While taking a break from looking after the girl, I walked into an alley, and in a corner, I found a dirty kitten. He reminded me of myself. Coming to a country as wealthy as this one had made me reflect on my past.
My first memory was of sleeping curled up in a mountain of trash. I didn’t know my parents. I had nothing to my name. The other poor children and I needed to steal just to live another day. My sleep was always restless, because I often would have to wake and run away at a moment’s notice. I was a bony, dirty kid who had never enjoyed a warm meal or a warm bed.
The kitten was pawing through the trash littering that alley, and I just couldn’t ignore him. I walked closer to him, keeping the sandwich I’d bought for lunch in my hand. When he noticed me, his hair stood up. Such fearful body language reminded me of my past even more. I took a piece of ham from the sandwich and tossed it toward the kitten. He looked at me warily, but slowly approached the ham. He took a bite, realized that it was food, and quickly ate all of it.
I kept throwing him pieces of ham to eat. Before I knew it, I’d given the kitten almost all of the meat in the sandwich, but I felt good about it. The kitten walked away—maybe he was satisfied. I looked at him and decided that I’d have to stop by this alley again.
★★★★★
“The dessert was delicious!” one of the girls said with a smile.
“Thank you,” I replied. “Tomorrow we plan on serving a different one, so if you’d like, please come check it out.”
The girls started chatting among themselves, saying things like, “Really?!” and “We must come again!” and “I hope my allowance will be enough.”
The Harbor Restaurant was full of customers for lunch. Regina had told me that normally, even fewer people came to eat lunch than came for dinner, but today was a different story. We served one of Maria’s desserts and even offered free samples to passersby outside the restaurant, and some girls who loved checking out all things new and trendy walked in. Those girls must have had one impressive information network, because very soon more and more young women started streaming in, saying that they had heard about the place from their friends.
The old couple that Regina employed usually didn’t come for lunch, since there were so few customers, and Sora was busy loading cargo into ships at the harbor. When the restaurant was close to being full, Regina had to leave the counter to help me wait tables.
“I’ve never seen these kinds of customers come here to eat…” she remarked, impressed.
The Harbor Restaurant usually had grumpy old men as its main clientele, but now it looked like a fashionable café for students. And since all the girls mostly just ordered desserts, it pretty much was one. Regina usually only opened the restaurant briefly for lunch, since there was no one eating anyway, but this time we kept it open all the way into the early afternoon.
“Thank you!” I called to the departing girl, our last customer before we finally closed.
I went outside to put up the “closed” sign as instructed by Regina. The Harbor Restaurant was on a busy thoroughfare, so one would expect it to always have tons of customers. It probably kept steadily losing them after people realized that they just served food from other restaurants. The fact that the town’s girls talking about our desserts was enough to fill the Harbor Restaurant so much was proof of this. At this pace, it was on its way to become a popular restaurant. I proudly put up the sign and went back inside.
When I returned, I found that Maria, the one who worked the hardest that day, had left the kitchen to join Regina in the dining room.
“You’ve done great, Maria! Thanks to the sweets you cooked, the restaurant was full of customers today,” I congratulated her, but she started shaking her head, looking concerned.
“Thank you,” she began, “but it was all thanks to you that we had so many customers.”
“Huh? Me? Why?”
“Because you promoted what I cooked to the people outside!”
“I did do that for a little bit at the start, but people only came in because the sweets were delicious!”
It was true that I went outside the restaurant to let people try them. If I didn’t, how could anyone know that they taste good? We were on a wide street with lots of people passing by, so I figured I’d stand next to the entrance with samples in hand, praising Maria’s creations. The first girls who came into the restaurant did so only because they’d liked those samples, so I couldn’t take any credit for that.
“But giving out samples was a wonderful idea. Had it not been for that, those girls would never have walked in at all. I truly believe that the credit goes to you,” Maria insisted, inflexible on this point.
