74. For Mom! (2)
[Episode 74] – For Mom! (2)
She woke up and realized that Titania was not with her.
Wanting to know where in the world he had gone, I asked the maids who had entered the room to wait on me.
“When I woke up, Titania wasn’t there… Do you know where she went?”
“The princess looked a bit busy. Maybe she will come back soon. Whoops.”
“Right. The princess will be back soon, would you like to wash your face first? Or tea?”
“Let’s wash our face first.”
Looking at the maids’ mischievous smiles at me, I thought it would be okay, so I washed my face with the lukewarm water the maids brought and then waited on my clothes.
After washing my face and changing my clothes, I passed the time until breakfast, sipping the tea the maid gave me. As I was drinking tea, remembering what my schedule was for today, I heard a knock on the door.
“Your Highness the Queen. May I come in? I brought you breakfast.”
“A meal?”
A man’s voice I’ve never heard before. Normally, meals were always served in the dining room, unless I said I would eat in the room. But suddenly eating in the room?
“Okay, come in.”
It didn’t make much of a difference whether I was eating in a restaurant or in my room, so I ordered the man to come in without paying much attention. When the door opened like that, I couldn’t help but open my eyes.
Titania groaned and entered the room holding a large tray with food for two people. Surprised by the unfamiliar scene, I opened my eyes wide and looked at a man dressed as a chef next to me.
Titania set the food down on the table in front of me. Looking at the food on the plate, I got a vague idea of where and what Titania had been up to. Yes, the dish Titania brought was piled with sloppy mash potatoes.
Mash potatoes, which even took up space for other food, were placed on the plate in clumps. The sloppy mashed potatoes between the mashed potatoes told me who made this dish.
When I asked what was in the hand of the man dressed as a chef, it was mash potato. I looked around to see if there was any other food, but all the dishes were mashed potatoes.
The moment I checked all the plates on the table, the smile on my face started to disappear. Whether he saw my expression or not, the man dressed as a chef cleared his throat and continued his explanation.
“Keuheum, Her Highness the Queen. Today’s breakfast is mash potatoes made ‘by hand’ by Princess Titania. We did the boiling of the potatoes, but the other process of mashing and seasoning the potatoes was ‘directly’ done by the princess.”
“…I see. Did Titania make all of this?”
Titania smiled briskly and nodded her head.
I lowered my head and looked at the pile of mashed potatoes on the plate again. If all the plates were the same, I tried to send it back with only one plate left, but unfortunately, the mashed potatoes on all the plates were subtly different.
Some plates were mixed with bacon, and others were mixed with cheese. Another plate had a slightly yellowish color, probably mixed with sweet potatoes. Let’s just laugh at the mesh potato festival that makes our eyes dizzy…
“That’s… I’ve been avoiding my mother lately… I’m sorry…”
I felt her heart thump and cry at the sight of Titania blushing as if she was embarrassed. She was a little worried that Titania had been avoiding me lately, but it was really fortunate that she didn’t because she hated me.
Besides, to think of me and even make this kind of homemade food…
“They say that cooking homemade food will make your relationship better..”
Saying that, Titania tapped the Aincel hanging on her neck. Then, ahem! Ainsel makes a confident expression while making a loud voice. Yes, the idea of making homemade dishes was irrelevant. But why the hell…
“Thank you very, very much… But why… Only mash potatoes…?”
“That, let me explain.”
A man dressed as a chef standing next to him bowed his head and continued his explanation. Upon closer inspection, this person was the ‘chef’ of the royal family whom I had seen from a distance before.
“The princess said that she would like to serve Her Majesty the Queen with homemade dishes, so I thought about the menu for a while. Even so, the kitchen is still a very dangerous place for a young princess. There are cutlery everywhere, and the kitchen light never goes out.”
“Yeah… So?”
“So, I came up with a menu that is not dangerous for the princess to cook. It was suitable for breakfast and was the only dish safe for the princess.”
