Refuse Harem
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Prius
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 008 – Dear Tenma, Apparently I was Reincarnated as a Baron’s Daughter VII
“Sophie?”
“What is it, Rio?”
The next day, Rio came to visit as promised, but there were furrows between his eyebrows.
“What is this?”
“This? This is stir-fried meat and vegetables.”
There were plates placed on the table.
As Sophie said, they contained stir-fried meat and vegetables. It gave out a very fragrant scent, one that Rio had never smelled before.
“This seems to be the ingredients that we bought yesterday, but was your cook the one who made it?”
“It is indeed made out of yesterday’s ingredients, but the cook wasn’t the one who made it.”
For some reason, Rio had a bad feeling about her response.
Because of that, he asked something that would be normally unthinkable for an ordinary aristocratic young lady.
“…Are you the one who made it?”
“Yes.”
Sophie affirmed it with an innocent smile, causing a moment of silence.
“Aren’t you the daughter of a noble?”
“That’s right.”
“Does an aristocratic young lady know how to cook food?”
“There’s no way that’s the case, Rio. An aristocratic young lady wouldn’t cook. They do embroidery rather than cooking, and poetry rather than philosophy. Isn’t that obvious?”
At Sophie’s cute gesture of putting her hand on her lips, Rio was distracted for a moment, but he soon realized she was trying to lead him off topic.
“…He-h. Then what is this?”
“This? This is science!”
“Sci-science?”
“Yes, this is the result of an experiment!”
Sophie insisted it was an experiment instead of cooking. Rio couldn’t tell whether she really meant it or if she was joking.
“Wouldn’t an aristocratic woman care more about manners than knowledge?”
“I’m also a daughter of a merchant, so knowledge is necessary.”
“Regardless of how I ask, it’s all an excuse.”
“Hey, you’re looking into it too much.”
Rio was confused by the girl who seemed to click her tongue as she muttered.
Is she seriously the one who cooked it?!
Even though she is the daughter of an aristocrat?
Rio looked at Sophie with that thought on his face.
Sophie urged him to eat it despite that.
“It’s not like I put poison or anything. You won’t die from eating it, so it’ll be alright!”
“Although I never doubted that, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m scared now, so stop!”
“Then, allow me to have a taste first~”
Al was sitting beside Rio. A normal escort wouldn’t sit, even if they were offered a chair. However, Al casually sat beside Rio and stabbed the dish served in front of him with a fork.
“…This is quite delicious. There’s no meat odor and the ingredients are also wrapped in a pleasant aroma. This thinly sliced thing is giving off a unique scent, despite its small size.”
“Well, Al! So you can tell! This garl… I mean, piya does a great job! When I did a little research, it seems piya is cultivated in neighboring nations. It is generally used as a medicinal ingredient, but it gives some flavor if cooked like this!”
“You blatantly said ‘cooked’ there…”
“Hey, shut it, Rio! I don’t mind if you don’t want to eat it. I’ll just give your portion to Al instead.”
“Wha! I never said I won’t eat it!”
Rio got irritated for some reason and began to eat. As he chewed and swallowed it, he was stunned and muttered, “It’s delicious…” Sophie was satisfied with that compliment.
By the way, Sophie already made her mother eat it. When she told her the same excuse, her mother obediently began to eat, unlike Rio. And she looked very happy as she ate fervently. Sophie was very grateful for the fact that her mother was a little bit of an airhead and didn’t bother much with common sense.
“But even though this meat wasn’t that expensive, I never thought it could be made into such delicious food without any odor.”
“Not only piya, I also soaked it in a bit of wine to reduce the odor.”
“In wine, is it…?
“Soak it in wine? Isn’t wine something to drink? Why would you soak food in it?”
Yep, everyone had the same expression.
Although soaking meat in wine would reduce the odor, the cooks and people who helped her cooked looked at her with such expressions. It seemed the concept of pre-cooking arrangement1 wasn’t common for the cooks in this world.
Uh-n, there is a big cultural difference after all…
Although she usually tried to also speak in a lady-like tone even in her mind, when she considered how much of a reaction was brought by a single dish created in a different world, her Tasuku-self couldn’t help but surface.
Although it was kind of late to say this, it made her realize that she was now in a faraway world that was greatly different from her past life.
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