Chapter 17: Maid’s Heart-Shaped Omurice
No one knew how many days had passed since Evelia began her “maid project.” Every day, she stuck close to Armand using the excuse “I’m your personal maid,” and never missed delivering his three meals. But ever since she had a taste of that stomach-medicine-from-hell herself, she never brought it to Armand again.
“Master, you have to eat it all nicely today too, okay? ♡”
She was acting the same as always today. That romance novel she read had clearly given her a lot of “inspiration.” Her actions and lines were all carefully copied from the cute maid character in the book. But the one thing she couldn’t imitate… was her expression and tone of voice. She still said all those sweet lines with a cold face and stiff voice.
“……”
On Armand's side, he was still trying to figure out what was going on with this girl.
It was like she had done a complete personality flip. When they first met, she clearly kept her distance. But now, just a few days later, she was acting like this?
But then again… maybe her personality hadn’t really changed. Her face was still the same unmoving poker face, stiff like a stone tile.
“Master, today’s special is golden omurice~ I made it just for you~”
Evelia lifted the lid of the dish. Inside was a perfectly standard example of a “maid cafe” omurice. A golden yellow egg covering rice, with a heart drawn on top in ketchup.
She had even tried to draw a smiley face, but since Armand didn’t eat a lot, the omurice wasn’t very big, there just wasn’t enough space to draw much on it.
So, Evelia had drawn most of the design directly on the plate. She added so much ketchup that the whole plate turned into a red puddle. In fact, it looked like she had a lot more she wanted to draw. At first glance, it seemed like the omurice was floating in a pool of blood, already halfway submerged.
Was this… omurice ketchup soup?
Armand looked up at Evelia with confusion.
“Did the omurice get hurt? It’s bleeding so much.”
He held his spoon awkwardly, swallowing nervously. Not because he was hungry, but because he was anxious. Still, even in this situation, he couldn’t stop himself from making a dry joke.
“Master, don’t you want to try Evelia’s special homemade cooking? ♡”
“…I’m… probably not hungry,” Armand said after hesitating a moment.
It wasn’t like he was afraid of food that looked like blood. He was the kind of person who had eaten raw meat before, that kind of thing didn’t bother him. But looking at that thick layer of ketchup, he could already imagine exactly how it would taste.
Still, to be fair, it was a hundred thousand times better than that awful medicine from before.
But really, he couldn’t keep forcing himself to eat things that tortured his taste buds. He wasn’t a fan of strong flavors, especially overly sweet or sour things.
His stomach was already weak. If he kept pushing his tongue like this, he might end up losing his sense of taste forever.
“Maaaasteeer～～～”
Evelia drew out the word. In writing, it might look like a cute girl acting sweet. But even though her voice was naturally nice, her stiff delivery made it sound more like someone dragging their nails across glass to Armand.
“I worked so hard to make this for you. Can’t you at least try one bite?”
It seemed like Evelia had seriously thought about what kind of expression she should make when saying that line. After all, she remembered reading it in the novel.
In the book, the heroine’s expression was described like this.
【She gently furrowed her brows and blinked in distress. A few sparkles appeared in her beautiful pale eyes, and it almost looked like she was about to cry. She looked like she’d been deeply hurt, just like a poor little bunny begging for his approval.】
But when it came to Evelia, that description didn’t really land.
She hadn’t cried in ages. She didn’t know what it felt like to be “hurt.” And she definitely didn’t understand what was so “pitiful” about a bunny that also happened to taste pretty good.
So in the end, the only part she truly understood… was “furrowed brows.”
Those words on Evelia’s face turned into a deep frown. She looked at Armand, who hadn’t taken a single bite, with an expression that seemed both annoyed and strict, like she might punch him in the face any second and shout, “Eat it or don’t, whatever!”
That expression gave Armand a strange pressure.
In theory, he shouldn’t have been scared of a look like that. But Evelia was a trained assassin. When she frowned, her sharp eyes felt like knives. Even though she was trying to act cute, Armand could clearly feel the killing intent coming from her.
Ever since the time she tried to feed him that horrible stomach medicine, every time she came near, Armand couldn’t help but wonder if today was the day she’d kill him. She always managed to surprise him with something new.
Even now, Armand still wondered if she had ever poisoned him. He hadn’t let his guard down around her, not even once.
“Master, are you really not going to eat?”
With that expression and her cold tone, Armand felt like she was threatening his life.
“Master, you…”
“Eve, here, open your mouth. Aaah—”
Just as Evelia was about to recall another line from the novel to try and convince Armand, he took the lead instead. He held out a spoon full of omurice and ketchup the same way she had tried to feed him earlier, one hand holding the spoon, the other under it, offering it to her.
“…?”
Just like how Armand had reacted the first time she tried to feed him, Evelia also gave a confused look. But because she still thought she was in her “cute and sweet” act, her frown hadn’t gone away. So now her expression looked more like, “Are you crazy?” rather than “I’m trying to be cute.”
Even though that wasn’t what she meant at all.
“Eve, I really can’t eat that much. Could you help me finish a bit, please?”
Armand gave his usual smile, waiting for her response. Compared to Evelia, his acting was way better.
“……”
Evelia thought about it for a second. She didn’t fully understand what Armand was trying to do, but since he was her “master,” and she was supposed to be a “sweet maid who listens,” she felt she had to follow his request. So, she opened her mouth and obediently took the spoonful of hot omurice.
The strong sweet-and-sour flavor of the ketchup made Evelia shiver. Seeing her reaction, Armand immediately understood just how sweet it really was. But since she could eat it, that meant it wasn’t poisoned, so he took the chance to get her to eat all of it.
“Here you go, Eve. Another bite—aaah.”
“Mm…”
While Evelia still seemed willing, Armand fed her another spoonful. The taste was intense, but since she had never tried this flavor before, it felt new and interesting. She didn’t hate the taste of ketchup, so without thinking too much, she kept eating bite after bite.
Meanwhile, Armand slowly moved around her, guiding her to turn slightly until they had switched places. Now Evelia was sitting in his chair, and Armand gently pushed the rest of the omurice in front of her.
“Eve, do you think you can finish the rest by yourself?”
“Of course I can,” she replied seriously, not realizing what just happened, and took the spoon.
“Then I’ll leave it to our little Evelia to finish everything, okay?” Armand said like he was tricking a kid.
“No problem, Master. Leave it to me.” And just like that, she completely fell for it.
“Great. I’ve got something to do, so I’ll be going now. Take your time and eat slowly, okay?”
“Okay, Master.”
With that, Armand smiled and gently closed the door… then quickly ran away while Evelia seriously ate the omurice behind him.
As she ate, the strong ketchup flavor made her shiver several times, but even so, she followed her “master’s” orders faithfully. She finished the whole dish, including every last drop of ketchup, and surprisingly, it seemed to suit her taste quite well.
In the end, she even made a proud comment.
“Huh. I might actually be pretty good at cooking.”
As for Armand, he went straight to the kitchen without looking back and told the chefs inside.
“Whatever you do, don’t ever let Evelia into the kitchen again.”