Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Explosive Homecoming
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The main road near the prison.
Thanks to the trade route development, the road had become remarkably well-maintained.
A carriage wheel rolled fiercely down that pristine path.
―――, ―――.
"Your complexion looks much healthier than before, Grand Elder."
Princess Camillia and Grand Elder Dark sat side by side in the carriage.
The two relatives headed toward the prison in a somewhat awkward atmosphere.
"It must be from breathing the fresh air, Your Highness."
"Not because Damas got his sentence reduced?"
Camillia fixed her uncle with a steady gaze.
As if telling him now was the time to be honest with his son.
"Of course that's part of it. I never imagined that fool could speak so eloquently at his hearing."
"Everyone grows eventually. This incident will have pushed that boy one step further."
The princess slowly opened the carriage window.
Breathing in the refreshing air every time she visited Berryhill.
It was one of Camillia's greatest pleasures.
"You're right. He's properly learned humility and how to navigate the world in prison. He won't get played for a fool in politics anymore."
Dark chuckled and stroked his neatly trimmed chin.
Thinking of Anje and Myoran, who had properly taught his son those survival skills.
Without them, Damas would have remained an arrogant noble and gotten himself beaten to death somewhere.
"To think he's grown enough to make even you smile, Uncle. Maybe I should check into the prison myself."
"That's going too far with the jokes."
The golden-haired elder stared at the princess as if she'd said something disastrous.
But soon, he realized her words weren't just a joke.
"I'm not joking."
The princess stared intently toward the approaching prison.
Her eyes held the seriousness of someone eyeing a peak to conquer.
"Well, anyway, once Damas is released early, he can return to the military. He'll start at the bottom, but he'll be back in public service."
"We're not asking for any special favors. He wouldn't want them either."
"Then shouldn't you make your return to politics soon too, Grand Elder?"
"We'll see."
Dark also opened the carriage window, gazing wistfully at the prison building below the eternal snowcapped mountains.
With the comfort of beholding a second hometown.
"Somehow, more interesting things seem to happen in that quiet prison than in the council."
"Looks like even you've fallen for this devilish prison, Elder."
The uncle and niece, who had always kept their distance thinking they were polar opposites.
The niece smirked, lifting the corner of her mouth.
For perhaps the first time in her life, she felt in sync with him.
"You're right. At first, I chose it as the most rundown place just to pretend I'd been pushed out."
"It was rundown. That's why I'm personally leading this visit."
Camillia spoke with the calm expression of attending to state affairs.
"……."
However, the elder watching her had a mischievous glint in his eye.
The 24-year-old niece sitting beside him...
Didn't look like a government official escorting a prisoner at all.
"Seeing you now reminds me of my little sister."
"My mother?"
Camillia's mother had always been the image of a refined and dignified lady.
Even Emperor Boduan VIII had fallen for her at first sight, they said.
"Yes. She brought His current Imperial Majesty here looking just like that."
"It's just everyday clothes. I can't go around announcing I'm the princess everywhere."
A crisp white dress shirt and a skirt falling to her calves.
Her abundant hair neatly tied into a round bun.
Anyone would think she was a proper civil servant from city hall.
"I see. It suits you perfectly."
However, the Grand Elder, who had known his sister for so long, was aware.
Both she and Camillia...
Hid tremendous mature allure behind that prim facade.
The infamous story of Boduan VIII missing council sessions for days even after their honeymoon ended was well-known.
"……."
Camillia gazed out the window again with an innocent expression.
The elder decided to stop teasing and understandingly play along with her feigned ignorance.
"We're almost there."
"So it seems. The prison looks so peaceful from afar."
Camillia's eyes soon turned resolute.
Because right now, in that place...
Several fierce beasts were eyeing the man she'd marked for herself.
It might look like a peaceful forest on the outside, but savage beasts lurked within.
Even a filly she'd once considered her one and only friend had joined them.
In other words, it was a pot boiling furiously beneath an ordinary exterior.
No one knew when the hot water might burst out.
'The warden's office curtains are drawn. That's how it usually looks when Derek goes out. Is it still the black market?'
Unlike her prim face, Camillia quickly analyzed the situation.
But her calm expression soon twisted completely.
"Huh...?"
"What is that..."
