Not a barbarian warrior.

The creature took the pie from Eugene and took a bite. Then, a savory butter aroma spread in its mouth. The texture of the crispy outer part crumbling was also excellent. It was enough to make its eyes close involuntarily.

The problem came next. When the filling inside the pie touched its tongue, an indescribable horror erupted.

Something sour, salty, sweet, spicy, bitter… and even astringent recklessly destroyed the creature’s tongue. Its eyes reflexively widened. This was absolutely not something that could be eaten.

The creature looked at Eugene with a tearful face. Soon, chicken-dropping-like tears fell from its moist eyes.

“Oh dear…”

While Eugene watched with a sympathetic gaze, the creature couldn’t spit out the pie in its mouth and could only chew very slowly.

After a long time passed without it being able to swallow, Eugene said:

“If it’s hard to eat, you can spit it out.”

“…!”

As soon as the creature heard those words, it hurriedly spat out everything in its mouth. Not satisfied with that, it sat down on the spot and retched. Eugene slowly approached and patted its back.

“Uu… Uweeek…”

“I told you not to eat it…”

The creature accepted Eugene’s touch without any wariness. Holding its stomach with its hands, it panted for a while, unable to get up even after throwing up what was inside.

Only after drinking the water Eugene offered and rinsing its mouth several times did the creature barely manage to get up, steadying its body.

‘How hungry must it have been…’

As Eugene looked on with pitiful eyes, the creature put its hand into its lush beard made of tree vines. After searching for something, it took out a yellow blooming flower and held it out to Eugene.

“…Are you giving this to me?”

The creature nodded. For some reason, gratitude was visible on its face.

“Hmm… I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but I’ll accept it gratefully.”

Eugene continued speaking as he received the gift:

“Oh right, the remaining pie…”

The creature carefully wrapped the pie with the bite mark and returned it to Eugene. Its eyes were asking him to take back this horrible thing.

“…Alright.”

Eugene carefully put the pie the creature had handed back, along with the flower, into his backpack.

After confirming this, the creature waved its hand in farewell and hastily left the place.

“Farewell.”

After watching the creature disappear, Eugene shouldered his backpack again and moved on.

As if keeping its promise, he didn’t see the same marks again after that.

As he continued forward without getting lost, he soon arrived at the place Lorena had mentioned.

Seeing a mandrake with red fruits planted at the base of a large tree, Eugene took out his dagger.

When he deeply stabbed the blade into the root buried in the soil, the mandrake shivered and then went limp. It was clearly dead to anyone who saw it.

“Good. Now I just need to dig it up carefully and bring it back.”

Eugene carefully dug up the surrounding soil, then harvested the mandrake and put it in his backpack.

Having achieved his goal, he turned back the way he came and headed down the mountain. His steps were very light.

Eugene, who had safely arrived at Lorena’s mansion, lightly knocked on the door with a neat appearance. When she opened the door and saw Eugene, she said:

“I-It seems nothing unusual happened this time…? Oh, did you bring the mandrake properly processed…?”

“It’s definitely dead, so don’t worry. And it’s not that nothing happened, but I managed to get through it well.”

Eugene went inside and took out the mandrake from his backpack to show her. Then he explained about encountering an unidentified creature on the mountain. Lorena was surprised and said:

“Th-That wasn’t a monster…”

“Then?”

“It’s a tree spirit named ‘Leshy’. It-It’s a spirit that rarely shows itself… How did you meet it…?”

“At some point in the mountain, I kept going around the same place. Suddenly it appeared behind me and demanded bread out of nowhere.”

“Ah… Th-That’s the custom of hospitality.”

“Isn’t hospitality something a host does for a guest? It was its territory, so strictly speaking, I should have been the guest. Although I was probably an uninvited one.”

“Le-Leshy often imitates humans, but tends to do so in odd ways… Like wearing shoes backwards, it might have imitated the custom of hospitality in reverse…”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“S-So what did you do…?”

“As it happened, I had a pie in my backpack. I asked if it would let me go if I gave it this, and it nodded, so I gave it.”

“The p-pie must have been greatly to its liking…”

“It ate one bite and vomited.”

“Eh…?”

Eugene briefly explained how terrible that pie was.

“A-Aren’t you exaggerating too much? How could such food exist in this world…”

When Lorena couldn’t believe it, Eugene showed her the pie with the bite mark from his backpack.

“This is that pie. It gave it back to me.”

She took the pie and examined it from various angles. There was nothing particularly strange about its appearance. Although it had cooled, when she brought it to her nose to smell, she could faintly detect a delicious aroma.

“Hmm… Eugene, you’re not teasing me, are you…?”

As Lorena unconsciously tried to taste it, Eugene quickly snatched the pie away. She asked, puzzled:

“It looks fine no matter how I look at it…? It doesn’t seem bad enough for a spirit to break its own contract…”

“Contract? I didn’t make any contract.”

“Didn’t you promise to let you pass in exchange for receiving your bread…? That’s a contract… You were lucky this time, but you should never make any contracts with spirits carelessly… Even the slightest promise, if broken, can lead to big trouble…”

“…Big trouble?”