If you’re cooking without fire, aren’t there sandwiches…?
The word
Reached my throat, but I swallowed it with dry saliva and saved my words. Well, it could be that there are no ingredients due to circumstances in the kitchen, or that it takes a long time to prepare the base. No matter how royal a kitchen it may be, it could be…
“And… We really did our best. The princess did her best… And we… Really did our best. Her Highness the Queen. If you would like to know this…”
As the chef continued, as if making an excuse, I felt like I knew what these mash potatoes taste like. Seeing the chef say this, what the hell happened?
I tried to smile and looked down at the mountain of mashed potatoes in front of me. I wanted to eat all of the dishes Titania made for me, but realistically it was impossible.
Besides, to be honest, I didn’t really like mash potatoes…
‘But first… I should eat as much as I can eat…’
I took a large spoonful of mash potato on a plate and put it in my mouth, and the lumpy steamed potatoes rolled around in my mouth. Maybe less salt was mixed in, and when the chunks of salt touched my tongue, I unknowingly searched for water.
One was salty like crazy, and the other was really tasteless.
The sharp taste of salt and the bland taste of potatoes ran rampant in my mouth, as if piercing my tongue, but I smiled and looked at Titania. When I smiled, Titania’s expression brightened.
“Don’t you eat Titania…?”
“This is all food made for mom…! And I’m full after eating the food prepared by the chefs in the kitchen! Oh, and adding this bacon and cheese is the chef’s idea!”
“Yes… I see…”
I thought I knew something…
After Titania ate in the kitchen, she was full and did not season the food.
The chef must have informed me properly, but since it was a homemade dish, he couldn’t interfere completely. Or when the chef tried to do it, Titania said, ‘I’ll make it!’
When I glanced at the chef, the chef bowed his head with a solemn expression. It was as if he was saying, ‘I’m really sorry I couldn’t stop the princess,’ with an expression on his face.
Aren’t these various kinds of mash potatoes the result of the efforts of the chef and cooks to save the dish somehow? In the end, I just gulped down the water because of the salty taste of the salt.
I raised my head, and Titania looked at me with her eyes twinkling. I couldn’t say it wasn’t delicious, but I couldn’t eat it, so I just laughed bitterly.
“Is it because you made it yourself? I, it’s really delicious…”
“hehehe! There are a lot of them, so please eat a lot!”
Really… What the hell happened in the kitchen…
*
I didn’t eat all of them, but in the end I ate every single spoonful of mashed potatoes. The first mash potato was serious, but was it because of the chef’s efforts? Others were just edible.
As I sat down after eating like that, Titania glanced at me. I smiled and tapped her on the knee, and Titania, noticing my signal, sprinted beside me with her sprinting steps.
Titania jumped onto her lap and settled down. I wrapped my arms around her Titania’s waist, leaned back in her chair, and let out a weary sigh as she felt full. I think it’s time to start talking, so I poked Titania on the cheek and made her look at me.
“Would you like to talk to me soon?”
“What, what?”
“Why have you been avoiding me these days? Have I done anything wrong to you? I don’t think it’s like that if you even cook like this…”
When asked why, Titania’s face flushed and her shoulders were full of strength. She tilted her head, unable to figure out what the hell this was, and Titania muttered in her ant-crawling voice.
“Because…To…To…To…”
“What?”
“Uh, because my mom… kissed me on the lips on her own… the book said you shouldn’t do it on your own…”
“…What?”
I didn’t know what to do at Titania’s crying reaction as if she were going to cry right now, so I was just busy stroking Titania’s head. So, you mean you hate that I kissed her on the lips to the point of crying? What is this…
Come to think of it, it was then that Titania started avoiding me. From the day after I got drunk and kissed Titania on the lips. Recently, because of Snow White, her hair was so complicated that I completely forgot about it…
“Mi, I’m sorry… I didn’t know you would hate me that much…”
When I apologized, Titania trembled as she held back her tears. I eagerly soothed Titania with half-shocked and half-worried heart, but Titania’s sadness did not stop.
