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Around two hours after the start of the party, I hear the doorbell ring. Considering our arrangement, it’s definitely the graduates. I instructed Misaki to continue cleaning, and I headed to the door to welcome them.

“Welcome.”
“You look extremely tired for some reason; are you alright?”
“I finally knocked them out, you see.”

Kishita’s normal reaction really warmed my tired heart. I fought back against the idiots while avoiding their retribution, which resulted in me getting even more exhausted. Thanks to that, the idiots practically self-destructed.

“You look terrible too. Isn’t your apron all beat up?”
“I’ll have this reimbursed later.”

A scuffle started midway, you see. The button of my apron’s fastener flew off, and the clothes I’m wearing got all stretched out. Having drunk alcohol, they misjudged their strengths. I’m absolutely having them compensate for this.

“Anyway, come inside. But don’t mention anything about the awful mess.”

The two were confused, while one had a nasty glare as I guided them into the living room. And as they saw Misaki, who was cleaning up, the three were speechless. Well, I suppose that’s the natural reaction when you see three bodies on the floor. By the way, they’re not dead.

“Welcome, Lady Shimotsuki, Young Master Hadzuki, and Lady Kishita. The clean-up will be finished in a moment, so please allow me a moment. Lady Kotone, moving them to the corner will be enough, correct?”
“And cover them up with blankets. Also, make sure to leave water and a black pouch near them.”
“Understood.”

Misaki moves the three drunks by dragging them by their feet. It’s quite fortunate that I managed to knock them out in a short amount of time, but I also sustained significant damage on my end. If I don’t get some sort of palate cleanser, I won’t be able to taste anything.

“Just what did you do?”
“For mama to be drunk and unconscious… She’s not weak with alcohol and should know her own limits perfectly…”
“Sherry self-destructed, so she was out quickly. It’s her own fault for tasting that out of curiosity.”

Sherry requested a palate cleanser, but there’s no way I would obediently give her that. I attacked her with both spiciness and bitterness, and then plenty of sweet stuff, making her drink more and more. Thanks to that, she went down easily. The troublesome ones were the rogues den idiots, as they had zero restraint with me.

“The other two moved around a lot after drinking, so the alcohol traveled through their bloodstream faster, downing them eventually. Reap what you sow, jeez.”

Once they started drinking more due to the food, they started singing, “Let’s see Kotone’s good stuff,” and for some reason, began trying to strip my clothes. Resisting them with everything I have, I shoved a bottle of distilled beverage on one’s mouth and a handful of pepper on the other until they were down.

“I’m absolutely exhausted.”
“Yup, I’m glad I wasn’t there.”
“Have a well-deserved rest, Kotone.”
“A~h, which one is it for this time? Should I be happy that I didn’t get involved, or should I be disappointed that I couldn’t witness it?”

Aya. The former is the right one by a large margin. It was a situation where even your mother was quickly taken down, you know? The sober would have been absolutely targeted first.

“Kotone. What are these food-like scraps?”
“The unfortunate result of crudely aiming for sweetness.”
“I will never accept those as sweets.”

It was something that enraged Misaki, which is quite rare. That thing that only aimed to be extremely sweet caused the sweets-loving Misaki to show strong rejection. It was something that you could only describe as sweet and nothing else.

“It’s not good to toy around with your food.”
“Rather than a toy, it’s more like a weapon to take people down.”
“Don’t make weapons out of your cooking.”

I was reprimanded. Being the representative of normal people, Kishita’s words are correct. However, things don’t always progress the correct way. There are situations where you would need to use various items as weapons to come out on top. Mainly when fighting with the rogue’s den.

“Well then, Kishita. Since Misaki worked hard today, please make her the best sweet you can.”
“Can I use any of these ingredients here?”
“You can use the ingredients in my fridge, too. There is stuff I can’t make use of anyway.”

