by Yu Sakurai
I wasn’t just being nice.
The day after I arrived at the royal villa, I asked the kitchen staff to start preparing lighter meals.
The kingdom of Wolfvarte was home to races other than humans. It was a land of diverse culinary culture, but the food was generally too rich and savory when it came to human high society.
Naturally, the staff were prepared to serve me dishes that were “properly” seasoned.
I couldn’t bring myself to request an entire menu change, so all I did was ask them to use fewer spices. My request served its purpose—their cooking was much more suitable to my palate that way.
The seasonings were reduced to a satisfactory level, and though they were still rich and spicy, these meals were the best gourmet cuisine I’d ever experienced in this world. Even aside from the flavor, I could see the care Gilbert and his staff took in their craft, from how they handled ingredients to their exquisite plating.
I could never fire a chef like Gilbert.
Having rejected his offer to resign and offering my own opinion, I could see him relax considerably.
“In that case, I apologize. Between you asking me to change my recipes and taking up work in the kitchen, I got it in my head that you weren’t satisfied with my cooking, Your Majesty…”
“You’re mistaken. I borrowed the kitchen today because cooking is a hobby of mine, and I only asked you to change your seasonings because I prefer lighter meals. You and your staff have done a fine job of listening to my requests, so please be confident in your cooking.”
“…Thank you, Your Majesty, but someone like me doesn’t deserve such kind words.”
Gilbert’s gratitude sounded a lot more like self-depreciation. He was still being far too modest, even if I was the new queen of this kingdom.
“Gilbert, I’d like to ask you something… You said you’re used to being fired, so I wonder, does that mean you were fired from your last position, before you came to my villa?”
“Yes, I was. It’s an embarrassing story… Before I came here, I worked in a noblewoman’s kitchen, but things didn’t go so well between the other staff and me. I was dismissed because of that.”
…I see.
My coming to this kingdom and moving into this villa was all very sudden.
I was sure it must have been hard to gather a fine group of kitchen staff on such short notice. Having been let go from his last job, Gilbert had some baggage of his own, though he was still a fantastic cook. Perhaps that was why he was sent to work for me.
However, chefs had more to do than simply prepare meals.
They also had to maintain professional relationships with coworkers, as well as stay in the good favor of their employer. When working in the kitchens of royals, it was very important to maintain those social skills.
In some cases, chefs under the same roof would even form cliques, and the resulting wars would end with someone losing their job.
I didn’t see Gilbert as a bad person, but he also didn’t seem to have an assertive bone in his body…
As long as they couldn’t find any major flaws in his skills as a chef or his personality, I imagined his coworkers would see him as a major target for workplace rivalry.
Gilbert appeared to have lost all confidence in his cooking after being driven out of his previous position.
“Please don’t look so upset, Gilbert. Your talent and experience shine through in all your meals.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, but you needn’t lie to a pathetic creature like me…”
“I’m not lying to you. I don’t know if this will help…but if you’re willing, would you do me the favor of helping me out in the kitchen, when you have the time?”
“…Helping you in the kitchen?”
“Yes. Can I count on you?”
I had many more recipes I wanted to try, but I was still a complete amateur when it came to the recipes and ingredients unique to this world. With an expert like Gilbert to help me, I believed I could make much faster progress in re-creating meals I knew from my days on Earth. The two of us would cook delicious food together, and hopefully, I could help Gilbert regain some confidence at the same time.
◇ ◇ ◇
“…I think we’ll be able to make some delicious meals together as well, so for all of those reasons, I asked Gilbert to help me with my cooking.”
I sighed. That conversation with Gilbert happened three days ago already.
Listening to me recount my story was none other than the silver wolf, who was seated by my side.
I didn’t know where he came from, but he made his way to me and apparently didn’t feel like leaving.
Getting to see him again lifted my spirits, but sadly, he still wouldn’t let me pet him.
The wolf would sit nearby and turn his nose in my direction for the occasional sniff, yet whenever I reached my hand out toward him, he would let out a grumbling noise, warning me to back off.
“Hmph. You’re killing me, you know…”
There was such a good, fluffy boy right there, but I couldn’t touch him.
The situation was utterly depressing, and since I needed something else to keep me occupied, I started speaking to the wolf.
At first, I was essentially just talking to myself, until…
“Grah?”
The further I got in the story, the more the wolf would cock his head at me, as if to ask what happened next. With a sort of back-and-forth developing, I continued on with my story for longer than I even meant to.
“What a smart wolf you are, following along with my story like that.”
I knew there was no way he truly understood my words, of course. He was most likely responding to the tone of my voice and my facial expressions.
I still wanted to praise him for his level of understanding, though.
The wolf’s expression looked somehow offended. It was as if he wanted to ask me, “What kind of praise is that…?” …Or so I felt.
“What’s wrong? I was just so impressed… Did I say something to upset you?”
