"Mmm—so good~!"
"Hisss… hot, hot, hot~!"
"Ah! This flavor is amazing too!"
"Eileen, try this one~."
On the second floor of the flower shop, the living room table was filled with plates of grilled meat.
Mia, showing zero signs of being a dainty lady, was happily munching away, holding a skewer in each hand, the corners of her mouth glistening with oil.
Eileen, as always, maintained her graceful composure—daintily nibbling on her skewer with one hand while the other hand elegantly caught any falling meat bits under her chin.
—Half an hour earlier.
"Ugh, grilled meat? What's so great about that? Just a big chunk of meat with some salt, messy and boring to eat."
—Ten minutes ago, Nora came in from next door with a tray of hot grilled skewers.
"Wow! That smells amazing!"
"Huh? These little skewers are grilled meat?"
—Now.
Ron watched the pile of wooden skewers slowly growing on the table and couldn't help but chuckle.
Clearly, barbecue and hotpot were irresistible to people of this world.
"What am I going to do?" Mia wailed while chomping on more meat, mock-tears in her eyes. "Once the festival is over, I'll have to go back—and I won't get to eat delicious food like this again! I'm gonna die~!"
"I'll write down the seasoning recipe for you. You can have the palace chefs try it out—it won't taste too different," Ron offered with a smile.
He knew well that what made Mia and the others fall in love with barbecue and hotpot wasn't just the novelty of the cooking style, but the wide variety of seasonings.
"Yay! Thank you, Ron, ~!" Mia beamed, happily nodding.
At one point, Eileen got up to use the bathroom.
Mia immediately leaned in close and whispered mischievously, "Ron~ what do you think of Eileen?"
Ron glanced at Eileen's silhouette disappearing into the bathroom and raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask? Eileen's great. A typical noble lady wouldn't last a day being drawn on with turtle doodles."
"Hmph! It's not like I draw on her every day! Stop changing the subject!" Mia rolled her eyes before leaning in again, eyes twinkling. "I mean, if Ron were going to find me a sister-in-law, how about Eileen?"
Ron snorted and gently poked her forehead.
Off to the side, Nora's cat ears twitched sharply beneath her hat. Her instincts were on high alert.
Her tail, hidden under her skirt, twitched nervously.
"Your dear big brother is only eighteen. Not planning to marry any time soon."
"Eighteen is old enough!" Mia pouted. "I just turned sixteen, and there's already a line of suitors stretching from the palace gates to the outer walls!"
"That just means our princess is incredibly charming," Ron teased.
"Pfft, I doubt most of them are here for me," Mia said, biting into another skewer with a sullen expression. "They just want political marriages. I'm so over it."
Eileen came out of the bathroom and returned to her seat.
Mia dropped the matchmaking topic and switched to dramatic complaining. "Life in the palace is so boring. Morning tea, afternoon tea, etiquette lessons… Ugh! It's way more fun here with you, Ron!"
Eileen, ever the realist, dryly exposed her: "Princess Mia, you spend most tea parties sneaking into the kitchen for desserts. During etiquette lessons, you're usually convincing the maids to play hide-and-seek."
"That's just because it's so boring!" Mia shot back stubbornly. "If I stay in the palace all day, I'll literally go crazy!"
"Don't you have any hobbies?" Ron asked curiously.
"Of course I do!" Mia nodded, then sighed. "I love hunting, but we only have the Spring Hunt once a year. I like horse racing and polo too, but noble boys always show up trying to flirt with me—ruins the fun."
"I even wanted to try cooking, but they'd never let me near the kitchen."
"Basically, I'm just super bored!"
Ron chuckled, mentally drafting a novel titled 'The Dull Daily Life of Princess Mia.'
Nora, however, couldn't quite grasp Mia's complaints. To her, someone living in luxury, free from worry, had no right to be bored.
But Ron could sympathize—he remembered growing up only having a basic dumbphone. It wasn't until college that his mom finally bought him a touchscreen smartphone.
Forget a computer—the old clunker at home could barely run anything.
Which was probably why, when he got to college, he completely let loose and stayed up late every night "appreciating films."
Still… Mia playing hide-and-seek with the maids in the palace? That felt like a real waste of potential.
Ron dragged his thoughts back to reality and continued chatting while enjoying the barbecue.
Over at Lyle's Barbecue Shop, two new apprentices had been hired. Though they were still learning, they helped ease Lyle's workload.
The shop's business had cooled slightly, and the knock-off chains springing up elsewhere were booming.
But Lyle's place was still turning a solid profit. For now, the crisis wasn't enough to threaten closure.
After dinner and a short game of elemental cards, Ron saw Mia and Eileen off and returned to his study.
The Next Morning
While Ron was doing his morning training in the courtyard, he suddenly heard Lyle roaring angrily next door:
"GET LOST! I don't have time for you pests!"
"Poaching's not a crime, huh?! Let's see how many more you can steal!"
"Just looking at you makes me sick!"
"Hey!"
Ron walked out to see two goblins being chased out of the barbecue shop, with Lyle storming after them—cutting board in one hand, cleaver in the other, face flushed with fury.
"We're just looking out for you!"
"Joining us is a win-win, man. Why resist?"
"This is cooperation, not conflict!"
Lyle couldn't be bothered to argue anymore. He hurled the cutting board to the ground in front of them, then with a loud swish—
Clang!
The cleaver landed precisely on the board, its hilt still quivering.
The two goblins jumped in fright and scrambled backward, cursing:
"Fine, don't sell! What a temper!"
"We come bearing good business, and you spit in our faces!"
"Don't cry when your shop goes under!"
Lyle ignored them completely. With a swift kick, he retrieved the cleaver and board—then turned around, only to see Ron.
His angry expression cracked into a helpless, bitter smile.
"Sorry you had to see that mess."
Ron shook his head, having already guessed who those goblins were.
They were probably lackeys sent by the ones running the knockoff barbecue chains.
"They poached the apprentices I just hired yesterday… and then had the nerve to show up and offer to buy my shop," Lyle said stiffly, though he couldn't hide the disappointment on his face.
Ron stayed silent.
He couldn't help but wonder if giving Lyle those seasoning recipes in the first place had been a mistake.
"I could go talk to whoever's behind this," Ron offered. "If it's just your one shop, they probably wouldn't dare go too far."
Though Ron didn't have much authority as the overlooked Seventh Prince, his Chosen One status gave him plenty of influence in Chaos City, a city governed jointly by four races.
If needed, resolving Lyle's issue wouldn't be hard.
But Lyle shook his head. "Thanks, Ron, but there's no need to go that far."
"Compared to how things used to be, business now is already great. It's just tiring doing everything myself, but nothing I can't handle."
Ron nodded and offered a few words of encouragement before heading back.
Once inside, he still contacted the Radiant Mercenary Corps to quietly investigate who was behind the wave of new barbecue shops.