Chapter 7
By about the fourth time I’d conjured pitch-black corn, my face was a complete picture of misery.
Drufu, seeing my complexion grow darker and darker, had no idea what to do.
Why? I thought it had gone perfectly fine—so why wouldn’t it work?
The frustration filled my chest the way it had back in my university days, when some unknown error cropped up in a programming assignment. If only someone would just tell me the cause…
Oh, how I missed the Green Window search engine I used to turn to in my hour of need.
I need you… sob sob.
Drufu, watching me sink deeper and deeper into the pit of despair, shifted uneasily and finally spoke after studying my face.
“My lady, must you really make this ‘popcorn’ thing?”
“When you’re watching something… popcorn…”
“If you just need something to munch on while you watch, it doesn’t have to be that, right? Oh! For example—dried fruit?”
Dried fruit… My eyes flickered.
Well, sure—dried fruit is delicious. The chewiness, the tang—it’s top-tier stuff.
And unlike popcorn, you don’t have to slave away making something that doesn’t even exist here; you can just go to the market and find it everywhere…
“A-ah, no! I’m a woman of principle. Watching something means popcorn! That truth must not be broken.”
I’d almost caved. How terrifying—trying to exploit the moment I was weakened by exhaustion.
Drufu, at my steadfast reply, gave me a distinctly impertinent look that seemed to say, You don’t have much principle to begin with, but I didn’t scold him. I didn’t have the energy to get mad.
He must have realized that I wouldn’t stop this hamster-wheel madness until I had succeeded in making popcorn, because he sank into deep thought.
I kept quiet so as not to disturb his thinking—he was the head chef, after all. Maybe he’d come up with a solution.
In the past, whenever I’d made a mess in the kitchen, Drufu’s only contribution had been to exclaim, “Oh dear, my lady!”—but this time, I hoped he would say something brilliant.
A few minutes later, Drufu suddenly looked as though he’d had an epiphany.
“My lady!”
“Hm? What is it?”
Did he figure it out?
I replied with my heart pounding in anticipation.
Drufu’s small eyes shone with uncharacteristic confidence.
“It’s the corn—the corn itself seems to be the problem.”
“What? But I’ve already tried using undried corn, half-dried corn, and fully dried corn. I adjusted the amounts, the time…”
“No, I mean the variety of corn. Corn isn’t all the same, is it? Out of the many varieties, there might be one that’s especially suited for this ‘popcorn’ you speak of.”
“…!”
I widened my eyes. That… actually made sense. Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered seeing “popcorn corn” in the supermarket back in my old world.
I had thought it was just a fancy way of saying dried corn… but maybe not?
“Let’s go to the market, my lady.”
“Yes!”
I nodded vigorously.
All of a sudden, Drufu looked ten years younger—he even seemed to have more hair.
I gave him a generous mental review for his appearance and hurried to get ready.
Today, with neither Father nor Mother at home, it was easy to make an impulsive outing.
Since I might be buying in bulk, I brought along not just Drufu but also another servant. Fortunately—or unfortunately—there turned out to be only two kinds of dried corn at the market.
One was the sort already scattered about in our kitchen at the manor, and the other, the merchant explained, was imported from some far-off foreign land.
My heart thudding, I spent my own money to buy a heap of the foreign corn, and the journey back was a tense mix of excitement and anxiety.
I’m counting on you now.
I refused Drufu’s offer to carry it for me and clutched the bundle of corn tightly in my own arms.
And once we were back in the kitchen—
“I knew it! Look! Eee! Look, Drufu—it’s popcorn!”
“Yes, yes… congratulations, my lady.”
Popcorn rained down like snow.
Thanks to my impatience, I’d opened the lid too early or put in far too much at once, and kernels burst in every direction—but regardless, they were popcorn. White popcorn!
I was too busy squealing to notice the way Drufu’s expression cooled as he watched the popcorn attempting to escape to freedom.
Wow… so it had been this easy, and all that trouble was just because of the corn variety…
A tangle of joy, accomplishment, and a strange sense of futility welled up in me as I grabbed a handful of freshly made popcorn and tossed it into my mouth.
Warm, crispy, with a decent hint of butter. And yet—
“…It’s bland.”
It looked familiar, but the taste wasn’t what I remembered.
What the heck? I turned teary-eyed toward Drufu.
He popped two or three into his own mouth, then gave me a look of utter pity.
“You have to salt it, my lady.”
“Oh.”
Of course. Such a simple reason.
Feeling sheepish, I pretended nothing was wrong as I reached for the salt and sprinkled some on. I also added a little sugar, thinking it might help.
After shaking the pan around to mix it all, I tried again—and at last, the flavor of my memories came rushing back to greet me.
“Wow…”
Popcorn! Real popcorn! My first popcorn in ten years!
Overcome with emotion, I bounced up and down and hugged the nearest innocent sack.
It seemed I had acquired, as a bonus, a passive skill that let me ignore Drufu’s disapproving face and gaze entirely.
“I can’t keep this miracle to myself!”
Muttering to myself, I stopped bouncing, scooped the popcorn into an empty basket, and hugged it to my chest as I dashed out of the kitchen.
My mission was simple: roam the manor and feed popcorn to everyone I met!
“Oh my, Lady Latte.”
“Happy lunch!”
While I’d been busy putting on my kitchen performance, it had already passed noon.
I closed the distance to Lily in one stride, offering an unfamiliar greeting. She stood there in the corridor, eyes round in surprise at my aggressive approach.
Reaching her, I smiled slyly.
“Say ‘ah’.”
“…Pardon?”
“Hurry!”
