The 1st Day of the incoming Wind month. In the office of Duchess Albert, the head of the family, Lilia, is somehow restlessly processing documents.
Lilia is an undeniably talented woman, and her paperwork is handled far faster than the average civilians... But today, she was different from her usual self, and the paperwork wasn't progressing very well.
[...My Lady? Why are you feeling so jittery since earlier?]
[It doesn't seem like... you're feeling unwell huh.]
Lunamaria, Lilia's personal maid, and Sieglinde, who happened to be visiting the room for another matter, worriedly called out to Lilia, who was acting strangely.
After that incident that happened when she went to a party with Kaito, Lilia was acting a bit strange, but that didn't interfere with her normal work... Today, however, she was clearly agitated.
Hearing their words, Lilia stopped her paperwork for a moment, and letting out a big sigh, she muttered with a worried expression on her face.
[...This morning, I happened to see Kaito-san... For some reason, he looked very tired... C- Could it be that he was feeling unwell!?]
[ [ ...….. ] ]
[T- Thinking about it, the environment in this world and the world where Kaito-san came from is different... so he may have been unknowingly socking up fatigue...]
[ [ ...Hahh… ] ]
[....Eh?]
Seeing Lilia speak with a restless look on her face, Lunamaria and Sieglinde let out a big sigh.
And with an amazed expression on her face, Sieglinde calls out to Lilia.
[If you're so worried, why don't you just ask him directly?]
[Ughh!? T- That is...]
[...Ahh, could it be that because My Lady has been so cold that Miyama-sama became depressed and got sick. How pitiful.]
[N- No way! It's not like I'm being cold to him….. It's just that, ummm... Errr... Do you think... t- that it's my fault?]
Hearing the words Lunamaria said to her, Lilia flusteredly tried to deny it but... As if she couldn't completely deny it in her mind, her voice gradually became lower and lower, and finally she had an uneasy look on her face.
[I don't know if it's Lili's fault or not but... It's true that you've been avoiding Kaito-san lately, right?]
[T- That's not it... It's not like I.... was avoiding him...]
[Geez, for just a kiss or two, how long are you going to drag this out... I know that you're feeling awkward, but you could just mend that kind of stuff along the way...]
[I- It certainly is as you say but... wait, Luna!? How did you know that!?]
Hearing their words as they told her in a matter-of-fact manner, Lilia shrunk her body, as if she was being subjected to a punishment game but... Her face turned bright red when she asked why Lunamaria said that she kissed him.
[No matter what you say, you're asking that even though you've already done this... Even though he isn't your fiancé, you went and danced three songs in a row with the same man...]
[T- That's not it... T- That's just so that we could get to the exit...]
[Anyway, if you want to smooth things over, be honest with him. Don't run away like a child, and have a proper conversation with Miyama-sama.]
[...Ugghhh... I- I'll do my best.]
Looking at Lilia as she felt despondent when she heard what Lunamaria said, the two other women smiled.
Then, Sieglinde went back to work, Lunamaria left the room to make Lilia a cup of tea, and Lilia, who was left alone in the room, shifted her gaze to the window, her cheeks turning slightly red.
[...I- I couldn't tell him... what I really felt...]
In fact, Lilia tried to act close to what Lunamaria had told her the day after the incident.
She tried going back to how she used to act around Kaito, and was going to put the whole thing behind her... If she acted as she normally does, Kaito wouldn't strangely bring up that incident again... However, she wasn't able to do that.
That's because on that day Lilia tried to exchange words with Kaito like usual, an unexpected situation happened...
[...After that day, Kaito-san looks even more dreamier than ever before... and I can't look at his face properly...]
Yes, Lilia was actually not feeling awkward about that matter and tried avoiding Kaito, but was simply confused by her love for Kaito that she became aware of after that day.
After that day, her gaze unconsciously follows Kaito, her heart throbbed in each of Kaito's gestures, and she came to look for Kaito's figure more than before.
[...In fact, rather than avoiding Kaito-san, I would frequently check up on him... I'm not avoiding him, but I was just running away because I was afraid that I was caught staring at him... But it's too late to say that now...]
Dragging my heavy body, riddled with pain all over my body, I was heading to a place with Kuro.
I've collected most of the materials for the music box I'm going to present to Lilia-san, and today, I had come to a certain town here in the Demon Realm... in search of the most important component of the magic tools, the magic crystals.
At first, I was going to get the magic crystal myself, but it seems that mining magic crystals requires a certain amount of skill and is difficult for amateurs to do, so I obediently decided to buy it instead.
[...However, isn't this a great city? Especially that large mansion over there...]
