Imladris was humming cheerfully as she made her way to the palace kitchens. In her mind, she was planning the pastries that she hoped to make for her fiancé, Chevalier. She wanted to surprise him with his favorite beignets when they have tea later that afternoon.

However, when she got to the kitchen, she was met with an unexpected sight.

Licht was standing there, staring down at something on the table. She couldn't tell what it was, though; it was blocked from her view by boxes of ingredients.

Well, that was strange. She had been familiar with the palace kitchens ever since she had been Belle. But she rarely saw any of the princes here, apart from Yves (who liked to cook and bake) and Luke (who often came to sneak some honey out of the kitchen).

"Licht? What are you doing here?"

She went over to stand beside him, and she finally saw what he had been staring at. It was a mixing bowl, cracked and broken, its contents spilling out onto the table.

"Oh, no! What happened?" she asked.

A despondent sigh came out of Licht's lips. "I'm… not quite sure," he replied gloomily. "I was only stirring the batter… but the bowl suddenly just broke… I don't know why…"

Imladris bit her lip to stop herself from smiling.

"Maybe you were stirring too forcefully?" she suggested. She knew from watching Licht train and spar with his soldiers that the seventh prince was quite strong. He put a lot of power when striking with his sword. And there was no way that a poor, ordinary mixing bowl could stand such strength.

"Yeah, maybe…"

"Were you trying to bake something? I don't think I've ever seen you baking or cooking before…"

"That's because I'm a disaster in the kitchen," Licht deadpanned. "But… I wanted to do something nice for Yves this time."

Imladris tilted her in curiosity. "For Yves?"

"Yeah. I was quite busy the other day, and Yves helped me out with all the paperwork. Then, he even baked pastries for me. To 'give me energy', he said… So, I wanted to thank him and return the favor… But…" He gestured hopelessly at the mess in front of him.

Unable to stand seeing Licht looking so gloomy (well, even gloomier than usual), she decided to lend him a hand.

"I was going to make some pastries for Chevalier. I can help and teach you some baking skills if you want. Why don't we make a lot of pastries together? And then, you can bring some to Yves afterward?" she offered.

Licht's red eyes widened. "Really?"

"Sure! I'll help you learn how to make pastries for Yves, and you can help me with making pastries for my afternoon tea with Chevalier. It's a win-win situation!" she said brightly.

…Maybe it was because of her "pure and noble heart as Belle," or maybe she just drastically underestimated what Licht was like in the kitchen, but she would soon find out that teaching baking skills to Licht was a much bigger challenge than what she had anticipated.

"No, Licht! That's too much flour!"

"But the recipe says 1 cup, and I'm measuring it with this cup…"

"Yes, but that cup is heaping full!" The cup was so overflowing that it was like there was another extra cup of flour sitting on top the flour inside the actual cup. "You just got to fill it up to the cup's brim, not way over the brim."

"Oh, I see."

And then—

"Licht, this mixture is too sticky. How much syrup did you put?"

"…Almost the whole bottle."

"What?! But why?! The recipe only says 2 teaspoons."

"…I wanted to make it sweeter."

"Well, yeah, more syrup would indeed make it sweeter, but it also ruins the consistency of the mixture, and it wouldn't bake well."

"Oh. Sorry."

And there was even more—

"Licht. You know the eggshells aren't supposed to be included in the batter."

"Yes, but the shells break so much when I crack the eggs, and tiny bits keep falling into the batter."

"Here, I'll show you how to properly crack eggs."

"Thanks, Imladris."

After what felt like forever, the pastry batters were finally done.

The kitchen was a complete mess, and Imladris felt quite exhausted, having had to stop Licht from doing something wrong dozens of times. If this was Clavis that she was dealing with, Imladris would have bet that he was trying to mess with the food on purpose. But this was Licht, and Licht was too nice and sweet to do something like that. It was simply just that Licht was helpless in the kitchen, that's all.

But still, the batters were done! Imladris and Licht had finally finished the different batters for the various pastries that they were making, and that was all that mattered.

Now, what was only left for them to do was actually baking the stuff in the oven. They were finally at the finish line, and there was nothing else in the way for them to trip over at this point!

Or so Imladris thought.

Imladris finished pouring some batter into a baking tray, and she handed it over to Licht to put in the oven. As Licht worked on the oven, Imladris turned back to pour batter into another tray. She had nearly finished with the second tray when—

"Imladris, watch out!"

"Huh?!"

The next thing that she knew, she was being pulled into Licht's arms, and Licht was dragging the both of them backwards.

