Linze and Elze were suddenly subjecting me to unjustified defamation. For some reason, the big bad was doing the exact same crimes the smaller bads did. Why would you not make it do something more dramatic? Actually, wait, that would spell even worse trouble for me...
My feelings were left in a complicated mess as I watched the big bad causing a ruckus in front of shops, starting fights, and peeking into all the baths it wanted.
“He even peeked...”
“I swear it looks just like Touya...”
“Hey, I’m starting to feel like this was created maliciously.”
“Nahhh, you’re just imagining things!” Doc Babylon said, laughing like crazy to herself all the while.
I’m not stupid! I can see who you modeled that after!
“[Prison]!”
While I was getting mad at Doc Babylon, it was suddenly Steph’s turn to take on the big bad. She instantly went for her signature magic. There was no way it could escape a whole prison! Or at least, that was what I thought, but all it took was a headbutt and the thing shattered.
“No way?!”
“He can destroy a [Prison]?!”
“He’s the final boss! It’d be no fun if he got caught too fast, right?”
That damn scientist made some weird setting, didn’t she? The garden was essentially a pseudo-space—the scenery and people could be considered illusions. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think she could set the parameters so that a [Prison] could be broken.
The big bad fired his Brunhild once more, sticking Steph to the ground just as he had Linne.
“Noooooo!”
Steph had the exact same reaction as Linne; they really were sisters. The big bad swiftly made his escape, but he made sure to not forget to look up a girl’s skirt as he went.
C’mon, dude, you’re gonna make me want to run away...
“Found you!”
“We won’t let you escape!”
It was Yakumo and Frei’s turn this time. Stepping in front of the big bad, they gripped their staffs in their hands just like swords and dashed for the villain. He bounced back before shooting a web right where he had been standing. The moment both girls set foot on the glowing web, they were stuck in place and toppled forward.
“I can’t move!”
“Grnnnnnngh!”
Was that light net basically like birdlime? You know, why did they even charge into something that was clearly so suspicious, anyway?
“Prisma Rose!”
“Nyee?”
As the big bad tried to escape from the scene, Allis and Leylle attacked from above. The crystal vines that emitted from their hands wrapped around him and caught him tight.
But the next moment, he disappeared into particles of light and rematerialized elsewhere.
“Did that not count?” I asked.
“They probably squeezed him too tight,” Linze said.
This was so difficult. Personally, I didn’t care if they beat up that defaming asshole.
Having reappeared right beside where it had been taken down, the big bad aimed his Brunhild at Allis and Leylle, who had failed—or in some sense succeeded—in their surprise attack, and fired another sticky net. The two girls ended up stuck to the nearby wall, and the villain went to make his big escape.
Until suddenly, he fell to the ground as if he’d suddenly lost all his power.
What just happened?!
“Down we go.”
Yoshino suddenly appeared and lightly tapped her staff on the big bad’s back, capturing him in the ring of light.
Of course, Yoshino’s lullaby!
It turned out Allis and Leylle had fallen asleep too. To think the final boss wasn’t resistant to sleep.
“Good job, Yoshino. You did good,” Sakura proudly said, a smug look on her face. Yae and Hilde on the other hand were giving their biggest angry frowns.
C’mon now, friendly competition only.
“And that marks the end of that. Game, set, and match. Good job, you guys.”
A buzzer suddenly rang out, and the kids were all returned to the courtyard. The game was finally done. I wasn’t sure if I could confidently say that they had learned how to show restraint, but at least it looked like they’d enjoyed themselves.
The biggest problem now was that I had to listen to the wish of the victor. Who’d actually won in the end? Yoshino, since she caught the final boss?
“I’ll start from third place, then,” Doc Babylon began. “In third place, we have Yoshino. You caught the big bad, but you racked up too many negative points to steal the win.”
She was third, huh? I was surprised. Though, it was true that Yoshino kept putting the townspeople to sleep when capturing the villains. If that had been a real mission, that could’ve been dangerous. A thief could very easily sneak into a shop while the shopkeeper was unconscious. Figuring out how to put a specific target to sleep instead of indiscriminately affecting everyone present would be something for her to work on.
“By the way, Quun was in fourth place. You were doing great at the start, but you started observing the garden halfway through, didn’t you?”
“Mngh... Once I started thinking about it, I just couldn’t stop...”
Rather than catching the villains, Quun had been much more preoccupied with understanding the garden’s systems and had swapped to observing the location in the second half. The fact that she still got fourth despite that was incredible if you asked me.
“Second place was Elna. You took your time, slowly but surely catching a lot of the bad guys—you had no point deductions either.”
“Great job, Elna!”
“Hee hee...”
Elze hugged the bashful Elna tight. Even when the big bad had appeared, Elna chose to steadily focus on whatever villain appeared in front of her rather than ignore them to chase after the final boss. A steady pace had planted her in second, but then what about first?
“And the winner is...Arcia! Not only were you precise, but you were fast, pulling you into the lead at a good pace. Even when the big bad appeared, you kept catching the small fry. The thing that really separated you from Elna was the speed at which you moved from one bad guy to the next.”
“Saving time is a key part of cooking, after all. You have to always consider how to move efficiently.”
Arcia was relating it to cooking, but were they even connected? Like, at all? Then again, if you weren’t efficient with your methods, cooking anything could take forever and you’d just end up with something that tasted bad instead. In the sense of being efficient, it was the same idea.
Still, the champion was Arcia, huh?
I’m a little afraid of the kind of request she’ll make...
✦ ✦ ✦
“Whoooaaa! It’s so shiny and new! It’s amazing!”
“I’m glad you like it.”
Arcia’s wish had been to get her own kitchen, so I worked with Doc Babylon to create a small compact kitchen that she could keep in her smartphone’s [Storage]. It was a kitchen cabinet in the shape of an L, with a large table attached to it. It also had three magic stovetop burners, a magic oven, a stainless mithril sink, and marble countertops layered with [Protection] so dirt never had to be a worry.
A large water spellstone capable of taking in the mana in the environment served as an endless water source, and it was made so that you could use teleportation magic to funnel the tap to wherever you wanted. We had also installed a magic ventilation fan that would absorb any smoke and convert it into clean air, allowing her to cook even when inside a building.
The pièce de résistance were the premium cooking utensils made of a mix of phrasium and mithril. The chopping board was made of phrasium so the phrasium knives wouldn’t slice straight through.
This whole kitchen could be called from Arcia’s [Storage] anytime, anywhere. Personally, I think we did a fantastic job.
“Ugh... I want one too!” Lu muttered in envy. I thought she would say that, so we’d actually prepared one for Lu as well; I just wasn’t giving it to her today. Why not, you ask? Well, because my daughter now had the opportunity to look so incredibly smug in her new kitchen. It was meant to be her reward, after all.
✦ ✦ ✦
