Three Women Make a Racket

When he came running into the kitchen, the cooks looked at him like something was wrong.

He asked a chef to prepare drinks and some quick light food for the group.

Once it was ready, he loaded everything onto a kitchen cart and headed back.

With six people's worth, it was quite a lot.

The cart's three-tier trays were completely filled.

He wheeled it to the practice room and opened the door.

Inside, everyone had gathered in the middle and seemed to have been chatting while they waited.

"Oh, there you are. We've been waiting forever."

"I hurried as fast as I could. Give me a break."

Finn immediately grabbed a drink.

"Master, I'll help carry these."

"Sir, let me help too."

With Azu and Orleans assisting, he distributed the drinks and plates.

The drinks were the same apple vinegar diluted with hot water they had at home.

Though the taste was slightly different from what they made at their house.

On the plates were bruschetta.

Slices of bread topped with various ingredients.

A thoughtful touch, easy to eat without getting your hands dirty.

He listened from the side for a while as everyone ate and talked about the performance.

He couldn't follow the details, but their seriousness came through clearly.

Whenever things got too intense, Elza would crack a joke or Chancellor Anatia would lighten the mood, keeping the atmosphere pleasant.

As expected of people accustomed to managing others.

He'd done similar things himself, but never as naturally as this.

"Here, say ahh."

Lost in thought, a voice suddenly came from beside him. He turned to find Elza pushing a bruschetta into his mouth.

The saltiness of the cheese and bacon spread through his mouth.

"It's good."

"Right? I thought Master might feel lonely being left out."

"Oh, let me do it too!"

Seeing that, Azu imitated her.

She stared at him intently.

This wasn't going to end until he ate it…

He savored the bread along with a generous helping of egg salad.

"How is it? Is it good?"

"Yeah, it's good. Don't worry about me, go ahead and eat."

… Chancellor Anatia glanced between Azu and him, then seemed to be thinking about something.

He had a pretty good idea what.

"Yohane-san. This is my favorite. Please try it."

"Then I'll gladly have some."

He couldn't exactly refuse, so he let Chancellor Anatia feed him too.

The topping was lamb in a tomato stew.

The meat was so well-braised it fell apart immediately.

"It was delicious."

"Hehe, I'm glad."

He felt like he was being hand-fed like a pet.

Having even Chancellor Anatia do it made him a little embarrassed.

"Don't go getting all goofy just because pretty girls are feeding you. It's pathetic."

"I'm not getting goofy. Don't say things like that."

"Pretty girls, she says…"

They say three women make a racket, and true to form, they never seemed to run out of things to talk about.

Before he knew it, the topic had shifted to beauty products.

He listened while clearing the dishes.

It was related to business, so he was curious.

"Actually, ever since I came to the Royal Capital from Alsarm, I couldn't find anything that agreed with my skin, and it was bothering me. But after trying the soap and toner from Yohane-san's shop, my skin's been doing wonderfully."

"I know exactly what you mean. We use them too, and the difference in firmness is obvious."

"Right? I thought it was remarkable how beautiful all of you are, even though you're adventurers. Some women don't pay any attention to that sort of thing."

"That's because Master takes care of all sorts of things for us."

Listening in was a bit embarrassing.

Dressing up Azu and the others had become something of a hobby.

If he was going to have them walking alongside him, he'd rather they look beautiful and cute. It put him in a good mood, and it might even serve as advertising for the shop.

Also, it simply felt good.

So Azu and the others' fashion was a necessary expense.

"Well then, keep up the good work. I'll push things forward on my end."

"Yohane-san, thank you. Being able to focus on practice like this is the first time since I was a child. I'll definitely give you a wonderful performance to listen to, so please look forward to it."

"I will. I'm looking forward to it."

He nodded at Chancellor Anatia's words.

"Don't cause any trouble for Anatia-sama. Come home before dark. Not that anyone could take you down even if they tried, but you'll be carrying instruments, so just to be safe."

"Yes!"

Hearing Azu's energetic reply, he went to return the kitchen cart.

From that point on, Azu and the others devoted themselves to practice while Yohane pushed forward with meetings and arrangements for the event.

He didn't forget to support Queen Tianis either, whose workload had piled up with Chancellor Anatia being away.

… It was a good thing they'd set the date early.

If she had to keep doing the chancellor's work for much longer, Queen Tianis might have worked herself to death.

Even though the nobles had recently become more cooperative, reducing the burden, it was still not an amount of work meant for one person.

He'd been delegating tasks to Princess Yupe as well, but whenever she started on something, helpers would flock to her side, and the work would be done in no time.

Paperwork holed up in the office seemed to take the most time.

… He wouldn't call it unfair. That was a talent too.

Since this event was meant as a morale boost for the people of the Royal Capital, no invitations were sent to foreign nations.

They were short on soldiers, and there were security concerns, so it was set aside.

The audience would be people from the Royal Capital and neighboring cities who caught wind of it.

Participating food stalls were chosen by lottery, with priority given to those that could handle large volumes of orders.

In exchange, stalls that weren't selected would get priority placement in the next hall event, balancing things out.

Some stalls even teamed up together to improve their chances of participating.

From a merchant's perspective, this was going to be exciting even without the concert.

It was practically on the scale of a festival.

Court mages had agreed to help with magic to carry the music far and wide.

Before he knew it, this had become a national affair…

As Princess Yupe had said, it might truly go down in history.

His shop had gotten in on the procurement side too, so profits were looking solid.

A major event, then. Maybe it was worth adding one more flourish.

With that thought, he decided to send a letter to a certain someone.