Hearing Lucas’ declaration, Cynthia couldn’t help smiling happily, liking the boy in front of her more and more.

If such words had come from any other child, she would have assumed his intentions were dubious.

Sometimes, young lords and ladies of other noble houses would spout such promises to seek her favour or to try to court her daughter. Sometimes, ambitious parents had told them to say such things to make themselves look good, but Cynthia was confident Lucas wasn’t putting on an act like that.

Why? Because he had already proven otherwise with his actions.

Cynthia was sure Lucas had made that vow with sincerity and a steadiness normally impossible to find in one so young.

No wonder my aloof daughter is so enamoured with him, the Third Queen, a self-proclaimed ’Master of Romance’, thought to herself with amusement, he’s certainly not like the boys she’s met before.

Christina had, of course, never written anything remotely close to a confession of interest in Lucas, much less a declaration of love, but no one knew her daughter better than Cynthia, and she was convinced her instincts were spot on this time

Just imagining all the ways she could tease Christina the next time they met filled Cynthia with anticipation; however, that levity was quickly cut short when she recalled the current situation.

Although the Imperial Overseer, Lord Jeremiah, had thankfully departed, the lascivious bastard had left behind a subordinate to continue monitoring them.

As long as even a single Imperial Envoy remained in the palace, the King and all three of the Queens agreed it was far too dangerous for Christina to return home.

Anything in excess could be a bad thing, and Christina’s overwhelming Innate Talent was just such an example.

Thinking about how she would not be able to see her precious child for months, maybe even years, caused the Queen’s mood to sink and a look of pain to flash across her face.

"Is something the matter, Aunt Cynthia?" Lucas suddenly called out.

Realizing her gaff, the Third Queen swiftly composed herself and shook her head, "No, my mind simply wandered for a moment."

Not totally convinced, but also not feeling it was appropriate to probe, Lucas could only nod in acceptance.

With the reception room falling into an awkward silence, Vanessa, who had been content to remain a quiet observer until now, decided it was time for her to step in, "Speaking of Christina, she’s recently been learning to cook."

"Oh? Really?" Cynthia perked right up when she heard this, her eyes practically sparkling as she asked, "When did this happen? She didn’t mention that in any of her letters. Keeping something so interesting from her mother, she must be feeling shy, that silly girl."

The rapid mood swings of the Third Queen continued to cause some mental whiplash for Lucas, but figuring that talking about this was better than letting his new ’aunt’ stew, he also spoke up, "It was actually shortly after Christina arrived in Redwood Town that she started taking an interest in cooking, probably because of what happened when she first tried helping out in the kitchens."

Sensing some juicy gossip, Cynthia leaned forward, her expression filled with interest.

Seeing this look, Lucas scratched his cheek a bit awkwardly and explained, "I’m not sure exactly how it started, but apparently, Christina was helping to carry some crates from the granary to the kitchen and somehow got roped into also preparing the ingredients."

"En, en," Cynthia nodded, her smile growing wider, "And then?"

"Well... I think whoever was in charge of the kitchen that day thought Christina was just another village girl and assumed she knew how to handle some basic kitchen work," Lucas theorized. Even he didn’t know the exact story because every time he asked Tina about it, the only answer he got was a punch in his face.

The Third Queen now had one of her hands covering her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter.

Silently apologizing to Christina, while also praying she wouldn’t beat him up too badly once she found out, Lucas decided to just be frank, "It was... well, it was a disaster."

"Hahahah..." Cynthia finally couldn’t hold back and burst into a fit of giggles.

Even Vanessa, who was looking away, had her shoulders trembling slightly as she recalled some of those events.

Christina, who had never cooked a single thing in her life before that day, tried to use the kitchen knife like a dagger, stabbing and slashing at the vegetables and meat she’d been assigned to prep.

Things didn’t get better when she tried mixing dough for bread, causing a veritable explosion of flour when she used far too much strength.

Then there was her sloshing soup everywhere when she failed to realize how hot the pot was.

