"IS THIS your dog?" Zoe asked Mira, the commoner child that she met a while ago. Bruno, the bulldog that Isaak Viotto knocked out with one hit, was still unconscious in her arms. "The one you're looking for?"
"Yes, Big Sister!" Mira said, her face glowing with delight. "Thank you!"
"I don't accept a simple "thank you," child," she said cheekily. "I will return your dog to you if you give me your candy cane as payment."
Luckily, the child hadn't eaten the candy cane yet.
She could tell because the candy was still wrapped in something that resembled a cling wrap.
"B-But I promised my sister that I will give her a gift once I return home…"
"I'll buy your candy cane for one hundred gold coins then," she said. Checks were available in this world, but as of this moment, only the nobles could use them. So giving Mira a check would be useless. The bank might even accuse the child of stealing it. "You can buy your sister a lot of yummy food with it. Does it sound good to you?"
Mira appeared to hesitate for a moment, but it only took her a few seconds before she handed her the candy cane. "Here, Big Sister."
Zoe smiled brightly at the child. "Good thinking, baby girl."
***
"MY LADY, why did you return alone?"
"I gave Fritz a sideline job," Zoe told Dal while she was unwrapping the candy cane on her way to the fancy white carriage with the crest of House Rochester. If you were wondering, the crest of "her" family was an eagle. The carriage was parked in front of the dress shop where she bought her lingerie. She chose that place because it was in a secluded area. Maybe in this world, buying lingerie was somewhat embarrassing. Thus, the lack of customers. "We're coming home now, Dal. Fritz will go home on his own as soon as he's done with his task."
She asked Fritz to accompany Mira.
But before she left the child to her knight, she brought Mira to a dress shop and bought a pretty dress for her. She also bought one for the kid's sister.
After that, she left the bag of gold coins to Fritz. She told the knight to buy Mira and her family delicious food and whatever the child would fancy. Then she asked Fritz to send Mira home safely.
She also told the commoner child to hide the gold coins, even from her sister.
"So, did you succeed?" she asked her attendant, then she licked the tip of the candy cane.
For some reason, Dal's face turned red. Then she averted her gaze and turned to the carriage. "Captain Brook is inside, my lady," she reported to her. "As the ladyship wished, I broke his arms and legs. He lost consciousness a while ago. Should I check if he's awake now?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Her attendant opened the door of the carriage.
She smirked when she saw that Captain Brook was already awake but unmoving. He was lying helplessly on the floor with, his mouth covered with duct tape. There was fear in his pleading eyes.
[Dal messed him up good, huh?]
Captain Brook's arms and legs were twisted very weirdly. No wonder Dal managed to stuff the gangly knight inside the carriage without a problem.
She felt sorry.
Sorry that she couldn't feel an ounce of guilt for what happened to the person who tried to kill her.
Captain Brook wasn't the first person who attempted to take her life, after all.
"Captain Brook, I have a question for you and your life depends on your honesty," Zoe said seriously, then she bit the tip of her candy cane before she asked the captain. "Are you the baby daddy of Miss Ashmore's child?"
***
"FIRE ALL the servants that kissed Milli-bitch's ass while I was cooped up in my room," Zoe, lying on the sofa lazily while reading a long letter, said to Dal who was standing in front of her while waiting for her order. "Punish the servants who just watched their colleagues without doing anything to protect their master, who has been good to them."
Well, based on Zoanne's memories, she wasn't close with her servants.
But the original owner of that body had been generous to the maids and butlers who served her. In short, Zoanne didn't deserve to be betrayed that way.
"Fire all the kitchen staff and don't give any recommendation letter no matter how much they plead," she continued.
Firing servants without giving them recommendation letters meant they wouldn't be able to work anywhere in the empire now. Unless they changed their identities, of course.
But even if they did so, they would be only able to get mundane jobs. In short, their careers as chefs now were over.
"How could those bastards serve poison to their master?" she asked, clicking her tongue in disappointment.
Serving a person the food that they were allergic to was akin to serving them poison.
"How could the chefs of House Rochester follow Milli-bitch's order?" she asked in frustration. "Is their loyalty for the Rochesters so shallow that they would blindly follow a stranger just because she claimed that she's pregnant with my father's baby?"
"My lady, the truth is…"
She raised her head to meet Dal's gaze. "What is it?"
"Miss Millicent Ashmore actually fired all the loyal servants of House Rochester, including the head maid, the head butler, and the head chef," Dal said hesitantly. "Lord Rochester brought the elite squad of the White Eagle Knights when he left. Thus, only Captain Brook's team was left to guard the mansion. Captain Brook isn't one of the most elite knights of the family. Thus, he was easily seduced by Miss Ashmore."
That wasn't included in Zoanne's memories.
"How come I don't remember all of that happening?" she asked, confused.
Zoanne was kind to her servants.
There was no way she would let Milli-bitch do that.
"My lady, have you already forgotten?" Dal asked in a confused tone. "When Lord Rochester left the mansion, you also left quietly. You didn't tell us where you'd go, and you didn't bring anyone with you. You were gone for two weeks. When you returned, Miss Ashmore already took over the house by replacing your people with hers. You blamed yourself for losing your faithful servants, then you made a deal with Miss Ashmore in order for you to find where she hid your people."
Now she was even more confused.
[Those things weren't in Zoanne's memories.]
