Chapter 28
Knock knock.
“……Hmm?”
A knock suddenly sounded. Kairos absentmindedly glanced at the wall clock.
It was 7 p.m. A somewhat awkward hour for someone to come calling.
‘Who could it be?’
Kairos tilted his head and rose from his chair. Stretching his arms high above his head to loosen his stiff body, he cocked an ear toward the door, wondering whether he might have misheard.
Knock knock knock.
The knocking came again. This time, it was oddly brisk and impatient, as though whoever was outside had grown annoyed at waiting.
“I’m coming.”
Kairos answered reluctantly and headed for the entrance.
He recalled the faces of the few people he could call ‘friends’ and opened the door.
“Who is i— Huh?”
But the person standing at the door was… completely different from what he had expected.
Neatly arranged golden hair, a large school uniform that still faintly smelled new, and… black stockings clinging to her legs, once again capturing his gaze.
For an instant, Rene’s expression seemed to turn icy, and a voice just as cold slipped out.
“Enough. From now on, answer only what I ask.”
“Huh?”
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Huh??”
What kind of development was this? Kairos was bewildered.
An awkward silence briefly followed, and then a possibility suddenly crossed Kairos’s mind.
‘The lunchbox event…? But why already?’
The field trip was definitely next month. Besides, no one had even mentioned bringing lunchboxes for it yet.
Of course, the occurrence of a lunchbox event was proof that the affection level had reached a certain point… but honestly, Kairos was more preoccupied with ‘Why now?’ than with ‘As expected.’
“Gochujang… spicy pork stir-fry…?”
Now that the event had begun, it would be easier all around to play along. Kairos answered honestly, feeling rather strange.
“Haaah, of course you like food that’s just like you.”
Rene sighed as though displeased and nodded.
“Then is there somewhere you especially want to go?”
“Somewhere I want to go…?”
“Yeah, I mean if you went somewhere alone with a girl.”
“Huh??”
Even a date event? By this point, his mind had truly gone blank. He had no idea what was happening.
‘Is this a bug? Or did I miss some flag?’
“Hurry up and answer. I don’t have time.”
But Rene looked quite serious. Even while openly expressing her irritation, she was paying close attention to his answer.
“I-I want to look around the village market.”
“Would you be satisfied with just that?”
“……Huh?”
“I mean that, if you’re going anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to go a little farther. A hot spring, perhaps, or the seaside.”
“A-a hot spring??”
A hot spring trip was… almost the final stage of an affection event.
“N-no! The village market is enough!”
At this point, his suspicion that this was a trap grew even stronger. Ever since that day, Rene had become an irregularity completely outside his expectations.
“Really?”
Rene shrugged indifferently.
“You’re kind of a scaredy-cat.”
A faintly contemptuous tone followed, but Kairos decided to pretend he hadn’t heard it.
Instead, he carefully composed his expression and asked seriously,
“So, Rene, about this exam….”
“Well, take care~ I’m off.”
“Huh??”
Rene walked off without another word. Kairos could only stare blankly at her back as she receded.
‘What on earth was that…?’
He couldn’t understand it at all. If her affection level was high enough for her to prepare him a lunchbox, why wouldn’t she honestly tell him her exam results?
Kairos stood frozen in place, blinking for a moment, then turned back toward his room with a faint smile.
‘Still, thank goodness. At least our relationship hasn’t completely fallen apart.’
Relief came after the confusion. It felt as though the anxiety that had been weighing heavily on one corner of his heart had finally vanished completely.
※※
“S-so you really asked him that bluntly….”
“That guy’s defenses are surprisingly weak. Christina, you should stop beating around the bush and just ask directly from now on.”
This was the dormitory kitchen, which students were free to use. I took out the gochujang I had prepared in advance and set it on the table.
“Now that the stage is set, we should actually start cooking. So, Christina, can you cook at all?”
“Oh, in that case, I already have a plan.”
“A plan?”
“Yes. Ahem!”
