The Daily Life of the Rich?
"Your Highness, the entrance ceremony is tomorrow. Is there anything else you might need?"
"Not particularly."
"You aren't just saying that because you can't be bothered to go out, are you?"
"There really isn't anything I need to buy. Stop harboring strange suspicions."
"Huuuh..."
For her to claim that... our Imperial Princess hadn't set foot outside once ever since we arrived at the dormitories. She spent every waking hour cooped up inside the room, sipping coffee, reading quietly, or picking petty fights with me. Whenever she wasn't doing one of those three things, Cecilia simply did absolutely nothing at all, idling away the hours in serene relaxation.
And now, tomorrow was the first day—the Academy entrance ceremony. Over the past entire week, she had barely stepped outside, which frankly left me astonished. Come to think of it, even back when we lived in the Detached Palace, she was a woman who spent all her time sequestered indoors. Still, I had expected her to show at least a shred of curiosity once we reached the Academy. Instead, I, the maid, was the only one marveling at the sights, while Cecilia genuinely couldn't care less.
"...Your Highness, you kind of act like an old person."
"Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"
"Well, you just seem so devoid of energy. It wouldn't hurt to have a little more fun, but you're always keeping so quiet."
I was driven to bring this up precisely because Cecilia was, at this very moment, sprawled across the bed. Ever since we purchased her Academy uniform and school supplies, she hadn't gone outside once. How could anyone watch her like that for a whole week and not feel utterly suffocated? Besides, thanks to her lethargy, I was the one stuck preparing every single meal and snack from morning till night, which was a royal pain in the neck. It was true that I'd learned a fair bit of cooking back at guild headquarters, but even so, it was by no means culinary mastery.
"Is it really right that I've explored more of the Academy than you, the actual enrolled student...?"
"What's wrong with that? The Academy is a place to study anyway. It isn't as though I have any reason to wander around."
"...I suppose so."
Whenever we talked like this, she struck me as an impossible princess to understand in more ways than one. There were so many things about us that just didn't align, which was why, even though I was standing before an imperial princess, heavy sighs kept slipping out of me unbidden. Of course, Cecilia never really took issue with a sigh or two, which was probably why I let them out so freely.
"I think Your Highness ought to live a bit more like a nineteen-year-old."
"I'm getting along quite well as it is."
"Sigh..."
Telling someone under constant threat of assassination to roam the outdoors wasn't exactly brilliant advice, but still, watching her was driving me crazy. From my perspective as an adult who had already been through college, the military, and the corporate grind, I just wished she would be a little more active. If only she picked up a hobby, anything at all, that might have made things slightly better, but Cecilia showed zero interest in that either. Aren't kids who just came of age supposed to explore new places or dive into hobbies? Isn't that how it usually goes?
"Then would you like to at least go grocery shopping with me?"
"Grocery shopping?"
"Our ingredients in the dorm are running low. We did grab some bits and pieces the day we got your uniform, but... well, a whole week has already passed, hasn't it?"
"Why bring that up all of a sudden? You haven't uttered a single word about it until now."
"Because it just occurred to me? Heheh."
"...Tsk."
And so, I deliberately engineered an excuse to get us outside. After all, if I simply asked her to take a walk, she would never in a million years budge.
"It's hard for me to decide the menu and pick the ingredients all on my own. I think it would be much better if Your Highness came along. Besides, there's the matter of money... heheh."
"...Fine. We're only going out to buy groceries and coming straight back, right?"
"Yes, just groceries! It's not like there's anything else to prepare."
"Haaah. Go fetch me a coat, then."
"Would a cardigan do? It's spring now, so I don't think it'll be that chilly."
"That will suffice."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Keep your voice down."
"Yeees."
She lacked motivation and despised going out, but deep down, she had a habit of granting my requests every now and then. Of course, such concessions were by no means frequent, yet despite her prickly and sour temperament, she had a way of yielding surprisingly easily on occasion. Which only made figuring out Cecilia that much harder.
"This is far too thin. Bring something thicker."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Then again, it's not like she's particularly sweet. Yeah, definitely not.
"Your Highness, Your Highness! They're selling meat cheap over there. Shall we go take a look?"
"It's being paid for with my money anyway. Why on earth are you trying to eat cheap cuts? Just buy the highest grade."
"Ah... Would that really be all right?"
Last time we bought food, she hadn't said a peep, so I hadn't thought much of it. Now that I considered it, things like groceries and furnishings were paid for out of Cecilia's purse, and they were ultimately for Cecilia's benefit. Meaning... it was perfectly fine to buy the expensive stuff. No wonder she was looking at me like I was an idiot. It was actually bizarre to hunt for bargains and cost-effective ingredients when it was her imperial money footing the bill. Granted, such prime ingredients might be completely wasted on my cooking skills...?
"Then is it okay if I buy that ridiculously expensive beef over there?"
"Are you planning to sear an entire slab of meat in the dorm?"
"Ah, would the smell linger?"
"Haaah... Just buy a reasonable amount. You're the one cooking it anyway, and you'll be the one cleaning up. Use your discretion. Understood?"
"Yeees."