BANG!

There was a flash of light and a deafening boom. Imladris flinched and shut her eyes. She felt Licht protectively pulling her closer to his body. After a while, she opened her eyes and rubbed her ears, trying to get rid of the buzzing sound that she was hearing due to the explosion. She surveyed the kitchen from her place in the arms of Licht, who still hadn't let go of her.

The oven was blown up, smoldering and letting out billows of black smoke. There was pastry batter splattered everywhere. Imladris and Licht were splattered with batter as well, though Licht had it much worse than her. Imladris only had a few splatters on her head and her shoulders, but Licht was totally drenched on his head and his back, which had been facing the direction of the oven when he protectively covered Imladris.

"Licht! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"I'm all right, thanks to y—"

But before Imladris could finish her sentence, another arm slipped around her waist and pulled her back, away from Licht.

She looked around to see that it was none other than the blond man whom she loved so much.

"Chevalier!"

However, Chevalier wasn't looking at her. Instead, he was looking at Licht. Well, glaring might be more accurate. Chevalier was glaring at Licht.

Imladris then realized the compromising position that she and Licht had been in when Chevalier found them.

"Chevalier, Licht was only trying to protect me from the explosion," Imladris said hurriedly, wanting to avoid any misunderstanding. "It wasn't what it looked like, and—"

"I know."

Right. Of course. Chevalier could easily read any situation, and this was no different. One glance at the kitchen, and Chevalier must have immediately known what had happened.

Licht felt uneasy about being on the receiving end of Chevalier's glare. Anybody would be feeling uneasy, if not downright frightened, when being glared at by the Brutal Beast. And looking around miserably at the wreckage that he had caused, Licht apologized, "I'm sorry, Imladris. I ruined our pastries. And the oven, too."

"It's okay!" Imladris said quickly. "The important thing is that no one was hurt."

True, she was a bit disappointed that the pastries were ruined. After all, she was planning to share those with Chevalier. But Licht hadn't ruined them on purpose. He had been trying his best with their baking. It was true that he had made many mistakes during the whole process, but he still persevered, and Imladris appreciated that.

Chevalier, however, thought differently. "You really messed up this time, Mime. You are to clean this place. You are also to assist Imladris with her work in the next few days to make this up to her."

"That's not nece—" Imladris started to say, but Chevalier cut her off with a look.

"You will also—" Chevalier continued "—submit a 10-page report, detailing the mistakes that you made during this baking fiasco, why you made them, and why you shouldn't have made them. I want it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning."

"10 pages?!" Licht was unpleasantly shocked by the number. "Just for messing up in baking?!"

Yes, he had destroyed the oven and messed up the kitchen, but Licht didn't think that he deserved to be punished like this. 10 pages?! Chevalier was treating this like it was a serious, official incident.

Despite Licht's protests, the Brutal Beast was, of course, unrelenting. "Your actions have ruined the pastries that Imladris had been intending to share with me."

Being deterred from eating his lover's pastries was a great atrocity against him, in Chevalier's opinion.

"It was an accident," Licht insisted.

"An easily avoidable one. Ovens are not meant to be immediately set to such a very high temperature, fool."

Licht scowled. "I didn't know that. I was trying to learn how to bake. Imladris was teaching me."

Chevalier scoffed. "Know and acknowledge your weaknesses. It might be advisable for you to just stick to sword fighting and military strategy instead."

"It doesn't hurt to try and learn something new," Licht argued. But then, he glanced back at the oven, which seemed to be mocking his words.

Chevalier correctly read his thoughts. "This baking catastrophe seems to be proving you otherwise. If you wish to risk your life in attempting to bake, you are free to do so. But leave Imladris out of it. I don't take lightly attempts on my fiancée's life, Mime."

"I wasn't trying to hurt her."

"No, you only endangered her with your atrocious baking skills."

"Chevalier, Licht didn't mean to make the oven explode," Imladris implored, trying to break the argument. She certainly didn't want these two brothers to be drawing out their swords in the kitchen. "If anything, I'm thankful to Licht for protecting me from the explosion."

Chevalier stared at her for a moment. "I see." He turned his ice-blue eyes back to Licht, who had to stop himself from fidgeting under Chevalier's gaze. "So, I suppose that you must be 'rewarded' for protecting my fiancée."

Licht didn't really like the sound of that. And he definitely didn't like the sadistic smile that was starting to form on Chevalier's face.

