8-4. Downtown Disturbance (2)
Satou’s here. Siblings that don’t look alike exist anywhere, but even if they’re raised in the same environment, the differences are there ever since they’re born. The little sister who wants to surpass her big sister, and the big sister who wants to protect her little sister, those feeling may be the impetus to help them grow.
◇
There’s a square just ahead where the sea lionkin children are going, it seems volunteers are distributing food there.
That’s good and all, but.
“Line up properly nodesu! Cutting the line is bad, nodesu.”
“Line up~ You ignorant people~.”
“H, hey Tama-chan!”
For some reason, the figures of Pochi and the others as the volunteers who distribute the food are there.
“The last in line is here! Line up in three lines while carrying your own wooden bowl.”
“You there, I’ll put you to the end of the line if you’re quarreling.”
Looks like Arisa and Liza are in charge of the queues.
The sea lionkin children are lining up in accordance to Arisa’s guidance. Nana is going to line up behind them, but I stop her.
“Ara, master, what was Nana’s errand?”
“We helped those children from a tigerkin man.”
“Fuh~n, I thought that you two were shacking up somewhere.”
If we were really shacking up, Mia would find me anywhere I am. Mia’s ability to find me can be called at superpower level, although she won’t tell me how.
“What about you girls, how did you end up helping the queue?”
“It’s just like master’s. Some ruffians who didn’t act their ages were cutting the line and making some fuss, so Pochi warned them, and then Liza suppressed the three ruffians who were in frenzy.”
I see. I can somehow picture the scene in my head.
“That’s fine, but then why is Lulu helping serving the food?”
“An old woman tried to stop the ruffians before Pochi, but she got injured by them.”
The injury was immediately healed by Mia’s and Arisa’s magic, but she went home since she was shocked from the violence. Because of that, their hands were short, and so Lulu volunteered to help.
“It feels bad to stop halfway, so we will help for another hour, it’s fine right?”
“Of course.”
Mingling with the local people is also one of the true charm of sightseeing.
I guess I’ll go help too with the cooking. I was going to bring Nana along, but since she was going crazy with the sea lionkin children, I left her.
“Lulu, is there anything I can help?”
“Ah, master! Sera-sama, this is my master, Satou Pendragon-sama.”
Yes, the one there is the demon lord sacrifice, the miko from Tenion temple, Sera. However, to go on a volunteer work after she’s just been abducted by a suspicious organization like this, is there no one who’s worried about her?
No, there are some duke’s people among the crowds slightly away from here. She’s a lure to fish out 『Wings of Liberty』 huh.
Putting that aside, my eyes are happy when she’s standing next to Lulu. They totally look like some idol unit.
“Nice to meet you, Chevalier Pendragon-sama. I am a miko of Tenion temple, Sera–.”
It seems she’s progressing well after the revival.
She reflexively greets when Lulu introduces me to her, but she’s tilting her head for some reason.
“Um, we’ve met somewhere haven’t we? I’m sorry, but my memory is a bit vague…”
Don’t tell me, she has some memory left from when she’s possessed by the demon lord. It sound like a pick-up line if you just look at the words. I stop being self-conscious, and go on to deceive her.
“No, this is the first time we’ve met. Sera-sama.”
“Is it so I wonder…”
Looking puzzled is fine and all, but why is she staring at me. When I look at this person, it somehow reminds me of princess Menea. Their proportion and face are different, yet why.
“Sera-sama, the people are tired of waiting for the food.”
“Ara, I mustn’t.”
It’s bad to keep the people waiting, so I urge Sera to go back to work distributing the food.
The content of the pot for the food is soup of water plant that looks like seaweeds, and with small dumplings put inside. From what I see, there aren’t enough people who make the dumplings.
“I’ll help.”
“No, it’s alright. I can’t let noble-sama dirties his hand.”
I offered help to one of the aunty who’s cooking, but she refused while being sorry. Using polite speech in strain, what a strange person. Lulu, who’s serving the ration, boasts, “Master is good at cooking.” to Sera besides her. Do beautiful girls naturally attract each other?
“Aunty, how about some help?”
“Right, it’d be bad if someone got stomachache for eating half-cooked dumplings.”
I quickly greet the people who are cooking, and participate in the cooking.
“Young master, please use this.”
A person who looks like a young wife lends me an apron while saying that my clothes mustn’t get dirty. I replace her since her work of making surimi seems to be the hardest. Mia who’s blowing reed flute while looking bored since awhile ago has stood beside me before I know it, she’s staring at my hands working. A nearby aunty who’s making dumplings calls out.
“You’re pretty good despite being a noble. If you don’t succeed your house, how about working in our shop? I’ll let my daughter becomes your bride.”
One of the aunty praises my skill.
I wonder why do these aunties are offering marriage meeting (omiai) to me.
“No.”
“”N, no don’t.” Master is “Eh?””
