A Challenge And A Failure

“Now then… let’s get cooking. I want to see what you can do, Shirley.”

By the time we had finished cleaning up after snack time and completed our other maid duties, such as cleaning, it was already night.

In the now-empty kitchen, Anne said that to me.

“Have you ever made Sacru before? I handled prep work in my old team, so I know that part fairly well. But when it comes to baking time or oven temperature…”

“Amazing! These are all such wonderful ingredients—you hardly ever see things like this in town! Melons, truffles… Wait, no way, is this cacao!? And this, and this too…!”

“Hey! Are you even listening to me!?”

I could hear Anne talking, but I had far more important things to worry about.

After all, I could finally move freely around the kitchen.

I opened every refrigerator and storeroom I could find, peering at the ingredients inside and crying out in delight.

Since there was no refrigeration outside the castle, ingredients that spoiled easily were rarely seen.

Even if they were sold, they were luxury goods far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Yet here in this kitchen, they were piled up in abundance.

Ah, and while this may be rather inelegant and quite belated, allow me to add a small note.

Whenever I refer to things in this world as sugar, potatoes, truffles, and so on, I am using the names from my previous world.

Of course, these things have different names in this world, and their flavors and appearances are not exactly identical to those of my former world either.

But explaining that every single time would be unbearably tedious.

Besides, I am effectively translating the language for you anyway. So whenever something seems odd, just assume that I am using the closest name from my original world.

“Wow, amazing, amazing! This is a treasure vault of food!”

“…What are you even talking about…? Hey, wait, stop pulling everything out! Listen!”

I bounced around excitedly while Anne tried to stop me.

Ignoring her, I continued pulling out more and more ingredients.

The fruits were plump and full, and when I impulsively bit into one, it was wonderfully sweet and delicious!

“Amazing! This is so good! I wonder where it was grown.”

“Oh, that was probably harvested from the palace farm. Seeds from rare ingredients brought in from all over are grown in the fields behind the palace by the Field Witch.”

“…The Field… Witch…?”

I reacted to the unfamiliar term, and before I could even ask, Anne explained.

“The Field Witch is a witch who uses magic to grow fruits and vegetables. There are two court witches in this castle, and one of them specializes in that.”

Huh. A court witch again. I had never heard of anything like that before.

I knew witches supposedly existed and were often kept by wealthy patrons, but I had no idea some actually served directly at the royal palace.

Magic that cultivated crops sounded incredibly fascinating too.

Did she chant magical words and make plants shoot upward at will?

Hmm. I definitely wanted to meet her.

And this was also the first I had heard of there being a farm on the palace grounds.

What kind of wonderful place could it be? I wanted to go see it immediately!

“I’ll show you around someday. But right now, we have a bigger problem, don’t we? Can you actually make Sacru?”

“Ah, um… Actually… I’ve never made it before…”

When I admitted that honestly, Anne slowly looked up toward the heavens.

“…I see. So we’ve got a rookie team leader who’s never made Sacru before, paired with me, the least impressive maid here, and now we’re supposed to compete against Onee-samas who’ve been through a hundred battles. …We’re finished… Ah, we’re finished!”

D-don’t give up yet! Anything is worth trying! Come on, let’s do our best together!”

Anne burst into tears while I desperately tried to encourage her.

But… naturally, things did not go nearly that smoothly.

“Then we shall begin the Young Master’s snack time.”

The head maid’s voice echoed through the courtyard.

Then she looked toward me, standing at the edge, and addressed the Young Master.

“Young Master. Beginning today, a new team will be participating. Team Five, led by Shirley. Shirley, introduce yourself to the Young Master.”

“Y-yes!”

I answered in a shrill voice and stepped forward before him.

It had been one week since I became a team head. At last, the time had come for my debut.

“I am Shirley, head maid of Team Five. I will do my very best, so I humbly ask for your favor!”

“Okay. I look forward to it.”

I pinched the hem of my skirt and bowed, and the Young Master answered with his usual absent expression.

Then I withdrew, and snack time began as usual.

“It’s finally time, Shirley! I hope the Young Master actually eats ours…!”

Anne whispered with a strained expression as we watched the Onee-samas’ Sacru disappear steadily into the Young Master’s stomach.

“I-it’ll be fine, Anne. We worked hard practicing all the way up to today. It shouldn’t taste bad. At least… it shouldn’t…!”

For the entire past week, we had sacrificed sleep and done nothing but make Sacru.

I had spent years studying cooking myself, so I thought we had managed to produce something reasonably presentable.

Still, perhaps because I had never particularly liked this type of cake, I could not shake my unease… No, enough. Here goes nothing.

“Young Master, this is Sacru…!”

When our turn came, I placed a plate piled high with Sacru before him.

I had made them moister than usual and increased the amount of fruit.

I had put my own spin on them, so they should have been distinct from the Onee-samas’ versions.

