“In Preparation for the Tea Party 4”
“Now then, next is preparation.”
“Boo!”
“Hm?”
When I returned to my mansion in the capital and went to leave my office to prepare for the tea party, a strange sound echoed. Looking closely, there was Nagartinya with a sullen expression, directing what seemed to be an accusatory gaze my way.
“What’s with that face? Are you hungry or something?”
“Rolando-kyun, it looks like you’re about to go do something fun. Even though I exist, you’re planning to get all lovey-dovey with some other girl!?”
“What are you talking about?”
At her completely baseless declaration, I shot her a look of utter disdain, far beyond mere annoyance. Ignoring her delusional nonsense, I educated her on the reality of the situation.
“To begin with, you and I don’t have that kind of relationship. So there’s no reason for you to find fault with who I associate with.”
“Hmph…I want you to try to understand how a girl feels when the boy she likes gets friendly with other girls…”
I didn’t have time for such nonsense. First of all, in this case, it was a tea party attended by nobles and royalty – definitely not some occasion for me to be getting intimate with girls. That said, considering who the attendees were, some kind of disturbance wouldn’t be unthinkable…
“That’s it.”
“What is?”
“I’ll participate in that tea party too—”
“No way.”
“Why not!? It’s not like one more will hurt!!”
Cutting her off mid-sentence, I immediately rejected her proposal. The originating factor for this tea party being held was that the human princess Tiara pleaded with me, hoping to deepen the friendship between the demon princesses Sara and Sanya.
Therefore, allowing the entirely unrelated Nagartinya to participate ran the risk of complicating matters. Moreover, with a demon taking part in the tea party, it would be rather inauspicious to also include her – regarded by demons as nothing less than a harbinger of calamity.
“No way no way no way no way! I’m gonna be part of that tea party too!!”
“What are you, a kid?”
“My body is sixteen!”
“By the standards of this world, that makes you an adult!”
“Anyway, I wanna go! Rolando-kyun, please figure something out!!”
Despite her usual behavior, she was pleading with me sincerely for once with an unusually serious expression. While feeling unexpectedly surprised internally, I began deliberating in my mind.
The fact was I did owe her for help with this whole affair. Based on Belphegor’s strength, there was no doubt he could go toe-to-toe with me. If our fight had continued, I would have been hard-pressed and could well have died.
Not only that, it was easy to imagine the surrounding terrain would no longer bear any semblance to its original form, with the city and such doubtless being completely obliterated without a trace.
I might have harbored a small amount of resentment and envy at how casually she took care of the situation.
“…Oh well, I guess this is what they call the folly of youth. It had been so long I’d forgotten…”
“Rolando-kyun?”
Counting my previous life, this second time around I was already well over 80 years old. However, based solely on my current life I’d still been in this world less than 15 years – just a brat. And considering she had no contact with humans for hundreds of years, it was only natural she would want to take part in an event like this.
“All right, I’ll allow you to participate.”
“Really!? Yaay!”
“However, the condition is that nobody from either the humans or demons discovers you are the Witch of Disaster or Great Sage Nagartinya. That’s an absolute must.”
“Got it…This way I can deal with any annoying bugs trying to get close to Rolando-kyun. Hehehe…”
She made a somewhat ominous face as if scheming something, but if she looked likely to cause trouble I could just choke her out with an Iron Claw and put her to sleep with a Choke Sleeper. Then finish her off with a DDT.
“Well then, I’m off to take a walk around town.”
“Hold on – I assume you have a dress for the tea party, right?”
“Huh?”
Just as Nagartinya declared she was going out for a walk and started to leave, planning to head into town, there was an important thing I forgot to ask her about, so I questioned her.
Seeing Nagartinya’s clueless expression in response to my question, I determined she must not have a dress and said “Go make yourself a tea party dress right now,” sending her on her way.
With that Nagartinya issue resolved for the time being, next I went around to each of the servants to check on their progress. Everyone was excited about this unprecedented grand affair. While preparations didn’t seem to have advanced very far yet, this reminded me of something, so I caught Sobas, whom I had instructed earlier, and asked him about it.
“Sobas. What happened with Mocha?”
“Yes, sir. The moment you disappeared, she darted out to gather intel and still hasn’t returned.”
“I see…【Message】”
According to Sobas, as soon as my disappearance came to light, Mocha had dashed straight out of the mansion. She had likely gone to search for me, but even for Mocha the former assassin, her information-gathering skills didn’t extend as far as the demon world it turned out.
