I Didn't Really Want to Do Farming! (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
“Are you seriously putting me to work now?”
Stella, grumbling, climbed down from the hammock and shot Cookus a playful glare.
Standing between the kitchen and the deck, Cookus replied with a mischievous grin, waving a knobby, sprouting potato in his hand for emphasis.
As Stella walked across the deck, sailors working here and there bowed their heads or waved cheerfully at her.
“Princess! A huge crab got caught in the net. Give it to Cookus and tell him to boil it for you!”
“Wow! Thank you! I’ll enjoy it.”
Seeing Stella’s genuinely delighted expression, Scutt, who had been mending the net, pouted with his thick lips stretched long.
Though a diagonal scar across one cheek made his lips crooked, he no longer looked as frightening as he once had. His red hair fluttered in the wind through the gaps in the headscarf covering his bald scalp.
He gave Stella a lazy smile before returning his focus to the net. Judging by the plump fish already caught, dinner tonight would likely be fish.
Despite the warm weather, the waves were unusually rough, causing Stella’s steps to sway involuntarily.
The sailors watched her wobble along, maintaining her balance without falling, with proud smiles—until she disappeared from view, at which point their expressions turned serious again as they resumed their busy work.
Wherever Stella went, she drew the crew’s worried gazes like a magnet.
A month ago, King Philip, unwilling to spend the ransom money, had dumped Stella onto a merchant vessel bound for the Credion Empire, treating her like cargo accompanied by only two knight escorts.
Though adding three more passengers wouldn’t have been difficult on a ship already heading that way, the passenger in question was a princess of the realm.
Captain Puca had adamantly refused, insisting such a task was far beyond someone like him—but the king promised not only generous payment but also a full year’s tax exemption if he delivered the princess safely.
To a king, it might have seemed trivial, but to Puca, it was a matter of livelihood for an entire year.
Moreover, he’d heard the princess boarding his ship was the illegitimate daughter of a noble, even shunned in Amalune itself.
After carefully weighing his options, Puca accepted a slightly higher fee from the king and readily took the princess aboard—completely unaware that this decision would utterly transform his life.
The moment Stella entered the kitchen, she assumed a familiar posture and began peeling potatoes with practiced ease.
“To treat a princess of the realm like this—you, Cookus, shall be charged with royal disrespect.”
Despite the fierce warning, she looked thoroughly pleased sitting in the kitchen.
Potato peels flew everywhere as they cleanly sliced off under her fingertips. Though still a bit thick, it was a huge improvement from her first attempt, when she’d nearly lost half the potato.
“Yes, yes! But before that, please take care of those potato peels right there.”
Cookus glanced sideways at Stella, now quite skilled at peeling, and chuckled as he stirred the enormous pot with an even larger ladle. His clothes were soaked through with sweat.
Now past forty, Cookus was the sole cook aboard the Giant’s Roar. Each time he stirred the pot with a ladle bigger than an ordinary shovel, the muscles in his bare arms writhed like living creatures.
Cookus was as strong as his sturdy frame suggested. Aside from Captain Puca, he had never lost an arm-wrestling match against any crew member aboard the Giant’s Roar.
Stella still couldn’t understand why someone so powerful had become a cook.
Worse yet, Cookus had absolutely no talent for cooking.
“Cookus! Don’t add too much salt—just the right amount!”
Stella suddenly lifted her head mid-peel, sounding anxious. Cookus, who had been about to dump an entire sack of salt, flinched and quietly lowered it to the floor.
“When have I ever done that? Besides, food tastes better when it’s a bit salty. You wouldn’t understand.”
Muttering, Cookus plunged the giant ladle deep into the salt sack. When Stella widened her eyes, he stuck out his lips and shook the ladle vigorously inside the sack.
The rough sailors on deck wouldn’t care whether their food was salty or bland—as long as their bellies were full. But Stella was different.
No matter how casually she treated them, she was undeniably royalty. The gap in status was as vast as heaven and earth.
“We’ll reach the Credion Empire in three days.”
At Cookus’s words, both Stella’s potato peeling and his ladle-stirring slowed to half their previous speed.
“Yeah. Time really flies.”
Stella’s voice lacked all energy as she replied.
Cookus’s potato stew was actually quite decent. Though she still jumped whenever a fish head suddenly surfaced, compared to his other dishes, this one was surprisingly edible.
