I Picked Up the Second Male Lead After the Ending - Chapter 5

“What is this?”

His slightly frowned eyebrows were cold.

Whether he was sitting with his slender legs crossed or crossing his arms as if he didn’t like what he saw, everything looked cool when it was him who did it.

“It’s a hotcake made by Princess Peony.”

As the maid answered his question politely, I was hiding behind the door, nodding my head.

I shouldn’t have said it was just a plain hotcake, it would have been better if I told her it’s a hotcake with plenty of honey from our Garten!

I was frustrated by the lost opportunity and regretted it in my heart.

My favorite character likes Garten’s delicious honey.

He also likes Garten’s strawberries and tea.

All three of them were the finest products of its category in the whole continent, so they were often used as expressions that reflected our favorite character’s luxurious taste.

“Are you saying that the princess made it herself?”

He said with a look of doubt on his face.

Well, it would be strange if a country’s princess was touching a frying pan in the kitchen.

However, if it’s for the person you like, not just a princess but even a queen, would enter a kitchen and bake hotcakes.

Even more so if you can bake hotcakes like me!

Richt kept looking with suspicion at the plate on which the hotcake was placed.

It was a hotcake that I had just baked, and the maid brought it to him quickly, since I told her that, “He should eat it while it was warm.”

The fluffy hotcake was also topped with butter which was made from the milk squeezed from the cows grown in the rich green areas of Garten and sprinkled with plenty of honey.

The savory aroma and the sweet smell, made my nose flutter as I was looking inside the door. It’ll be even stronger to Richt who’s near it.

“Leave it and go out.”

He turned his head as if it were nothing and looked back at the book he was reading.

“But your highness······.”

As if he had not forgotten my request, the maid opened her mouth carefully.

Then Richt, who was looking at the book, glanced at her.

It was such a gaze that’s telling the maid that if she doesn’t listen, it would be her greatest mistake, and if you were not yet scared, he would give him something to be scared of.

As if frightened by the glint of his eyes, the maid quickly shut her mouth.

“What?”

“That, it’s just······.”

Hurry up! Tell him to eat now! Say that it’s good to eat it while it’s still warm!

“N-Nothing your Highness.”

However, a simple maid with no status or power could not dare to catch the eyes of the Grand Duke of the North.

Frightened by Richt’s eyes, she couldn’t pass on what I had said and just turned her back to get out of the Grand Duke’s parlor.

······Oh no, wait! I haven’t run away yet······

“Oh, my goodness!”

When the maid opened the door, I was caught standing in front of it in a very awkward way.

“Princess Peony?”

“Ahahaha······. Hello, Grand Duke.”

I hurriedly made a curtsy and said hello. The maid, who opened the door and made me get caught, stepped aside, wondering what to do.

“Why are you here?”

“Uh, it’s because······.”

I couldn’t bear to answer the polite words of Richt.

That I was peeping at you······.

“I was just passing by.”

“······.”

Oh, was it too obvious?

“So, after I baked the hotcake and gave it to the maid, I was on the way back to my room······.”

“Neither the kitchen nor the princess’s room is this way.”

“······I guess I’m lost because I’m not used to this castle yet.”

I decided to be shameless.

A shameless woman would be better than a peeping woman.

“Excuse me, Grand Duke.”

“Say it.”

“You should try it now.”

I glanced at the hotcake.

“It’s delicious when it’s warm.”

Since I was already being shameless, let’s just be brazen even more.

I’m going to feed my favorite character his favorite food! And stay here to see the sight!

Heh~ the mere thought of it makes my heart flutter······.

“No, thank you.”

······Huh?

With words that shattered my excitement, Richt looked at me with an insensitive look on his face.

“I don’t like sweets.”

It’s a lie.

With a manly face that looks like he would only eat meat and nothing else, I know that he actually likes sweet things.

“I don’t like hotcakes either.”

This is also a lie.

He loved hotcakes. I know that he ate enough hotcakes made by the Heroine to even get a stomach ache.

“I don’t like hotcakes, and you also sprinkled it with honey that I hate······. I hate everything sweet.”