The Imperial Princess had officially granted her blessing to splurge on luxury ingredients. Though I'd still have to exercise some restraint, of course. I wasn't some culinary savant, but the prospect of cooking with top-shelf ingredients had me... well, a little excited.
"Your Highness, Your Highness. My cooking has actually been pretty good, hasn't it?"
"What nonsense are you spewing now? Anyone listening would think you cooked on par with the imperial palace chefs."
"...It wasn't?"
"It's merely edible. The dish you made the day before yesterday had way too many pepperoncini. It was so spicy."
"Didn't you enjoy it, though? You ate yesterday's meal happily too! You emptied the whole plate!"
"You were sweating and struggling all by yourself in the kitchen. I could hardly throw it away."
"...Gasp."
That was why? Seriously? For real? My feet froze in the middle of the street, and I couldn't help but gawk up at Cecilia, my mouth hanging wide open in utter disbelief.
"Is that... is that true...?"
"...Why the sudden shock? Did you honestly believe your cooking could rival imperial palace cuisine?"
"Well, not that, but... weren't you genuinely enjoying it...? Really?"
"Why are you acting so heartbroken?"
"No, but..."
So that was the truth. That was what she really thought. The sandwiches, the aglio e olio, the pizza toast I'd lovingly whipped up for her over the past week! Every single one of them was just mediocre, underwhelming, and nowhere near worth the effort I'd poured into them? Seriously?! Granted, whenever I tasted them myself, I did think they were just passably decent. Still, weren't they pretty good? I could have sworn she'd been savoring every bite!
"...Mmph."
"It's not as if I said it tasted awful. I merely said it was passable. Why are you making such a tearful face?"
"Because I thought Your Highness actually loved it!"
"I said it was passable."
"Which means it wasn't particularly good!"
"...Well, that is true, isn't it?"
'Passable.' That basically meant 'not good at all.' All those moments over the past week—humming cheerfully, swaying on my heels without even realizing it as I cooked—felt thoroughly rejected.
"...I never said it was bad. Just hurry up and pick the ingredients. We came here to buy groceries for today anyway."
"Yeees..."
A heavy gloom settled over me. Yet in the end, cooking was still my job. Cecilia, who had lived a life of pampered luxury in the imperial palace, had never touched a cooking utensil in her life. Even if she had, an imperial princess cooking was out of the question; the apron would always fall to me. No matter how much the diner complained or grumbled, it was set in stone that I would be the chef today, tomorrow, and every day after. Though sorrow weighed heavy on my chest, I still had dinner to make tonight, so I couldn't just give up.
"Then I'm buying meat."
"I told you, do as you please."
"I'm going to buy the most expensive cut and drench it in spicy sauce."
"Why on earth would you ruin it like that...?"
"It's not like you'd call it delicious if I just seared it plain anyway."
"Fair point."
"So today, I'm getting meat, pasta noodles, milk... Oh, and expensive shrimp too! I'll slather them in butter and pan-fry them."
"Sounds decent."
"Not that it'll be delicious, of course."
"...I never said your food was bad. Just how long do you plan to pout about this?"
"I'm just joking..."
I didn't answer Cecilia's exasperated jab directly, but I swore to myself: I would keep acting like this until the one eating my food looked me in the eye and confessed that it was genuinely, undeniably delicious. I mean, seriously, Sylvia told me it was delicious! And not just Sylvia—Kevin and Hannah had both eaten my cooking and seemed to love it too...
"Whoa... A hundred thousand credits. Pure flex."
"What was that?"
"Ah, nothing at all!"
...And just like that, we bought a hundred-thousand-credit slab of prime beef. Swiped and done in an instant. Back when I was living on my own in my past life, I don't think I ever blew a hundred thousand on a single ingredient. It felt surreal beyond belief.
Is this the daily life of the super-rich? Dropping a hundred thousand on beef for a single dinner, paid in full on the spot without batting an eye. On top of that, the shrimp we rang up right after were quite pricey too, yet she paid for them without even blinking... I honestly began to worry whether she was overinvesting an absurd sum on my mediocre, amateurish cooking.
"...Your Highness, I'll do my best to make the cooking taste even better."
"...What prompted that all of a sudden? I truly have no idea which tune you want me to dance to."
"I'll make it genuinely delicious, I swear!"
And so, I declared my fierce resolve to Her Imperial Highness... no, to my financial benefactor. With ingredients this outrageously expensive bought with Cecilia's money, I felt an overwhelming moral duty to make it taste divine... To be fair, by my standards, my food was already plenty tasty. Yet since Cecilia herself didn't find it all that exquisite, I couldn't shake the pressing urge to elevate my cooking far beyond its current level.
I wasn't a real maid—I was an assassin playing the part with a maid skin equipped, acting as her bodyguard on an assignment. But even so, giving someone their money's worth was basic professional etiquette. And a hundred thousand on beef... I really, truly needed to repay that. In my previous life, whenever I grilled meat at home, twenty or thirty thousand was the absolute limit. But a hundred thousand? A hundred thousand credits?!
Today was the day I viscerally realized that 'Imperial Princess' was definitely not just an empty title.