Chevalier escorted Imladris back to her room to get cleaned up. Once she had bathed and changed to clean clothes, she went off to her lessons with Sariel. Chevalier watched her walk down the hallway. Once she was out of sight, he turned to his left.

"You there," he called out.

Lucien seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"You are to go to the markets and purchase certain items for me."

"What do you require, sire?"

Chevalier identified the product and the amount that he wanted. Lucien's eyebrows rose up to his hairline. Nonetheless, he didn't question his master. He bowed respectfully and immediately set off to fulfill his task.

The next day, things weren't going so well for Licht. Imladris had thankfully talked Chevalier out of that very long report, but Licht couldn't help but feel throughout the day that karma was somehow trying to get back at him.

It all started the very moment that he woke up.

Licht opened his eyes, rolled over to his side, and saw several carrots on his bed right beside him.

Licht stared. Then, he blinked several times, wondering if the darkness of his room was playing tricks on his eyes. But no, the carrots were still there, neatly tied together and seemingly innocuous.

What on earth was his most hated vegetable doing here? How did these carrots even get on his bed? Well, clearly, someone had placed them there, but who? And why?

Head full of questions, Licht moved the carrots to his bedside table instead. As he puzzled over this matter, he started to get ready for his day ahead. However, when he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, he found another carrot on the sink.

The carrot was right beside his toothbrush, clearly meant for Licht to find.

Then, when he opened a drawer to get a clean shirt, there were a couple more carrots inside the drawer.

And those weren't even the end of it. Anywhere and everywhere that Licht went that day, he would always find carrots. His satchel had been stuffed full of them. There were also some carrots tied next to the entrance of his horse's stall (Marron was trying to reach for them, and Licht untied them and fed them to Marron). There were even a few carrots tied to his sword! And when Licht went into town for some inspection, each merchant whom he visited handed him a carrot. However, when Licht questioned them about it, they would only say that they were under instructions to give him the carrots, refusing to tell him who had given them the carrots in the first place.

It was all very strange.

Sure, the carrots weren't really harming him, but Licht couldn't help but wrinkle his nose in distaste whenever he saw his least liked vegetable. Suffice to say, Licht was wrinkling his nose quite frequently that day.

Licht wasn't the only one having an odd day, though.

Imladris went to the foreign affairs faction office to see Chevalier during her break. She hoped to spend a few minutes with her beloved. She found Chevalier busy with some paperwork as usual, and she eagerly helped him. Even though she was on break from her own work, she still wanted to help Chevalier with his.

As she handed over a document to Chevalier, however, he said something quite strange.

"Imladris. We are having dinner with the Mime tonight. Make sure to inform him of this."

Imladris furrowed her eyebrows. Well, that was different.

Yes, she and Chevalier usually ate their meals together whenever they can. But they didn't usually eat with the other princes. It was uncharacteristic of Chevalier to dine with his brothers. Heck, it was uncharacteristic of Chevalier to dine with anyone other than Imladris, period. In fact, whenever Clavis would try to butt in and join them for meals, Chevalier would flick Clavis' forehead hard enough to dent his skull and then promptly kick him out of the room (or the gardens, if they were dining outside).

Despite Imladris' questioning look, Chevalier refused to elaborate. So, she tried to guess.

"It's not because you feel bad about being too harsh on Licht yesterday, is it?" She didn't think that was the likely reason, but that was the only thing that she could come up with in that moment.

Chevalier paused from doing his paperwork and looked at Imladris. He poked her on the forehead.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Obviously, that is not why. Once a simpleton, always a simpleton, I see."

"So, why then?"

Chevalier simply returned to his paperwork. Seeing that she wasn't going to get a direct answer from him, Imladris just shrugged and nodded. "Well, okay. I'll find Licht later and tell him."

It was just dinner, after all. Whatever Chevalier's reason was for having Licht dine with them, it couldn't be anything too bad.

Right?

When Licht entered the round table room that evening, Imladris was already there, and the table was set for three.

"Hi, Licht," she greeted him with a smile. "Thanks for agreeing to join us."

"Sure. Thanks for inviting me."

The dinner invitation was quite unexpected, but Licht didn't have any good reason to refuse, so he had agreed. Licht didn't really want to socialize, and the mere idea of dining with Chevalier was a bit disturbing to him, but he couldn't say no when Imladris had asked him with a hopeful look on her face earlier.

Sitting at Imladris' left, Licht asked, "Where's Chevalier?"

"Oh, he's still cooking our dinner. He should be nearly done by now, though. I offered to help, but he said that he didn't any help and sent me ahead to just wait here."