Grand Elder Dark was the same.
The two, admiring the prison view from the window, gaped simultaneously.
KABOOOM―――!!
A massive explosion roared from the prison cafeteria window.
Accompanied by thick black smoke and a foul burnt stench.
It was enough to make one suspect someone had detonated a bomb inside.
"Your Highness."
"Yes, it seems someone's raided the prison."
Camillia buttoned up her dress shirt, which she'd left open because it felt too tight around the chest when full.
She summoned Landruin with the fierce gaze of the empire's guardian.
"Please wait in the carriage, Elder. I'll go ahead."
"Be careful. That garlic and sulfur smell... It's definitely a homemade bomb that evaded imperial inspections."
The elder advised gravely with eyes full of wisdom.
"Indeed. I'll confirm who the culprit is myself."
The princess rose from her seat.
She thrust her ample hips out the window, assuming a combat stance.
Under the ecstatic sunlight, her golden hair fluttered beautifully from the moving carriage.
A massive spear in one hand and intense eyes.
The elder watched her valor with great satisfaction.
"Godspeed."
Camillia leaped powerfully from the speeding carriage.
She dashed across the rough road and vaulted over the prison walls in one bound.
――――――.
She landed lightly by the window billowing black smoke.
Covering her nose with her white shirtsleeve, she wrinkled her brow sharply.
"Hoo."
The princess on the second-floor railing thrust her spear toward the sky.
She swung with one hand the pole too heavy for a muscular man to lift with both.
WHIIISH―――――!!
In that instant.
The black smoke scattered instantly with the wind pressure.
When the full scene of the explosion site in the cafeteria finally emerged...
"……?"
Her eyes widened like a leopard facing an incomprehensible sight.
There were no enemies in the revealed landscape at all.
"Cough cough...!!"
"What the hell did you do to the food, you crazy brat!!"
Myoran clutched a completely charred frying pan.
She stood there dazed, her face smeared with black soot.
The full story of the incident was this.
An hour before the princess arrived, right when the cooking contest was in full swing.
"Alright, you've got all the ingredients. Let's begin."
Fred and Nix had brought various foodstuffs.
With Clea having set up the cooking tools perfectly, everything was ready.
However, they had one lingering question.
'Have those two ever even held a ladle, let alone cooked?'
Reading their dubious looks, Myoran lifted her head proudly.
"Think I've never cooked? In our Eastern Continent, cooking is a woman's most basic virtue."
The woman in the black cheongsam and apron boldly washed her hands with a confident expression.
"First rule of food is hygiene, right? Of course, the saintess who never gets her hands wet wouldn't know."
"……."
Anje watched Myoran with exasperation.
Wondering what tricks the 19-year-old could pull.
"I've handled various dishes back home."
True to her Sword Sage prowess, she wielded the kitchen knife freely.
Her flashy knife work with the Chinese cleaver was especially impressive, slicing green onions flawlessly.
"Ooh... That looks legit."
Conan, the contest host, watched with great satisfaction.
The woman who always severed heads was now apron-clad and chopping green onions.
What better sign of improvement?
Clea nodded in approval of her vegetable handling skills at least.
"Hmm..."
Anje, yet to start seriously, eyed Myoran's bold moves warily.
Her movements suggested real kitchen experience.
Skilled knife work and oiling the wok...
It was quite threatening to someone who'd only cherry-picked dishes from brainwashed chefs.
Even disguised as Eri Lamb, she hadn't cooked much.
Thus, the saintess racked her brains internally on how to turn the tables.
"So, what dishes will you each present?"
Myoran looked up leisurely at Conan's question.
"I'll do roast quail and Eastern fried rice. Traditional Eastern Continent fare."
"Two dishes at once? Impressive."
Anje flinched and brushed back her silver hair needlessly.
She was agonizing over doing even one properly, yet this was two.
"Anje, what about you?"
"......B-breakfast."
After wracking her brains until her wrinkles smoothed out.
She settled on a Western breakfast set.
"Safe choice, but nothing beats homey food. Looking forward to it."
Bacon, pancakes, blueberry jam, fruit.
Honestly, questionable if any real cooking was involved.
Still, she had to grill the bacon and mix pancake batter herself.
