The night of the banquet had ended, and one night had passed. The moment Count Dolt's white wig had slipped, the King's quiet "I concur," the air in the kitchen when Carl had said "it's authentic"—all of it was already a distant yesterday. The Tsukikage-tei was greeting another ordinary morning. Elena Violet stood in front of the shop an hour before opening preparations. The cold autumn morning air rustled her chestnut-brown short hair with its inward curl. Her deep green eyes suddenly looked upward. ...Huh? The sign for Tsukikage-tei was perfectly straight. The wooden sign for "Tsukikage-tei" that had been tilted to the left all this time—moon and steam logo and all—had been completely corrected to horizontal. Moreover, the letters had been repainted more vividly than before. The scent of fresh paint faintly permeated the morning air. "...Elena, the sign," Lilia said, standing beside her in a bright voice. The commoner girl's talent for customer service had been further refined through that one night of protecting Tsukikage-tei alone, and recently her smile timing had become exquisite. Even in that single word "sign," there was her characteristic buoyant quality of having noticed something. "I see it," Elena said. Elena opened her ledger. Her pen moved across the page. "Sign repair—cost unknown—payment pending." The ink settled onto the paper. Then three sets of footsteps echoed down the alley. Alphonse Fleuresia turned the corner first. His gleaming golden hair shone in the morning light, and his clear blue eyes noticed Elena. The moment they did, his usual gentle smile spread across his face. When he smiled, small dimples appeared at the corners of his eyes—a face that radiated an oddly likable brilliance today as well. Sebastian Grayford followed behind him. His silver straight hair was tied back, and he walked with morning sweat glistening subtly on his knight's uniform, his shallow right cheek scar openly displayed. His gaze was direct, with no hint of concealment. Which made it suspicious. Leon Ashberry appeared last. Black hair with a single red streak. The golden eyes behind his glasses moved from a stack of parchment to the sign for just a moment—then returned to the parchment as if nothing had happened. Elena looked at the three of them. "Who fixed it?" Elena asked quietly. Leon began unrolling parchment. "Regarding improvements to the kitchen magic circle, I organized four points of proposals last night, and the first point is—" Leon Ashberry said. Sebastian turned toward the empty air and began whistling, completely off-key. Pirorororo—it wasn't any recognizable tune. Alphonse pointed at the sky. "Oh, there's a bird," Alphonse Fleuresia said. They were outdoors. There was no ceiling. There was nothing odd about a bird being there. Elena looked at the three of them in turn. "All three of you," Elena said. Silence fell. Sebastian's whistle stopped. Leon's parchment trembled slightly. Alphonse froze with his finger still pointing at the bird. "There's no evidence!!" Sebastian Grayford declared, throwing caution to the wind. His silver eyes clearly announced his "willingness to fight." "In collaborative work involving multiple people, it is methodologically difficult to determine individual contribution rates," Leon Ashberry said, arming himself with logic. The golden eyes behind his glasses didn't waver. With a face where emotions were unreadable, only the attitude of "I'm saying something correct" was fully displayed. Alphonse continued. "Besides—that bird has quite a beautiful color, don't you think?" Alphonse Fleuresia said. "Are you going to keep pushing the bird story to the end?" Elena asked. Elena closed her ledger. She found no words of apology from any of the three. Only Sebastian's neck was slightly flushed, Leon's hand holding the parchment was angled subtly outward, and Alphonse's ears were just a little—just a tiny bit—red. Lilia stepped forward. She slowly bowed to the three of them. "Thank you," Lilia said. Just that one phrase. The three of them averted their gazes. Sebastian suddenly became interested in the stone arrangement of the wall, Leon began meticulously examining his parchment, and Alphonse continued looking in the direction of the bird. Elena opened the door. "Next time, please report it in advance. In a form that accounting can process," Elena said. With that, she went inside. Opening preparations began. While Elena worked on prep in the kitchen, Lilia wiped the tables, adjusted the chairs' angles, and placed a single wildflower in a small bottle on the counter. It was a field flower with a slightly bent stem, but the bloom itself was still firm. Where she'd picked it from was unclear. Thirty minutes before opening, Elena came out of the kitchen. "Lilia," Elena said. "Yes," Lilia replied. "Starting next week, I'm hiring you formally. Your customer service quality has exceeded the standard," Elena said. Lilia stopped. The cloth she was using to wipe the counter froze mid-air. "...Can I be happy about this? Or is this a ledger matter?" Lilia asked. "Both," Elena said. "I don't know how to react," Lilia said. Elena opened her ledger. "Let me confirm your salary. Monthly pay is—" Elena began. "Pay me in pudding!!" Lilia said with full-force enthusiasm. There was no hesitation. It was the speed of someone who'd been thinking about this for a while. Elena's pen stopped. "Please take cash. Accounting will collapse," Elena said. "Couldn't we do a pudding conversion? Like, so many puddings per month?" Lilia suggested. "Pudding is not currency," Elena said. Then the three of them came inside. They were already here before opening, as usual. Alphonse's eyes lit up when he heard. "A future where pudding becomes currency—I think that's possible," Alphonse Fleuresia said. "It's not," Elena said. "But if we convert to silver coins—" Alphonse Fleuresia began. "If I paid your entire monthly salary in