She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman
Chapter 586 - 302: Valhalla Garden (2)

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After one round walking in the garden, Mira spotted a path amongst the pretty flowers, making her wonder what was past there. And as she strolled that way…

「Ohh, good morning Master.」

There she found Frodina, her current attire reminiscent of a farmer lady. And to go along with that, she was holding a sparkling silver watering can.

「Good morning to you, too.」

Mira returned the greeting and then stared at Frodina for some time, eventually asking, 「Is it you who's been caring for this beautiful garden?」

「Yes. Around ten years ago, I began to feel like the palace's surroundings could use some more color, so I started working on this garden.」

Frodina was smiling happily with a little embarrassment, likely pleased that Mira had described the garden as beautiful.

「More color, huh… I can see that, I was just there and everything else apart from this garden looked like brutal siege preparations.」

Frodina nodded awkwardly as Mira expressed her thoughts of the place. She had thought the same for a long time, and since she liked flowers, she decided to start doing some gardening on the island. With time, that garden grew in size, and before she realized, it reached its current breadth.

She also mentioned that Alfina unexpectedly also seemed to take a liking to the garden, being the one who had brought the bench there, and would often sit there to take a breather after training.

「So that's the story behind that bench… Somehow it's not something I would've expected from her.」

Alfina always gave the impression of living purely to train and grow stronger, but surprisingly enough, she seemed to have a soft side after all. As Mira mulled over that new realization, Frodina looked at Mira with a glint in her eyes, grinning a bit as she whispered, 「Actually… Do you want to know something else?」

Then she proceeded to reveal that Alfina actually disliked tomatoes.

「Really? I would've never thought Alfina had a weakness like that.」

Alfina always acted like a stoic and perfect warrior, but she also had such a cutesy weakness. That was really unexpected, but Mira also began to feel a certain kinship with Alfina knowing that. And Frodina was not done talking yet.

「Also also…」

She looked around, making sure they were alone, and then she continued whispering, 「I've been working on a plan to fix her distaste for tomatoes, could you help with that?」

「Hmm… Tell me more.」

Mira nodded and agreed, halfway because it sounded like fun, and halfway out of consideration for Alfina.

As it turned out, her distaste for tomatoes was rather extreme. Frodina had tried to cook tomato in various forms, trying to make it more appetizing, but no matter what she did, as soon as Alfina heard the dish contained tomato, she refused to even try a bite.

「She says the gloopy thing around the seeds makes her feel gross, and it doesn't matter how carefully I clean them, she always says that a bit could've made it through and doesn't touch the food…」

Frodina sighed as she said that, as she was always extremely careful to make sure the food was good. She also mentioned that some of the other sisters also were picky at times, but Frodina had always managed to find ways to make them enjoy all her food. Christina had been a really picky eater at one time, refusing to eat anything that was not sweets.

But learning how to cook for Christina had taught her many things, greatly improving her cooking skills, even allowing her to participate in the Cross-Valhalla Cooking Competition.

「I…see… Congratulations on that.」

Mira was unsure of what the Cross-Valhalla Cooking Competition was, even if it sounded like a big deal. Still, it was something impressive mentioned in a seemingly unrelated story, so Mira congratulated her for it, and Frodina smiled bashfully and thanked Mira for the compliment.

「Anyway, I'm sure that if only Alfina would try a bit of the food, she would change her mind.」

Frodina proudly declared that she had a track record of amending people's tomato pickiness.

Christina had also disliked tomatoes in the past, but Frodina's recipes had managed to change her mind. Now, Christina found pizzas with tomato and cheese to be one of the most delicious things in the world.

Things had reached the point where Frodina had conducted experiments contacting other Valhallas, looking for more Valkyries that hated tomatoes and fixing their pickiness with her food with a high rate of success. And in the cases where it did not fully work out, they still were able to stomach some dishes containing tomatoes.

That was why she felt so confident that Alfina's case would also improve if she just agreed to try a bite, but Alfina had always refused no matter what, leaving Frodina defeated and with no ideas of what else to try.

「That's why I could really use your help, Master.」

The last idea Frodina got was a rather simple plan. Knowing how Alfina venerated Mira as her absolute master, if Mira told Alfina to eat something containing tomatoes, she would have no choice but to do it. And after the first bite, Frodina's cooking would work its magic. At least that her fervent passion told her that.

「Hmm, I see. Very well then, if that's all there is to it, I'll help out!」

It almost felt like an abuse of power, but Mira felt bad for Alfina, missing out on all the delicious dishes made with tomatoes. Or at least that was the excuse Mira told herself, as she happily continued plotting how everything would play out together with Frodina.

Also, it was only Frodina who knew about Alfina's eating habits, so they had to make sure the plan would not be obvious to the other sisters.