Chapter 75
Chapter 75
And just like that, ‘Erina’s Cooking Time (feat. Dylan)’ began in a rather haphazard manner.
Because of the children throwing tantrums and demanding not to be left out, the two of them couldn’t have proper alone time. Even so, Dylan was in a very good mood just from the fact that he was the one standing right next to Erina.
“Miss Erina, what shall we make?”
Dylan asked, washing his hands with floating water droplets in the air.
“Yes! Dylan, since Mitzu and Hael caught some meat this morning, I was thinking of making meat pies with it. Also, we still have some fruit the kids picked earlier. I thought I’d make a mousse cake with those… Would that be alright?”
Erina said, checking the neatly prepared meat the servants had brought over.
Dylan gave a confident expression that it was no problem, even though he hadn’t understood a single word she’d said.
Seeing the hulking dragon act like an excited student about to begin a practical lesson, Erina let out a small chuckle.
“Wait a moment! Dylan, please put this on before we start!”
“Hmm? This? I need to wear this?”
Dylan stiffened when he saw what Erina held out. He was so shocked, he forgot he was standing in front of her.
But Erina, unconcerned by his reaction, cheerfully helped put the apron on him herself. It was a pink lace apron—Erina’s personal apron.
“I… I don’t think this suits me…”
“Aprons aren’t about looking good! If food splatters, your clothes will get ruined. Especially since what you’re wearing… looks hard to clean.”
“I can clean it with magic! I can keep it spotless!”
“Come on, an apron’s more than enough! No need for magic!”
Erina rejected every one of Dylan’s protests with a smiling face, cornering him with her cheerful determination.
Beaten by her energy, Dylan reluctantly tied the apron around his neck with a displeased expression. Erina walked around him, fixing the awkwardly tied apron.
“Hmm, it’s a bit off here.”
“Here?”
“No, a little lower.”
Dylan pointed near his shoulder. Following his cue, Erina carefully checked the right side of his upper body.
“Huh? The strap seems fine, but maybe something’s twisted?”
“It’s fine now.”
Dylan only said it was fine once he and Erina were close enough to feel each other’s scent.
Erina tilted her head in confusion, nothing seemed to have changed. Only Dylan knew the simple, greedy truth: he just wanted to be closer to her.
“Alright, let’s begin!”
Though they started with great energy, like top pâtissiers, things quickly spiraled into chaos.
Dylan’s face, once burning with excitement, turned pale. For someone who had always accomplished everything with the flick of a finger, human cooking recipes were full of incomprehensible mysteries.
“Erina, since we have to cook it anyway, wouldn’t it be faster if I just seared it with fire?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘two spoons.’ There are so many spoons here—which one is it? Oh, do you mean a teaspoon? Wait! Look, there are multiple kinds of teaspoons!”
“Erina! Do we really have to eat this slimy thing?! It feels like the bodily fluids of a giant ant!”
He talked way too much. Erina, who had initially responded patiently, started sighing more and more.
She was beginning to understand why the children constantly asked ‘Why?’ She was also beginning to understand what people meant when they said blood doesn’t lie.
Dylan stirred the pot once, called Erina more than five times, and washed his hands over five times after touching a single ingredient. With things like this, the cooking could hardly move forward.
Erina wanted to rip off her bandages right then and there. Even if it was a bit much for her body, finishing the cooking herself would be a hundred times better.
“Dewunth, pleethe goo over dehre and weith.”(Dylan, please go over there and wait)
Eventually, clenching her jaw tightly, Erina asked Dylan to take a step back. Only then did he finally realize the situation and nod in agreement.
He opened his mouth several times afterward, whether out of protest or curiosity, but Erina shot down every attempt.
Since they were dealing with fire, the triplets hadn’t been allowed near the oven, but they burst into laughter watching Dylan.
Especially Lia, who laughed so hard she fell out of her chair and ended up being scolded by Erina just like Dylan had been.
“Wow, it’s done!” said Dylan, using wind magic to blow the sweat off his forehead.
Just as he said, the meat pie and mousse cake sitting on the table looked quite decent. Erina, also drenched in cold sweat, let out a deep sigh of relief at the sense of completion.
“Dylan, great job!”
“You too, Miss Erina. Now, please have a taste.”
“Shall we? Kids, can you wait a moment? I’ll bring the plates over.”
“Okaaay!!”
The children responded sweetly to Erina’s words. Dylan didn’t really want to give what he and Erina made to the kids first, but he had no choice. Telling her to eat first would fall on deaf ears anyway.
Feeling gloomy, unable to express his displeasure, Dylan helped Erina prepare the kids’ plates.
At that moment, Mitzu, Hael, and Meian, with backpacks full of herbs, came into the tent looking for Erina.
“What the—You said you weren’t making anything, and yet you made snacks without us?! We could smell it from the forest!”
“Yeah!”
“Erina, I’m here!”
As Mitzu said, the three of them had been drawn out of the forest by the smell and had rushed to the center of the woods after finishing their herb gathering.
Having scoured the forest for herbs, their appetites were fully back.
Upon arriving at the campsite, Mitzu immediately recognized that the smell was coming from the oven he had built.
“Hah! So you did end up cooking something, despite saying you wouldn’t… Wait, Lord Dylan?!”
He had been demanding snacks like they had been left in safekeeping for him but jumped in surprise when he saw Dylan standing next to Erina. Hael and Meian followed suit.
Dylan, in a pink lace apron. It was a sight terrifying enough to haunt their dreams.
“Lord Dylan! W-Why do you look like that?!”
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’?! Just look at yourself! Shall I fetch you a mirror?!”
Mitzu mimed rummaging through a pocket dimension to find a giant mirror. Though he acted shocked, he couldn’t hide the corners of his mouth twitching upward.
Dylan noticed his subordinates laughing at his appearance, but he stood quietly by Erina’s side, pretending not to notice.
“B-But still, Dylan looks really nice, doesn’t he? I think he looks even better in the apron than I do.”
Seeing Dylan quietly standing there, Erina mistakenly thought he was upset from being teased. On top of that, she felt guilty for forcing him to wear the apron even after he clearly didn’t want to.
To Erina, Dylan truly looked beautiful. That’s why she hadn’t thought his appearance was strange at all. But perhaps it looked funny to others.
“Hm. Miss Erina, do you think I look good?”
“Yes! You look great! I told you to wear the apron because it really suits you and you look good in it…”
“Then that’s enough. I’ve come to like it too. Would you help me take it off now?”
Dylan had returned to his usual calm expression. Erina nodded, happy to help.
“Let’s untie the ribbon first, shall we?”
Just like when she tied it earlier, Erina moved behind Dylan and reached for the ribbon. Because of the bandages wrapped around her right hand, even untying a ribbon wasn’t easy.
“Take your time,” Dylan whispered with a gentle smile.
That only made Erina shiver and shrink her shoulders, and the others watching wore expressions like they’d just gotten full-body chills as well.
