◇

"Hou? 『Tempura』 huh."

That"s the first word from the hero who comes to the banquet while taking along a lot of beautiful women. Looks like he deliberately used j.a.panese language for the tempura part.

"No, this is a dish called tempura. It"s a secret specialties of the people in the know from the northern part of the dukedom."
"Hey, Sato."
"It is an honor to have my name remembered by hero-sama, but my name extends on the end, so please call me Satou."
"That so, sorry then. Satou."
"No, no, please do not mind it."

I don"t mind if the hero finds out that I"m a j.a.panese when I"m as Satou, but it"ll be troubling if it gets exposed with all observing eyes here.

The hero receives the tempura that Lulu presents on the plate.

"This is, I"m surprised. I"ve gotten used with beautiful women around me, but this is the first time I"ve seen a girl as beautiful as you. Wish I met her five years earlier."

As expected, even the hero was tactful enough not to say the "Five years earlier" part out loud. I didn"t think that I got to read it with lip-reading skill.
Lulu"s face is turning pale as if she"s been insulted with an indirect sarcasm in public. It seems the hero gets secretly scolded by lady Ringrande. The two people beside the hero are smiling, but their eyes aren"t.

I pat Lulu"s head lightly, and ask her go to the kitchen to get some ingredients.
I"ll follow up properly later.

The hero hardens when he sees Arisa who comes as the subst.i.tute.

"My honey!"
"Oh my, hero Hayato-sama, it has been a while."

Arisa who understands TPO talks in prim and proper manner. Still, honey he said.
Lady Ringrande, and the imperial princess Maryest confirm with each other that they don"t know Arisa in low voices. The other hero"s party members don"t seem like they"re interested with the hero"s love life, they"re busy eating the tempura and the aspic jellies. Aren"t they the hero"s harem?

"I"m really happy that you"re alive, princess Arisa."

Noises like, "Princess?", or "Who is that maid talking with hero-sama?", are coming from the outfield.

"I thought you had died after getting rolled up in the political strife--"

The hero approaches Arisa while looking very happy, but then his expression freezes.

Ah, I have a bad feeling about this.

We move for a bit, and now there"s a table between me and the hero.

"Oy, Satou! Have you forgotten the spirit of YES lolita, NO touch!"

So he really saw Arisa"s t.i.tle, [Satou"s Slave]. Even so, I"m not interested in the young ones enough to be needing such spirit.

"Hero-sama, what exactly are you talking about?"
"That"s right, Satou-sama was the one who saved me from predicaments. The reason why I"m a slave is because I"ve been put on Gea.s.s magic during the Yowok kingdom invasion."

She whispered the matter about being a slave to the hero so only he could hear it.
The hero confirmed something to the imperial princess Maryest, and the priestess Loreiysan, but both of them waved their heads. Even the hero"s party cannot remove the Gea.s.s huh. Just how strong it is. Come to think of it, I also asked head miko-san about it through Sera, but she couldn"t do it too after all.

In the end, I proved them that I hadn"t touch Arisa to he extent of getting myself checked with Loreiysan"s Truth Judgment magic. From my standpoint, there was no need for me to be subjected with Truth Judgment magic, but since I didn"t want to be misunderstood of being a lolicon, I accepted it.

"Is that so, you didn"t touch her! Well well, I really want to drink some nice liquor with you."
"I"m afraid I cannot."

It seems like he"ll talk about little girls all night long until I vomit.
There were some things we needed to talk about, but since I couldn"t keep monopolizing the hero, we promised to meet again later, but there was no opportunity to talk with the hero again today.

The women who followed the prince back then were trying to b.u.t.ter the hero up, but lady Ringrande, and imperial princess Maryest overwhelmingly rejected them.

Girls of 12-13 years old were also talking to the hero, but he acted normally with them, maybe they were out of his strike zone.

◇

It was hard consoling Lulu the evening of that day. The fight with the demon lord might have been easier even.

"Lulu being cute is really the truth, the hero, Arisa, and me see Lulu as a beautiful girl."
"Thank you very much, I"m happy even if it"s a lie master."

Even after I whispered sweet lines close to Lulu"s ear, she only perceived it as consolation words.

When I told her that she could request her favorite dishes, she told me every kind of sweets that I had made until now. I"m very happy that she"s reached the point where she can say something selfish.

Since it"ll take too much time to make them, I take out the finished sweets I"ve put in the storage on the kitchen, and bring them to the dining room where Lulu is waiting.
I knew that Mia, Pochi, and Tama are waiting beside Lulu, so I had prepared the shares for four people. Of course, there"s nothing for Arisa and me. Arisa has been taking excess calories lately, so she"s presently forbidden from sweets. I don"t need to do the diet, but I"m abstaining from indulgence food to accompany Arisa.

