What a nice gilded cage, was Olivia's first thought when she walked into this mansion.
Going through the front door, she was faced with a wide circular room that was as big as half of Olivia's university back home. On the center of the floor was a symbol of a blue flower with three petals and a bud on the center, surrounded by a wreath of gold leaves.
And up ahead was a wide staircase leading to the second floor, with the handrails delicately carved with the same flower on the floor and other intricate designs. Tall windows shone light down from the second floor, illuminating the maids and butlers standing in attention near the railings of the second floor.
Very suddenly, Olivia wanted to run away. She sadly didn't get the chance to.
"Klara", the lunatic madwoman called out before Olivia can take two steps anywhere. "Show your new mistress around, will you?"
A matronly maid stepped out among the line of maids on the second floor, her black skirt reaching to her ankles and her apron prim and ironed perfectly.
Her face was stern and a little scary. Like a certain strict college professor Olivia knows...
"Right this way, milady", the maid said, gesturing behind her.
Olivia nods along absentmindedly, letting her feet move to the stairs. Frankly, she's still trying to process everything.
Just a recap: she came back from school when she was kidnapped--sorry, summoned to another world from her dorm room.
Within two hours, she was given this mission to kill two corrupt princes, shoved in a big fancy dress with a corset, made to ride in a carriage carried by a dragon like some sort of fancy Santa Claus for princesses with How To Train Your Dragon™️ sprinkled in, and then finding out her face and body was replaced.
Yeah.
Did she miss anything.
"This is your room", the matronly maid stops in front of a door separate from the rest on the second floor. "Please make yourself at home. Mr. and Mrs. Cecil will welcome you officially at dinner."
Olivia nods again, as politely as she could. She also nods at the other maids peering in from the back. "Thank you."
And so she was left alone. In this room.
All things considered, it was a room fitting for a princess. With a queen-size bed covered in cozy-looking sheets and fluffy pillows, a wardrobe two times bigger than hers back home, a desk with books beside it, and a stuffed bear as big as Olivia's torso.
Can stuffed toys even be manufactured around here?
She let her body fall to the floor, even if it seems unladylike or whatever. Not like she cares.
The headlines are practically writing itself, if someone cares for them. Olivia Abella, a promising eldest daughter of her family, was mysteriously summoned to another world to become John Wick.
And she bets she's going to get her name changed on top of it.
Olivia Cecil, the new daughter of this Duke Cecil. The new addition to this prestigious household.
Still with the task to kill two people. Like it's not wrong or anything.
She closed her eyes and breathed.
This is her life now.
This is her problem now. Meaning she doesn't have time to cry, meaning she needs to do something.
Anything at all.
"...I want something sweet."
==
She was probably playing right into the palm of her alleged summoner and definitely kidnapper.
But let it be said that Olivia was never good at staying still.
With no hesitation at all, she quickly walked into the kitchens of this new household, startling the cooks tremendously. "Good morning."
A beam of fire literally went up the ceiling before anyone could answer. Everyone's eyebrows probably got burned off, including Olivia's.
Um. Oops?
==
She helped them clean up, even insisted on it. What else can she do, when she was literally the one at fault for the new hole on the ceiling?
At the very least, they hadn't started cooking yet. One of the cooks simply spilled oil directly into the fire by mistake.
Still her fault, really.
Anyway, it took a bit of time. Olivia was used to cleaning up, so it wasn't a problem at all to wipe the counters clean.
Then, when she was sure everything was okay, she got back to her real intentions. "Where's the sugar?"
The cooks exchanged looks. One of them, with cute pointed ears, raised a hand. "May we ask why, milady?"
Olivia shrugged. "I'm very far from my home against my will, so I'm making a treat to cope. The sweeter, the better. So. Sugar."
The cooks stared at her. Then they exchanged looks with each other again. The same cook brings up once more. "We can fix something up for you?"
"Ah? Oh, no. It's okay. I want to make some things for you all, too. As thanks for the generous hospitality...if you'll let me?"
The cooks stared at her. The judgement is rather unfair, to be honest.
"Look. It's rather simple to make", Olivia rolled up her sleeves. "I'll show you."
All things considered, it was hard to move around in the kitchen with this dress. How do Victorian women cook for their husbands or families or whatever in this thing?
Olivia found a way, regardless. What she aims to do is pretty easy, too.
First, she boiled some water. Once bubbles appeared, she pours it into a mug.
"Here", she takes the sugar jar that one of the cooks pointed her to. Then she carefully puts spoonful after spoonful of sugar in the mug. "We're using Supersaturation here."
The cook with pointed ears frowned in confusion. "Super...satur...?"
"It's when there are too many sugar dissolved in water. When we leave it in with a string or a small stick, crystals should form...wait, are there any lemons here? Or oranges?"
Another cook, with blonde hair tied back into a net, gave her a single lemon. Olivia took it with a quick thanks, squeezed it into another glass, removed the seeds, and poured the juice into the solution. Then she stirred it, grabbed one of the metal sticks after washing it, and then covered it with a cloth from the dress she still had on.
"There", she stepped back. "We'll wait for a little while, and when it's cool, we can all enjoy some edible sugar crystals!"
Silence. The cooks tried to process it.
Olivia stared at them. They stared back.
...she just realized she probably had very horrible manners. "AH, WAIT--I didn't even introduce myself yet! I'm sorry!!"
The cook with the blonde hair blinked rapidly. "Ah? Wait, mistress, that's not necess--"
SHWOOM!
==
"...was it supposed to do that?"
"No", Olivia says, her throat dry. "No, it absolutely does not."
The group of cooks and kidnapped girl could only stare at the giant pillar of sugar crystal that just sprouted up from the mug. Was it glowing? It feels like it's glowing...
"Right!", Olivia stepped forward, because she's insane. She snapped off part of the pillar and took a bite--completely ignoring the concerned screams of the others. Fortunately... "This is actually really yummy!"
"Why are you like this", the blonde cook wailed.
She shared the pillar of sugar crystals with the rest of them anyway. It was an instant hit. Some of the cooks even took some to share to the other staff.
All in all, not a completely horrible day.