I tried responding to him anyway, knowing he couldn’t truly comprehend me.
Now that I think of it, I used to talk to Jiro in my past life too.
It was just a habit of mine, even though I probably looked like a crazy person muttering things to myself from anyone else’s perspective.
“I just don’t get you,” I said to the silver wolf, observing him closely.
Those blue-green eyes stared back at me. His fur swayed as a gentle breeze blew past. The wolf was so beautiful and majestic, and yet, I knew almost nothing about him.
One thing I did know was that the bottom of his paws sported little black pads. They were smooth, without any large cracks in the skin, and stood out against his silver fur. I desperately wanted to give them a good squish.
“Paw pads are the work of the gods…”
I scrunched my fingers, imagining squishing those little pads.
For a moment, I felt the wolf looking at me with a mocking expression. But I was sure I just imagined it.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at me—the silver wolf, whose name was still a mystery to me.
I imagined it to be a proud, noble name, for some reason, but I didn’t have any real hints to go on. Edgar didn’t seem to know either, so I decided I would have to ask Melvin the next time we met.
“…That reminds me. I’ve been curious…” The silver wolf met my gaze and raised his chin toward me, as if beckoning me to continue my thought. “You really don’t shed any fur, do you?”
The animal’s coat was beautiful and lush. All I wanted was a chance to pet that perfect fur, but still…didn’t the wolf get hot under all that?
When I looked around, I saw that all of Edgar’s wolves were nearly finished shedding their winter coats. Some were even sporting their completed summer coats. These wolves had a slimmer, sharper look to them.
Compared with them, the silver wolf didn’t look like he had lost a single str
and of fur in his life.
Even when I used the slicker brush, he did seem to enjoy how it felt, judging by how his eyes started to close, but I remembered him losing only a few strands of fur to the brush itself.
“If you keep your winter coat like that, the summer heat won’t be kind to your roots. I hope you don’t get ugly bald patches— Ow! Ow, ow, ow!!”
“Bald?! Me?! Don’t be foolish!”
The silver wolf butted his head against me in what felt like a form of protest.
It was a pretty painful blow on its own, even though I knew the creature could’ve given me a much worse bite if he wanted to.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Will you forgive me?”
“Fine, as long as you get it.”
I could practically hear those words as the wolf let out a little snort at me.
Maybe he really does understand humans?
Doubt started to form in my mind. While I worked on making up with the silver wolf, I heard Lucian mutter something from behind me.
“The nerve of that wolf, giving Lady Laetitia attitude like that…”
I could only smile awkwardly back upon hearing his disapproval. It was then that Krona appeared with a message.
“Your Majestyyy! You’ve received an invitation!!!”
She ran over to me, lifting the hem of her dress above her feet, and came to a stop in front of the garden gates. Her eyes were glued to the wolves in the yard.
Perhaps, as feline beastfolk, Krona was uncomfortable with dogs, including the wolves. I’d already noticed that, for whatever reason, Krona never seemed to approach me when I was playing with the wolves.
“Lucian, could you fetch me that invitation?”
“As you wish.”
He made a dash for Krona and quickly came back with the invitation in no time.
The envelope was made of high-quality paper and sealed with wax that formed an insignia.
“An invitation from Lady Natalie…?”
The silver wolf’s ears perked up when he heard me.
Lucian already had my letter opener in hand. I took it from him and swiped it through the wax, unsealing the envelope.
“Two days from now, Lady Natalie wants me to have lunch with her at her villa…”
It was a lunch invitation, sent by a woman who was part of the reason I was here in the first place.
Natalie had once been a candidate to marry King Glenreed herself.
◇ ◇ ◇
AS for why a former potential queen was living within the palace walls alongside the actual queen…
That reason went all the way back to the very foundation of Wolfvarte as a kingdom.
King Glenreed came from an old family that had held on to the crown for hundreds of years now.
However, the kingdom of Wolfvarte itself was less than two hundred years old.
Back then, there were five small countries in this area of the continent, including one ruled by King Glenreed’s ancestor. These small countries were looked down upon for their size and constantly troubled by the threat of invaders.
To protect themselves from the neighboring lands and the menacing demons, the five countries came together to form one kingdom ruled by King Glenreed’s ancestor, the most promising leader out of the bunch.
The capital city of Wolfvarte, where I now lived, was the same land that King Glenreed’s family controlled all those hundreds of years ago.
Now, surrounding this center part of the kingdom in all directions were the locations of the four former smaller countries—to its north, south, east, and west.
They were all part of one kingdom now, but their time as five countries was still recent history, and so these regions didn’t yet exist in perfect harmony.
King Glenreed’s family controlled the throne throughout all of this, but the descendants of the former royalty of the other four countries still wielded power in Wolfvarte as dukes and duchesses today.
This also had an effect on the selection of the queen.