Chevalier was actually the one cooking their food? Licht was even more confused. And suspicious. Chevalier only ever cooked for Imladris. So, why had Chevalier now invited Licht to dine with them on food that Chevalier himself had cooked?

Seeing the look on Licht's face, Imladris said reassuringly, "Don't worry, Chevalier cooks really well! You know that's he's good at everything. So, we can be sure that dinner tonight will be delicious!"

That wasn't really what Licht was worried about, though. Before he could tell Imladris so, however, Chevalier entered the room.

"Chevalier!" Imladris said, automatically smiling at the sight of Chevalier.

Chevalier sat on the other chair to Imladris' right. "Dinner is done cooking. The maids are bringing it over."

And just as Chevalier finished speaking, the door opened again, and several maids came in. They placed a plate of food each in front of Chevalier, Imladris, and Licht.

Imladris and Licht both gasped in surprise. While the plates for Chevalier and Imladris had delicious-smelling beef stew, mashed potatoes, and a couple of bread rolls, Licht's plate had nothing but carrots! In fact, Licht's plate was piled high with carrots! Yes, the carrots had been expertly sliced, stewed, and drizzled with some kind of sauce, but still, carrots!

Licht stared down at his "dinner." Then, it all finally clicked in his head. He glared across the table at Chevalier.

"It was you! You were the one leaving carrots all over the place for me today!" Licht accused.

"No," Chevalier said coolly. "It was my agent."

"But on your orders."

Imladris started. She turned to Chevalier. "Wait, what? You did what today, Chevalier?"

Did she understand this right? Had Chevalier really ordered Lucien to leave carrots everywhere for Licht?

"This is your revenge for what happened yesterday, isn't it?" Licht said.

"Don't ask pointless questions that you already know the answer to," Chevalier said dismissively. He picked up his utensils and began eating his own dinner.

Imladris felt torn. On one hand, she felt so sorry for Licht that she was almost tempted to offer to share her food with Licht. But she knew that Chevalier wouldn't like her sharing the food that he had made for her with another person. And also, it would still be a waste of food, as well as Chevalier's time and effort, if Licht didn't eat his meal, though the choice of main ingredient for his meal was quite questionable.

"I don't eat carrots," Licht said firmly.

Chevalier didn't even bother to look up from his food as he replied, "You are no longer a child. Don't be picky with your food." Then, he added to Imladris, who had yet to begin eating, "If you don't want to eat your food as well, I can have the maids take it away."

"No, I want it!" Imladris exclaimed. She promptly spooned some of the mashed potatoes into her mouth. As she enjoyed the burst of flavor, she could only watch helplessly as the two brothers continued to throw words at each other.

Well, as long as they were only throwing words, not actual weapons…

"Everyone has their own food preferences," Licht argued. "You should respect those and not force people to eat what they dislike as some kind of petty revenge."

"Be grateful that this is only 'petty revenge', seeing as the incident that you had involved Imladris in was unintentional on your part. Unlike the kind of actual kind of revenge that is given those who intentionally try to harm her."

Both Licht and Imladris shivered slightly at that. True, the Bloody Tiger was merciless on those foolish enough to try to sabotage or harm his future queen in any way.

Licht was still unwilling to yield when it comes to his "dinner" of carrots, though.

"You can't make me eat these carrots."

"Are you aware of how childish you sound right now?"

"I don't care. I'm not eating these carrots."

"Would you really be so rude as to refuse to eat the meal that your king has prepared for you?"

Licht narrowed his eyes. Was Chevalier seriously playing the "I-am-your-king" card? "You may be king now, but that doesn't mean that you can order me to eat whatever."

"Is that a threat of insubordination?"

At the danger in Chevalier's tone, Licht pursed his lips. He knew better than to really annoy Chevalier (unlike some of their other brothers who just never seemed to learn). He let out a sigh. Then, he looked down at his plate with an expression that was more appropriate for receiving a death sentence. Finally admitting defeat, he reluctantly picked up his fork.

"You are to eat every single piece of carrot on your plate, Mime."

Licht's head suddenly jerked up again in surprise. "All of this?!"

Even Imladris was shocked. She eyed the mountain of carrots on Licht's plate. By the end of this dinner, Licht might become orange-colored…

"Eat."

Licht let out another sigh, speared a piece of carrot with his fork, and brought it into his mouth, unable to stop himself from making a face of disgust at the taste. He quickly chewed it and swallowed.

One down, hundreds more to go.

It was going to be a long, awful night for Licht.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedback/comments are much appreciated! :)