36 2nd Day-Cooking Lesson (2/2)
”Meat!” Mai excitedly exclaimed with stars twinkling in her eyes
”I ran into a Red-Hawk Boar and butchered and cleaned the animal myself,” said the princess.
”Wow! I would've never guessed you did those tasks yourself.” Maria had a hard time imagining the delicate and cute princess executing such a gory labor task.
”Whenever I visit my uncle, he sometimes takes me hunting with him and teaches me how to hunt and butcher animals,” said the princess, and upon noticing the awe shining in Maria's eyes, there was a twitch in her usual monotone expression.
”Princess, you're amazing!” Maria complimented, missing how the tip of the princess's ears turned red.
”Arthur, what are in these two jars?” Mai pointed to the two glass jars, one filled golden yellow thick liquid and the other a dark brown.
”W-While I was out, I ran into a maple tree and extracted its sap. I also extracted honey from honeycombs I spotted lying on the ground,” Arthur answered bashfully.
Once all their materials were laid out on the table, Maria began analyzing ideas. 'Okay, so we have fruits, honey and syrup, eggs, and meat. From the eggs, we can make an omelet, bacon from the meat, maybe fruit juice from the fruits. Hmm, but what about the honey and maple syrup? It would be nice if we had pancakes!'
Looking over the items again, Maria spotted miniature round sponge cakes, hidden behind the honey and maple jars. ”Where did those come from?” asked Maria.
”I spotted a baby PanPan tree while I was gathering,” said Princess Luna
”What is a PanPan tree?” Maria had never heard of such a thing; Mai was the one to explain it to her.
”A PanPan tree grows sponge-like cakes, which are super delicious but also rare since these usually grow where the fairy race resides.”
'A tree that grows pancakes... Yep, leave it to fantasy logic.' Not wanting to dwell on the thought of how it was possible for a tree to grow pancakes, Maria discussed with her group her ideas, and after agreeing, they got work.
Mai volunteered herself when it came to cooking the meat, appointing herself as a meat expert. Arthur and Julian teamed up to make the fruit juice, leaving Maria and Luna to make the omelet. There was a sense of smoothness and unity that their group possessed that others didn't.
The others argued amongst themselves and created a mess, clueless on what to do with their materials. In another room, a certain crimson-haired heir seemed down about something. ”Ri-chan, what's wrong?” asked Akihito, stirring some type of mixture in a bowl.
”Nothing, it's just, I wanted to be teamed up with Ria.” Richard didn't know how to explain it, but being around Maria and spending time with her always left Richard in good spirits. He liked that she was true to herself when around him, finding her smile cute and her eyes beautiful. Such a pure and uplifting presence that could only belong to Maria had become his addiction.
'I can't explain it, but my heart always beats faster whenever I'm around her, and I feel so happy whenever I see her smile. I wonder why I feel this way?' Richard asked himself, still too young to process and understand his own feelings towards Maria.