◇

"Even if I didn"t use active skills, I didn"t think that I would lose five times in a row."
"You were able to win in the end weren"t you."
"That"s cause I wouldn"t be able to show my face in front of my companions if it was a complete defeat."

The hero who"s slumping on the ground on all fours is restarting himself.

The fight was supposed to end after the first two, but we got too absorbed, we fought for many times consecutively. It was because the hero started saying, "One more fight.", when he was defeated for the second time in a row.
Thanks to it, I acquired [Foreseeing: Inter-Personal Battle] skill, but I might have gone overboard.
Maybe because he couldn"t use his usual battle-related skills, the hero was full of subtle opening during the battle, so it was easy with the Foreseeing.

I peel off Arisa who"s been hugging my shoulder and repeatedly poking my cheek while I"m sitting. "Ehehe~ You didn"t want to let go of me so much you forgot yourself~", she said. For both our sakes, I won"t tell her the truth.

The hero is talking about something to princess Maryest, but then she goes back ahead of us toward the underground pa.s.sage. Since the white crocodile has become a landmark, she probably won"t lose her way.

"Geez, even though you didn"t move that fast, you foresaw all of my attacks--and so, are you a transported, or a reincarnated person? You used a unique skill of continuous movement earlier right?"

The hero asks with confidence.

"No,--"
"Ah, it"s not like the matches" result is annulled y"know."

I wanted to deny since it was a groundless claim, but the hero held back my hand.
That"s right, there"s no other people here anyway, I guess I should exchange information with each other. The hero probably sent princess Maryest back first since he wanted to do that.

I told him about how I wasn"t sure if I was a transported or a reincarnated person myself, the possibility that the memory just before and after I got transported to this world was missing, and various details about how I met Arisa and the others. Of course I didn"t talk about my unique skills, the matter about meteor shower, and level.

"Satou, do you know about a kingdom called Rumooku?"
"Yes, I have an acquaintance from that kingdom."
"Is that so, you might have been summoned by that kingdom."

From the hero"s story, the empire sent an earskin spy who had infiltrated there and confirmed that the kingdom summoned 7-8 other worlders.

The third person who should have been dead was also under the spy"s care.
After he was saved, he did intelligence works with the spy for several months, but when the spy was going to take him along to the Saga empire, he went missing. They"ve confirmed that he didn"t have special power when they were together, so the empire didn"t even deploy something like a pursuit team. He also ran away right after he was summoned, what a self-reliance guy.

We"ve exchanged various information, but excluding trivial things, most of it are the things I"ve said earlier. Of course it"s not like there"s no benefit to this. After Arisa slightly pesters the hero, he"s going to give us advanced magic books, with the exception of forbidden and tactical magic that are matters of national defense. Since they"re made by manual writings, it"ll take at least half a year at the soonest.
Moreover, he"s also going to arrange a pa.s.s to Saga empire, and a written guarantee of Saga empire emba.s.sy for us.

These looks useful for when we"re sightseeing on Saga empire in the future.

Oh right, I make him to promise with [Hero"s Vow] to keep the matter about me being an other worlder a secret. I don"t know how much I can trust him, but since other worlders are seemingly decent enough, it probably won"t become a big problem. Also, the hero seems to be convinced from my stories that I am the eighth person from Rumooku kingdom.

"There is this the absurd beautiful girl before, and there"s this boy, these two have made me realize that there are still strong people out there. Just level isn"t everything huh."

My ears hurt from the hero"s words.
However, seeing how the words don"t seem to have any sarcasm, he doesn"t seem to think that that was me. However, beautiful girl he said, I didn"t disguise myself as a woman in particular, and I didn"t show my face either, so where did that [Beautiful] came from.

"Beautiful girl?"
"Yeah, it was a monstrous fellow who mowed down the great fish that appeared in the duchy capital"s sky with a single beam, and toyed around with an upper demon like it was a child. Since she had a violet hair, she was probably a reincarnated person."
"Oh my, that"s really amazing huh."

Arisa, your prim and proper way of speaking is disturbed y"know.

