because their hair and eye colors were similar, Charlotte seemed to like Chloe too, and the two of them got along like sisters playing together.
"Ladwy Chloe!"
The way Charlotte approached Chloe with a slightly childish tone was indeed heartwarming, but she was holding a half-peeled onion in her hand. When Hannah hurriedly took the onion away from her daughter, Rihito immediately used water magic to wash Charlotte's hands. He was worried that if he hugged her like that, the smell of the onion would stick to Chloe.
"You two work well together."
Sara said, walking up behind Chloe and surprised by the scene.
"I take care of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren."
"I see. As expected of Grandfather Rihito."
Then, Chloe picked up Charlotte, who had walked over to her feet.
"Hehe. You've grown again. Soon, I might not be able to carry you anymore."
"Yes! Lottie is eating properly!"
"Good job!"
Actually, when Hannah and Charlotte first came to Maiden's Tower, they were very thin and clearly lacked nutrition. Hannah, who found it hard to approach men, couldn't work as an apprentice to craftsmen and took on jobs like babysitting and doing housework for other women in the village.
The village of women was a place where those in weak positions helped each other, but they didn't have much to spare, so the money they could pay Hannah was very little. Most of their tiny cash income went to buying food, and Hannah and her daughter Charlotte were living on the edge.
Since coming to Maiden's Tower, Hannah and Charlotte had been enjoying luxurious days without worrying about daily meals and could take baths every day. Moreover, since Chloe liked Charlotte and brought her various outfits, Charlotte quickly became a girl with a wardrobe that could rival a noble lady.
"Wow. Lottie is really cute. Her cheeks are so plump, she's such a beauty!"
Chloe gazed at Charlotte with a melting look and gently poked her cheek.
"Will Lottie become as pretty as Ladwy Chloe?"
"To become that way, you need to eat well, play a lot, and sleep a lot. But when you get a little bigger, you'll have to study too."
"Okay!"
Chloe casually promised to educate Charlotte. In this world, even men had a very low literacy rate. Women, in particular, showed this trend more clearly, and even women themselves thought that studying was unnecessary. Educational institutions like Cordelia the female educator's school, which educated both genders equally, were rare.
'Yeah. I have to do my best. For children like Charlotte.'
Seeing the interaction between Chloe and Charlotte, Sara felt even more motivated to establish the academy.
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