The fish head Stella fished out of her bowl was taken by Scutt sitting beside her, who chewed it contentedly.
Only on Stella’s plate sat a large, perfectly boiled crab. Though she’d said she’d give it to Cookus, Scutt must have worried—so he boiled it himself and set it aside just for her.
Stella snapped off one crab leg, thicker than her own finger, and handed it to Scutt beside her.
“Thank you.”
Scutt, seemingly embarrassed, lowered his eyes and gave an awkward smile.
“If we catch another, I’ll boil it for you again.”
A few onlookers, having watched the two, hurriedly placed various items in front of Stella.
A slightly browned apple, candied lemon slices, and even a flat, hard biscuit.
Tears welled in Stella’s eyes as she looked at the simple yet heartfelt spread before her.
She remembered Ludina’s swollen face, unable to let go of her hand until the very last moment.
Please, may she have safely left the harbor. May she forget a useless master like me and live happily.
Klik-klik.
The seagulls’ cries from the sky sounded just like Ludina’s sobs.
[This is the timeline separator]Unlike the chaotic, bustling deck, the captain’s cabin was neatly arranged and quiet.
“It’s nearly been a month since Princess Stella boarded the Giant’s Roar.”
Puca spoke as he watched Stella across from him sip her tea slowly. His bright orange-brown beard densely covered half his face.
Every morning, the first thing he did was trim his crimson beard, which always looked perfectly groomed and elegant.
Beneath eyebrows as dark and thick as his beard, his deep-set black eyes fixed steadily on Stella.
Whenever she met his obsidian-like gaze, Stella felt as though she were peering into an abyss.
“It’ll be exactly a month tomorrow.”
At Stella’s reply, Puca gave a small nod.
“When I first met you, Princess, I never imagined you’d be like this.”
Puca fiddled absently with the teacup before him.
The cup’s handle, large enough to fit two of Stella’s fingers with room to spare, felt like a toy teacup in Puca’s massive hand.
His thick finger barely fit through the handle, so instead, he gripped the hot cup directly with his calloused palm, unfazed.
Even the chair Puca sat on looked comically small.
His shoulders were twice as broad and thick as an ordinary man’s. That wasn’t all—
His arm and leg muscles were so extraordinary that people instinctively stepped aside when he passed, overwhelmed by his sheer presence. When overpowering opponents with brute strength, he resembled a raging bear.
The only reason Puca, who normally drank nothing but water or liquor, now awkwardly sipped tea was because of the princess seated opposite him.
Though nearly a month at sea had left him disheveled, old habits died hard.
Sitting upright and calmly drinking tea, he no longer resembled the man who’d just moments ago eaten potato stew with fish heads among the crew.
Though still dressed in his work clothes, his posture, the way he held his cup, even his slightly lowered gaze—
To Puca, Stella now looked every bit the perfect royal.
Clack.
When Stella set her teacup down on the table, Puca’s eyes followed its movement.
After a long silence, Stella finally lifted her head and smiled with unmistakable reluctance.
“I never thought I’d become this close to you, Puca.”
Though they’d only known each other for a month, it felt as if they’d been friends for ten years.
“Run away, Princess. We’ll help you.”
Stella instinctively rounded her lips at Puca’s sudden, unexpected words as he stared at her intently.
“I can’t. You know that. The damn Blood Oath will tear me apart the moment I flee—and anyone who helps me won’t be safe either.”
She’d learned too late that the Blood Oath contained a clause requiring royals to fulfill their duties without fail. She’d read it when signing, but never imagined it would chain her like this.
Stella took another sip of her lukewarm tea.
“We can protect our own lives. So if you change your mind, please tell us immediately. Understood? We’ll even look for a way to break that damn Blood Oath’s magic! Ah—no offense to your royal blood, Princess!”
Realizing his slip of the tongue, Puca turned pale and waved his huge hands frantically.
“It *is* a damn Blood Oath.”
Stella smiled faintly and finished the rest of her tea. Seeing this, Puca sighed deeply and repeated,
“If you ever need help, please speak up! Understood?”
“If I say it once, it’s as good as a hundred times. Got it. I’ll be sure to tell you.”
Yet both the one who answered and the one who heard knew such words would never truly be spoken.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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