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Chapter 52 Part 1

Before We Part (2) ~Because it is now~

It was past eleven o’clock when Yuu visited Akiko’s apartment. It was still early, but they decided to have lunch.

What she made with ingredients she had on hand was spaghetti Neapolitan.

「If I had known that you were coming, Yuu-sama, I would have been able to prepare a more proper meal, though.」

「Nah, just being able to eat your cooking like this is already making me happy, Akiko-san.」

「“No way.…」

Akiko was feeling sorry, but each and every dish she made was delicious.

Until elementary school, Yuu seemed to be a picky eater, not good with most vegetables, but ever since they hired a housekeeper who was skilled at cooking when he entered middle school, his pickiness seemed to have completely vanished.

In addition, since most of their dinners consisted of Japanese and Western dishes with a variety of items for nutritional balance, it was rare for him to eat noodle dishes like this.

「Yay! I love mama’s Neapolitan!」

Compared to Yuu and Akiko, Chihiro’s portion was served on a smallish plate.

Chihiro was honestly delighted as she smelled the savory ketchup sauce.

「You sure are a blessed child, Chihiro-chan. To have a mother who is so good at cooking.」

「Yes! I love mama’s cooking!」

Seeing Chihiro showing a child-like radiant smile, even Yuu felt happy.

「Now, eat up.」

「「Thanks for the food!」」

The ingredients were sausage, onion, and green pepper.

It had a mild and yet distinct flavor of ketchup.

It reminded Yuu of the time before his rebirth, during the days when he was living alone, he once challenged himself to make some as he had some leftover boiled spaghetti noodles, but it ended up getting burnt and didn’t turn out well.

「Hmm! So good!」

「Say, it’s tasty, isn’t it?」

「You’re right. Oh, Chihiro-chan, you can eat green peppers?」

「When I was little, I couldn’t eat them because of how bitter they were, but as mama chopped them up and mixed them in my meal, and before I knew it, I became able to eat them!」

「Oh, that’s amazing.」

「Hehehe.」

Yuu and Chihiro looked at each other and laughed.

Good food made people smile.

Yuu looked at Akiko who was sitting next to Chihiro.

She was looking at Chihiro with a gentle smile.

「U, umm… Is something the matter?」

「Nothing. It’s just that, Akiko-san, in your daily life, you also show your emotions like every other people do, huh.」

「Huh?!」

「When you worked at our place, you was always expressionless, or rather, it was hard to tell what you were thinking, so….」

「Ah… that was, umm..…」

He even found her flustered figure novel and could not help but smile.

「Haa… I am no match for you, Yuu-sama.」

「Huh, what do you mean? Were you concerned about it?」

Akiko ended up casting her eyes down. Yuu wondered if he had gone and said something he should not have.

「Not at all. It is because it is now that I am going to tell you this, by nature, maybe I am someone whose feelings are on the passionate side. However, given that I was earning money as a housekeeper, I needed to restrain that part of me in order to earn the qualifications to be dispatched to households with men. As such,as much as I could, to keep my heart from being moved by anyone, especially the men, from the houses to which I was dispatched, I deliberately pretended to be indifferent and expressionless.」

「I see. Then, that means the real you has a passionate side in you, right, Akiko-san?」

「Yes.」

「You see, mama smiles when she’s in a good mood, like she did just now, but when she gets angry, she’s very scary.」

「Sheesh, Chihiro.…」

「Hahaha.」

Perhaps finding it fun to have a meal at the dining table in a group of three, which was something they didn’t normally do, Chihiro joined in on the conversation between Yuu and Akiko, and Yuu was happy as he got to know Akiko’s unexpected true nature.

Especially now that Chihiro was there, Akiko was sporting a motherly expression on her face.

The expression he saw just the other day when he asked her to take care of him was tantalizing, but he found the gentle expression, like the one she was showing right now, wonderful in its own way.

◇ ◇ ◇

After finishing their meal, they were relaxing watching TV.

A rerun of a variety show was playing, with the host – a woman based on the build – wearing an all-back and black sunglasses.

The assistants and guests, consisting of comedians, singers, and actresses, were all women.

Among the special guests that were called in only for a few minutes each everyday, it seemed that male talents would show up from time to time, and during those specific occasions, the snappiness of everyone in the venue was on another level.

The program looked just like the long-running program that finished airing before Yuu’s rebirth, and even Chihiro was cackling.

Done tidying up the tableware after eating, Yuu, having some tea served by Akiko, was sitting face-to-face with her. Yuu recounted the content of the discussion they had during his visit to Saijinsha in the morning.

He then apologized to Akiko, the person in question, as her contract had ended up getting terminated because of his family.