Maybe for this world giving out free food samples was a wonderful innovation, but I just did what I was used to seeing in my previous life.
“But—”
“You two,” Regina chimed in, “this discussion is going nowhere, and you should take a break after working for so long. We’ll have to start preparing to open for dinner later on, so rest while you can.”
She then chased us out of the dining room.
“Where should we even rest? In our rooms?” I asked Maria as we looked at each other.
There wasn’t much to do in those empty little rooms other than nap.
“I still have not seen much of the town, so I would like to take a walk. Would you join me, Lady Katarina?”
“Of course!” I instantly replied.
We let Regina know that we’d be outside, and she told us, “This part of town is safe, in general, but be back before sunset. And don’t go near back alleys and other desolate places.”
Being born and raised in the capital, which didn’t really have any dangerous areas, I was surprised by her warning, but she explained that, for other towns, having a few shadier areas was perfectly normal. Even so, people from other countries were apparently still impressed by how safe Sorcié was.
“Understood.” We nodded with serious looks on our faces, and started our walk through town, making sure not to wander into anywhere risky.
Maria had mentioned that she hadn’t seen the town, but I hadn’t seen that much of it either—I’d just been out on an errand to get food for the Harbor Restaurant. I was very excited to explore further. Maybe because of it being a harbor town, there were a lot of people who didn’t look native to our country, and there were a lot of things for sale which you wouldn’t find back in the capital. Fruit I’d never seen before, plenty of fish, little stalls selling food… Everything looked new and interesting.
“Doesn’t this look tasty? Oh, I want to try that too! But I can’t pass up the other one either!” I commented enthusiastically, unable to decide what I wanted to eat.
“We will be here for a while, so you could well eat all of them one at a time,” Maria responded, giggling.
Indeed, we wouldn’t be going back to the capital straight away, so there was no reason to hurry.
“You’re right. Then, I’ll start with—”
Since I still couldn’t decide, I ended up buying a bunch of stuff which I would then split with Maria. We sat on a bench nearby and ate the things I’d bought from the stalls.
“Here’s your half, Maria.”
“Thank you.”
“Looks delicious!” I exclaimed moments before stuffing a pancake into my mouth. The fluffy, airy cake was full of juicy fruit, giving the perfect combination of sweetness and acidity. “It is delicious!” I announced ecstatically, putting a hand to my cheek.
“Indeed! I especially love the fruit.” Maria smiled in agreement.
“I’ve never seen this fruit before though.” I was curious about the colorful tropical-looking fruit that I’d never eaten back home.
“Me too. Maybe it is a specialty from this town.”
If Maria said so, it was probably true.
“I wish I could use it for desserts at the restaurant…” she mused while staring intently at the fruit.
“That sounds good! I saw a greengrocer earlier, so let’s go there and buy some more before we go back.”
“Yes!”
After we ate, it was time for window shopping. The clothes on display here were more colorful and flashy than those that we were used to.
“This is so cute. It’d look great on you. Try putting it on, Maria!”
“Th-Thank you. Oh, look here, Lady Katarina! This one is wonderful too! Would you not try it?”
We also visited a souvenir shop.
“Look, Maria, there’s a little statue in the shape of a weird animal. I wonder if it’s one of those they keep in the Ministry.”
“That does not seem to be the case—there is an explanation written under here. It appears that this is the deity which is said to guard these lands.”
“A deity, I see… Look! It’s star-shaped sand!”
“It is so pretty!”
“Oh, that’s right! Let’s go to the beach!” The sand had reminded me that Maria hadn’t seen the sea yet and the day before, she’d said that she wanted to.
“I would love to do so!” she cried, looking enthusiastic about the idea.
“Let’s go then!”
I asked the shopkeeper for directions, then took Maria by the hand and made for the beach. Just as I’d been told, going along the main street led us to the harbor, which was full of all kinds of people. The sea in front of us was clear and beautiful. Maria’s expression upon seeing it for the first time was just as stunned as mine was a day earlier.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?”
