I’m Back in the Other World? Chapter 85

Chapter 85

Chapter 85 – Invitation1

 

Zaaaaaa …

Blown by the wind, the petals flew up.

Just like their name, the falling sakura2 changed the color of the skies to a vivid cherry.

 

「In a day that you’re free3, would you like to come to take a look at the garden?」, the prince said.4

It was near the end of March, and it was the usual dinner time of a certain day of spring.

The prince, who had been behaving suspiciously since he came to the house, suddenly said such a thing in the middle of the meal.

「…… Ha?」

Because it was sudden, I didn’t quite understand what was said. I mean, I missed half of the words.

「…… Excuse me, could you say that again?」

I took a sip of milk and fixed my posture to hear what he had to say.

「On a day that is convenient5 to Sakura6, would you like to come take a look at the castle’s garden, I said.」

Fumu…. Speaking of the castle’s garden, not only domestic, but also rare flowers and plants are cultivated in it. Although it is a garden, its scale should be similar to that of a shokubutsuen7​, and a large greenhouse probably exists in it as well.

…… Maa, that’s fine, but the question is, why are you inviting me now?

Generally speaking, men inviting women to a place like a shokubutsuen are the so-called date invitations, usually done by cheap guys. But that doesn’t seem to be the aim of this. The prince does not see me as a capture target8, and even if I look at it like that, the prince is a Hetare9, I think he would invite a woman instead.10

The next possibility is that he got some rare plants and wants to boast? Uun, considering the personality of the prince, I don’t think that’s the case.

So another possibility…… Did he just invited me without a reason? …… Obviously that’s not the case.

Then… Did the Queen or Princess Aria ask him to me to bring me? Un, this possibility is the most likely one.

「Is it okay? When should I go?」

It is a good idea to see the Queen and Princess Aria after a long time, and it’s not bad

to admire the flowers every now and then. Besides, if I do not comply11, the prince will be the one to receive the blame.

Since it’s an important occasion, should I prepare his obentou12? If I make some extra, it can serve as a side dish for dinner, even if they’re royalty, they eat the leftovers if it’s delicious, right?

「Ho, really? I’m always…… No, tomorrow is no good…. From the day after tomorrow onwards, it will always be okay. I want you to decide on day that is convenient for you as well Sakura.13」

After the day after tomorrow14? In that case…

「Well then, it’s better if it’s earlier, so how about the day after tomorrow? Ah, and what about the time? Is it better if I come in the afternoon? Or should I come in the morning?」

Tomorrow, I’ll buy the ingredients to make the obentou and prepare it before going to bed, so I’ll be ready in the morning.

「Okay, it’s the day after tomorrow then. As for the time…… How about coming around 5 o’clock? It’s okay if you come to the castle at that time.」

「Understood, around 5 o’clock? Ah, I will make an obentou, so could you receive it?」

「Mu? Bentou…?15 Aah, it’s a carriable lunch. Got it.」

The prince got back to eating dinner with a clearly relieved expression as the suspicious att.i.tude of a little while ago was gone.

…… I do not know if it’s the queen’s or princess Aria’s fault, but the prince seemed under a lot of pressure…

Somehow the prince seemed quite pitiful, so I thought of at least putting a bit more meat into the obentou. I don’t know how the prince would be able to put all the extra food within him though…16

 

On the next day I finished my commissions early to make time to buy the obentou’s ingredients.

Ah, to be able to do commissions, it certainly makes money, doesn’t it? For the sake of living life leisurely when I’m old, I should work as hard as I can while I’m still young. … Maa, I wonder if I’ll actually get to old age, since I got that curse disguised as a blessing ….

For now even if I’m B-rank, I have earned quite an amount by defeating the dragon and the thunderbird the other day, though I usually tend to pick requests that are more like ch.o.r.es, such as harvesting plants.

Though it may look like I’m stealing the job of other adventurers by doing those requests at a high rank, people tend to not get those usually, as they could get more money on the same time by doing other things, so at least in the royal capital, there is actually a lack of people doing harvesting. I prefer to get those quests because I have knowledge from my previous life, so I can finish the requests in only a single day, which would be unthinkable for other adventurers. So, the guild is actually quite grateful that I keep taking those unpopular requests.

Thanks to always getting those requests quite early, I was able to save quite a bit of money over time, specially with those occasional high reward requests that I got.

Also, I recently teamed up with a dodgy magic shop to develop a variety of magic tools. It is the shop that made the magic tool freezer and the Magic tool stove.

Although it has not yet on their final versions, the magical kotatsu, fan and stove are also under construction. The production started just because I wanted them, but that shop’s owner also showed quite the interest in them. Once they’re completed, I’ll get 20% of the sales’ profit. The magical stoves sold out as soon as the finish of the first month of their production. Although the kotatsu was not finished on winter, the shop’s owner is working hard to finish the fan before summer.

That ended up as quite the mouthful. Maa, that’s how I’m saving money for when I’m old.

