You Cook?!!
Miss Helen, their class teacher, walked into the classroom dressed in kitchen attire, looking more like a chef than an instructor.
Her expression was fierce as she scanned the room.
“Why are you all still sitting here?!” she shouted.
The students jumped.
“Don’t you know today’s lesson is cooking? Or do you all think you’re too noble to enter a kitchen?!”
Without wasting another second, everyone hurried outside and followed her to the academy’s cooking yard.
Several cooking stations had already been prepared.
Firewood stoves stood in neat rows, while baskets of vegetables, spices, and fresh fish were arranged on long tables.
Standing at the front was Mrs.
Jasmine.
The students immediately sighed when they saw her.
“Today,” Mrs.
Jasmine began, “you will be preparing the late king’s favorite meal—fish soup and sauce.”
She gestured toward the ingredients.
“Everything you need has been provided. No one is allowed to steal ingredients from another station. If you waste your supplies, no replacements will be given.”
The moment she finished speaking, complaints erupted.
“Are you trying to mock us?”
“We’re nobles! Cooking is a servant’s job!”
“Exactly!”
“I thought you were going to teach us, not force us to cook!”
The murmurs grew louder and louder.
Mrs.
Jasmine patiently waited until the noise died down before speaking again.
“This book contains every instruction you need.”
She lifted a thick cooking guide and waved it in the air.
Her gaze landed on one of the girls who had complained earlier.
“Does this count as teaching now? Or would you prefer that I hold your hand like a child learning to write for the first time?”
The girl’s face instantly turned red with embarrassment.
Mrs.
Jasmine ignored her and continued.
“You will draw lots and return to your assigned groups.”
A wooden box filled with folded papers was brought forward.
One after another, the students stepped up to draw their numbers.
Ella reached into the box and pulled out a slip of paper.
Number Five.
She looked around for her station when Mrs.
Jasmine suddenly stopped her.
The woman gently took hold of her hand and pulled her aside.
“Mrs. Jasmine?” Ella asked.
“Is something wrong?”
Mrs.
Jasmine lowered her voice.
“Look, I don’t want trouble with the king. Even if he’s absent, that doesn’t mean he isn’t watching. If he hears that I allowed you to cook, my entire family might be executed.”
Ella blinked.
Then she smiled.
“Don’t worry. Nothing like that will happen.”
Mrs.
Jasmine looked unconvinced.
“Are you sure? You’re a princess. How could you possibly know how to cook? Princesses don’t go near kitchens.”
Ella’s smile faded slightly.
A princess?
Was she ever treated like one?
A true princess would never worry about her next meal.
A true princess would never watch her maid kneel and beg for food.
A true princess would never be locked away and treated like she didn’t exist.
After being abandoned by her father, Ella and Tyla had been forced to fend for themselves.
The castle kitchen often refused to serve them.
In the end, she had secretly gathered firewood and used the little money she had saved to buy ingredients.
Tyla had taught her how to cook.
Since then, she had prepared her own meals.
Was that the life of a princess?
No.
She had never been a princess.
Not since the day the Divine Shaman declared her powers useless.
Not since her father began looking at her with disappointment and disgust.
Ella returned to reality and smiled at Mrs.
Jasmine.
“I know how to cook.”
The entire yard fell silent.
“You? A princess knows how to cook?”
Selena’s mocking voice cut through the silence.
She walked forward with a laugh.
“I heard Ella wasn’t loved by her family.”
“I heard she’s an illegitimate child.”
“I heard her mother was only a maid.”
“I heard she was locked away and treated worse than a servant.”
The whispers spread through the crowd.
“Then she was never really a princess.”
“That explains everything.”
“Poor thing.”
Ella almost laughed.
Amazing.
Even strangers knew her life story.
As for those rumors about her mother seducing the king?
What nonsense.
The truth had long been buried beneath lies and accusations.
Yet somehow she, who had never asked to be born, was expected to carry the shame of everyone else’s mistakes.
Selena crossed her arms.
“So? Are you surprised everyone knows?”
Ella calmly folded her arms.
“Not really.”
Selena smirked.
“Princesses are treated with care. They don’t enter kitchens. How could you possibly know how to cook?”
She leaned closer.
“Or did your father abandon you?”
The crowd immediately burst into laughter.
Ella stepped forward.
“Yes. He did.”
Everyone froze.
Ella smiled brightly.
“And thanks to being abandoned, I learned how to cook.”
The laughter stopped.
“If my father had pampered me like yours did, I probably wouldn’t pass this lesson.”
She tilted her head.
“Being rejected actually paid off rather well.”
Several students struggled to suppress their laughter.
Ella continued.
“At least I know how to light a fire.”
Her eyes landed on Selena.
“Can you?”
The crowd exploded with laughter.
Selena’s face darkened instantly.
She clenched the hem of her dress so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Yet she couldn’t do anything.
Fighting was forbidden within the academy.
“How dare you speak to her like that?” Kimberly Hay stepped forward.