The queen was generally a descendant of royalty from one of the four other lands.
The story differed a bit when it came to concubines, but historically, the queens were noblewomen born in one of the four regions outside of Wolfvarte’s capital.
Every generation, the king is provided with candidates from those select noble families in all four regions, from whom he chooses his queen.
Two years ago, King Glenreed received his four candidates from the outer regions. Only a year had passed since His Majesty ascended to the throne after the sudden death of his father.
Known as the Silver Wolf King, His Majesty had achieved many successes in battle, but he lacked any real influence on the internal affairs of Wolfvarte.
For that reason, he had no choice but to give the four powerful queen candidates villas here within the castle walls, where they quietly carried out their war to win the crown.
From what I’d heard, the candidates had tried to approach His Majesty directly, but as a hater of women, he never thought to accept any of them.
…That hatred probably stemmed from political reasons, now that I thought about it.
This was His Majesty’s third year as king. He was still in the middle of building support within the kingdom.
If he chose a queen immediately and lost the backing of their competitors’ families, Wolfvarte could fall into a troubled state of affairs. That’s where I came in—to prevent an undesirable outcome like that for the king.
He didn’t want a queen from one of those four territories, but he couldn’t leave that position open forever, and thus, he selected me to be the placeholder queen for the time being.
Again, the title of queen is pretty much always given to someone from one of those four families. No one in this kingdom, least of all me, believed that I would be the queen forever. I was a way for him to buy time so he could consolidate power until he was ready to find the true queen.
That was the only role required of me in this land—the time-limited, figurehead queen of Wolfvarte.
Two years of this “white marriage” would be all it took for me to fulfill my duty and be able to give up the royal title.
For that reason, all four queen candidates still lived in royal villas, continuing to set their sights upon securing the crown for themselves someday.
“Your Majesty, I welcome you to the home of Lady Natalie.”
A man wearing a butler’s uniform greeted me politely with a bow of his head.
Lady Natalie—a previous candidate to be queen—was the daughter of the ruling family from the western region.
The exterior of her beautiful villa was made up of intricately carved stone.
Both the location—closer to the main palace–and the size of her house bested those of my own. For whatever reason, I had been given a house much farther away, and though I had a few theories about that, I decided not to bother with them, since it wasn’t an inconvenience to me.
My home sat deep inside the woods.
It was an isolated place, perfect for me to live the life of leisure I so desired.
I spent my days playing with wolves and doing all the cooking I wanted.
I was grateful for this life, regardless of King Glenreed’s intentions.
Each day was relaxing and carefree.
But still, I was the queen of this land, even if it was in name only.
The other four candidates had spent the last ten days scrambling to be the first to interact with me, and now it appeared that Lady Natalie was the one to emerge victorious.
She was just one of the former candidates for queen, but there was still a chance she could end up in my position a few years from now.
Unable to reject her invitation, I reluctantly dragged myself out of my beloved home, putting my life of leisure on pause to attend lunch with her.
Well, I was also curious to find out for myself what kind of person she was.
“Please have a seat, Your Maje
sty.”
The servant opened the doors to the dining room and ushered me inside.
Covered in glass fixtures and furniture, the room had a dazzling interior.
My nose was abruptly filled with the scent of spices and seasonings when I passed through the doorway.
The staff were waiting on my arrival to serve lunch, but now that I was already picking up the rich scents of food, I knew it had to mean the smells had long since permeated the walls of the dining room.
I could smell the rich, overseasoned food even when it wasn’t around. I was already starting to get depressed. With a mental sigh, I noticed the young girl with light-blue hair staring at me.
“Your Majesty, I’m honored to have you as a guest in my home. Everyone here welcomes you today.”
The young woman’s voice rang through the room like the sound of a glass bell.
However, her tone was cold as the words slipped from her petite lips.
She was the youngest candidate for queen, and daughter of the duke who controlled the western region of Wolfvarte.
Once I’d exchanged greetings with Lady Natalie, taking a moment to observe her doll-like face, we took our seats at the dining table.
Our conversation was brief, only a sentence or two each, until Lady Natalie exchanged glances with her servant.
The food was carried to us, and with it, an assaulting smell.
I kept my expression composed, but on the inside, I wanted nothing more than to be back home.
Each dish was set onto the table—piles of food heaped atop the golden-accented white plates.
Silver cutlery lay at our place settings.
This was customary among high society in our world, due to how silver reacted when coming into contact with poison.
I picked up my fork, used it to form a single bite of ham and cheese, then carried the appetizer to my lips.
…Salty and spicy. Yep.
The ham was sprinkled with pepper and nutmeg, stinging the inside of my mouth as soon as it made contact. I couldn’t even feel the texture of the ham, the way the tip of my tongue had gone numb from the spices.
Even the cheese was covered in seasoning. My poor tongue never had a moment’s rest.