More fearsome was how in just four short days she had already scoured the vast royal capital and even extended her search to Orargrand.
『Hey Mocha. Just where have you been scurrying about? Hurry up and get back here. 』
『Th-That voice, it’s Master! Where are you, Master!?』
『There was a little accident and I’ve been away for about a week. More importantly, where are you right now?』
『In Orargrand, sir.』
According to Mocha, after combing through the entire capital in the first four days of my absence, she had gone to Orargrand where I used to be based, and was searching the area when I contacted her.
More terrifying than that, Mocha had not only scouted the vast city of the royal capital in just four days but had also extended her reach to Orargrand.
『Anyway, I’m coming to pick you up now, so don’t move from there.』
『Understood, sir.』
After conveying this to her, I deactivated the message and informed Sobas that I would be going to pick up Mocha, then teleported to Orargrand where she was.
“Hmm? Where is this…”
“Master!”
“Hold on.”
When I tried teleportation, it was to an unfamiliar place. Looking around to figure out where I was, suddenly my field of vision went completely dark.
Wondering what was happening, when I raised my head, it seemed that Mocha had hugged my head, and despite her expressionless face, there was a happy look on her face. While feeling the soft sensation of Mocha, I moved away from her for a moment to inquire about the situation.
“Why were you in a place like this? It looks like an underground passage.”
“When searching for people, you should start from underground, sir.”
“Never mind. Anyway, let’s go back to the royal capital.”
As it wasn’t practical to stay in a place like this for long, using teleportation, we immediately returned to my mansion in the capital.
Back at the mansion, I promptly handed Mocha off to Sobas before heading to the kitchen. There I found Ruzzo, fretting over what sweets to make for the tea party. He seemed to be seriously troubled.
“What seems to be the issue?”
“I see you’re working hard.”
“Rolando-sama.”
Naturally, when it came to a tea party, tea was the main event as the name suggests. However, the sweets served alongside were also quite important.
“I’m struggling to decide what sweets I should make…”
“Then why don’t we think it over together?”
And so, working together with Ruzzo, preparation for the tea party sweets began.
“In Preparation for the Tea Party 4”
“Now then, next is preparation.”
“Boo!”
“Hm?”
When I returned to my mansion in the capital and went to leave my office to prepare for the tea party, a strange sound echoed. Looking closely, there was Nagartinya with a sullen expression, directing what seemed to be an accusatory gaze my way.
“What’s with that face? Are you hungry or something?”
“Rolando-kyun, it looks like you’re about to go do something fun. Even though I exist, you’re planning to get all lovey-dovey with some other girl!?”
“What are you talking about?”
At her completely baseless declaration, I shot her a look of utter disdain, far beyond mere annoyance. Ignoring her delusional nonsense, I educated her on the reality of the situation.
“To begin with, you and I don’t have that kind of relationship. So there’s no reason for you to find fault with who I associate with.”
“Hmph…I want you to try to understand how a girl feels when the boy she likes gets friendly with other girls…”
I didn’t have time for such nonsense. First of all, in this case, it was a tea party attended by nobles and royalty – definitely not some occasion for me to be getting intimate with girls. That said, considering who the attendees were, some kind of disturbance wouldn’t be unthinkable…
“That’s it.”
“What is?”
“I’ll participate in that tea party too—”
“No way.”
“Why not!? It’s not like one more will hurt!!”
Cutting her off mid-sentence, I immediately rejected her proposal. The originating factor for this tea party being held was that the human princess Tiara pleaded with me, hoping to deepen the friendship between the demon princesses Sara and Sanya.
Therefore, allowing the entirely unrelated Nagartinya to participate ran the risk of complicating matters. Moreover, with a demon taking part in the tea party, it would be rather inauspicious to also include her – regarded by demons as nothing less than a harbinger of calamity.
“No way no way no way no way! I’m gonna be part of that tea party too!!”
“What are you, a kid?”
“My body is sixteen!”
“By the standards of this world, that makes you an adult!”
“Anyway, I wanna go! Rolando-kyun, please figure something out!!”
Despite her usual behavior, she was pleading with me sincerely for once with an unusually serious expression. While feeling unexpectedly surprised internally, I began deliberating in my mind.
