As she felt the morning light warming up her chest, Schnee woke up.
(Here is…)
She remembered yesterday’s event vaguely in her head. The things where Shin returned. The situation where Wilhelm and Rashia were surprised. The time when they sat down at the dining table in Tsuki no Hokora.
“If I’m not mistaken, I definitely put Tiera in my bed…Eh!!?”
As she muttered that, she noticed that there was somebody next to her. She was also holding somebody’s arm.
“EH? S-Shin!?”
She desperately suppressed the loud voice which came close to shouting. Schnee confirmed that it was her master’s arm that she had been holding.
The curly black hair. The deep black eyes under the closed eyelids, it was something that Schnee knew well.
That person was Shin, the master of Tsuki no Hokora.
“Huh!?”
The state of their bodies being so close and the sensation of their skin touching each other, caused Schnee’s face to turn red. Even she herself was aware of her ears turning bright red. She was aware that she had been intoxicated last night.
However, she never thought that she would do something like step into Shin’s bed in a natural fashion while being drunk.
“W-What a blunder…”
While her face was flushed red, she reproached herself, since she never had the intention of releasing Shin’s arm.
When she got out of the bed without waking Shin up, she let out a small breath. The reason was that she didn’t know when Shin would wake up. If Shin was to wake now, she couldn’t come up with any excuses.
Somehow she restrained her desire of wanting to look at Shin’s sleeping face, and she left the room.
After changing her clothes in her own room, she washed her face and cleared her consciousness. She felt refreshed due to the cold water, and her reflection no longer showed her face flushed red from a little while ago.
“First of all, I will prepare breakfast.”
As for the time, it was only a little past 5:30. Because she always finished tidying up before 7:00, this was pretty much her daily routine.
Schnee went to the kitchen, and as she looked at the fridge’s contents to decide the menu, Tiera came over.
“Ah, Master, good morning.”
“Good morning, you were quite drunk yesterday, are you okay now?”
“Uhh…I caused an inconvenience last night. For the time being, I have no hangover.”
Tiera seemed to remember, and she apologized while dropping her shoulders.
“Then, please help with the preparation for breakfast. Because it is likely that we will need to prepare portions for 4 people.”
“Yes…huh? For 4 people?”
“Well, just in case.”
“Ah, I see.”
Tiera seemed to have some doubts about the 4 people part, but she obediently wore the apron and began to help. Schnee also put on her favorite apron. Schnee’s was light blue, and Tiera’s was light green.
“What would you like for the menu this morning?”
“Let’s go with a Japanese-style meal. For the other ingredient beside the miso soup, take out the treasured fish.”
“Huh!? Master, don’t tell me, it’s THAT?”
Tiera couldn’t hide her surprise due to Schnee words. That super high-quality ingredient was said to be worth a large amount of Jul white gold coins. The name of the ingredient was ‘Diamond Horse Mackerel’. The special food was opened and dried in the sun, and it was best to be used at this time. In other words, the breakfast at Tsuki no Hokora today was the dried and opened horse mackerel, along with the miso soup which is a must in Japanese cuisine.
As for the Diamond Horse Mackerel, it was a fish type monster, like the horse mackerel, and had scales that shined like a diamond. However, regardless of its appearance, it boasted a strength level of 450 – 600. They were usually found in a school. It was a monster that ate low-level Krakens and a shark type monster that exceeded level 500 instead of normal bait. Only a few were caught, when they weakened and got lost from their school, and occasionally ended up on the market.
Among the food ingredients from the sea, it was recognized as a high-class food material with a tremendous price. What would happen if such a Diamond Horse Mackerel was processed with Schnee’s cooking skill? It was already needless to say.
“Though the mackerel has the appearance of a dried and opened fish, somehow it is sparkling.”
With the keen sense of an elf, Tiera seemed to have caught the hidden life force in the horse mackerel.
“Now then, I will prepare the miso soup first. Tiera, please cook the rice.”
“Ah, yes.”