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I could feel Cornelius’ glare on my back as I dragged Ferdinand into my hidden room. We were still a few months out from our Starbind, but did it really matter? My other retainers were all used to us spending time alone in my hidden room, so why not my brother? It wasn’t as if we were getting up to anything too compromising; sometimes we visited my family downtown, but other times we simply enjoyed each other’s company.
This was the latter.
Clarissa flashed me a brilliant smile and a thumbs up as I pushed the door shut, making me sigh with relief. Hooray! Preparations, complete!
“...Ro…ze…myne…” I felt the back of my neck prickle as Ferdinand stepped forward, trapping me against the door. “What is the meaning of dragging me in here a mere half-bell before dinner?”
Eeep! I spun around, leaning back against the door as he loomed over me. As a preventative measure, I clapped my hands over my cheeks. “It’s a surprise! I wanted to do something special since we’ve been so busy with the Interduchy Tournament and everything!”
“Hmm?” Unable to pinch my cheeks, Ferdinand settled for fingering a lock of my hair, letting it twine around his fingers and tickle my neck. He was dangerously close now, barely a handbreadth away, and if I leaned forward I could…
The moment broke and he stepped back with a sigh. “If even you think whatever you have planned is worthy of surprise, I should brace myself accordingly.” He glanced around my hidden room and frowned at the odd assortment of materials. “Are we brewing something?”
“Close, but no!” I collected my brewing over robe from the back of a chair and pushed my arms into it, twisting to secure the laces behind me. After watching me struggle for a moment, Ferdinand sighed.
“Hold still.” With militant efficiency, he looped the laces shut and tied them in neat bows.
“Mmm, thank you! Alright, you sit here.” I nudged him towards the other open chair, making him frown.
“What are you brewing? I will assist you–”
“Hehe, I’m not brewing, I’m cooking!”
His eyes widened. “Cooking? Why? Surely your cooks’ efforts will suffice.”
“Because it’s fun! And, you know, … romantic.” My voice dropped to a whisper on the last word and I fought the urge to blush.
Ferdinand frowned. “I fail to see how cooking can be considered romantic.”
“It’s a tradition from the other world. Lots of the other, erm, ways that people there courted each other would be pretty scandalous here, but this was one I thought I could pull off without too much trouble!”
I finally succeeded in nudging Ferdinand into his seat, although he still looked rather skeptical. “Just relax and enjoy the experience!”
First I pulled a ribbon from one of the pockets of my robe and loosely tied back my hair so it wouldn’t get in the way. Next, I took stock of what Clarissa had brought me. I wanted to make seafood pasta primavera, but that was a bit too much work for me to do completely from scratch, so I had asked my cooks to prepare a few things ahead of time. The raw pasta was coiled up and stored in a coldbox, alongside the cheese, cream, and seafood. One pot already held a small amount of chicken broth infused with herbs for the sauce. Okay, let’s start the seafood and veggies first since the pasta won’t take very long!
I pushed up my sleeves and unrolled a large sheet of parchment onto the table. It was inscribed with a standard heating circle for brewing, which should work just as well as a stovetop. Ferdinand watched with increasing fascination as I pulled a large skillet off the cart that Clarissa had delivered to my hidden room. After adjusting the heat by modifying the circle with stylo, I placed a few filled feystones on the circle to keep it charged while I cooked.
Butter went in first, a large chunk cut from the slab in the coldbox. The rich sizzle spread through the air, making me swallow. Noble life was a parade of already-prepared food, so it had been a while since I experienced the alluring smells of cooking. A few times, we had visited my family downtown for dinner, but Mom rarely let me do more than stir the odd pot while she and Tuuli cooked. The sizzling butter brought back memories of making parue cakes as Myne, and even more distantly, cooking at home in Japan in the few moments I could be dragged out of a book. I swallowed back the lump of emotion at the memory and looked up to find Ferdinand studying me with a creased forehead.
“Why do you wish to cook if it distresses you?”
Startled, I brushed away the wet drops clinging to my eyelashes. “I… it was a memory of cooking with my mom– on Earth.” In the silence that followed, I tossed the mushrooms and vargels I’d chopped into the skillet, stirring to coat them with butter. “I guess cooking also makes me think of family.”
As the scent of sauteing vegetables seeped into the room, I added the assortment of seafood my chefs had carefully killed and cleaned for me. Although my health had improved a lot under Ferdinand’s ministrations, it was still a little much to contemplate fighting my dinner before cooking it. After giving the skillet one last stir, I moved on to the sauce and began to heat the pasta water. I glanced at Ferdinand, who was watching me with his chin propped on one hand, seemingly mulling over something.
As I rummaged through the cold box for the cream, he spoke. “I think perhaps I would enjoy learning to cook.”
