Volume 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4

☆ John Shepherdspie

Mages tended to have a strong tendency to weaken their food and drink intake, regardless of their old age, and there are even those who think that the pleasure of consu other than nutrition!” “You shouldn’t waste your ti!” “You should use that tis is like living in a culture of lazy pigs!” There were plenty of those who badmouthed it, and not many of the close was “If you create food with ic was equal to auto machines, you’d need human hands for the delicate balance and innovations

Shepherdspie was a siood”

The phrase Whatever is delicious is good echoed in Shepherdspie’s head He opened his eyelids and saw the light fro?

Ah, that’s right Whatever was delicious was good He needed to act for the sake of these delicious things He can’t just keep laying down here Shepherdspiehis elbow on the bed This is ue than a simple one When he fell down, his injuries were only bruises, and he didn’t have any broken bones Then was this dae not physical, but mental?

There was certainly a huge mental shock However, there was no way he could lay down forever Shepherdspie had responsibilities He took off his blanket

He prepared for the day Preparation wasn’t painful Exercise, studying,that the half-hearted Shepherdspie had any passion for was food and cuisine He lifted his body

There were a lot of ingredients that have been exaetables, meat and bones of boars, pheasants, fish, and in addition to these food ingredients, there was beef steak, beef bones, celeries, green onions, bouquet garni He ordered redients It was delicious Not to mention beautiful True cuisine is beautiful even when it’s still only ingredients

Ah, hoonderful

He sliced theit Delicately, and sometimes boldly, craftsic… No, instead of craftsmanshi+p, he should refer to this as a creative activity, rooted in funda his eyes to the extreolden color, the aer Soups and sauces, so called essences of food tortured the cook with how much it couldn’t be preserved, but if you placed it in this cabinet, it could keep being in the state as if it were ic at some points, but it wasn’t sihts of ‘cuisine’ He wasn’t just souests

I must pour in all the skills I’ve learned

Shepherdspie increased his own mood He lifted his body off of his bed

Every effort should also bethe menu

Since there are older folks, he should avoidheavily oiled food, but since there are children as well, he should have so and ice cream as candidates for the petite voile There were cohlyto the casually He chose a mass apple brandy with a low amount of alcohol that looked like antique wine For the children, he focused and chose several kinds of fruit juices No intrusions, no interruptions, only then can his cooking truly rise A chef also has the sense to the meals before they cook

Yes… There are… There are people waiting on me as a chef

He gritted his teeth as he stood up He placed his hand on his knees, straightening it

Since this wasn’t a traditional course meal, he was free to pick the menu The food that Shepherdspie loved the most, the self-named ‘Shepherd’s Pie’, was a little too hoes, but fine if served in a buffet style meal There were plenty of mashed potatoes, and also… the Shepherd’s Pie also used beef—actually it used sheep meat, which Shepherdspie loved, but since Merry was here this time, he had to think of her too—meat, Époisses, smoked bacon with Naki cherry chips, just a touch of olive oil, and some fresh cream for some hidden taste

Hmhmhm, Fuhahahaha

Just i it made him drool endlessly It’ll be delicious He could bet all of his wealth on it Shepherdspie had that kind of confidence Those who speak of it will only speak praises It’s not that Shepherdspie respects or loves the guests It’s not that he wanted to put hiain pleasure from them However, he would like some praise As Shepherdspie had excellent skills in the field of cuisine, he’d like to get praised for it Applause, ovations, tributes, surprised cheers He wanted so like that

He took off his nightcap, putting on a robe on top of his sleepwear He raised and lowered his legs which see him a lot, and approached the door, he unlocked the door, opened it, and saw light, a dazzling light Shepherdspie narrowed his eyes, covering theht as if the sunlight itself was showing a prosperous future-

“Huh?”

He said it out loud The light also had a reason to be here For soht, there were still parts of it re However, it would barely fit the role of a wall It was exposing unbearable ht of the sun fro as well If he looked up, he could see that not one, not two, but three floors above him had disappeared Due to the wind, he unconsciously shi+vered, placing his hands on the wall, but he stopped just before that If he grabbed the wall as it is now, it’d probably collapse

Shepherdspie quietly shut the door behind him His mind was the opposite of static, but if he emotionally shut the door, it hly fro left Since what used to be a as now aup had been done He placed his hand on his head How long had he been asleep? What happened while he was asleep to cause this?