“Yes…” Maria showed her agreement by nodding vigorously.
“Even if it’s still Sorcié, this place is so different from the capital. Other countries are probably even more different…” I reflected while looking at the sea and the ships floating on it.
“Surely so. The world out there must be so big.”
I wondered if Cezar had safely reached his country. Cezar was a foreign prince I’d met through some unique circumstances at the recent International Assembly. I was reminiscing about that when Maria, all of a sudden, pulled on my arm.
“Hm?”
“I just felt like you were going to go someplace far away… Do you want to go abroad, Lady Katarina?” she asked me, probably because I had been staring at the sea for so long.
Before entering the Academy, I was considering the possibility of living outside of Sorcié, in case I was exiled, but not anymore. Besides, this time the game didn’t even have an exile end for me. A jail end—that it did have. My only concern right now was finding a way to escape from my cell.
I also wanted to see other countries, yes, but, “If I ever go abroad, I’d rather go with my friends. Going by myself doesn’t sound like fun. Maria,” I added, stretching my hand toward her, “do you want to come with me?”
“Yes! I will follow you anywhere,” she answered, blushing. If I were one of the game’s love interests, getting a reply as beautiful as that would be enough to make me fall in love with Maria.
I looked at the sky and noticed that the sun had slowly started going down.
“Let’s get going. Hehe, this was so fun. It was my first time shopping and eating out with a friend like this,” I remarked. As a noble lady, browsing food stalls with friends was usually out of the question. “Thank you for coming with me, Maria… Maria? What’s wrong?” Tears were welling up in her eyes. “A-Are you okay? Does it hurt somewhere? Do you want to sit down?” I fired off one question after another, unsure what to do.
“N-No, this is just… I am only…moved, you see… I am fine,” she said, trying to convince me that there was nothing wrong.
“You moved? To where?” I wondered. I was so nervous that I couldn’t even hear her properly. What?
She looked at me, who was still visibly confused, and showed me an embarrassed smile. “I just mean that I love you so dearly, Lady Katarina.”
She had kind of lost me there, but having a beautiful girl tell me that she loved me while blushing felt really good regardless.
“Th-thank you,” I replied, and I couldn’t help but blush too. I still didn’t understand why she was crying, but now she looked okay and was actually smiling. I reminded her that she shouldn’t call me “Lady” here and she blushed again.
On our way back, we stopped to buy some fruit to use to make desserts. At the restaurant, Regina and her usual lukewarm attitude greeted us.
When we told her that we went to the harbor, she asked us if we saw Sora. Now that I thought of it, Sora was supposed to be working there. I’d completely forgotten about it and hadn’t seen him, but Maria said that, right before going to the sea, she’d spotted him.
“Didn’t you say hello to him?”
“I did not manage to do so,” she said, and then we went to our rooms to start preparing to open for dinner.
That’s when I remembered that when we were going to the sea, I was dragging Maria by her hand and walking pretty fast. That was probably why she didn’t manage to greet Sora despite seeing him. Did I interfere with their romance again?
Ugh. I’d just made up my mind to be more independent and try not to interfere with those two and then, on the same day, I ended up keeping Maria to myself so much that she couldn’t even talk with Sora… That’s the very definition of interfering. I felt terrible about having made another mistake. I’ll have to be more careful from now on! I’ll make sure I don’t get between Maria and Sora anymore!
After reflecting on my wrongdoing, I left my room ready to prepare for dinnertime. Sora was back from his work at the harbor and he told us about what he’d learned there.
“The cargo is inspected carefully, but it’s still impossible to police every last nook of every single ship. I heard that that’s how contraband can sometimes slip through.”
So it was possible that the harbor was being used for human trafficking.