Without changing a single expression, Richt lied.

“But······.”

I wanted to refute. Don’t you actually like it?

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t say that I knew that he liked hotcakes, that he really liked honey and all sweet things.

“I’m thankful for the princess’s sincerity, but please take it back.”

Richt glanced at the plate on the table and even gestured to the maid standing by the wall.

“G-Grand Duke Richt. “

“Say it.”

His face was very calm.

His deep, dark black eyes were still, and his sexy red lips were firmly shut.

His face seemed to have no expressions, no emotions.

I couldn’t even tell if he was really looking at me.

“I-It’s······ nothing······.”

“Then, take it with you.”

I picked up the plate of hotcake from the maid who was trying to follow me.

So I quietly looked down and stared at the floor.

The plate was still warm so the hotcakes must have been warm still.

But strangely, my hand in contact with it was getting colder.

“What’s wrong with you? You went out so excited before.”

“Huh?”

Raheln, who was sitting in front of me, looked up and asked.

His lips were glittering with honey.

The hotcakes that were meant to be given to Richt, ended up in Raheln’s mouth.

While packing his things to go back to Garten, he said, “I’m hungry, this is quite good,” and enjoyed the hotcake.

I liked the sight of him eating the hotcake with happiness, but I felt bitter.

I wish Richt was the one who enjoyed it.

“Oh, it’s nothing brother.”

I shook my head as if nothing was wrong, I didn’t want to cause unnecessary anxiety.

“It was really good. How many did you make that I even had the chance to eat some of them?”

“I made extras because my brother likes it.”

“Of course. The pancakes our Peony makes are the best in the world. I was really surprised to see that you know how to make this. It was even more surprising because it was delicious.”

“I learned it in the bridal class. I wanted to be a bride loved by my husband.”

As I told the white lie with a giggle, Raheln laughed.

However, the lie left something to think over in my mind.

A bride that was loved by her husband.

Today, when I saw Richt’s cold eyes and numb expression, it was absolutely impossible to say if that could become true.

Richt, whom I liked in the novel, was a man who would not care about passing through fire or diving through icy water if it were for the heroine. He was never such a cold man.

Even though his mouth was rough and he spoke wildly, he was a man with a warm heart. Not such a cold man.

I was struggling because of the difference gap between the Richt I read in the book and the Richt I actually see in the flesh.

“You, are you okay? Your complexion doesn’t look good.”

“Is that so? I think······ I’m just a little tired.”

Raheln’s face, full of worries, looked at me.

“I knew it. I expected something like this to happen when you said you were making pancakes. It’s probably hard to get used to this weather because it’s already cold, but you’re already doing this and that.”

The euphoric nagging of Raheln began.

“You should just have done the Grand Duke’s share. Why would you even bake mine? You’ve been standing in the kitchen longer because of me.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What do you mean no? Hey! What are you doing? You should immediately go get some rest.”

He jumped up from his seat and pulled my hand.

“Come on, come on. Get some rest.”

Only after he laid me on the bed, and covered me with a blanket almost to the tip of my nose did Raheln look relieved.

“Let’s take a nice nap.”

“Okay, my dear nagging brother.”

When I put my mouth out of the blanket and grumbled, Raheln looked sharply at me for no reason and pulled the blanket up again to cover my mouth.

“Close your eyes.”

Finally, I glanced at Raheln once and closed my eyes. Then somber darkness filled my view.

“Peony, do you remember what I said yesterday?”

A small voice floated in my ear.

“I’m going back to Garten tomorrow. I really don’t want to leave you here alone, but I can’t help it because I respect your choice.”

A small sigh diffused into the air.

“If you’re having a hard time, call me anytime. We’ll be by your side. You are our father’s precious daughter, my and older brother’s precious little sister.”

Raheln’s hand, who softened the blanket and came in, clasped my hand.

I felt like tears were about to come out.

They loved me. From the bottom of their hearts.

Even now, if I got up and told Raheln that I was regretting it while crying, and that I wanted to go back to Garten together with him, he would bring me back without asking anything.

Maybe Richt wouldn’t even bother to hold onto me either.