Restraining his broken mind and body, Shepherdspie headed for the kitchen He walked as close to the walls as he could, but he couldn’t even do that It was too dangerous

The surrounding trees have been pushed down The entrance to the base had collapsed in the hallway Were two Mages locked in battle, or was there an explosion?

Oh, that’s right The guests

Were the guests that caation to keep his guests safe Then, he reical Girls Were Chelsea and Merry safe? Immediately after that, Shepherdspie’s body shi+vered, his abdohs Chelsea and Merry were fine, he thought as he believed he orrying too h possibility that those two may have caused this destruction—Shepherdspie shook his head left and right He stroked his hair, onceahead Chelsea did crash the floor, she did push Shepherdspie downstairs, but she hasn’t done anything this bad before At least, she hasn’t broken anything deliberately

While denying it in his head, that thought still won’t disappear It was like a burn at the bottom of a cocotte, it wouldn’t disappear no matter what

“Aah! Shepherdspie-San!”

Waving her hands running around, there was a human woman What was the name of the outfits that let your ankles show? He was a sure a movie used that na dirty, the girl with the white dress had her sleeves broken She tied up her hair aves behind her, did she nore was around the 20s Her fingers were long and her fingernails were tri on them

Shepherdspie narrowed his eyes He was asha a woical Girls, the figure of women was artistic without exception, that was also reflected in the cooking that Shepherdspierepetitively, the woman stopped just shortly before hi so heavily that she couldn’t talk She had her hands on both knees, panting As Shepherdspie breathed in shortly, she would already be breathing out 10 times more

“Merry?”

“Huh!? H-Ho did you know!?”

The girl was surprised, stumbled, and fell on her butt Shepherdspie should point at her, but he thought that’d be too inappropriate The girl stood up, tapping her pu the mud that stuck to it The mud on her shoes was already dry, so she probably didn’t notice it until she fell down

“So you’re… Pastel Merry, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right… I-I can’t transforht now, see? How did you know?”

Well firstly, her attitude was the saers while she earing the dress of a beautiful girl, which doesn’t really tell that she’s an artist who draws pictures but it does give the i, then she called him Shepherdspie-San, which only convinced him further But now is not the time to explain that bit by bit He’s had bad reactions when he bragged about things like this in the past before, so without revealing his reasons, Shepherdspie lied

“Lucky guess”

“Huh!?”

“Also, it’s the way you fell”

“Please don’t distinguish me like that”

“That’s your own fault You told ical Girl”

Shepherdspie looked down at Merry

“It hasn’t changed by a lot”

“It’s changed a little bit!”

“The other Magical Girls changed a lot You don’t see the around everywhere, do you?”

“You can’t see the changes from the outside!”

She’show you couldn’t see fro, he nodded on how shameful it’d be On the other hand, excuses like this were important to learn from

Shepherdspie took a deep breath He was surprised at how he had the energy to talk Or rather, since he had his hands full—of wasteful things—he had no time to be in pain

“Well none of that ht now”

“Oh, that’s right! We’re in trouble! We’re in big trouble!”

“I can see that”

“No, Itrouble!”

So there’s an even bigger proble destroyed while he was out? He didn’t want to think about it However, Shepherdspie had to listen

“What happened exactly…”

“All the Mages collapsed, all the Magical Girls detransformed!”

That was probably why Shepherdspie wasn’t feeling so good Was it a disease? Was it a gas leak? Or was there another cause? He reh to say he was completely familiar with this island

“Shepherdspie-San, do you… not knohy this happened?”

“No, or rather, I don’t quite understand myself”

“I know you said the ic may have malfunctioned?”

“When n of it… Ah The explosion”

“Did so leak out?”

“I don’t think so, but…”

In terical Items in the warehouse of the manor It’s just for inventory, but Shepherdspie, asn’t an expert, had no idea what the effects of all those iteher the objects will be, even now there s that haven’t been shown from them

“Is the collapse confined to here only?”

“Uhh, you could see the range from here”

So the warehouse should be safe So the Magical Items couldn’t be the one that caused this, but he wouldn’t disic

“If you could, I’d like to get opinions from the experts”

“But I told you, everyone’s collapsed!”

