Chapter 36

Three days until the tea party and instead of learning tea etiquette and trying on her new dress, Amourora was currently heading to the imperial kitchen with her apprentice maids, dressed like a little maid with her black dress and white apron. Lena had stayed up all night adjusting the measurements of the dress and adding lace and frills to make it look prettier, and she had done a pretty good job.

The moment she stepped into the royal kitchen, the butler announced the emperor's decree for the princess to be treated like a common kitchen maid, then left. All the servants were baffled with the decree, but didn't ask further, only whispering among themselves, coming to a conclusion that it was related to yesterday's incident.

"your highness, what would you like to make today? How about scrambled eggs?" imperial chef Baxter asked enthusiastically.

"I want to make strawberry cakes."

"but, your —"

"bring me the ingredients and carry on with your regular tasks, or are you planning on disobeying the emperor's orders?" she acted like the arrogant know-it-all her eight-years-old self was.

Along with the triplets, she began making a strawberry cake. Purposefully adding too much sugar, because 'a cake can never be sweet enough ', adding too little eggs, because 'she didn't like how it smelled', adding too much water, so 'it's easier to mix', and adding too much wood to the stove, so 'it would cook faster'.

"I'm not sure what we are doing is correct." Luna flipped through a cook book frantically, trying really hard to follow the recipe.

"it's alright, we should just do what our heart tells us." Luan mixed the dough with a wooden spoon.

"Luan is right. How bad could it be?" Amourora added even more sugar, crying at heart for wasting such precious ingredients as she didn't have enough of them in her last life. She still encouraged Luan to add whatever ingredients she wanted to the cake as she knew from her past's future that Luan couldn't cook if her life depends on it.

One time, Luan wanted to make a birthday cake to surprise her master, which didn't go too well, and ended by the queen of the Cloud kingdom forbidding her from going anywhere near the kitchen grounds ever again. Even if she wanted to boil water, the kitchen maids had her wait on the next garden until they brought her the water themselves.

"your highness, the mix seems ready, should we put it on the oven?" Lena asked.

"yes." she suggested, "why don't we play a game while waiting!"

"I'm not sure a kitchen is the right place to play, your highness." Lena tried to dissuade her.

"what game do you want to play, your highness?" Luan asked enthusiastically.

Luan didn't think into matters as much as her sisters did, that's one of the reasons why Amourora had liked her in the past, whatever she wanted, Luan did, no questions asked, unless absolutely necessary. She was honest, loyal, and obedient, and she might be a little naive, but she truly cared for her master and went above and beyond to please her.

"How about..." Amourora thought about a game that would put them in trouble, just enough for the emperor to change his mind about making her work. She wanted to show her father that she wasn't cut for work (although she was, but it might interfere with her plans to change her fate ), and hopefully, he will change the punishment, or maybe even cancel it altogether!

She couldn't think of a game, but she remembered the kids at the care homes. How was that helpful? Well, one, they weren't. But they still insisted to help in the kitchen, although most of the time they'll only get in the way.

That's it!

Pretend to help, but in actuality, bother them, so whatever happens, she and the girls can't be blamed because 'their hearts were in the right place' , and 'they were only trying to help'.

'Smart isn't it?' she tried hard to push a mischievous grin down.

That's where the second reason comes; the children always invented new games to entertain themselves and keep them busy while the adults worked. And Amourora knew the perfect game.

"how about this, one of us will close her eyes, spin around three times, and point at a random object. The other three will then have to bring something associated with it." Amourora explained and left no room for debate. "I will start!"

She closed eyes pointing her finger, and spinning three times.

"oh, excuse me, your highness." a maid tried passing through, gently moving Amourora's hand out of the way.

"I'll do it again." Amourora closed her eyes and spun around, flailing her arm about. "lemons."

"lemons? Oh, lemonade! Where's the squeezing thingy?"

"excuse me... Coming through."

"oops! Sorry."

"Ah! Oh my gosh, sorry."

"Oh! "

"what are you... doing?"

"sorry! "

"oof, excuse me!"

"oh. Careful girls."

"here! Found it!" Luan pushed a few stray strands off her face, catching her breath as she presented the object like presenting a treasure.

"now it's your turn!" Amourora congratulated her for her victory.

"me? Okay." she spun around. "um... Windows?"

"no, glass. A glass cup!"

"where do they keep those?"

"go, excuse me."

"oh, pardon me."

"Watch out! " a servant pushing a cart full of plates yelled. "your highness!"

"aah!"

Crash!