“G-good morning, Enfi.”
She felt her throat dry out as she said that.
“Morning, Ani-san.”
“Ah, good morning, Kai… Kaijali-san… Huh, it’s morning already? I was working so hard I didn’t notice. Seeing the sun makes me realize how the time just flew by… ahhh, I’ve been doing so many experiments recently, I need to get out of the house.”
Nfirea stretched like a cat and yawned.
“Looks like you’ve been burning the midnight oil, huh―”
Enri was about to add “breakfast’s ready, come over with your Obaa-chan”, but Nfirea interrupted.
Or rather, instead of saying he interrupted her, it might be better to say that she was overwhelmed by his boyish enthusiasm.
“It’s amazing, Enri!”
Nfirea rushed up to her. His work clothes reeked of that same stinging odor which filled the rest of the house. Although Enri wanted very much to back away from him, she forced herself to endure it, because Nfirea was her dear friend.
“What, what happened, Enfi?”
“You’ve got to hear this! We finally managed to perfect the procedure for brewing a new type of potion. This is going to change the world! Even though all we did was to mix the herbs that we gathered into the solution, we managed to produce a purple potion!”
The only reply he received was a “Hah?”
Enri had no idea how this was amazing. Was the potion purple because they infused purple cabbage into it?
“And it can cure wounds! The healing speed’s on par with alchemically-refined potions!”
Enri raised his hands, showing off his delicate, slender arms that were unmarred by injury. Enri thought, “I have bigger biceps than he does”, but Nfirea didn’t stop there.
“Which is to say!”
“Yes, yes, that’s wonderful, tell us about it later.”
Kaijali spoke as he took a step forward.
“Ani-san here looks like he’s been sleeping too little and partying too hard. Maybe he’s high or something? Ane-san, let me take care of this. Why don’t you go back first?”
“Will it be all right?”
“Sure it will. I’ll splash some cold water on his face and when he calms down, I’ll bring him over. If you take too long, others will get worried. Say, what about Obaa-chan?”
“Obaa-chan’s still got her head buried in her research… I don’t think she’ll be coming for breakfast.
I’m sorry, you went through all this trouble to prepare breakfast for us…”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I was thinking that Lizzie-sama would probably be doing that.”
Situations like these had come up quite a few times already, so that wasn’t a surprise.
“Then, Ane-san, you should head back first.”
With that said, there was nothing to do but leave.
“Then, I’ll leave him to you.”
As he watched Enri leave, Kaijali turned a cold stare on Nfirea.
“Do you know what you just did? The only time a girl listens to a man talking about what he likes is if she likes the person. If she doesn’t like that person, then that blabbering’s only going to turn her off!”
“…I’m sorry, I just thought that since we made that amazing discovery… but it was really amazing!
Revolutionary, even!”
Kaijali interrupted the motor-mouthed rant with a chopping motion. Clearly, Nfirea had not gotten the message he was trying to convey.
“Look, Ani-san. Are you alright with this? You’re in love with Ane-san, aren’t you?”
Nfirea replied with an “Mm,” and nodded his head vigorously.
“Then you have to make her the most important person in your heart. More important than your potions.”
“…I get it. I’ll try.”
“Do, or do not. There is no try. You need to win her heart. Me and the rest of the lads will do our best to support you. Plus, it’s not just us, even imouto-san agreed to help you out. I hope you get yourself together and do your part, Ani-san.”
“Mmm…”
“If you’re just waiting for her to say “I like you” first, then more likely than not, someone else is going to snatch her away! You’ve got to work up the courage to tell her how you really feel.”
That line pierced Nfirea’s heart like a dagger between the ribs.
“Still, despite everything I said, looks like you’ve been doing pretty well on that front yourself, Ani-san. Used to be you couldn’t even say a word in front of her. Now you can carry on a normal conversation, right?”
“That was because I didn’t have much chance to talk with Enri unless I came around to gather herbs… Now that I’ve moved into the village, I’m around her a lot more.”
“That’s it, that’s the spirit. All that’s left is to gather your courage and step up to the plate. Maybe you should show off your strength first. According to the villagers, strong men are still the most popular. Well, for the forty-nine year old women in the village, anyways.”
“I’m not too confident in my arm strength. Maybe I should do more farm work or something?”
“Nah, what you should be using is this, Ani-san,” Kaijali spoke while gently knocking on his head.
“Settle things with this. And then work your magic. If me or one of the lads think what you said was good, we’ll pose like this. That’s when you’re going to say or do something that’ll make her fall for you instantly.”
Kaijali posed to show off his shoulder muscles. They bulged mightily under his skin.
“Kinda like that. And if you need a more impressive demonstration…”
Next, Kaijali flexed his pectorals. Although he was quite short, his athletic, muscular body attested to the fact that he was a born warrior.
Nfirea wondered Why these kind of poses? But he couldn’t actually say that, because he’d already accepted Kaijali’s goodwill. Still, there was one question he wanted to ask.
“I… I’m curious, why are you guys doing this? I mean, I know you’re Enri’s subordinates and you’re loyal to her, but I don’t understand why you’re helping me.”
“Well, that’s simple,” Kaijali replied with an inscrutable expression on his face. In a tone better suited to coaxing little kids to behave, he replied, “That’s because we all want Ane-san to be happy.
And from where we’re looking, you fit the bill. So the faster you two get married, the better.”
“N-no need for such a rush! T-the two of us can slowly reduce the distance between us, right?”
“…Wrong, actually. I mean, don’t humans take a long time between getting pregnant and having kids?”
Nfirea’s eyes went wide and his face turned bright red as the conversation suddenly jumped to the ultimate expression of male-female relationships in the form of pregnancy.
“T-that would be about nine months?”
“Hm, then it would take a really long time for about ten pups ― I mean, ten kids, right?”