“Chae, the book said it was precious…! She said don’t give unless you love…! Uh, mom…!”
“Yes, yes, yes. I stole your precious first kiss. How on earth should I apologize… Why don’t you just stop crying? Huh?”
-What the hell are you two doing…?
Ignoring Ainsel who asked as if he really didn’t know, I hugged Titania and comforted her diligently. As if her sorrow, once bursting, did not stop, Titania shed tears in a huff. Hearing that cry made me want to cry too.
“Oh, my mother stole my number and innocence…Huh…!”
“Oh, no, there is no such thing as chastity with a first kiss… And how on earth do you know the word chastity…”
The growth of a child is always a joy, but this kind of growth was more embarrassing than joyous. Is it my fault for postponing s*x education? Wrong about virginity, did Titania lose her virginity to me? I burst out crying in shock. It’s cute even though it’s innocent like this…
‘Maybe…’
Here, she had to instill her true s*xual knowledge in Titania, but first, to appease her. Also, it was funny and cute to see a child cry while trying to be innocent.
Later, when Titania grows up, you should tease her with this story. When she was little, she said, ‘My mother stole my virginity~’ and teased me if I didn’t remember how she cried in my arms.
I smiled secretly behind the crying Titania and continued to soothe her. Titania, who has already grown up like this, was proud, and she was a bit bitter. You won’t be hanging out with me often from now on.
…There were exactly eight years left before I left the castle, but the time I was with Titania was only about five years.
When she turns 15, Titania will move into the academy dormitory and live there. The three years without Titania were intended to be used by her to lay the foundation for living in the royal castle.
I think it would be okay to live with another witch, and it would be okay to buy a building with the money I received from the royal castle and live the life of the owner. There’s also Ainsel, so you won’t be lonely.
Thinking about the future made me feel a bit lonely. Then, for some reason, she became worried about what would happen to Snow White… That child. What will happen to her if she gets caught by other witches…
She thought that if Titania grew up in misfortune, she would become like Snow White, so she had no choice but to sympathize with her. She was an inescapable pity.
‘…Five years from now.’
From noble mtl dot com
I hugged Titania, who was crying in sorrow in my arms. If it’s long, it’s long, if it’s short, it’s an instant. All I could think of was to make Titania a little happier in that long and short time.
I tried to attach the dwarfs so that they wouldn’t be lonely without me… But it’s a pity that Snow White took all the dwarfs away, but as Snow White said, the dwarfs had to give up.
‘…Can Snow White, who is raised by her stepmother without meeting a dwarf, be called Snow White?’
A question suddenly popped into my head, so I lowered my head and looked at Titania. Upon meeting my eyes, Titania started crying even more sadly. I laughed out loud when I saw him crying sadly because he had his first kiss taken away from me.
‘What does it matter if this child is Snow White or not?’
Even if she wasn’t Snow White, Titania was my daughter, she was my princess. She is the most precious princess in my life.
My very own princess.
I patted the princess and engraved the happiness of this moment deep in my heart. Even if one day you are left alone, remember this memory and smile.
*
The season has come again and again.
When I was 10 years old, autumn passed and winter came. Winter passes and spring comes. Spring passes and summer comes. Summer has passed and fall has come again.
By the time this was repeated three times, Titania, who had reached Vivian’s waist before noticing it, grew rapidly and grew to Vivian’s shoulder height.
Her short limbs also lengthened and grew, and Titania, who escaped her childish tact, finally became a ‘girl’. Everyone has become such a girl that they can no longer treat Titania as a child.
Summer is a season of turbulence that covers the world with buds sprouting and flowers blooming. It wasn’t just the season that brought turbulence.
One summer day that was hotter than usual.
Thirteen-year-old Titania learns of her first love.