Christina cleared her throat with rather refined bearing.
The kitchen door flew open, and a well-built, unmistakably middle-aged man in a school uniform strode in confidently.
“……?”
“This is Fredrick, the Estrid family’s personal chef.”
“A pleasure to meet you.”
Fredrick bowed politely at the waist.
Christina continued with a confident expression.
“To be honest, my cooking skills are disastrous. So, with Fredrick’s help, we can make a perfect dish here….”
“Disqualified!!!”
“Eek.”
Christina flinched in surprise.
I looked up at her coldly and snapped,
“The important thing in food isn’t taste. It’s the care put into it.”
Then I shot Fredrick a piercing glare.
“And did you really think you could fool me with such a clumsy disguise? Do you think Teacher Justina would simply stand by if she saw this?”
How had he even gotten this far looking like that? It was almost impressive.
Christina muttered in a slightly dejected voice,
“If we just pay the knights at the back door a small fee for their trouble….”
“Okay, I guess I have to report this to the vice principal right now.”
It was absurd. The mighty Luminus had been infiltrated so easily.
Still, perhaps he realized how shameful this was, because Fredrick bowed once more and quietly left the kitchen.
“Ahem, so just how bad are you at cooking?”
“Should I say I’m bad… or that I’ve never even tried in the first place….”
“What? Then just learn from the beginning, one step at a time.”
It was actually a relief. Cooking was a field in which one could improve quickly with enough effort.
I walked over to Christina, picked up the kitchen knife laid out in front of her, and placed the chunk of pork on the cutting board.
“First, let’s practice using the knife. When preparing meat like this, the first thing you need to do is remove the thick layer of fat along the edges.”
Of course, we could have bought meat that was already trimmed, but Kairos was picky enough that he would notice from the shape alone that we had bought prepared meat.
In a case like this, even if the meat looked a little rough around the edges, meat that showed the care put into preparing it by hand would earn far more points.
“Of course, removing all the fat would reduce the flavor, so it’s important to find the right balance. I think Kairos probably likes a fair amount of fat, too… Yes, it would be best to leave this much.”
Swish, swish. I had barely moved the knife a few times before the unnecessary fat came away cleanly. As expected of the Estrid family, which owned several famous mines, even its kitchen knives seemed to be of exceptional quality.
“The meat should be cut into evenly sized pieces like this.”
The rest of the meat was sliced easily as well. I had trimmed about a quarter of the chunk when Ria, who had been crunching a snack beside me, opened her eyes wide and asked,
“Rene, you know how to cook too?”
“To some extent.”
Maybe it was because watching my older sister cook when I was young had seemed incredibly cool.
“Here, Christina, you do the rest yourself.”
“M-me?”
“I told you. What matters is the effort.”
I handed her the knife handle and shrugged.
Christina glanced back and forth between the knife and my face for a moment, then accepted it with a determined expression.
“First, lightly hold the meat with your left hand.”
“The meat… ugh.”
“Colder than you expected, right? It felt really strange to me at first, too.”
For some reason, it reminded me of the time I learned to cook from my older sister. I let out a small laugh without realizing it, then moved behind Christina and took both her hands.
“Eek?!”
“Relax your grip. You don’t need that much force to cut meat.”
I gently moved her left hand into what was known as a ‘cat’s paw.’
“Now, when you curl your hand like this, your knuckles stick out, right?”
“Y-yes!”
“Rest the side of the knife lightly against them and use your left hand to guide the movement. Your right hand simply moves up and down, while your left hand controls the thickness and shape.”
“W-with my left hand….”
“But with your left hand right beside the blade, raising the knife too high would hurt, right? For now, I’ll hold the meat with my left hand, so focus only on the feel of your right hand.”
“Yes….”
‘Still, just in case, I should cast some enhancement magic.’
My sister used to say that you only really learned after getting hurt, so she wouldn’t let me use enhancement magic… but I couldn’t let a noble young lady injure her precious hands over something like this.
