The people who ran the Bellease Inn weren’t used to visitors.

It was tragic, honestly; what sort of inn didn’t have visitors? But who asked the owners to set up their establishment at the back end of nowhere, along a road that ran through a deadly swamp full of thorns?

It was practically a guarantee that no one was going to show up today, but even so, Mairin’s mother still ripped her from her blankets and forced her to get to work.

Mairin sighed as she scrubbed the windows of the inn. Why did these damn windows have to be wiped so often? Couldn’t they just stay clean for a week or two? Maybe she’d be able to sleep for an extra five minutes if they did…

As always, Mairin washed the windows until they were crystal clear. There we go, she thought, stepping back to admire her handiwork. Perfectly clean. This should be enough to get mom off my back. Better not be anything that ruins them--

A bird splatted against the window.

“...”

Mairin watched the albino pigeon slide slowly down the glass.

 

“Mooom. I found something for dinner.” Mairin trudged back into the inn. Her mom was seated at a desk, checking over the inn’s account books. When she heard Mairin close the front door, she looked up.

“Ah, great. Then you can leave it in the pantry for--” Her eyes zoomed in on the thing Mairin carried. “--what the hell is that?!”

Mairin lifted the white bird, her hand squeezing mercilessly around its neck. “An albino pigeon… ah.” Her mother karate chopped her wrist, forcing her to let go of the struggling bird.

“That’s not an albino pigeon! It’s a white dove! The Royal Palace’s carrier bird!!” Her mother pointed at the royal crest on the leather cuff around the bird’s talon. “Didn’t you see that it’s carrying a letter?!”

“Oh. That sounds important.”

“You’d better hope it’s not. This dove must have gotten lost. Why would it come to a place like this?” Her mother cursed and shoved a window open. “There! Now shoo, shoo, get to where you need to go.”

Even though Mairin’s mother waved the dove away, the dove stayed huddled on the corner of the desk, trembling, as Mairin plucked the letter from the holder around its leg. “But mom,” she said, reading the name on the post even though checking mail that wasn’t yours was illegal, “this letter is for me.”

“...What?”

“Look.” Mairin flipped the envelope over, displaying the elegant and cursive script emblazoned on the front: To Mairin Bellease, Bellease Inn, Swampwatch Hill.

“...What?! Quickly, quickly, open it!” Her mom ditched the window and to hover over Mairin’s shoulder. Mairin ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter inside.

“Eh…” Mairin squinted as she looked at the contents. Her mom also squinted.

“...Someone must have gotten something wrong,” her mom muttered.

“Uh-huh.”

“I mean, ‘an invitation to the best chefs in the country’...”

“Uh-huh.”

“‘To host a grand feast in celebration of the Royal Princess’s tenth birthday’...”

“Uh-huh.”

“Mairin, you work hard to make meals for everyone, don’t get me wrong, but…”

“No, I know. I’m just an average home cook.” Mairin put the letter down and looked at the envelope again. She angled it in the light, checking to see if the words were actually real. “...But it has my name and everything.”

Mairin and her mother considered this matter in silence.

Mairin looked at her mother. “How about we just pretend this didn’t happen?”

Her mother lightly smacked the back of her head.

 

 

A month before the birthday of the crown princess, every renowned chef in the Kingdom of Leitrim received an invitation to the royal palace. The crown princess would be turning ten years old this year, and as was tradition, the palace planned to throw a grand feast in her honor.

Still, this was the first time in history that the palace had sent out so many invitations at once. Normally, the palace would only invite five to ten master chefs even for the birthday of the King himself. This time, however, carrier doves flocked from the palace like clouds, covering entire streets with their shadows as they headed off to every corner of the Kingdom. There must have been thousands of invitations carried in the talons of those doves. Just what sort of event was this?

Mairin pondered this matter while staring down at the invitation in her hands.

Mairin wasn’t a master chef. In fact, she wasn’t a chef at all. At best, you could say she was a home cook.

Her parents owned an inn on a steep hill that very few people crossed, past a swamp full of briars and nettles. The only people who traveled there had no choice; they were usually mercenaries or adventurers, and by the time they got to the inn, they were always exhausted and starving. Her mom prepared the rooms and her dad handled the money and drinks, leaving Mairin to cook up meals for these dead-tired customers. She didn’t know how to make much; tossing some stuff into a pan or chucking things into a boiling pot of water were about the extent of her abilities. Since these people had usually gone days without a proper meal, though, they always scarfed up Mairin’ food while crying and sobbing ‘Delicious’. Their standards had fallen too low, so even normal food seemed like a gift from the gods.

