The Prince and the Vegetable Stew
I had no intention of keeping a man called Leo—or whatever his name was—as a freeloader, so I put him to work starting the very next day. His condition had improved beyond comparison from when the orcs had captured him, so Joshua no longer had any reason to worry. The body she had tempered through constant medicinal baths was now comparable to that of a seasoned warrior, after all. Still, he clearly needed time to adjust to his new physique; he tripped over nothing and failed to control his strength more often than not.
I dumped every chore I usually solved with magic—or that Joshua would jump in to handle—onto him: chopping firewood, pulling weeds, repairing the house, washing dishes, cleaning, tending the vegetable garden, the whole list. The barrier meant that even if he ran, he would be no better than a rat trapped in a jar, but I refused to tolerate laziness, so I checked on him constantly.
“If you grip the crops that hard, they’ll get crushed. Is this really so difficult?”
I tossed a perfectly harvested carrot into the pile of ruined ones Leo had mangled. I wasn’t about to show mercy just because he looked disgruntled with his dirt-stained face from working the fields. Whatever life he had lived before and however he had ended up here was none of my concern, but the mere thought of him cooped up in the house all day, burdening Joshua, filled me with irritation.
“Why must I do this kind of—”
“Isn’t ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’ a famous saying in your country?”
I silenced his complaints by quoting the doctrine of the Holy Kingdom, which shared many similarities with the religion from my previous life. He probably never imagined he would hear church teachings from a witch’s mouth.
“It is only that I am unaccustomed to manual labor.”
I had never expected him to excel at it anyway. There was no chance a member of the royal family had ever done a commoner’s work. “Joshua will help you until you get used to it, so be grateful.”
I waved at Joshua, who was carefully digging up carrots—slower than Leo but beaming with clear delight. It was work magic could have finished in an instant, yet she chose to dirty her hands in the soil right alongside him. She seemed to want to do things exactly as he did, without relying on spells. I had thought that sharing common tasks would give them more to talk about and let her naturally ask him all sorts of questions, but…
“Even when you apply strength, do it gently…”
It was nice that she was patiently teaching the clumsy Leo, but at this rate, reaching her goal anytime soon seemed unlikely. Was my presence making their conversations awkward? There were things young people found difficult to say in front of an adult. Even though she hadn’t mentioned it when I went to reinforce the barrier, it seemed the two of them had shared a much deeper conversation then.
“Come inside and wash your hands when it’s lunchtime.”
I pretended to head into the house, then slipped into a hidden spot nearby. Focusing mana into my ears, I eavesdropped on their conversation. I was a little curious what Joshua talked about when I wasn’t around.
“Do you eat all of these by yourself, Joshua?”
“I can’t eat them all alone. I cook them together with Mom.”
“Don’t witches eat humans as their main food?”
“Huh?”
What? Just what exactly did the Holy Kingdom think witches were? It felt like I had just discovered why the Heresy Inquisitors hunted us so relentlessly. Of course, there were a few witches who did enjoy human flesh. Given the lack of recent news circulating among our kind, I had no idea whether they were dead or alive. Come to think of it, ever since I started living with Joshua I hadn’t stepped outside once, so I had cut off all contact with other witches. I hadn’t been curious enough to use the Witch’s Mirror to check in, either.
Still, it might be nice to take Joshua to Venice sometime soon.
“I’ve never seen Mom eat meat. Saying people are staple food… that sounds too much like a witch.”
“Aren’t witches… supposed to be like that?”
“Anyway, Mom doesn’t eat people. Even if some witches do use humans as their main food like you said, Leo, there are kind witches like Mom in this world too.”
“Ah… I see.”
Joshua, what are you even saying? A kind witch? If she were kind, she wouldn’t have become a witch in the first place. Just hearing it, I could perfectly imagine the dumbfounded look on Leo’s face.
“Leo, do you like carrots? I like them best of all.”
“I dislike vegetables. I prefer meat.”
“Why don’t you try liking vegetables? They’re good for your health and they taste nice—there’s nothing bad about them. And carrots you grew yourself are especially delicious!”
The rest was mostly meaningless small talk, so I returned to the house, deciding to make vegetable stew for lunch. I would stuff it full of the carrots Joshua loved.
“You worked hard from morning. Eat up, dear.”
“You eat deliciously too, Mom.”
“……”
While Joshua happily ate, eyes sparkling at the carrots floating in her stew, Leo merely poked at his portion with clear distaste.
“…Is there no meat?”
A prince of the Holy Kingdom, complaining about the menu at a witch’s table. How amusing.
