Chapter 1282 - Sixth Star ④

Chapter 1282 - Sixth Star ④

It was a calm evening. After walking Bell and brushing her clean, I spent the afternoon playing with Lynn and Sela, and was thinking it was almost time for dinner when Alice suddenly appeared.

[Kaito-san!]

[Unnn?]

[Please treat me! Thank you very much! Well then, with the restaurant we’re going decided, let’s go!]

[Eh? Hey, wait…… Wait, you’re moving too fast!]

What the heck is with her? Just when I thought she appeared out of nowhere, she advanced the conversation in a super-fast and one-sided manner…… Heck, she didn’t even confirm anything to me.

I wasn’t even able to utter a single word between “Please treat me” and “Thank you very much”……

[N- No, things are unfolding too fast to follow———— Wait, why the heck are you bringing me up to your shoulders? Seriously, stop messing around……]

[Fire!]

[I’LL SMACK YOU FOR THIS LATEEEEEEEEER!!!]

And so, just like that, I found myself fluttering through the skies of the Royal Capital.

I walked alongside Alice, who was painfully holding her head, through the busy street at dinner time. Apparently, we’re not in the royal capital anymore, but in a city located a few distance away.

As one would expect, I’ve become relatively composed after being transported in that manner for the third time, and this time, I flew through the skies while enjoying the sunset. Well, I still do feel that I wanted her to carry me normally……

[……That really hurts. Isn’t it too cruel of you to use that paper fan?]

[If I don’t use this, I won’t do any real damage…… Anyway, what’s with you all of a sudden?]

[Well, it has been quite disastrous for Alice-chan lately. For Alice-chan’s peace of mind, I was thinking of eating away this stress with Kaito-san’s money, so I brought Kaito-san here.]

[……I respect your mentality to be able to say that line without sounding offensive at all.]

She just seriously added the words “with my money” as if it were a matter of course…… Even so, Alice wants to eat away her stress huh…… I feel like that would cost an outrageous amount of money.

With these indescribable feelings and thoughts like how much money would be drained out of my wallet, we decided to go to the restaurant that Alice said she had reserved.

I wonder how much time had passed since we entered the restaurant…… The meals at this restaurant, which mainly consisted of meat dishes, were quite tasty and generous in volume.

It’s not super expensive, but it provides a hearty amount of food…… It seems like a place that Alice would like. Well, that’s good and all……

[……Seriously, how much are you gonna eat? Don’t you have any limit……]

[Hey, that’s rude! Alice-chan here is a maiden whose existence makes even flowers blush. Of course, I have limits…… My limit of “store’s inventory” properly exists!]

[…………………..]

The strong style that pushes the limits of a restaurant is absolutely astonishing, but since it’s Alice we’re talking about here, in a sense, I guess it’s too late to question that.

[……Even so, for you to be eating away your stress, did something happen?]

[No, rather than something happening…… It’s just, even though I was so busy revising the Peerage system, a Ten-Tailed Mystic Silver and the Spirit of the Blue Crystal Flower just suddenly decided to show themselves……]

[Ahh~~ Spica-san was her name, right? The number of people in Isis-san’s place is gradually increasing.]

[Yes. Her appearance gives the possibility that plants that we thought couldn’t be inhabited by Spirits could be mistaken, and it seems that Lillywood-san is going to start a re-examination, so she was asking me to help her…… On top of that, there’s the Mystic Silver that grew a tenth tail and was able to keep her sense of reason…… Like, we would like to investigate whether Mystic Silvers can become like Eul-san if we immobilize other Mystic Silvers and rearrange their magic composition…… but Mystic Silvers are just too rare and die too quickly, so it’s very difficult to try it out.]

I see, Alice…… Or rather, the Phantasmal King camp mainly deals with information, so having multiple factors containing new information is a disaster for them……

[Seriously, we’ve been very busy, thanks to the continuous stream of “Subject Ks” from Isis-san’s side.]

[……What is this Subject K?]

[The sudden appearance of unknown events, unidentified creatures, and other related matters, in “our industry”, they are designated as “Subjects related to Kaito-san”, Subject K for short.]

[Which industry is that? Also, that K means me!? No, no, that makes it sound like everything you categorize under that is my fault, so I’d like it if you could stop with the reputational damage……]

[If you could say the same line in front of Lilia-san, I’ll admit that I was damaging your reputation.]

[……………………Going back to the topic, can I take it as you’re burnout as a result of stress from being so busy because of the new guy at Isis-san’s place?]

Unfortunately, I don’t have the hobby of willingly accepting people’s scoldings, so I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t hear that.

[Yes, Alice-chan has already suffered from stomach pains due to all the things that have happened, so this was to cancel that out!]

[……Seriously, who the heck cures their stomachache by building up a tower of empty plates?]

Hearing Alice’s words, I look at the pile of plates she ate from with a dumbfounded expression on my face. Moreover, it seems that the limit of this restaurant is quite far ahead, as it seems that the number of those plates would still increase from here.

[Now, now, isn’t it fine? Alice-chan can relieve her stress! Alice-chan can eat delicious food! Alice-chan gets to be treated! Get triple the value for the price of one, a triple win system if you ask me!]

[Stop trying to pull out all that bullcrap! You’re the one scoring all those things, and that’s totally not a triple value for the price of one!]

[……………….]

[……………….]

[Tehe———- Ouch!?]

Looking at the frown on her face as she seemed to be contemplating her comeback, seeing her responding with a tehepero made me hit her with Shiro-san’s special paper fan again. Alice, who had been sprawled out in pain, looked up a little later and vehemently protested.

[What are you doing!? Alice-chan’s stomach already aches, are you trying to make my headache too!? ……Ahh, excuse me, I’d like to have 20 of everything from here to here!]

[……Like I said, people who really have a stomach ache won’t make such a hellish order……]

Alice looks like she still wants to eat…… How should I say this…… What a troubling person she is.

I’m not sure if I should say, in a way, that she’s acting like usual or it’s just like Alice to do that but…… I astoundedly watched Alice eating with a wry smile on my face.

Well…… Boisterous exchanges like this are also quite fun.

……Incidentally, three white gold coins disappeared from my wallet when I made the payment…… I’m not sure if I should praise her for eating 30 million yen worth of food from this moderately upscale but affordable restaurant, or the restaurant for having such a large amount of ingredients in their inventory……

<Afterword>

Serious-senpai : [From Alice’s point of view, seeing the wry smile on Kaito’s face, as if to say it can’t be helped, makes it a 4-win situation huh…… The one scoring the goal is Kaito though……]

T/N: It’s that day again, yep. New update in Nocturne.