Was that how this misunderstanding had come about… Mairin wondered. Did someone spread rumors about her life-saving, god-like (lol) cooking?

Mairin sat in the back of a carriage, her legs dangling over the edge as she watched the dust clouds kicked up by the wagon wheels.

After she had read the letter, Mairin was forced to pack up some clothes and supplies and set off toward the capital. ‘It’s a crime to ignore a royal summons!’ her mom said, and also, ‘And when you go, be sure to advertise and attract more business!’

Mom, you’re using your own daughter as a living billboard… Mairin complained in her heart, looking down at the apron she was wearing. ‘Bellease Inn ~ The Lifesaving Inn at Swampwatch Hill’ was stitched in bold letters on it.

Well, whatever. She’d be in the capital soon enough, and she could deal with whatever was going on later. Luckily, after Mairin had gotten out of the swamp, she’d encountered a merchant going the same way. If she had to walk all the way from the swamp to the capital city, it would take her an entire month or more. The crown princess’s birthday would’ve already passed, and Mairin’s mom would’ve gotten mad.

Two weeks after she’d left the swamp, she arrived at the capital. “Thank you so much, mister.” Mairin curtsied to the merchant who’d let her hitch a ride.

The merchant tipped his hat to her. “It was my pleasure, miss. I wish you the best of luck in preparing your dish.”

Mairin curtsied to him once more, then turned around to look at the royal city and the castle in the distance. Thousands of people bustled around her, the crowd as thick as an ocean in the streets ahead.

The capital… sure was big.

 

 

Way too many people.

Mairin felt like a piece of dough getting squished between someone’s fingers. The crowd pushed and shoved her wherever it decided to go. She could barely walk; it was more like she was being carried by other people. Ahh, screw this. As soon as she saw an opening, she hurtled herself out of the crowd.

She ended up in a marketplace somewhere. Scratching her head, Mairin looked around. There were some side streets between the stalls that weren’t as crowded. Might as well walk through there, she decided.

Mairin kept to herself and trudged down the side streets, listening to the hubbub of conversation around her. Even the air was crowded with noise. The city sure was different from the swamp.

“Hey, kid, this isn’t enough!” shouted the shopkeeper she just passed.

“What are you talking about? You said it was a silver and fifty coppers, right? That’s what I gave you!”

Uwaa. The shopkeeper was arguing with a little boy over prices… City people sure were strict. Mairin kept walking.

“Don’t lie! You only gave me the fifty coppers. You have more on you, don’t you? Hand over the silver!”

“Are you trying to scam me? I clearly handed you the silver, but you want another?!”

“Oi, oi. If you don’t want to pay, how about I call the guards over? You wanna bet who they’re going to side with, an adult shopkeeper or a little boy?”

Whoa, what a villainous scumbag.

Sighing, Mairin stopped and turned around. She stood at the corner of the stall and coughed. “Excuse me…”

“Haa?” The shopkeeper turned to her with an annoyed expression. “What is it, lady? Country hicks like you can go sightsee somewhere else!”

“...” Mairin took out the shiny royal letter of invitation. “Actually, I was invited to the royal palace. I’m a special guest of the royal family… I wonder what the guards will think if I, the royal family’s guest, tell them that a little stall selling wunderbread is scamming its customers and bullying children...?”

The shopkeeper turned purple in the face. “I… you… Tch! You, both of you, get the hell out!” The veins on his face and fists bulged, making him look like he was about to explode.

Mairin grabbed the little boy by the back of his collar and dragged him away. “Okayyy. We’re leaving.”

Once they were out of sight from the stall, the boy struggled out of Mairin’s grip and adjusted his collar, sulking. “No one asked for your help,” he said, glaring at Mairin.

City people… sure were ungrateful. Mairin sighed. “Yeah, yeah. See you later, kid. Enjoy that wunderbread of yours.” She waved lifelessly and turned away, ready to continue trudging toward the still-distant royal castle.

“...Wait! Hey! I command you to stop!”

Sighing, Mairin turned back to face the bossy little kid. “...What?”

