I stood there awkwardly until the chef finally sighed and said,
"Sit. You must be hungry."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Eren told me yesterday that a new girl arrived and would come to eat," she said while placing a plate in front of me. "But no one came."
"I, uh…fell asleep."
The food looked amazing. One bite and....
Heaven. Pure heaven!!
"It's SO delicious!!" I said, stuffing my face like I'd been starving for a century.
"Slow down! No one is taking your food," Chef scolded, piling more onto my plate anyway.
Suddenly, laughter echoed from the doorway.
I looked up.
The lady and Eren were standing there....
Eren was literally on the floor, wheezing, while the lady covered her mouth...and then also burst out laughing.
"Why are you on the floor, Eren?" I asked, confused.
He didn't answer. He just kept laughing harder.
The chef glared at both of them.
"Stop laughing at the poor girl! And come eat."
They finally calmed down and sat.
Eren introduced me properly.
The chef's name is Hina-—and to my surprise, she's over forty!
She doesn't look like it at all!!!
I glanced around, checking if the scary maid was coming.
She didn't.
It is a relief for me. Pure relief!!
After finishing our meal, Eren handed me my first task.
I was assigned to clean the entire first and second floors....
Except the lady's room.
Honestly?
I didn't care. It's not like it was my first time doing this.
Even though I'm a princess, I caused enough trouble back home that sometimes they punished me by making me clean the castle…
…even though I usually ran away halfway through.
As if their punishments ever worked on me!
But this time, I actually did it.
I cleaned the whole mansion until it was sparkling—literally glittering.
"Wow….who did this amazing job? Oh wait---ME," I said proudly, admiring my work.
Suddenly—---
A hand touched my shoulder.
Cold. Light. Unexpected.
But there wasn't ANYONE there a second ago.