Cooking Showdown (21)

Ricent and I answered at the same time. Rurin rubbed her sleepy eyes, kicked my back, and then landed on the ground with a hop.

“Rurin?”

Moreover, her eyes looked strange. Her gaze wasn’t normal.

“What else? It’s a greeting with the hand.”

“I said kiss! I heard it!”

“Wait, wait.”

Her condition was so strange that she started trembling, so I grabbed Rurin’s shoulder and shouted.

“This is a kiss on the hand. A kiss on the hand is a normal greeting. It’s also used to show respect. Even the same kiss can have a completely different meaning. Ah! It’s just like a ring. Unlike a bracelet, a ring given by a person of reason has the meaning of love.”

“…Huh?”

Rurin’s expression softened at that moment. Her strange gaze returned to normal.

“Right. I, I mean! What I like is the sorceress!”

Realizing that Rurin had misunderstood something, Ricent quickly ran over and grabbed Rurin’s hand, giving her a flirtatious look. But Rurin immediately rejected her.

“Don’t grab me! I don’t like you. I don’t!”

Rurin spun around and scrambled up my back, starting to purr.

What’s going on here?

“Uh… I got rejected…”

Ricent chuckled and turned her back, seemingly no longer holding any lingering feelings.

“Then, I’ll really go!”

Saying that, she started running. Of course, Ricent being Ricent.

It wasn’t long before she fell again.

Oh dear.

At least, since she fell so often, she had instinctively learned to use breakfalls, so she didn’t get seriously injured. That part was actually impressive.

After everything was finished, that night when we returned to the lair.

I was sitting on the bed reading a book after washing up when Rurin came over and shoved her head at me.

“Are you done washing already?”

Her shoving her head meant she wanted me to dry it.

As usual, I dried Rurin’s hair.

“By the way, that fellow is bold. She kissed first.”

“What? What are you suddenly talking about?”

“The person from earlier!”

“Ah… Ricent? The kiss on the palm?”

“I… I still can’t do anything first! I failed like a fool the other day!”

“So, what exactly did you fail at? I wish you’d explain.”

“Ugh, that’s not something I can explain.”

“Whatever. Anyway, the kiss on the palm is a sign of respect. Don’t misunderstand. It doesn’t mean love. If it meant love, it should be on the lips. On the lips.”

“I understood that earlier. I’ve recently learned that you’re human too, not just a dragon, and humans can also be enemies.”

“Enemies? What kind of enemies are we talking about?”

I took Rurin’s hand, gently raised it, and kissed the back and palm of her hand.

“Ha, don’t do that! I don’t like the meaning of respect. I only want love!”

“No, I mean, you try it too.”

I extended my hand slightly. Since Ricent had kissed my palm earlier and seemed so great about it, I meant for her to do the same.

“Uh? My hand? Me, first?”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘first’, but just try it.”

Rurin hesitated slightly, then cautiously took my hand.

“No.”

“What? What do you mean ‘no’! We’ll try it! This is the perfect experiment.”

“Hey, you’re right. It’s not a kiss on the hand. You need to improve more than Ricent. Come on. Kiss me on the lips. If you’re going to emphasize ‘first’, then actually, you’ve never kissed me first, right?”

“Y-yes, I did! But I failed…”

“What? So, are you saying you’ve been talking about failure this whole time…? When? I don’t remember.”

“T-t-t-t-there was something. You don’t need to know.”

“I get it, so don’t pout and stick out your lips. Just kiss me here. I’ll wait patiently now. Rurin!”

“R-really? You want me to try…so easily? Another part of me said…there’s some condition…like when you make a cute silly face, that’s when it’s possible! Only then will it show that you like me…that’s what it said!”

“What? What the heck are you talking about? You keep repeating the same thing, explain it. Did you have a dream or something?”

“That person is still an idiot.”

I don’t understand.

She keeps avoiding the topic. What did she see in her dream to act like this?

I guess there’s nothing to do about it.

I don’t know what’s what, but doesn’t that dream version of Rurin need to win?

“I don’t really know, but Rurin, the other you is still you, so maybe it’s the same. You’re also a fool when it comes to love.”

“Ugh, that’s not true! I, I…no matter what anyone says, I like you…”

Rurin shouted like that, then closed her eyes and grabbed my face, giving me a strong headbutt.

It was a lip headbutt. A lip headbutt.

A lip headbutt that could never be considered a deep kiss.

Rurin headbutted me in anger and then started running around wildly.

“Ohhh! I… I did it! Finally, I did it! Ugh, amazing!”

Yes. Our lips headbutted. It hurt.

Is this what she’s calling an achievement?

My teeth hurt. Rurin seemed so happy and started running around everywhere.

Her face was red, her ears were red, and everything was red.

