We had entered the season when all the new leaves and greenery were bursting into life. From what Michelle had told me, this place had pretty hot summers. It would’ve been great to start selling shaved ice or ice cream before the sun’s rays became too strong, but it didn’t look like that was in the cards anytime soon.
Michelle was away in the dungeon depths to conduct research on filling her magic orb with mana, so she wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Still, that wouldn’t affect my daily life too much, so I merrily set up my shop as usual today.
“Gooood morning! Lemme at that Scratch Card first!” Meryl chirped as she entered my shop.
“Good morning, Meryl,” I said. “You’re raring to go as always.” Meryl tried her luck at the Scratch Cards every morning but had only ever won once. If there was one thing in life that was guaranteed, it was her terrible gambling luck.
“Good morning,” Mira said, also greeting me. “Some Ten-Rim Gum and Sour Kelp for me, please.”
“Are you going to be taking down some Gas Ghosts, Mira?” I asked. Sour Kelps were indispensable items when it came to dispelling a Gas Ghost’s silence curse.
“Yes. I’d like to make a lot of money so I can go to Garges.”
“Garges?”
“I’m talking about Mount Garges. The wysterie flowers are splendid this time of year, and everyone from the capital goes there to see them.”
“You really don’t know anything, Mister Yusuke,” Meryl mused. “It’s trendy now to buy a lunch box from a first-rate restaurant and go to Mount Garges to see the flowers.”
I guess it’s probably similar to cherry blossom viewing in Japan, I thought to myself. The world was rough right now, but that seemed to make people all the more eager to enjoy simple pleasures like flower viewing.
“Is Mount Garges near the capital?”
“If you take a stagecoach, you’ll be there in one koku.” So about an hour. “We’re going to book a private carriage for ourselves.”
“Yes, we need to earn enough money for that too.”
Apparently renting a private carriage to go to Mount Garges was another popular thing to do.
“Hm,” I said, considering the prospect, “it sounds like fun. I think I’ll invite Minerva to come with me.”
Meryl grinned big when she heard that.
“You two have been awfully close lately,” she remarked. Well, we were dating in secret. If everything went well, then this flower viewing would be our first date.
“You’re not going to get a girlfriend, Mister Yusuke?”
That caught me off guard. “Huh?!”
“I have also been wondering about that myself,” Mira said. “If you wanted to, you could find one right away.”
“R-Really?”
I had never in my life been popular with women. Oh, except for Michelle.
“Yes, you work earnestly every day, and I would say your face is rather passable.”
Hey!
“Exactly!” Meryl agreed. “It looks like you bring home some decent money, and you have a good personality. You also seem like the type to give a girl anything she asks for.”
The two of them looked at each other, giggling.
“Are you guys making fun of me?” I demanded.
“Not at all,” Meryl said. “All we’re saying is that from a general standpoint, it wouldn’t be weird for you to have a girlfriend.”
“That’s right,” said Mira, “but everyone hesitates because you always spend time with Minerva. There were quite a number of female adventurers who had their eyes on you, but they’re all scared of Minerva, so...”
“Really?!”
I’d had absolutely no idea. It’d be for the best if Michelle didn’t hear about this... She’d immediately get jealous and sad. Was it because she wasn’t confident in herself? She was a genius at magic, cute, attentive, with a figure beyond comparison—it was so strange she would feel that way.
I should give her plenty of praise when she gets home.
“By the way, where’s that popular restaurant?” I asked. “And what kind of carriage are you reserving?” It was going to be my first date with Michelle, so I threw myself into gathering all the information I could.
✦ ✦ ✦
Michelle looked exhausted when she got home. There were many strong monsters in the dungeon depths, which made it a never-ending barrage of stress. Even so, she came back to my apartment holding a large shopping bag and attempted to make us dinner.
“I’ll make dinner tonight,” I told her, “so you just sit down.”
“No, I’ll make it.”
“Come on, eat some of my cooking every once in a while. I’ll put plenty of love into it.”
Michelle made a sound like she wanted to protest, but she relented. Despite her attempts to persevere, I somehow got Michelle settled in a chair and made her pilaf. As confident as I had sounded, all I could cook was simple stuff like that. I put a fried egg on top of the pilaf, which I seasoned with spices, and made a vegetable soup with some bacon in it. Still, Michelle was happy with what I’d made.
“It’s very delicious,” she told me. Being praised sure made me happy. I’d put too much pepper on the pilaf so it was a bit spicy, but the taste wasn’t half bad.
Oh right, I should take the chance to invite her to see the flowers on Mount Garges.
“Are you busy with your research, Michelle?”
“Now that you ask, I suppose so,” she replied. “My experiment this time didn’t go so well. Why do you ask?”
“You know, I haven’t taken a break from the shop at all this whole time.”
“Oh, you’re right. You have that shop open every day.”
“So,” I said, “I was thinking that maybe I should take some time off soon. How about we go somewhere together? Like Mount Garges or something.”
Michelle didn’t say anything, so I continued. “They say these flowers called wysteries are really pretty. I’ve never seen them myself, so if you have the time, I was thinking that maybe we could go together?”
Clank! The spoon fell from Michelle’s hand and made a loud sound against the plate of pilaf.
“You mean...” she said slowly.
“Well, I’m basically inviting you on a date.”
“Urk...” Huh?! She’s suddenly gripping her chest with tears in her eyes?!
“Hey, are you all right?”
“Yusuke, I need a Mini Mini Cola...” she wheezed. “My heart is in pain...”
“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?”
“No, I’m so happy I could die...” She looked like she was about to start hyperventilating. Panicked, I hurriedly filled a glass with some water and had Michelle drink it.
“You feeling better?” I asked.
“Yeah...” she said, but she was still gasping for breath.
“So, what do you say?”
“Huh?”
“Would you like to go with me or not?”
“I would,” she said. “I’m definitely going!”
Michelle was shyly casting her gaze downward, but her lips were raised in a small smile.
✦ ✦ ✦
It had been pouring rain since the day before, but late last night it had finally stopped. Today was the day I was going to Mount Garges with Michelle. I woke up early, got myself ready, and went to pick Michelle up in the carriage we had reserved. It was a convertible type, so we would get a good look at the scenery around us. That’s right! I really pulled out all the stops for today.
The coachman gave us a strange look as I lent Michelle a hand to help her into the carriage. She was still a wanted criminal, so she was disguised as a man again with her silver mask. There were also the effects of her cognitive obstruction spells, so no doubt anyone looking at her saw only a man. It was probably rare to see a man escorting another man, but I didn’t care. We were dating after all.
Once we were inside the carriage, she immediately put a Cocoa Cigar in her mouth.
“Do you want one?” she asked. I wasn’t in the mood for sweets, but these would let us talk freely about whatever we wanted.
“I guess I will,” I said, taking one. The moment I had it in my mouth, Michelle started talking to me.
(I’m sorry, Yusuke. I wanted to wear something nicer than this, but...)
(There’s nothing we can do about it. I’ll look forward to seeing that in the future.)
We’d discussed the possibility of fleeing to another country after Michelle reached a stopping point with her research. There was also a decent chance she would be granted amnesty if she cured the king’s curse and offered some kind of compensation. I was positive the day would come when we could freely walk together in public.
(Let’s go and get the lunch boxes from that restaurant first.)
(Maybe I should’ve made us lunch after all. I wanted to have you eat to your heart’s content...) She sounded unsure.
(Let’s save that for next time too.)
Michelle had originally said that she would cook, but that popular lunch box’s container was so extremely cute that she hadn’t been able to fight the allure of its charms.