Ugh.
“When is that Emperor coming? The kid collapsed, and what is he thinking not coming to visit immediately? Does he even have a brain?”
“Well, Your Majesty is currently enjoying a hunt in the forest, and he is hurrying back upon hearing the news.”
“He calls us for a meal and then goes off hunting? Ha. The way he lives is just like when he confessed his unrequited love in front of his subjects during the founding ceremony and got rejected immediately.”
“Hem! Hem! That topic is forbidden to be mentioned in the Imperial Palace.”
“Oh, how ridiculous.”
Ugh.
“The examination results are out! No poison was detected, but the magical concentration exceeds what a human can handle. It’s a level that could be found in a highly magical beast.”
“Give it to me. Huh? It’s low right after a meal? No way.”
“Pardon? You say this is low?”
“…Never mind. I spoke out of turn. It’s actually very high. It’s confirmed that the banquet prepared by the Emperor had problems. How could he treat guests like this and still call himself an Emperor?”
“Well, that is—”
“I don’t want to hear it. Everyone leave. I’ll take care of young Craft.”
Dazed.
Dazed and confused.
“I thought you must have been too tense to eat properly. I prepared a strawberry parfait, but was it for nothing? No matter how many times I teach him, he always forgets one thing. Still, forgetting the usual tasks like that is just—sigh. Should I remove the parfait before it melts?”
Strawberry parfait.
Strawberry, strawberry.
Parfait, parfait.
The parfait is a dessert made with a giant glass of ice cream topped generously with fruits, whipped cream, and syrup.
So, if it’s a strawberry parfait, it means that the ice cream is topped sharply with fluffy whipped cream, decorated generously with fresh strawberries, and then drizzled with sweet red syrup.
Ugh.
It sounds absolutely delicious.
“Strawberry parfait, please!”
Pastel bolted up in bed.
The Demon Lord, who had been hastily eating the strawberry parfait, paused.
Pastel’s eyes widened as she saw the enormous mess the parfait had become from the large spoonfuls taken out.
The girl’s expression changed instantly to one of sorrow.
“Waaaah! My strawberry parfait……!”
Strawberry, strawberry parfait!
The Demon Lord looked bewildered. With red lips smeared with whipped cream, he hastily swallowed what was left and approached.
“Are you awake? Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any pain, but how do you feel?”
“My parfait……!”
The Demon Lord looked embarrassed but brought back the leftover strawberry parfait.
“There’s still some left.”
Pastel stared at the parfait.
She was astonished by how big the spoonfuls had been taken, leaving half of the whipped cream mountain cut off.
My strawberry parfait……
An overwhelming sadness washed over her. It felt like coming back from a delightful shower only to see the Demon Lord munching on the delicious pudding she had bought.
Aaaah!
That was my pudding!
So tragic.
But it wasn’t like she wouldn’t eat it, so she accepted the strawberry parfait.
Pastel examined the parfait suspiciously. She leaned in close to the whipped cream mountain and sniffed.
“It smells like the Demon Lord’s saliva.”
Eww.
“How could that be? It was the first spoonful. Wait a moment. I’ll get a new spoon.”
“Phew.”
“I’m already hungry, you know.”
Pastel took a huge spoonful of the whipped cream and a hefty chunk of the strawberry. She opened her small mouth wide.
“Waaah~.”
The whipped cream mountain disappeared into her mouth. The girl’s cheeks puffed up.
Waaah!
Her pink irises sparkled.
It’s delicious! It’s delicious!
The tart strawberry and the soft, creamy whipped cream exploded in her mouth. As the sweet, cold ice cream melted in, her senses became dizzy. The subtly felt sweetness of the gem seasoning harmonized flawlessly.
Ugh.
That’s right! The gem!
This isn’t the time to be eating parfait!
Pastel, her mind returning to serious matters, hastily began to chew. Her pink lips, smeared with whipped cream, quivered.
Chewy, chewy, chewy.
Gulp.
Phew.
It’s really delicious.
With her spoon, she scooped up the now non-mountainous whipped cream. Carefully placing the strawberries on top, she shoved a big bite into her mouth.
Wow!
Her pink pupils sparkled.
“Wooow! Demon Lord! Demon Lord! My life’s best chef is the Demon Lord!”
Hooray! Hooray!
“That’s a given.”
The Demon Lord wiped the whipped cream off Pastel’s lips with a handkerchief.
“More importantly, how is your body? You haven’t eaten any regular food for a while, so it might not be in the best condition.”
“Phew! That’s right! The gem!”
Is the Demon Lord a genius?!
“Demon Lord! I forgot to sprinkle the gem powder! So, so! The cherry tomatoes with gem powder!”
Pastel faltered mid-sentence.
Cherry tomatoes with gem powder.
How does one sprinkle gem powder on round, bouncy cherry tomatoes? They’re so fresh that even droplets of water slide right off.
Her pink eyes went blank.
In truth, it wasn’t just that she forgot; it was a difficult problem from the start.