Apparently, the hero suspects that the masked hero is Arisa. The violet hair certainly matches, and Arisa is hiding her unique skill from the hero. So it"s not strange if the hero thinks that she has a unique skill that lets her change into adult form. It can"t be helped if he misunderstands.
It seems that he doesn"t think that I"m Nanas.h.i.+ at all. I"m really glad that I changed my way of talking. Yup, let"s decide that it"s a good thing.

Just in case, I try confirming something with the hero, it seems that a reincarnated person doesn"t always have violet hair, but a reincarnated person who has violet hair is sure to have unique skills.

Arisa turns her face to me with a swoosh. Even though she moves like Pochi, it feels more like a horror rather than looking cute.
She speaks only with her lips without voice, "It"s you right?", as she asks, I nod.

"Was it, by any chance, your favorite type?"
"I couldn"t see her face, but she was 15 years old. If she was five years younger, it might"ve been dangerous."

Spare me from BL!

Let"s stop using that masked hero way of speaking in the future.
Arisa is shaking a little. She"s probably enduring from laughing out loud, but it"ll expose me to the hero, so please do stop it.
Later, when we"re practicing at night, Arisa bursts out laughing until she runs out of breath after she hears about the details of the beautiful girl. I"ll make better upright clothes later. I promise so in my heart.
Later, I"m almost made to wear woman"s clothes, but that alone, I refuse firmly.

"Putting love things aside, I want to meet her once again. I forgot to say thanks to that fellow for saving my life, and protecting the reputation of hero. My principle is to give back debt as soon as possible after all."

Well now? He certainly said, "I won"t say thanks" though. Was that about me reducing the demon"s health?

He also wanted to apologize for the rudeness of his companions. Did the hero"s companions do anything rude to me?　I don"t remember any, but I can just ask about it when I"m back to the masked hero mode.

Since the hero party are going to stay until the duke"s grandson"s marriage, I guess I"ll go once until then.

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"Beautiful~""Nanodesu!"
"White dress."
"Wonderful right~ white dress are better than kimono for wedding after all~"
"Master, I wish to reproduce the flower decorations that are on the bride."
"Quite a gorgeous parade this is."
"She looks very happy. I want to be like that bride."

After the wedding of the duke"s grandson, lady Ringrande"s little brother, is over, they"re debuting to the commoners on a parade. Since the parade is going to pa.s.s through the road exactly in front of the mansion we"re staying, everyone is lined up while watching the parade.
Lady Karina is attending the wedding with her little brother, so she"s not here. I feel that the little brother has been accompanying lady Karina quite often recently. He"s probably a siscon.

Pochi and Tama are in high tensions, I guess they"re charmed by the wedding dress even though they"re still kids. Tama has climbed on top of my head, and Pochi is flaying around her arm while grasping my sleeves. Mia is copying Tama, but since it"s dangerous, I catch her midway, and let her getting carried by me on my back. Liza is the only calm one, but she"s intensely watching the bride, so it"s not like she"s not interested.

"Chevalier-sama, a messenger of viscount s.h.i.+men has come."
"Ah, I"ll go soon."

I am guided by the mansion maid to meet the visitor. I"ve checked on the map earlier, the visitor is Natarinsan from the scroll workshop. The ordered scrolls have most likely been completed.

"Then, these are the requested items."

I fully paid the scrolls I ordered at the beginning that had been completed faster than scheduled.

"I gratefully accept. Right, the variation of Magick Sword we"ve talked about before is complete."
"Is that true? It hasn"t even been three days since we talked you know?"

It"s a new magic that comes upon me when I was watching Claiomh Solais" movements. Fighting while magick swords are flying independently. There"s already an auto-moving magic, [Nature Magic: Dancing Blade], so it was easier to make than expected.

I ordered several more original magic, and magic that aren"t available in scrolls for sale. Of course, I pay the advance payment in cash.
I"m told that they can only make 3-5 scrolls in a month, so it"s going to be close to when I"m about to return from Bornean forest, and thus we"re going to hire a trusted trading company to transport them.

