New World, New Life: I Became A Bigshot In The Ancient World
Chapter 56: POPPED CORN AND SLEEPOVERS?

Chapter 56: POPPED CORN AND SLEEPOVERS?

It took a moment for the maid to react. They were... going to make a snack?

Oh! They wanted her to make them a snack. That must be it! The maid sighed in relief when she felt she understood the words of the third princess. She almost chuckled in disbelief. Was she crazy? How could she think the princess said she wanted to make a snack?

"I will make the snacks right away, princess," she bowed and turned away to begin the preparation when Aristia stopped her.

"We will make the snacks ourselves." Aristia rephrased her statement as it seemed like the maid misunderstood her intention.

It took the maid even longer to react now that Aristia made herself clear.

"Y-yes, princess?"

She wanted to make sure she had heard clearly. However, one look at the third princess’s unsmiling face told her that the little princess was not joking. She was serious!

The maid gritted her teeth and bowed. She couldn’t reject the princess. But they were just children, what if they got hurt? Would they not also be held responsible?

Aristia noticed the conflicted look on the maid’s face. She could understand what the maid was thinking. "We need your assistance."

The other servants in the kitchen were eavesdropping curiously while carrying out their tasks. The third princess said that they were going to cook, and it didn’t seem like she was joking.

Why would she even go through the trouble when all it would take was just a word from her and they would fulfill her command? Perhaps, she was just curious? But even then, noble children wouldn’t be curious about coming into the kitchen, would they? Not to talk of a princess. This was the first time they ever heard such a request.

Ivan, Beatrix and Serina just watched Aristia curiously, not saying a thing. They didn’t know anything about cooking, so they left it to her. She looked like she knew what she was doing. She always seemed to.

They didn’t even notice that they had started viewing her as someone very responsible and reliable.

Aristia’s voice drew back their attention.

"Do you have dried corn?" The maid was startled by Aristia’s sudden question.

"Yes? Oh, yes, there is dried corn in the kitchen." She said hurriedly.

"Good. Because we are going to need it." Aristia nodded.

Did the princess want to cook corn porridge? The maid thought.

"Then, I will prepare the corn, princess. Please, come with me." She bowed.

"You seem to know what you are doing." Beatrix whispered to Aristia as they followed the maid.

"Yes. Actually I have made snacks before," she said.

"Mama, Papa and I also have," Alaric chirped. "When we had the picnic."

"Oh my." Serina said with her hand over her mouth, unable to hide her surprise at her uncle and aunt doing work meant for the servants.

They stopped when the maid stopped walking. She opened another door that looked like a storeroom.

[So, they have a room for storing food that will be used in the palace?] Aristia was surprised, but it was the same for noble households.

They stored food to be used by the household, but it wasn’t the same for the commoners.

Aristia followed the maid as she showed her a line up of large bowls. They all contained dried corn.

Aristia saw both field corn kernels and popcorn kernels.

[There’s even coloured popcorn kernels.] She bent down as she picked up a handful of blue popcorn kernels.

"Do you know how to make popcorn?" She asked the maid while still feeling the corn.

"Popcorn? I do not think I have heard of this dish, Your Highness." The maid said, confused.

"I don’t suppose you would. It is something I thought of, after all." Aristia didn’t mind taking the credit.

The others were surprised at this. So, she had created whatever snack she wanted to make. They found it hard to believe, especially the maid.

"Scoop a bowl of this," Aristia ordered, pointing to the blue corn kernels. "And a bowl of this." She pointed to the yellow kernels.

The maid moved to do as asked.

When they returned to the kitchen, she began to direct the maid and Adeline on what they should do.

Her cousins were children and couldn’t handle fire or oil since they hadn’t done it before.

Aristia said nothing as she heard gasps of surprise from the maids who had stopped to watch what was happening, her cousins and brother. They were surprised at how the corn kernels popped and changed from hard and dry to looking soft and fluffy.

Was it magic? It did look like magic.

