When I left the prince's office, Raphael was waiting for me at the door. I found myself being even more awkward around him than I did before, I think he had noticed it too.

- Is everything alright?

He looked at me with rather concerned eyes, I, on the other hand, could not bring myself to look at him at all - his scarred body was tattooed on my brain and I was afraid I would burst into tears if I looked at him at that moment.

- Yes... All is fine. Should we go to the kitchen then?

I was still looking down at my feet when I noticed his shoes standing right in front of mine. I flinched but still did not dare to look up. He walked closer to me, pushing me back to the wall, every step he took towards me resulted in me stepping back instead.

- Miss Yoona... By any chance, are you afraid of me?

I did not know what was worse - to tell him that I was afraid, which was a lie, or to tell him that I felt sorry for him which would lead to me confessing that I sniffed information about him from the prince.

- What? Why would I be afraid of you?!

- Then why aren't you looking at me?

This situation reminded me of those times when the girls tried to bully me in the orphanage. They were jealous of me getting so much attention from boys so they always tried to bring me down by throwing my food away or pinning me against the wall and spitting on my hair. Standing against the wall, surrounded by people and waiting for dirt, spit, or food to be poured down on me was the worst humiliation I had ever felt but even then I could not bring myself to cry. This here was much worse because I knew that I could break down at any moment.

- You saw my scars... Did they scare you? Or did you feel disgusted touching a body that looked like that?

What? He really thought I would be disgusted or scared? I know that people can feel embarrassed by having scars, hell, in South Korea people try to remove every little bit of "imperfection" they can find on their bodies with plastic surgery or lasers, but I never considered myself a superficial person that cares about looks. The only thing those scars woke up in me was a pity - something that people do not like to be felt towards.

- I do not feel disgusted by you, I just... was upset.

- Upset?

I finally looked up at him and saw his bewildered expression, he looked genuinely surprised.

- I was upset because those scars mean you had endured a lot of pain, and seeing how you are so concerned about the way your body looks, the pain never went away, it just changed into a different kind of suffering. So I'm sorry if you felt offended by my reaction but I honestly was just sad... I know that pity is not the most welcomed emotion for a person, but please believe me that I just feel bad seeing a person suffer so needlessly.

I blurted out those words rapidly, without thinking. I did not know how to say what I really meant to say. It was weird, as a trainer, you have to deal with people's bodies all the time and your thoughts on them have to be objective, detached from the personality or your overall feelings about people, so why was it so hard for me to talk to Raphael about his body?

I found myself looking down at my feet again. I was expecting Raphael to react to my words with anger, objection, and negativity, but all I received was silence. I collected all my courage and looked at his face, he was looking down as well, all flushed.

"What the hell?"

- Raphael? Are you alright?

He covered his face with his hand and let out a long sigh. He then turned away and started walking.

- Let's go to the kitchen now.

"I guess I'm forgiven?"

The kitchen was located in the northern wing of the palace, on the first floor. It was a big room with lots of surfaces and tables scattered all around. I counted 5 huge stoves, you could shove a whole adult person into it, a dozen of barrels that must have contained wine for the knights in them, at least ten different types of smoked meats hanging under the ceiling, and numerous boxes of vegetables and fruit stacked next to the walls. There were 6 men dressed as cooks and 10 women who looked like maids, I recognized their outfits because Aurora wore the same one. They all were chopping, washing, stirring - preparing lots of meals all at once.

- Why is it so hectic?

I leaned closer to Raphael and whispered. He leaned down as well and replied quietly.

- They are preparing the meals for the knights. Since miss Yoona requested that breakfast be served for the knights as well, they went out of schedule and now have to start preparing the lunch in a rush.

- Oh, I did not know I would inconvenience them so much.

- Well, they need to feed two hundred knights along with the servants and His Majesty himself, that's a lot of work.

Crap, I had no idea my request would put people in so much trouble but I guess it couldn't have been helped since it was so sudden.

Raphael went forward to one of the cooks and whispered something to him. The cook then turned around and fixed his serious gaze on me.

"Ugh, I already feel uncomfortable."

- Miss Yoona, this is Marion Smith, the head chef who is responsible for His Majesty's meals and supervises overall kitchen activities.

Marion was a big man - almost as tall as Raphael, with broad shoulders, huge hands covered in little scratches and scars (I guess you can't avoid hurting yourself while cooking no matter how skilled you are), his face was tanned, his serious expression and the wrinkles that imprinted his constant irritation, made him look somewhat gloom and intimidating.

- Nice to meet you, you can just call me Yoona, we're going to be colleagues after all!

I offered him my hand for a handshake but he just looked at it briefly and smirked.

