Next, I put the bean water in a cauldron, boiled it, and then stirred it slowly.

"Your Highness, be careful! Let me do it."

"Okay. Please do Terry."

It was hard for a child to do, so Blake and I backed out.

The adults put the boiled bean water into a large cotton-filled pocket. Hans and Edon had finished their work so they joined in too.

"It's hot so be careful."

"Don't worry, Your Highness."

They laughed lightly and pressed the cotton cloth with a spatula. The speed was slower than expected, so it was frustrating, but Edon tried to press it with a knife, to make the process faster.

The bean water squeezed from the cotton cloth went into the pot of cauldron.

"Your Highness, try this."

I handed the bean water to Blake in a cup.

"Okay."

"Eat carefully because it's hot."

"Oh, delicious."

"Delicious?"

"Yes."

I was thinking about adding sugar because I thought it would be a bit plain, but fortunately they enjoyed it.

"Wow, how savory! Your Highness is a genius."

"It's a drink from the East. Terry and the others did the hard part."

"No, I couldn't even think about making this. It's really great."

Chef Terry kept showering me with compliments as I scratched my head in embarrassment. Suddenly, I heard a cat meowing.

"Meow."

"Kitty!"

I held the black cat's body up in joy.

"How long has it been, kitty! Where have you been?"

"Meow."

The cat looked at the cauldron.

"Do you want soy milk too?"

"Meow!"

"Can a cat drink this?"

I thought about it but I couldn't think of an answer. There were no books about food that cats ate in this world, so I had no way to find information on what animals should or should not eat.

If I knew this would happen, I would have studied in Korea. I liked animals, but I couldn't even think of raising one because I used to live alone in a small studio apartment.

"Meow!"

The kitty nodded. Soybeans were good for the digestive system, so I hoped it wouldn't be bad for the kitty.

"Melissa, I'd like a small bowl for the kitty."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Meow!"

The kitty's eyes glistened.

I put the kitty down and started making tofu again.

As I slowly stirred the hot bean water, it coalesced little by little and formed pure tofu.

I had no idea how I did this difficult thing together with my grandmother in the past.

When the soft tofu was finished, a part of it was left aside, and the rest was put in a pre-made tofu mold where it was pressed until it hardened properly.

The tofu was finally done.

I was honestly worried about what would happen if the results turned out to be a mess when so many people worked so hard to make it, but fortunately, it turned out fine.

"Your Highness, this is 'tofu'."

Blake carefully poked the white tofu with his fingers.

"Oh, it's like pudding."

"The taste is completely different from pudding though. Let's go to the dining room."

While we waited for the tofu to harden, Blake looked at the boiled soft tofu stew, hot tofu, and white rice and smiled gently.

"It's all white, just like snow."

"It looks like you to me."

Blake's pale skin was as beautiful as snow.

Blake's mouth was full of white tofu, and when he heard that, his eyes widened.

"Ummm!"

He picked up two tofu chunks with a fork and put them in his mouth.

"Eat slowly."

"Okay. Ancia, it's the best! It's really delicious!"

Blake expressed his admiration again.

"Soft! It melted in my mouth!"

I felt proud when I saw him enjoying it. Making the millstone and the tofu mold turned out to be worthwhile. I hoped that Blake would eat a lot of good food and become a little healthier.

"Eat a lot."

"Yes, you eat up too, Ancia."

"I'll have some too."

It was my first time having tofu in a really long time. The tofu tasted warm and nice.

It reminded me of my house, my kind grandmother, and the kimchi that I ate with hot tofu. But I didn't want to go back to Korea.

I had to live my life here now. My husband, father, Diana, Melissa, Hans, Edon, Terry, and many others were all precious to me.

If I wanted to maintain this happiness, then Blake's curse had to be lifted.

***

We made tofu for the first time, but we couldn't finish it alone.

When I was about to go to the Emperor's Palace with soft tofu stew, the kitty cried bitterly.

"Meow."

"You can't eat the stew."

"Meow."

"You can't."

As I stroked the kitty's head, Blake lifted the kitty from my arms.

"Oh, why don't you hold the kitty? Your Highness, it's been a long time since you've seen a kitty, hasn't it?"

He said he hated it when I asked him to hold it once before, but in fact, he really wanted to. When I saw Blake holding the kitty, a happy smile spontaneously appeared on my lips.

"The soup is about to cool down, Ancia..."

"Ah, right!"

The heated soup would cool down if I didn't hurry. I waved to Blake and the kitty before rushing to the Imperial Palace.

***

Ancia could make Eastern cuisine so Eunhan found her to be a fascinating person. Seeing her, he tried to find various Eastern ingredients and tools for her.

Then he realized.

'I have feelings for her.'

Eunhan had Ancia in his heart, but he couldn't allow it to stay that way.

At first, he turned into a cat because of her food, but gradually, he kept coming over because of Ancia. In the end, he realized that his actions originated from love.

Ancia was the daughter-in-law of his master, so he had to end it here.

When Eunhan realized that, he gave up. He decided to stop hanging around Ancia and not take the form of a cat again.

However, in the end, he couldn't overcome the temptation of tofu.

Was his patience just this much?

Eunhan felt ashamed, but he was honest with himself and ended up begging Ancia to give him the soft tofu stew. However, he was caught by Blake.

Blake took him and headed to his bedroom.

Eunhan was in his cat form and tried to run away immediately, but he realized that he couldn't move. The Crown Prince's power was interfering with his technique.

What was this? Did the Crown Prince have such a power?

It was not from the sentences of the curse, but there was a force flowing from inside Blake.

While Eunhan was busy feeling embarrassed, the two arrived in the Crown Prince's bedroom. Blake closed the door and laid him down.

As soon as he came down from the Crown Prince's arms, Eunhan quickly ran toward the window.

"Who are you?"

But Blake's low voice echoed through the room before he could do that. Eunhan stiffened up and looked up at the Crown Prince.

He noticed him? No, it couldn't be. How would he know if he had never been caught transforming?

".....Meow?"

Eunhan imitated the sound of a cat. Then, an icy expression appeared on Blake's face.

"Don't even think about hiding it. I knew from the beginning that you were not a normal cat."

Ancia said that the prince was like a rabbit.

Eunhan could understand why she said that. The right side of the Crown Prince's face did not have any inscriptions and resembled the late Empress, so he looked very cute and delicate. Even more so because he was smaller than the boys his age.

But Eunhan had been watching Blake since he was young. Unlike his appearance, the Crown Prince's personality resembles the Emperor. He was more like a beast than a rabbit. Of course, he was still young, but even a lion cub was still a beast. Moreover, he grew up a lot in three years, so he was no longer just a cute lion cub.

Just like now.

There was a sense of coldness in his calm voice.

"I've been thinking about who you are, what you are, and now I know. You...weren't you in Ancia's room a little while ago?"

"....."

"You were spying on me and Ancia. Isn't that right?"

"....."

Eunhan was in charge of carrying out several orders as the shadow of the Emperor, and the most important one among them was to protect the Crown Prince and his wife.

The prince's condition was unstable these days, so he protected him closely.

When he followed the Crown Prince into Ancia's room, he felt as if the Crown Prince was looking at him, but he thought he was mistaken. Eunhan had used magic. The power he dealt with was the power of a dragon, so it was fundamentally different from the magic in the West. Hence, even the most prominent mages of the Empire did not notice his magic.

The Crown Prince had never learned magic, but he still discovered his secret art? He noticed at once that he turned into a cat?