The kid glared up at her with an angry expression. He had fluffy blond hair gathered under a beret, and his eyes were large, pink, and glittery. Carrying that large bag of fresh, everyday bread and buns emphasized how small and cute he was. Actually, he looked too cute to be a boy… Mairin thought, squinting.

She nearly missed what the young boy asked her.

“You. You said you were going to the royal palace as one of the invited chefs?”

“Ah? Yeah…”

The little boy’s face screwed up in utter disbelief. The aura of doubt around him was so strong, you could probably see it from space. “I’ve never heard of any master chefs from a place called ‘Bellease Inn’...” he said, reading the advertisement on Mairin’s apron.

“Yeah, and you probably never will, either.” Mairin scratched the back of her head. Her messy and unkempt hair got caught between her fingers. “Actually, I think there might have been some mistake. But my mom said we can’t ignore a royal summons, so…”

“...So you decided to come here and poison the royal princess with your dirty, filthy commoners’ cooking?” The little boy glared at her.

“Hey now, maybe the royal princess likes commoner food.” Mairin pointed at the bag of wunderbread in the little boy’s arms. “By the way, if this is your first time trying this, I recommend eating the hard ones with butter and the fluffy ones with honey and dried berries.”

With that, Mairin turned and left, ignoring the boy sputtering behind her.

Hmm. A royal princess who liked commoner food, huh…

 

 

When Mairin finally arrived at the royal castle, there were already hundreds of chefs hanging around there.

Is this… the fabled ‘competition arc’?! Mairin wondered, looking at the rows upon rows of cooking stations, all manned by shiny-looking, impressive people. For example, tall and stocky men with white chef uniforms and tall hats, or young and beautiful women in cute dresses and aprons, or old grannies and grandpas with surprisingly steady hands and sharp eyes.

Yep, Mairin was feeling it. This was the overwhelming aura of ‘master chefs’ around her. Feeling lifeless, she walked through the area, following after the servant who had been assigned to show her around.

Although the celebration was in two weeks, all of the chefs were already working hard. The sounds of chopping, slicing, frying, boiling, and clattering filled the air. Smoke, steam, and occasional bursts of fire flew up toward the ceiling. This sure was some lively practice…

“Miss Mairin, as you know, the celebration of the princess’s tenth birthday is a very special occasion,” the servant explained. “For this feast, the princess has requested all chefs prepare dishes using a certain ingredient as the main component.” They arrived in front of a double-doored entryway, and the servant pushed both doors open dramatically. “As you can see, the theme for this feast is…”

“...That’s a lot of eggs.”

If you have ever seen an image of a vault of gold, or a treasure room filled to the brim with priceless artifacts and shiny coins, imagine a similar room now - except instead of treasures, it was completely filled with eggs. White eggs, brown eggs, quail eggs, blue eggs, big eggs, small eggs, and ??? were those even eggs?????

Mairin pointed a shaking finger at a dark corner of the room, which was filled with ███-looking objects which could maybe look like eggs, if they weren’t wriggling.

“The royal princess’s request for her birthday feast is to eat eggs. Thus, the palace’s hunters and adventurers have provided eggs of every kind and species for the chefs’ use. For example, duck eggs, ostrich eggs, dragon eggs, fish eggs, and even the ███ eggs you see before you. Please use as many ingredients as you see fit. If there are any ingredients you may need which are missing, please inform me, and I shall immediately set about to procure them.”

“...Got it.” Mairin turned her eyes away from the writhing mass of cursed eggs in the dark corner, and lifelessly gathered a small batch of beautiful, pure, normal chicken eggs.

In all honesty, Mairin didn’t have anything to practice. She didn’t know any fancy ways to cook eggs, and she wasn’t about to start learning now. She stood at her cooking station, boiled some water, and left some eggs to sit in the boiled water so that she could have a snack later.

In the meantime, she looked around the room and spied on the chefs around her.

The man next to her looked like he was in his forties. He had an imposing aura as he forcefully flipped a gigantic pancake-like omelette in the air, catching it in a huge frying pan. What the hell is that… Mairin couldn’t help but think. Such a huge omelette twice as big as a person’s face... you really think the crown princess is going to be able to eat that?

