Hildenburg Territory.
Lady Rosaria was living in one of the family’s detached villas.
It had been three months since the marriage talks with House Enstark had been settled.
After her future husband was decided, she had moved into the villa and come under the family’s special supervision.
“My lady, what shall we do about breakfast?”
The head maid approached Rosaria and asked.
Lady Rosaria quietly shook her head.
“Would it not be better to have at least one bite?”
“……”
“……Understood.”
The head maid, her face full of worry, had no choice but to withdraw.
There had once been a time when, by the duke’s order, they had tried to force Lady Rosaria to eat.
But Lady Rosaria had thrown up every bit of food that entered her mouth,
and when her condition instead worsened, they stopped forcing meals upon her.
Among the servants in the mansion, there had been no end of rumors about Lady Rosaria of late.
Rumors that never surfaced openly,
spoken only among themselves within the mansion.
And among those stories was even the ominous talk that, at this rate, Lady Rosaria would not last long,
and that they would be holding her funeral before her wedding.
“……Could everyone leave me for a moment?”
Lady Rosaria sent all the servants out of the room.
Then she recalled what had happened recently at the restaurant she had visited, Slow.
The chef there had been a truly unusual man.
Even with her, the daughter of a ducal house, before him, he had spoken without hesitation,
and had not so much as blinked at Lord Hairel’s threats.
Klaus, was it?
The restaurant he ran was also of a kind she had never seen before.
Most famous restaurants operated on a large scale in the busy districts,
but it was refreshing that his was located somewhere one could only reach by taking that terrible road.
A location that seemed to say to customers, if you think you can find your way here, then try.
In fact, when Rosaria had visited the restaurant,
they had had to replace the carriage wheels several times.
When her brother, who had visited first, ordered them to bring several times more spare wheels than usual,
she had not understood why, but once she went there herself, she immediately did.
A restaurant so difficult to visit that one had to make a real resolution just to go.
But also a restaurant that would make anything the customer wanted.
—I will order freedom like an adventurer’s.
That had been Rosaria’s order.
Even now, when she thought back on it, she could not understand why she had let such an absurd order leave her mouth.
But what she understood even less was the chef who had readily accepted that order.
She had heard a little about that chef from Lord Hairel.
That he was a former mage and adventurer,
and for some reason, seemed to be friends with the hero Irit.
Inside the carriage, Lord Hairel had said that if the chef had not been an acquaintance of the hero, he would not have let him off.
“Haa……”
Rosaria let out a deep sigh.
Life as a duke’s daughter was one without want,
the very picture of a truly wealthy upper-class life.
And yet, while living in this house, Rosaria had never once properly decided something by her own will.
If told to learn dance, she learned dance; if told to attend a ball, she attended.
Even showing her face at grand events in the royal capital and smiling as she waved to the people of the territory were things she had done because she was told to.
The marriage partner decided this time, too,
was a decision between families that contained none of Rosaria’s will at all.
The other party was a man named Hans from House Enstark.
Rosaria had met him exactly once at a family event.
He was tall, with narrow, slit-like eyes, a pointed chin, and an arrogant manner.
House Enstark was also a great ducal house no less than Hildenburg,
so as Rosaria looked at Hans, her future husband, she had thought he had many points in common with her brother, Lord Hairel.
Whenever he spoke about himself, he exaggerated everything and boasted,
and he openly stared at the cleavage and legs visible through her dress, revealing his desire.
Frankly, aside from having been born into a good family,
she thought he was a pathetic, petty man with no dignity whatsoever as a man.
And with a man like that…… once next month came, she would be married.
She hated it.
Rosaria truly hated the thought of marrying that man.
Klaus had been right.
Rosaria knew better than anyone why she had become unable to touch any food.
The passing of each day was painful and hellish.
She wished every moment would pass as slowly as eternity,
but every day, the date on which she would marry that petty man drew closer and closer, and it was unbearably hard.
But everything was for the family.
For the father who had raised her, and for the revival of this house.
Because that was the role of a duke’s daughter…… she tried hard to persuade herself.
Defying the family’s decision felt like something far too grave.
Compared to that, saying she did not like her marriage partner felt like an infinitely trivial complaint.
Because that was how Rosaria had been raised.
Like a beautiful flower cultivated from the beginning on the assumption that it would one day be given to someone.
A being whose worth would disappear if she did not marry into a good family,
who had to live most of her life for the revival of her house.
