Campione 12

by Transient Holy Night

  In a certain sense, it could be said that it was a group where villains and heroes were mixed together like the Outlaws of the Water Margin[13].

  They were all important members from the Japanese division within the Lu household......one would think. Requesting them to give it their all was Godou’s first step for retaliation.

  Chapter 5 - Incident's Cause and True Culprit

  Part 1

  This situation had started during December——.

  During then were Kusanagi Godou’s last moments of peace. The entire world was in tranquility just after the battle against Lancelot, the War God of the Lance, had ended. On December 3rd, he was leisurely at ease when his sister Shizuka’s birthday came around. Although the day for the end of year exams were fast approaching, when compared to a battle between a deity and a devil king, it wasn’t really a big deal.

  Well, there has been a bit of turmoil.

  Their grandpa had left for Bhutan four days before Shizuka’s birthday.

  “Starting today, the responsibility of cooking will fall onto me for the time being. What’s something good I should fix up?”

  Godou mentioned this in the academy’s courtyard while eating and idly chatting away.

  The scenery of his surroundings were still the same as before with the three girls Erica Blandelli, Mariya Yuri, and Liliana Kranjcar by his side.

  “Speaking of which, Godou-san has made various kinds of dishes before. This has nothing to do with me.”

  Yuri carried a warm smile as she spoke. She probably remembered the time at Nikkou.

  However, in actuality Godou had a reason for being indecisive.

  “The problem is this. Occasionally cooking something is fine, but I feel like I don’t have the ambition to persevere through an official daily cooking routine.”

  “Please don’t talk about these matters using that expression you use during battle.”

  Liliana made a smooth and natural assertion, however her expression actually turned into embarrassment.

  But there was no other way. Kusanagi Godou felt that he possessed the characteristics of an honest and considerate person, however, he lacked the discipline of a husband who enjoyed doing household chores and the disposition of a manageable guy who was incapable of cooking.

  “During times like these, I would have probably used curry to conveniently solve this problem. If I were to use a large pan and fill it to the top, cooking something of that size would last three, four days. A simple yet convenient method.”

  “””........”””

  The reactions of the girls were all very subtle. Yuri cautiously went silent, but you could see she carried a slight bit of sorrow in her eyes as she thought about the meaning behind the question “Would this be ok?”. Liliana on the other hand shook her head in distress as she thought “So that means this person is really......”. Her face looked sullen as she sighed.

  As for the last person, Erica remained silent while she was eating her sandwich. Afterwards she said,

  “Hey Godou, if it was me and you came to my house and continued to prepare those crudely made dinners several days in a row, I would probably decide to revolt against the King after two days.”

  Erica spoke with complete indifference.

  “At least put in a little more effort. It’d be so boring if you did that.”

  “I don’t have the guts to make those hazardous dishes that you find interesting to put up a fight. As long as it can be prepared with simplicity, tastes good, and is nutritious, it would be good enough for me.”

  “Even so, that is extremely dull. Doesn’t life basically revolve around eating?”

  “Shizuka would probably also feel depressed as a result......”

  After Godou retorted Erica’s comments, Liliana spoke her own opinion. Yuri on the other hand casted her gaze downwards.

  What Godou felt at this moment was the separation due to the differences in culture between boys and girls.

  For the relatively easygoing, frequently exercising male, Kusanagi Godou, there was absolutely nothing wrong with this sort of dietary lifestyle consisting of “eating curry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days in a row”.

  But, could it be that girls were different?

  He finished his lunch while still bearing the indecision to his problem. Once his afternoon classes had concluded, his day of school was over.

  As soon as he returned home and put away his backpack, he would head out to purchase the ingredients for tonight’s dinner. What should I make......He stressed over this issue on his way back. Unexpectedly, he found Liliana waiting by the entrance to his house.

  The Kusanagi household was located on the Nezu Sanchome shopping district.

  Since it was an old bookstore back in the days, the entrance on the first floor was directly facing the street of the shopping district. In other words, the silver-haired European girl standing at this location received a lot of attention from the people passing by and the neighbors. However, Liliana remained calm and collected while disregarding their gazes and said to Godou:

  “I was waiting for you Kusanagi Godou.”

  “Why are you here, is something wrong? Would you like to come inside first?”

  “No, before going in we must first purchase tonight’s dinner ingredients.”

  Liliana spoke firmly. Godou felt puzzled and responded with “going shopping?”.

  “Since you, as our lord, said you didn’t have the attitude to cook every day, as your number one knight it is imperative that I assist you. Let me handle tonight’s dinner ok?”

  “Eh! ?”

  “Moreover, you don’t need to regard me as an outsider. Clearly all you needed to do was mention ‘please cook tonight’s dinner’. However, you need to figure it out for yourself one day.”

  Liliana’s complaint appeared to contain a slight hint of criticism in it. Godou hurriedly waved his hands,

  “T-There is no need, these problems only apply to my household.”