At my urging, Lily hesitantly opened her mouth.
Sorry for being bossy without explanation, Lily. But it’s just to give you popcorn, so…
I quickly popped a few pieces between her soft lips.
“M-my lady, what is this?”
“A snack. Just try it.”
Puzzled, Lily obediently chewed the contents of her mouth.
The moment she swallowed, her eyes went wide.
“Oh my goodness! What is this?”
“Popcorn. I just made it, just now.”
Drufu helped a tiny bit, I added shamelessly.
Lily exclaimed that she had never tasted anything like it in her life, that it was amazing.
I swelled with pride at having introduced someone to the glory of popcorn.
I gave her a handful to take with her, then went back to prowling the hallways in search of my next target.
The manor was fairly large, with a good number of people passing through.
“Good day, my lady.”
“Lady Latte, what brings you here?”
“My lady! I’ve told you many times—a grown woman should not be running around so unseemly…”
Whatever they said, I treated everyone equally—feeding each person exactly the same number of pieces.
Ah, my fairness—enough to make Marx weep.
Though their reactions varied, not a single one forgot to say it was delicious. They all seemed to be falling under popcorn’s spell.
My sense of accomplishment soared.
Ah, the rush!
When my basket was finally empty, I skipped back to the kitchen.
Seeing how quickly I’d returned with the basket now bare, Drufu asked, “Shall I make more?”
After a moment’s thought, I shook my head. Anything tastes best in small amounts at the right time—eat too much all at once, and you’ll just get sick of it.
Besides, popcorn makes you gain weight. Remembering the scary words “trans fats” and “cholesterol,” I decided it was best to make it only in small batches.
In any case, now that I had succeeded in making popcorn, my worries were over. I could just laze around and wait for the big event I planned to watch.
I even began plotting a market trip tomorrow to buy an armful more corn.
“My lady, you’ve gained weight, haven’t you?”
On the morning of the final day of the banquet, ushla made this deeply disrespectful remark as she tightened my corset.
I deliberately didn’t reply—just narrowed my eyes at her. I knew perfectly well that Eshula herself had put on more weight than I had.
Perhaps feeling my unyielding gaze, she cleared her throat and tugged harder on the laces.
Hey, wait—let me breathe.
“Whew, that’s hard work,” she said, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow after tying the ribbon neatly.
Oh, you little… I shot her a sidelong glare and stepped in front of the mirror to inspect myself.
My waist was still as slim as an ant’s thanks to the unforgiving corset—but my shortness of breath was noticeably worse.
It was really hard to breathe. Damn it.
I swallowed my tears. This was all popcorn’s fault. That devilish popcorn.
I recalled how, over the past few days, both I and the rest of the household staff had been joyfully binge-eating the stuff.
They had surprised me with inventive variations, adding caramel syrup, cheese sauce, and other seasonings, and the alternating flavors never seemed to get old.
We’d even split into factions—the Cheese Camp, the Caramel Camp, the Spicy Camp—and through it all, I had stubbornly stuck to Original. In the end, five days of indulgence had brought me to this state.
Already weary of the corset’s torture, I said, “Let’s just dress simply today…”
“What? Why?!” Eshula shot back sharply.
Startled by her protest, I turned to look at her.
You’re not still hoping, are you?
Yes, I’d admit—after some effort I looked prettier than before, but that wasn’t nearly enough to make the crown prince turn from Eveline to me.
It wasn’t even about looks in the first place—and even if it were, I was far from a guaranteed win.
When I’d visited the Imperial Palace a few days ago, it had been crawling with stunning beauties.
Ugh, just thinking about it annoyed me.
I’d gone to all the trouble of possessing a pretty face, but in this world, there were gorgeous women everywhere.
Why? All the men except for three looked pretty nondescript…
Well, I could guess the author’s intention: to concentrate all the female attention on the male leads, and make it seem more special when those male leads rejected all those beauties in favor of the heroine.
I shook my head bitterly. It had been fine when I’d read it as a novel, but living here—there was no dream, no hope.
In any case, I patiently explained to Eshula just how absurd it was to imagine the crown prince and me ending up together.
As reality set in, the face of my sixteen-year-old, dream-filled maid gradually fell.
Sorry, ushla. Time to grow up.
Thanks to my successful persuasion, I escaped with only simple adornments.
Ha! A total win. Yes, looking prettier felt nice, but I was only going to watch—what did appearance matter? It was a hassle, and a waste of time.
I decided I’d make it up to her by telling her all about the event later in the most exciting way possible, and passed the afternoon.
By the time it was nearly time to depart in the carriage, all I packed was a bit of emergency cash and some corn kernels.
“Take care, dear.”
“Don’t worry, Mother.”
My mother, the viscountess of Extry, was always a worrier. At first I hadn’t thought much of it, but now I was starting to see she had her own quirks.
A short while later, the carriage rolled out.
The bundle of corn in my arms made me smile.
I hadn’t prepared finished popcorn in advance because I didn’t want it to get soggy before I could eat it.
Given the travel time, it was better to bring the kernels and pop them just before going in.
As the palace drew near, I got out of the carriage and walked into the first restaurant I saw, handing over a silver coin and explaining how to cook it.
It was a simple process, so it didn’t take long before I had fresh popcorn in hand.
They put it into something like a paper bag, and I happily headed for the palace.
The guards at the gate barely glanced at my popcorn. A pity—they could have tried some if they’d asked.
Once inside, I turned away from the banquet hall and made straight for the gardens.
The place where Evelyne would meet Male Lead No. 2 was not in the grand hall, but in a quiet corner of the garden.