"Divide the popcorn and put it into two bowls each, Linny." She told Adeline.

"Get me the sugar." She told the maid.

"Yes? Oh, yes!" The maid snapped out of her surprise and brought the sugar over. "Here is the sugar, princess."

"Thank you." Aristia collected the sugar and started to sprinkle it all over the popped corn after Adeline transferred it from the pan to four large bowls.

"Give me the melted butter,"

She poured it into the popcorn.

"Give me the melted chocolate." She said to Adeline.

"Here it is Princess." Adeline handed her the bowl of thick melted chocolate.

She watched in amazement and curiosity as Aristia poured it over the other two bowls of popcorn and stirred it with a spoon so that all the popcorn in the bowl would be evenly coated with the melted chocolate.

"There. It’s done." Aristia smiled.

"It looks delicious." Serina said in awe. She still couldn’t believe that such a thing existed and could happen.

"And smells heavenly," Serina said.

Aristia kindly put some of both popcorns into another bowl for the maid who had assisted them.

"Ah! Thank you, princess." The maid was once again surprised beyond words, then she reacted and collected the bowl from Aristia, before bowing her head.

[These servants are very different from those at home.]

Aristia couldn’t help but notice the difference between the palace servants and the servants back in the mansion.

The servants at home were always calm and composed. She had gotten used to them that seeing the palace servants acting this way felt strange.

Adeline put the bowls into a large tray.

"Now, let’s begin our sleepover." Aristia smiled as they left the kitchen.

"Princess, shall I squeeze some oranges to make juice?" Adeline asked as soon as they stopped at Serina’s ggmy room.

[I forgot about the drinks. Oh, what did I do to have you, Linny?]

"Yes, please. You can put the popcorn on the floor," she smiled at Adeline and pointed at the fort of blankets and pillows they had arranged with the help of Adeline, Casandra and the princesses’ personal maids, beforehand.

Adeline bowed and placed the bowls on the floor inside the large blanket fort, then she turned and left to squeeze the juice for her .

"So, this is it." Aristia said as she crawled inside the pillow fort and sat down on the blanket spread on the floor.

"What should we do?" Ivan asked as he followed suit and got into the blanket fort. He sat opposite her.

"We’ve got our popcorn ready, now we just have fun. What do you want to do?" She asked them all folding her legs on top of each other in a crisscross position.

The others stopped in surprise, but followed suit.

"Hmm... I want to play one of those games you talked about." Ivan said.

"I want to listen to a story." Beatrix said.

"I want you to read my book to me." Alaric gave his own answer.

"I just want to eat the popcorn." Serina said. Her mind was still on the popcorn. They looked very delicious.

[Ah, my homie foodie.]

"I feel ya sister, I feel you. But we’ll have to wait for Adeline to return with the drinks before we eat the popcorn," Aristia said to Serina. "Well then, let’s start with the games."

She had some games in mind. She didn’t need to worry about the royal children being suspicious of the origin of the games because no matter how smart they were, they were still children and wouldn’t think too deeply about it.

Better still, she could just claim the credit. They already believed she had a very smart brain.

[Which is correct. I do have a very smart brain.] She chuckled.

The sound attracted their attention and they wondered why she was laughing.

Aristia cleared her throat before continuing, "The game is called Two Truths And One Lie. In this game..." She started to explain the game to them as they officially began the sleepover.

"So, it’s my turn." Aristia said after the game had rounded up to her turn, looking each of them in the eye. "My name is Aristia. I am not your sister and cousin. I don’t dislike meeting with our Kingdom’s aristocrat children." She finished, waiting for them to guess the lie.

They weren’t writing it down on paper because Aristia decided this would be faster and more fun. It would also be easier for Alaric who was still learning to read and write.

"Hmm... I know. I am not your sister and cousin, that is the lie." Ivan said after some thought.

"We also agree." Serina and Beatrix also voiced their agreement. They thought so too.

But Alaric was confused,

’But, Tia does not like meeting with the other aristocrat children.’