Chapter 55: Mixed Ingredient fried rice for a Weak You*¹

　The next morning, Mr. Dion came to the restaurant at the usual time with Sophia.

 “Mai-taan!　Fee-chan is here!”

“Good morning, Sophia. You look great today. Good morning to you too, Mr. Dion.”

“Good morning, Mai-san.  You seem to be in a good mood.”

“Yes, I’m in a good mood.”

“Well then, I’ll be counting on you again today. Thank you.”

　Mr. Dion looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t say anything and just went to work.

　Shortly before the Spring Waiting Festival, Mr. Dion invited me to the festival. At that time, I had no hesitation in replying that I had someone I had promised to go with. After that, I didn’t receive anymore invitations.

“Fee-chan, I want to dig a hole!　I want to dig as Woof Woof!”

“Then can you promise you’ll never leave the yard?”

“Yes!”

“Hold on a second.”

　It’s unlikely that anyone would peek into the backyard of a cul-de-sac house during busy morning hours, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I set up that system.

　I made a string of wards and stretched them along the road. The height was 50 centimeters above the ground. The end of the string was extended to the backyard. If a person approached before the store, he or she would surely be caught by the boundary string. If someone snags the string, a bell rings in the backyard. This is the same clapper mechanism that you see to ring the bell in period dramas.

　When the bell rings, I can just pick up Sophia in my arms and run to the kitchen. The bell was made from silver coins.

“Perfection”

“What is perfection?”

“Perfection is… ……”

　I heard a voice from behind me and when I turned around there was a dog.

　Illustrations (By Mitemin)

　Her cute serious face makes me laugh.

“Why are you laughing?　Why?”

“Because you’re so cute. You’re the cutest thing in the world!”

“What does the best in the world mean?”

“The best in the world means… amazing, that’s it.”

“World, is it amazing?”

　Recently, Sophia-chan has been in “why-what mode”. She is learning words at a furious pace, so I can’t use any sloppy words in front of her. The other day, after drawing a picture, I casually said, “The dog I drew is crap,” and she became obsessed with the word “crap” and started saying it repeatedly.*

“This book is crap. This doll is crap. The table is crap. My shoes are crappy!”

“Waah, I’m sorry Sophia-chan. Crap is a bad word. Forget it!”

“No! Crap! Crap! Craaaap!”

　I panicked and wondered what to do. When I thought about it,  if you write it in kanji, it’s “shit” . It was a terrible word.

　I apologized profusely to Karin-san who came to pick her up at lunchtime. She laughed and said, “I can’t tell you how many times she’s done that. Don’t worry about it. She’ll forget about it soon.”

　Sophia-chan is engrossed in digging holes. She is digging a hole with a lot of force. I was laughing as I watched her and got an idea. I was thinking about where to hide the many diamonds, but I decided to dig a hole and bury them. I can dig many meters deep with earth magic, so I can bury them in deep soil and place a bench as a marker.

“Mai-tan! Look!　A big hole!　Is it amazing?”

“Wow, that’s amazing. You’re really good at it.”

　Perhaps because she suddenly changed her mind after my praise, or perhaps because she got bored, Sophia ran over to the holly tree at the edge of the garden. She kicked up the fallen leaves that I had swept up around its base, and then she started screaming again, “Look! Look here!”

I approached to see what she had found, and found a group of ladybugs that had been hibernating under the fallen leaves. A single ladybug is cute, but a group of ladybugs is scary. I held back my urge to scream, “Ahh!” because I was afraid that if I screamed, Sophia would become afraid of insects.

“It’s a ladybug. How cute.”

“A ladybug?”

“Yes, it’s a ladybug.”

“Ladybugs!　Cute!”

　I’m glad you’re having fun.

　I turned off the string wards, washed the muddy Sophia in the bath, and started making lunch.  It seems that Sophia’s battery ran out while digging. She is now asleep on the two-seater sofa.

　I am frying onions and getting very excited. I came up with the idea of using ladybugs instead of white mussels in the message magic. Why not use wind magic to fly the ladybug to Mr. Henry and have him listen to my voice in his ear? A ladybug would be inconspicuous wherever it was. What a great idea.

　But as I was happily serving the lunch crowd, I realized the drawback of this idea.

　I didn’t know where Mr. Henry was in the castle. As long as I didn’t know where he was, there was no way I could send one there with wind magic.

　That day, the bell rang at two o’clock in the afternoon, but Henry-san didn’t come. The customer said that a group of beastmen had come from the old continent and were touring the royal capital. They thought that it was an invasion of the black ships, but that wasn’t the case.

“They are being treated very well by the government,” “Even though they are beastmen, they look exactly like us. I was surprised,” “They were very friendly,” “And they even speak the language of this country,” and so on.

　I was relieved not to hear any critical comments. It seems that the tourism by the beastmen is changing the perception of the people of this country toward beastmen in a good way.

　Shortly after 9:00 p.m., I was startled by a knock at the door and looked down from the second floor window to see Mr. Henry, dressed in his civil servant uniform , looking up at me. I hurried down the stairs and asked him to come into the shop.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“I just wanted to see your face.”

