Chapter 3

Juliana was frustrated.

It had been a long time since she had been insulted like this.

“So, you’re the one who is going to serve me tea today, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Madam”

“Not Mrs. Graz, not Amalie or Corinna, but you, who is serving for the first time today.”

“Yes, Madam.”

When Elma bowed condescendingly, Juliana involuntarily snapped her fan closed.

The only enjoyment of the retreat, or rather the only enjoyment of this stifling royal life, seems to have been ruined today.

An inevitable sigh escaped her.

It was true that Juliana had fired many of her maidservants in the past because of the way the tea had been brewed.

However, most of it was for the protection of herself and her son.

Once, for example, she chased a maidservant outdoors half-naked because she had put poison in her tea and kept a dagger under her clothes.

She also condemned a certain maid of honor to bug torture because she had spread poisonous insects in her young son’s bedroom.

Both of them were sent by the Queen, whose mad parental love and jealousy exploded to ensure the ascension of the first prince, Felix, to the throne.

Juliana avoided both assassination attempts but had not denounced the Queen.

Simultaneously, she allowed herself to be isolated in the palace after being accused of being a “Tormentor”.

The more limited the number of maidservants who served her, the greater her security is.

In the end, the maidservants who serve her are all frightened of Juliana from the beginning to the end, except for the extremely good-natured head maid. She was not sure that even her son understood her true intentions.

But Juliana was fine with that.

She could only do it if her life and dignity were protected; she accepted the hurt of a bad reputation.

Nevertheless, now that Felix’s accession to the throne was almost inevitable with the fall of King Werner, the Queen has finally put away her burden. There was no longer any need to spread any more bad rumors than necessary.

She was hoping that she could finally be able to treat the frightened maidservants with some gentleness and that she would eventually be able to mend her relationship with her son and the head maid, who was in a state of emotional distress when this happened.

“I wonder if my favorite cup of tea will be boiled down by this clumsy new maidservant.”

It is a fact in itself that people get cranky when bad tea is brewed.

Juliana looked skeptically at the maidservant in front of her.

She had simple black hair and thick glasses that seem to be halfway up her face.

The clothes are clean but somewhat untidy.

Lacking in expression and generally dull, a commoner-looking maidservant…

“Huh?”

And then a strange thing happened.

The girl, who called herself Elma, quickly sat up and smiled faintly.

She stood there gracefully as if she had been pulled from the top of her head by a single wire.

The maid’s uniform, which seemed somehow out of proportion to her height, seemed to follow the lines of her body exquisitely.

It was a beautiful, well-proportioned style.

Even her lips, which formed a slight smile, were so beautifully shaped that Juliana wondered how she hadn’t noticed them before.

The left and right sides of the mouth are perfectly oriented and graceful.

She just stood straight and smiled.

And yet, it was a dramatic change, as the girl in front of her seemed to have suddenly transformed from a dull commoner to a lithe noblewoman.

“You…”

Without a second thought, Juliana reached out with her hand, which clasped her folding fan.

But Elma suddenly looked up at the sky, checked the position of the sun, and nodded quietly, “It’s about time, if you don’t mind, I’ll be happy to serve you some tea.”

She bowed gracefully to Juliana as she sat down in a chair set in the garden.

Everything that happened in the next few minutes was beyond Juliana’s imagination.

“What brand of tea would you like to drink? In addition to our first harvest of Rebelk, we also serve Stolz, Kräder and Hanisch on request.”

Seriously, so much for…? And Rebelk’s, that was the first pick?

“I’m sorry, Madam.”

Rebelk tea is very precious and only available in limited quantities near the top of the steep mountains.

In her home country, there were a lot of tea-loving nobles, but she had rarely tasted tea since marrying into the Kingdom of Luden, Juliana jumped at it without a second thought.

Nevertheless, it was hard to believe that she was a commoner, but she is well versed in tea.

“Three types of milk are available.”

“You know, three kinds of…?”

“If you’re wondering what the three types of cattle are, they have a variety of them. It is a rare find, even in my home country.”

“I recommend the Arvelines, which are the least flavorful of the breeds because they don’t need any additional sugar at the first harvest.”

“So… then.”

At this point, Juliana was convinced that the tea brewed by this girl must no longer be of the highest noble class quality in her home country.

“Thank you very much, Madam. Moritz, the Arvelin cow, is in an excellent mood today, and I am sure her milk is excellent. –Moritz, come on!”

‘You’re going to milk it now!? I mean, just where did that cow come from!?’

No, it might be beyond excellent.

Juliana stared dumbfounded at the maidservant who milked the cow deftly as she spoke to it.

After securing the fresh milk and carefully removing the cow from sight, Elma then moved the tea leaves to the pot with a smooth motion of her hand, poured in hot water, which was undoubtedly the right temperature and covered it with a lid.

After she had finished steaming, she lightly held up the white porcelain pot and poured the tea into the cup in her other hand.

It was a sunny, dazzling afternoon.

The blessed light coming from high in the sky made the amber liquid sparkle and shine, and the tea that was gracefully settled in the cup with a smooth trajectory was like a rainbow connecting heaven and earth.

‘Ugh… it’s beautiful!’

The artistic quality of the mere act of pouring the tea struck Juliana as if her cheeks were caressed.

“Please enjoy your cup of tea.”

The tea that was eventually served – was perfect.

That’s right. Perfect.

The color and smell were perfect.

‘My gut tells me that I should drink it as is. It tells me to drink it without adding any milk.’