[In case you're wondering, this city is one of the largest cities in the Demon Realm after all~~]
Kuro brought me to the city where the headquarters of the Seditch Magic Tool Trading Company is located. Since the headquarters of the world's largest trading company is located in this city, I have expected that it would be a big city... but I didn't expect that I would find a city with a huge castle that was several times larger than the royal palace of the Symphonia Kingdom.
[Arehh? However... If I remember correctly, there are no countries in the Demon Realm, right?]
[Unnn, that's right.]
[Then, what about that castle?]
[Ahh~~ You~~ see~~...]
According to what I heard, there is no such thing as countries in the Demon Realm, and I think there are only small and large cities and towns here and there... but no matter how I look at this place, this city looks like a royal capital. Well, I guess it just feels that way because of that castle...
But when I asked Kuro for confirmation... Kuro sounded evasive as she scratched her head.
[...That's my home...]
[Eeeehhhh!?]
To my surprise, that humongous castle is actually Kuro's home... I- I see, now that she mentioned it, Kuro is one of the Six Kings, the pinnacle beings of the Demon Realm, and also the richest being in the world. It isn't surprising that she lives in a big castle.
[...No, I said that I didn't need a castle that big...But Ein and the others, just arbitrarily built that...]
[I see... So that's why Kuro had a complicated look on your face when I said I wanted to go to your home...]
[Unnn. I mean, living in a castle that big feels embarrassing...]
Seeing Kuro's troubled and embarrassed expression, I felt a fresh sense of cuteness as we happily walked along, chatting about various other things, until we found ourselves in front of another large and eye-catching building.
Apparently, this is the headquarters of the Seditch Magic Tool Company.
Thereupon, Kuro stops once and takes out a black message card and gives it to me.
[Here, a letter of introduction.]
[Thanks... If I remember correctly, I wouldn't need the magic crystal to be too pure, right?]
[Unnn. The magic tools in the music box don't consume much magic power, so there's no point in buying too many good ones.]
[Alright.]
This time, I told Kuro in advance that I wanted to shop on my own, and she agreed to do so.
That's because, to be honest... If Kuro comes with me, I would probably be asking for her opinion at every magic crystal I see... but thanks to what Kuro taught me, I've also learned to distinguish between magic crystals to some extent, so I'd like to choose and buy them myself if I could.
Also, I'm actually trying to secretly prepare one for Kuro and the others, and to my other lovers, and so, I'm going to buy them myself so that they won't find out.
(T/N: not an error.)
[Then, while Kaito-kun's shopping... I'm going to go make a new baby castella for you!]
[!?]
I've seen and talked to Kuro almost every night since I came to this world. Without a doubt, she's the person I talk to the most and spend the most time with in this world.
Kuro loves baby castellas, and every night, she prepares a different flavor of baby castella, and the number of baby castellas I've eaten has been outrageously high.
And then, I don't know when it happened... Just as I've been passing my time in this world, I've awakened to a special ability.
That special ability... though it's limited, it's the ability to foresee the future! Would it be better to call it Super Intuition though... It's that Sixth Sense ability you could see in the movies.
I shuddered, thinking that I've gained such a frightening ability.
[...Kuro, wait!]
[Ehh?]
[What are you going to use to make it this time?]
[...Eh? It would be filled with that "tabasco" ingredient from Kaito-kun's world.]
[Absolutely stop! Go make something else!]
[Eh? U- Unnn... If Kaito-kun says it that much...]
Yes, my precognition is... the ability to "detect whether the new baby castella made by Kuro is surprisingly delicious or a baby castella that could only be eaten as a punishment game.
This is an ability that has been cultivated through many nights of experience. As a result of going through hell many times, my intuition has evolved to avoid crisis-inducing baby castellas.
Seriously, if I don't stop Kuro beforehand, she would just pair up the baby castellas with a bowl of teriyaki sauce or even a heap of mayonnaise... It's frightening how she could just calmly make such outrageous things.
In fact, for the first few months, I felt like I was being forced to play Russian Roulette everyday... But thanks to this ability, I'm able to avoid dud castellas one out of three times!
Yes, I mean, it can't be helped... There are times when Kuro would make two types of baby castellas, times when Kuro would keep what she's making a secret, and times when Kuro won't say it at all... There's no way I could avoid all of them.
Dear Mom, Dad———- I think humans are creatures that evolve by coming out of their shells when they encounter a crisis. I've been in a lot of scenes of carnage in this world... As a result of going along with her experiments in discovering new flavors of baby castellas——– I feel like... I've acquired my sixth sense.