Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 5 - Chapter 4.2

As planned, dinner that day was a barbecue party hosted by the Mountaineering Club. It appears the shopping group who made the roundtrip to the nearest supermarket returned safely and on time.

Fortunately, the sky was clear. The Mountaineering Club borrowed all the barbecue grills at the boarding house they’re staying in and spread folding tables under the starry sky.

The Magic Arts Club was invited along, but their club members made preparations together with the Mountaineering Club. Pre-cooking arrangements for the girls, grilling for the boys — there was no such distribution of roles. There were boys who are also skilled with knives as well as girls good at starting charcoal fires.

Alisa and Marika were cutting vegetables side-by-side. On the other side of the two tables that were joined together, Joui was having trouble cutting up a chunk of meat.

It’s not that the shopping group was in high spirits and bought blocks of meat. Once she heard that the Mountaineering Club was holding a barbecue, Koharu asked the training institute’s frequent supplier to deliver them. With this number of people in their growth period, Koharu thought 20 kilograms of meat blocks wouldn’t be much help, but the Mountaineering Club’s President appreciated it greatly. While at it, since Joui is Koharu’s childhood friend, he was praised with a “Well done”, and received the honor of being entrusted with cutting the meat... It could also be said that they forced the hard work of processing the frozen meat onto him.

“Kagari-kun, isn’t Oscillation-type heating magic your specialty?”

Marika asked Joui, who was struggling with the large kitchen knife in his hands. To sum it up, she’s saying ‘Why don’t you defrost with magic and then cut it?’.

“The taste... of the meat... will become... bad so... heating is... forbidden.”

Gritting his teeth and straining himself, Joui replied back.

“Did the senpai forbid it?”

“That’s... right.”

The chopping board made a loud noise and a thin slice of frozen meat was cut off.

“I don’t think it will lose flavor unless you heat it too much, though...”

Alisa, next to Marika, reservedly tilted her head.

“I think so too, but you know...”

Joui took a breath and then complained.

“In the first place, I don’t think cutting is needed to grill it, we could just grill it whole with magic and then cut it. There’s no issue about the fire not reaching the inside with magic either.”

“Don’t be lazy, Joey.”

Koharu, who happened to pass by while holding a basket of vegetables, heard him and interjected.

“Sizzling the meat on a large stove. That is precisely the charm of a barbecue! The sizzling meat, the scent, the juices dripping. Improper methods like heating with magic are unacceptable!”

Koharu clenched her fist at the end to emphasize it.

“Koharu, are you a grilled meat director[7]?”

“You have to eat the vegetables you’re carrying right now too, not just the meat.”

Marika and Alisa retorted in succession.

However, there were no signs that the words from those two reached her consciousness.

Mouth-wetting fumes rose up from the six large grills. Alisa and Marika also alternated cooking duties in the grill where the first-years were all gathered.

Settled on the grill next to them were Mountaineering Club’s President Tamori, Magic Arts Club’s President of the male division Chigusa, the second-year Vice-Presidents of both clubs, as well as the graduates Leo and Erika.

The current students, including both presidents, were working harder at entertaining the graduates than they were at moving the chopsticks for themselves.

“— Chiba-senpai, please have this.”

“Ah, thank you. How thoughtful of you.”

It became that kind of situation.

“Do you love being fed by younger guys? Control yourself a little.”

Leo made a face like he was biting a bitter bug at Erika, who was acting like she was in charge.

“Eh, what? Do you want some cute junior girls to help you out?”

But instead of ignoring it and looking unconcerned, she bantered that way.

“That’s not what I’m saying. First of all, are you okay with neglecting your disciples?”

Leo, without losing his cool by every single one of Erika’s jokes, also said what he wanted to say. In this sense, they were getting along well.

“Saijou-senpai and Chiba-senpai are really close, huh?”

Looking from a distance at those two and occasionally being able to pick up on their conversation, Alisa said, sounding like she was speaking to herself.

“It appears those two were a good pair when they were attending First High.”

Mei, who was across from Alisa and Marika grilling a good balance of meat and vegetables, responded to Alisa’s comment. — The boys were sometimes booing her, asking for more meat, but Mei has been completely ignoring them until now.

“Heeh~, so they were well-known, as I thought?”

Marika asked Mei with a tone of great interest.

“My brother told me a bit ago that their grades were apparently on the bad side, but when it comes to their abilities they were already top-class in First High by the time they were second years.”

“From your brother?”

“Yes. I was a little curious so I tried asked him over the phone before we got started with the preparations for the barbecue.”

Mei’s older brother is also an alumnus of First High, he was a year above Leo and Erika. Worth noting that what Mei was ‘a little curious’ about was the Rosen-made CAD that Leo is using. Truth is that she couldn’t help but wonder about it ever since yesterday, but she didn’t know how to bring it up, so she hesitated. That is until today, when the perfect excuse, called Erika, entered the stage and gave her a reason.

Also worth noting that her older brother Isori Kei, unfortunately, also didn’t know the crucial part, the details of how the Rosen-made CAD had been acquired.

“The Yokohama Incident from four years ago, you two remember that, right?”

Alisa and Marika nodded together. This is a story from the time they were frequenting an elementary school in Hokkaido, but it was that big of an incident. They remember it well.

“Saijou-senpai and Chiba-senpai were also at the scene of that incident. And looks like they fought hard against the invading forces.”

“...They were still in their first year of high school, weren’t they?”

Marika asked back, her eyes a perfect circle. Alisa’s face became stiff and she turned speechless.

“I heard they cut down the enemy’s bipedal tanks head-on.”

“The bipedal tanks?”

“With a sword?”

“Chiba-senpai used a sword longer than she is tall. Saijou-senpai used a special sword made of ultra-thin sheets of carbon nanotubes, hardened with magic. My brother told me they both used those swords to cut through tanks in a single swing.”

“Wow... They’re amazing!”

Marika turned her sparkling eyes to Erika and Leo, who could be seen doing nothing but messing around.

Alisa felt an impending crisis from the gleam in her eyes.

“Mina... Don’t do anything dangerous like that, okay?”

“No matter how much I do things as I please, I wouldn’t challenge an army!?”

Marika argued back with an expression that showed it was unthinkable.

“I guess it’s fine then.”

Though she said so, it was clear that Alisa was not convinced.

“...You don’t trust me...”

“It’s not like that. There’s just no way such a major incident would happen so often, right?”

“So you think I would jump right in if an incident did happen!?”

“That’s just your imagination.”

A lax conversation unfolded between Alisa and Marika.

“Okay, okay, let’s leave that pointless lover’s quarrel for when you two are alone.”

Mei interrupted them there.

“This isn’t a lover’s quarrel!”

“...”

Marika got worked up, and Alisa stayed quiet because it would be worse for her if she were to get worked up.

The lukewarm gazes aimed at Marika from all around them were a testament of which one was the correct choice.