The highlight of the dinner for the Love Month banquet was a chicken dish, Kyle’s specialty. He spent the entire afternoon preparing chickens for it. Also, since the magic ship Brennan rented was so small, the size of the oven was also outrageously small, so Kyle had to roast the chickens five times in it.
“Are you done decorating?”
Kyle Villard, dressed in chef attire, looked quite convincing. He noticed me chopping vegetables and mushrooms for garnish and asked while strolling into the kitchen.
“Yeah, there was no problem. If Liz was dissatisfied with any of that, I’ll give them a 7% refund, no questions asked.”
“Why only 7%?”
“I also need to eat and live. What about the music?”
Instead of answering, he pointed to a corner of the kitchen where the magic doll band, which I had seen the day before, was neatly arranged.
“Oh my god! Where did you get that?”
“Didn’t you know I am a member of the Magic Doll Rights Promotion Association?”
“Are you serious?”
“No. I tweaked the circuit a bit.”
There was a hint of pride in his voice. I imagined Liz being delighted by the smooth performance of the band. Next, I pictured Professor Dwyer running around on a rampage in the absence of the doll band.
“Ah, my amazing childhood friend. I really like you.”
“What a coincidence, I do too. Are we going out now?”
Brennan Stokes came in as I snorted at Kyle’s unfunny joke. He was wearing his school uniform, having given all his formal clothes to the pawnshop. It was the first time I saw his shirt and pants looking so neat. Brennan would spill food at every meal as if he had a hole in his chin, but at the same time, he considered the act of wearing a serviette a sign of weakness.
“Brennan, have you skipped lunch?”
“No. No amount of firm conviction can overcome tender love.”
“So, you used serviette. Just say it plainly.”
I scratched the goosebumps that had sprung up on my forearms and threw a scolding. Brennan ignored me, just muttered something about how a merchant who could count gold coins should understand the sensibilities of a poet, and disappeared, scribbling in a notebook in his hand.
“I’m already tired of his antics. What should I do?”
“You have to endure it; is there any other choice? Still, even though he’s like that, they eventually got married for real. Among his career options, it seemed to suit him best, so it turned out well, I guess.”
Kyle looked as if he could see through every situation, displaying an inscrutable expression. I had a feeling that he had, at some point, skewered five chickens for Elizabeth McCarthy and Brennan Stokes before.
“This is my first time dealing with this kind of mess. Isn’t it the same for you?”
“I thought she’d be careful for a while, but she ended up exploiting the cheat again. When she spends gold in Finnigan Street, the prices in Southern Milua skyrocket, and when the prices in Southern Milua soar, the interest of Count McCathy increases like a snowball.”
“‘She’? Rosemary Blossom? What does ‘cheat’ mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough once I’ve finished making the chickens happy. They’ll be too cold without Villard’s special seasoning and cabbage.”
Kyle said, pointing to the well-roasted chickens. Kyle described it as a gentle spell that would be carefully wrapped around them, so their mood wouldn’t be affected.
I hobbled out the door. The magic ship was slowly approaching the academy. If I hadn’t convinced Professor Humphreys, we would have been torn to pieces by the Academy’s defenses by now. Only after receiving repeated assurances from me that I would bring Lulu, the cutest eleven-year-old cat on the continent, to the graduation banquet had she signed the docking permit.
Frankly, I thought Professor Humphreys would demand something more important than that, like a pact stating that I’d never dress up as her at Joke Month. However, the mischievous cat Lilu’s charisma was truly great.
The cold night wind sluggishly slapped my face. The magic ship slowed down as it approached the square.
Brennan stood on the aft deck, holding a bouquet in his nervous hand behind his back. I could only see his back, but I could feel the tension in his unrelaxed posture. To alleviate the anxiety caused by the ambiguous altitude, I tilted my head and looked down.
Brianna-Megaphone-Mosley seemed to have done her job well, as there was a considerable crowd roaring with excitement.
Norman Casey soon appeared, riding a griffon. He was with Elizabeth McCarthy, whose cheeks were red.
“Thanks, Casey.”
Stepping onto the deck with his help, Liz said.
“You don’t have to say thank you; just crack down on Kelly.”
“She’s driving me crazy,” Casey added sarcastically. However, as he said it, his face crumpled like someone who’d chewed on a raisin, thinking it was chocolate. He must not be really expecting anyone to do something about his ex.
In my opinion, not even Rosemary Blossom’s uncanny abilities could keep Kelly Ramirez’s wild spirit bound. So Liz didn’t answer and just smiled awkwardly.
“Brennan Stokes! When the hell did you prepare something so cute?”
