Astarte’s Knight Chapter 10

“Good morning, Rinne-san!” (Blood)

I exclaimed in front of a room on the residential floor.
I was currently in an exceptionally special part of the castle.
Apparently, the floor was originally for guests, but now the entire floor was being rented out to a certain, graciously endowed “lady”.

After my voice rang out, I heard a racket coming from inside of the room.
It seems like I woke someone up?
I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have been so annoying.
However, a countermeasure had already been prepared!

Before long, I heard a voice through the door.

“Huh? It’s still morning?” (Rinne)

It was the grumpy voice of a repeat acquaintance. There was no mistaking the voice of the woman with the white lab coat.
I filled my lungs with air and let my voice blast out from my chest.

“Rinne-san! Good morning! Chissu!” (Blood)

I belted out in my best imitation of an athlete’s voice, crossing both of my hands diligently behind my back and sticking my chest out.
The proper p.r.o.nunciation was also mimicking the local baseball team’s players!
I was the type that did everything using the correct form.

When faced by a healthy baseball boy’s spirits like this, most people would listen to a favor .
High school baseball players were not disliked by women.
First of all, even if they refused, you could avoid creating an awkward atmosphere, or causing mental damage to oneself, by using a loud voice.
…Like you care!!

Gacha.

Rinne-san opened the door knowing it was me, the rookie.

“Blood-kun? What do you want so early in the morning?” (Rinne)

“I’m sorry! I have a favor to…”(Blood)

Big-breasted.

A view that was slightly too intense appeared before me.
A dress shirt and underwear.
“That was all of the clothing Rinne-san was wearing.” With that, the brief description ended.

Moreover, it was a willful image, with the shirt seemingly on the brink of bursting.
I’ll support them instead?

Chest, waist, legs. Chest, waist, legs…
Useless, you know there’s nowhere to look.
Since it was rude, I looked away from Rinne-san.
Considering the stigma that s.e.xual hara.s.sment carried, if a new employee was seen staring…

However, it seemed that Rinne-san was unaware of my troubles.

“What, sweety?” (Rinne)

“Oh, yea. Actually, I wanted to search for a way to extend my time in my humanoid state. If Rinne-san knows any details or if there is a secret tool…” (Blood)

I came here in order to discover a method.

As it was, I had to waste six hours every day.
It was a fatal weakness with the huge amount of work I was stuck with.
Whether or not the Count noticed me would depend on if I could utilize those six hours effectively.

Just like the young people that stay up all night, I would be staying up all night as well.

If this person created me, then I think she would know something.
I mean, she was the only one that worked on the monsters.

“Oh, that kind of thing…” (Rinne)

Rinne-san replied while thinking of something with her index finger on her chin.

It might have been because of the rule that “If a girl is tossed into a boy’s school, she will be popular even if she’s ugly,” but this person was also a considerable beauty, right?
I think there are a lot of guys who would fall with just that gesture.
I would probably fall for that too.

“There is.” (Rinne)

“Seriously? Thank you!” (Blood)

“Wait a bit.” (Rinne)

Rinne-san said before going back into the room.
She returned immediately.

“Here, look at this.” (Rinne)

A vial filled with purple liquid was seated in the palm of Rinne-san’s hand.
I think I knew what that dangerous looking-thing was, but…

“It’s a magic replenishing item…well, it’s something like a vitamin.” (Rinne)

“Vitamin pills.” (Blood)

It didn’t seem like it could pa.s.s as coffee…
I felt that it was like a teacher from a certain manga in elementary school…

“In short, you revert to your original form when your energy expires. This will forcefully provide you with energy.” (Rinne)

“How much longer can I remain in my humanoid form with this?” (Blood)

“It extends the limit by one hour per day.” (Rinne)

“Is there another way?” (Blood)

“There isn’t. Anything more would be unreasonable and cause you to break. If that’s what you intend, then I’ll gladly refuse to help.” (Rinne)

About an hour…
My shoulders slumped.
I had secretly been hoping to be able to move for the full 24 hours.
I came prepared for body modification or something similar, but…

Still, thank goodness.
After all, it wasn’t impossible to get more work done with an extra hour.
This was going to be a good harvest.

“So, be grateful!” (Rinne)

After she said that, I reached for the vial.

With a ‘swish’, she retracted the vial.

