Jacob started walking towards the Rose Clan dormitories to check up on Maria. As he walked, he started thinking of things he wanted to do. Even though training should be their priority, he can’t help but desire to explore the kingdom some more and see what other things civilians do throughout their daily lives. Walking up to the Rose Clan door, he gently knocked on it and announced his arrival.

"Pardon me, it’s Prince Jacob. I was seeing if Maria is here."

After a few moments of silence, Lidia opened up the door.

"She’s busy. Go bother someone else you perve!"

Lidia closed the door on Jacob leaving him baffled.

’Did... she just call me a perve?’

Jacob knocked again. Lidia opened it again clearly annoyed.

"Didn’t I tell you to get lost?!"

"Can you at least tell me if Maria’s here please."

"She’s here. We were just having a wonderful conversation which you are interrupting."

Jacob put his foot in the door.

"A conversation?! That sounds like fun! I’ll join you guys!"

Jacob just walked right past Lidia and started waving to Maria who was still wearing her pajamas at the dining table. Her hair seemed to be a mess, but she wasn’t embarrassed about it. Lidia was completely shocked by his confidence to simply stroll right past her without so much as looking her way.

"Hey, I didn’t say you could... ugh. Never mind."

Maria saw Jacob and her face lit up.

"Jacob! It’s nice to see you’re finally awake and well!"

"Ugh. Not too terribly well. I had such an awful dream. Remind me to tell you about it later."

Maria got up from her chair and made her way towards the kitchen.

"Would you like me to make you breakfast? I don’t know when the last time you ate was."

Jacob’s stomach started to rumble at this question.

"Actually, I was hoping I could make you breakfast today. I feel like you’ve made me food plenty of times. I would really love to finally make you something as well!"

Maria’s face lit up even more.

"Breakfast?! For me?!"

"That’s right. I hope you’re okay with that."

Maria’s heart started to pound faster, and her face started getting warm.

"I mean, I would love that. As long as you’re okay with it. Do you even know how to cook?"

"Not really. But how hard can it be? I promise I’ll deliver you the best quality food you’ve ever tasted!"

"You have a lot of competition if you’re going to try and make something that will beat Sarah."

Jacob let out a sigh.

"I don’t think I could beat her even with years of practice."

As Jacob walked toward the kitchen, he tried to familiarize himself with all the utensils. Some were shaped so oddly that Jacob had no idea what their use could possibly be for. Grabbing an assortment of ingredients from cupboards, Jacob laid them out in front of him. He grabbed a bag of salt, a basket of eggs, random spices, a large stick of butter, and four big pieces of pork.

’Okay Jacob. Remember just not so spill anything. At the very least, you cannot make a mess!’

Jacob started a small fire underneath a skillet to start heating it up. Without thinking about his choices, Jacob immediately cracked two eggs to lay in the base of the pan. The started to sizzle upon laying on the bottom of the pan. Jacob tried throwing a myriad of seasonings on the eggs to make them taste better. Everything was going perfectly... until Jacob tried to remove the eggs using a flat tool.

The more he tried to get underneath the eggs, the more destroyed they got. Jacob was losing his patience trying to get them off the pan.

’Come on you damn eggs. How come you’re so sticky?! This never happens when Maria cooks. They just slide off the pan for her!’

Soon, there seemed to be a crime scene happening in the skillet. Egg chunks were scattered everywhere, the smell of the eggs burning started to fill the room, and smoke started to spout from his pan. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

’What the hell is happening?! It’s like I’m fighting something that turned into a monster!’

Jacob started panicking and grabbed the hot skillet with a cloth and threw it into a large tub of water to cool it down. Steam filled the entire room with a hiss the moment it touched the water. Jacob was left staring at his complete failure soak in the water.

"Well... at least I can keep trying with the extra ingredients."

He heard Maria start to call from the other room.

"Hey, is everything okay in there? I think I smell something burning."

"Everything’s good! Just getting used to the area is all!"

Jacob quickly ran back to the counter trying to see what his next best options were. As he tried running back over, he tripped over himself and flipped a pan that was sitting on the counter. When it flew into the air, it knocked into other pots hanging on the wall. All of them started coming down one by one, raining down on Jacob.

’Shit! I have to catch them!’

As Jacob threw his hand forward to catch one, he accidently knocked one of the jars of spice on the ground. A plume rose in the air from the impact, causing Jacob to cough and make his eyes burn.

’Am I under attack?! What the hell is happening to me?!’

The pots started ringing against the floor one by one. As he tried to walk forward, he ended up slipping on one of them and fell head-first into the bucket of water he threw his first pan in. The kitchen became an absolute mess. Cooking utensils were scattered all across the room, spices littered the once polished cabinets and floors, and now there was a massive puddle of water that formed when Jacob fell into his bucket.

As he tried to reorient himself, he looked back towards the door. Maria was standing there looking at him. Suddenly, she burst out into laughter. He had never seen Maria laugh over anything so hard before. She was holding her stomach and fell on the floor kicking her feet in the air. Jacob meanwhile tried standing up, only to slip and fall on the puddle of water again.

This caused Maria to laugh even harder. She was slamming her fist on the floor, causing the whole room to shake each time. Eventually, Jacob managed to finally leave the kitchen. He was balancing himself on the nearest wall with a fearful look on his face.

"I’ll never underestimate you or Sarah ever again. This cooking thing is impossible."