27: Hunger

Hunger

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.1

(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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