“E-Eh?” I started with surprise, bumping into the pot of near-boiling water. Ferdinand rose and yanked the pot away in one smooth movement, expertly preventing it from spilling so much as a drop.
“Are you burned?” He dropped the pot back on the circle and swiftly rounded the table to examine me with a worried frown. As he ran his fingertips over my palms, I jumped reflexively.
“That tickles! Relax, your reflexes are [superhuman]!”
“Superhuman?” He raised an eyebrow, tightening his grip to prevent me from pulling away.
I blushed. “It just means really good. As in, better than anyone else.”
“Hmmm…” The warmth at my wrists finally made me realize he was sending a gentle current of mana through my body, checking for any hidden burns. Lately, I’d become uncomfortably… aware of his health checks. What had once been a pleasant and soothing warmth was now faintly electric, making me want to squirm. Feeling daring, I sent a lick of my own mana back through our connection. I was rewarded with a sharp gasp and the hands on my wrists abruptly tightened.
“Rozemyne!”
I puffed my cheeks out in indignation. “What? You share mana with me all the time? Why shouldn’t I return the favor?”
“... It’s a health check. Don’t be so shameless.” He looked away as he said it, and through the curtain of his hair, I caught a faint red tint on the tips of his ears. Ufufu!
“Oh yes, a health check. Of course.” I smirked. Not for the first time, I wondered if Ferdinand would enjoy a little roleplay after our Starbind. I could just imagine him calling it unbearably shameless before completely committing to the bit.
That train of thought started to veer into rather risqué territory, so it was probably for the best that the rumble of boiling water interrupted my thoughts.
“Ah!” I quickly pulled my hands out of Ferdinand’s (now slackened) grip and conjured my schtappe to adjust the temperature to a rolling boil. After collecting the raw pasta from the coldbox, I lowered it into the pot as Ferdinand hovered. He seemed rather fascinated by the process of cooking, so I let him stir the veggie and seafood mix while I got the sauce going.
“Did everyone in your old world know how to cook?” he asked eventually.
“Hmm, not everyone I guess. There were some people who were rich enough to hire people to do it for them, like nobles here, and there was a pretty big gender disparity in who cooked in families, at least in Japan. But most people could handle simple things like instant ramen or rice.”
“You had food that cooked in mere moments?”
“What?” I stared at him before it finally clicked. “Oh, that’s just the… branding? I guess? It actually takes several minutes.” I thought for a moment. “Wait, knights here have travel rations, right? Food that you just add hot water to?”
Ferdinand grimaced. “Yes, although I would hesitate to call that food.”
“Hmm…” I narrowed my eyes in thought while I stirred the primavera sauce. I think instant ramen noodles are fried until they dry out, but that would probably be expensive, so maybe we can dehydrate them instead?
A gentle pinch on my cheek startled me out of my thoughts. “That face. What are you inventing now?”
I looked up, my thoughts churning. “Could you make a magic tool that pulls all the water out of something and seals it against moisture in the air? You can use the process to make not just noodles, but also dried meat, veggies, and flavorings to add to soup on the road.”
Ferdinand nodded thoughtfully. “Existing travel rations are dehydrated similarly, but the tool is not terribly efficient so food needs to be soaked in salt and wine first to keep properly. I can certainly make something more effective.” His eyes narrowed in thought and I concealed a smile. No doubt he was already planning out the blueprints.
When the sauce began to bubble thickly, I turned off the magic circle and collected a set of tongs from the cart. As Ferdinand watched, I carefully drained the noodles and added them to the vegetable-seafood mix before pouring on the sauce and stirring. A sprinkling of freshly sliced tiny pomes and grated cheese topped off the creamy noodles.
“Ta-da! Seafood pasta [primavera]! Perfect for the beginning of spring!” I managed to usher Ferdinand back into his seat so I could serve the pasta. I plated it out as nicely as possible, but it definitely gave off a ‘home-cooking’ vibe in contrast to the usual exquisite presentation from my cooks. I placed one plate in front of Ferdinand and settled down with my own plate in the free chair across from him.
As elegantly as possible, I twirled a few noodles around my fork and popped it into my mouth. Hooray! It came out pretty well! I think it needs salt, but that can be fixed! I rummaged around on the cart to produce a small tin of salt.
Ferdinand copied me with a curious expression, narrowing his eyes as he contemplated the flavors. “This is… rather good.”
“Why do you sound surprised!?”
The ends of his lips curled into a smile. “Did you practice it?”
I froze before looking away. “N-no. Definitely not.” I definitely had not spent the entire past week holed up with Clarissa and Liseleta learning how to not burn primavera sauce.
“As I thought. This seemed entirely too organized to be spontaneous.”
Argh! All I wanted was to give off the air of an ‘effortless cooking beauty!’ As I slumped in defeat, Ferdinand reached across the table, lifting my chin. I felt something brush the corner of my mouth and I started in surprise.