Since I can visit them alone anytime with Sky Drive, it"s fine.

◇

I"m providing the dishes for the wedding reception tonight. I somehow feel like a servant of the duke, but it"s not all bad.

"Heya, Sir Pendragon, I"ve made the rounds in hurry to come and eat your dishes."
"You too eh earl Houen, I"m also crazy with the shrimp tempura."
"Marquis Lloyd, the red pickled gingers are surely easier to eat than the tempura."

Just like that, I was able to talk freely with relatively upper ranked n.o.bles. I don"t intend to be successful as a n.o.ble, but it"s a good thing to have someone to rely on if anything happens. The demerits are the troublesome adults who occasionally asks me to marry girls of primary and middle school ages. Most of them pulled back when I said that I had a fiancee, but sometimes there are persistent ones that were troubling.

Several n.o.bles show their consent to invest and send exchange students to Muno city, so consul Nina can probably feel relieved.
However, even though I"ve refused Ninsan"s letter, I end up going by her plan. It"s mysterious.

"Chevalier-sama, what are today"s snacks?　I"m looking forward to it."
"Even though Muno roll is delicious, crepes is the best."
"To celebrate Tisrad-sama"s occa.s.sion, I have prepared a special dish."
"My, I look forward to it."
"Yes, it"s something to look forward to."

Recently, I"ve made more beautiful women acquaintances, not only girls. It"s sad that most of them are married, but there"s no problem to enjoy the love (bad) from afar right.
The sweets today is a lulu fruits and strawberries hall cake. I was finally able to bake sponge cake the other day, so I"ve made an extraordinarily big hall cake for this wedding.

I feel that this is a culture hazard, but when I see the dishes on Gugurian and duchy capital, it"s probably only a matter of time for the dishes I make, so I present it without worry. Arisa didn"t stop me too, but it must be because she had lost to her appet.i.te. However, it might have been better if I hold back with the mayonaise and the fresh cream. I"m afraid that a lot of people might become plump.

I treated everyone in the mansion with the strawberry cake trial-runs, but it became a grand outbreak that does not only involve the youth tropes, but also Lulu and the maids. In the end, I baked the cake until everyone was satisfied. One person probably ate one hall cake I wonder. In addition, Arisa and me got only one slice. Diet is a severe and drawn-out fight.

"Aah, the bitterness from the cake that I couldn"t eat myself won"t disappear~ It was hard for an unmarried woman past thirty to celebrate her own birthday with a convenient store cake."

A, Arisa, please stop with the realistic sob story. I"ll let you eat as much as you want when the diet is over, please endure it firmly for now.

"Pay attention everyone! To commemorate the wedding of Tisrad-sama and Miniem-sama, proudly coming from baron Muno territory, Sir Pendragon the miracle chef presents the lost dish from the era of ancestor king Yamato-sama! The entrance of the wedding cake!"

I"m already accustomed to being called miracle chef. They will probably forget about it soon after I leave the duchy capital.

The maids carry the four columns of the cake from the carriage. The cake is deliberately wrapped with cloth on the outside to instill special feeling. Of course it was Arisa"s idea.

"Well then, the bride and groom will cut the cake together!"

Even though the the people here are awfully excited, Arisa is strangely depressed.

"Ah, even in this world, I"m on the side of the people who congratulate these wedding couple huh."
"Mou, oh Arisa, didn"t you say that you"d get master to do it in 10 years."
"T, that"s right. Alright, I"ll polish myself hard to become a woman!"

Lulu cheers her up until she"s revived, but you shouldn"t rouse her that far. So maiden-like.

Unrelated with Arisa"s determination, fireworks color the sky while matching the couple cut the cake. It"s a grand fireworks magic by fire and light magicians groups lead by viscount s.h.i.+men.

Not only the newlyweds, couples that are on this wedding hall are joining their shoulders together while gazing ecstatically at the fleeting lights of the large flowers that illuminate the sky.

Pestered by Pochi and Tama who have seen this fireworks, that night I show them various fireworks in the garden of the mansion.

Not long after that, I make a set of firework magic tools.