Morning Star rang the bell for breakfast, only to blink in surprise when a young girl appeared.
“You aren’t the housekeeper... Oh, that’s right. She said something last night about going away for a few days.”
“My name is Nina, and I’ll be waiting on you for the next few days. I’ve brought your breakfast.”
“Thanks...” Morning Star slowly made her way over to her chair, by which point Nina had already finished laying the table. There was a basket of steaming, freshly baked bread, jars of different kinds of jams, and a bowl of soup similar to what Nina had served to Pearly Cloud.
“You do your job well, I see.”
“It’s nothing, ma’am.”
“But this is too much for me. A bite or two will do.”
“Yes, ma’am, the cook told me that. But may I suggest that you start with the soup?”
“Hot soup for breakfast...?” Morning Star didn’t sound enthusiastic.
The housekeeper and the cook had told Nina about her preferences. This was a mercenary company, so most of the food was hearty fare—the meatier, fattier, and saltier, the better. But while the roughneck mercenaries couldn’t get enough of it, Morning Star didn’t share their tastes. Apparently, all she ate in the morning was a little bread with jam. Perhaps for that reason, she was very slender—she looked even thinner than Astrid.
Although, Nina thought to herself, it is a lupalune trait to appear slight while actually being incredibly strong.
Morning Star picked up the spoon and sipped a mouthful of soup. Her eyes went wide.
“This is amazing...” she gasped. “I even... I feel warm all the way through.”
Nina had used a spice that warmed and energized the body. It was eyewateringly expensive, but Roy had taught Nina how to use it back at Count Mirkwood’s estate, and wealthy as the Dark Frost Mercenaries were, they kept a good stock of it.
Morning Star polished off the soup then spread jam on a piece of bread.
“Mmm, that’s good! For some reason, I’m ravenous today.”
“If you please, ma’am...”
“Hm? What was that?”
“I wondered, um...if you would like some tea? To cleanse your palate.”
“Oh. Go on, then.”
In fact, Nina had wanted to bring up Tien. But no maid worth her salt would dream of interrupting her mistress’s breakfast to bring up a private matter. If she were asked, that would be a different story. Nina would wait until Morning Star finished eating. She mustn’t forget to conduct herself as befitted a maid.
But just as Morning Star was mopping up the final crumbs, she heard the thud of heavy footsteps from the hall.
“Hey, maid! I’m starving! Where’s my breakfast?”
“Pearly Cloud? You’re up very early...and you’re not even hungover? That’s a first.”
“Well, wait until you hear this. That new maid brought me soup that got me sweating like a pig. Totally got rid of my hango— Oh! She’s here!”
“I just brought Mistress Morning Star her breakfast. Will you eat here, Master Pearly Cloud?”
“Huh?” Morning Star blinked at her. “When did you go and get that?”
The service cart beside Nina hadn’t been there a minute ago.
“Here will do fine.” Pearly Cloud sat down opposite Morning Star. He was scratching his arms a lot, Nina noticed with curiosity. Lupalunes mostly had skin like humans except for their arms, which were covered in wolfish fur. Pearly Cloud was scratching the area on his arm where his fur ended. The skin was red, like a rash.
“Smells good!” he said as he began to eat with gusto. Unlike Morning Star, he started his day with meat roasted on the bone. “Mhmm, it’s so tender... What is this, anyway? The cook’s new recipe?”
“If you please, master, I made it myself.”
“You what?! That old mule let you use his kitchen?!”
Nina laughed sheepishly. Stubbornness was a common trait among the cooks in these large estates.
“Yes, he was most obliging when I explained what I wanted to cook...”
“Huh. Well, this is damn good.”
“You’re too kind, master.”
Nina had made him a dish using the meat of a bird known as the tenderfowl. It was notorious for turning as tough as leather when cooked, prompting many a frustrated cook to wonder how the hell it had gotten its name. Raw, it was soft and juicy, so its primary use was as food for estate guard dogs.
There was, however, a way to cook tenderfowl and keep it that way. Nina had learned it not from Tuyledo the elf sage, nor from Roy the cook, but rather from a book she’d stumbled upon while cleaning the Mirkwood estate’s private library.
You mixed a large amount of salt with egg whites, slathered it on the meat like a coat of cement, then roasted it. It was known as a salt crust. It rendered tenderfowl meat melt-in-your-mouth soft. The recipe had just happened to be in a travelogue of a journey, through a land in the east across the great sea.
Roy had been gobsmacked when Nina told him about it. “I’ll be damned... That’s one hell of a discovery,” he’d said, and the cook at the mercenaries’ mansion had reacted exactly the same way when Nina told him about it.
“It’s Nina, isn’t it?” Pearly Cloud said. “You’re not from the Yupiter Empire, are you?”
“No, master. I used to live in the Crecente Kingdom.”
“Aha. So that’s why you’re such a good cook, is it?”
“Oh, no... Any maid could do the same.”
Pearly Cloud nodded thoughtfully at this.
“Hey, give me some of that,” Morning Star said.
“Huh? Since when do you eat breakfast?”
“What does that matter? I’m hungry today.”
“There’s more, so—” Just as Nina was about to offer her another portion of tenderfowl, she heard the captain’s bell ring.
“Off you go. We’re fine here,” Pearly Cloud said.
“Are you sure? Excuse me, then.” Nina bowed, then hurried off to the captain’s room. As she did so, she remembered that she still hadn’t asked about Tien.
“Oh dear. But I’m sure I’ll have another chance.” The housekeeper had only just left, after all.
Just then, there was a faint CLATTER from somewhere in the mansion. Nina stopped short. What was that? Which room had it come from?
The bell rang again.
“On my way, master!” she called, then hurried on.