This was like not having studied the test material and blaming it on being smart for getting the answer wrong because the problem was too hard.
Even if she forgot to study, this problem would have been wrong from the start anyway. The test maker failed to adjust the difficulty, so Pastel had no fault in it.
The Demon Lord, perhaps having given up on hearing her, placed a hand on Pastel’s forehead and examined her pink eyes like a doctor.
“Give me a cheer.”
“Huh? Wow! Hooray!”
Pastel, having cheered first, spoke a beat late.
“But why are we cheering?”
“Seems fine. Your consciousness might be a little dreamy, but you usually are like this.”
The Demon Lord urged her to continue eating.
“You must be hungry since you haven’t eaten properly. Finish the parfait.”
That wasn’t difficult at all for Pastel in her life!
Pastel diligently ate the parfait.
The parfait glass was thoroughly scraped clean. When the spoon was placed down, it rang with a clear sound.
Feeling a bit full, Pastel entered super serious mode and clasped her hands tightly.
“Demon Lord.”
“Speak.”
“Should we run away?”
When she objectively reflected on the situation, her heart raced, and her skin turned cold.
She collapsed from poison, dramatically exclaiming that the perpetrator was the Emperor.
She shouted it out…….
But it was all just a misunderstanding~.
Hehe.
Pastel subtly smiled before her expression changed to one of distress.
But slandering the Emperor is not a misunderstanding!
Her body trembled.
A confirmed future. A wrong future.
A completely terrible, terrible future.
“Hmm.”
The Demon Lord rubbed his chin.
“Given that I lack precise knowledge of the central political situation, it’s hard to make a decisive judgment. However, you don’t need to run away.”
“Huh? But I accused the Emperor!”
Immediate execution for imperial contempt!
“If it were during the reign of the previous tyrant, it would have gotten troublesome, but thanks to your mother’s efforts, there are now many institutional checks to curb the ruler’s tyranny. Let alone, it’s not easy to treat the high nobles carelessly.”
The Demon Lord’s finger tapped the parfait glass, which melted like candy, tracing an outline of the entire central political structure on the table. The glass letters inscribed the names of nobles, divided by factions.
“Wow.”
“Basically, the royalists and the nobility faction are in opposition. Currently, the Emperor has become a figure so powerful after dealing with the Craft Family that he won’t take action against factions that are in a weaker position. The Emperor, who had previously built a relationship with your mother, has weakened the Craft Family—which had long been royalists—because it poses too much of a threat to his power. It will take a long time for the factions to recover.”
Heh, that’s good.
Ah, bad thoughts.
Bad thoughts, go away, go away.
Pastel rubbed her cheeks.
Go away.
Got it!
“So doesn’t that mean I’m in a bigger crisis? We now have a noble who accuses the Emperor in desperate political circumstances!”
Aaaah!
The Demon Lord chuckled. A glimmer in his gaze as he looked at the naive girl.
“That political alliance is currently impossible. If a high noble dies, that means the family line ends, and in a situation where the marquess is throwing up blood and collapsed, it would be an insult for the factions to urge the Emperor to investigate the truth. Such a claim would only turn into good prey for the nobility faction. After all, it would be a justification for saying that the Emperor disrespects the rights of nobles.”
Huh?
Something big seemed to be brewing.
Pastel’s pink eyes spun around.
The naive Pastel doesn’t know about all this complicated stuff……!
Her thoughts wandered aimlessly.
“Oh! Speaking of which, I dropped the pepper shaker!”
“Hm?”
In a hurry, she checked her pockets. Naturally, it wasn’t there. She looked around the hospital room but couldn’t find the gem pepper shaker anywhere.
“I said ‘gem pepper’ as my last words!”
While she didn’t die!
“But even if my collapse reflects poorly on the Emperor, what if I claim I staged it all with gem powder to take revenge on the imperial family who ruined my family? This is evidence!”
That her strange condition requires her to consume gem powder is something everyone doesn’t know!
The Demon Lord’s expression became somewhat serious.
“That might cause a headache if the Emperor seizes onto it.”
Aaaah!
Serious! Serious!
“However, I didn’t hear anything about your pepper shaker being picked up. You might have kept it a secret from me, but considering the matter’s political implications, it would have been better to make it public. The silence probably means the imperial officials have not secured the pepper shaker.”
“Huh?”
Then where is my pepper shaker?
Where is my gem pepper?
Suddenly, there was a knock at the hospital room door.
The Demon Lord frowned and headed toward the door. When it opened, there stood an ordinary servant, looking like a worker.
“What is it?”
The servant entered and closed the door. He politely bowed his head.
“I came to return something you left behind.”
He calmly pulled out the gem pepper shaker from his possession, along with a note.
Huh?
Evidence that the imperial family should have secured appears.
Pastel accepted the note and unfolded it. It contained an address resembling a hiding place and a single phrase.
The trembling pink eyes read the phrase.
“We welcome the Empire’s greatest scheming family.”
Waaaah!
Such a suspicious phrase……!
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