Elizabeth spoke, her voice as loud as the excitement she felt in her lover’s arms. Then, as if her exclamation were a starting spell, Kyle appeared, carrying a steaming tray of food, and the magic doll band started playing a waltz behind him.
I ushered the three humans, four magic dolls, and two warm chickens to a table on the aft deck and quickly dove into the cockpit. I had to infuse mana into all the lights before the magic ship rose above the clouds.
***
While Liz and Brennan feasted on their table, Kyle and I gorged ourselves on the leftover chicken, taking turns going in and out of the kitchen to fill the lovers’ glasses with juice or squeeze lemon juice over salads.
During this time, a small fight broke out, apparently because the three chickens’ six legs had disappeared, but each claimed they had only eaten two. When I started grabbing Kyle by the hair and shaking him, and he started pinching me on the side, Liz declared a strict ban on us from approaching the aft deck, saying we were too rowdy.
“I swear by Salamander’s rainbow scales; if I’ve eaten four, I’ll become Kyle Dalton, not Kyle Villard anymore.”
“Why is Dalton suddenly mentioned there? Did Cornelia find out what you did to her dress? Is she planning to kill you if you come back to Villard?”
“Perhaps I just wanted to marry into your family.”
“I think you’re trying to piss me off and change the subject, but I’m not going to let it slide. You’re the one who ate four legs.”
Kyle whistled and walked toward the stern. I did the same. If sea slime was the highlight of the eve of the Love Month banquet, the highlight of the afterparty was a performance that fired highly concentrated mana into the air, creating patterns of light. It looked very good from the deck near the stern.
As soon as I heard the distant rupture, I was excited to get to the stern. So, I deliberately caused some commotion as well.
Looking at Kyle’s destination, it was clear that he had the same intention as mine. Sometimes I felt so connected to him that I would get the illusion that I was him and he was me. And it wasn’t just because of the long years we’d known each other.
“’Cheat’ is the name of the magic that only Rosemary Blossom can use.”
While staring blankly at the sky embroidered with colorful light patterns, Kyle spoke up. Then he tapped somewhere with his fingertips, as Blossom did. So that’s what ‘cheat’ is.
“Basically, all it can do is increase your money, abilities, and affection, but if the affection rises too rapidly in a short period, there will be a restriction on the rate of increase.”
“You’re speaking Miluan, right? Or is it the common language of the continent?”
Thanks to the disappearance of the ‘4th wall’, Kyle’s voice was not as muffled as before. There was no unnatural, unpleasant drowsiness creeping in as well, but even so, I couldn’t digest any of the words that escaped his lips. The question mark I’d raised must have reached his eyes because Kyle ruffled his hair in frustration.
“I don’t even know where to start. Why don’t you just tell me what you want to know, and I’ll answer it as best I can.”
“Okay. Why can Rosemary Blossom use ‘cheats’? What is her true identity?”
“Blossom is the main character of this world. So you can say that in this world, we ‘characters’ exist solely for her.”
I already knew that Blossom was the ‘main character’ after hearing it from Kaitlyn the Great. But calling ourselves “characters”? Is Fitzsimmons Academy really the setting of Blossom’s romance novel, and are the student council members her male protagonists? When I asked that question, he said it wasn’t the right answer, but it wasn’t the wrong approach either.
“Romance novel… Yes, that makes it easier to understand. Strictly speaking, it’s a ‘game,’ but that concept doesn’t exist here.”
“I’m incredibly curious about what a ‘game’ is, but I’m sure I won’t understand even if you explain it, so let’s move on. If we are characters in a novel, what is your role?”
“Well, in most games, or romance novels, there’s a character who wholeheartedly supports the main character’s love. In the case of The Ham’s Song, I’m Bacon, who helps Ham escape the slaughterhouse.”
It wasn’t an easy story to swallow, even if it was something I had vaguely guessed. It’s one thing to vaguely imagine that the world you live in was created for someone, and quite another to have it confirmed.
However, without believing, the incomprehensible phenomena I experienced could not be explained. Moreover, I sensed a clear sincerity in my childhood friend’s extremely serious attitude. So, after suppressing the feeling of wanting to vomit, I asked again.
“Blossom is ‘ham’, and you are ‘bacon’. I understand… So what do you know about ‘cheats’? Even the ‘4th wall’ seems useless to you.”
“Not just cheats, I know what the five members of the student council think of Rosemary Blossom. I also know when, where, and how to approach them to get close to them. To pass on such information, I can’t have constraints like the 4th Wall. The bottom line is, yes, I know everything about this game, and I remember it all.”
The fact that he remembered everything didn’t sound pleasant to me. Because while he remembered everything, everyone else forgot those things.
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