“But could that really be happening in a town like this one?” I pondered. Today, during my walk with Maria, I was impressed by how lively the area looked. It was nothing like the place where Keith had been kidnapped. There, everything was in decay and there were people laying down in the streets. But here? It doesn’t seem like a place to commit crimes.
“Our town is lively, I’ll give you that,” Regina answered, “but we’re close to a harbor where a lot of foreigners come to trade. It’s those people who tend to get involved in shady stuff. But the people who come to the area near this restaurant are mostly locals. That’s why it’s so safe.”
So that was why I saw so many people that looked like foreigners near the harbor. I also remembered when, at the Assembly, those entitled foreign nobles who didn’t know about Sorcié’s rules tried to take Maria.
“Sorcié may be safe, but not all countries are the same as this one.” I’d heard that from Cezar, Sora, and many others. The world across the sea suddenly didn’t sound as fascinating anymore.
After reporting on what he’d heard, Sora was ready to go to his room and prepare for opening the restaurant. Before that, though, he asked us if we’d been near the harbor.
“Yes,” Maria responded honestly, “Lady Katarina and I took a walk through the town during our break.”
“Oh, that sounds fun. Anyway, this area is relatively safe, but don’t go to any weird places,” Sora warned us.
“Phew… Sora wasn’t mad…” I mumbled to myself as he left.
“What?” Maria asked, surprised. She obviously didn’t understand what I meant. As an otome game protagonist, Maria could be kind of dull when it came to understanding men’s feelings. She hadn’t noticed that Sora liked her.
“I just thought that, you know, he’d get mad at us for not inviting him.” Actually, what I really thought was that he’d get mad at me for keeping Maria all to myself.
“I see. Maybe he wanted to come along too. We shall invite him next time, and go again! All three of us!”
“Th-Three?!” Why don’t the two of you go?! You wouldn’t be able to enjoy each other if I were there!
“Yes! It sounds lovely,” Maria replied with the cutest smile ever.
“It does, yeah…” I nodded along.
This was one protagonist to be reckoned with. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to be the one falling in love with her. She was too cute. In my heart, though, I knew that I had to refuse that prospect. If I didn’t, I’d end up interfering and become a villainess and… I kept struggling with my thoughts while preparing the restaurant, until it finally opened for the evening.
Just as Regina had expected, there were even more customers than on the previous day. She explained that there were so many people living there close to each other that rumors spread incredibly fast. And apparently, along with the rumors about Maria’s cuisine, rumors about me had been spreading as well.
“So you’re a relative of Regina’s? Do your best!” some customers would tell me.
One of the customers came with his daughter. They’d wanted to come for lunch to try Maria’s dessert but didn’t make it in time, so we gave the daughter one to take home after she was done with dinner.
Now that I’d gotten more used to the job, I had enough mental resources left to interact with customers more. Most people were probably familiar with one another to begin with, being from the same town, and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed throughout the restaurant. Some of the customers even remembered my name and promised that they’d come again. Both Regina and the old waitress praised me for getting so used to the job in a single day. I was happy about receiving compliments again. Maybe I made for a better waitress than a noble lady, I thought.
“Thank you!” I saw off the last group of customers. There were even more people than the day before, and at times, the restaurant was almost completely full.
“At this rate, we might even turn a profit…” Regina mumbled to herself.
After we were done cleaning and the old couple had gone home, Regina started reporting on what she’d managed to hear that day. “With all these customers coming in, I was able to hear a lot of interesting things! It’s all because of you guys! Thank you! Of course,” she continued, “I didn’t hear anyone talk specifically about the kidnapping or human trafficking. However, I heard that some foreigners at the harbor were doing something suspicious. That isn’t a rare occurrence, though, so I’ll have to look into it a bit more.”
She explained that foreigners behaving in a shady way around the harbor was common and that people would usually just report it to the harbor guards and call it a day. Most of the people caught were smugglers of illegal items.