"But the night you finally came out of your room to talk to Miss Ashmore, she fed you mushroom puree and then you fainted," Dal said, finishing her story. "My lady, you don't remember any of that?"
"I don't," she said bluntly. "I think Milli-bitch messed with my memories."
Her attendant's eyes darkened. "I will make sure that Miss Ashmore's unspeakable acts toward my lady will be reported to Lord Rochester once the master comes home."
"Thanks," she said. "For now, carry out the task that I just asked you to do."
"Of course, my lady," Dal said, then her brows furrowed when it seemed like she remembered something. "Lady Zoe, if we fire all the kitchen staff now, who will prepare your meals until we find the head chef that Miss Ashmore fired?"
"Don't worry about that, Dal," Zoe said, then she winked. "I'm one hell of a chef."
***
ZOE spent almost two days preparing the dinner that she'd like to share with her father.
Well, Zoanne's father, but the marquis was her father now while she was in Zoanne's body.
[I received a letter a while ago saying that he'd be returning today.]
Based on Zoanne's memories, Marquis Hendrix Rochester's favorite dish was a rack of lamb.
And so, she decided to make rosemary garlic marinade for her rack of lamb.
First, she made the marinade using fresh rosemary, garlic, olive oil, and, of course, salt and pepper. After that, she marinated the lamb for over 24 hours.
Then she seared the lamb rack to perfection. She did one rack at a time in the pan and each one took around 3 minutes. Since that world didn't have the same oven as she had in the modern world, she just used a cast-iron skillet over the stove to roast the racks.
Of course, she went for medium-rare.
After roasting the lamb, she tossed some butter, smashed garlic, and a sprig of rosemary into the pan. The residual heat from the skillet melted the butter quickly. She then squished the garlic and rosemary into the butter to get the flavors infused.
Once the butter had melted, it was time to baste away.
She almost drooled at the smell of freshly roasted lamb in butter infused with garlic and rosemary.
Finally, she let the lamb rest and she would give it a good 5 minutes before serving.
Resting was essential because when the meat was cooked, the juices were squeezed from the muscle fibers. It would allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, making the lamb juicier.
"Lady Zoe, Lord Rochester has arrived…" Dal said, then she trailed off and sniffed in the fragrance of the newly cooked rack of lamb. "My lady, that smells so delicious!"
"It is. I made some for you," Zoe said, making her attendant's face light up. She just smiled at Dal's reaction, then she took off her apron. "Now, I shall greet my father dearest first."
***
ZOE didn't do it on purpose. But when she saw the newspaper on the table with Isaak Viotto's name in the headline, she couldn't help but grab it as she went out of the kitchen.
She read the news while Dal was guiding her.
[What? Isaak Viotto raided an illegal dogfighting club and took all the fighting dogs with him?]
Huh?
Was that the reason why she saw the ghoul duke with Mira's bulldog a few days ago?
[Come to think of it, that bulldog was unusually aggressive. Plus, his teeth and fangs were really sharp. I didn't notice if it has wounds, though.]
She stopped in her tracks when she read the next line in the article.
[What the hell? What's wrong with this journalist? Why are they implying that Isaak Viotto took the fighting dogs to eat them?!]
Well, maybe she was being a hypocrite because she also accused the ghoul duke of trying to eat Bruno.
But in her defense, she caught Isaak Viotto in the middle of putting the bulldog's head in his mouth. Anyone would think the same way that she did without context.
[Isaak Viotto said that he was just playing with the dog. It sounds ridiculous, but I know that he isn't lying. But this journalist…]
"Should I sue them?" she whispered to herself. "I need an excuse to get close to him, anyway."
"My lady, we're near the staircase now," Dal whispered to her. "And Lord Rochester is waiting at the end of the staircase."
"Okay," she said, then she put the newspaper away from her face. Then, while she was taking a step down the staircase, she suddenly had the urge to raise her head to take a peek at "her" father. [Let's see what Lord Hendrix Rochester looks like…]
Oh, shit.
She missed a step because she was too shocked at how a middle-aged man could maintain his youth and beauty.
"My lady!"
She heard Dal's scream when she fell on her butt on the stair, and she also felt the pain. But she couldn't take her eyes off of Zoanne's father.
Marquis Hendrix Rochester had a stoic look on his face.
But that expression suited him well because her stoic face made him look like a beautiful statue. The marquis had silver hair and marigold eyes like her. In this world, the fact that 'she' and the marquis had the same eye color proved their relationship as father and daughter.
Anyway, she could see the lines on the marquis's face that suggested his age. And yet, she couldn't help but think that he still looked good and fit for an almost fifty-year-old man.
[This is really a fantasy world, huh?]
Aside from having a handsome face, Marquis Hendrix Rochester was also tall and fit. Most of all, he had a good posture that gave justice to the white and blue knight's uniform that he was wearing.
Plus, he looked expensive since he was decorated with luxurious accessories and jewelry.
"Zoanne," Marquis Hendrix Rochester called her name in a deep and baritone voice that suited his handsome looks very well. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, Father," Zoe said, then she allowed Dal to help her stand up. After that, she bowed politely to the marquis. "My lord, thank you for the good genes that I inherited from you."
***
NOTE: Hi! Please consider ADDING 'I Won't Let The Ghoul Duke Go Hungry!' to your LIBRARY. Thank you! <3