“Oh, meat? I’m so sorry, but I only eat vegetables, so there’s none in the house. Shall I go catch some right now? There happens to be a nice, plump piece of meat wandering around nearby.”
“…No, it’s fine.”
Did you catch all of that? If you did, what exactly are you going to do about it? What can you do?
Though I didn’t say it out loud, I smiled while meeting Leo’s eyes.
“Joshua, after the meal please watch Leo chop the firewood. It would be terrible if he crushed the wood the way he crushed the crops.”
“Skipping meals is bad for you. You need to build up your strength if you’re going to chop wood.”
“…Understood.”
No matter how much better his body had become, what good was it if he refused to eat? From Leo’s perspective, unused to physical labor, he had to be starving. Yet lunch was a stew packed with vegetables he hated. On top of that, he probably found it difficult to eat anything prepared by a witch.
“I’m not particularly hungry, so…”
“You’ll have a hard time if you don’t eat.”
Despite Joshua’s worried urging, he continued to poke at the stew without taking a single bite. When I welcomed him back from chopping wood with another serving of warm vegetable stew for dinner, his expression of pure agony made me oddly gleeful.
GRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!!!!
It sounded as if a dragon lived in his stomach. The rumbling belly-clock was so loud that anyone else hearing it might have shouted an air-raid warning and dived for cover.
“Eat up. There’s no meat, but I added plenty of beans for nutrition.”
I had gone out of my way to balance the meal, yet he still refused? How stubborn. Whether he lacked the strength to lift the spoon or simply didn’t want to, Leo sat there blankly, as if his soul had already fled his body. Joshua, unable to watch any longer, took matters into her own hands. She carefully scooped up some stew and brought the spoon to his lips.
“Eugh!”
“No excuses!”
He seemed startled by the sudden heat, but a furious Joshua had no intention of letting him off.
“Leo worked really hard today. So you have to eat. No matter how much you hate vegetables, if you keep working without eating you’ll collapse!”
After all, even Joshua—who had skipped meals and lost sleep trying to save him—had eventually collapsed herself.
“I’ll eat by myse— eugh!”
One spoonful. Then another. Leo, who had been stubbornly insisting he could feed himself, finally seemed to realize he could not overcome Joshua’s determination. With a look of resignation he accepted the spoon and began eating. Despite claiming to hate vegetables, he scraped the bowl clean.
I had no idea what he truly felt, but Joshua looked thoroughly satisfied.
“Um… I’m sorry, but could I have another bowl?”
“Even though it’s vegetable stew? Weren’t you the one who said he hated vegetables? I had no idea. I would have made rice instead~”
When I teased him mercilessly, his face flushed bright red and he trembled all over. He really was the perfect toy.
“It doesn’t matter. It was… delicious.”
“Delicious?”
“It… it was delicious…”
He had worked nonstop without eating, so of course even hated food would taste good. I wondered if the prince had learned that hunger truly was the best seasoning.
“Just a moment. I’ll bring it right away.”
While Joshua left to fetch more stew, the two of us were alone. The way he immediately tensed up, wary of me, was almost comical.
“Honestly, I’m surprised. I thought you would try to run away halfway through.”
Labor was one thing, but if it had been me—saved by the Holy Kingdom only to face hard labor and then be forced to eat food I despised—I would have started plotting my escape immediately.
“Am I even allowed to run?”
“If you’re curious, why don’t you try it?”
The Holy Eye could pierce the essence of a soul and distinguish good from evil, but it also granted unique abilities depending on the user. In various tales it had shot lasers from the eyes or stored holy power for later use. There was always the chance that a holy sword might burst from Leo’s Holy Eye, pierce my barrier, and let him flee.
“No thank you. I want to live.”
“Do you even have anywhere to go?”
A prince of the Holy Kingdom—which had grown powerful enough that no other nation dared challenge it—with uncertain life or death. At this point it would not be strange if adventurers or mercenaries had been hired to prowl the area. His story about searching for orcs had seemed suspicious too. The tale of a prince who had obtained the Holy Eye fainting at the sight of a witch was even more ridiculous. If he was going to die by a witch’s hand, he would have died. He would not have begged for his life like this. Unless he had been impersonating the name… or had been abandoned. The Holy Kingdom was, after all, a human nation; it must be rife with power struggles and political intrigue.
“Why did you save me in the first place?”
“I was against it, remember? If you’re curious, ask Joshua directly.”
Whatever Leo’s past held, we would have to observe a little longer before either of us started digging into the other’s history.