“Huh?” (Blood)

“When did I say ‘free’?” (Rinne)

“…How much do you want?” (Blood)

“I don’t need money. I want to study the extent of decay. I want to research the material, in other words, you.” (Rinne)

“…Even dissection is fine, I guess? And hey, the material won’t disappear immediately if you do that. Though, I always thought that the only time I would get an autopsy was when I died.” (Blood)

“HAHAHA! Come here occasionally so that I can collect some good data. Yeah, this is bullying. Too bad.” (Rinne)

That was precisely when I received the vial.

“Also, try to drink it right away.” (Rinne)

“Okay.” (Blood)

Goku~tsu (Gulp)

I was astounded by the taste.

Not too sweet and not too spicy. It was bland, or rather, it had a sticky feeling that wrapped around the throat and the gross part stuck around like an impudent religious solicitation…

It was terrible.
My face convulsed involuntarily.
If the taste could be expressed with words–

“It tastes like a Pocari Sweat that was left standing at room temperature and then diluted with water…doesn’t it!?” (Blood)

“What is Pocari Sweat?” (Rinne)

“Uooooooo!!” (Blood)

Hisss!

I grabbed a mop and ran down the corridor.

“How noisy, clean quitely.” (?)

“Yes! Pardon me!” (Blood)

Slowly, slowly.

“Please do clean up quickly.” (?)

“Yes! Pardon me!” (Blood)

Hisss!

“Clean quietly!” (?)

All in all, a few days have pa.s.sed since then.
I’ve been ordered to complete a variety of ch.o.r.es since then, but I have yet to satisfy the count completely.
After the first day, I managed to complete them without Sebastian’s help, but it was difficult.
There was a barrage of mistakes.

Day Two: didn’t differ much from the first day.
Day Three: was the only day I was scolded abusively.
Day Four: the number of times I was scolded decreased slightly.

On day five, I vividly felt that the status quo had changed.

I finished all the work without delay in the given margin of time before I ‘reverted.’

The next day was even easier, to the extent that it would be possible to chat with Astarte all night.

Abruptly, at noon of day six, I tried to talk to the count while he was eating lunch.

“Count-sama, would you like some scones after the meal?” (Blood)

I offered while holding out scones, even though they weren’t originally offered that day.
I had unreasonably asked the cook to make them.
The frog-man in the dining room couldn’t refuse my request since he was ranked below me.

“Oh, I accept. I usually eat these on the weekend…” (Count)

The count who had been thinking, said so.

“Blood.” (Count)

“Yes.” (Blood)

“Why do you have those?” (Count)

“Huh?” (Blood)

The Count questioned in disbelief.

“I know that Sebastian prepares these due to our long relationship. The dining room’s cook won’t prepare them like Sebastian, but why would you prepare a scone that you haven’t been asked to prepare?” (Count)

“It was calculated.” (Blood)

“Calculated?” (Count)

“Count-sama ate the scones from the dining room 52 times this past year. Once a week, that is. Particularly during the weekend. Seven days earlier, when dashi was served, the count was ‘not in the mood.’ The Count hasn’t eaten scones in seven days. I wondered if you would like to eat some soon, so I took my chances.” (Blood)

“You…No way, you remember all the courses?” (Count)

“Huh? Yes, generally.” (a lie) (Blood)

“……Did you just insolently imitate it?” (Count)

“No way…” (Blood)

I worshiped the unusually goofy face that the count momentarily displayed.

Really, the first day’s scone disposal left a strong impression.
Now then, to casually gather information.
It’s great that today’s meal and the Count’s preferences matched up, you fool!
However, it seemed to have largely influenced the Count’s impression of me.

It took me a week, but I was able to complete most of the orders.
Just a little while ago, I was able to afford the time to pay such attention to detail.

However, there was a job I still couldn’t stomach.
It was chess.
It couldn’t be helped, since it hadn’t been very long.

I read the chess rule book every time there was even a little time to spare.
Every day before reverting, I set up the board, the pieces, and the rule book on the desk and trained for six hours without fail.

Thankfully, I was slowly catching up to the count.
I was impatient, and he secretly picked up on that.
Now that we were no longer at the stage of praising each other, I have earned complete recognition just by losing in chess.

And the next day, day eight.
It was the day I finally defeated the count in chess.

“Check!”

【Rinne’s Research Journal】
Name: Pocari Sweat
Race: Beverage
Rank: Unmeasurable
Skill: Magic Replenishment
Remarks: A beverage from a different world which, if left for three days at room temperature and diluted with water, can obtain the same effect as the magic replenishing material I developed. Moreover, such a thing has been circulated at a low cost. Hard to believe, but I would like to try it once if such a thing exists.