I Didn’t Lull You to Sleep Only for You to Be Obsessed With Me - Chapter 34

RP: Haebaragi_syk

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Chapter 18.1

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Sophia Sacher was quite upset at the moment.

“I was supposed to present my dessert to His Majesty this time, just as you mentioned! I even developed a new recipe!”

It had already been eight years since she entered the imperial kitchen. She entered as the youngest employee at the age of fifteen and worked her way up through the ranks, becoming a kitchen assistant five years ago and a full-time baker two years ago. She had only one goal—to serve her desserts to the Emperor and other members of her imperial family.

Usually, when one became a full-time baker, they made at least a simple dessert, though Sophia had never made desserts for the imperial family before.

In other words, being a baker in name only.

Perhaps, the reason was…

“Is it because I’m a woman again?”

The imperial kitchen was mostly comprised of men. Many people didn’t like her since Sophia first became a kitchen assistant.

〈 How long can a woman endure this difficult work? She’ll probably run away soon enough. 〉

〈 She should just stay home and take bridal lessons. 〉

Amidst the relentless contempt being poured upon her, she persevered resolutely. Despite the heavy burden of being told she couldn’t do it because she was a woman, she exercised to lift the weight, remained silent without a word of complaint, and worked diligently.

Nonetheless, the voices that she was openly ignoring went in her ears.

Still, the discrimination hadn’t completely disappeared. They began to subtly exclude her from work—subtle ostracism, but she could endure that. However, the head chef, who oversaw the kitchen, inflicted a humiliating disgrace upon Sophia as a baker by not giving anyone the desserts she made! He even poured her dessert into the trash last time, making a fuss about how terrible it tasted right in front of her.

Even though she had tried not to cry despite enduring all sorts of humiliations until now, that day, she had no choice but to hide in the bathroom and cry silently.

But a few days ago, to everyone’s surprise, the head chef gave her a task.

〈 You’ve been a full-time baker for two years now, right? 〉

〈 Yes. 〉

〈 It’s about time to make a dessert to present to His Majesty. 〉

〈 Really? 〉

〈 Though you can’t present an ordinary dessert to His Majesty, can you? Create a dessert that His Majesty has never tasted before. 〉

The head chef’s underlying message was, ‘You can never present your dessert to His Majesty because you can’t make something like that.’

However, the naive Sophia, unaware of this, worked day and night for several days to develop a new recipe. She proudly presented the cake she had made in front of the head chef today, but the response she received was, “It can’t be presented to His Majesty.” It was only then that she realized, belatedly, that the head chef had never intended to present her dessert to the Emperor in the first place.

He had only wanted to mock her.

How much must others have ridiculed her from behind as she continued to toil in the kitchen late into the night?

“You can’t do this to me just because I’m a woman!”

It was a phrase she had never uttered before. Despite the fact that she had felt discriminated against because of her gender, Sophia had never pointed it out.

But today, she couldn’t let it go.

As if pricked at the heart, the head chef couldn’t respond immediately. He fiddled with his hat and then looked at the cake she had made.

“Isn’t that just an ordinary ganache cake? I distinctly remember you were supposed to make a special dessert that His Majesty hasn’t tasted before, not something so ordinary.”

While Sophia’s cake appeared ordinary at first glance—a chocolate cake coated with ganache—the true value of this cake lay in its filling.

She approached the head chef with the cake in hand.

“No, it’s not! It may look ordinary on the outside, but there are different ingredients inside. Please, give it a try!”

“Adding different ingredients won’t change it. It’s just a chocolate cake!”

“Just try it once…!”

“Why do you keep bothering me like this?!”

As he uttered so, the head chef struck her arm, causing Sophia to lose her grip on the cake tray the next moment.

“No!”

She belatedly reached out her hand, but her hand didn’t touch the cake and it fell flat on the floor. Just like that, the dessert she had worked tirelessly on all night had been ruined.

“How…”

Her eyes quickly welled up with tears. The head chef appeared embarrassed as if he hadn’t intended for this to happen, but he soon raised his voice.

“So why would you push it like that?! The kitchen is a mess now. Get rid of it quickly!”

“….”

“What are you all staring at?! Go back to work quickly!”

The bakers who had been watching scattered in a hurry. In an instant, only Sophia was left in the kitchen.

Alone, she couldn’t hold back her tears.

Despite trying not to cry, tears welled up and fell steadily as she gazed upon the completely ruined cake. The crumpled cake seemed to mirror her shattered confidence.

‘I can’t do this anymore.’

No matter how she pretended to be fine, how she tried to appear indifferent, it was no use. Every time she received scorn, her heart grew a little more numb. Nevertheless, with her love for desserts in her heart, she got back on her feet again.

But today, she had no strength left to rise again.

‘I should clean up first.’

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