- Colleagues? How come?

I lowered my hand and looked at Raphael who sighed once again and put his hand on Marion's shoulder.

- Marion, this is Ariana's disciple who is going to help his Majesty and our army prepare for the war. She is here by His Majesty's orders to give her advice about your meals.

The cook let out an annoyed "Ha!" and turned his head to face Raphael.

- And why should I listen to whatever this girl has to say?

The knight leaned close to Marion's face, his face became dark and expressionless, it almost felt as if all the lite was sucked out from the room itself. He then squeezed the cook's shoulder making him bend his knees a bit.

- Because this is His Majesty's order.

I noticed beads of sweat going down Marion's pale face, he was scared of Raphael!

- A-alright, I understand.

Raphael released the cook and pat his throbbing shoulder several times as if making him remember the pain he had just inflicted. He then smiled at him brightly and stretched Marion's hand for me to shake it.

"Geez, Raphael sure can be scary sometimes."

- So... What do you want us to do, miss Yoona?

Marion crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked down at me.

- Well... For starters, how about you tell me what you usually feed the knights and the prince? Do you have a specific menu or something?

- Sure, the knights have the same menu every day, and His Majesty's menu usually varies depending on his preferences or what kinds of food we have in our possession.

- Wait, the knights have only two meals per day and they are always the same?!

I looked at Raphael with a surprised expression and he gave me the same expression in return. Marion scratched his chin and shrugged his shoulders.

- It is a common practice like everywhere else. The knights have a bean stew for lunch and a vegetable soup for dinner. We simply follow the menu signed at the main palace.

"The main palace, you say? Dorian said that the main palace is where the Emperor lives with his wife, there is no way the knights there have the same meal plan as here, they are the knights close to the Emperor after all."

I looked at Raphael and confirmed my suspicions - he looked annoyed so I assumed he also knew that this menu was a joke.

"Does not Dorian know about this? Or maybe he has no influence in this matter? So why did he tell me to work on it myself? Could it be that he simply does not know anything about the food? Well, he does look quite skinny and I also noticed that he barely touched his food during breakfast... He just doesn't care?"

I shook my head and sighed.

- This won't do. The knights are barely receiving any protein and this kind of nutrition will not go well with the training plan.

- Protein? What is it?

Marion tilted his head to the right and looked at me with a curious expression.

- Well, our bodies require protein, carbs and fats in order to function properly on a daily basis. When you exercise your body to grow some muscle, you need to make sure you eat enough protein as it helps with muscle growth and also recovery. The main sources of protein are meat and fish, however, there are also a lot of vegetarian options like beans, nuts, soy, tofu, and so on.

- Tofu?

"Ugh, I guess I am about to start my first lecture on nutrition now."

And just like that, I spent 2 hours talking to the kitchen cooks about all types of foods and how they can be rich in all the necessary nutrition our bodies require. Apparently, I was so passionate during my talk, I attracted the attention of every person from the kitchen staff, thus, distracting them from work once again (oops!).

In the end, we agreed on the following:

1. The knights will have at least three meals a day with breakfast consisting of a bowl of porridge mixed with honey and nuts, lunch that included vegetables and at least one source of protein, and dinner that would be a soup or a stew of the cook's choice.

2. The knights will have one day when they would get a meal with chicken, one day when they would get a meal with fish, and one day when they would get eggs.

3. The prince's and Raphael's meal plans were changed as well in order to balance them out, which included reducing the amount of red meat and unhealthy fats.

4. I promised Marion that I would teach him how to make tofu so he can use it for the meals, and also share a recipe of a homemade cottage cheese that I learned from a Ukrainian friend I had back at the PE academy.

- Whew, this was a very eventful morning for me, I'm even more exhausted than after hours spent in the gym.

After we left the kitchen, Raphael led me to my room as the royal tailor was already waiting for me with my clothes. He stopped after my little tired confession and smiled at me.

- You did well, miss Yoona, even I was fascinated by your profound knowledge in nutrition. Marion is a very grumpy old chap but when it comes to food and recipes, he would befriend a barbarian if they promised him a good recipe.

- Hey, did you just compare me to a barbarian?

He chuckled and looked away with a curious expression.

- I wonder, you're out of this world anyway.

"Wow, this guy has changed so much just in a few hours. But I like this Raphael a lot better, hope we can become good friends in the future."

When Raphael opened the door to my room, there were more people than we expected. I recognized Aurora and the tailor right away, but there was also an older lady dressed fancy as hell, sipping tea on the sofa, and a man who looked like a knight, standing behind her.

Raphael suddenly stopped and bowed down.

- Raphael Black greets Her Majesty, the Empress.

"The Empress?!"