Shirose really bought a variety of stuff. From fruits to seasonings. There is even some stuff that I’ve never seen before. And when I asked why she bought those, she said because they looked interesting. It’s pretty in character for her, but it’s not good to have more stuff I can’t use.

“Understood.”
“Still, Kotone. Sounds like you’ve changed the way you speak with Kaoru, too.”
“I guess. I just feel that it’d be weird to speak to others differently while I have a friendly tone with Aya.”
“More importantly, Kotone! What was your intention in doing that?”
“Which one?”
“Making me a show opener!”
“Bring that complaint to that blacked out drunk mother of yours. My initial plan was to have your duet as the highlight, you know?”

The one that significantly changed the plan was Aya’s own mother. She prioritized her personal enjoyment before her daughter, so it can’t be helped. I may have played a part in this, but don’t complain to me. It wasn’t my fault.

“I signed because it was a request from you, but I also expected the main highlight to be Sherry and Aya’s duet. To think that you would pull something like that.”
“From the moment I saw the smile Mama had, I knew that she’s absolutely treating our performance as a prelude; that what’s next is what she’s looking forward to the most.”
“As expected of mother and child, you understand each other well.”
“That’s why I glared at you. Because I knew Mama being that excited must have something to do with you.”

“I mean, the price for having Sherry sing with you was to make an appearance as Unknown, so I had no other choice. I didn’t do it because I wanted to.”
“Well, weren’t you pretty lively considering that?”
“If you’re doing something, go all out, right?”
“That’s quite in character of you. All of the students got to enjoy themselves, so as a former student council president, it was a satisfying bookend.”

Aya is pouting with displeasure, while Hadzuki has a large smile. The contrast is pretty funny. Meanwhile, Kishita watches over the two of them with a soft smile as she continues cooking pancakes. These three will probably stay like this without change. I hope that their friendship continues on.

“Here, it’s all done. There’s also some raspberry sauce; feel free to have some as a palate cleanser.”
“I humbly oblige!”

Misaki happily pounced on it. Kishita is undoubtedly more skilled than me. The served pancake has honey and butter on top, and next to it is a serving of vanilla ice cream and the raspberry. It’s a simple dish, making it a test of skill.

“Yes, this is what I was looking for. Something that merely tastes sweet is by no means a sweet. It’s just a lump of sugar!”

She asserted, but she’s not wrong about that. After all, they put a ridiculous amount of sugar between a two-layer pancake, which they then slathered with chocolate sauce, a layer of honey on top, and a lot of whipped cream. It’s nothing short of insanity.

“If not for the lemon water washing off the taste, you’d probably still have the taste of sugar regardless of what you eat.”
“My lady, you have my utmost gratitude.”

I was the first to be targeted. I already found it weird when I heard a light crackle as the knife sliced the pancake. My arms were then pinned from the back, leaving me with no choice but to eat it. After that, for some reason, Misaki also got dragged into it. The rogue’s den’s attacks truly are indiscriminate.

“The harmony of sweetness and acidity. Bliss.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“It feels out of character for Lady Kotone to be so nice to me…”
“I dragged you into this party of madness; it’s only right to reward you.”

I do feel bad for her. I genuinely didn’t expect things to end up being this disastrous at first. Maybe removing Kataribe’s limiter really was a mistake. Even Shirose reverted to her high school days. Why can’t her limiter just be reinstalled after removal?

“Just to warn you three, drink moderately, okay?”
“Well, seeing this scene makes it easy to understand how scary alcohol can be.”
“I don’t want to embarrass myself like that, too.”
“Agreed. I don’t want to end up like them, either.”

We have three negative examples on the floor. Isn’t it great that you guys didn’t arrive while they were still raging drunk? I’m glad that they didn’t see how I knocked out these three as well.

“Even without being drunk, you seemed to lack reason as well, Lady Kotone.”
“Don’t say that.”

I just reverted to my old self a bit. Misaki was shaking in fear of me at that time, but I’ll keep it a secret.