Another time, this happened.
“Tutte, I want to make rice balls!”
One afternoon, when she was looking out her room’s window absentmindedly, Lady Mary suddenly came up with that idea.
“Rice balls, my lady? Just what are rice balls?”
“You make them by squeezing rice real tight into a ball, and then you stuff them with all sorts of ingredients and eat them!” she explained.
“Oh, so it’s food. Well, I can ask the cook to—”
“No, I want to make them myself! I wanna do iiiiit!” She shook her head, sulking. Ahh, she’s so cute when she pouts.
I went to the head cook with my lady to state our intentions, to which they agreed and asked Lady Mary what she would need.
“First we’ll need some freshly cooked rice. Then we’ll need some salt, and seaweed, and salmon flakes, and fried cod...oh, and rolled eggs!” Lady Mary adorably counted the items up on her fingers.
However, everything she mentioned except for the salt and rice were words that made no sense to me. The head cook seemed just as stumped as I was, and they simply said they’d prepare everything they could up to the salt.
“Yeah, let’s start by making them with salt for now!” Lady Mary said with a smile.
The head cook went about the preparations, looking apologetic for being unable to follow Lady Mary’s instructions to the letter. I could understand how they felt. After all, my first instinct is to fill my lady’s requests perfectly too.
While the cook prepared the rice, we waited in the dining hall for ten or so minutes. The head cook walked in with a plate of rice. I picked up the salt, thinking to apply it to the rice so we could eat it.
“Not like that, Tutte. You’re supposed to apply the salt to my hands.” Lady Mary wiped her pretty hands clean and extended her palms toward me.
Looking quite confused, I sprinkled salt over her hands. The head cook watched over the two of us, looking quite satisfied. But then, my lady did something I couldn’t quite believe.
She...grabbed the steaming, newly cooked rice with her bare hands.
“M-My laaady!” I hurried over to stop her.
“Huh? What’s wrong, Tutte?” Lady Mary looked at me, baffled, her hands still gripping the steaming rice.
“I-Isn’t it hot?” I asked, taken aback.
“Not at all,” Lady Mary shook her head, perfectly collected. “But I can’t really make them into triangles... Maybe I’m supposed to squeeze them harder?”
Seeing her so calm put my heart at ease, watching on as she continued to touch food with her bare hands like there was nothing unusual about the act. Lady Mary gripped the rice with her small hands, trying her hardest to squeeze it into a triangular shape. Ahh. She’s so adorable it makes me light-headed.
According to Lady Mary, gripping rice like this was how one produced rice balls. Apparently, you would normally include different ingredients to season the rice. The head cook listened to her, fascinated with the idea.
“There, ready! This should be right.” Lady Mary placed the prepared rice on a platter.
Sitting atop the porcelain plate was a roundish object. The rice had been formed into a perfect sphere that seemed far too solid to resemble rice. Lady Mary seemed completely unconcerned about its shape as she looked upon the rice ball proudly.
“Let’s try it, then!”
Before either of us could say anything, she had plopped the rice ball into her mouth. The head cook and I watched in tense silence as Lady Mary’s expression visibly clouded over.
“...It’s haaaaard,” she whined. “It’s not like what I expected...”
Indeed, Lady Mary had gripped the rice ball with a great deal of pressure, basically compressing and...transforming it into a mass of something else.
Eventually deeming she couldn’t make rice balls herself, she let the head cook handle it, and before long, Lady Mary’s culinary idea was complete. As a digression, these rice balls became quite popular among the mansion’s servants and became a staple dish in our estate.
That’s exactly what one would expect of Lady Mary’s idea!
So, yes, Lady Mary’s attempts often ended in failure, but that’s just part of what makes her lovely. What do I like about her, you ask? Well, I like how her limbs are short and pale. And how she totters over to me like a kitten. It’s adorable and fills me with a desire to protect her...
No, she’s not as cute as a kitten. No kitten alive could match her in adorableness! She’s more...oh, my lacking diction frustrates me! If only I were smarter. How did I spend three years of my life training to only be able to come up with such a lacking description for her?! Surely I can do better! I must find the right wooooords!
Ahem. It appears I’ve lost my composure. I beg your pardon. And oh, would you look at the time? It’s almost time for me to wake Lady Mary up.
With that, I bid you good day, everyone. I look forward to my next chance to speak to you of Lady Mary’s exploits.