Christina nodded as though she had made up her mind, then gingerly placed the knife on the meat.
“First, relax your right hand for a moment. I’ll help you get a feel for the proper height and speed when cutting the meat.”
“Yes.”
I gently covered her knife-holding right hand with mine and moved the knife up and down a little more slowly.
Tap tap. Along with the cheerful sound of the cutting board, five pieces of meat were sliced off, and I slowly released her hand.
“You remember that feeling just now, right?”
“Yes!”
“Then try it on your own. I’ll keep holding the meat, so don’t be too afraid.”
“Y-yes.”
Christina began moving the knife hesitantly.
“Rene.”
Ria, who had been watching us with interest from beside us, suddenly spoke up.
“What?”
“When you’re doing that… you two look more like a couple.”
“L-lovers?!”
Crunch!
Something incredibly heavy and blunt came crashing down hard onto my left hand.
“……”
A brief silence followed. The gazes of all three of us—Christina, Ria, and me—turned toward the source of the sound.
There, I saw the kitchen knife, slammed down with enough force to split the back of my left hand in two.
“S-s-sorry…!”
“I-it’s okay. Thanks to the enhancement magic, I’m fine.”
A chill ran down my spine. How on earth had the knife even ended up coming down right here?
“I’m fine, so take a deep breath and let’s start again.”
I released Christina’s hands for the moment and shot Ria a sharp glare.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
“I-I didn’t know Christina would be that startled! I’m sorry.”
“You should apologize to Christina, not me. How awful must that have been for her—being paired with a commoner like Rene?”
I sighed and reinforced my defensive magic. After shooting Ria one more piercing glare, I turned back to Christina.
“Have you taken a deep breath? Then shall we start again?”
“Ah… yes!”
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to have lost her nerve or given up because of the accident. Well, it was only natural, since she had struck my hand rather than her own.
I once again held her hands from behind and continued speaking.
“Don’t worry too much. You have plenty of talent.”
“T-talent….”
“Now, we’ll start again with the left-hand cat’s paw.”
She must still have been a little tense, because Christina’s heartbeat sounded unusually loud compared to before.
※※
“What in the world is that woman?!”
In the student lounge, Christina raised her voice uncharacteristically. Ana and Linze, who had been sipping tea on either side of her, turned toward her in confusion.
“By ‘that woman’… do you mean Miss Rene?”
Ana asked, tilting her head.
“Yes! That woman!”
Christina nodded.
“Didn’t she suddenly start shouting, grab my hand without permission, and pat my head while saying I’d done well…? She was completely treating me like a child, you know?”
At the time, I had been completely swept along by her pace and unable to say anything, but now that I thought about it, I felt wronged and furious. In the first place, how dare a commoner touch me without permission….
“How dare she show such disrespect to you, my lady!”
Ana was indignant, as though it were only natural. Linze also clenched her fist in silent agreement.
Christina continued voicing her complaints, as though she had found the perfect opportunity.
“I really must teach her a lesson about the difference in our standing. At the very least, from now on she should get my permission before touching me….”
“Would you tell me more about what you were just saying?”
“Eek?!”
Christina spun around in surprise.
There stood Miss Clostermann, her smile every bit as lovely as her face.
“E-Ellie.”
No matter how venerable and prestigious the Estrid family was, it could not compare with the Clostermann family, one of the Empire’s seven great houses. Christina instinctively straightened her posture and lowered her voice.
“About that story… exactly which one?”
“The story about Miss Rene. I thought I heard that name just now.”
“M-Miss Rene?”
It was a name Christina had never expected to hear from Ellie. Her bewilderment doubled.
Besides, she couldn’t very well confess to Ellie the rather embarrassing fact that she was pursuing Kairos and Rene was helping her.
Christina hesitated for a moment, glanced around anxiously, and answered carefully.
“I was thinking of having a serious talk with Miss Rene.”
“A serious talk?”
“It’s just… she keeps coming on to me!”
“……What?”