　Henry said as he hugged me softly.

“I’m glad I came. It’s soothing.”*

“Please take a seat in front of the fireplace. Are you hungry?”

“Now that I think about it, I missed dinner. I did have some cookies though.”

“No, you can’t. A young man should not finish his dinner with sweets. Come, sit down. I’ll make you something.”

　I slipped out of Henry’s arms and spent five seconds looking at the remaining white rice, bacon, carrots, onions, eggs, and green onions. I decided to make mixed fried rice. As I was chopping and stir-frying the vegetables, Mr. Henry came up behind me and laid his head on my shoulder with a pout.

“What really happened?”

“My mother is planning to cross over to the Old Continent on a ship from the Kingdom of Arcetheus. No matter how busy I was, I should have met the people I wanted to meet. I can count how many times we’ve met on the fingers of both my hands. I’m not one to get my priorities wrong, that was my strength. But I made a mistake when it came to this crucial thing.”

　How much I blamed myself for not being able to be filial to my grandma, too. I know, I know how painful it is. But Carlotta is still in her forties. She is old enough to remarry. If she decided that it was better than living in a country with prejudice against beastmen, I felt that no one could stop her.

“I see… It’s tough. I felt the same way. When I was healthy, I had this baseless belief that tomorrow would be the same as today, and that it would repeat itself all the time. Henry, as long as you are alive, you will definitely see Carlotta again. It’s not a goodbye in this life. Let’s eat first. When you’re hungry, you tend to think negatively about everything.”

　Henry sat meekly in his chair in the kitchen and looked at me. I had never seen him complain like before. I made him a bowl of fried rice with mixed vegetables, thinking to myself, “Poor Henry.” The smell and appearance of the rice made me hungry. I decided to join him and eat a little.

　Illustration (By Mitemin)

“Come on, let’s eat together. Yes, it’s delicious.”

“Oh, this is delicious.”

“This is good. I have a soup that goes well with this, I’ll prepare that next time also.”

“You’re like a wizard, coming up with something so good in such a short time.”

“Actually, I am a wizard.”

 “That’s right. The person I liked was a wizard.”

　I was glad to see he was feeling a little better. I waited for Henry to finish eating and then I told him about the ladybugs.

“Does that mean I’ll be able to get in touch with you anytime I want?　If so, I couldn’t be happier.”

“I don’t know if I’ll succeed or not, because I’m just about to try, you know?　I’ll combine the knowledge I have and practice until I can do it. But, I don’t know where you are when you’re at work, so I’m worried I won’t be able to send you a ladybug.”

“Ah… Then, would you like to come see the civil servants’ large room  sometime?”

　I was thinking of asking him to draw me a picture map, but I didn’t expect this suggestion.

“Is that okay?　Can civilians enter the castle?”

“I’ll do something about it. But, please make it a night when no one is around. If the other civil servants see you with their glazed eyes, you will become abate.”

　How concerned are you?　No, this is more like possessiveness or jealousy. But he’s cute, so it’s okay.

“And also, Kyrias-kun didn’t come to the magic lessons. I was sure he would come.”

“He told me that Mr. Glidden told him, ‘I’m having Mai review the four great magic spells, and if you want to do it too, I’ll train you thoroughly from the basics.’ That’s probably why he’s not coming.”

“Oh, no. Why would he do that?”

“I think Mr. Glidden probably wants to teach you the magic he is hesitant to share with Kyrias first.”

I guess they’re wary of Kyrias-kun.

“It’s not that he’s the problem. His eldest brother is in the upper echelons of the military and his father is in the mainstream of aristocratic circles. I think Mr. Glidden is being cautious. Magic that can detect beastmen, or magic that can allow contact even from a distance, are things that the military would jump at, wouldn’t they? I think Mr. Glidden wants to distance himself from that kind of power.”

“I see. So he doesn’t want wizards to become cogs in the wheel of power?”

“Maybe. Well, I’ll be heading home now. It was very delicious. It was a pleasure to see you and talk to you at this hour.”

“Me too. Please be careful on your way home. And remember, I’m always here in the ‘Hideaway’ and want to share your joy and sorrow with you, Henry, whether you’re happy or sad. Please don’t be sad alone.”

　Mr. Henry looked at me with a very gentle expression.

“ you, who come from a distant world, are closer to me than anyone else.”

　He gave me a tight hug and I hugged him back before seeing him off.

　After I was alone, I worked my transformation magic on the firewood in the fireplace to make ten realistic-looking ladybugs. Right now they are still the color of the wood, so tomorrow I’ll go to the shopping district and look for some paint.

　It’s really fun to try different things and come up with new magic spells.

　Suddenly, I remembered Henry’s words, “You who come from a faraway world.”

　Is the world I was in physically far away?

TL Note:

*¹: the fried rice mentioned is usually made with five ingredients, so five ingredient fried rice.

The weak used here refers to being emotionally drained.

**²: Naruko- clapper 

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