“Ham! Hah hah, hah!”
“Waaah…!”
It’s almost lunchtime.
She started crying! I gently scolded and comforted Xiaolin, listening to her story.
Well, it seems mostly true that she’s been bullied by Mingsha since childhood and had things stolen from her.
However, she couldn’t bear to have the man she loved taken away, so she exploded.
So, I promised her that I wouldn’t have that kind of relationship with Mingsha and persuaded her.
Personally, I think Mingsha is beautiful too. But I have a feeling that she’s not the type who would adapt to my way of doing things, so marriage would be impossible.
Being the head of the mafia is also problematic. There’s the issue of the power balance in the slums collapsing, of course, but… it’s not just that.
When you’re the head of an organization, your position doesn’t allow you to change your ways to suit your spouse.
That’s why I never got involved with Rosalinde until now.
Rosalinde is a noble’s daughter, and I didn’t want to get involved with that side of things and be forced to follow the ways of the nobility.
Now, she says she wants to be with me even if it means giving up her nobility, so I accepted her.
So, Xiaolin calmed down… and, for some reason, Shio, who’s still here, told me to feed her lunch, so I did.
Well… I thought some water dumplings, which are often eaten in the ‘Continent’, would be good, so I served them.
Then Kaede muttered, “Rice…” so I gave her some…
And she started devouring a mountain of rice that looked like it came straight out of a social studies textbook.
Moreover, she’s eating the rice with the water dumplings as a side dish…
For the people of the ‘Continent’, water dumplings… or whatever they’re called in this world, are a staple food in themselves.
In other words, Kaede is eating rice with rice.
Seeing that, Xiaolin and Mingsha were completely dumbfounded. They’re trembling with fear…
…Or rather, where is all that rice going in that slender body of hers? It’s a mystery.
I also served something like green pepper steak, but Kaede… Kaede is really eating it…
Shio too, but Kaede is eating as much as Shio…
…I’ll eat too.
This Peking Duck-like thing, made by roasting a duck-like bird that I caught on the continent, turned out pretty well.
“Ehh…?!! Peking Duck…?!?”
“…Sensei, have you been to Dahfa’s ‘North Province’?”
“Nope.”
Hmm?
Does Peking Duck exist in this world too…?
“W-Well, Peking Duck can only be eaten in the capital! If I can eat it here, I’ll take it!”
The ‘Continent’ girls are happily wrapping the crispy skin of the Peking Duck-like thing in bread-like things and eating it.
If they’re happy, then, yeah.
That’s good.
Kaede’s strange behavior made Xiaolin’s strange behavior disappear.
The matter was settled amicably, the ‘Blue Comet’ group returned to the clan house, and Mingsha went home…
In the end, because Xiaolin was seriously angry, Mingsha said she wouldn’t interfere, considering their family ties.
I don’t intend to have a relationship with Mingsha either, so it’s business as usual.
I’ll be going on the next ‘Blue Comet’ expedition, so I guess I’ll just wait until I get the call.
Since it’s a medieval, haphazard schedule, I’ll probably be waiting for a few days…
In the meantime, I can’t go far or make any big plans because I’m waiting for a call.
The opportunity cost is high, but oh well.
The fact that other people’s time has value is something that’s hard to understand in this world without clocks.
Come to think of it, I started caring about time performance in modern times.
In the old days, it took several days to deliver a single document, so even if you worked overtime until midnight with such inefficiency and poor time performance, the results of your work were worthless.
In modern times, we exchange information at the speed of light via email and computers, so it’s the ultimate in efficiency and time performance.
And yet, we’re still required to work the same amount of time as in the old days…
…Aren’t the salarymen of the world going to start a rebellion?
Well, I didn’t, but that’s because doctors are always busy, no matter the era…
Anyway, this world is medieval. No one considers how much money I could have made if I had used the time they’re taking from me.
Not even the ‘Blue Comet’, who are expected to be relatively sensible.
The way of thinking about time performance is that of a merchant, so we’ll have to wait a few hundred years until capitalism is introduced.
Now then…
“Tris.”
“Yes.”
“So, I’m going on the ‘Blue Comet’ expedition again. I’ll be away from the apothecary for a while, so please take care of things.”
“Yes!”
“If Count Missgancia calls urgently, use the ‘telephone’.”
“Understood! The secret thing in the basement!”
“Right, if the ‘telephone’ is discovered, Count Missgancia will definitely ask for it, and it’ll be a 100% troublesome situation. It’s magic, so it doesn’t use ‘electricity’, but…”
“Yes, I’ll protect the secret with my life!”
“No, I’d be more troubled if you died, so don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Eh…? Y-Yes!”
“…Hmm? Could it be that you value my peace of mind more than your own?”
“Y-Yes. I believe that I am expendable for the sake of Andrews-sama’s peace of mind.”
“That’s not true, is it? I care about Tris a lot. I even want you to have my children in the future, so I don’t want you to get hurt too much.”
“Ah…♡”
“Hmm?”
“I love you. I love you, Andrews-sama. I’ve always loved you…♡”
Alright, we had a fun conversation! Good communication!
Now, the preparations… well, I guess they’re okay.
A new carriage was recently made.
Until I’m called, I’ll just work as an apothecary as usual…