Chapter 5.2
‘I want to drink some warm luphenyl tea…’
She didn’t want any soup to fill her stomach but was desperate for tea because of the situation. Emma would have no other wish if she could just wrap her hands around a mug of steaming, sweet luphenyl tea. She had drunk it every day with her father’s influence, but today especially she has really been desperate for it.
However, it was impossible now.
After his death, all of the remaining luphenyl had been packed into a carriage, and there was no way to retrieve it.
Emma, wandering aimlessly in the unfamiliar environment, scanned the smooth marble floor and headed straight to the table in front of her.
At the moment Emma had no choice but to stare.
It was a basket full of baked white bread, large cheese and lumpy butter, ham the size of an arm, glossy apples, and coveted tree berries. Even wine and liquor. Why hadn’t she discovered this up until now? How could there be such a feast like this? Not a single thing was missing; it was like being in a dining hall. And they all looked appetizing in their own way. Emma was practically drooling all over the place.
Growl.. Her empty stomach, which sensed food, shook in protest of hunger. She was finally relaxed. The appetite that had turned away earlier was starting back up again.
Lowering her head, trying as hard as possible not to stare at the food, she fixed her eyes on the tips of her dirty shoes. Meanwhile, her stomach cried sadly, complaining of hunger.
The man glanced at the table, apparently hearing the embarrassing sound that had growled so loudly. “Ya’ hungry?”
“Oh.”
Indeed, she was. The growling must have reached his ears.
Embarrassed, Emma hurriedly crossed her arms over her belly and squeezed. Her face heated up.
“Eat,” he said again.
With her cheeks bright red, Emma shrugged her shoulders as she eyed the food in front of her.
It was embarrassing how much she was being a nuisance when he had been the one to save her. However, the body was always out of the mind’s control. Even more in this random turn of events.
Her stomach growled again. An endless hunger flowed into her gut.
Before, Emma was busy escaping. There had been no time to feel hungry because her whole body was on edge in the face of an imminent attack. But now, her stomach was protesting in front of the delicious food inside a safe space.
Emma, who was embarrassed, belatedly remembered that she had not eaten anything after lunch.
“I said eat. Aren’t you hungry?” The man, looking at Emma, pointed to the food with a simple chin gesture. “As you can see there is a lot of food.”
“All right…”
This was the point where she had run out of things to do or say in a queer situation. There was no reason to be more embarrassed here because Emma had shown her weaknesses. Pretending to be nonchalant in front of a man or refusing politely will only upset her angry stomach and add to the man’s cold ridicule.
In time, Emma, who had persuaded herself, carefully reached out and picked up an apple. It was a red, smooth apple, like a painting. It was freshly picked and shiny with a fresh, firm texture, and a sweet and wonderful smell.
“Thank you for this food.”
The man didn’t say anything back.
He just gazed languidly into space with serene blue-gray eyes as if separated from the world, like a standing statue.
Emma, who was glancing at the man with a moment of admiration, belatedly lowered her eyes and stared at the apple in her hand. The bright red apple didn’t have one speck of dust on it, like it’d just been washed. It glowed appetizingly with a fragrant fruit smell.
Crush. As the chunks of fresh apple burst one after another, a sweet and sour taste filled her mouth.
However, due to the urgent hunger, there was no time to savor the deep and fresh taste that evoked emotion every time she chewed.
The apple was done in an instant as if it had been chased.
When Emma was embarrassed with apple residue in her hand, the man leaning his back comfortably on the sofa pointed to the table with an arrogant glance.
“You can eat more. Just don’t do it so loudly.”
“… I am the one who should be repaying you.”
Emma carefully looked around the table and picked up a pile of bread in the middle basket and tore it up with her hands. Perhaps it had been made by a skillful cook, the soft, fluffy bread boasted an impeccably balanced taste. Obviously, it would taste heavenly with butter or cheese, but Emma didn’t have the guts to demand such a luxury when she rushed in and ate it.
‘How can I make my case?’
After soothing her stomach with the delicious food on the table, Emma was suddenly lost in thought. It seemed clear that all of them were unpacked, but even the wrapping paper was unusual.
‘He must have spent quite a lot of money.’
She thought the man might have ordered it from an expensive grocery store or restaurant.
‘What is today’s date? It might even be his birthday.’
Emma didn’t know how much money a young man earned as a cabinkeeper, but it was probably a lot of money for ordinary people.
How soft and moist the bread was. The texture, which melted as soon as it was placed in her mouth, must have spared no butter and sugar on high-quality flour.
‘But…’ Suddenly Emma tilted her head.
She hadn’t known when she was eating in a hurry, but she now felt something strange while gradually savoring the taste. Something contrasted felt between the aroma of butter melted on the bread touched her sense of smell. Emma’s sense of smell, going back and forth between sniffing and breathing air in and out, immediately awakened her mind.
‘This…’ A smell she has smelled before somewhere. What exactly is that smell? ‘I’ve smelled this somewhere before.’