The queen, a tea lover, obeyed the voice and raised her cup with an off-handed gesture.

One sip revealed the pleasant temperature, the delicate astringency on the tongue, and a fragrance that can only be described as elegant.

‘What a surprise.’

‘I’ve never had a tea that seemed to try its best to get right in the middle of my tastes.’

“…. OH ….!”

Elated, Juliana let out a cry of ecstasy.

“It’s great…! It was.”

Lucas and Gerda, who had almost stepped out into the garden, froze momentarily, looked at each other’s faces and then looked again at Juliana, who was enjoying her tea in the garden.

Her beautiful face, which was often coated with a stern expression, was now wearing a broad smile, or rather, a color of euphoria on her cheeks.

The expression on her face, which looked as if she was leaking joy from her heart, was so blissful that even those who were watching were washed away by sight.

‘So… Her Highness is smiling…? What is this…? I’m hallucinating…?’

Suddenly, she heard a stunned murmur from behind her.

When she turned her gaze, she saw a blonde woman with a pale complexion, Irene, was standing there. Rather than standing, she was in a state where her soul seemed to have left her body, and it was lying halfway down into the bushes with the second prince of her dreams.

Apparently, she had arrived here a step ahead of them after being ordered to apologize by head maid Gerda l and was just as stiff as Lucas and the others.

It seems that they were trembling at the sheer rarity of witnessing the fullest smile of the Tormentor Queen, who is said to bring snow in the summer.

No, strictly speaking, that’s not the only thing that shocked Irene.

‘The amount of work the four of us would complete over the course of a day, not only did she complete it in the morning, but all of it was perfect…’

Irene was horrified by the fact that all of Elma’s work had been done before Juliana’s tea was served.

Moreover, Elma, who had been serving the tea, did not display even a hint of fatigue.

Furthermore， “Once you’ve finished your scones, here is today’s dessert. We have made a special effort to make the process as easy as possible for you to enjoy, so we will not set the scones on a tea stand.”

“Well…!”

As the three of them looked on, Elma respectfully began to prepare the sweets.

She also pushed a wagon set with cooking utensils that even Lucas had never seen before, not to mention Irene and Gerda. They could no longer imagine what was going to happen from here.

“What’s that…?”

“Looking at the thick dough and thin griddle, is she making crepes…?”

As the second prince, Lucas, who had tasted sweets from all over the world, ancient and modern, barely made such a guess.

But Elma’s actions were a bit more than that.

“The first step is to make a nice, soft, melt-in-your-mouth crepe.”

Work deftly to bake the crepes and gather them in the center of the griddle, bringing the folds together beautifully.

“Then a splash of high-alcohol spirit. Today we’re using a fragrant Großkreuz brandy.”

Tipping the bottle toward the crepes on the griddle with a swinging hand, Elma held up more matches to the fire.

“Flambe.”

BOOM!

At once, beautiful flames flew up to the sky.

“Yikes!”

Juliana screamed – but it was a scream of joy, not fear and clutched her chest with her hands.

“My God… my heart is beating so hard it won’t stop…!”

Her expression is no different than that of a little girl in excitement.

Elma quickly prepared a plate of crepes, sprinkled them with fruits and sauces, and offered them to Juliana, along with two other sweets she had prepared quickly.

Then, with a scoop, he lifted the bridge of her glasses.

“Today’s offering is a trilogy inspired by the mysteries of the East and spiritual Zen. From left to right: Karma, Nirvana, Enlightenment and Beyond.”

“What a great name for them!”

The minds of Lucas and the other three peepers, oddly enough, were united.

“It’s great! I see that the aromatic scent that both bewitches and corrupts, yet leaves a momentary afterimage that disappears, representing the sinful and sweet karma that we are destined to have from birth.”

“As you say, Madam”

“But we have a connection!”

Lucas and the others looked at each other with cold sweat on their faces.

“Oh…! My God, it’s been twenty years since I set foot in Luden. Yet I’ve never encountered such a beautiful sweet with such connotations, even back in my Rutland days!”

“I am grateful for your kind words, Madam.”

Juliana was so excited that she began to speak in her mother tongue, Rutland, and Erma was able to meet her in a firm manner.

‘Fluent in the language!?’

Again, Lucas and the others shouted in their minds in unison.

But the shock didn’t stop there.

“Oh, but that’s a lot of food, isn’t it?”

When Juliana came to herself, she suddenly nodded her head, and in the next moment, there were three more seats added to the table for three more people.

It was a quick, momentary feat that even Lucas, who had an excellent dynamic vision, couldn’t believe his eyes.

But Elma spoke up faster than the three of them could react.

“The three of you who are in the bushes over there. I’m sure you are all thirsty in this fine weather. I would like to address Your Highness, Juliana. May I have the honor of accompanying your son, His Highness, My Lady Handmaiden, and, I hope, my beloved head maid?”

The fact that Lucas and his friends were peeking in on them was something they could see coming.

Juliana, who was asked for permission to sit with them, looked blank for a moment and then burst out laughing when she recognized Lucas and his friends.

“Oh! You guys…!”

It was so funny; she laughed with tears appearing in her eyes.

“Yes… Yeah, yeah, let’s do that. Hmm… kind of dreamy.”

‘In truth, I’ve always wanted to do this.’

A small Rutland muttering was heard and understood by only Lucas and Elma.

On a side note, the first spiritual zen sweets, the three of them had ever tasted were all so good that they almost ascended to heaven.