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「M-my lady!?」

I almost fell to my knees from the shock, but Hans held me up. While the dress I’m currently wearing was made for travel-use, it’s still a one-of-a-kind product prepared by Iglesio household’s purveyor boutique. Its price makes those expensive snacks look cheap in comparison. If it’s stained by even a speck of dirt, I can’t begin to imagine how much the cleaning would cost.

I prepared a pile of those snacks and the fairy seemed to have eaten them all, with not even a single crumb left behind. I haven’t even tasted even one of those…… Those snacks that are generally considered to be royal purveyor-level stuff, I really wanted a taste of those, you know……

「My lady, please have some.」
「Est? This is…… how!?」

As I was grieving over the flavors I never had a chance to experience, Est presented a basket before me. Contained inside it were the expensive snacks I bought earlier.

「I’ve saved the ones that couldn’t fit inside the basket. I thought of serving them in today’s break time……」
「Good job, Est!」

Est secured our share of those expensive stuff without my knowledge. I just couldn’t help but praise her attentiveness. I guess I’m going to have to think of a reward for her.

「Well then, I suppose we should excuse ourselves now.」
「How can we even thank you……」
「Please don’t mind it too much. This is still Iglesio territory, it’s only natural for us to help with the maintenance of order. May the creator god’s divine protection bless your travels.」

Regarding the bandits we captured this time, we handed them over to the Sysorus authorities. While they’re likely to become crime slaves, the sales share won’t be given to us, but to the victimized couple instead. The couple was hesitant about this, but we managed to convince them. After all, while there weren’t any human casualties, their carriage was damaged in this incident.

After refilling the basket beside the driver’s seat with new snacks, our carriage was back on the road. From here on, we’ll be traveling on flat land for a while, so we probably won’t encounter trouble anytime ‌soon. I observed the snacks at the driver’s seat for some time, and by the time I got bored with it, Est began serving tea. It was amazing to see how skillful she is for being able to pour a cup of tea in this moving carriage. She then served the expensive snacks to pair with the tea as she told us earlier.

Said snack is, so to speak, chocolate. I considered it to be a taste I’m already used to, but after having a bite, that thought was blown out of my mind.¹ The moment it touched my tongue, a mesmerizing sweetness ran through my entire body, and I unconsciously made an audible sound.² Its texture as the heat of my mouth melted it was perfection, and my eyes went wide as it practically felt like fine-quality silk on my tongue.

As I gulped down the now melted chocolate, the momentary aftertaste in my mouth and the scent tickling my nose as I breathed in instinctively urged my arm to reach for another bite. I see, even if it wasn’t the spirit, anyone who had a taste of this would have probably overeat on these themselves.

Urania and I alternately eat one piece at a time. It’s not even like the chocolates in my past life that had fruits and nuts mixed in it, it’s only the pure chocolate taste, but I can’t help but reach for more. We were eating so much that I ordered Est to save her and Hans’ share even with my mouth still ungracefully occupied. With that, we can eat with no worries.

Just as I thought that, I noticed that the chocolate on the plate is decreasing at too fast of a pace. Considering that Urania and I only take one each every time, it should only decrease by two.
However, ‌it clearly decreased by three. Thinking that it might have been Est succumbing to temptation and reaching for one, I turned to her direction only to see that she’s ‌preparing more tea in case we need a refill.

As I returned my gaze to the plate, another piece disappeared. It’s obviously unusual. Suddenly, something came to my mind, so I tried switching on 【Magic Sight】 and, wouldn’t you know it, some chubby little thing is sitting there on the edge of the plate.

「Found it!」
『Eh? Wah!? Hyaa!?』

I reflexively raised my voice as I extended my arms to capture her. Rather than a spirit, this chubby thing looks more like a plump fairy. As it looks like, since I can only see her via 【Magic Sight】 her body is likely composed of magic power. I have a hunch that I won’t be able to touch her normally, so I clad my hands with a thin layer of magic power as I grab her.

「Eh? Lily!?」
「My lady!?」

My sudden actions surprised Urania and Est. That’s only natural. After all, they can’t see this plump little fairy.

『Let go of me, let go!』
「Stop squeaking out loud! And if I do that, you’ll just run away!」
『What did I even do to deserve this!?³』
「You ate the chocolates, duh!?」

From her appearance, this shrieking chubby spirit looks like a certain Majin that changes his opponents into snacks.

『That was an offering for me, wasn’t it!?』
「That one you ate wasn’t!?」
『Come on! It’s just one piece!』

It’s just one piece, she says, but from what I’ve confirmed, it was at least two pieces. Rather, considering that I was busy being amazed by how the chocolate tasted and didn’t watch my surroundings, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she ‌ate a lot more than that.

And so, this comical scene was the first meeting this chubby spirit and I had.

1. Lyly: Well yeah, you probably only ate cheap stuff in the past, lol. Too busy with the creative process to have the time to buy some luxury stuff too
2. Lyly: Moaning from chocolate, lol
3. Lyly: For anyone curious, the fairy’s pronoun is atai, a form of atashi, which is sort of like more girlish watashi, which is mostly feminine/neutral in use.