In short, everything that you could think of going wrong when trying to make food, and many others you probably couldn’t imagine, had happened, ultimately resulting in Christina being exiled from the kitchen and told she wasn’t allowed back in until someone taught her how to cook properly.

When Lucas finished telling this story, Cynthia Morgan was barely able keep herself upright on the sofa.

In fact, Lucas suspected that the Third Queen might have actually dropped to the floor and begun rolling around in a fit of laughter if it weren’t for them being present.

It wasn’t until several minutes later that Cynthia finally regained her composure, wiped the tears from her eyes, and smiled warmly, "It sounds like my daughter has caused quite a bit of trouble for you all."

Shaking his head, Lucas refuted this statement vehemently, "Not at all. Christina might be... a bit clumsy at times, but she’s incredibly hard working."

"After that day," Lucas continued, "Christina came up to me and deman... and requested to be taught how to cook by the best chef in town."

"I’m sure she did," the Queen nodded, a hint of pride slipping into her tone, "My little girl would never back down from a challenge."

Recalling the look of pure embarrassment and determination on Tina’s face, Lucas couldn’t help smiling, "When Aunt Sasha learned about Christina wanting to learn to cook, she was more than happy to teach her in the few moments of free time she had."

"Lucas also taught her quite a bit," Vanessa added from the side, "he’s actually the one who spent the most time with Tina in the kitchen, instructing her on the proper way to hold a knife and how to prepare various different ingredients."

"Oh?" Cythina became further intrigued, her eyes practically glowing as she asked, "A genius strategist, brilliant inventor, brave warrior, and a talented chef? Good, good, very good! Actually, rather than Aunty, why don’t you just call me Mother instead?"

*Pft!~ Cough cough cough!~*

Lucas did a spit-take and choked all at once, never having imagined he would be on the receiving end of such a ’direct’ appeal.

"Cynth... Your Majesty!" Vanessa nearly leapt up from the couch as she shouted, "You... you...!"

"Me what?" Cynthia snorted, a look of defiance filling her face, "Lucas is a good boy, far better than any of those annoying little brats always swarming around my Christina!"

"I won’t deny Lucas is outstanding," Vanessa agreed whole-heartedly, "but you can’t decide the Princess’ engagement on nothing more than a whim! What about His Majesty’s opinion? What about the opinions of Queen Marianne and Queen Natasha?"

"Hmph! I’m Christina’s mother! I have the final say in who she can and cannot marry!" Cynthia didn’t back down in the slightest, snorting mockingly, "Besides, no matter who it is, that doting fool Nathanial will never accept them! Do you know how long it took for us to convince him to let little Louise even go on a date?!"

"As for Anne and Tasha," Cynthia thought about her two sister wives and smirked, "I’m sure once they meet Lucas and learn about everything he’s accomplished already, they’ll be clamouring for their own youngest daughters to marry him instead!"

Lucas, who had just managed to get his coughing fit under control, felt like he had been punched in the gut again when these words rang out.

Eyes bulging as he jerked his head up, Lucas was hoping beyond hope that he was having a concussion and his ears weren’t working properly.

"What about Christina, then!?" Vanessa tried one last time to make her little sister see reason, "You’ve always advocated that the only true love is free love! Shouldn’t her opinion matter the most here!?"

Lucas, unable to get words out, nodded vigorously, That’s right! Tell her, Big Sister Vanessa!

Vanessa was turning desperate right now. She had seen Cynthia act this way many times when they were younger, and once she got like this, there was basically no stopping her.

If only Allie was here! She’d know what to do!

In their youth, it had always been the far more responsible Allina’s job to keep Cynthia’s wilder impulses in check.

Though rarely successful, Allina was still far better at handling this kind of thing than Vanessa had ever been.

Despite being the one who had brought Christina up in the first place, Vanessa could already hear Cynthia refuting her argument with some unreasonable emotional outburst; however, to her surprise, the Third Queen’s expression suddenly turned somber as she questioned pointedly, "Are you seriously asking that, Vanessa? Are you really going to sit there and tell me there’s nothing other than innocent friendship between this boy and my daughter?"