She turned to the person on her other side. This neighbor was a beautiful woman with flawless makeup and delicate hands. She carefully kneaded some dough, and had various pots and bowls around her. Mairin had no idea what she was making, but it sure looked complex.

All of the other chefs in the room similarly gave off stunning performances, showcasing cooking techniques beyond Mairin’s reckoning and using ingredients that she didn’t even recognize. As to be expected of a gathering of the best chefs in the entire kingdom, eh... Mairin leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling. When her hard-boiled eggs were done cooking, she took them out of the water and peeled the shells, chucking the soft white egg flesh and the hard, chunky yolks into her mouth.

“Pardon me…” came a delicate voice to her right. Mairin looked over to see the pretty lady smiling at her.

“Ah, yep? What’s up?” Mairin didn’t bother sitting up. She just continued peeling her eggs.

The refined lady beside her didn’t seem to mind. “This is the first time we’ve met, correct? My name is Lilianne Elise Ilhardt Delarue, heiress of the Delarue Patisserie. May I ask for your name?”

Mairin chewed on her eggs. “I’m Mairin Bellease.”

“Bellease, was it?” Lilianne’s eyes glanced at the writing on Mairin’s apron. “Of the Bellease Inn at Swampwatch Hill? What an interesting location. I don’t believe I’ve ever been there.”

“I’m not surprised.” Or rather, Mairin would be more surprised if such a refined and pampered heiress like this had actually visited the swamp inn. “Did you want something?”

“Oh, no. I was merely curious about you. Why, there are so many chefs here; it’s such a pleasure to observe the creativity and technique of each as they craft their dishes for the royal princess. I feel rather plain and unsophisticated myself, being only able to craft desserts. What about you, Mairin?”

“What about me?”

“Are you confident in the dish you’ll present to the royal princess? Gaining the favor of the royal family would be an incomparable boon to the fortune of any chef, after all. On the other hand, to be scorned by the royal family would be…” She raised a hand to her mouth, feigning fright. “...an unspeakable nightmare.”

Mairin chewed neutrally. “Sounds about right, I guess.” So this heiress of a famous pastry chef was testing her out, huh? Trying to see if she was a secret bigshot? Mairin did stick out a lot here. Where everyone else was fervently training and practicing, she was just kicking back and eating hard-boiled eggs. “Well, for me, I’m not going to worry about it. I can only make what I can make. If the royal princess likes it, that’s great. If not, she has all this other food to eat. No big deal.”

“N-No big deal…?!” Lilianne’s glittering smile finally cracked.

“Yeah. There’s no point in overthinking it. I just have to make some food for her and go home. Isn’t that what we always do, as professionals?” Though Mairin couldn’t exactly call herself a professional… well, it was still her job.

“That’s… I can’t refute that.” The heiress sat down, her sparkly aura turning a little gloomy.

“That’s not right!” A booming voice sounded from Mairin’s left. The speaker was the middle-aged man who’d been slinging the giant omelette in the air. He glared at Mairin and Lilianne. “A chef should always strive for better than perfection! Seeking out new heights! Creating grander and greater food, experimenting with flavors, and aiming for the sublime! Behold, my creation!”

He shoved a giant plate in Mairin’s face. A tower of egg omelette pancakes, shaped like a tall triangle, wobbled dangerously. They practically sparkled with quality, and a complex aroma drifted from them.

“You may think this is a masterpiece, as one could expect from a dish created by I, Jacques Kristoff, owner of the 10-Bachelin Star restaurant, Jacques! But!”

Suddenly, the middle-aged man smashed a fist down the plate, crushing all of the egg omelettes.

“They are nothing but garbage! Unworthy of being presented to the royal princess! The tongues of royalty should only taste the transcendent, most magnificent creations in the world! And I, Jacques, shall present such dishes to them!”

Jacques flicked the egg splotches from his hand, scoffing at Mairin, who had bits of his omelette on her face.

“An ambitionless girl like you has no right to stand in the royal palace. You would do better to leave than to pollute this kitchen with your presence.”

Mairin watched him leave and go back to his cooking station, where he resumed his mad and violent cooking.

Even if he said that… she herself wanted to go home but couldn’t.

Mairin stuck her tongue out and ate a bit of the omelette on her face.

Yep. It sure was delicious. Tasted kind of weird, though.

