"So then, Katarina, will we have enough ingredients?"
Celine knelt beside the wild boar and addressed Katarina, who was absorbed in examining it with a serious expression.
"Yes, this should be more than enough.
And... it's so fresh it looks as though it was alive just moments ago.
You hardly ever come across magical beasts like this."
Katarina narrowed her eyes in admiration, but there was still the faintest flicker of distraction in them.
She was probably still thinking about what had passed between Yuri and Celine a moment earlier.
I'm truly sorry about that.
Yuri apologized inwardly.
Whether she sensed what he was feeling or not, Katarina gently ran a hand over the wild boar's thick hide, then turned back to Yuri.
"That said, my lord... butchering it is going to take a little time.
It's this large, and it hasn't even been bled yet, so...
I'm afraid we won't be able to cook it right away."
Katarina spoke to Yuri apologetically.
"I see. Right, of course—it'll need to be butchered first...
Then I'll put the wild boar away for now."
Yuri accepted that at once and reached out to return the wild boar to his extra-dimensional storage.
The moment he held out his hand, the air wavered.
Then, in the next instant, the enormous wild boar vanished as smoothly as though it had been swallowed into empty air.
The maids gasped at the sight, and a murmur swept through the room.
"To be able to move things in and out of extra-dimensional storage that easily...
Your power truly is beyond the bounds of reason."
Ophelia said it in a tone that was half astonishment, half exasperation, and Celine nodded with a smile.
"That's why I told you, didn't I?
No one is to speak a word of my lord husband's abilities to anyone."
Celine let her gaze travel across the maids, giving each of them a calm smile in turn.
There was softness in that look, but a sharpness too, and even the maids could not fail to grasp how serious she was.
"This is seriously bad," Chloe muttered under her breath, wide-eyed with shock.
As if in wholehearted agreement, the other maids said nothing at all and only nodded gravely.
"Well then, what shall we do about dinner?"
When Celine asked the question again, Yuri raised a hand a little hesitantly and made a suggestion.
"In that case... shall I do the cooking?"
At those words, Katarina and the other maids all cried out in surprise at once.
"W-What? My lord is going to cook?"
Katarina stared at him, eyes wide with disbelief.
"A nobleman, cooking...
M-my apologies, but do you actually have any experience?"
"Um... just a little, a very long time ago..."
Yuri scratched the back of his head as he answered.
That only made Katarina look more anxious, and worry flickered in her eyes.
Oh no. That's only going to make her more nervous...
Realizing that, Yuri hurriedly added,
"But I have been properly taught before.
I don't think I'm that bad... probably."
Of course, Yuri's "a very long time ago" referred to his previous life.
There was no way he could explain that here and now, but he never would have imagined that the cooking classes he had taken in that life purely because he wanted to be popular would end up being useful at a time like this.
At last, the time has come to put those skills to the test... probably.
"Then that makes you practically an amateur!"
Katarina replied in a stronger tone, clearly still unconvinced.
The maids, too, exchanged little nods at her words as they looked at Yuri with concern.
"Even something as simple as managing the heat takes years of experience!
How to control the fire, which kind of wood to use and how, when to add the aromatics, how long each cut of meat should stay over the flame...
Every single part of it matters!"
Katarina went on passionately about the standards she held for cooking.
There was fierce conviction in her eyes.
"And if you don't even account for how long the meat has to rest after it's done, you'll never make a perfect dish!
These are not things you master overnight!"
The force of her words made Yuri instinctively take a step back.
It was the stern gaze of a true professional.
"Now, now, Katarina, do calm down."
Wearing a gentle smile, Celine slipped neatly between the two of them.
"I had my lord husband's cooking at the townhouse in the royal capital, and it was exquisite.
Why don't we leave it to him just this once?"
As Celine spoke in that soft, elegant voice of hers, Katarina gradually recovered her composure and took a slow, deep breath.
Exquisite, maybe—but that had less to do with my actual cooking and more with the seasonings from my previous life...
Yuri smiled wryly to himself and silently thanked Celine.
"...Even so, what will you do about the ingredients?"
Though Katarina had calmed down a little, she still asked the question with a worried frown.
"Hehe, there's no need to worry about that either."
Celine turned her eyes to Yuri, her voice bright with expectation.
"My lord husband, would it be possible for all of us to enjoy hot pot together?"
Yuri blinked, a little surprised.
"Hot pot... you mean shabu-shabu, like the one everyone had the other day?"
At his reply, Celine gave him a soft smile and nodded once.
Come to think of it...
A certain moment from the townhouse in the royal capital came back to Yuri.