"Yes, please," the princess said politely. She looked around the modest mansion. "Are your chefs as good as the ones in the Royal Palace?"

"My chefs aren’t cooking today," Adrian grinned. "I am."

The princess looked absolutely shocked. High nobles, let alone a Baron, never cooked. After all, that was labeled as peasant work, something that only servants would do.

Her expectations hit absolute rock bottom and it just felt like he wanted to show off some trick, which she wasn’t exactly happy about. But she slapped on a polite smile anyway and followed the guy to the dining room.

Adrian pulled out a couple of chairs, sitting Aria and the princess directly across from each other.

And then he paused.

He stared at the two Imperial Knights glued to the wall.

"Why don’t you guys grab a seat?" Adrian offered casually. "No need to stand on ceremony here."

The guards traded a completely shocked look. Because to high society nobles, knight bodyguards were basically ignored since they’d already sworn loyalty to someone else. Getting an invite to the main dining table was completely unheard of.

So they really wanted to say no.

But they were starving. Plus, rejecting a Baron to his face was just bad manners. Armor clanked as the two massive men awkwardly dragged chairs out and sat stiffly beside the royal.

"So," Adrian said, tying a thick apron around his waist. "Are you a meat person, or do you want something special? Like a vegetable salad?"

Her royal highness instantly wrinkled her nose.

"No thank you... I am fine with meat." she replied, unable to hide a slight frown.

She kept her tone perfectly polite, but the absolute disgust was obvious. Because in her mind, she wasn’t a cow and why would she want a plate of leaves and raw vegetables? That was peasant food and even peasants cooked their food. She had only heard of the Elven race which liked eating raw greens and vegetables.

But she was a princess of a human empire and this guy basically just offered her a bowl of cattle food.

"Meat it is." Adrian smiled and walked towards the kitchen counter.

He didn’t bother making a high class steak and instead he went straight for heavy comfort food.

A short while later Adrian returned to the dining room carrying massive wooden platters. He set down huge piles of golden fried chicken. Beside that sat bowls of crispy chicken nuggets and a massive plate of soft flatbreads.

Finally he brought out a steaming iron pot. Boiling dark gravy filled the iron pot, packed with huge chunks of shredded beef floating inside the thick bone stock. The meat was super tender and the dungeon link actually cut the cooking time down to almost zero, saving him hours of sitting by a fire and waiting for the meat to slow cook.

"Watch closely and follow the way I eat." Adrian said.

Grabbing a piece of flatbread, he casually dumped a mountain of shredded beef right down the middle. A heavy spoonful of extra gravy went over the top. Then, folding the whole thing in half, he just shoved it straight into his mouth without a second thought.

Watching this, the princess completely froze up.

She just stared, looking at him like the man had absolutely lost his mind. No forks? No knives? It was pure barbarism in her eyes. Eating with her hands felt like a lot of dirty work. It went totally against all the strict etiquette lessons she had suffered through. But she also did not wish to be rude to a hosting noble.

But the two knights did not care about royal etiquette at all.

They immediately copied Adrian, built their own tacos and took a huge bite.

Their eyes immediately went wide and they chewed rapidly as they stared at Adrian like he was a culinary god who had just descended from the heavens.

The princess saw their crazy reactions, but she still was not fully convinced. Those knights were just talented commoners and they did not know a single thing about high class dining!

So she turned to look at Aria. She was her last option to use as a reason to avoid eating with her hands.

But Aria was not paying attention to anyone.

She was way too busy inhaling her own food to care. Thick gravy smeared across her lips and it also coated her fingers completely while her cheeks puffed out like some starving squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter.

Catching sight of the greasy mess, the princess actually cringed.

But then, a loud, violent growl erupted from her own stomach. Etiquette lessons meant absolutely nothing when you were starving and she was just an eight year old kid who wanted to eat. Hunger was hunger.

She carefully assembled a small taco and took a tiny and polite bite.

The explosion of flavor hit her brain like a hammer.

The incredibly tender meat just melted on her tongue while the nicely spiced savory bone broth gravy coated her mouth. It was a combination she had never experienced in the monotonous meals of the royal palace.

Her mind went completely blank.

By the time her brain rebooted itself, she realized the entire taco was gone and her hands were covered in gravy.

She looked up in panic.

Adrian was eating his taco cleanly without a single drop of mess on his hands. The knights were just as messy as she was and no one reprimanded her for the dirty display. And weirdly enough, that felt really nice.

She automatically threw royal etiquette out the window. She wanted more and her prejudice against Adrian’s cooking was totally gone. She desperately wanted to try out the other stuff he made.

The princess licked her fingers. "What are these?"

"Fried chicken." Adrian grinned proudly. "My own personal invention."

Snagging a drumstick off the pile, he bit down and the sound of the crunch was clearly audible to everyone there.

"Crunchy layer on the outside," Adrian said, talking right through the bite. "Super juicy on the inside. Plus, you dip it in this for more flavor."