The Beach House Experience

The next morning.

The sun was blazing as relentlessly as ever from early on.

Its merciless light made them sweat and dried their throats.

With the Kraken slain and the beach reopened, tourists were already gathering along the shore.

"Hey, I have a question."

"What is it, Finn-san?"

"Drop the -san… Anyway, why are we working as vendors? In swimsuits, no less."

Finn asked this while taking a fruit from Azu.

This particular fruit turned into juice when squeezed into an ice bowl.

"You seem older than me, so… As for why we're helping at the beach house —"

"Right. You all came here to have fun, didn't you?"

"That's right. That was the plan. But Master accepted their request."

Azu looked over at Yohane as she said this.

He was cheerfully frying noodles on a flat iron griddle.

The beach house specialty.

Several beachgoers had already lined up to order.

Beside him, Elza was grilling squid, octopus, and shellfish.

Hard to believe she'd drunk herself unconscious the night before, given how energetic she was.

Alexia was plating the finished dishes on wooden trays.

"Apparently the staff came down with food poisoning from the employee meals, so they asked us to help out on short notice."

"Ugh. Shouldn't have come so early to meet up. Whatever, I'll work enough to cover last night's dinner."

Finn said this, took a knife in her right hand, and began slicing fruit.

Her flowing movements drew several onlookers who stopped to watch.

"I'm not a sideshow, you know."

"Come on, smile! Smile!"

"Shut up."

Even as she complained, her hands never stopped cutting.

Azu followed the knife work with her eyes.

Before, it had been difficult even to react to it, but now she felt like she could defend against some of it. She thought about this while operating the magic tool to produce ice bowls.

"One tropical juice, please. Two of them."

"Right away."

Azu took the payment, then placed the fruit Finn had cut into a dedicated press and pushed down.

The juice poured out of the fruit in rivulets.

Normally, squeezing out all the juice required considerable force, but for Azu it was no great effort.

She poured the juice from the press into an ice bowl and mixed in sparkling water. Done.

The sparkling water was also produced by magic tool.

"Here you go."

"Thanks. That was fast!"

The customer said this and walked off.

The crowd drawn by Finn's knife work, now feeling thirsty, started placing orders with Azu one after another.

"This is not what I honed my skills for."

"Maybe you should open a fruit stand?"

"You want me to kick your butt again?!"

"Master saw me lose last time, so I've been waiting for a rematch."

Azu said this and crushed another fruit.

The juice filled the bowl along with a crushing sound.

"Tch. Not gonna happen. I don't do pointless things."

"You're cutting fruit right now, though?"

Finn wordlessly tossed several pieces of fruit into the air and, while they were still airborne, peeled and cut every last one.

The nearby customers broke into applause.

"Shut up and squeeze. We've still got plenty of customers."

"I know."

They handled the growing crowd of customers one after another.

Yohane had been keeping an eye on Azu and Finn while he cooked, but they seemed to be getting along better than he'd expected.

Bickering drifted over now and then, but at their age, that was probably healthy.

It looked safe to leave them to it.

He'd been caught off guard when the request came in that morning, but running a food stall was something he'd always wanted to try.

He felt a bit guilty about dragging the slaves into it, but relief staff were coming at noon, so he hoped they'd think of it as experience.

It certainly beat risking their lives.

Elza, it turned out, genuinely enjoyed this kind of work. She was grilling seafood with gusto.

Her heat control was more precise than her personality might suggest, and the perfectly cooked food sent mouth-watering aromas wafting through the area.

Those aromas drew in more customers.

As fast as she could cook, Alexia plated dishes on wooden trays and collected payment.

No one looking at her would have guessed she'd once been a noblewoman.

That said, her magnificent figure in a swimsuit and apron had male customers mesmerized, which was perhaps only natural.

A few tried to hit on her, but she was well-practiced at brushing them off, shooing them away without missing a beat.

"Could you hurry it up? At this rate we won't keep up."

"I know, I know."

Yohane answered Alexia's prodding while tossing more ingredients onto the griddle.

The burner was at maximum, and the griddle was packed edge to edge.

Any more was physically impossible.

"The squid came out great!"

Elza's grilled squid was handed off to customers in a steady stream.

Between the rising temperature and the nearby flames, she was drenched in sweat.

She was also cooking in her swimsuit — doubling as an attraction.

The result: male customers drawn by Alexia's and Elza's looks lined up in droves.

The line of customers didn't stop until the replacement staff arrived.

Finally, the hectic beach house work was over. They ate the food they'd made as staff meals while the five of them cooled off.

"Ahh, so good."

Finn finally spoke after taking a sip of her drink.

She seemed tired, as expected.

Of course, since she'd been working the whole time.

"Good work, everyone."

"Good work."

At Yohane's words of appreciation, everyone except Azu responded halfheartedly by just raising their hands.

"The afternoon's all yours. We got a bunch of proper ingredients for helping out, so let's grill them up for dinner tonight."

"That sounds delicious! Grilling all that food without being able to eat it was torture."

"Elza really isn't suited for food stalls…"

"But it looked so delicious!"

"You're doing the prep too, right? I'm beat."

It seemed the promise of a barbecue had restored a bit of everyone's energy.

"Alright, alright. I'll handle the prep, so the rest of you go have fun."

"Um, I'll help."

Azu walked over and said this, so Yohane patted her on the head.

"Then let's do it together."

"Yes! Of course!"

A bright, cheerful reply.

The others watched.

"Honestly, she's really attached to him, isn't she?"

"Well, he's got his charm, I suppose."

"I won't argue with that."