Since Harukara’s trial ended with the governor also stepping down it became a popular topic of discussion.

People kept telling me “it must’ve been tough” every time I went to Furata village. Apparently it was the same for Harukara over at Nasukute town. Though that’s only to be expected since it all started from the factory there.

It seems like Harukara’s trial had become the talk of the whole province. I didn’t go out of my way to confirm it but since Sharusha also said so then it was probably true.

“We sent thank you letters to all the professors that helped us. Most of them wrote back and mentioned that Harukarsan’s case was often brought up in discussions.”

“I see. I suppose it only makes sense since it was something that affected the politics of the whole province after all.”

I was worried that with this incident all eyes would be on “The Highland Witch” again, but since we didn’t resort to using force it’ll probably be alright. If we had forcibly freed Harukara something as terrible as all-out war wouldn’t be out of the question.

“Sharusha also gained something from this. Connecting with the professors had always been a personal wish but it was embarra.s.sing to just send a letter out of the blue so it never happened. With this, that wish is fulfilled.

“Oh? Good for you Sharusha”

She doesn’t really show it much but as her mother, I know when Sharusha’s happy.

“Thanks to that, Sharusha’s thesis can now be peer reviewed.”

“Thesis?”

Sharusha placed a stack of papers about thirty pages thick on the table.

Written on the first page were the words “A Discourse on Slime Culture – Sharusha Aizawa”

Aizawa came from my own family name, but since everyone in this world refers to me as either Highland Witch or some variation on Azussama, I’ve hardly ever been called Aizawa.

“It’s a detailed treatise on the cultural history and significance of the existence we call slimes”

“Amazing… To do all this Sharusha… To not only read but also publish your own research paper…”

Even with just a cursory glance I could tell that this was a full fledged research paper.

“If this is accepted, the history of slime research will advance dramatically.”

“Is that so? By the way, how many slime researchers are there anyway?”

“Of the ones researching cultural history, if you count Sharusha then there’s a total of two in the kingdom.”

“That’s way too niche of a field!”

Since it was impossible to profit at all from this knowledge, and with hardly any real world applications, it makes sense that very little people would be interested enough to research it.

“Recently there’s been an interest among slime researchers of every field to carry out a slime conference. If it actually comes to fruition, it’ll be a huge milestone in the history of slime research. Sharusha is also looking forward to seeing it.”

“I see… All the best…”

There were all kinds of researchers in j.a.pan and it looked like things were no different in this world.

I might even get to go as Sharusha’s chaperone to one of those conferences one day.

Alright then Sharusha, we’ll have to do a bit of cooking today, would you like to help out?”

With noon fast approaching, it’d be good to get started.

“Help out?”

“Yeah, it’s been two weeks since Harukara ‘did her time’. Since we did thank her for ‘doing her duty”, I figured we should show our grat.i.tude by throwing a feast.”

Even if it was only for a few days, Harukara still had to go through being forced away from her home and other terrible experiences. If we could quickly replace the memory from those bad times with some good ones then that would be the best.

“A magnificent proposal. Sharusha gladly volunteers to help out”

“Good. Then can I ask you to cut the vegetables Sharusha?”

After we finished the prepwork, the person I called over arrived.

“I’ve arrived”

Beelzebub arrived. She was carrying a huge box.

“What’s in the box?”

“I pa.s.sed by Nasukute on the way over and bought boxes of Nutritious Alcohol.

“An adult binge purchase! [1] There’s a limit to how much of a heavy user you can be!”

“This is hardly enough. I’ll probably have to come by again in three days to buy some more. I’m really glad the factory has started ma.s.s producing these.”

With such a diehard fan around, the factory probably isn’t shutting down anytime soon.

“It’s commendable that you’d even call on one such as I, the demon race’s number one fan of Nutritious Alcohol for this. If you had called on me when Harukara was apprehended, I would have torn that evil governor to pieces.”

“And that’s why I didn’t”

If she came and went overboard, people would fear the demon race, and by a.s.sociation, the witch who everyone knew was friendly with the demon race. Beelzebub, who is a, if we put it lightly, Nutritious Alcohol freak, probably wouldn’t forgive the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who’d schemed against the factory.

“Well, since one such as I is here, we might as well show off one of the demon race’s dishes. First, steam these potatoes then mash them.”

Like that, preparations for the ‘Thanks for Doing Your Duty’ feast progressed smoothly.

Along the way Leica and Farufa joined in. Rosary also pitched in by manipulating a kitchen knife to chop vegetables. This time around we’re cooking a lot of stew and hot pot dishes. Basically, we’re just dumping everything into a pot and boiling them, that kind of style.

“What one such as I shall be making is a traditional family dish from the demon race called ‘h.e.l.l’s Pot"”

That name hardly makes it sound like a family dish, not to mention it sounds really spicy.

“Since you toss in loads of hot spices, it’s hot enough to numb someone’s tongue”

“So it really is spicy!”

“Eating this will warm your body right up and it’s also good for your health. However, you’ll suffer a stomach ache the next day.”

Don’t call such a thing a traditional family dish.

As Beelzebub kept adding the ingredients she brought with her, the contents of the pot started getting redder and redder. It’d be really awkward if n.o.body ate it so I really wished she’d made something a little more orthodox.

While feeling uneasy about the whole thing, time pa.s.sed—

“Azussama, it is close to the agreed upon hour so I will be heading off now.”

It was time for Leica to go and pick up Harukara.

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you. The cooking is more or less done anyway!”

Now all that’s left is to wait for Harukara to appreciate all the food we prepared for her.

However—

We waited and waited but she didn’t come back.

The food was starting to get cold, though that wasn’t really problem since we can easily reheat it.

“Hey, Azusa. She wouldn’t have happened to get herself arrested again would she?

“No way… Even if this is Harukara we’re talking about… Actually, this is Harukara we’re talking about, so it’s completely possible…”

[1] She uses the phrase [大人買い] lit Adult Purchase, which is slang for when an adult buys large amounts of a product whose primary purchasing demographic is children. For example, buying candy might be a rare treat for a child who has little money but an adult won’t have any problems buying as much as they want.