 

 

For the next two weeks, Mairin continued her hobby of lounging in her seat while eating hard-boiled eggs. Because of the huge variety of eggs, she got to try different ones each day. Her favorite was still just normal chicken eggs, though.

Jacques the middle-aged man still scoffed whenever he saw her, but Mairin ignored him. Most of the other chefs had his same mindset. They wanted to make something bolder, something more innovative, something more amazing than all the other chefs in order to stand out. The thing was, there were thousands of chefs competing against each other in close quarters. They kept eyeing each others creations and thinking, I have to make something better! So with each passing day, their dishes became more and more ridiculous until some of them could hardly be called food.

On Mairin’s other side, Lilianne, the pastry chef, was starting to collapse.

Though she had started off shiny and gorgeous, after two intensive weeks of fretting, she now had huge bags under her eyes, and her hair was gathered in a sloppy bun. Her head was face-flat on the table. “What should I do… maybe choux? No, what if I substituted the emulsion with… But meringue is a risky flavor choice, should I really…” Her mumbled mutterings made it seem like she was reciting a curse.

“...Are you okay?” Mairin asked, worried over the dark aura gathering over the pastry chef’s table.

Lilianne gripped the table with both hands and slowly raised her head up. After a short pause, she turned to face Mairin with a beautifully-composed and sparkling smile on her face. “Yes, of course. Why, I’m perfectly fine. Simply a bit concerned over my dish, ohohoho.”

“...Uh-huh.” It would be more believable if the heiress’s hands weren’t shaking where they gripped the table. “Hey, why are you so worried about this? You’re the heiress of a fancy pastry shop, right? Isn’t it a guarantee that you’re going to make something delicious?”

“Delicious…” The smile on Lilianne’s face cracked and dimmed, revealing some of the fear and fatigue she really felt. She laughed bitterly. “Not necessarily…”

Lilianne looked at the spread of pastries and sweets she’d made earlier. All of them were colorful, elegant, and beautiful. Perfectly shaped, perfectly baked, perfectly composed.

“To the royal princess, who has eaten the best foods and the best desserts in the entire kingdom since her birth, I’m afraid that… everything I can make is just ‘average’,” Lilianne said, hanging her head with a mocking laugh. She looked at Mairin, then brought out one of her desserts, a large bowl-shaped cake with an outside made of swirl-shaped cookies and topped with fresh berries. She took out a knife and cut a slice of the cake, revealing an inside made of soft yellow egg custard. She carried the slice over to Mairin and asked, “What do you think of this?”

Mairin was already drooling a little. Without even waiting for Lilianne to hand over the slice, she grabbed a fork and took a huge bite. “Delicious,” she judged instantly. It was sweet and creamy, and the outside cookie layer was crunchy and crisp. Mairin wouldn’t have even the first idea about how to make something like this.

Lilianne laughed. “Of course it is. After all, my grandfather made it in honor of Queen Charlotte, the crown princess’s grandmother. The Charlotte Royale - a dessert fitting for royalty.”

Mairin licked her spoon clean. “Then why do you sound so sad about it?”

“I made it exactly according to recipe, so of course it’s delicious. But… how many times do you think the crown princess has eaten this exact dessert already? Even a dessert like this must already be boring and mundane to her. How can I possibly serve her such a thing…” Lilianne gripped her hands into fists. “Everything I make is just recipes… Recipes handed down to me by my grandfather and father. Even if I make them perfectly, I’m only making them the way my father taught me. If all the crown princess wanted was my father’s work, she could have called for my father. So what’s the point in me being here? I can’t make anything on my own. All I can do is make what others have taught me… There’s nothing special about my creations.”

So the pressure was getting to be too much for the heiress, eh. Mairin finished eating the slice of cake, then picked up one of her hard-boiled eggs and handed it over. “Here.”

“...What?” The heiress took the egg with a blank expression.

“You gave me your food, so I’ll give you some of mine. Let’s eat.” Mairin took an egg for herself and started to peel it. Lilianne watched her, then worked on peeling her egg, too. It seemed that she’d never peeled a hard-boiled egg before, because she struggled to separate the eggshell from the sticky egg whites.

“...You really enjoy eating this every day?” Lilianne asked dubiously.

“Well, I’m not crazy about it. But yeah, I like it. Hard-boiled eggs are delicious. They’re my comfort food.”