“It’s that bad?”

“Well, there’s one boy The other Mages just groan and struggle Soical Girls were headed to the Gates to look for help… Oh wait, you’re walking just fine, Shepherdspie-San, aren’t you? But aren’t you a Mage?”

Though he was lazy, it wasn’t enough toThis was also thanks to his fat Or maybe it was because of his obsession with cuisine When he thought of the word cuisine, Shepherdspie raised his head

“That’s right… The food”

“The Mages can’t eat right now, but detransforht we should fill our bellies before we investigate the island, and there was food in the kitchen so… That’s okay, right?”

She laid that all on Shepherdspie Causing his body to collapse hard He was dizzy Did this woman just say that she took the food in the kitchen? If she’s saying what she’s saying then—Shepherdspie ran Actually, he only thought that he ran Since his body had to respond to his mind, he ran quite fast, but it was sudden Froirl’s voice called out

“Shepherdspie-San, everyone’s asking if you know anything! If you do, please tell me! Can you hear me!? Shepherdspie-Saaa-”

The chasing girl screa on the floor

She probably tripped on soain, somehow Shepherdspie did not turn around, and obviously, didn’t lend a hand Ingredients were just ingredients, it wasn’t just food He took all his trouble thinking of how to make fond and bouillon, he didn’t intend for them to be eaten just like that He wanted to ical Girls ruined it

Shepherdspie loved cooking, he respected people that e He was not a philanthropist nor was he a humanist, he hated stupid and desperate people People who handled food poorly, people who had to be ta Because of this, he didn’t particularly like Magical Girls who didn’t need food, but he shouldn’t hate them because they didn’t need to eat or drink, he should hate the person whoup the wrong tree However,blasphemous acts on food was another problem entirely

Footsteps followed fro sound Shepherdspieback He opened the kitchen door, there was so inside the pot, kneeling and e pan full of Bouillon was noonderfully gone The vegetables were packed in a bag Did she use them all up too? There were still some sauces in the stacked dishes on the table He could still smell it Canned tomato sauce Since it was already there, he couldn’t properly check its taste, commercial sauce had no adjust used for food Once more, there was an “Aah” voice

“AAAH! You’re still here!?”

The footsteps that followed hi so Shepherdspie She raised her face indignantly The self-proclairy look on her face as she looked down She was looking at so at thanks to theshe was looking at put her hand on the table and slowly stood up The girl facing the dishes was a wo her own body with a soup bowl She was familiar It was Dreamy☆Chelsea’s detransformed state

The bathrobe girl had soup on her right hand and a spoon on her left, sheface

“It’s not what it looks like! This isn’t my fault!”

“Whether it’s your fault or not isn’t the proble’s happened to the others, we can’t just sit around and be lazy, can we? But Chelsea-San, you always go back to the kitchen and eat soup when there’s tio!?”

“But I need my nutrition”

“Don’t you think other people need their lunch too?”

“I have bad metabolism”

“That’s far too unreasonaAAAH! The soup is gone! You ate all of them!?”

“I can’t help it, this soup’s just so deliciou… Ah, Shepherdspie-Kun!”

She raised her head frorinned Like a victim who found an oasis in the desert, there was a joyful look on her face

“This soup’s super delicious, right? It’s the best! I’ve never had anything that transcended deliciousness! It’s great! Hey, tell et home”

“At least cook it yourself…”

“But my mom’s a better cook”

“Well, okay, but that wasn’t what I meant”

The bathrobe girl spoke She talked about how delicious the soup was About how she couldn’t live if she couldn’t eat this soup again She talked about how if this soup was here, she’d be full of energy Merry y, ”

Every tiirl praised him, Shepherdspie’s cheeks loosened, and before he knew it, he was s His heart was filled with satisfaction He drew up a chair and sat on it, looking tired His face was reflected on the glass cupboard’s door, he looked calh he’d be perfectly fine of dying as he is right noas certainly not the best time to die

☆ Kotori Nanaya

This was a very bad Recently, whether in work or in private, she’d be disical Girl However, with her transforone, her pre-transformation clothes would just be even more unnecessary, she had no makeup, her hair hadn’t been set properly, she wasn’t even wearing shoes, she assuical Girl, so Kotori beca to be her funeral She wasn’t preparing to detransfor to an island so she brought a bathing suit, but ould she wear so like that now? Besides, it was meant to fit 7753, so it wouldn’t fit her

