Volume 5 Chapter 5.1

Editor: Weasalopes

「Morning, Makoto.」

「Morning, Kei.」

「Was it today？」

「Yes.」

Opening day. Makoto, who had just arrived at school for her lecture, was met by her classmate she had grown friendly with. Her name was Kei, a red-haired human female who worked as a servant at a noble’s house. She went out of our way to go learn magic here in this short course for one simple reason, that her employer had ordered her to do so. There were quite a few people like her, sent by their employers in rotation to learn the pure basics of magic.

「You know how there are cream rolls and yakisoba sandwiches? Well our head chef said to come and scout them out.」

「Yes, but I will say you should expect the taste to resemble primarily Rufeus’s cuisine, albeit neither good nor bad.」

「That’s still ok. Neither good nor bad still has the widest range.」

Kei tutted at Makoto’s pointer as she retorted.

「But really, what’s it like？」

「Well, the cuisine generally consists of dishes for mass production, so they only made the seasoning consistent with Rufeus’ but it’s all food that anyone from any country can eat. They say they’ve put together recipes that their employees can make continuously in short periods of time, so it doesn’t sound like it’ll be the super amazing food that we always eat either.」

「Ah. Well, even then, I think it’s highly preferable to the cafeteria food here that practically oozes out malice.」

「Compared to that, pickling meat in salt and eating it just like that is a good contender, so don’t you think your comparison is fairly unfitting？」

Kei let out a grimace at Makoto’s interjection. If it was this bad, normally ten or twenty written petitions would easily reach them, and yet for some reason the headmaster and management assembly hadn’t received a single one. At that point things became quite suspicious, but unable to find any evidence of someone tampering, the headmaster and circle of professors apparently couldn’t take the extra step of reformation with only their opinions and their authority being misused.

Normally, this was the kind of cafeteria that no one would enter, but as it held near 70% of of the students staying in the dorms and there weren’t any grocery shops, let alone restaurants other than the expensive ones surrounding the school, so not relying on the school cafeteria would make the options scarce. For that very reason, they had taken full advantage of the students and the cooks just did whatever they pleased.

Then again, there was no way these evil deeds would continue, and lately thanks to the dressed bread that the school store had begun selling, the customers at the cafeteria had dwindled to two-fifths of what it had originally been, signifying they had straight up lost to the school store and that people who couldn’t get dressed bread at the cafeteria were going to the school store instead.

「At any rate, I’m so glad that we get a cafeteria with reasonable prices for the menu. Not everyone goes to school with lunch prepared like we do, and even we don’t always get lunch made for us every day.」

「Yeah, tell me about it. Oh, right, I forgot to say.」

「What？」

「The new book’s published, so here you go.」

「Woohoo！I waited long and hard for this one！！」

Cheering at what Makoto said, Kei happily accepted the book with its cover depicting two men gazing at one another aesthetically. The contents seemed to be aimed at intermediate learners, or at least by Makoto’s standards, so by this point it was basically too late to exit the world of fujoshi. Lime wasn’t here because of it being practical skill time, which was precisely why Makoto was able to hand the book out right now.

「Oh, the new one’s out already.」

「Let me read it later, kay?」

「Makoto, don’t just focus on that one, I also wanna see a continuation for『Haruna-chan Does Her Best』」

The classmates gathered around the manga Makoto had brought out, squirming to get a look.

「I’ll bring along the Haruna-chan and Azuma Workshop continuations tomorrow, so wait a bit longer, kay?」

「Really？ You promise？」

「Yes. I only brought these ones today because they were bound and that was more convenient.」

Makoto made her excuse as she handed them books with different covers, and slightly doubtful gazes concentrated on her. As a current problem, yes it was true that bringing bound books to school was easier, but Makoto had in fact simply weighed the page numbers and remaining paper on a scale and prioritized the book more up her alleyway since she saw the opportunity to make three productions when going for ten copies, so she was kinda guilty.

「Ah right, while we’re at it, could you go to the shop when it opens today and tell me what you think?」

「Of course.」

「We’ll go there without mercy, so prepare yourself.」

「Yes, well, the ones preparing themselves won’t be me, but the people in charge of the cooking and the employees.」

And just like that, the classmates of the short term course continued to chit chat harmoniously until class began.

Around the same time, in the library.

「We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival.」

「Is Sasha-san in charge today？」

「No. We have heard that a representative from Azuma Workshop will be coming via Daljan-sama, so I have asked to substitute in as the person in charge.」

Hiroshi, who had come to the library as of today to scale the dungeon, was met with an introduction from Daljan’s priestess, Sasha, who exchanged a greeting with Tatsuya.

「It’s nice to meet you. My name is Sasha, and I have the pleasure of serving concurrently as both Daljan-sama’s priestess and a librarian of this great library. I look forward to working with you, sir.」

「Well thank ya kindly. My name is Azuma Hiroshi. Nice to meetcha.」

Caught up in Sasha’s introduction, Hiroshi timidly bowed his head. Sasha, who was looking at Hiroshi, had a somewhat enchanting gaze.

「……Umm, is there somethin’ on my face perhaps？」

「No. I just thought it peculiar that I would be able to meet with the ideal man of my dreams in a manner like this.」

「Wha？」

Hiroshi and Tatsuya immediately froze at Sasha, who had just said this in an ecstatic manner. While many a woman had indeed fallen prey to Hiroshi’s gallant attitude as he made items or stood in front of enemies and blocked their attacks with his body, this was the first time anyone had fallen for him at first sight.

「……Wow, what can I say, ya got some bad taste, Sasha-san……」

「Oh, there’s no need to hold back when talking to me. Please, just call me Sasha and speak how you normally do.」

「No no no！」

Hiroshi immediately and furtively shook his head from side to side with all his might at Sasha, who appeared to be oddly delirious with her words.

「So, Sasha-san. Could you enlighten us as to what precisely you like about this guy’s appearance？」

「Sure, I don’t see why not, but wouldn’t you know, being his friend？」

「Honestly, it’s not like I don’t think he has physical appeal, but I always thought it wasn’t the kind of appeal that was geared toward young women like yourself. There have been multiple ladies who fell for him along the way, but they were infatuated not with the exterior, rather the interior, so I didn’t think this kind of awareness was totally wrong.」

Hiroshi grimaced, agreeing with Tatsuya. He was fully aware that his face would absolutely not be classified as a hunk, so he didn’t feel any type of way about Tatsuya’s evaluation.