—At least in this restaurant, please choose by your own will, my lady.
The words spoken by that chef named Klaus kept lingering in her ears.
The life of a duke’s daughter was a series of days unbearably dull.
People called her the “Doll Princess” and praised her beauty,
but in truth, Rosaria did not like that nickname.
The Doll Princess.
It was a nickname given because she was beautiful, like a finely crafted doll,
but to Rosaria, it felt as though it meant she was a being without a will of her own.
The Doll Princess always had to remain perfectly beautiful.
For the revival of House Hildenburg,
to marry into another good family and raise the family’s prestige.
Within that atmosphere, there was only one amusement Rosaria had been able to enjoy.
Reading.
In particular, Rosaria had liked books such as travel adventures about freely wandering the world,
biographies of ancient heroes, and memoirs containing the real experiences of adventurers.
The protagonists in those books went wherever they wished,
sometimes suffered hardships, met new people, and lived freely.
As Rosaria sought out and read such books, she felt a strange vicarious satisfaction.
Even while spending days so stifling they felt suffocating,
when she read a book filled with new adventures, she could feel her heart pounding with excitement.
But when she read the final page and closed the book,
she still saw herself being raised by her family like a bird in a cage.
Since, having been born a duke’s daughter, she could not defy the family’s will anyway,
Rosaria had no choice but to appease her longing for freedom by reading those books.
However……
—Next time, come to this restaurant alone, without telling anyone. Then I will let you taste the food you ordered.
To the absurd order of asking him to serve freedom like an adventurer’s,
that chef named Klaus had answered like this, without the slightest hesitation.
Rosaria was curious.
If she were to go to that restaurant alone,
just how would he allow her to taste the food she had ordered?
To her, whose body was already rejecting all food because of the family’s marriage issue,
he had spoken with such absolute confidence.
It was truly strange.
Even though she knew it made no sense,
for some reason, as time passed, the thought that she wanted to follow his words and visit the restaurant again only grew stronger.
Was it simple curiosity?
Or was it that, because he was an acquaintance of the hero Irit, she expected there to be something special about him?
Rosaria could not know.
But her heart was already leaning to one side.
* * *
“Manager~ Manager~”
“What?”
“For dinner tonight, hamburg steak.”
“What?”
“Could you make it for meeeee?”
A peaceful afternoon at the restaurant Slow.
Aris, the wet-seaweed ghost, shamelessly twisted her body in front of me and acted cute.
At first, she had simply eaten whatever she was given,
but at some point, she had started pestering me for the food she wanted.
Well, it was not as though she was asking for anything particularly impressive, so it was not hard to make……
But considering she had started working as an employee in the first place to pay off her dine-and-dash with her body, it was awfully cheeky of her to pick the menu too.
“What food can’t you eat?”
“Huh? Food I can’t eat?”
“You know, something that makes you feel really bad if you eat it, or food you dislike.”
“If it’s something humans can eat, I’m not particularly picky.”
“Haa… is that so.”
If she had food she could not eat, I was thinking of deliberately making it in grand fashion to mess with her.
For a ghost, she sure had a good appetite……
“But that lady…… will she be all right?”
Aris suddenly asked.
“Why are you asking that?”
“It’s just…… her complexion was almost the same as mine, so it bothered me a little.”
“If her complexion is similar to yours, a ghost’s, then that’s a serious problem.”
“But honestly, it really was.”
True, the Doll Princess’s face had been far too bloodless.
“What do you think?”
I had already reached a conclusion in my own mind,
but for no particular reason, I grew curious about Aris’s opinion and asked.
“Mm…… I don’t know. Will she really come back to the restaurant?”
“She will.”
“Eh, you’re sure?”
“Rather than being sure…… I’d call it a gut feeling.”
The order Lady Rosaria had given me.
Freedom like an adventurer’s.
To be honest, when I first heard that order, even I was surprised.
For a young lady from such a noble household to want not just freedom, but freedom like an adventurer’s.
When you thought about it, adventurers might look free on the surface,
but once you actually tried it, the road ahead was unexpectedly full of hardship and difficulties.
I wondered if there had been some reason for her to admire adventurers.
“Anyway, I’ve finished all the preparations in case she comes back.”
In any case, I was the owner of a restaurant that made anything the customer wanted.
Since I had taken the order, I had prepared everything for now.
It was then.
Jingle— jingle—
The shop door opened, and the bell rang.
* * *