After Alice's tour of the house ended, I introduced the house to the people back in Lilia-san's mansion, including Mom and Dad, and decided on the room for my parents, Anima and the other three, and before I knew it, night had fallen.
At the suggestion of the chef who said "We don't really need to have separate meals, do we?", we were having dinner at Lilia-san's mansion as usual, when she asked me about the housewarming party for the construction of my new home.
We certainly just can't have a house built and call it a day, so it will be necessary to showcase it to everyone I know.
That's why we decided to start planning a housewarming party the next day... but then, I received a letter from the royal palace, asking us to delay the date of the party for a little while.
It seems that a joint meeting of the three countries is currently being held at the royal castle, and Ryze-san, Chris-san and Laguna-san would like to attend the party, so they were asking if we could have the party after their meeting was over.
This was the first time for me to host a party, agreeing to their request gives me more time to prepare, and of course, I wanted Ryze-san and the others to come, so I immediately agreed.
After that, I started to prepare for the party... or so I wanted to do, but I didn't really know how to do that... so the preparations didn't go well at all.
[Let's see. The list of ingredients here should be fine. Zwei, I'm sure you're more than capable of handling the guests, so do you mind if I leave it to you?]
[Yes, no problem. Then, Ein will be in charge of the internal preparations, such as the venue and the like, and I will be in charge of the external preparations, such as selecting guests and scheduling, right?]
[Zwei, how about handing out some souvenirs to the guests who attended the party?]
[Hmmm, I don't think that would be a problem. However, it would be safer to avoid giving out anything too expensive. I'll prepare something that won't be too much of a hindrance. The problem would be the gifts that the guests will bring...]
[That's no problem. I know where the storage house is, so I'll have preparations arranged to bring them in. If it comes to it, we can ask for Chronois' help and have her use her "Authority of Space" to deal with it. If it's for Kaito-sama's sake, I'm sure Chronois won't refuse.]
[.....]
...Errr, can I throw my tsukkomi already? Why are you two participating as the organizers as if it's the most obvious thing in the world? You even sound like you two got a very thorough plan, you know!? N- No, I'm really grateful for their help... but seriously, how the heck did this happen?
As I was dumbfoundedly looking at the two of them, unable to keep up with the developments, Ein-san and Zwei-san quickly proceeded with the preparations for the party.
[...This is strange, isn't it? I'm supposed to be the host, but there's nothing for me to do...]
[Ahaha, Ein and Zwei were quite excited about it after all~~ Since they've volunteered, why don't you just leave it to them?]
[Speaking of strange, even though I just changed rooms, you're still waiting in my room as if it's natural, aren't you, Kuro? ...Did Alice tell you where my room is?]
[No, the space had been altered so that my room is directly conne———— Ahh, that's right! Shalltear told me about it!]
[Wait a moment there, what were you just saying...]
Is it just my imagination? This is supposed to be my room, but I wonder if it's just my imagination that makes me think that there are a few functions in this room that's hidden from me... No, it's probably not just my imagination. There's definitely something else in this room other than that gate.
As I was thinking about this, I noticed that part of the wall in the room... had just opened up like a door, and stepping out of it was Alice.
[...Speaking of which, Kuro-san, when do you think we should meet Kaito-san's parents?]
[Hmmm. I think it's better to do that after the party is over, I guess? We can always do it during the party, but it will be difficult for Isis to meet them unless we're in that reception room.]
[No, wait, oi, Alice. Where the heck did you just come from...]
[Eh? No, it's just on the hidden————- rather than that, we've got some thinking we need to do before the party!]
[...I'm going to talk to you about this later.]
I'll have to ask her about this later. Specifically, I'd like to know how many hidden features exist in this mansion that hasn't been explained to me...
Looking at Alice who was trying to feign ignorance, I let out a big sigh before speaking.
[...Haahhh... So? What is it that we need to think about? Are we talking about hiring servants for the mansion or something like that?]
Needless to say, my house, which is the same size as Lilia-san's mansion, is huge. With just Anima, Eta and Theta following me... Even if we add Caraway-san to their numbers, it will still be difficult for them to clean the whole place and maintain the garden.
In that case, I thought it would be necessary to hire more servants...
[No, that's not really a problem. What we have to discuss is how many people we can invite.]
[You're right~~ My family wanted to attend, but we can't just invite everyone, right?]
[...Ehh? No, errr... sorry, wait a moment.]
Tilting my head at her reaction that was completely different from what I was expecting, I went out of the room once to check.
Thereupon, sending a hummingbird to call Anima, I asked her what I was bothered about.
[Anima, this house... It's been three days since this place was built... but as expected, you still haven't finished cleaning and such stuff, right?]
[...No, ummm, including moving furniture to my, Eta and Theta's room... "Illness-sama has done it all by herself".]
[...Ehh?]