As the daughter of one of the kingdom’s wealthiest merchants, she had followed Selena around since childhood.
“You’re just jealous because the king favors Selena.”
“That’s true!”
“If you hadn’t appeared, Selena might have become queen!”
The girls immediately began agreeing with her.
Ella raised an eyebrow.
“Jealous?”
Kimberly sneered.
“Of course. You’re married to the king, yet he still favors Selena. Why wouldn’t you be jealous?”
The girls nodded enthusiastically.
Ella chuckled.
“Only a woman who doesn’t know her worth would stay jealous.”
The crowd fell silent.
“The proper response is simple.”
She shrugged.
“Leave.”
“Leave?” Selena laughed.
Kimberly immediately added,
“Just like your mother? The maid who tried to become queen?”
Ella’s hands tightened.
The mention of her mother always struck a nerve.
Then Selena suddenly grabbed a kitchen knife and stretched it toward her.
“So that’s your advice?”
Her smile was full of mockery.
“If a husband doesn’t favor you, should you die like your mother?”
“Then go ahead.”
“Kill yourself.”
The atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Ella’s eyes sharpened dangerously.
She shot Selena a deadly glare.
“Are you done?!” A voice sounded from behind.
Everyone turned.
Isabel walked over angrily, her face dark as she looked at Selena and Kimberly.
“How dare you speak to the king’s wife like that?! Do you want to die?!” she asked.
Kimberly scoffed.
“And how dare she speak to Selena like that?!”
“You two have gone too far!” Isabel snapped.
“If you want to insult her, then insult her. Why drag her mother into this? Do any of you know what really happened back then? Were any of you there?”
The crowd fell silent.
“Yet all of you talk as though you crossed the Foggy Forest and watched everything happen with your own eyes!” Isabel continued.
“The fact that her father rejected her doesn’t mean her mother was at fault.”
Selena crossed her arms.
“But it doesn’t mean she wasn’t either.”
“You’re always picking on her!” Isabel glared at her.
“Don’t tell me you’re starting to feel threatened because you’re losing your chance of becoming queen.”
The crowd gasped.
Selena’s face darkened immediately.
“What nonsense are you saying?”
“Oh?” Isabel raised an eyebrow.
“It’s been two weeks since you last entered the palace. Tell me, has the king finally grown tired of you?”
The crowd burst into laughter.
Selena’s expression stiffened.
“You—”
“She is right.”
Another voice interrupted.
Everyone turned in surprise.
Desmond was standing nearby, slowly fanning himself with his hand fan.
A lazy smile rested on his face as he walked toward them.
Ella blinked.
Even she was surprised he had spoken.
The Three Seasons rarely involved themselves in other people’s matters, especially arguments between ladies.
Yet Desmond had stepped forward.
“If the king loves you as much as you claim,” he said with a smile, “why didn’t he give you a referral letter like he did Miss Ella?”
The laughter grew louder.
Desmond sighed dramatically and shook his head.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
“You spent so many years building your relationship with His Majesty and helping your father gain favor.”
He looked at Selena sympathetically.
“It would be quite tragic if the king suddenly decided he no longer needed you.”
The crowd laughed again.
Selena’s face turned red with anger.
Desmond continued as though he hadn’t noticed.
“Hopefully you saved some of the money and gifts he gave you over the years.”
Selena frowned.
“Why?”
Desmond smiled brightly.
“So you’ll have enough money to open an inn after he abandons you.”
The students burst into laughter.
Kimberly clenched her fists.
She had admired Desmond for years, yet he had never once spoken up for her.
Why was he helping Ella?
“Why are you defending her?!” she demanded.
Desmond blinked innocently.
Then he suddenly took the paper from Ella’s hand.
Number Five.
A smile spread across his face.
“Because she’s in our group.”
The crowd fell silent.
He waved the paper.
“She knows how to cook.”
Then he pointed at himself.
“I don’t.”
The students immediately laughed.
“If she gets angry and refuses to cook for us, our group is finished.”
He looked at Ella and winked.
“So of course I have to protect the angel who is going to help me pass today’s cooking class.”
The crowd laughed even harder.
Kimberly nearly choked on her anger.
Selena looked as though she wanted to stab someone.
“Enough!”
Mrs.
Jasmine’s voice suddenly rang through the yard.
Everyone immediately fell silent.
Her sharp eyes swept across the students.
“Have you all forgotten where you are?”
Nobody dared answer.
“If the king hears the nonsense you’ve been saying today, he might execute every one of you before sunset.”
The students instantly lowered their heads.
“The king is unpredictable. None of you know whose side he would take.”
She pointed toward the cooking stations.
“Miss Ella has already said she knows how to cook.”
“Then let her cook.”
“I don’t want to hear another word about this matter.”
Her gaze swept across the crowd.
“Understood?”
“Yes, Mrs. Jasmine.”
The students answered in unison.
Selena shot Ella one last deadly glare before turning around and walking back to her station.
The humiliation she felt today would not be forgotten so easily.