Chapter 59 - The Gathering Japanese (Rice)

Chapter 59: The Gathering Japanese (Rice)

Meldeia Kingdom.
Located in the southern part of the continent, it is the sister country to its neighbor, Galdeia Kingdom.
But actually, even the author sometimes mistakes the two and forgets which is which.
It’s fine. I normally correct it before 80% of my readers notice the mistake.
“Un. It’s my first time making miso yaki1, but it seems to have come out quite well. I have no rice, but I think I can still make great sandwiches with this.”
In such a Melteia Kingdom, one of the First Prince’s most trusted retainers, the Vice-Commander of a Knight Order, Onee, is flaunting his excessively high girl power.
The figure of him in an apron over a tank top with lots of skin exposure is truly exceptional. In many meanings.
“Grace, do you like your sandwiches grilled? Or if you like, I can grill some and leave some ungrilled……”
“Uh, I came just to deliver a letter, and didn’t really plan to stay for a meal though.”
The one who is looking kind of bewildered at suddenly being asked her preference for sandwiches is a similarly trusted retainer of the First Prince, Grace.
As the Vice-Commander of the top Knight Order in the kingdom, and also as one of the First Prince’s favorites, a rather sizeable mansion had been granted to Onee, along with sufficient servants to maintain and keep the place running. However, upon visiting this mansion, what Grace witnesses is the figure of the owner of the mansion standing in the kitchen and personally holding a frying pan.
Despite her tomboyish nature, the natural-born noble lady that Grace is finds this sight quite difficult to comprehend indeed.
“More like, why is Yuki in the kitchen? I mean, I already knew that you know how to cook. But wrestling away your servants’ jobs is a bit……”
“It’s fine. If I also reach towards the housework, then Emily would explode on me. Right now we have struck a good balance.”
“Un. I see. So, a rival. Having someone to compete against is important. Un.”
Onee’s smile accompanied with a thumbs up seems to have caused Grace to give up…something.
Her eyes are dead. At this rate, Grace’s SAN Points2 are in danger.
Incidentally, Emily is a cool beauty serving as the Head Maid at Onee’s mansion.
Today, too, upon having lunch duty stolen away by Onee, she shouted “Next time for suuurrreeeee!” and is now furiously attacking the hallway with a mop.
…… Her ‘cool beauty’ trait got destroyed the very next sentence after her introduction.
All the fault lies with Onee.
“So anyways, you mentioned a letter? The fact that you brought it over personally probably means that it’s from Prince Henry, right?”
“Pretty close guess, but not quite. The sender is Her Imperial Majesty Asahi. I couldn’t very well leave it in the custody of just anybody, so I thought I might as well just bring it over myself.”
“Oh my, from Asahi-chan? Could it be something quite urgent then?”
After accepting the letter from Grace, Onee cuts open the envelope.
Even while feeling nostalgic at the Japanese characters on the paper, he reads it aloud for the sake of Grace, who can’t read Japanese.
(Yuuki. The fact that you’re reading this letter means that I’ve been subdued (in a sexual way) by the Hentai King.)
“…… My oh my, Ou-sama sure is energetic.”
“This is bizarre from the very first line?!”
After reading aloud the first line, Onee smiles heartwarmingly while Grace tsukkomis.
It seems that Absolute Kingship is still being activated over in Galdeia Kingdom.
(I told you the other time about the Japanese chef in the Dwarven Kingdom. I have received news from that person that there is rice being grown in the Republic of Keros. My intention was to invite him to where I am and then guide him personally to Keros, but I have been caught by Richard (hentai) and am now unable to move.)
“Oh my. If you go overboard with the bondage play you’ll get hated, Ou-sama.”
“Before that, are you not going to comment on how a queen consort was going to personally be a guide if she wasn’t caught?”
Onee is worrying about the relationship between the married couple while Grace is tsukkomi-ing based on common sense. The point of focus of these two are despairingly far apart.
(So I have only you to turn to. Would you please, in my place, guide the chef—his name is Soga Juuzou-san—to the Republic of Keros?)
“Keros, huh…… it’s on the other side of Galdeia from where we are, so it’s going to take quite some time.”
“It would indeed. It might be a bit problematic if Yuki leaves the royal capital for such a long time.”
Unlike the queen consort who has a certain degree of freedom, Onee, as a member of a Knight Order, has the duty of protecting the royal capital.
Because of that, even though it is a request from a close friend, he is thinking about declining it when……
(And also, Juuzou-shi says he plans to make Japanese food every day for the duration of the trip.)
“Then there’s no other choice but to do it!”
“What happened all of a sudden?!”
Onee’s sudden shout in his natural voice causes Grace to jump with surprise.
What’s coarse is not a wig. It’s his voice.3
“Grace! I’ve got to go ask the prince for a bit of a vacation!”
“Ahh, a bit, is it. How great would it be if just ‘a bit’ would suffice. It probably won’t, though.”
Onee throws off his apron and dashes off towards the royal palace, still in his tank top. Grace knows that he won’t listen even if she cautions him, so she just watches in resignation at his receding figure.
Then when Onee suddenly barges into the prince’s room to request for a leave of absence, the prince thought “For the Yuki who is normally so modest and undemanding to become so frantic…… it must surely be a matter of enormous importance!” and readily gave his assent.
Today, too, this otherworld is at peace.
1Miso yaki is a general name for any kind of fish/meat that has miso slathered onto it before it is grilled.
2 ‘SAN Points’ are short for ‘Sanity Points,’ which is a stat from the tabletop role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. The original reference itself may be slightly obscure for the Japanese, but for some reason the concept of SAN Points itself has become quite pervasive and commonly used.
3 “Zura ja nai. Katsura da. (I’m not Zura, I’m Katsura.)” is a frequently used joke for the character Katsura in the anime Gintama. There are tons of variations used by Katsura following the “I’m not ___, I’m ___.” formula, which someone compiled together here (turn on the subtitles). So here, the author went with “Zura ja nai. Zara da.” where zarameans ‘rough/coarse.’