Everyone else earing school unifor for people too, but they wore outdoor clothes as well Even the maid outfit wasn’t that bad, since that’s technically work clothes Basically, everyone was formal

The only one with nopajamas was only 7753—Kotori Nanaya The others will probably reical Girl” However, Kotori, ould probably faint at a situation like this, didn’t do so, as the situation was far too tense

By soical Girls had detransformed All she could do was express a confused look, the other Magical Girls who looked to be more dependable than Kotori were firm, but they also looked confused Even if you were to ask the Mages, the ones ould know the i, and the closest one to that, Navi, have both lost consciousness Yol’s eyelids were fluttering about, Agri and Mana were soh their symptoms were different, all of them were practically unable to move There was one exception, Touta see perfectly fine, but asking and relying on what seemed to be an ordinary elementary schooler was out of the question

Their powers as a Mage—though seeer of their life—were in serious condition Although the Magical Girls were still able to ical abilities that they used to take for granted were unusable Now they were just a group of women stranded on an island with beasts

Although they were joined by two Magical Girls orked at the place, they also didn’t knoas happening They don’t even know anything about the island, and the person as supposed to know so is fast asleep and hasn’t awoken Since she felt worried, she couldn’t even taste the deliciousness of the meal that she ate, but she still ate them for now

She orried for Mana too She orried for Tepsekeather here, but since Tepsekemei’s a turtle, it’d be difficult for her Not to e island like this would be another problem entirely If she detransforhts there and shook her head

—She’ll be fine, she’ll be fine, she’ll be fine Mei is strong That’s e brought her here…

Nephilia, Love Me Ren-Ren, Rareko, and a fourth girl wielded a fire hook, a knife, a shovel, and a crowbar respectively, heading outside and ai for the Gates They plan to use the Gates to return to the outside world and seek help, Dreaate the es in the annex Then there was Clantail and Clarissa Toothedge, the two of them couldn’t rely on their physique The only one who they could rely on were Miss Margarite and… herself

She looked down at what she had The haht from theOn her left hand was the lid of a pot Since both of theiven these to protect froical Girl she was bad at violence, what good would carpentry and cooking tools be? Just thinking about it s and stoical Girl, her emotions would be happier, but she can’t even do that now

Ever since the B-City incident, the tiical Girl outside of work increased Her habits of shopping for things when she was detransforet her hair set were all gone She’d re the incident, then she’d just be hounded with painful ical Girl, that pain could be relaxed

That may have been an escape for her Kotori couldn’t deny it Since she was always close with Tepsekemei, who escaped B-City, there’s no way she couldn’t re excuses Whether Tepsekemei was here or not, that incident will always be in her head

They weren’t allowed to leave the island Kotori was afraid as a hu about Tepsekemei asn’t here and Mana who had collapsed, all she could do was stare at the annex

“Um”

She turned around to see a girl in pigtails standing with glasses She couldn’t tell if she had an expression or not Her body size suggested a ested a h school first year, but she was definitely calmer than Kotori on the outside

“You’re… Clantail, right?”

It’s strange to use Magical Girl names when they were a hu it would be stranger, so she’d have to use her Magical Girl name

“So?”

“Called”

She was a girl of feords There was no subject nor object in her sentence But then Kotori began to think So for her

“Wait a minute, could I trust you to stay here, just for a bit?”

Clantail nodded her head, Kotori hurriedly ran into the hallway, she opened the door widely On the sofa, the Mages were laid down li in their own rooms and beds, but because of the limited amount of people they had, they had to be able to watch all 4 of these Mages together, so they had to lay them all down in the hallway sofa with blankets

A girl with a skirt looked this way, pointing her thuirl, the action looked quite strange, but thinking of her original forlish-print T shi+rt looked at her, before going back to work to fan the older Mages She wasn’t e, but she was considerably different in dignity She passed by Touta, iping away the sweat rolling off Navi’s forehead, going towards the innerirl

“Mana?”

“I have a request…”

She was speaking painfully Just watching it was painful, she wanted to tell her to si in the or in pain She had the eyes of a person with an objective

“My room”

Mana breathed out Her words were choppy and few, but she breathed out a lot Kotori placed her ear close to Mana’s mouth

“Take me to… My room”

“Are you okay?”

