While the entire capital was gripped in terror about what evil schemes the witch was up to, inside the tall tower still emitting thick black smoke, there was one poor princess who was sitting amidst the mess she created in the kitchen, her dirty face almost on the verge of crying.
(Seren's POV)
"Ahh! These boring books. Why do I have to even read them?" I closed the book in my hand and leaned back in the chair.
With no one to talk with, I had nothing else to do other than be in my bedchamber and stare out from the window. I did try reading some of the latest geography and history books sent by my father, which I found boring. I wasn't in a mood to tend to my garden nor paint.
However, there's nothing else here I could entertain myself with, so I was stuck reading these books.
Leaning back further in the chair, I closed my eyes, only to hear something annoying.
Rumble!
"Huh?" I opened my eyes and looked at my stomach annoyingly. Rubbing it with my hand to calm it down, I asked, "Are you already done with what we ate?"
I looked outside the window and realized it's just early noon. The last I ate was just a few hours ago. Before Martha left, she prepared morning snacks for me, but I already finished them all in one sitting.
Rumble!
My stomach growled again, and I sighed. "These books are really boring, and my brain has burned everything I ate trying to understand them."
I put the book aside, went out of my bedchamber, and headed towards the stairs that led to the lower floors. The empty tower was filled with nothing but the sound of my footsteps, and it made me miss Martha more.
Once I reached the ground floor, I made my way towards the biggest room further inside the tower.
It was my personal royal kitchen where Martha cooked food for both of us. This was also where she taught me, a princess, how to cook. It was all because other royal servants and maids were not allowed to enter my tower as decreed by the King, leaving all the chores—from making meals to educating me—to Martha.
Martha had always made sure to cook the best food for me, the same quality and variety of food that other royals in the palace ate. She was not an expert like the royal chefs in the main palace who prepared food for the King, but her food was always tasty, and I loved it.
"This is when I miss you the most, Martha," I mumbled as I wondered when this old woman would be back.
"What should I cook?"
Knowing, I had no other option but to make my own meal, I looked around and saw the fresh vegetables and fruits kept in the bamboo woven baskets.
With a smile, I picked up an apple from the basket. "Eating fruits will do. No need to cook."
Standing by the window side, I finished the entire apple and looked at my stomach as I rubbed it again. "Are you happy now?"
I was about to leave the kitchen but…. Rumble!
The happy smile on my face disappeared as I retraced my steps back to the kitchen. "Only fruits won't do."
Feeling helpless, I went towards the containers having various grains and cereals inside.
"Let's make something easy."
I opened the container of rice. It was the easiest thing I could cook. I was aware of where I could find what I needed as Martha had shown me everything in the kitchen during my cooking lessons...Tsk, I hate those forced cooking lessons.
"I can't eat plain rice," I mumbled and looked at the vegetables.
I chopped some vegetables to add to the rice as I had never liked to eat plain rice. Plain rice made me choke with the lack of some nice taste.
I washed the rice and reminded myself, "Now, I need to cook it." The most annoying thing I had yet to do. "Fire?" I could only sigh but had to do it.
The biggest task was to start the fire and keep it continuing till the cooking was done. Lifting my skirt and tying it, so the hems don't catch dirt, I kneeled in front of the square-shaped mud stove and put tiny wood blocks and thin dried tree branches in it through the circular hole made at the bottom of the mud stove.
I managed to make fire the way Martha taught me, and it felt like a big achievement. Compared to the past, I certainly improved. "Well, that was not difficult."
"Where are those pots now?" I found a stack of different-sized metal pots and chose the one that I was familiar with: around, heavy iron cooking pot.
I put it on the mud stove and added rice, water, vegetables, and a few spices into the pot all at once, thinking it silly how Martha added them one by one.
"In the end, they will be cooked together. Why waste time?" I felt happy at my thoughtfulness about fast cooking.
I waited next to the mud stove for the rice to cook faster, but it was taking time.
"What's wrong with it?"
I checked and realized it needed stronger fire.
"Let's add more to it." I added more dried branches and tried everything Martha taught me but couldn't make the fire grow. Instead, the more I tried, the flames on the wood only got smaller.
Feeling annoyed, I looked around the room, and my sight caught the palm-sized bottle kept on one of the shelves.
