Gifts of Gratitude (1)

One day, I was reading a book at my favourite place outdoors, under a large tree in the royal family’s private garden, where I had free access to. It was a pleasant, sunny day, and the temperature was just right in the shade. I had a cushion under my bottom and a small, low table beside me, upon which I had a wooden cup of water. I was feeling very comfortable.

I was absorbed in my reading, but since I was just turning the page, I happened to notice the twins approaching. They were eight years old at the time. The little cuties were wearing predominantly white sleeveless dresses, otherwise identical except one had red frills and the other had blue ones.

Mira – whom I only recognised from this distance because I knew she preferred blue – was carrying a tray with cookies, and Anna was carrying a large mug of milk.

“Brother Ed.”

Mira greeted me for the both of them when they came close, a cheerful smile on her face. Anna waved her free hand, her smile slightly more subdued, as usual.

As Mira offered the cookies, I noticed that there were two kinds. The ones with slightly darker colouring were closer to me.

“We made you some cookies, with uncle David’s help. Have some, brother Ed. Try the darker ones first, they’re Anna’s.”

“Uncle David” was the chief cook in the castle. He was personally responsible for the meals of the royal family and everyone else high-ranking residing in the castle. My master, and by extension I, were of course counted among them.

I sometimes discussed food with him, offering my ideas based on my memories from Earth, and he was surprisingly receptive, not at all too prideful to listen to a child.

I was quite touched. The little girls were princesses: if they wanted cookies, they could have the cooks make them for them. I knew they didn’t have a hobby of going to the kitchen themselves. But for my sake, they used their own little hands to bake for me. They did it because they knew I enjoyed good food, and they wanted to do something for me.

By the way, it was completely natural for Mira to offer me Anna’s cookies first. Whenever they had to share something, she always let her sister, younger by about 15 minutes, have it first. Anna took it for granted, but she never took more than half, sometimes even leaving more for her sister.

That was just how those two were, always thinking of each other.

I put a bookmark on the spread where I was at, closed my book and put it on the little table. I reached for one of the darker cookies. The cookies were of irregular shapes and sizes, but they seemed to be baked properly, none of them were burnt or raw. As I brought the cookie to my mouth, I smelled the sweet scent of honey.

I took a bite. It was pleasantly crunchy, and suitably sweet. It was only after I had happily munched for a while that I suddenly frowned. There was a strange yet familiar taste mixed in, and it was rapidly getting stronger.

Chili pepper?!

The taste came suspiciously late, but it definitely resembled chili pepper, a spice from Earth that makes your whole mouth feel hot. And it was damn strong. I was already panting like a dog.

I fixed a hard glare on Mira.

The little girls laughed and high-fived each other (raising their arms high and slapping their palms together, a custom from Earth that I had taught them).

“I lied! Those are actually mine.”

I see. She got my guard down by offering the “chili” cookies as Anna’s, who had a gentler nature and was generally less inclined towards pranking, though usually happily followed her elder sister’s lead.

Anna, still giggling, came forward and offered the milk. I took the mug, but gave it a suspicious look.

“Don’t worry, brother Ed, it’s ordinary goat’s milk.”

As Anna reassured me and I cautiously took a sip of the milk, Mira was slowly recovering from her bout of laughter, wiping her tears.

“I put some cumur powder in those cookies. Uncle David was so excited to get a shipment of it that he couldn’t stop talking about it, so I had the idea to try it while he wasn’t looking. The other cookies are actually Anna’s, and they’re normal.”

After Mira smugly explained her plot, I gave a somewhat bitter and resigned sigh. I just couldn’t stay angry at her.

I gave the cookie in my hand a ponderous look. Cumur powder was something David had mentioned to me before. It was an expensive import, but David had said that its taste might be similar to the chili I had described to him.

I had now confirmed that this was indeed the case. While the taste attacked with an odd delay, it was indeed similar to chili. It seemed to be really powerful, though, so I should warn David to use it with caution, in very small amounts.

I resolved myself and took another bite of the cookie. It wasn’t honestly bad at all, even the spiciness was something that oddly suited the cookie, even if it was much too strong. It could be quite good with a much smaller amount of cumur powder.

“W- why are you still eating it?!”

Mira asked me the obvious question, clearly bewildered. Anna looked at me weirdly, too.

“Well, you made it for me, so it would be disrespectful of me to not eat it all. Besides, one shouldn’t waste food.”

“Brother Ed…”

The girls watched in distress as I sacrificed myself and ate the whole cookie, even reaching for another one, while soothing my mouth with the milk in between mouthfuls.

While it was meant to be an innocent prank, it was now causing me prolonged pain.

I appreciated the gesture despite the prank.

One shouldn’t waste food.

These were the three things I was trying to convey to the girls with my sacrifice.

I allowed myself to be persuaded to stop after the second cookie, when the girls threatened to eat them, too, if I insisted that they needed to be eaten. After all, I didn’t want them to taste the same pain I did, and I wasn’t masochistic enough to want to keep going myself. I figured that they had already properly understood my message.

Afterwards, the three of us enjoyed Anna’s cookies, which were delicious, though unfortunately my sense of taste was partially numbed by the cumur powder cookies.

They never pranked me with food again.

By the way, I later developed a cookie recipe that used a small amount of cumur powder, in cooperation with Chief Cook David. It was a big hit with the whole royal family.