“Medicine is e…”

“Oh, then I’ll just bring your luggage here”

“Don’t!”

It was a clear denial Her voice was as loud as she could make it Kotori had toback at her Mana’s expression was resolute, e her decision

Kotori coughed out once, she took Mana’s ar her on her shoulders, but didn’t have the strength to do it So she turned Mana’s arhs, and finally lifted her She wasn’t confident in her physical strength, but Mana looked light, she could at least take her close enough to her room

“Hey wait, where are you going?”

She heard a voice from behind her and turned around

“Mana’s luggageto check it out”

She replied back She could sense that she was arite

“Wouldn’t it be better to grab the luggage and not move her around with you?”

“Mana doesn’t like ordering people to erous et mixed up”

When she was near Touta, she could sense that he stood up

“I uh… I wanna help you”

Now Touta wants to help She was grateful for his kindness, but she really doesn’t want to be followed now

“It’s fine, it’s fine I’er than I look”

She walked slightly h, she could feel people headed towards her back When Kotori heard the footsteps of a child walking across the carpet, she trembled

“Oh uh, Mana doesn’t like to be touched by other people”

Then she continued on, “Itime before I could touch her” She sensed that he stopped behind her, went back to where he cas, Kotori apologized in herthan before If Tepsekemei’s questions were too hard to answer, she’d explain itthe B-City Incident, she never contacted her about her dealings with Pythie Frederica in the Human Resources Division She orthless

Inside the hall, there was enough space for the winds to blow, outside the hall, she carried Mana, as breathing heavily Although Mana’s weight was light, a human body was literally too heavy for Kotori, who never exercised, to carry She opened the door to her rooh out, soon she can place Mana on the bed Mana’s suitcase was a black boston bag and a dark gray suitcase, it wasn’t girlish, but it was Mana-ish alright

“Is this the one? This one?”

She pointed at a suitcase, following the instructions of Mana while she was still lying down—like nodding—before opening it Kotori checked once, and took out a brown plastic case fro She pried open the case fasteners She wasn’t used to using her hands as tools, and so she was nervous, wiping away the sweat on her cheeks Inside the 10x15 cether Mana’s instructions weren’t over yet Other than aes that were prepared as well Mana tried to raise her own body with her arms that were like sticks, Kotori immediately tried to help in a panic

Kotori followed the instructions of the glasses-wearing Mana—who sounded like a buzzing mosquito—as she raised herself up, she rolled up her robe sleeves, tightening up her left arm with a rubber tube From now one, Kotori couldn’t do what she asked Mana broke the ae, and had it absorb all of the aht the syringe closer to her ar her arm with the tube, she pierced her blood vessel The piston extruded, reducing the semi-transparent liquid, eventually, most of it went inside her body Since Kotori couldn’t stop her, she just looked She didn’t knohether this was good or bad Once, Mana had used ical Girl Afterwards, she lost consciousness, and was then im as last tiht the same

Mana slowly lifted her chin, looking up at the ceiling She opened heras she was shi+vering in the cold Mana breathed out everything at once, and looked at Kotori hat looks to be a refreshed face, her cheeks were filled with color once again Kotori breathed a deep sigh and grabbed both of Mana’s shoulders

“Are you okay? Do you feel weird? Let’s not take any more suspicious medicine, okay?”

In the blink of an eye, Mana’s eyes, ere fresh before, became cloudy She shook off Kotori’s hands

“Stop worrying about me!”

“But I have to worry You were hospitalized last time, remember?”

“That’s a different kind of medicine This one’s just for nutrition”

“Just for nutrition… That’s exactly what soerous medicine would say”

“Why would I even lie to you? This really is just for nutrition I should mention that it’s not for physical nutrition, this is for replenishi+ng y”

“Magical energy?”

“The Mages collapsed because their ical Girls detransforht? Here, try some”

She re up the cherabbed onto Kotori’s aro of Mana’s

“What are you doing? Please don’t do that”

“It’s not poison Look, if you can go back to being a Magical Girl, then the cause of all of this would be clear”

Mana held Kotori’s wrist strong enough that it felt al injected before, but she can’t exactly refuse this Honestly, not wanting to be injected ic for her childhood