  “Did you forget? I, Liliana Kranjcar, am the sole person who would certainly undertake your personal tasks. Problems in the kitchen are of course within my realm of responsibilities. Is there anything you would like to eat tonight?”

  In the end, Godou was unable to decline and thus they headed off together along the shopping district.

  They went through butcher shops, vegetable and fruit markets, fresh fish stores, supermarkets etc.

  Just as Godou retrieved his wallet to pay the bill, Liliana resolutely stated “the household spending is also part of my responsibilities”.

  He had no choice but to just hand the wallet to her and let her decide how to spend the money (after all, there was no way to tell her to pay upfront and allow him to repay the expense later).

  Afterwards they returned home. Liliana put on her own commonly used apron around her uniform and started to cook.

  Godou was politely declined when he offered to help and was currently bored while idly standing by.

  The door opened and Shizuka came in bristling with anger

  “Onii-chan! Rumors about you were already being spread throughout the neighborhood! I heard that today it appeared that Liliana-san and Onii-chan were together and specifically went to the shopping district to engage in a shopping date. Furthermore, you even handed your wallet to her, it’s like you guys are an engaged couple or newlyweds!”

  Well, what ensued was an argument. However, it would probably be best not to elaborate the details on this matter.

  On the contrary, the problematic issues arose only when he got up the next day.

  Just as Godou finished freshening up at six-thirty in the morning, the doorbell rang.

  As soon as he opened the door, he saw Yuri wearing her uniform standing right in front of him.

  She was carrying a delicately made bento with an embarrassed look all over her face.

  “I’m very sorry for disturbing you this early. There is something I must discuss with Godou-san......”r />
  “I usually wake up very early so it is fine, however, what’s the problem?”

  Godou tensed up at this sudden morning visit.

  “Could it be that a god has appeared somewhere?”

  “No. It isn’t anything like that. Actually, Amakasu-san passed on some information. He said that last night Liliana-san went to Godou-san’s house to make dinner.”

  “H-How does that person know what happened here that night! ?”

  Amakasu is a descendant of the ninjas. His intelligence gathering could be described as his forte......

  Once Yuri heard Godou muttering to himself due to the unexpected information that was gathered from him, Yuri’s expression slightly stiffened.

  “Does that mean it was true?”

  “Ah, haha. That girl Liliana seemed to have said ‘this kind of task is also part of my job’, something like that.”

  “About that, despite Liliana-san being your number one knight, if you completely rely on her good intentions, wouldn’t that feel inappropriate? Especially this time when the housework was to be done by Godou-san.”

  “I guess you’re right......”

  Godou lowered his head upon hearing her sincere advice.

  “It’s different from everyone individually bringing food during the day. Yesterday I was spoiled by Liliana’s enthusiasm, however this is actually very bad.”

  Yuri offered her righteous opinion, but on the contrary, Godou actually rejoiced upon hearing her words.

  “Yes. Thank you Mariya. Speaking to me in this manner helps me out a lot. If I’m not capable of doing these type of things myself then that wouldn’t be right.”

  “Ah, no. It is me, I was the one who spoke out of line.”

  Godou expressed his gratitude while the gentle ojou-sama was panic-stricken.

  “I feel like Godou-san is generally a well-behaved person other than your indifference to your own conduct during important events.”

  Yuri shyly gazed downwards and handed over the contents in her hands.

  She handed over the furoshiki that was in her possession the entire time.

  “Here you go......if you don’t mind, please accept this.”

  “What is this?”

  “I made some onigiris. If you don’t mind, please eat them in place of your lunch.”

  “I must say, during times like these I feel like I shouldn’t completely rely on other people’s good intentions. Especially this time since it involves matters related to housework.”

  Godou repeated his counterpart’s argument from before causing Yuri to instantly raise her head.

  “T-That’s how it should be! What I meant by having a sense of propriety was referring to you having to behave appropriately in other aspects!”

  “Even so, that’s still......”

  “I want to help Godou-san since you still are not used to doing housework. The complications that would arise from this is what I’m concerned about. Those that are close to you would of course share these same feelings of concern. So, if you don’t mind then......”

  Yuri once again timidly handed over the bento.

  Godou felt slightly perplexed but he still accepted it with gratitude. He then said “come in and stay for a bit” to Yuri who was heading directly to school.

  Inside the bag were: salmon, plum, and bonito flake rice balls with three of each kind.

  They were neatly arranged inside the bento box. Godou immediately thought about making some miso sauce and Yuri offered to help.

  Halfway through, Godou's role was reduced to being Mariya's assistant as she showed off how to prepare the Mariya family's miso soup recipe

  “Onii-chan......yesterday it was Liliana-san and now today it’s Mariya-senpai, what’s going on? Both of them have come early in the morning!”

  It was obvious that this was the first thing Shizuka said when she entered the kitchen in the morning.

  By the way, Yuri and Liliana also accompanied each other shopping today once they got back from school.

