For Elysia

Today was a day off.

By rights, everyone should have stayed out of the kitchen and taken the day off.

But at Maison Monbel, the words “day off” were generally close to a lie.

We weren’t accepting guests, but ingredients still arrived, ledgers piled up, reservation requests for upcoming dates had to be read, and the wine cellar’s temperature and condition had to be checked.

On top of that, lately there had been talk about how the records of the chef selection competition were doing, and how Count Kleber planned to expand the next event.

So I put a chair right in front of the kitchen’s back door and sat down.

It was an expression of my determination not to move.

Marie saw me as she passed by and asked,

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a break.”...