Chapter 3

"Rina dear, what's for dinner tonight?"

The one who called out to me was Sir Bernardo from the 6th Squadron of the Second Knights.

"It's going to be boar cutlets with pickles, salad, and bread. Oh, that's right; could you hunt down some more of those birds? I need some for fried chicken."

"Fried chicken⁉︎ That delicious fried chicken⁉︎ Oh, for sure! If I catch one today, when will it be done⁉︎ Tomorrow⁉︎ The day after tomorrow⁉︎ I'm going to hunt! I'm so excited!"

"Please drain the blood, dismantle it, and bring it back!"

It's been a month since Mayu and I arrived in this world.

Since then, Mayu has been living in the palace with the prince. When she's performing her holy duties, she works with the First Order, and when she's not doing that, she seems to be enjoying her life as a princess. I heard that she's in love with the leader of the First Order! Good for her!

As for me, I do menial work here at the Second Knight Order's dormitory, mainly serving meals.

The first thing that surprised me about this second knight order was that there  really were no women here at all. It seemed that until now, miscellaneous tasks such as cleaning, laundry, and meals were done by retired knights who were injured and couldn't fight anymore and thusly were rehired as menial workers. It's nice to have a place where you can work without worry even if you can't fight anymore. It's a good thing, but the manly ex-knight's cooking was... uh... very manly... Ah! I almost went off-track there.

I couldn't stand the sight of it, so I cooked a meal for him, and from then on everyone wanted me to be in charge of meals. I've already taken control of the stomachs of the entire Second Order!

After that, I did some mending and other small things that are impossible for men unaccustomed to housework to do. I never thought that the housekeeping skills I developed as my uncle's footslave would come in handy in a place like this. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it.

By the way, there were no women's clothes because there were no women. I wore the apprentice knight uniform (the smallest size I could find) with the excess rolled up. The pants were also men's. They looked like boxer shorts, which was good. I wouldn't have accepted briefs or a loincloth. I wrapped a sarashi around my unnecessarily large breasts. I made my own cloth sanitary napkins to deal with the time of the month!

There were a few inconveniences, but honestly, I enjoyed my daily life. When I cooked meals, people said, "This is delicious," and when I mended their pants, they said, "Thank you.” I know it sounds trivial, but it was things like these that made the difference. Their gratitudes were the kindest things people have said to me, and I'd never heard anything like it at my uncle's house! They even said things like, "Thanks to Rina's food, everyone is less tired and our injuries are healing better," probably because their nutritional balance has improved since I started cooking.

It's wonderful to be thanked! It truly was nice to be appreciated, after all.

...Hmm? Did they think I was a child? Oh well.

On a side note, I heard that the First Order had women who specialize in menial jobs because the First Order was all nobles. The First Knights were in charge of glamorous work such as escorting royalty and ceremonies, while the Second Knights, commoners, were in charge of grunt work such as killing magical beasts and exterminating thieves. Sometimes the orders went out to defeat them together like a joint exercise, though.

The leader of the Second Knights Order was Captain Leon, the only nobleman there. He was originally a commoner who was awarded counthood in recognition of his exploits during the outbreak of magical beasts. Monstrously strong and devilishly handsome, he's naturally very popular, but he didn't seem to have a girlfriend. Sir Heinz, the second-in-command, told me about it.

"He's a bigshot, why don't you go for him?"

I couldn't possibly; for a girl with glasses, Leon is in a completely different league.

I just can't.

***

Fufufu! At dinner time, I was in a good mood. No matter how hard I tried to stop grinning, my lips kept creeping upwards. 

"...You're looking strange. What's wrong?

Oh, it was Sir Leon.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Leon! Listen to me! Today, the usual merchant came to sell me some ingredients... Cumin powder! He was selling something that looked like cumin powder! The last curry spice I needed was cumin powder! I'm so happy I can finally make curry!"

"Cumin? Curry?

I don't know if this world was originally like this or if it was the result of the efforts of past Goddesses, but it was fully equipped with miso, soy sauce, and other seasonings that Japanese use often, and there was plenty of rice and vegetables that looked similar. There was nothing like curry, but now, I could throw a curry festival! Yay!

Sir Leon was clearly taken aback. Apologies, I was too excited.

"I don't mind as long as you're not in trouble, but..."

Oh, so he was worried about me. How kind of him! The grin on my face turned into a smirk. I'm sure he's a good guy, despite his steely face.

"What is it?"

"No, I just thought that Leon-san is really kind."

"Shut it. Hurry up and clean yourself up; if you aren't done by the time I come back, I'll fuck you then and there."

He threw the bathhouse key to me.

"You can bathe yourself, right? I'm going to eat and have a meeting with Heinz now, so get in while you can."

"Oh, thank you for everything."

Since there are no women here, naturally there are no women's baths. I can’t use the communal baths, so Leon offered to let me use his private bath.

"Rina-chan is going to be violated after her bath? That's hot."

Silence fell, and I felt a gaze on my back. Was this Heinz's voice?

"You bastard!"

"Leon won't go for me; he doesn't have those kinds of disgusting tastes."

I denied it for the sake of Leon's honor.

"Well, I don't think there's anything so wrong about liking those kinds of things. And Rina, although you're hiding it, aren't your boobs actually pretty big?"

"Hee!"

I jumped back in panic when Heinz nearly groped my breasts from behind. This guy made jokes like these quite often, so you could never be too careful.

"Don't joke around, I'll seriously kill you...!"

"Well then, Rina dear, go take a bath, we have a meeting later. See ya!"

Heinz waved his free hand in the air, slinging his other arm over Leon's shoulder.