Today I"ve made a new cake to surprise Lulu. It"s a custard pie made from a type of fruit which has the same name as Lulu.
This lulu fruit looks really unappetizing when it"s unpeeled, it"s a fruit of misfortune. In addition, when eaten raw, it"s so sour, not something that should be eaten. However, when it"s heated, it strangely turns into a peach-like fruit. From what I"ve heard from the person who"s given me this fruit, they process it by pickling them, not heating.

"My new creation today is Lulu custard pie."

Lulu hesitated when she heard the name, but as if giving up, she cut a mouthful and put it into her mouth.

"It"s delicious."

Large drops of tears are falling on Lulu"s cheeks. Huh~? I didn"t expect this development.

"That sour fruit becomes this delicious."
"Moreover, the color looks beautiful right?"
"Yes, thank you very much. I understand what master is trying to say somehow."

That is good above all.
Lulu continues eating the pie on the large platter while crying.

I wipe the mouth of Mia who"s watching that intensely with a handkerchief. I take out the prepared pie from the Storage from under the table, and cut it for three people"s shares.

"Delicious."
"Sweet~"
"One hundred points nanodesu!"
"Uuu, I have to keep dieting.... It"s alright with just a mouthful, a mouthful..."

Arisa is saying that like a bad loser, no good. She"s absolutely going to say "just another one".

That day, I slept together with Lulu, and whispered "Lulu, you"re cute." until she went asleep. Since Pochi and the others played janken, I had a feeling that it had been decided there would be a daily special of whispering from tonight on.
Please drop that expectation, by all means.

>[Soothing Skill Acquired]

◇

The next day, I"m going to accompany lady Sera to the orphanage in the morning, and visit the barrier pillar workshop in the afternoon.

Although there"s a missionary purpose for doing the consolation visit to the orphanage, it"s still called consolation visit, so the main objective is healing the children who are sicks with healing magic.

Our little girls are very popular here. Pochi and Arisa are particularly popular, strange plays, and learning cards are being spread around. I"ve warned Arisa to take care with the culture hazard for once, but it"s all up to her for the self-restraint.

I"m not bringing Lulu and Nana today.
Since children don"t hesitate to speak what they think, they will most likely say hurtful things to Lulu in barrage, so I leave her behind. The reason why I don"t bring Nana is because she wants to take the young org-children back home.

"Oh no! H, hero-sama is coming for consolation visit."
"Eeh! What should I do, maybe I should use some make-up."

The nursery workers, or rather, the onee-san staffs are getting excited. Wait, aren"t you all married.

When the hero Hayato comes, the boys and the onee-san staffs follow him around. Putting aside the children, I"m envious of him being pampered by not only the beautiful women, but also the soothing staff members. Furthermore, before I knew it, the director"s daughter who"s unusually unapproachable has followed him too.

Dang you good-looking guy, go explode.

"Chevalier-sama, chevalier-sama, look at this~"
"Uina has made one too, look at this."

I"m being surround by groups of 5-6 years old little girls. They"ve made sh.e.l.l accessories I"ve taught before. Although they"re rough, each of them has characteristics of their own, interesting.

Even though the hero is surrounded by beautiful women, I"m stuck babysitting the children, I can feel the gap in society.

Since my eyes met with hero"s, I greeted him. I couldn"t get away from the little girls, so we were slightly apart. For some reason, he looked awfully envious, I wonder why. It can"t be, even if he"s a lolicon, are these such young girls included on his targets?　It can"t be indeed.

About the trouble from lady Ringrande who saw me getting along with lady Sera during the consolation visit, since it"s redundant, I"m omitting it.

◇

The visit to the barrier pillar workshop are only with my own companions that hasn"t happened for awhile. The tour continues while I"m joining hands with Pochi and Tama. Barrier pillar seems to be a magic tool that"s mainly for preventing monsters from invading villages. Its effect can reach 100 meters wide in radius with just one standing. However, since it"s not a physical barrier, rampaging monsters, and monsters that are being chased by human can still pa.s.s over it, it seems.
The barrier pillar can function by absorbing mana from the earth vein, but since that"ll wither the land, local spell-users supply the mana every few days instead.

The pillar is made of many magic cores, so there"s some concern of thievery, but after it"s erected on a land, it"s casted with fixture magic, so it won"t be easy to steal the pillar. Looks like even thieves who have attacked a village don"t bother with the barrier pillar. It seems that the lord of the region will deploy their army for certain if anyone put their hands on the barrier pillar.

I wonder if the story is too difficult, Pochi and Tama have fallen asleep while holding both my hands, so I carry the two in corpse poses on both my arms, and continue the workshop tour. Liza offered to change for me, so I left the two to her along the way. They"re cute when they"re awake, but there are cuteness that are different than the usual when they"re sleeping.

Peace is the best after all.