"Ah! Flammable oil!"
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"Ah! Flammable oil!"
It was the same oil that Martha showed me before, the expensive oil imported from the east, which helped me prove that I didn't burn the huge curtain during Meira's engagement ceremony.
I hurried to get that bottle, as it was my savior from hunger.
"It's time for you to help me and my hungry tiny stomach. You owe me for putting that blame on me when it was you who burned that curtain."
Aish, I was so lonely that even talking to this lifeless bottle was comforting. Whenever I was left alone for long in the absence of Martha, I always chose to talk to lifeless things to pass my time and make myself feel I was not alone. I didn't even spare the walls of this old tower.
Opening the bottle's cap, I leaned down to add some of the flammable oil onto the wood inside the mud stove, but just then, my ears caught a familiar sound that I never liked.
Squeak!
Squeak!
Feeling anxious, I turned towards the source of that distinctive sound, only to see a long thin rodent with big eyes and ears and a pointed nose eating the few rice grains I dropped on the floor.
"Rat!" I exclaimed in fear and immediately covered my mouth to not scream as I inhaled deeply.
Not caring for anything, I ran away blindly, only to bump into the rack that held pots filled with various cooking essentials and ended up dropping them all over the floor. Those heavy metal pots made loud noises that could be heard even from far away, and I had to cover my ears.
"What should I do?" Anxious to get away, I spotted the wooden table next to the wall nearby and climbed onto it without a second thought.
"Am I safe now?" Just as I gave out a sigh of relief, another trouble awaited me. I was empty-handed.
While running away, I dropped the flammable oil bottle on the floor… a bit too close to the mud stove. The oil from the bottle had spread on the floor near the stove. The moment I realized what happened, the oil had caught fire, and tall, frightening flames had engulfed the entire mud stove and the floor around it; just as its name said—highly flammable.
"My food!" I felt like crying as I could think about nothing but the rice I'm cooking. Indeed, I pity my stomach more than that mud stove and this entire tower.
"I can't cry." I reminded myself of one of the most important instructions out of so many that Martha had given to me. Whatever happened, I should not cry. After taking deep breaths, I calmed myself, climbed down from the wooden table, and hurried to fetch water.
I picked up a small mud container to get water from a bigger-sized water pot. Just as I started to pour the water over the fire, it ended up filling the kitchen with thick black smoke, almost suffocating me.
Cough! Cough!
Afraid that the black smoke would reach the other rooms of the tower, I had to open the kitchen's windows to let the smoke out.
It took a while until the fire died down, but thick smoke was still coming out from the mud stove. Even with my veil on, I was having trouble breathing. Covering my nose and mouth with the long sleeves of my dress as additional cover, I went towards the mud stove.
"My food!" This time, I felt like crying my throat out, but as usual, I suppressed it. Only a sad voice came out of my throat. "My food is burnt."
The rice in the pot was blacker than black, and hardly anything looked edible. "I can at least eat whatever is left?" I consoled myself and picked up that pot with the help of one thick cloth that I picked up from a kitchen cloth hanger.
Just as I picked up the pot, the smell of burnt rice hit my nostrils. "It's so...well, not bad...I can eat it."
Consoling myself, just as I stepped away carrying that heavy metal pot, I heard the rat's squeak again.
"I must be imagining..." I prayed inside as I searched where the sound came from, only to be shocked that the rodent was below me, just one step away from my feet.
The next thing I could only hear was the sound of a metal pot colliding with the floor and rolling toward the wall. Whatever food was left inside it spread on the floor along its trail. The last hope of my stomach was on the floor, and I couldn't eat it.
I wanted to run away, but that rodent was looking at me, and I couldn't move. Though I was scared, I couldn't give up in front of this tiny creature.
"S-Stay away from me. I am a witch. I-I can burn you. Don't anger me!"
Surprisingly, it worked, and the rat moved away. "Even the rat is scared of me."
I felt relieved and proud, but it lasted only for a moment. I saw that rat eating the food on the floor, the food that was supposed to be in my stomach.
"Even the rat has a better destiny than me."
Looking around at the mess I made, even the fruits couldn't escape safely from the fire. There was nothing left for me to eat.
Thus, I stepped out of the kitchen, much hungrier than when I came in.
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