CH 13

The Dish Liked Most by Japanese Men

TL: PuffyPyjamas.

ED: Daemon.

A beautiful girl that everyone would be charmed by is cooking dinner for me at my home. If I told such a thing to someone who isn’t aware of the circumstances, they’d say that I am spouting out delusional bullshit. 

If I were to tell Akira, he’d die laughing. No, he won’t laugh, on the contrary, he would worry about my state of mind. He is aware that I wouldn’t tell such delusional lies.

—However, the said delusion is occurring right now with me as a witness.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that everyone would fall in love at first sight with such a beautiful girl. That girl, Charlotte, has currently brought over the ingredients and utensils she’d need for cooking and is beginning to cook in my kitchen. Moreover, she is donning a charming apron and is humming happily while cooking.

Somehow, I’m afraid of how happy I am. I won’t die tomorrow, will I?

I have had such a streak of good luck, that I am scared of the unfortunate calamity that might await at the end of the tunnel.

However, even if it is an unfortunate calamity, it’d be fine. It would be a cheap price to pay for spending time with Charlotte like this.

After all, she is just that attractive.

“Aoyagi-kun, is there something that you don’t like to eat?”

“—! N-nope. I can eat practically anything.”

“…? What are you acting so flustered for?” 

“N-no. It’s nothing.”

“Is that so…” 

I laughed it off, causing Charlotte to look at me with a strange expression before returning to cooking. After making sure that she was focused on cooking, I let out a sigh of relief.

I can’t tell her that I was looking at her since she is so cute. I am not that shameless.

If I stare too much, our gazes may end up meeting again, so I will just stop staring at her for now. Since I had absolutely nothing to do, I began to look at Emma who is currently lying on my bed. Emma is taking deep breaths in her sleep, and her sleeping face is very cute. She is a friendly and sweet girl with a very cute smile. I am jealous of Charlotte because her sister is so cute.

“—You can’t play any pranks on her, okay?”

“—!”

As I was staring at Emma’s sleeping face, I heard an abrupt voice coming from beside my ear.　I turned around and found Charlotte standing there, looking at me with a smile on her face.

“That surprised me…” 

“Fufu~ I am sorry to have startled you. I wanted to play a little prank on you.”

Charlotte smiled playfully. I thought her smile was really cute and quite unfair. If you smile like that, nobody can get angry at your pranks.

…No, well, I probably won’t get mad just because she surprised me.

“Isn’t Charlotte-san quite mischievous herself?”

“Is that so? Maybe it’s because it’s Aoyagi-kun that it makes me want to act mischievous.”

“Eh…?”

“No, it’s nothing. The dinner is ready, so please enjoy it.”

Charlotte shook her head and urged me to eat. It seems that while I was distracted by Emma’s sleeping face, she silently arranged the dishes on the table. I thought I could carry and arrange the plates at least, what the hell am I doing…?

――No, more importantly, what did Charlotte mean by those words? Why would she want to act mischievous because it’s me?

I didn’t understand the meaning of Charlotte’s words, so I tilted my head in confusion for a bit.

“Delicious…!” 

The moment Charlotte’s home-cooked meal entered my mouth, my thoughts inadvertently escaped my lips. Charlotte’s food is just absolutely delectable.

She prepared stir-fried vegetables, tamagoyaki, and mushroom ankake tofu.[1] The stir-fried vegetables had the flavor properly seeped into it and were seasoned with perfect balance making it not too strong on the tongue. 

As for the tamagoyaki, I reckon sugar was used for flavoring. I have never had the opportunity to savor sweet tamagoyaki before, but it was delicious as expected, with a moderate amount of sweetness. 

The mushroom ankake tofu had a well-balanced sauce, and both the mushroom and tofu were delicious as well. For her to be this good at cooking, she’s a perfect beauty in all respects.

It’s a pity that there is no white rice. It seems like she didn’t prepare white rice in consideration of my hunger since cooking it would take more time.

Initially, I was ecstatic enough just to be able to have a home-cooked meal, so I disregarded the absence of white rice. However, if you eat such delicious side dishes, it is natural that you would crave for white rice.

“I am thrilled that my cooking suits your tastes.”

Charlotte smiles happily when she hears my impressions on her cooking. She was happily looking at me while I delightfully wolfed down her cooking one spoon at a time.

It’s embarrassing if she stares at me so intensely. Despite the deliciousness of the food, I was so nervous that I couldn’t get it down my throat.

“Does Charlotte often cook Japanese food?”

Since I couldn’t bear being stared at so intensely in the awkward silence, I asked her about a topic which I was quite curious about. To be honest, since Charlotte has spent most of her life overseas, I didn’t expect her to cook Japanese food so well.

“I love Japan, so I cook Japanese dishes sometimes. I really wanted to cook meat and potato stew today, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough ingredients.” [2]

She seemed to have really wanted to cook meat and potato stew today, as she was clearly depressed when she told me about the lack of ingredients.

“Why meat and potato stew?”

“It’s because Japanese men like meat and potato stew the most! I thought Aoyagi-kun would also enjoy it, so I wanted to cook it for you…” 

Meat and potato stew is the favorite dish of Japanese men? This is the first time I’ve heard of it. I do eat it, but saying that I love it is a bit of a stretch. Where does Charlotte’s prejudice stem from?

While we were talking about meat and potato stew, I felt like Charlotte’s eyes were shining for a moment there. I don’t think that the content of the conversation is something to be excited about though.

I thought I understood her a little, but apparently, I have a long way to go.

After that, while being gazed at by Charlotte who was delightfully smiling, I continued to devour the delicious food cooked by her.

TN: