Chapter 244: "Freaking Seriously..."
Chapter 244: "Freaking Seriously..."
Shien ended up regretfully putting away the book on life form creation magic.
Although he is quite interested in this magic, its limitations mean that Shien won't be focusing much on it.
For one, in order to create homunculi, Shien would have to first collect some materials that he hasn't even heard of. Add to the fact that there's a lot of factors and variance involved, meaning that it's very likely that he might not end up creating the person that he wanted, it cooled some of Shien's enthusiasm for it.
For two, right now Shien wants to concentrate on studying astro and enchant magic. He really didn't have the time or energy to spare for learning any other kind of magic.
Thus, after struggling with it for a while, Shien ended up putting away the book on life form creation magic.
"If there's another chance in the future, let's properly research it some."
Shien thus made that decision and then stopped thinking about homunculi. He continued his studies on the two magic types that he's focusing on.
This study session once again lasted for a long time. It only ended when it's already nearly dark outside.
One thing worth mentioning however is that, when Lasha learned that Shien was going to be studying magic in the underground magic library, she ended up leaving for three minutes before somehow returning with a boxed lunch that she made for him to eat.
Before, Shien would normally spend the whole day in the library, so he would just skip lunch altogether. This time, since he had the lunch that Lasha prepared, Shien ended up having quite a nice meal.
After all, this perfect maid's cooking is unbelievably delicious. Any top chef would likely end up completely losing to her.
Of course, rather than that, Shien is more interested in the question of how this maid ended up making such a perfect boxed lunch within just three short minutes.
This definitely wasn't something that she prepared ahead of time. That part is something that Shien can be sure of.
That's because Lasha only found out that Shien was planning to study the whole day in the library when he was preparing to head into the place.
Thus, Lasha really did manage to make this lunch within those three short minutes.
As for just how she managed to do that... Don't ask. Any answer would be that this is only natural for a maid.
Hn. Shien can only feel like his image of what a maid is supposed to be like is collapsing.
"It's alright. An unreasonably omnipotent maid is fine. This kind of setting isn't all that uncommon, right?"
Shien didn't know if he was trying to convince himself or someone else with those words.
Later on, when Shien left the library and the palace, he found Lasha in an out of the way alley in the western noble district (she suddenly appeared on her own). Then, they went back to the Latrard home together.
It also doesn't bear mentioning that Lasha immediately received an extremely warm welcome the moment they got back.
"Onee-sama!"
"You're finally back!?"
"Please look this way! Onee-sama!"
"Lasha onee-sama!"
A bunch of maids and servants of the Latrard family all swarmed out like they're celebrity hunters, instantly surrounding Lasha while pushing Shien out.
"Freaking seriously..."
Shien, who almost tripped as he was pushed away, ended up stunned for a bit before he finally managed to hold himself back from curing up a storm.
It was instead Lasha herself who just calmly walked out of the crowd with near divine footwork.
"Well then, Mister Shien. I will first prepare dinner for you before helping you to the baths. Please head back to your room and rest. You should be able to head to the dining room within 13 minutes and 44 seconds from now. I shall come notify you at that time."
With those words that were precise to the point of being scary, Lasha left, leaving the still stunned Shien along with the similarly stunned Latrard family maids and servants.
Only after some time did the maids and servants rush out chasing after Lasha, leaving Shien alone by himself.
Well, it's not like nobody cared about Shien here.
"You seem to have had quite a bit of fun."
Airi, who was still hugging a pillow like always, calmly moved next to Shien and placidly said those words.
"What are you seeing exactly to make you think that I was having fun here?"
Shien rolled his eyes at her and replied in an irritated tone.
"And here I thought were were quite well served by her."
Airi looked toward the direction that Lasha left in as she grimaced. She had a complicated tone as she said that as well.
Shien however didn't notice.
"If we're just talking about her service, it's indeed pretty god." Shien muttered, "Only, it's maybe a bit too good, to the point where it's kind of scary actually."
Airi replied the following to Shien's words.
"Thankfully there's no problems right now. Otherwise, being served like this by her wouldn't just be a bit scary, but horrifying."
Airi actually said something like that.
"Ha?"
Shien didn't really understand what she meant though.
However, Airi didn't explain further either. She instead suddenly changed the subject.
"Speaking of, did you not notice?" Airi spoke indifferently, "Last night, those girls by your side didn't come back."
In response, Shien first stopped for a moment before he reacted.
"You mean Vivian and them?"
Now that Airi had mentioned it, Shien finally realized that there was such a thing.
And that is the fact that he didn't encounter the people of Vivian's party last night or this morning.
"They still haven't come bac?"
Shien started getting a faint feeling that something might be wrong here.
Although it's said that adventuring work does tend to be irregular. Sometimes, there are indeed situations where a party might not return for quite some time. However, if Vivian really did end up accepting a quest that required so much time, then there's no way that she wouldn't have at least sent back a message about it.
It's one thing that they weren't back the day before yesterday. That was only a single day after all, so it's still basically within the realm of being understandable. But not coming back for two days in a row is rather strange.
Add in the fact that there recently has been problems in the areas near the Capital, Shien started getting a bit worried.
He's worried about if Vivian and them encountered some kind of problem that they couldn't deal with.
When he thought of that possibility, Shien had a hard time keeping still.
"Didn't I ask you to keep an eye on them?"
Shien started blaming Airi.
Airi however was unexpectedly calm.
"I only agreed to help deal with any issues that girl Diere might encounter that she can't deal with herself when she's out alone. I never agreed to help take care of them for you when they're out adventuring." Airi spoke without any change in her expressions, "Plus, I already said this from the start. Here, I'm only interested in you. I'm not paying any particular attention to anyone else."
This demon girl showed an unexpectedly callous attitude toward people that she didn't care about.
Thus, since Airi did agree to what Shien had requested of her, she made sure to fulfill those matters. However, she had no real interest in dealing with anything beyond what Shien asked her to do.,
"Plus, I left a bit of magic power on that Diere girl." Airi gave Shien a glance, "There's no issue with her right now. It's just that she doesn't seem to be in the Capital. If you want to find them, then it's not like I can't lead you there."
Airi came specifically to talk about this matter after all.
Thus...
"Alright then, please lead me there then."
Shien nodded without any hesistation.
"Then let's go."
Airi turned around and tried to lead the way.
However, at that moment, Shien reached out with his hand and mussed up her hair.
"See if you dare to do this again next time."
Then, Shien walked on out, leaving the completely shocked Airi behind him.