“Comfort food…?” Lilianne finally succeeded in peeling the egg. She turned it around in her fingers before hesitantly taking a bite.

“What do you think?”

“...It’s simple.”

“Yeah. You don’t like it?”

“No, it’s…” She took another bite, then another. “It’s good! Even though it’s just a plain egg, it tastes good!”

“Yep, that’s right. Here, have another.” Mairin handed her a second egg, which Lilianne peeled enthusiastically. “See, that’s the thing. I think you’re overthinking this. Sure, the royal family probably eats fancy food every day. But sometimes people don’t want to eat fancy. Sometimes they just want to eat junk, or eat something that’s simple. You keep thinking about the royal princess as if she wants you to make some crazy thing that no one has ever seen before, but if she wanted that, why would she ask us to make something out of eggs?”

“Isn’t… it to challenge us to expand upon the idea of an egg, transforming a common item into a meal fit for royalty?”

“I mean, it could be that. But you know what I think?” Mairin held up her hard-boiled egg. “I think that when a ten year old girl asks us to make something with eggs, it’s just because she wants to eat eggs.”

“...You really think so?”

“Yep. And if I’m wrong, well, there are thousands of other people who can work on making whatever crazy things you can make with eggs. Me, I’m fine with just making stuff I’d like to eat. I’m a simple person. As long as it’s tasty, that’s good enough for me.”

“That… yeah.” Lilianne gripped her skirt between her fists. “I also… just like to eat food that makes me think it’s delicious. It doesn’t have to be crazy. It doesn’t have to be innovative. My favorite things to eat are…” Big tears started plopping down from her face. “...my dad’s cookies... that he makes for me every year on my birthday…”

“Yeah.” Mairin chewed on an egg. “They’re your favorite because they’re full of your dad’s love for you, right? That’s why they’re more delicious than any other food.”

Lilianne nodded. “They’re not as complex and sophisticated as the sweets he makes for the shop, but to me… they’re the most delicious sweets in the world!”

“That’s right. And I think, that’s the sort of flavor the royal princess wants to try, too.” Finished with her egg, Mairin rested her chin on her palm. “Every day, she’s surrounded by chefs wanting to show off how skilled and amazing they are. I’m sure that sometimes, she just wants to eat something normal and delicious. So in my opinion, the best thing you could make for her is whatever you yourself liked to eat when you were a ten year old girl.”

“Eh? That’s…” Lilianne looked down at her work station, which was covered in complex, artistic, sophisticated desserts. “...No. I think you’re right. She may be the royal princess, but she’s still a child. A child’s heart would want something more enjoyable, wouldn’t it?”

Lilianne turned to Mairin. She smiled - genuinely this time, her face becoming warmer and much prettier than before. She held out her hand for a handshake.

“Thank you, Mairin. I know what to do now.”

Mairin shook her hand and smiled back. “Glad to help… oh, by the way, if you’re gonna throw those out, I’ll eat them.”

Lilianne laughed and handed the sweets over. “Go ahead. I’ll be making something better.”

 

 

The day of the royal princess’s tenth birthday finally came.

The kitchen was in a flurry for the entire 24 hours preceding it. Thus, as soon as the royal princess woke up and got dressed, there was already a stream of food waiting for her.

...Wasn’t this way too much? She was just a little girl, how was she supposed to eat thousands of dishes, even if she just ate and ate for the entire day? Mairin wondered.

Each chef was assigned a time slot to present their food. The princess wouldn’t visit Mairin’s group until the afternoon, so there was still plenty of time to prep.

Jacques crazily made and remade stranger and stranger foods to Mairin’s left. To Mairin’s right, Lilianne was flipping through some cookbooks while snacking on her own baked cookies.

Once the clock hit twelve, Mairin finally got out of her chair and started to cook.

“Eh…?” Lilianne looked over. This was the first time she had ever seen Mairin make something that wasn’t hard-boiled eggs. “That… is…”

...What was that?

Finally, the appointed time came.

Servants appeared, pushing trolleys in front of them. They loaded the trolleys with each chef’s dish, and the chefs were asked to follow the servants to the royal dining hall to present their dish.

When they entered the royal dining hall, Mairin’s eyes zeroed in on the small princess sitting at the middle of the table.

Fluffy blonde hair, bright pink eyes, an annoyed expression on her face. As Mairin expected, the royal princess was a bit too cute to be a boy.

