Fortune-Telling Lady

Chapter 5

Gelad wasn’t laughing for very long. Camilla’s hand darted up to grab him by the collar, and the head chef flinched.

What can I say? I hold grudges. If someone hates me, I hate them back. I’m not enough of a good person to continue tolerating ridicule and groundless accusations. Maybe if the old Camilla had done something to offend Gelad, she could understand why he mistreated her. But as far as she knew, Camilla had never done anything like that to the head chef. Basically, Gelad was acting so unfairly that even the author is getting worked up right now.

Ugh!

I’ve grabbed lots of people by the collar for acting roles, thought Camilla. She grabbed the chef, the practiced motion—and necessary strength—coming naturally to her. This may not be Lee Sia’s body, but her skills had certainly transferred. She knew how to grab someone by the collar with a firm grasp.

Gelad’s body naturally leaned forward. “Wh-what are you doing?!” he yelled at the top of his lungs the moment he came to his senses. In the kitchen, he was king. How dare she grab him by the collar in front of so many people?

Camilla didn’t care.

“Listen up.” She pulled Gelad’s furious form even further down toward her. “This high.”

“Huh?”

“After I win this bet, I want you to always look at me from this height.” Camilla thrust her face into his. “If you look down on me with those eyes one more time…”

Gelad swallowed dryly at her softly whispered words.

“I’ll just have to break your knees and make you crawl for the rest of your life.”

“Th-the duke would never let you!” Gelad stammered.

“Yes, I’m aware. I’d probably get in a little trouble. I might not be able to leave my room for a few days,” Camilla whispered nonchalantly.

“So, so then you can’t…”

“Can’t what?”

“Huh?”

“It wouldn’t be the first or even the second time that’s happened to me. So what?”

“Ah, that’s n-not… His Grace would—”

“So what if I get punished?” Camilla’s lips began to creep up into a smile. While she did want to stay on Duke Sorphel’s good side, she wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated or mistreated by others over it. “Do you think he’d kill me just for breaking one of your knees? You think I can’t do it?”

It… It seems like she probably can…

Camilla smiled at Gelad and then released his shirt collar. But as if his entire body had turned to stone, Gelad couldn’t straighten out his posture. It felt as if were he to stand up straight, he’d end up with a pair of broken knees.

“Well, thanks for letting me use the kitchen,” Camilla said slyly. She returned to her spot, leaving Gelad behind, then she muttered a name as if she were speaking to herself very quietly.

“Ferrol.”

«Yes.» The ghost chef, who had been floating around the kitchen, came to Camilla’s side.

“Are you ready?” she whispered.

«Of course I am!»

“Then let’s get started.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Ferrol’s ghostly hands overlapped with her own.

* * *

“Sir Ludville has contributed greatly to the anti-rebellion efforts. They say his performance has been outstanding. Here are the relevant documents.”

Duke Sorphel read through the documents carefully while he listened to his aide’s explanation.

“Seems he’s doing well,” said the duke.

“Yes, as is to be expected of Sir Ludville.”

Duke Sorphel set down the report with a satisfied look. Out of habit, he turned to look at the same spot that he had been glancing at all week: a vase full of baby’s breath flowers. The vase that Camilla had brought him. It was a sight that he’d often seen when his mother was still alive. His mother, who had been particularly fond of baby’s breath, used to decorate her office with it in just the same way.

I do not typically like flowers, but… Duke Sorphel’s thoughts trailed off. It felt strange to see them in his office. He suddenly remembered Camilla, smiling brightly with her arms full of baby’s breath, while he was on a walk through the gardens the other morning. Had he ever seen her smile like that in his presence before?

It’s already been a week. He hadn’t thought it would last more than a day or two, but for the last week, Camilla had brought a new bouquet of baby’s breath to decorate the duke’s office every day without fail.

“Not bad.”

“Pardon me, sir?” asked his aide.

“Is Camilla still not eating well these days?” the duke asked.

“Oh. Um…”

Duke Sorphel’s aide Zector’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden question. Any time Duke Sorphel had asked about Camilla in the past, it was to inquire about her bad behavior or the problems she had caused. This was the first time he had ever asked about her day-to-day well-being. He never seemed to care about Lady Camilla, outside of ordering her to do something.

“I will find out right away, sir,” Zector, flustered by the unexpected question, hastily assured the duke.

At that moment, a knock sounded on the door, and someone entered the room. The butler Ruben, a man in his early thirties, entered the office with a snack tray in hand. He bowed his head politely and then set the food down on the table.

“What’s all this?” asked the duke.

“I thought you might be hungry, so I had it prepared.”

Duke Sorphel checked the clock and nodded his head. Whenever the duke would stay in his office for a long time, Ruben would bring him a quick bite to eat.

“Thank you.”

Zector looked even more delighted than the duke did. He had hardly eaten dinner, and his stomach had been growling for a while now.

“Please give the food a try, Your Grace,” said Ruben.

“Hm?”

