An elven storm threw an invitation into the office, and the day that had been foretold finally arrived.
“Hoo, I’ve been polishing my skills for this day.”
Lavina confidently thumped her chest. With emphatic gestures, something that was slightly smaller than a perfectly ripe pear for the sake of comparison was vigorously shaken.
When the mind is already in chaos and unable to focus, sudden thoughts tend to spring up. Listening to Lavina’s chattering with one ear and letting it slip out the other, Aria was struck by an unexpected question at the sight reflected in her eyes.
Come to think of it, she often makes those gestures. What is she so proud of when it’s not even that impressive? …No, maybe it’s enough to be confident about?
Oddly enough, she couldn’t answer right away.
If it weren’t for the need to disassociate her mind and body and contemplate the passage of time, this was a topic she had never really thought much about before. So there was no proper comparison.
Aria glanced down for a moment and then back at Lavina. Now that she had a comparison, an indescribable sense of insignificance and pity washed over her.
No, wait, I was told not to jump to conclusions.
It’s said that an emperor should be cautious about falling into narrow-minded and flawed thinking, and that they should always double-check before drawing any conclusions. Even for Aria, who was more of a glorified slacker emperor handling only the big matters and leaving the rest to the grand dukes, it held true.
She wasn’t particularly interested in that sort of thing, but Aria wasn’t so clueless as to underestimate her own figure. After all, having used her beauty to her advantage, it was evident just by observing the reactions of those around her that her appearance was quite striking.
However, it felt unfair to judge Lavina’s confidence solely based on her own standards. Just looking at their faces, weren’t the people of Terra far more attractive than the humans Aria remembered from her previous life?
With that in mind, Aria decided to make a fair judgment by comparing it to multiple examples, without relying solely on her own sense of standards.
In her mind, the images of acquaintances, especially females, flowed.
Sample 1: Plona. She’s short, but she always wears armor, giving off a “look skinny when you wear it” vibe, yet somehow doesn’t look skinny at all. Passed.
Sample 2: Stella. At least a melon. Passed.
Sample 3: Martini. The second-in-command after Aria. Passed.
Sample 4: Eleonora… is still a child. Must protect.
Already an adult, Aria watched Lavina, who was still confidently talking nonsense with her fists on her chest, excluding Eleonora from her thoughts.
Aria nodded compassionately.
Sure. That makes sense. A person should live robustly.
Rather than living crumpled up and timid, being confidently inadequate… On second thought, maybe it’s better if she was a bit more intimidated.
If Lavina could read Aria’s thoughts right now, she would surely be lamenting and lamenting.
With a comparison group like that, 95% of the women on Terra’s continent wouldn’t even be able to hold their heads up. It was a clear case of error from extreme mis-sampling.
“Sister, what’s going on here?”
Plona gently poked Aria’s side, secretly whispering as she was immersed in thoughts that had little productivity other than wasting time.
Having come to sing “Sister, sister” on her day off only to be caught up by Lavina who suddenly barged in, Plona, more confused than Aria, had no idea what was going on.
“Lavina’s gone crazy.”
“Aha.”
Objectively speaking, it didn’t sound particularly severe, but Plona nodded cleanly.
Perhaps because she had either been part of a biker gang in her previous life or maybe she found it easy to understand; the platinum-haired elf’s reckless behavior became undeniable witnesses who directly witnessed Lavina breaking the brakes as their friendship deepened.
“And Eleonora?”
Naturally, Plona’s interest shifted from Lavina to Eleonora.
Under normal circumstances, she would have been sitting beside Aria as part of the support group for Lavina’s madness, but for some reason, she was sitting directly opposite Lavina, burning with rare competitiveness.
Aria pondered on how to respond.
Honestly, she had some ideas about what Lavina might be up to, but until she confirmed it with her own eyes, she didn’t want to jump to conclusions about something so pointless.
“Well, it’s a secret.”