“If you had promised but not given the bread, terrible misfortune would have befallen you… Like getting hit by a running carriage, or meeting a terrifying monster and getting seriously injured…”

“What if the spirit breaks the contract?”

“The power constituting its existence disappears… That Leshy probably won’t be able to use any abilities for a while… Did it collapse on the spot or anything?”

“It had trouble steadying itself, but not to that extent. Strictly speaking, I said I’d give it bread, not that it had to eat it. So the spirit didn’t break the contract.”

At those words, Lorena shook her head and said:

“N-No… What you gave the spirit wasn’t an object but food. The act of giving food includes the meaning that Leshy would receive and eat it… So to not break the contract, it should have eaten the entire pie…”

“What kind of forced logic is that…”

Eugene recalled the scene of Leshy eating the pie and said:

“Ah, is that why it looked at me unable to swallow…?”

“What do you mean?”

“I told it it could spit it out if it was hard to eat.”

“Ah…! That makes sense… You can nullify a contract by mutual agreement…”

Eugene showed her the flower Leshy had given him and said:

“I thought it looked grateful somehow… It gave me this and disappeared. It seems to have given it as a sign of gratitude, do you know what this is?”

As soon as Lorena saw the flower, her eyes widened and she said:

“Th-This…! It’s an evening primrose? It’s extremely rare…”

She carefully picked up the flower and examined it, then envied Eugene, saying it was a high-quality specimen.

“What’s so special about this?”

“It’s a precious plant that magicians covet. It’s full of mana, and just eating it greatly increases magical ability. One of this quality could fetch ten gold coins…?”

Eugene was surprised at those words and asked again. Ten gold coins? He couldn’t close his mouth at the unbelievable amount.

As Eugene couldn’t hide his joy, Lorena hurriedly corrected her words:

“Ah… That’s its value, but you probably can’t actually receive money for it…”

“…Why not?”

“It’s ‘food’ that ‘Leshy’ gave to ‘Eugene’.”

“Don’t tell me this is a contract too?”

“Pr-Probably… You could say it’s a reward for your kindness?”

“So there’s no way other than me eating it?”

“Yes… Unless you’re willing to bear the coming misfortune… I don’t really recommend it…”

“Getting hit by a carriage or fighting monsters?”

“N-No… Rather than that, you’re more likely to lose all the money you’d get from selling the flower… Like getting pickpocketed or meeting robbers…”

Eugene sighed deeply, greatly disappointed by Lorena’s words.

“…This is completely a white elephant.”

“A wh-white elephant?”

“It’s not really beneficial, but it’s a shame to throw away. That’s what it means. I’m not even a magician, what use would eating this be to me? But I can’t throw it away either.”

“Y-You could learn magic…”

“Who would teach me magic?”

Lorena quietly raised her finger and pointed at herself.

“Lorena, you’ll teach me?”

“It’s not impossible… But in return…”

Before she could mention the price, Eugene firmly said:

“I don’t have money.”

Lorena shook her head and opened her mouth with a slightly reddened face:

“I’ll take something else instead of money…”

Eugene thought this scene was somehow familiar.

“…What do you want to receive?”

“Instead of money, I’ll take your time, Eugene. H-How about it?”

“…?”

Eugene tilted his head, then soon realized it was what he had said to her at the tavern.

As Eugene seemed to have noticed, Lorena shyly lowered her head slightly.

“Um… It was really troublesome without you at home… It was just a day, but I realized… I don’t think I can do without you anymore…”

“…Huh?”

Eugene was flustered by her words, which he hadn’t expected at all.

Although he had taken care of her when she was sick, spoke casually, and narrowed the psychological distance, he hadn’t thought their relationship would develop to this extent.

Eugene’s mind became complicated in an instant. It was so sudden that he was just flustered, regardless of whether it was good or bad.

To such a Eugene, Lorena tried to state her conclusion without giving him time to think.

“My…”

“Wait…!”

Before Eugene could say anything, Lorena confessed.

“Please become my housekeeper…!”

“…What?”

“The h-house is getting messier and messier… It’s too overwhelming to clean alone… Besides, I couldn’t eat properly while you were gone… I-I tried to make soup, but I’m really clumsy at cooking…”

She confessed. It was incredibly difficult to do all the housework like Eugene did.

She was already busy with magic research, where would she find the time to sweep and mop the floor every day, cook three meals, and do laundry like he did?

Lorena, who had once tasted comfort in Eugene’s care, was greatly despairing. At this rate, she was sure to return to her old ways.

She didn’t want to live in a musty house again, nibbling on bits of bread. She couldn’t give up the comfort, freshness, and ease she had tasted once.

She knew well that it was impolite to ask Eugene, who was descended from the lineage of a great warrior, to do mere housework. Yet she was desperate enough to bring this up.

“…”

Eugene closed his mouth and turned his head for a moment, looking around carefully.

He had only been away from the house for a day. Long strands of hair rolled around on the floor along with dust, and in the distant kitchen, a blackened pot was left neglected.

As he let out an involuntary sigh, Lorena spoke once again with sincerity:

“…Pl-Please become my housekeeper…”

“…”

For a moment, Eugene had a strong urge to give her a flick on the forehead. He didn’t know why.