The Crown’s Entrapment

Xenia watched as Osman prepared their meals in the kitchen.

“Are you a good cook, Admiral?” she curiously asked as she sat on one of the chairs where she could have a better view of him.

“He is,” Darius answered on behalf of the Admiral as he too sat on an available chair, pulling it beside Xen. “He can be a good cook if he wants to.”

Osman shook his head as he said, “Never mind that. Let’s make our time productive.” He then gestured to Xenia, “Come, milady. Help me out with preparing the meals. For you see, this will also be a part of your training.”

Xenia lifted one of her eyebrows upon hearing Osman’s words. The admiral saw the gesture, and he chuckled as he explained, “You might think that I always play a trick on you and Your Majesty, but haven’t you noticed how you’ve learned at least one thing with every task and trial I’ve been asking you to do? It’s not like some of the tricks I’ve been doing don’t make any sense.”

Xenia shrugged. She could admit that the Admiral had his point, at least. As such, she decided to get up from her chair and walked towards Osman to help him. She then gave Darius a smug look.

‘This wouldn’t have happened if you just didn’t ask Osman to do everything like this,’ she inwardly thought to her mate.

“I hate doing womanly chores like this,” Xenia admitted with a shrug.

“Hmm, I thought Princesses are trained hard when it comes to things like these?” Osman asked.

Xenia simply held her gaze down as she murmured, “I always skipped those lessons to go with my brother instead.”

Osman chuckled, “That’s interesting then. There’s this common saying that a man’s heart is through his stomach. It’s no wonder that almost all princesses throughout the kingdoms are thought to be good cooks as one way of serving their future husband further.”

He shrugged, “I guess Ebodia isn’t that strict when it comes to that. Anyway, here’s your chance to have a bit of training with me in case you want to apply this knowledge for His Majesty.”

Xenia’s eyes darted towards Darius and curiously asked, “Do you want me to cook for you in the future?”

Darius simply gave her a bashful smile. From that, Xenia could already tell what his answer was going to be.

Osman chuckled and pointed out, “You don’t have to ask for such things, milady. Everyone would be delighted to get anything that their woman could offer and serve to them…”

Right, it was foolish of her to even ask such a question. Xenia’s face reddened in embarrassment, only now realizing how irresponsible she was for skipping those classes she had with Mineah. No wonder her mother would always scold her back then.

“Alright, teach me then,” she almost challenged, placing a hand on her hips. “Where do I begin?”

To her surprise, Osman handed her a knife and Xenia stared at it utterly clueless about what to do with it since she was able to use blades for killing only.

It wasn’t anything that she used for combat, but it was obviously sharp as she checked how sharp its edge was.

“For one, a good cook must be good with a knife,” Osman began, brandishing a knife of his own as he grabbed a carrot from his produce. “Chopping up vegetables like this shouldn’t take you more than five seconds.”

Xenia blinked, staring at how long the carrot on the chopping board was. “You expect me to get through that in five seconds?”

“It’s not that hard, especially for someone that has experience with blades like yourself,” Osman chuckled. “Unless you want a demonstration?”

“I think I do want that,” Xenia dubiously asked, holding onto her knife like she would with a dagger. “I can maybe do it in ten, but five is just asking for the impossible.”

“Well then. Allow me to demonstrate, Princess.”

Crossing her arms, Xenia waited for Osman to prove her wrong. Watching him brandish his knife, he noted the way his knuckles seemed to wrap around its handle, surely giving him a bit more control as he positioned the carrot underneath him.

“Take this as your first test in your cooking journey.”

The princess scoffed at his dramatic flair. With a thud, he began chopping through the carrot at a steady pace. To her pleasant surprise, he picked up his pace, echoing thuds thundering from the chopping board as he promptly sliced through the offending carrot with speed and precision.

She wasn’t going to lie, she kind of felt inadequate at even suggesting such a challenge now.

“See?” Osman smirked, raising his knife arm up to the air with a teaching tone. “Easy, right?”

“I see,” Xenia nodded with a dumbfounded look. “Now that I thought about it, I could see how it could be done?”

“I’m sure that as a swordsman, you can see the principle of the technique I just employed,” the admiral sagely nodded. “By lowering the knife’s center of gravity, you get better control while also increasing the speed that you can chop with it.”

​ Blinking at her knife, Xenia found herself mimicking Osman’s grip, placing her grip higher than the handle, almost gripping the blade itself as she then brought it down in front of her. Sure enough, she had more control of her blade, allowing her to swing it down with more precision.

“That’s the stuff,” Osman cheered. “Now, try to chop that carrot in front of you. Though, make sure that you use your knuckles as a guide instead of your fingertips. Don’t want to lose any fingers now, don’t you?”

Xenia rolled her eyes at the admiral’s words as she positioned the carrot in front of her. Holding the vegetable down with her left hand, she then brought her knife down, quickly slicing through the offending thing like a hot knife through butter.

‘That was easy enough.’

With newfound confidence, she pushed forward, picking up her pace as she fed the carrot to her knife’s embrace. With no time at all, she went through the vegetable, the carrot now cut into smaller, yet slightly uneven pieces.

“Told you it was easy,” Osman smirked.