From his point of view, it would be a good opportunity to get rid of the annoying princess he has to marry.

But the reason I felt like tearing wasn’t because I was grateful for Raheln’s words or because I pity myself for Richt’s indifference.

Richt, whom I liked, experienced this kind of love.

He loved the Heroine this preciously.

But now, he had the eyes that seemed to not even know what love is about anymore.

The glint in his eyes was too cold like a cold desolate island that even a single sprout of love would seem impossible to exist.

I was so sorry that my Richt had to change like that.

I felt like crying.

Richt’s nose still smelled sweet.

He didn’t taste it one bite, but by the smell alone he knew it was Garten’s honey.

He knew that it was not just any honey, but the best honey there was.

It was Richt’s favorite honey.

The same was true of the hotcakes. It was Richt’s favorite food.

But he couldn’t eat.

“Hestia······.”

Richt quietly called the name of the person he loved the most and who had now become another man’s woman.

She was extremely beautiful.

For him who was called the stupid prince, she was the only one who treated him warmly.

She was a woman who showed him what motherly love is instead of his mother who had been obsessed with love, and who could only tell him that he should become the next emperor.

And she was a woman who chose another man rather than him.

“Hestia······.”

Once again, the voice sounded more mournful.

It was a love he became more obsessed about, the more he couldn’t have it.

Because it was not his, he became more greedy.

The hotcake that came out today was also something with such memories with her.

So he couldn’t eat it.

The soft hotcake would stab the throat more painful than thorns.

The sweet honey would feel bitter than poison.

Like all the things that remind him of Hestia.

“Hmmm······.”

Richt breathed in the sweet scent that was still lingering in the air.

It was a sweet fragrant smell.

It was the scent of the honey he liked.

It faintly reminded him of the princess who had made it.

Was her hair blonde?

Did she have blue eyes? Or is it green? He couldn’t remember.

What about the nose? He couldn’t remember it also.

The lips? It seemed that he can’t remember a single thing about the princess at all······.

“It was red.”

He thought she was only a hazy memory, but suddenly he remembered her red lips.

It was a small, red lip.

The princess’s lips were red, like the strawberries of Garten, his favorite.

The eyes that gazed and looked at me were probably blue.

“A stupid woman trying to curry favor with the wrong person.”

Unfortunately, that was Richt’s first impression of Peony. (Michael: rip girl. That burns…)

The purpose was obvious.

It was just Garten’s gamble, a rich but small country next to the Fairsprene Empire.

The present emperor already had a beautiful and perfect empress. It was also a marriage between lovers who love each other fiercely, which was celebrated as the romance of the century.

There was no place for Garten’s Princess to intervene.

That’s why they turned their eyes to the north, even though he must have been the half-brother of the emperor, who became Fairsprene’s enemy, he was still the first in line to succeed the throne.

Like she said, the emperor forgave his sin of rebellion.

But what does she expect?

That maybe the emperor might call in his brother from the north and put him in an important position in the Empire?

Or, if the emperor doesn’t have a successor, he might take my child as the one to succeed the throne?

The princess or the king of that small country would have proposed to me with that intention in mind.

Indeed, they were as cunning as mice.

‘Well, you’re handsome!’

I remember the voice of the Princess of Garten, who talked with a slight blush on her face.

When I looked up in surprise at the unexpected reply, I immediately turned away.

Even now when I think about it, I think that it was too much.

The first thing you say when you first see someone is, “You’re handsome.”

“Tsk-“

Richt unknowingly clicked his tongue .

The sweet scent was gone.

It was all useless thoughts. The hotcake of his memories, the princess of the cunning Garten.

Marriage or anything, how long will a princess from a warm country last in this cold place?

Even a maid will not last long in this humble place, and it is rumored that she is a princess raised by the king of Garten like a doll of glass.

Just a little girl stashed in a room in the castle, and if I ignore her, she won’t last long and will leave for Garten, Richt thought.

Although I offered to be engaged with her because it was not acceptable to refuse a matrimony request from a princess of a friendly country, that delicate princess would definitely not be able to last long in the freezing cold of Stern.