“I hope you will reconsider,” Shuna said with a polite and elegant bow, one hand over the other. It was a little show-off-y but powerful enough to shake the heart of any man. I figured it’d work well enough, but:
“Mmh… Flirting won’t work on me, you know. If you want to convince me, do it in the kitchen! If you can wow me with your culinary skills, I would be glad to consider it.”
Thanks to Yoshida, this was now a cooking battle. Nothing worth worrying about for Shuna, though; anyone could recognize her cuisine was first-rate.
“Shuna, give him everything you’ve got! Make this cocky baker beg for mercy with something spectacular!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Whoa, who’s being cocky now?!”
I ignored Yoshida’s complaining; Shuna was ready to go. Yoshida’s own skills had lit a fire under her.
With the café kitchen left to her, Shuna began cooking up the dish nearest and dearest to her heart—tamagoyaki, a rolled-up scrambled egg. Simple, yes, but one’s ability to execute it perfectly was the ultimate way to test a chef’s acumen. Yoshida eyed the results placed on a dish, then nervously swallowed before silently stabbing it with a fork and bringing it to his mouth.
“It… It’s amazing!”
A one-hit KO.
“Thank you very much,” said Shuna, smiling—and that smile was the final blow. Yoshida finally gave in, roundly defeated in heart and taste buds.
“Pfft. Well, you got me! But this is a special favor, all right?”
It was funny, watching this burly middle-aged guy act all shy around Shuna. He was practically falling over himself for this fetching young woman with light-pink hair. I think he was smitten from the very start, actually, but better not to say that. If he wanted to play it cool, it’d be mean to stop him.
So Shuna and Yoshida were now a pair in the kitchen. I had no doubts they and their work would be a star attraction at the festival.
Next, we had Gabil. The dragonewt was working with Vester to build a presentation devoted to the history of healing potions. They intended to keep the core fundamentals of their research a trade secret, but they wanted to use this pavilion to recruit new people interested in joining their team. They had enough staff for now, they said, but just wanted to find potential hires with the kind of passion they wanted.
Garm (eldest of the three dwarven brothers) and Kurobe planned to show off their own wares at the event. Their pavilion would be alongside Gabil and Vester’s, and already they were talking about competing to see who attracted the larger crowds. Glad to see they were using this festival to have a little fun.
Kaijin was also set to return the night before the bash. I told Geld to take a break during the event, so construction should be largely complete before then. I informed my staff that our prisoners of war deserved a little celebration as well; they’d be enjoying a feast over in their own facility. A few people would have to work during the holiday, but we made sure to accommodate their schedules so they could trade off days and not be stuck on duty the whole time. The festival would continue for about a week, so I wanted everyone to get in on the excitement.
Come to think of it, Shion was planning something, too. She was very confident about it (“Hee-hee-hee, I hope you’re looking forward to it, Sir Rimuru”), so I was half-excited, half–scared shitless. That…and Veldora was alarming me with his suggestions again. Better do something about that before he starts freaking people out…
Looking at all these people, I figured I should probably pitch in somehow—which brings us to the involvement of my old friend Gard Mjöllmile.
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A manor servant brought me some tea. I had come here many times before, so he was used to me and provided a couple of the cookies I liked. Taking a sip of the drink, I grinned. It was just as tasty as always, helping put my mind in a better place. Time to move on to negotiations, then.
“Anyway, Mollie, I’ve got another job for you. Don’t worry; it’s an easy one this time, I promise.”
“Oh, another bright idea of yours? You always bring such fascinating projects to the table, but they certainly require a lot of…start-up work, to say the least.”
He grinned at me. Despite his complaint, it was clear he was interested in what I had to offer him.
My project to bring fast food to this world—burgers, the whole bit—was still underway. I had handed my outline of what needed to be done to Mjöllmile, and he was in the midst of executing it. The plan had been on the back burner for a while, what with Hinata marching on me and everything, but I wanted to come over and see how it was going, as well as talk about putting up a satellite location in Tempest in time for our festival.
“Hee-hee! Oh, don’t be a stick in the mud, Mollie. You know our recent project? Before we launch in Blumund and Englesia, I’d like you to maybe open up a test location in my nation first.”
“Oh? You know, I actually appreciate that offer a great deal, because I was just thinking about where we should train our staff. But if you’re proposing that, have you worked out your differences with the Crusaders?”
He looked a bit concerned. I must have left him too long without updates. Although I didn’t intend for it to turn into a fight, we had certain Luminism doctrine issues to deal with. If we were going to continue dealing with the Western Nations, we couldn’t afford to ignore the Holy Church issues. Now, however, that was all taken care of. We had nothing left to worry about.
“Hee-hee-hee… Yeah, I ‘worked them out,’ all right. Hinata and I made amends peacefully, and I also worked things out with