Mia, and Lulu reacted to the word [Bride] and spoke in denial, but for some reason, even Sera synchronized with Lulu. Lulu isn’t the only one who’s surprised, even the person herself is. She looks cute with her hands on her mouth while looking surprised, but since the glances from the people who are waiting are scary, I urge her to go back to work.
It can’t possibly be love-at-first-sight, so there might be some fragments remaining from when I saved her from the demon lord even if she can’t precisely recall it.
Still, even though Sera and Lulu are too young to become the objects of romantic interest, they’re feast to my eyes. I want you two to form a unit in five years.
◇
The food distribution is over without any big disturbance.
Just that, there was a person who accused that the dumplings had been exchanged with high-class ones halfway through, but he immediately shriveled after Liza glared at him. We were working right in front of them, so they should have known. It was troubling.
“Hey, it’s fine that you’re helping, but please hold back.”
Arisa scolds me in low voice.
Ridiculous, I only made the surimi by grinding, to even need to hold back….
Even if I disable skill that I’ve become familiar with, the effect won’t significantly differ. For skills like alchemy and compounding that I am really familiar with after countless repetitions, it is possible for me to deliberately make inferior goods, and I can probably do it too with cooking. However, I somehow don’t like doing something like making it bad on purpose.
From the chatting with the aunties when we’re cooking, they seem to be the housewives from around here and the cleaning ladies of the temple. It seems that the five temples in the downtown are distributing food in turns. The distribution is in every other day, there’s not enough fund to do it everyday. The current fund comes from donation from sympathizers in the town, and the temples themselves.
There’s a Tenion temple with the head-miko at the noble district, but there’s also another temple on the downtown. Or rather, it’s just a stone throw away from this square.
The clean-up ends briefly, and then, I help carry the equipments back to the temple together with Pochi and the others.
“Clean-up~””Nano desu.”
Pochi and Tama are holding a long table overhead together to carry them, they look cute. Of course, Arisa leads them. She’s waving a twig that she’s picked up from somewhere while leading the way.
“I’m sorry, you even help with the clean-up.”
“It’s nothing great, so don’t mind about it.”
Sera is just talking normally, so why do you kick my butt, Mia.
Lulu carry the pots normally after washing it.
Hmm?
It looks like several people of 『Wings of Liberty』 are coming here while riding horses. They’re still a bit far, so we probably would arrive at the temple first.
Pochi and the others carry the desk, the materials and tools to the temple’s kitchen. Sera and me are the only two who enter the temple main gate empty-handed. Nana is seeing a hallucination of her carrying two sea lionkin children. Perhaps, she’s tired.
“Sera!”
“Ne, nee-san?!”
The one waiting for Sera in the temple is the girl who falls from the sky, the granddaughter of duke Oyugock who’s also one of the member of the hero’s party, lady Ringrande.
Nevertheless, big sister she said?
Since Sera only has [Miko of Tenion Temple] as her title, I haven’t thought that she’s a blood relative of duke Oyugock. Their conversations, “Are you healthy?”, “You’ve become big.”, sound like normal siblings’. They don’t really look alike for siblings, but it’s good as long as they get along well.
Now then, I’ll interrupt their conversation when the time is right for greeting and leaving. If this girl is here, she could mow down something like 『Wings of Liberty』 with one hand.
However, before I can even talk, the argument has steered toward me.
“You, which house are you from? This girl hates that kind of thing, she’s got out of the house and entered the temple you know? Do you think you woo Sera yourself without relying on your house name?”
What’s this. For some reason, she’s hastily lumping me with a noble who tries to woo Sera. For now, I understand that lady Ringrande loves her little sister and is a cheap person who likes to jump to conclusion.
“N,No it’s not like that. Rin nee-san, this person is–.”
Sera who follows up by being too upset makes the misunderstanding becomes deeper. Putting aside the big sister, Sera’s age is outside the scope of my romantic interest. Even when she’s become one, it’s highly probable that she won’t associate with me, but either way, that has nothing to do with this.
Arisa and the others who have finished tidying up come to pick me up, so I say my farewell to Sera. Before we got out of the temple, a sexy priestess asked for some donations for the sake of the distribution of the food, so I donated several gold coins.
When we get out of the temple, I magnificently ignore the scene where some several nobles-like ruffians riding horses get arrested. Sera is quite an excellent lure.
Various things happened, like lady Karina who had taken her maids along intruded on us when we were looking for spring-related things, or that there weren’t any restaurants that sold meat during lunch so Pochi and Liza were down-hearted, but it was generally peaceful shoppings. It was a hard work to make Nana let go of the sea lionkin children when we were leaving the downtown. I asked Arisa to make her the stuffed toy.
During the dinner tonight, lady Karina has caused misunderstanding that I’m her fiancee, so I go through the trouble of dispelling the misunderstanding while keeping lady Karina’s face. The previous earl Walgock couple have invited several noble couples from their circle.
I’m looking forward to the workshops visits tomorrow.
