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Spreading both hands, I clapped them together to produce a sound.

“ “ “ “ “……….” ” ” ” ”

Right then, everyone stopped yapping and turned to face me at the sound.

“Well then, let’s calm down and have a talk. Ah, Emilia, thank you for your help. You can go back to the shop now.”

I gave a nod of thanks to Emilia, a woman with gray hair dressed in a glamorous maid uniform, and urged her to leave the room for now. Eren, Lana, and Monika. These three, who were my personal maids, wore practical long-skirted Lanchester maid uniforms, while Emilia stood out with her pastry chef-style maid uniform.

Those were the uniforms of the Letindüte III, given to female employees as a dressing allowance. Personally, I wasn’t too keen on them as they felt somewhat like a costume, but surprisingly, they have been well-received not only by the male staff, including Chief of Security Norman but also by the female employees who actually wear them. Currently, there is a steady stream of customers and job applicants coming in not just for the menu, but also for the uniforms.

By the way, Emilia held a position similar to a chief due to her experience working at the main store. Initially, I hesitated as it meant she would be far away from her hometown Consul, where her orphanage was, but…

“Please show her the wider world. I visited it once when I was young, but Cilento is a nice city. Also, if there’s an opportunity, you should make a pilgrimage to the Church’s head temple. …Although, I’ve heard rumors of how much it has changed.”

With such encouragement from the orphanage’s director, who was a former nun of the Saintess Church, Emilia ended up accompanying me all the way to the other end of the continent.

Therefore, she, nominally, is not a servant attached to the Graviol Family like Eren and Lana, but rather a maid hired by the café, Letindüte III. Normally, involving her in personal matters like this would invite criticism of mixing public and private affairs.

However, this time was an exception—or rather, when Monika caught sight of Chaton, she furrowed her brows and remarked, “That girl is not ordinary. The moment she entered the mansion, she immediately checked for valuable items, entrances, and window positions.”

Frowning, she hastily added, “I feel it might be too much for just me to handle. We need someone else,” which led to Emilia being invited.

Fortunately, Emilia readily agreed without hesitation, but she quickly discerned Chaton’s true identity, remarking casually, “Ah, she’s from the underworld,” showing she was on guard.

Certainly, while she’s generally not a good person, she’s not entirely rotten, so I didn’t think there was a need to be overly cautious… but when I suggested that, I was promptly rebuffed with a chorus of, “Too naïve!”

“…No, I’ll be here for a while longer. Fortunately, we’re out of stock, so the front-of-house operations have concluded.”
“Oh my, is it closing time already? That’s a bit early, isn’t it?”
“Drinks aside, both desserts and lunches tend to sell out at this time every day.”

“Well, there’s still cleanup and preparations for tomorrow’s business, so the staff are still working. However, you have errands today, so we’ve made adjustments to the shifts around that, so it should be okay,” she added.

“But still, closing up too early could be an issue. It’s not fair to the customers who’ve taken the trouble to come here.”
“Exactly, dear sister. I can’t tell how many times I have shed bitter tears after coming all this way only to have the desserts already gone by lunchtime…”

Euphemia, still trapped under Vier, followed along with a genuinely regretful pout.

“…” Right, I had almost forgotten about her issue… For now, I instructed Vier to let Euphemia go.

“You did well, Vier. You’re being considerate and didn’t injure her.”
“Vier plays with her because she smells like you, master!”

Receiving Vier’s thoughts, I gazed at Euphemia once again, feeling a complex mix of emotions, as Eren and Lana helped smooth out the wrinkles on her dress and brushed away the fur.

(…my half-sister, huh.)

Feeling like I was getting stuck in a rut with my thoughts, I decided to take a break and organize some ideas about the future management of the shop for a change of pace.

First and foremost, it seems that the supply of goods is not keeping up with the current turnover rate, so we need to take measures as soon as possible.

Simply increasing the amount of employees and kitchen staff to cope seems risky, and it’s not something we can address immediately. Perhaps raising prices on goods to narrow down our customer base, or reducing some of the services we currently offer… No, discontinuing the option for unlimited refills of bread and soup during lunch service is out of the question. Additionally, I refuse to force our employees into unreasonable operations.

“…There doesn’t seem to be an immediate solution. For now, let’s try to manage by enhancing our selection of ice cream and jelly that can be prepared in advance.”
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea, especially given the season.”

With Emilia and Monika nodding in agreement, I decided to intervene to rescue the somewhat exasperated Luke. I took Chaton’s hand by the joint, which was clinging to him, and separated the two physically by inserting myself between them.

“What are you doing, young lady?”
“That’s a line Luke asked you about fifty times. And what about you? If you don’t have any business here, I’d like to request that you leave soon.”

Finally free, Luke breathed a sigh of relief, his expression showing agreement as he nodded repeatedly.

“……” Even when she had no expression, Chaton stared at me with a challenging gaze, but then said, “ —Ah, I completely forgot my main business.”

She clapped her hands together… The moment she separated them again, a large, marbled pattern egg, the size of her armful, appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

““What’s with that egg?”” The size aside, it looked very obviously poisonous —I’d bet it would introduce itself with, “hehehe, I’m poison,” if it had a mouth. Luke and I looked at it quizzically.

While the others watched with keen interest, Chaton, with her usual inscrutable expression, cast a fleeting glance towards Luke, then deliberately squirmed in a manner that seemed calculated.

“My Prince, this is the fruit of our love. I came here today to make you aware of it,” she claimed, her cheeks turned red.

““““““EEH~~~~~~~?!!””””””

Instantly, everyone echoed in astonishment, but in terms of impact, hardly anyone paid attention to the “the fruit of love” part and instead,

““““““YOU LAY EGGS?!!””””””

That’s what we were truly surprised about.