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“I see….”
The crestfallen expression on the woman's face was quite bothersome. Rahan remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“…Well, Eridrahan will probably overlook it for the first day. If He didn't have that much flexibility, would He even be a god?”
“…Would He…?”
Iris opened her eyes wide. Rahan grinned.
“If it doesn't work out, I'll apologize to Eridrahan myself.”
“What? How?”
“There's the traditional way.”
As he spoke, Rahan clasped his hands together in a mock prayer. At that nonchalant gesture, Iris burst out laughing, "Ahahaha!"
“I'll go gather some firewood from the forest first.”
“Now?”
Rahan shrugged.
“It was a bit cold while sleeping yesterday.”
Perhaps because the monastery was perched on a sea cliff, the wind was exceptionally strong. It had been quite chilly last night; if there hadn't been three people in the room, she felt she might have caught a cold.
‘I couldn't exactly ask that impoverished monastery for more firewood.’
Naturally, he didn't think the lady's room in front of him would have been warm. To be perfectly honest, from the moment he entered this cottage, Rahan had thought, ‘It's going to be cold in winter….’
Not only that, remembering the chill of last night made him look for firewood first.
“I'm fine since I've been through all sorts of things on the expedition, but you….”
“Iris.”
“…Since Iris might be cold.”
Having his form of address corrected, Rahan replied with a smirk and picked up an axe leaning against a corner of the cottage.
Iris's eyes widened.
“Do you know how to chop wood…?”
The right hand of the Grand Duke and the second son of the Norwich Margraviate grinned.
“I couldn't exactly carry firewood around during an expedition.”
The forests of Til Nebe Cedric were lush, and the soldiers on the expedition never had to shiver from the cold.
He immediately slung the axe over his shoulder and headed straight for the forest.
His departing figure was quite gallant, so Iris found herself staring blankly before realizing it.
‘Since Iris might be cold.’
For some reason, those words considering her cold felt incredibly ticklish.
“…Now is not the time for this.”
Iris rubbed her rapidly heating cheeks and put a few pieces of wood into the hearth. After placing the wood in the small, round hearth, she realized she had no tinder.
“It should be here somewhere….”
While rummaging through the cupboard, Iris found an unexpected treasure.
“Beer!”
It seemed to be alcohol the wheat farmer had saved to drink occasionally at night.
Tasting it, it was a sour ale. There wasn't much, but there was also a bottle of apple cider next to it.
‘Iris! Alcohol is a very bad thing. Do you understand?’
She remembered being scolded by Priest Sorell as a child after mistakenly drinking apple cider from the kitchen cupboard, thinking it was juice.
She had suffered so much the next day with a headache.
Suppressing a laugh, Iris put them back and found the tinder to start the fire. Checking it, the warmth spread through the house since it was close to the fireplace.
“It'll be a bit hot in midsummer….”
Iris muttered, wiping away sweat.
Since it was by the sea, the wind would blow well, but if it was like this every time she cooked, midsummer would be extremely difficult.
Hearing the faint sound of thump, thump from somewhere, it seemed Rahan had started cutting wood.
Listening to that sound, Iris opened a sack. It was the sack of flour Priest Marid had given her earlier.
“Wow.”
Seeing that there was very little bran and it was snow-white, it was very expensive flour. It was something the monastery rarely used.
Looking at the flour, something came to Iris's mind.
‘I can bake that.’
Suppressing a smile, Iris took out the flour.
She had exactly all the ingredients needed to make ‘that.’ She whispered only to herself.
O Eridrahan, thank you.
‘Actually, I was really worried about what to eat for dinner tonight.’
Left alone in a cottage with a man she had met and married for the first time yesterday—what on earth should they eat? This was something Iris had agonized over.
He was a man from the Grand Duchy. To the right hand of Grand Duke Lacheize, all she had served yesterday were a mere six potatoes.
‘Of course, I like potatoes too, but….’
It probably wouldn't have suited the man's palate. But this would be good.
The priests of Wind Rock Monastery generally didn't indulge in luxuries when it came to food, but the patients who occasionally visited the monastery's Healing Center were an exception. This was because patients had to be fed soft foods that were good for recovery.
And what Iris intended to make was something primarily made at the monastery's Healing Center.
“Let's see.”
Iris poured beer into a large, concave wooden bowl and mixed in the flour.
‘If it were the monastery kitchen, I could have borrowed a sieve.’
But the cottage only had small wooden bowls.
Thinking that she should go to the village and buy various things on the next market day, Iris roughly mixed the flour with a spatula and then kneaded it with her hands.
The feeling of the warm, soft dough sticking to her hands felt good.
“Wild honey!”
She also scooped some honey from the jar of wild honey Priest Marid had brought and added it.
“Hehe.”
Wild honey has a tangy taste, so it would surely pair well.
She waited for a while until the dough doubled in size, then tore off a small piece to taste. She loved how soft and chewy it was.
What she was trying to make was bread.
Someone might ask, 'Just bread?' But this was no ordinary bread!
“Hiyah!”
Thump, thump.
As she punched it repeatedly, the risen dough deflated.
The hardtack baked daily at the monastery had no such fun. It wasn't a bread that rose or fermented. That's why she enjoyed baking this kind of bread.
Iris unconsciously hummed a song as she pounded the dough with her fists—thump, thump, thump.
“Is it fun?”
“Kyaa!”
Startled by the sudden male voice, Iris almost dropped the dough.
“Good grief. I didn't even do anything, and you're startled.”
Having finished chopping the wood at some point, Rahan was smiling as he peeked through the back door. Iris avoided his gaze, her face flushing red.
“I-I had to let the gas out….”
“Is that so? I don't know what it is, but I'll split some wood in the back.”
Does he really need permission for that? At Iris's puzzled expression, Rahan shrugged.
“I thought the noise might startle you.”
Startled by something like that? What did he take Iris, who had grown up in a monastery her whole life, for?
Iris quickly gathered the dough, greased it, covered it with a cloth, and stepped out into the backyard, only to be flustered.
“Kyaa!”
Through the gaps of her fingers, which had instinctively covered her eyes, she saw the man stripping off his upper garment.
Rahan seemed more surprised by Iris's reaction.
“Ah, it's just a bit hot….”
As he said this and tried to put his clothes back on, Iris waved both hands.
“No, no! It's okay! I'll just go inside!”
Ignoring Rahan's voice calling her, “Iris,” she dashed back into the cottage.
Then, she leaned against the wall to calm her racing heart.
‘What a surprise….’
She had helped the elderly female priests bathe at the monastery, and she had seen blacksmiths with their shirts off sweating at the village forge.
Meaning, it wasn't exactly the first time Iris had seen someone's naked body.
Then why was she so startled?
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