Anje recalled peeking over brainwashed chefs' shoulders and tore open the flour bag.
She slowly added water and began kneading.
'This... should be right...? Damn, I should have used those chefs less...!!'
Her red eyes, filled with bloody resolve, now brimmed with fluffy flour.
She kneaded the dough with her pale, delicate hands.
'What? She knows how to knead dough?'
This time, Myoran glanced warily at Anje while heating her wok.
She'd thought someone who manipulated everything couldn't cook.
Yet here she was, flour on her hands.
Alert rising, Myoran pursed her lips and dove into serious cooking.
"They're both looking pretty good so far?"
"Jinjo, what do you think? They're both doing well, right?"
The young man and woman shook Franca's shoulders from either side.
"I'm not sure... I prefer blood to food anyway..."
Twenty minutes into cooking.
Myoran, done prepping ingredients, placed the quail on a heavily oiled frying pan.
"Alright, let's get to it."
She snapped her fingers to light the burner under the pan.
Cranking the heat to max, she started grilling vigorously.
'Truth is, I'm clueless from here. But I heard food tastes best with fire, so it should be fine?'
"Thirty minutes left. Only finished dishes count."
Conan announced, and Clea wrote a big '30' on the blackboard.
With time pressure added, the contest grew thrilling.
"Ooh, smells good grilling that meat."
"Y-yeah. Maybe decent food will come out after all...?"
Casual Fred and Nix, initially worried but now expectant.
Jinjo, who preferred sweets over meat, eyed Anje's side.
"The baking bread smells satisfying."
The saintess also began properly grilling pancakes.
She poured her well-made batter into the frying pan and lit the fire.
'What, it actually smells good?'
Myoran scowled at Anje baking bread competently.
With teenage poutiness, she deemed it insufficient.
"Hmph. Big deal, just baking bread."
The Eastern girl added another wok while the quail roasted.
She sprinkled cold rice inside, then stir-fried with prepped ingredients.
'I'll show you—I can handle two dishes at once.'
The moon maiden shook the wok vigorously with qi-infused hands.
Golden rice grains glistened with oil, dancing beautifully.
Clack―――!! Clack―――!!
The prison folk, seeing Eastern fried rice for the first time, watched entranced.
But Myoran wasn't satisfied even under many eyes.
Her mind was filled only with the vision of the warden devouring her food heartily and her mature smile saying, 'So, who made this~.'
Was that fantasy too prolonged?
Too absorbed in fried rice, she overlooked one fact.
The quail was catching fire from excessive heat.
Yet no one warned her.
The prison staff, including host Conan, had already spotted another ominous sign.
"Um... Prisoner Anje, is that really a pancake?"
"Th-the batter's swelling nonstop? It's like alchemy."
Pshhh―――. Pssshhh―――.
The golden batter, overflowing the pan and rising ever higher.
Bubbles burst, spewing hot steam viciously.
"Ah? I've... I've seen that before. Some followers experimenting with human transmutation back then...!"
With Jinjo's words ending, Anje's batter began bubbling furiously.
Simultaneously, flames leaped on Myoran's quail.
"Wh-what...!!"
"Kill the fire!! Stop cooking!!"
The two former harbingers of disaster.
Were now crafting another with their own hands.
'Why is this happening? It never caught fire on Eastern stoves?'
'I saw the chef add baking powder... Not this much, right?'
The wok flames turning white beyond blue.
The batter, overloaded with baking powder, rising to waist height.
'F-first, water!!'
Myoran hurriedly splashed water on the burning quail.
That instant.
Conan watched the erupting fierce flames and recalled.
In the past, amid enemy explosives on the battlefield...
The moment retreating with Camillia.
"Ahh, Camillia..."
The flames from Myoran's wok engulfed Anje's batter, triggering a chain explosion.
Thus, the prison cafeteria became pandemonium in seconds.
"Today, I miss it more than ever."
Black smoke rising from the prison.
The sight was witnessed not just by the princess's carriage, but by another.
The warden returning joyfully after the empire's stability rose.
"What the hell is that."
He'd planned to praise the well-behaved prisoners, hands full of gifts.
Instead, he stared blankly at the exploded cafeteria in bewilderment.
"Empire stability at 55%. What the hell is that?!"