I still had no idea what was going on, but since she was so happy, it didn’t really matter.

Good things are good.

Greek Dylan. Commonly known as Count Greek.

That is the full name of the Greek boy, the Lord of Greek City.

He is 18 years old.

He rose to the position of Lord at a young age, and currently, Greek City was more developed than any other city in the Empire.

Especially, the greatest characteristic of Greek City was that the level of corruption was considerably lower compared to other cities.

In other words, the risk of people encountering corruption was much lower than in other cities.

This was due to Greek Dylan’s city management policies.

From his childhood, the Greek boy had always harbored the desire to become a good Lord, and even now, on the brink of adulthood, that desire had not changed.

That desire had never changed, not even once.

Today, Greek Dylan was working hard as usual.

He was processing various documents that had piled up in his study. Since the documents needed to be stamped, Greek slid open the drawer.

However, he hesitated before pulling out the stamp.

Suddenly, he noticed a small round plate made of silver at the side of the drawer.

It looked like a military identification tag, and the plate had a name written on it.

“Siena”

The plate only had the name “Siena” written on it.

As he took out the small plate after such a long time and saw the name written on it, Greek was reminded of a distant memory.

Was it when Greek Dylan had just turned 10?

The young Greek boy was strolling around the house when he saw a girl being bullied by kids his own age.

“What are you doing?!”

When the boy approached, the other boys who had been bullying the girl were startled and shook their heads in surprise.

Those boys were the sons of barons who belonged to the Count’s family.

It was unthinkable for a baron’s family to defy the Count’s family. So, the boys who had been bullying the girl fled immediately at Greek’s words.

In noble society, children are taught about the class system from a young age.

So, he knew very well that one must obey the Count’s family. But the boys seemed to have the misguided belief that it was fine to treat commoners or servants poorly, and the girl they were bullying was the daughter of one of the maids working at the Count’s house.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes!”

In response to Greek’s question, the girl still didn’t let her guard down and answered with a scared look on her face. Her hair had been pulled so much that strands were scattered on the ground.

“Your hair…”

Greek gently picked up the hair strands and said to the girl. Seeing her sobbing, Greek’s desire to comfort her grew stronger. As he extended the hair toward her, he thought about what to say, and then remembered his father’s advice.

“When you want to say something, make sure it comes from the heart. The truth that lies before you.”

So, the boy spoke from his heart and said to the girl what he truly felt.

“Your hair is a pretty color.”

“Sniff… Yes, yes…? Really?”

The girl, who had been sobbing, relaxed a little at the words. It was her first time being complimented on her hair, or anything for that matter, so it made her feel a bit better.

The girl accepted her hair and, though she had never thought of it as beautiful, honestly replied to the Greek boy.

“It’s not pretty…? Everyone says golden blonde is pretty, not colors like this…”

“No, I think it’s beautiful! I mean, it’s beautiful to me!”

The girl’s hair wasn’t blonde. It was more of an orange hue, almost blonde but not quite.

In this era, beautiful hair colors were considered to be bright, shining blonde, as the girl had said. So her words were entirely normal, but Greek truly thought her hair was beautiful and didn’t back down.

“It’s not ugly…strange.”

The girl tilted her head again. Perhaps because of the confusion, her tears had disappeared.

“It’s nothing strange. You’re Linne’s daughter, right?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“Don’t be discouraged just because they bully you. Just because you’re a maid’s daughter doesn’t mean you have to endure bullying. If you’ve done something wrong, that’s one thing, but if you haven’t, it’s wrong to punish you. Even if they’re nobles, bullying people without reason is a despicable thing. My father said that! He always said you must be proud, and it’s written in history books too. One of my favorite books, ‘The History of the Empire’s Founding’…”

The Greek boy started talking without stopping. The girl, seeing Greek’s actions, thought to herself, ‘What an unusual noble.’ That was the girl’s first impression of Greek.

From then on, the Greek boy often had conversations with the girl.

Whenever she was bullied by other noble boys out of sight of the boy, Greek would appear like a hero and help her.

Since the girl was a little younger, every time that happened, she began to think the Greek boy was different from other nobles, and little by little, she started to open her heart.

None of the other servants’ families, or her mother’s colleagues, or the other nobles cared for her. On the contrary, if she hadn’t learned even the simplest household tasks, she was often scolded. So, little by little, the time she spent with the boy, the only one who treated her kindly, became the time she looked forward to the most each day.

One day.

The girl discovered that a decorative vase on the second floor of the mansion had been broken, and she was shocked.

She didn’t know who did it, but it was clear that something serious had happened. She had been repeatedly warned while learning the household chores that the vase was something the Count cherished and that she should be careful with it.

And in front of the broken vase stood some familiar boys. The boys who always bullied her.