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Volume 4 Prologue 2: Return of Everyday Life

「Uwaa, how pretty and delicious smelling」

Yukino’s eyes sparkled. It was like her unhappy face from a while ago had never existed.

「Cyril I smell something good. Are you making something?」

「It smells so good that my stomach woke me up.」

Lucy and Kuu entered the room rubbing the sleep from their eyes, drawn by the sweet fragrance.

「Hm Yukino? Did you come to play?」

「Kuu-anesama…umm…well」

Kuu noticed Yukino and called out, but Yukino seemed awkward.

「Girls let’s talk about Yukino’s story later. Let’s eat breakfast first, I’m sure you’re hungry.」

As I spoke Lucy’s stomach growled.

I smiled and hurried along to finish the rest of the crepes.

****

「Cyril this feels weird in my mouth. It’s so springy and soft, but it sticks in my mouth.」

「I can’t get enough of this burnt maple syrup. I’ll get addicted to this bittersweet flavor.」

Looks like my crepes were a great success. I’m sure that I could use them to gather customers even in Erin.  I prepared a slightly bitter mugwort tea to match with the sweet crepe. It was something I had picked from the mountain and dried.

「Does it suit your tastes Yukino?」

「Cyril-niisama it’s really delicious.」

Her voice was calm, but her tail was wagging wildly.

「You think we could sell this girls?」

「With such a delicious smelling product people won’t be able to hold back.」

「I think so too. The smell will lure them over and once they try it they’ll want more. We can sell as many as we have.」

「Even for a whole silver coin.」

Selling such a thin crepe for a silver would be a rip off, but in a city like Erin where sugar was precious a price like that was fair and honest.

「It’s expensive, too expensive…but I think I’d buy it too.」

「Yup, this delicious smell is cheating…」

Although this is merely a tool for attracting customers, I still expect to profit from it. One jar can make enough caramel crepes for 35 people.

When selling the syrup you could sell it anywhere between 50 silver or a gold, but you have to think of gathering customers first.

「Yukino-chan did you come here to visit me?」

After we ate, Lucy asked Yukino as she gave her a hug.

Lucy likes cute children and hard workers. Since they had plenty of time to interact over the length of our military operation, Lucy began to really like her.

She was small, beautiful, and hard working. Yukino was right in the middle of what Lucy loved.

Yukino also let down her guard around Lucy since she took care of her when she fell ill. Even when she was suddenly hugged she didn’t look unhappy about it.

「I won’t grab it, so can I pat your tail a little bit?」

「….if you just want to touch it then okay.」

Yukino said and Lucy reached down to touch her tail, but as she tried to touch it her tail nimbly twitched left and right, evading her.

Fire Foxes value their tails highly. Only those who they’re really close to can touch it, and those who can grab it are only their parents and their husband or wife.

Lucy is fascinated with her fluffy silver tail, but subconsciously Yukino doesn’t seem completely comfortable letting her touch it. Even I only enjoy touching it once every three days when she lets me brush her fur.

「And so, why did you come visit Yukino?」

Kuu finally brought things to a head.

「Well…Kurone and Kemin tried to turn her into a present for me. They tied her up, put her in a bag, and brought her here. They said it as if she would be coming here as an indentured servant…」

In this world indentured servitude was mostly being a live-in maid. A house that cannot afford to feed a child entrusts them to a rich home. The child provides labor in exchange for food, clothing and shelter.

「Eh? Yukino will become our child? How nice. It’s been hard for me to clean this house and the Chief’s house while still training with Nettle. Having Yukino-chan help would be great.」

That’s been an issue. The Chief’s house is used as a meeting place for Erucy so it always has to be kept clean. At the moment only Lucy and I take care of it, so things have been difficult.

Having a helper would be really great. Even better that she’s a Fire Fox which eliminates the need to chop firewood for keeping the house warm, using the stove, and making a refrigerator. I wanted one to stay and help so much.

「If Lucy-chan is okay with it that might be good. From now on she could use her time outside of caring for goats and training to help Lucy-chan. In exchange she won’t have to do other jobs. Cyril-kun is the chief so I agree that he should have one or two maids.」

It seems like the Fire Fox representative Kuu is also in agreement. Now I have both my wives’ permission.

All that’s left is what Yukino wants….

「Yukino doesn’t want it.」

「Do you not want to unnecessarily increase your workload?」

「No, I’m happy to live with Cyril-niisama so I don’t mind the extra chores…but Kurone and Kemin also think the same as me…Yukino staying alone would be unfair.」

Yukino said as she shook her head.

It looks like she didn’t like the idea of being treated specially. Maybe that’s why Kurone and Kemin tried such a forceful method.

「You’re the one to choose Yukino. I won’t force you if you don’t want to. However, don’t say it’s unfair. Even if you become a live-in helper you might end up being lonely.」

「Lonely?」

「Un, tomorrow we’ll be heading to Erin. We have to sell our maple syrup and earn some money so we can buy emergency supplies and items for Erucy.」

Even though we won the battle today was the only day I would be relaxing. There’s far too many things I have to accomplish. There were four things I needed to do quickly.

First, I need to sell the maple syrup in Erin and buy our necessities. That would start tomorrow and last for a few days.

Second, I needed to prepare for our marriage. I had to order special wedding dresses and get ingredients for a wedding cake as well as buying new livestock.

Third I had to get war reparations by selling the armor. I had sent a letter to the Empire regarding this, but I’m sure they would take some time coming to a conclusion.

Fourth, I had to increase Erucy’s defensive power. The plan this time was a one off success. I had to prepare multiple schemes. Just in case I had to enhance our defenses against a frontal attack.

「If you were to live in with us you’d have to watch over the house. We’d be gone for at least a week. Could you watch our home? Don’t think it’s unfair, rather I think it’ll be painful instead.」

「That’d be helpful. After leaving the house for a week it’ll be hard to clean up.」

「Not unfair….it’ll be hard…」

Yukino thought about our words. She was a nice girl who thought it was mean of her to take advantage, but as soon as she heard it would be hard her feeling of guilt weakened.

Yukino thought for a bit before coming to conclusion and speaking.

「Cyril-niisama….Mrs. Lucy…I’ll be in your care.」

「Un, good to work with you Yukino.」

「Yukino-chan I’d prefer if you call me like you do Cyril and Kuu-chan. I’d like you to call me Lucy-anesama.」

「Understood Mrs. Lucy.」

It seems like she was stuck thinking of Lucy like that…

Well, now my house has a cute maid.

Now I had something else I had to buy from Erin. I had to buy her a maid outfit.

「Also Yukino, you don’t have to live here all the time. If you want to go back you can do so at any time.」

She looked relieved as I said that. No matter how much she likes me, I’m sure her friends were first in her mind. After all, Kurone and Kemin had said she was their most valuable person as well.