“And this time we aren’t even talking about illegal things, but people. We can’t let that go unpunished. I’ll check on the source of that rumor and tell you what I find,” Regina concluded, and then we went back to our rooms to rest before the next day of work.
While we were walking back, Maria approached Sora. “Next time, we should all go around town together, the three of us,” she invited him.
“You’re right,” he answered, sounding happy at the prospect, though I suspected that he actually wanted to go out with Maria alone.
I looked at him as if to say Don’t worry, I’ll leave you two alone when the time comes, but my message probably didn’t get through, because he just looked at me weirdly and that was it. I really wanted to support the romance between Maria and Sora, but things just wouldn’t go my way.
I reached my room, and being just as tired as the previous day, I went straight to bed once again. I was starting to get used to this job, and the restaurant was getting a lot more customers. Now all we needed was a useful lead. If the baron’s kidnapped daughter was here, we had to save her as soon as possible. On top of that, I also had to worry about Maria and Sora and how not to interfere with their relationship.
I have a lot to do, a lot to think about. But I’m so tired I can’t even think straight… I’ll worry about stuff tomorrow.
I sank my face into the pillow, which was harder than I was used to, and before I knew it I was already snoring.
★★★★★
I, Maria Campbell, was once again assigned to a mission together with Lady Katarina Claes. She had saved me, both during our time at the Academy and also at the Ministry, on countless occasions. She was always saving me. I didn’t want to be a weight. I wanted to be the one saving her…
It was our second day since arriving at Ocean Harbor. Our lunch shift was over, and I left the kitchen for the dining area. Katarina was not there.
“Good job. The people loved your desserts,” Regina, coming out from behind the counter, told me.
“Thank you,” I answered, just before seeing Lady Katarina walk in through the restaurant’s entrance. She had been changing the sign to the “closed” one.
Lady Katarina also praised my cooking, going so far as to say that all those customers had come because of me. She smiled at me, but I shook my head. I believed that the credit belonged to her. I explained that, had it not been for her promoting my sweets outside the restaurant, nobody would have walked in. She humbly claimed that she had barely done anything, but I knew that that was not the case. After all, I had done nothing but cook.
I knew from my childhood that, no matter how delicious a dessert was, it was pointless as long as nobody ate it. Before, nobody would eat what I, a lonely child with Light Magic powers, cooked.
This had all changed because of Lady Katarina. I cooked, because that was what I was told to do, but I did not know how we could show potential customers our offerings. Lady Katarina, however, promptly asked Regina for permission and went out into the street, showing off the desserts to the people passing by, and even offering them free samples.
“Starting today, the Harbor Restaurant has desserts too! Come try them!” she would declare.
After the first few people, interested by this peculiar sight, actually walked inside, one customer started following another. I explained my reasoning to Lady Katarina, but she did not seem to agree.
Regina, however, interrupted us to say that it was time we rested, driving us away from the dining area.
As we turned to look at each other, Lady Katarina asked me what I thought we should do in our free time, and I nervously told her that I wanted to see the town, adding that it would be a great pleasure if she agreed to come with me. I thought that inviting her like that was rather impertinent of me, but thankfully, she smiled at me and agreed.
We told Regina about what we were planning to do, and she cautioned us about avoiding potentially dangerous places. Heeding her warning, we decided not to stray too far away from the restaurant.
The town was thriving with activity as the salty breeze from the sea blew through it. Many of the people around us looked like foreigners, and I felt as if I was briefly transported to another country. What’s more, there were lines of shops and stalls selling all kinds of goods which were not available in the capital.
Lady Katarina kept shifting her gaze enthusiastically from one place to the next, unable to decide what she should eat. She was endearing in her childishness, and I could not help but smile. I suggested that she simply try all the stalls that interested her, since we had enough time to do so, and she started thinking about where to start. Despite having stared at the various offerings with a serious face for quite a long time, she still seemed to be having trouble choosing.
“I would also like to try different treats, so why do we not buy several and split them between us?”