Duke Sorphel looked at his butler, puzzled. Typically, after Ruben brought him food, he left right away. But today, the butler was waiting, watching Duke Sorphel, and pressing him to start eating. After staring at Ruben in confusion for a moment, Duke Sorphel stood and went to the table to try the food.

“Ah, it’s soup,” remarked the duke.

Some freshly baked bread had been served alongside the dish. But when Duke Sorphel saw the soup on the table, his eyes lit up.

Could it be… He quickly picked up his spoon and brought a large spoonful to his mouth. His expression grew even more surprised as he tasted the soup and swallowed.

“This soup is…” Duke Sorphel trailed off.

It was a soup he hadn’t tasted in a long time. This soup, the very one he used to love so much. After the former head chef, Ferrol, died suddenly in an accident, the duke had not since been able to enjoy this delicious dish. He had heard that Gelad, the current head chef and Ferrol’s protégé, had tried endlessly to recreate his mentor’s recipe, but was ultimately never successful. But now, this soup that he thought he would never be able to taste again was sitting right in front of him. It tasted exactly like he remembered it.

“Wow, this is really delicious. How does this soup have such a deep flavor?” said Zector.

The clear, golden broth had no trace of any solid ingredients. But the richness of the flavor that he tasted the moment he put the soup to his lips was like nothing else.

“I guess that chef finally figured out how to recreate it,” said Duke Sorphel. He assumed that the head chef Gelad had finally figured out his master’s recipe.

Ruben lightly shook his head. “Head chef Gelad did not make this soup, Your Grace,” said the butler.

“The head chef didn’t make this?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Then who did?”

Ruben smiled widely while he answered. “It was Lady Camilla.”

Zector choked on the soup, coughing and sputtering.

Duke Sorphel was silent while he processed Ruben’s words. “It was… Camilla?” His eyes grew large when he heard Camilla’s name. He looked back at the soup in disbelief. “Did Lady Camilla really make this?”

Duke Sorphel and Zector looked dumbfounded, and Ruben smiled as if he’d been expecting their reaction.

* * *

“Th-this… This is…!”

Head chef Gelad could hardly get the words out. The moment he saw Camilla’s soup, he could not believe his own eyes. That golden color! How could Gelad ever forget that soup?

E-even the aroma is… An exact match. It was exactly like the soup that existed only in his memories. Gelad brought a ladle of broth to his mouth, his hands trembling.

Clang!

The ladle in his hand clattered to the ground. It was so shocking that Gelad, who always insisted on keeping kitchen utensils clean, dropped his ladle to the ground and wasn’t even thinking of picking it up. That flavor. Without a doubt, it was the soup.

The soup that only his mentor Ferrol could make. Because of his mentor’s sudden death, Ferrol had never passed the recipe down. But the soup had just been recreated before Gelad’s very eyes by the hands of none other than Camilla Sorphel. He couldn’t believe it, even though he had just watched her with his own eyes.

“How does the soup taste?” Camilla, who had been watching quietly, finally approached.

“H-how did you—” Gelad had been standing there completely dumbfounded, and only snapped to his senses upon hearing Camilla speak. The excitement was evident in his voice. “How did you make this dish? How could it be possible?”

A fire burned in Gelad’s eyes while he looked at Camilla. He had spent countless hours trying to recreate that soup, and the results were always disappointing. He could never replicate that flavor.

So then, how…?!

“You’re too high,” said Camilla

“What was that?”

“I said you’re too high up.”

“What are you…”

Camilla pointed two fingers at Gelad’s confused eyes and then tilted her fingers down. “Your eye level should be about here.”

Gelad panicked when he realized what Camilla was saying. “My neck is starting to hurt from looking up.”

Camilla began rubbing the back of her neck, pretending she felt sore. He looked down with wide-open eyes. Then, wordlessly, Gelad shrank down to Camilla’s height, his knees slightly bent. He met her eyes at a level where she didn’t have to tilt her head up. He naturally lifted two clasped hands up.

“W-will you teach me now?”

It was an embarrassing sight to be witnessed by so much of the kitchen staff, but that did not matter to Gelad now.

“Teach you what?”

“Please give me the recipe for this soup,” he begged.

“Why should I?”

Gelad blinked. “What?”

“When did I say I would teach you how to make it?” Camilla watched Gelad, his astonished face turning paler. She untied the apron she had been wearing and tossed it to the side.

“Lady Camilla!” Gelad called out as she left the kitchen.

I can’t let her leave like this. He needed to have that recipe somehow!

“Well, I suppose I could teach you,” she said.

“R-really?”

“If you show me something pretty.”

“What?”

“If you show me something even a little bit pretty, maybe I’ll teach you later.”

With those words, Camilla left the kitchen, tossing aside her chef’s clothes. Gelad slowly turned his head to look at the kitchen staff watching him.

“How am I supposed to look pretty?”

“That’s not going to happ—”

One of the newest kitchen staff members, clueless, was harshly poked in the side before he could finish his tactless comment. The rest of the staff could only hide their amused smiles.