Tandoori & Friendly [Part 2]
“Pfft! Your Highness is too funny.”
The prince always had a calm and cold image strongly attached to him, but he would show expressions that made him look like a normal boy his age whenever Emma was involved.
As his childhood friend, Arthur felt both relieved and happy to see him like that. He wanted to show this side of the prince to the nobles who made rumors of him being coldhearted blue blood.
The king looked at his son’s appearance while stuffing his cheeks with his second plate of curry and thinking, ‘I wonder if Emma really won’t marry into our family…’ The reason he didn’t say it out loud was that Count Stuart was watching from the side with a furious demon-like expression. He could relate to how fathers with daughters felt to a painful extent.
Wait, the younger brother of Count Stuart, Dr. Arban Stuart, was also pretty much glaring at this scene. Seeing him, the king knew that the rumors of him being a niece-con were true.
“Nii-sama, you’re being rude. Emma-sama, what His Highness meant to say was that it was deliciously spicy.”
“It’s spicy and delicious, isn’t it, Caitlyn?”
“Yup. It’s spicy and delicious, Catherine.”
“Um, the mild curry is also very delicious. Also, it goes very well with this Imperial Japan’s staple food called… uh, rice(?).”
Marion and the twins ate the spicy curry while Francesca ate the mild one.
Sure enough, curry that everyone could enjoy by adjusting the spiciness was an amazing dish.
“Come now, come now, eat my grilled bird meat too. I marinated it with yogurt and evil-warding powders… I mean, spices. I promise it tastes just as good as the curry.”
Melsa whispered to Leonard and Arban to stop glaring at the prince before offering a large plate of bird meat.
“…y-yeah.”
*gulp* The king reached for the bird meat. It was the meat of the ridiculously giant monster that was flying in the sky just a while ago. He could somehow see it as food if it was put inside the yellow sauce called curry, but this was just pure meat. Moreover, he seemed to hear the Countess say something about evil-warding powders just now…
Both these two dishes were monster-meat dishes everyone had never eaten before. Still, everyone started with the safer choice, curry.
In the meantime, the Stuart family planned to hurriedly eat the curry first before the valuable rice ran out while greatly anticipating having seconds.
“T-Then… Countess Stuart, if I may…”
Everyone held their breath in fear as they watched the king grab the bird meat boldly and open his mouth with resolution.
No matter how you slice it, the king with the highest status became the food taster here.
The one that broke this tense silence was the desperate voice of a knight.
“Y-Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Terrible news!!!”
The king went out when hearing the urgent call and saw the knights, Lord of Skyte, Lord of Skyte’s son, and many hunters surrounding the Stuarts’ tent in full battle gear.
“What happened?!”
Sensing the solemn atmosphere, the king asked them to report the situation, still with the bird meat in hand. What happened must have been pressing to even make them interrupt the king’s meal.
“We are glad you are safe! Please, please evacuate quickly! It’s dangerous, Your Majesty. This place now is dangerous!”
The one-armed Lord of Skyte knelt before the king and appealed that they had no time to lose with sweat dripping.
“Calm down. What’s the matter?”
Seeing the lord was so lost in his worries, the king patted his shoulder with the hand that wasn’t holding the bird meat and tried to calm him down.
The king wouldn’t know how to evacuate if he were only told, “It’s dangerous, so run away,” and nothing more. Grasping the situation was the top priority now.
“O-Our territory’s hunter on watch duty today has confirmed a monster appearance near the area!!! The one who appears is a very dangerous kind among monsters… Your life is in danger!”