“Eh? Eleonora kept quiet even to you, sister?”
Plona’s eyes widened as if she had heard that the sun rises in the west.
Both of them had the common feature that such a thing was utterly impossible; it was a valid reaction. If Aria asked again, Eleonora would undoubtedly answer right away.
However, fundamentally, Aria didn’t want to impose that on her people’s free will.
Of course, there was one who could stand to be a little less free, but anyway, that was just how it was.
“At the very least, it means it’s not dangerous.”
“Well, I still don’t think Lavina would really do anything dangerous.”
“No, that air freshener was genuinely dangerous, you know?”
Does danger only come when you hold a weapon to someone’s throat?
Just thinking about it made Aria’s previous annoyance bubble up as she pressed her forehead.
The Jack and the Beanstalk incident, sure, the ground shook and a massive plant grew outside the window, which was a shocking spectacle, but it didn’t directly harm her, so she could overlook it.
But that air freshener almost made her pass out from foaming at the mouth! If they didn’t get that, she felt a bit aggrieved.
“…That’s true.”
Fortunately, her cute sister, who was always on her side, quickly agreed, relieving a bit of the accumulated frustration in Aria’s heart. It struck her anew that people sought their connections not for nothing.
“—That’s why today! Right now! Here we hold the Grand Cooking Contest!!!”
While Aria had been gossiping with Plona, Lavina, who had been babbling nonstop, suddenly declared, slamming her hands on the table.
Suddenly, it felt all too real. Just when she thought it couldn’t be true… no, there was still hope.
Maybe she just meant that she would cook. Even though only two vampires were sitting as judges, vampires can’t have ordinary meals, so it could still make perfect sense.
It felt slightly like escapism, but looking around, there were enough elements that added to the persuasiveness.
First off, the fact that Lavina gathered them in the kitchen. If she merely wanted to compare the taste of blood, it would be more rational to invite them to the dining room than to leave an auxiliary kitchen empty in the corner of the palace.
The presence of some ingredients and cooking tools piled up on the table also contributed to Aria’s hope.
“So what do my sister and I do?”
“After tasting my blood and Eleonora’s, please tell us which one is tastier!”
With that lively response, Aria was finally shot down. Her once-bright imagination of happiness was utterly scorched.
Even though her workload had decreased lately, feeling compelled to participate in such foolishness on the very first morning of her precious day off was far from a light grievance.
“Then why the kitchen?”
Aria shot Lavina a glare, as if willing to shoot lasers at her with her eyes. But elves were inherently oblivious to shame.
“Because the atmosphere adds to it!!”
With such a bright and clear answer, both Aria and Plona next to her stared blankly, mouths agape.
Right. She was like this in anything besides magic research. Eleonora, who was sitting next to them, seemed a bit embarrassed and lowered her head.
Sometimes resignation becomes a driving force for growth. Quickly accepting the situation, Aria let out a big sigh and folded her arms, giving a lazy look as if to say, “Go ahead and see this through to the end.”
Honestly, Plona was just happy to be next to her sister, so she still felt like a bystander.
“Hoo… Just how harsh was my diet for today? I must acknowledge my own perseverance and passion, don’t you agree, Aria?”
“I wish you’d direct that perseverance and passion into something productive.”
“Productive? You mean that giant flower from last time?”
Aria silently clenched her fist. Lavina laughed, exclaiming, “Oh come on, I was joking!”
“Eleonora, you’re not just going along with Lavina’s nonsense because you don’t want to do this, are you?”
In a tone that mostly hoped that wasn’t the case, Aria shifted her target. However, Eleonora’s willpower was surprisingly strong this time. Though Lavina had started the fire.
“It’s okay. There are some things I won’t give up on either.”
Eleonora lacked greed. Whether for fame or possessions, basically, if she could be next to Aria, other obsessions were sparse. The only real thing she could point to was a slight gluttony due to having gone through a period of starvation.
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