The fact was I did owe her for help with this whole affair. Based on Belphegor’s strength, there was no doubt he could go toe-to-toe with me. If our fight had continued, I would have been hard-pressed and could well have died.
Not only that, it was easy to imagine the surrounding terrain would no longer bear any semblance to its original form, with the city and such doubtless being completely obliterated without a trace.
I might have harbored a small amount of resentment and envy at how casually she took care of the situation.
“…Oh well, I guess this is what they call the folly of youth. It had been so long I’d forgotten…”
“Rolando-kyun?”
Counting my previous life, this second time around I was already well over 80 years old. However, based solely on my current life I’d still been in this world less than 15 years – just a brat. And considering she had no contact with humans for hundreds of years, it was only natural she would want to take part in an event like this.
“All right, I’ll allow you to participate.”
“Really!? Yaay!”
“However, the condition is that nobody from either the humans or demons discovers you are the Witch of Disaster or Great Sage Nagartinya. That’s an absolute must.”
“Got it…This way I can deal with any annoying bugs trying to get close to Rolando-kyun. Hehehe…”
She made a somewhat ominous face as if scheming something, but if she looked likely to cause trouble I could just choke her out with an Iron Claw and put her to sleep with a Choke Sleeper. Then finish her off with a DDT.
“Well then, I’m off to take a walk around town.”
“Hold on – I assume you have a dress for the tea party, right?”
“Huh?”
Just as Nagartinya declared she was going out for a walk and started to leave, planning to head into town, there was an important thing I forgot to ask her about, so I questioned her.
Seeing Nagartinya’s clueless expression in response to my question, I determined she must not have a dress and said “Go make yourself a tea party dress right now,” sending her on her way.
With that Nagartinya issue resolved for the time being, next I went around to each of the servants to check on their progress. Everyone was excited about this unprecedented grand affair. While preparations didn’t seem to have advanced very far yet, this reminded me of something, so I caught Sobas, whom I had instructed earlier, and asked him about it.
“Sobas. What happened with Mocha?”
“Yes, sir. The moment you disappeared, she darted out to gather intel and still hasn’t returned.”
“I see…【Message】”
According to Sobas, as soon as my disappearance came to light, Mocha had dashed straight out of the mansion. She had likely gone to search for me, but even for Mocha the former assassin, her information-gathering skills didn’t extend as far as the demon world it turned out.
More fearsome was how in just four short days she had already scoured the vast royal capital and even extended her search to Orargrand.
『Hey Mocha. Just where have you been scurrying about? Hurry up and get back here. 』
『Th-That voice, it’s Master! Where are you, Master!?』
『There was a little accident and I’ve been away for about a week. More importantly, where are you right now?』
『In Orargrand, sir.』
According to Mocha, after combing through the entire capital in the first four days of my absence, she had gone to Orargrand where I used to be based, and was searching the area when I contacted her.
More terrifying than that, Mocha had not only scouted the vast city of the royal capital in just four days but had also extended her reach to Orargrand.
『Anyway, I’m coming to pick you up now, so don’t move from there.』
『Understood, sir.』
After conveying this to her, I deactivated the message and informed Sobas that I would be going to pick up Mocha, then teleported to Orargrand where she was.
“Hmm? Where is this…”
“Master!”
“Hold on.”
When I tried teleportation, it was to an unfamiliar place. Looking around to figure out where I was, suddenly my field of vision went completely dark.
Wondering what was happening, when I raised my head, it seemed that Mocha had hugged my head, and despite her expressionless face, there was a happy look on her face. While feeling the soft sensation of Mocha, I moved away from her for a moment to inquire about the situation.
“Why were you in a place like this? It looks like an underground passage.”
“When searching for people, you should start from underground, sir.”
“Never mind. Anyway, let’s go back to the royal capital.”
As it wasn’t practical to stay in a place like this for long, using teleportation, we immediately returned to my mansion in the capital.
Back at the mansion, I promptly handed Mocha off to Sobas before heading to the kitchen. There I found Ruzzo, fretting over what sweets to make for the tea party. He seemed to be seriously troubled.
“What seems to be the issue?”
“I see you’re working hard.”
“Rolando-sama.”
Naturally, when it came to a tea party, tea was the main event as the name suggests. However, the sweets served alongside were also quite important.
“I’m struggling to decide what sweets I should make…”
“Then why don’t we think it over together?”
And so, working together with Ruzzo, preparation for the tea party sweets began.