Several chefs presented their dishes to the royal princess. Mairin observed the princess’s expression and found mostly boredom and disgust there. No matter how impressive or unique the chef’s dish was, it didn’t move her in the slightest. She took a small bite, then pushed the plate away with a disinterested huff.

When Jacques turn came around, the servant lifted his dish to the table, and the royal princess leaned back as she looked at the ghastly thing in front of her.

“Your Royal Highness, Princess Artalessa! I, Jacques Kristoff, present before you a pâté of live octopus, chicken combs, the gills of a fermented turtleshark, and the eggs of a ███,  tossed with a blend of artisanal fromage and a compote of pomme de terre, seared and smoked with ten thousand year old charcoal wood, scented with the essence of lemon and sunspear, and laced with ten layers of gold leaf and layered with edible jewels made of spherified puree of pomme and choux de bruxelles!”

Jacques creation was so far beyond human comprehension that no matter how Mairin looked at it, all she saw was a censored mosaic that faintly moved as if something inside it was alive. Actually, something inside it was still alive.

“You may now taste it, Your Royal Highness!” Jacques said with a bow.

Princess Artalessa’s face was pale. She slammed her fork down on the table with a clang. “No.”

“...Pardon?”

“No. I’m not eating this. Bring out the next dish!”

When Jacques didn’t move, shocked to the point of turning to stone, Princess Artalessa glared and looked like she was going to slap the entire plate off her table. The servants jumped to push him and the censored food away.

“Okayyyy. The next dish is mine. A pleasure to meet you, Royal Princess.” Mairin trudged to the front of the table. The royal princess’s eyes widened, recognizing her from the other day.

“You… Hmph. What did you bring me today? A filthy commoner’s food?” she harrumphed.

“Yup, exactly.” The servants were sweating as they placed Mairin’s dish in front of the royal princess. Compared to the previous one, this was... too different.

The royal princess stared down at Mairin’s dish. “What’s this?”

“It’s an omelette on rice.”

“...There’s a red sauce on it.”

“That’s ketchup.”

“There are words written on it.”

“That’s right.”

“It says, ‘Happy 10th birthday, Artalessa.’”

“‘Royal Princess Artalessa’ was too long, so I shortened it.”

“...”

Artalessa stared down at the omurice. The servants shook in fear, waiting for the royal princess’s infamous outburst. If it were a dish like this… maybe she’d even throw the dish back at the cook’s face and flip over the table!

When the royal princess instead just silently picked up her spoon and dug out a bite, they were even more shocked.

The royal princess ate a bite of the omelette and rice, chewed it a few times, then swallowed. She stared down at the bright yellow omelette with the words ‘Happy 10th birthday, Artalessa’ on it, then scooped out another bite. Then another, and another. The servants stared in awe as the princess, for the first time, actually ate the entire dish.

When her spoon scraped the plate with nothing left to pick up, Artalessa frowned. She looked up at Mairin and ordered, “I want more.”

Mairin laughed. She leaned over and patted the royal princess’s head, smiling at how the princess puffed up her cheeks in irritation. “Then make sure to invite me to your birthday next year, and I’ll make it for you again, ‘kay?”

“...Okay.”

 

 

The people who ran the Bellease Inn weren’t used to visitors.

They now had a steady stream of customers who traveled from all around the kingdom to visit, and they had even hired several employees to help manage the inn, but Mairin’s mother still ripped Mairin out of her blankets and forced her to go to work.

“You silly girl!” Mairin’s mom scolded, combing her hair as Mairin brushed her teeth. “Didn’t you say your friends were coming to visit today?!”

“Ah, that’s right.” Mairin remembered now. She struggled to move a little faster and put on her work dress and apron.

The inn which used to be empty was now filled with customers who laughed, drank, and ate as they chatted with each other. Mairin looked around, not seeing any familiar faces until the door was pushed open.

“Hmph. You still look as dirty as ever.”

“Mairin! Happy birthday! I brought you some cookies.”

A rare bright smile came over Mairin’s face when she saw the two girls enter the tavern.

“Thanks for coming, Lilianne, Artalessa. Go on and sit down, and I’ll make us some lunch, ‘kay?”

Mairin’s cooking wasn’t anything special. But, for her guests and the people she liked, she put in her best effort to make them something delicious.