  “This issue is entirely the Kusanagi household’s problem. Godou-san must work hard to maintain independency.”

  “The responsibility of assisting the King falls to his retainers. I would rather see him leisurely sit around and watch me complete his tasks.”

  As they were shopping, the direction of their argument took on the form of neverending parallel lines.

  During this time, Liliana’s gaze had the endurance of a composer who just found inspiration for a composition or like a poet immersed in writing poetry.

  “......No, wait a second. Actually in that aspect there are various......residences with newlywed lifestyles where the bride expends a lot of effort in the kitchen preparing dinner. The husband who isn’t accustomed to this field wishes to lend a hand. Their gazes accidentally intersect, the young and tender emotions that arises......it’s exactly like this!”

  She nodded with approval as she spoke. Following that, she cleared her throat and said “h-having it this way might not be so bad” and suddenly accepted Yuri’s viewpoint.

  As a result, when the three of them returned to the Kusanagi house, he started helping the two of them make dinner.

  On the way home, Shizuka once again became furious.

  After that, the evening of the next day came around.

  Erica, who had found this situation to be quite interesting when she heard about it, brought a meat pie personally made by Arianna that had been stored in the kitchen of the Blandelli household. Ena, who roams around like a wandering traveler, also suddenly showed up and brought him two pounds of both brown rice and miso.

  Even Yuri and Liliana appeared together at that time——.

  During this time, Shizuka placed a picture of her deceased paternal grandmother and spirit tablet on the living room table.

  “Onii-chan, come over here and kneel down for a bit. Please put your hand against your chest, then turn around and reflect over what you did recently. Carefully reflect on this for a bit and afterwards apologize to grandma’s departed soul. Ah, hey, I’m not done speaking yet!”

  Being forced to do this without realizing what his immoral conduct was, Godou evaded her to reach his room on the second floor in order to take refuge.

  The other four people followed him inside. Erica started to snicker, Yuri was completely embarrassed, Liliana still kept her usual earnest expression, and Ena showed no signs of concern——.

  “Geez, Shizuka has recently been very irritable.”

  “That means even Godou could figure out how to solve this kind of problem. That was quite a difficult task.”

  Erica commented on Godou who expressed his discontent.

  In short, because of these unexpected circumstances it was made possible for his usual friends to all gather together inside Godou’s room for the first time.

  Since it was an empty and dull room, even after fitting five people in there it unexpectedly didn’t feel very cramped.

  He took out what appeared to be either a seat cushion or sofa pillow for each person there and all of them appropriately sat down.

  “Well then, how capable is your Majesty at cooking?”

  “It is hard to say after only one or two days.”

  Seishuuin Ena’s question made Godou wryly smile.

  She had arrived in Tokyo not too long ago after recovering from the injuries to her body during the battle against Guinevere.

  Ena, who was also honing her cooking capabilities, smiled and said:

  “That’s perfect. Did Your Majesty go to Yuri and the others for cooking lessons today? Ena also wants to enter and study with Your Majesty.”

  For the time being I should probably focus on my cooking responsibilities. Godou had this kind of meager resolve.

  He didn’t want to push his responsibilities on the accommodating Yuri and Liliana since it completely matched the saying, give him an inch and he’ll want a mile. As a result, he asked them “can you please teach me the art of cooking”.

&nb
sp; Nevertheless, in reality there was the restriction of his cooking level being inadequate.

  While Godou was dilly dallying, the girls had already decided on some other business to deliberate.

  “Oh yeah, it’s almost Christmas. Can you teach me how to cook something involving turkey?”

  “Will there be an event scheduled for this time of year as social convention dictates? Are you celebrating the holidays together with Shizuka and your mom?”

  After Godou freely spoke, he was questioned by Liliana.

  “No, there isn’t anything special being planned. Well, it just feels like everyday around that time there would be numerous visitors in the house with Shizuka and I. Speaking of which, Nanami and the others previously mentioned that as a guy you have to stay up and party till dawn. Giving that a shot doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “All the way till morning? It sounds like a lot of fun.”

  “Mariya Yuri. If you say it like that, Kusanagi Godou might actually consider participating.”

  “Yeah. When you consider this gathering of his and the serious tone he had not too long ago, he is heavily guilty of contradicting himself.”

  Erica and Liliana’s tone hinted a bit of sorrow as they responded to the smiling Yuri.

  Afterwards, the silver-haired knight cleared her throat and slowly began to speak.

  “I have a suggestion. Even though it sounds a bit ambitious, how about holding a Christmas party and having me be in charge of the invitations?”

  “A party......It has been quite peaceful recently so it sounds like a pretty good idea.”

  Her suggestion came quite suddenly but Godou nevertheless heavily nodded in response.

  However, today was December 9th. It hasn’t even been half a month since the battle with Lancelot. Knowing how long this kind of tranquility will last was quite an enigmatic matter.

  “Well, I’m guessing it would be quite good to occasionally host a gathering for our group.”

  Erica winked as she stated her opinion.