“Really?! Thank you, Maria!” she replied ecstatically.
Soon after, we sat on a bench and started eating together. She split one of the sweets she had bought in half, handing me my share. I really respected her for how nonchalantly she could do something like that despite her noble upbringing.
As soon as I’d thanked her, she was already stabbing a pancake with a fork. Moments later she had already eaten it and was rejoicing at how good it tasted. She looked delighted.
I ate it too, and found that the soft sponge was filled with plenty of delicious fruit.
Lady Katarina noticed that we had never seen fruit like that in the capital, and I thought that using a local specialty in the restaurant could make it even more popular. I mentioned the idea to her, and she quickly agreed with me, saying that we should buy some of that fruit before going back. I was more than happy to do so, mostly because I wanted to bake something that Lady Katarina would like.
After eating, we went to see the shops near the harbor. I had never shopped with a friend and I was very excited to be able to do so for the first time.
While we were looking at souvenirs, Lady Katarina suggested that we go to the sea. I had never actually seen the sea myself but really wanted to do so. I replied to that effect, and she grabbed my hand and started walking. The last time I had walked while someone held my hand was probably when I was but a toddler, and so it felt somewhat embarrassing, but in a pleasant way.
On our way to the harbor, I noticed Sora working, but I thought that if I stopped to say hello to him, Lady Katarina would let go of my hand. I did not want that to end. I pretended not to see him, deciding that I would later say, as an excuse, that I did not find the appropriate time to approach him.
Once we reached the harbor, we were greeted by a seemingly infinite expanse of blue. The water, as clear as the sky above it, reached all the way to the horizon.
This is…the sea. I expected it to be large, but…how could it be this magnificent? I was so moved by the view that I remained silent.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” Lady Katarina asked me.
I could only agree and nod. It was, indeed, very beautiful. I knew that I would never forget the sight in front of me.
“Even if it’s still Sorcié, this place is so different from the capital. Other countries are probably even more different…” she mused, looking at the ships on the water.
The world over the horizon… The countries over there were probably beyond what we could ever imagine.
I looked at Lady Katarina, her gaze pointed toward far away lands that she could not see, and I felt scared. I felt that she was going to leave me and go where I could not reach her ever again. I grabbed her arm.
She looked at me, surprised, and asked what I was doing.
“I just felt like you were going to go someplace far away… Do you want to go abroad, Lady Katarina?”
In my heart, the true question was slightly different. Do you want to go abroad and leave us all behind? But I resisted saying that.
“If I ever go abroad, I’d rather go with my friends. Going by myself doesn’t sound like fun,” she answered, and my fear suddenly vanished.
She then extended her hand toward me and asked whether I would accompany her. She would never leave me behind.
“Yes! I will follow you anywhere.” As long as she allowed me to, I would stay by her side. Always.
Back when I was shunned and lonely, I could never have imagined that one day, somebody would so naturally ask me to accompany them somewhere. The world was a warmer place than I had thought, and I could feel that warmth in my chest.
“Let’s get going. Hehe, this was so fun. It was my first time shopping and eating out with a friend like this,” Lady Katarina remarked, but the same was true for me as well. Honestly, I thought that such a day would never come.
“Thank you for coming with me, Maria… Maria? What’s wrong?” she asked me. As her voice made me come back to my senses, I realized that my face was wet. I had started crying without even noticing it.
Clearly concerned for me, she asked me if I was hurt. Imagining how worried she would be by seeing me start crying all of a sudden, I told her that I was just deeply moved. She did not understand me, but through no fault of her own—my sudden outburst would have confused anyone. Fighting the embarrassment, I simply told her how I felt.
“I just mean that I love you so dearly, Lady Katarina.”
“Th-thank you,” she answered with a smile.
Seeing that made me feel warm in my chest once more, and I had to exert all of my willpower not to start crying again. I did not want to bother her with my tears.