Perhaps stunned by what Yuu told her, Akiko was silent.

「Why.…」

「Huh?」

「Why would you go to such lengths for someone like me, Yuu-sama?」

「Err…」

Now that she asked him about it, even Yuu himself found it strange.

As he tried to dig up his memory, he found that even the Yuu before the rebirth didn’t harbor ill feelings toward their housekeepers.

He was grateful to them for taking care of all the household chores such as meals on his mother’s behalf, but that was not all.

When he entered puberty, the sense of distance between him and the housekeeper dispatched to a house with a man was just right compared to the too strong affection as well as excessive meddling by his mother and elder sister.

On top of that, the fact that they shared the secret of having them give him a hand to manage his ejaculation probably played a significant part in it.

「I think it’s partly because I have been in your care in a lot of ways, but especially because I have had my stomach seized by you. As a man.」

「Stomach?」

「Yes. I always looked forward to the meals you made, Akiko-san. Ever since I entered high school, you made me a delicious bento every day, after all.」

「Oh my.」

「That’s why I was serious when I said I hope you can continue working at our place even after July.」

Covering her mouth with her hand, Akiko seemed to be overcome with emotion.

「I am very happy to know that you thought so much of me. I am also… very grateful that I have been given the chance to work at Hirose-sama’s house, and especially to be able to meet you, Yuu-sama, that….」

「Is it true that you are going back to your hometown?」

「… Y, yes.」

After hesitating for a moment, Akiko slowly nodded her head.

「I heard it’s somewhere around Tohoku?」

「Yes. It is in Aomori.」

「A, Aomori…. That’s pretty far .」

Kanto was one thing, but Saitama to the northern tip of Honshu was not a distance he could traverse so casually.

It was just that, Yuu found it curious that even though she was someone from Aomori Prefecture, she had no accent at all.

That was because he had recollections that, Kansai people aside, when he met people from Tohoku or Kyushu at university or at work, even though the person in question tried to speak in standard Japanese, they could not get rid of their accents completely.

When he pointed this out, little by little, Akiko began to talk about her upbringing.

Akiko was born in a family that ran a guest house in a port town in Aomori Prefecture.

It seemed that she had been helping out at home with her grandmother, aunt, and mother since she was a child.

However, when she was in elementary school, there was a big earthquake that damaged the building, which seemed to force them to close the guest house, and she left her hometown with her mother.

Her mother got to work at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) or ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurant)  in the Kanto area, and Akiko herself went to school here.

After graduating from a junior college in Saitama with a degree in home economics, at first, she worked in a restaurant, but at the age of 25, before her tax burden was increased, she took the plunge and gave birth through artificial insemination.

After her daughter was born, she changed her job to a housekeeper, where she could take weekends off and had more flexible hours, and one thing after another led them to their current situation.

Her mother had returned to Aomori, where her aunt was, and started to live with her, but collapsed last year. It was said to be due to high blood pressure.

「It is my mother who trained me in housework. That is why I owe what I have now to my mother. I have to show some filial piety, no matter how little it is.」

Saying so, Akiko smiled.

「I see… That means your determination to go home is firm, huh.」

「Yes, but I do feel sorry for Chihiro. Even though she has finally made some friends at school, she has to part with them because of it.」

「If you say that, I also find it saddening to part with you, Akiko -san.」

「Yuu-sama…」

He took Akiko’s hand on the table and held it.

Akiko’s eyes became moist, but she quickly turned her face away.

Seeing this, Yuu moved around the table and sat down right next to her, so close that their bodies were glued to each other, and hugged her shoulder.

「Ahh.」

「I’ve truly been in your care, Akiko-san. I’m not just talking about the housework, but also the lower half of my body. Even if I tried to forget about it, I wouldn’t be able to.」

「If, if I can be of some use to you, Yuu-sama, no matter how little it is….」

As he held her other hand as well, the two looked at each other.

However, when he noticed that Chihiro was looking back and staring fixedly at them, Yuu coughed and moved his body away a little.

「Err, when are you leaving this place?」

「Yes… We are leaving next Saturday in the morning.」

「That means one more week, huh.」

Most likely, today was the only time they could take it easy.

On weekdays, Yuu had school and Akiko would probably be busy with preparations and formalities for the move.

He felt it would be too regrettable if they were to part just like that.

He wanted to thank her for all the favor she had given him and tell her how he felt about her.

In that case, there was something he could do as a man of this world, is there not?

The only problem was that Chihiro was there.

Would it be difficult to come over at night when Chihiro was asleep?

After confirming that Chihiro had started watching TV again, Yuu took Akiko into his arms and whispered in her ear.