pudding, how many do you think that would be?" Elena asked. Leon began calculating. "Converting one gold coin monthly salary to silver coins gives twenty coins. Since one pudding equals two silver coins, that's ten puddings. Regarding taxation, in the case of payment in kind, the interpretation depends on Article Seven of the Fleuresia Kingdom's Commercial Tax Law—" Leon Ashberry said. "Why are you being so precise?" Elena asked. "I researched it," Leon Ashberry said. "When did you research this?" Elena asked. "Last night," Leon Ashberry said. "Why," Elena asked. Leon paused slightly. "...I predicted this would happen," Leon Ashberry said. Sebastian's face became emotional. His sharp silver eyes were somehow glistening. "Lilia's being formally hired...! I, somehow... ugh," Sebastian Grayford said. "Please don't cry before opening," Elena said. "I'm not crying!! The morning air just got in my eyes!!" Sebastian Grayford said. "We're inside a building with no ventilation," Elena said. When the confusion reached its peak, Elena wrote numbers in her ledger. "Your monthly salary is one gold coin. During work hours, you can eat one pudding free of charge," Elena said. Lilia froze. One gold coin—the standard monthly income for a commoner in the Fleuresia Kingdom. Considering the number of days she'd been involved under the guise of a trial period, it was more than sufficient evaluation. Elena explained nothing about the weight of that amount in words. She simply wrote it in the ledger and showed it as a number. "...Thank you so much!!" Lilia cried out. Her voice echoed through the small Tsukikage-tei. Sebastian made an "ugh" sound. This time he was genuinely on the verge of sympathetic tears. Leon started writing something on his parchment, then stopped. "I judge that recording emotional reactions would be inappropriate at this moment," Leon Ashberry said. "That's a correct judgment," Elena said. Elena headed toward the kitchen. Alphonse was standing in her path. In the instant she passed him, he said something in a small voice. "Congratulations, Tsukikage-tei," Alphonse Fleuresia said. Elena's footsteps stopped for just one step. She didn't turn around. Facing forward, she answered. "New pudding this afternoon," Elena said. Then she went into the kitchen. Elena herself didn't quite understand why her footsteps had stopped. Being told "congratulations" in the form of "to Tsukikage-tei"—she couldn't find a shelf to file that feeling away in. So she just faced the pot. Beyond the counter, Lilia made a small "ah" sound. Alphonse clearly shook his head at her. Lilia closed her mouth. But her smile didn't fade. The shop opened. The usual three took their usual positions, and Tsukikage-tei regained its usual order. The moment Sebastian sat down, he said, "Make spice level 12!!" Sebastian Grayford said. "The person who was crying while ordering additional servings at level 10 is saying what now?" Elena asked. "Those were tears of emotion!! I was just showing respect for the spice!!" Sebastian Grayford said. Leon looked up from his parchment without lifting his head. "According to records from the past three weeks, there were seven instances of lacrimal gland reaction, eleven of nasal discharge, of which zero were attributed to emotion," Leon Ashberry said. "Why do you still have that data!!" Sebastian Grayford said. "There was no reason to discard it," Leon Ashberry said. "Don't keep records of my nasal discharge!!" Sebastian Grayford said. "It's not storage, it's recording. The nuance is different," Leon Ashberry said. "It's the same!! Delete it!!" Sebastian Grayford said. Sebastian's voice echoed off the stone walls of Tsukikage-tei. Lilia laughed quietly from behind the counter. Elena threw one word from the kitchen. "Noisy pair," Elena said. "Isn't it three?" Alphonse Fleuresia asked. "Alphonse is being quiet right now," Elena said. Alphonse deepened his dimples. His blue eyes glinted. After a while, Leon turned a page of parchment and said, "Regarding the kitchen magic circle, I have seven points of improvement based on last night's operational data," Leon Ashberry said. "Please do that outside the kitchen. How many times is this?" Elena asked. "I reduced it from twelve points last time to seven this time," Leon Ashberry said. Sebastian nodded, saying "It was twelve before? So it went down by five." Alphonse also nodded for some reason. A mysterious sense of agreement began to drift among the three. "The correct answer is zero points," Elena said. "What is the basis for the necessity of reaching zero—" Leon Ashberry began. "This is not a research facility," Elena said. "A kitchen and a research facility are not mutually exclusive concepts—" Leon Ashberry said. "I'm making them mutually exclusive right now," Elena said. Leon closed his mouth. After a second of silence, he turned back to his parchment. There was no hint of giving up. Then in the afternoon, at the usual time, Alphonse said. "Is there new pudding?" Alphonse Fleuresia asked. "Please don't ask every day. Yes, there is," Elena said. Sebastian pointed out, "The way you answered that, you definitely had it prepared," Sebastian Grayford said. "I was just checking inventory," Elena said. "Inventory checks should be completed before opening," Leon Ashberry said. Elena headed toward the kitchen. "Noisy trio," Elena said. Lilia said from across the counter, "Elena, the corners of your mouth are going up," Lilia said. "They're not," Elena said. That "they're not" response came just a fraction of a second too late. About two-tenths of a second. But Lilia heard it clearly. The plate of pudding came out after a while. Alphonse received it. In the instant Elena handed over the plate, their fingers touched. It was just a moment of body heat. Contact lasting less than a second, and Elena tried to process it as "food service—or rather, the reverse of food service, the transfer of dishes." She t