But…

“…………”

The Young Master stared at the mountain of Sacru without any sign of enjoyment, eventually picked one up, took a bite, and then stopped moving.

My heart pounded as I watched him… but he never reached for a second one.

(No! No way!)

I screamed inwardly, but there was nothing I could do.

Then I happened to meet the eyes of the head maid standing beside the Young Master.

The look in her eyes as she stared at me… plainly contained disappointment.

“Young Master. Would you care for seconds?”

When the head maid asked, the Young Master replied, “One plate of the first one,” and Christina Onee-sama brought out another serving of Sacru.

And that was the end of it. Of the very first snack I had ever served him, he ate only a single piece.

(U-ugh, this hurts…!)

It was a pain that seemed to gouge directly into my heart.

It was true that I had come to the palace because I wanted to conduct my own culinary research.

But for the food I served to be almost completely ignored, and for the very person who recruited me to look at me with disappointment…

The result was simply too cruel.

And thus, whatever confidence I had possessed in my cooking was smashed to pieces and thoroughly pulverized.

“C-cheer up, Shirley. It was only your first day! There’s still plenty of time! Right?”

After snack time ended, Anne tried to encourage me while I sat there completely burned out.

“Y-yeah, you’re right. It was only the first day… The Onee-samas have been making Sacru for ages, so there’s no way we could immediately reach their level…”

I said that as if trying to convince myself as well, but our suffering had only just begun.

Day two. We reduced the dried fruit and focused more on the batter.

The Young Master ate exactly one and stopped.

Day three. We limited the dried fruit to a single variety and added fruit juice to the batter.

Again, he ate only one.

Day four. We returned to using several kinds of dried fruit and focused on making the batter moist.

Again, just one.

And then came day five.

The Young Master… finally did not touch our plate at all.

“…We’re finished…”

“Yeah. We’re finished…”

Anne and I both slumped miserably in a corner of the kitchen.

No matter how much we improved things, it meant nothing if he refused to eat them.

To the Young Master, what we made was apparently no longer even worth trying.

The Onee-samas watching us from afar had faint smiles on their lips.

They were laughing at us.

And honestly, why wouldn’t they? We had arrived with so much fanfare, only to end up like this.

“Hmph. What idiots. I told them. They’re just in the way, so I wish they’d hurry up, pack their bags, and go home.”

I could hear Jacqueline saying it with a smirk.

Or rather, she was probably saying it loudly enough for me to hear.

Unable to endure it any longer, I told Anne I was going to clear my head and fled the kitchen.

“Aaaaaah… This is awful… I never imagined life at the royal palace would be this miserable…”

I trudged down the corridor, muttering darkly to myself.

This was not how things were supposed to be.

I was supposed to spend my days happily researching whatever food I wanted at the palace.

But reality was this. Every single day, I made cakes I did not even think were delicious, watched them go uneaten, and then threw them away while feeling horribly guilty.

Most of each day was swallowed up by maid duties and Sacru-making, leaving me almost no time to cook for myself, and on top of that, my coworkers treated me like a nuisance.

This was wrong. This was not the life I had imagined.

(Maybe I really should just pack my things and go home…)

My parents would probably forgive me. I doubted they had ever expected that much from me anyway.

And most importantly, the Young Master did not need me.

So wasn’t that enough? I would tell the head maid and bring this whole thing to an end.

The moment I thought that—

“Ah.”

I saw the head maid walking toward me from the far end of the corridor.

Was this some kind of sign telling me to do exactly that?

The head maid seemed to notice me as well.

Right. I would tell her I wanted to quit. With that thought, I approached her.

But before I could say anything, the head maid spoke first.

“Shirley.”

“Ah… Y-yes! What is it?”

The habits beaten into me through training immediately took over, and I hurriedly straightened my back and answered clearly.

Maybe she was going to fire me before I could even resign. As I thought that, the head maid stared steadily into my face and spoke.

“It seems you still do not understand why I brought you here.”

“Huh…?”

Those words caught me completely off guard.

I didn’t… understand?

As I desperately tried to figure out what she meant, the head maid quietly passed beside me and spoke.

“Think about where your value lies.”

And with that, the head maid walked away.

I remained behind, standing frozen with my mouth hanging open.

What had the head maid been trying to tell me?

And what exactly did she expect from me?

What could I do to make the Young Master enjoy snack time?

“…I see… Right. What have I even been doing?”

I murmured softly and clenched both hands into fists.

Either way, if things continued like this, I had no future here.

So I had to do something.

“Anne! Hey, Anne!”

I raced down the corridor and returned to the kitchen, calling out my partner’s name.

Anne jumped in surprise at suddenly hearing her name shouted so loudly, but I ignored that, marched straight up to her, placed both hands on her shoulders, and spoke with a serious expression.

“Please, help me. There’s something I want to try.”