Ferdinand pulled back, licking his finger. “Delicious.”
“...”
“Rozemyne, you look rather flushed. Would you like some water? Or perhaps we should go out to get some air?” With an expression that said he knew exactly why I was turning as red as the setting sun, he came around the other side of the table to fuss over me.
Pull yourself together, Rozemyne! This is an all-out battle for shamelessness now! If Ferdinand was going to play it that way, I was hardly about to back down from the challenge.
I lifted my chin, giving him a hungry look. Leaning into the hand he pressed to my cheek, I smiled. “Not at all. In fact, I feel rather cold.” Ferdinand frowned as I stood, tugging him back over to his chair.
“What are you– Rozemyne!?!?” I pushed him down and settled myself crosswise on his lap, hoping he was too distracted to note my burning cheeks.
“Mmm, much better.” I looped my arms around his neck, snuggling into his shoulder with a sigh of pleasure. Hugs these days were few and far between, stolen moments of comfort when we were alone or our retainers could be persuaded to look the other way. Despite the growing sense that my feelings for him had eclipsed the bounds of “family,” I still craved the warmth of being wrapped in his mana like this.
“Rozemyne…” His lips tickled my ear as he sighed. “I cannot eat like this.”
“That’s okay!” I pulled back and grinned. “I’ll feed you!”
“What? Absolutely not.”
“Come on! It will be fun, I promise. Besides, what you did was far more shameless.” I raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“You had sauce on your cheek.” One corner of his mouth curled into a smirk.
Taking that as permission, I twisted and grabbed his fork, awkwardly spinning it to capture a few noodles. I felt him tense as I lifted it to his mouth, but he took a bite all the same. A few more bites passed in silence as I tried to judge how much of an effect it was having on him. Ferdinand had an excellent poker face, but his ears were thoroughly red by now.
I speared a grabbe - a kind of prawn-like shellfish - on the fork and lifted it. Just before Ferdinand ate it, I popped it into my own mouth instead. “Mmm, the seafood in Alexandria is simply divine.” I licked my lips to catch the last bits of the cream sauce.
“Rozemyne!” Ferdinand looked like he was struggling to choose between outrage and guilty fascination. I dissolved into giggles, pressing my face back into his chest.
“Your face! I couldn’t resist.”
There was a long silence before he sighed. “Enough. I can hardly enjoy the food with your distractions.”
“Are you sure? I could be more distracting instead.” I shifted position on his lap to emphasize my point, making him freeze.
“Rozemyne! Are you trying to herald the early arrival of winter!?”
“Mmm, maybe?”
There was a long silence before he managed to wring out a response. “...Two months, so help me Duldzetsen.” He poked me in the side. “Off, or our retainers will never let us hear the end of it.”
That was unfortunately true, so I reluctantly wriggled off him. I caught the flash of disappointment in his eyes as I stood, but it was hastily concealed. Ufufu, now who’s a shameless liar?
As we resumed eating, Ferdinand drummed his fingers on the table, deliberately changing the subject. “It seems that cooking could be considered a form of brewing. I shall have to speak with Justus about procuring the necessary utensils to experiment with.”
I tried to imagine Ferdinand cooking and found that the image rose easily to mind. The deep look of concentration he always wore while brewing gave him the air of an illustrious chef, hard at work on a culinary masterpiece. I wondered how he would look with his hair tied back, the lines of his neck shifting as he concentrated over a pan… My fantasy took a sharp turn back into risqué territory when I pondered how he would look wearing nothing but an apron, putting on display the lean muscles I could feel on his back during hugs.
As I yanked myself out of the daydream, Ferdinand lifted an eyebrow. “I knew you enjoyed fish, but that expression was certainly… unique.”
Oops. I cleared my throat, looking away. As our Starbinding approached, my fantasies were becoming a lot more… vivid.
As Ferdinand speared the last piece of vargel on his plate, he smiled. “I’ll ask Justus to purchase this recipe from you. The creamy sauce pares excellently with the fresh pomes and sauteed seafood.”
Hooray! “Thank you for your business!”
I placed the dishes back on the cart for Clarissa to remove and tugged at the laces to my brewing robe. After shrugging it off, I folded it and laid it back over the back of the chair before turning to exit the hidden room.
“Rozemyne, wait.” I looked up as Ferdinand neared me. He reached up a hand, as if to stroke my hair. There was a small tug, and the ribbon I’d used to tie my hair back sprung free into his hand. He lightly ran his fingers through my hair, combing out any tangles, before giving me a nod. The ribbon disappeared into a pocket of his robes, making me smile.
As I accepted his hand to escort me from the hidden room, I leaned closer, savoring the warmth of his mana. “So what would you like me to cook next time?”