Chapter 17.4

Chapter 17.4

Yep, that gaze is as fierce as ever…」

Afternoon of the next day. Having finished Elena’s examination, Hiroshi found himself grumbling. Haruna and Mio, who had tagged along with him as assistants, stared at him with worried eyes. They were only doing this in the afternoon for Elena and company’s convenience, unlike yesterday.

「You did very well today.」

「Sensei, you’re hated more than ever.」

「Well yeah, after some random guy nabs her master ‘n does as he pleases all in the name of treatment, and taking her out whenever she doesn’t notice? I get why she’s glarin’ at me now…」

While nodding in sympathy at Hiroshi’s grievance, Haruna searched her mind to see if there was any way to deal with this growing threat. Yesterday, with all these guests in the room, the most Elena got was a scolding and a reminder, but today she was rebuking her quite harshly regardless of Hiroshi’s group being in there.

Focusing on nearly all the members yesterday, she had seemed to cool down or at least didn’t seem to outright hate them. However, just one of the leaders keeping them together had stopped hiding their unpleasant feelings, loathing, and the like. Honestly, compared to the reputation or things they had said, the way they acted toward Hiroshi made him seriously uncomfortable. It had already leaped into a dimension past merely not being compatible physically, personality-wise, etc, and the malice was now just pouring out. This was all very unnatural.

Even more unnatural was the fact that the old retainer who had boldly asked them to get out yesterday had done nothing more than give them a brief, cordial greeting as they passed by each other today. The only difference from yesterday was perhaps that no one was there, but if that was the reason then they still didn’t really get what was going on.

「Hey, Hiroshi-kun, Mio-chan.」

「What?」

「What’s wrong, Haru?」

「I’m thinking of going to the kitchen now. Mind helping me for a bit?」

After thinking about various things, she seemed to have finally come up with an idea, suddenly proposing that.

「Kitchen? Sure, but whatcha gonna make?」

「Some sweets, I guess you could say? I figure this is the perfect timing, seeing as how the Maiden’s Lover still doesn’t exist in this country.」

Looking at Haruna and her mischievous smile, Hiroshi felt slightly anxious about just what she was planning to make. Meanwhile, on the opposite end, Mio felt no anxiety about what Haruna was making and readily agreed.

「If it’s just makin’ sweets, ain’tcha fine by yerself, Haruna-san? Why do I gotta help?」

「I intend to make more than just a few things, so it wouldn’t be good if my job never ended, plus I was thinking that it might be good to have some decent-looking containers.」

「Sure I can make containers, but how many do you intend to make?」

「Roughly a thousand?」

「Hold yer horses! Why the hell ya tryna make that much!?」

Haruna had said something terrifying, and Hiroshi retorted, desiring a time-out. Considering the current combination of people, it would usually be Haruna or Mio butting in whenever he did something unnatural, so this was arguably a very rare sight.

「Who do you think is the one handling the practical business in this castle?」

Not bothering to reply to Hiroshi’s interjection, Haruna suddenly changed the topic. Although he was befuddled by the sudden change in topic, he decided to come up with a sensible answer regarding the organization of this lodging facility.

「Well, if we’re talkin’ practical affairs, then some bureaucrats ‘n servants, I’d say. Everything’d stop functioning if there weren’t no one to issue orders, but practicum wouldn’t progress if those people weren’t there either.」

「Then what’s the male/female ratio of bureaucrats and servants all together?」

「There’re a lotta women who’re servants, so ultimately it’d be geared toward women?」

「Exactly what I’m doing.」

That seemed to be Haruna’s answer. Hiroshi found himself shaking his head at this half-understandable half-incomprehensible line.

「There are hardly any girls out there who dislike love stories or sweet things, so I was thinking of starting by getting ahold of their stomachs as per usual.」

「As per usual? Aren’t ya just fixated on fillin’ yer own tummy as opposed to makin’ things for others?」

「That’s true, but this time around I did factor this into part of the strategy.」

The reason Haruna thought this kind of thing up in the first place was because of a sense of danger. They were quite honestly not welcomed at this moment. Sure, the king’s retainers and closely affiliated civil officials were taking care in how they treated them, but other than that, there was nothing in their actions that proved they were anywhere near amicable. Especially in the case of the officials who were close to the princes or the servants who saw Hiroshi and the others as taking away their masters, they were burning with a considerable amount of enmity, and the only ones who didn’t necessarily mind in that regard were the ones close to Aearis. Judging solely from what had happened up to the present, it was unavoidable that they only looked to other people like they were outsiders who had merely sucked up to the royal family to be accepted by them and were strutting about in a lordly manner, but leaving things as they were would definitely make the situation turn sour. There was no telling what would come their way to hinder them.

Thinking also about the fact that Haruna was currently volunteering to be the bait, there would be a big difference between having allies directly from the practicum versus not having any. In particular, it would become a matter of life and death in being able to use the female gossip network. In addition, if they were to bring lots of maids and servants over to their side, they could be secretly accomodated in many ways. In order to do that, they needed to not rely on monetary bribery, but instead show them that making them their allies would clearly benefit them. Hence the distribution of sweets plan.

「’N ya think they’re gonna bite just like that?」

「Sensei, your awareness needs some work.」

「I think we should remind ourselves that this place is not the country of gourmet and gluttony that is Japan, Hiroshi-kun.」

Recoiling at Mio and Haruna’s words, Hiroshi eventually lost to their force and nodded his head. At this point, at least in regards to the discomfort he felt around the maids, he had no choice but to push it to the back of his head. Later on they would end up regretting not investigating more about her and take measures into their own hands, but of course Haruna and the others had no way of knowing this, instead feeling a bit, making merry over Haruna’s idea.

「So what’re we makin’ again?」

「Pudding ala Mode, or perhaps Pudding Parfait.」

「Ah, gotcha. It sure would make this flawless if it were kept in containers that have some charm to ‘em.」

When Hiroshi displayed his understanding, they charged into the kitchen in high spirits. And this was how the flames of the food reformation at Wulls Castle were kindled.