 

Guess I’ll finish shopping and go home, then prepare dinner and start making the obentou as well.

For the menu of the obentou, I guess I’ll go with a standard sandwhich, cheese, eggs, ham, fried chicken and pork to make the hamburger maybe putting something between the cutlet? Perhaps combining vegetables, and fruit with the hamburger, to make a salad as well, is good enough? Fishes are also good for sandwiches, it’s a shame that there are none. Differently from j.a.pan, there is no canned tuna or salmon.17

For now, let’s make the bread first.

While I make the first preparations, I lay down the roasted chicken to make the hamburger later.

I guess I should make some of it still today?

Since I only have an appointment at 10 o’clock, should I leave the house around 9:30? It is nice to have time in the morning.

While I was making the preparations for tomorrow, Eru occasionally bit me playfully.

 

On the morning of the appointed day, I got up, ate breakfast, prepared lunch, and got ready to leave.

I made the preparations yesterday, so I just cut the baked bread in the morning and put the ingredients in it, then stuffed the finished sandwiches in a basket together with the salad, it isn’t very luxurious, but it has a lot of well prepared things.

I looked at the colorful basket and considered the nutrition and hue of it and nodded in satisfaction.

「Well, the obentou is complete. Time …… It’s a bit before the bell of 4 o’clock rings, so it’s good …. Shall I prepare tea too?」

The tea itself will be prepared by a maid, but I think it’s good to have a pre-made tea in case our throats get thirsty.

I prepared my favorite tea leaves, I brewed tea and moved it to a thermos bottle. It’s pretty useful in both winter and summer, as you can drink cold things outside while on summer and warm drinks on winter. Surprisingly this tool doesn’t circulate on the market. Should I tell the magic shop about it? I hope an efficient heat retaining container can be made right away.

Well, I’m now lost in the time to change clothes.18 If I go with a poor choice of clothes, I’ll be forced to change by the queen and princess Aria, so I should better go with good ones instead.

…… That humiliation is a black history….

I should be careful to choose proper clothes up to the underwear. Last time when I went out with my usual clothes I was stripped naked, which made me feel quite troubled ….

I guess I’ll take out the underwear they gave me at that time.

「…… Haa … Isn’t that disgusting…?」

I instinctively sighed. The underwear has a light pale blue in color. It is obviously luxurious by the feel it gives to the touch, and the material is silk at that.

It is easy to see that it’s a high cla.s.s object, because the material, and dyeing as well, is quite expensive, to dye something you can’t usually see, is something that would only be done by the upper cla.s.s.

Maa, that alone doesn’t hurt much. The feel is actually quite good, it’s pretty comfortable and also cute.

But…. Why is see-through!? Some parts of it are not properly covered, why would someone do something like that? Some of those places should definitely not be exposed!!

At that time I had no idea, but this is what is usually called “battle panties”.

But I did not know it at that time, so I kept on holding the underwear on my hand for over five minutes.

In the end, even I do not wear it, I can always end up being forced to, so I decided to just wear it anyway….

Today’s dress is a one piece, I also wore a recently purchased knee socks.19

Lastly, the change of clothes is complete by picking a light pink one-piece dress and a blue cardigan.

Putting on a high laced sandal on my feet and putting the obentou in a backpack, I was ready to go.

…… Took quite a while didn’t it? To put this much thought into it, is it not as if this was a date? Even when I was in j.a.pan, I never dressed up with this kind of look, did I?

Uun… It was scary to go out dressed poorly due to the Queen and Princess Aria…. I don’t  have time to change clothes anymore though.

Maa, I’m not going on a date with the prince anyway, so I shouldn’t worry about it.

「Eru, I’m going out, alright? It’s getting warmer, so why don’t you go out for a bit too?」

「Ny~」

It couldn’t really be helped during winter, but I think it’s good to exercise a bit no that’s warmer. Even if it wasn’t, I’m feeling the lack of exercise recently…

「Also, I’m putting the food at the usual place… You already know that, right??」

「Nya~」

I prepare Eru’s food in the morning and on the night. Aside from those, in the case Eru doesn’t go out, like cold, rainy or snowy days, etc. during the day I am end up preparing some meals. Because cats seems to eat several times a day, I need to prepare something in case Eru isn’t leaving while I’m not home either.

Of course, even if I do think I’m not going out, there are times I just can’t come back. Though it’s not good to simply use leftovers, as the summer heat might make them hard to eat. So, I use a preservation magic tool on Eru’s dish. Even on hot days, I don’t need to worry about the food rotting because of it. It might look like I’m spending too much money on feeding a cat, but that’s not true, a preservation magic tool lasts for a few months, while the food should usually last only a few days. Besides, this is something I designed, so it’s free for me anyway.20

Maa, Eru is clever though, so I don’t think I need to enter the details with him.

Seems like it’s about time, so I patted Eru a bit and left the house.