“There’s no need for you to hold back on anything like you did when you were in the capital. It was hard for me to see you like that, Alicia. It’ll make Maika upset too.” That’s right. Maika will get upset. Time for me to lie again so they don’t get upset.
“Yeah, thank you. I’ll be all right. I can handle this much.”
“There you go, telling lies again.”
“Okay, you got me. But you like those, right?” The person who once said he liked lies, seemed to actually love them. So I’ll continue to say the lies that Ash loves so much. “You don’t need to worry about me. You’ve been so nice up till now, and that’ll keep me happy for the rest of my life. I’ve enough stocked up to keep me going until I rebuild the Yanga territory.” Of course, that was a lie, so make sure to be super nice to me tomorrow too, okay?
We had planned to reach the deserted villages of Yanga just past noon. However, due to the roads in Yanga being a lot more damaged than we expected, we ended up arriving there in the evening. We rushed to prepare to stay the night—we left the manual labor to the soldiers and knights who were chosen for the military escort, while Amin, the other maids, and I handled food preparation.
“Wow, Alicia, you’re so skilled,” spoke a soldier who was carrying a wooden box of food supplies from the horse cart.
“Thank you. I was trained by Head Chef Yacoo. I’m somewhat confident I’ll be able to serve the number of people we have.”
“Ha ha ha, I’ve heard the rumors.” Rumors? The soldier laughed at my confused expression. “At the dormitory, you prepared your own food, right? When I was in the territorial military, we’d go camping, and there was a higher-up who was a much better cook than us foot soldiers. Whenever newcomers would ask about it, they’d always say ‘I was trained by Head Chef Yacoo.’”
“Ah, like I just said?” I asked.
“Yeah, exactly like that. You know, I never thought a princess returning from the capital would be better at cooking than us.”
“Heh heh, thanks.” He said “returning,” and I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll probably handle the cooking for a while, so I’ll do my best to make it tasty.”
“I’m already grateful to be able to eat a princess’s home cooking. I’ve heard of the first count of Sacula eating from the same pot as his subordinates, but I’ve never heard of him actually making the food.”
“I see. Then maybe people will tell the tale of the territory lord who served homemade food.” Hmm, not bad, I thought to myself. The soldiers also looked equally pleased.
“Ha ha ha, you’ll certainly not lose to the first count of Sacula in that case.”
“I can’t lose. My goal today is to set a precedent.”
“It would be an honor for us to be a part of that.”
We were able to have food finished before the day ended. We had also prepared the tents that we would be staying in. Amin looked satisfied. “I wouldn’t have expected any less from the people of Sacula. It was the same in the capital, but they work incredibly fast.”
“The same could be said for you, Amin. You got used to camping in such a short amount of time.” Amin had spent most of her life as a maid in the royal palace, so she had very little experience in the lives of normal people or field operations such as this. However, it would be better to say she had zero need to learn anything about it. If I were to give an example, she had no idea how to prepare anything outside of making tea. But that didn’t stop her from being able to work alongside me to cook meals efficiently. She was a maid who was able to do anything required of her. Well, she did freak out when she got a small cut on her finger once, so she wasn’t the perfect maid, but she sure was a hard worker. Seeing her glance around with a satisfied look on her face was quite cute. She had done a lot to be able to stand by my side. I wanted to make life easier for her, but I wondered if I’d be able to do that in her lifetime. I watched as the sun set over the village, and I couldn’t help but feel we had a lot of difficulties ahead of us.
“We’re going to be busy starting tomorrow.” Even when looking out over the same darkness, I could hear the smile in Amin’s words. “I’m looking forward to it.”
When Amin and the other maids arrived in Sacula, Ash told them that the work would be hellish. The land they stood on today was just the first layer. They could probably get an idea of how things would be from our preparations, but now it was time for the real thing. Even knowing that, she still said she was looking forward to it?
“You’re a good liar, Amin.” Although, in actuality, she no doubt found the situation daunting and probably struggled to keep herself standing straight... She was just trying to be strong.
She didn’t deny it. “I spent a lot of time in the royal capital.” The stubborn, serious, and clumsy maid laughed.
“I’m good at lying too.”
“We make a good duo, then.”
Is she trying to say that she’s as good at lying as I am? In my time at the military academy, I had to use a fake name, lie about my gender, and spend two years living that lie. Amin was ostracized due to her inability to be a doormat or turn a blind eye to injustice, but she had a long way to go to get to my level.
“I wonder...” I tilted my head doubtfully.