202: Grilling Clams with a Cute Maid
“Here you go! Sorry to keep you waiting!”
I looked up to see the cheerful voice of the young waitress from before. She was carrying a large tin bucket in one hand and a tray with four mugs in the other. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but her ability to balance and carry everything at once was a work of art.
“First, your drinks. I’ll start grilling the clams… [Enchanted Resist Fire].”
She chanted the spell as if it were the most natural thing in the world. A faint red light glowed on her hands, then faded. She deftly arranged the clams from the bucket on the grill.
So, the rattling sound I’d heard earlier had been the shells in the bucket.
“Can you all use [Enchanted Resist Fire]?”
“No problem.” Liz nodded for all of us.
“Then, when you’re ready! They’ll open up when they’re cooked. Then you use this spoon to scoop out the meat, avoiding the black part, and cut the adductor muscle…”
“I understand perfectly how delicious it will be.”
“Ahaha! I’ll leave the salt here!”
The girl laughed and, after placing a small jar on the table, disappeared back inside. Such a pastoral atmosphere, with no thought of dine-and-dashers.
But in Listrea, ‘dine-and-dashing’ and other crimes were a terrible deal. If you were truly starving, you could always find a day-labor job, and besides, you never knew how many powerful people were around.
For example, how many people would guess that the maid sitting beside me was the second in command of the Sixth Army, an assassin from the Royal Guard?
“Liz… you can have a sip.” I offered her the beer mug, a painful sacrifice for the sake of poison tasting.
“Ah, yes.” Liz took it without hesitation and took a large gulp.
“Phew… mmm, it’s fine.” Liz cleared her throat. Then she took a large gulp of her own. She drank with such gusto, I almost wanted her to put a hand on her hip.
“Can I have another one of these?”
“…Two is the limit.”
“Alright.” I took the mug Liz handed me and took a large gulp.
“Ah! I live for this!”
“Cheap.”
“That’s just how it is.” I nodded at Aithys.
Pop, a clam on the grill opened.
“Oh, is it ready? Let’s see…”
“Master.” Liz grabbed my outstretched hand.
“Why are you so reckless? —[Enchanted Resist Fire].” A red light glowed where our hands met.
“But I learned how to do it from Rebecca.”
“I’m not confident in its effectiveness, and I don’t trust a Master who would forget what she’d just been told.”
I smiled, trying to cover up my mistake.
Then I took the opened clam directly from the grill. The strange, forbidden pleasure of taking food from a hot grill with my bare hands, something I would have never been able to do on Earth, where I would have been burned.
“I’m glad I came to this country.”
I sprinkled some salt from the jar and used the spoon to scoop out the clam, separating the meat from the shell.
“…I’d be happier if you said that without a clam in your hand.” Liz said, looking at me with exasperation as she, too, began to pry open a clam.
“Is the clam… alright?”
“…It should be fine.” Was it because the beer was safe? Or because it was random which one we would get, and they had been closed until just now? Or because it was difficult to split one?
I hesitated for a moment, then scooped up the thick meat with the spoon and opened my mouth.
“The heat resistance doesn’t work inside your mouth, so be careful.”
“I believe there are times when you must act, despite the danger.” I declared firmly and popped the clam into my mouth.
“Ouch…”
The trapped juices exploded in my mouth. Half from the heat. Half from the deliciousness.
After savoring the taste for a moment, I swallowed and stuck out my tongue to cool it down.
“I think I burned myself…”
“I told you…”
“I was prepared…”
I sipped the rich broth from the slightly cooled shell, the taste of the clam so intense that I sighed with pleasure. Then I took a large gulp of beer.
Then I started on the second clam.
Then, I noticed Aithys, also sipping the broth with a look of pure bliss, and Samarkand, who was delicately prying open a clam with a surprising dexterity for his large hands.
“…This is happiness.”
“What’s wrong? All of a sudden.”
“It’s just… it’s good to be alive.”
I pried open the second clam and, preparing for the burn, popped it into my mouth. And then, as I was about to follow it with a gulp of beer, I realized my mug was empty.
Before I started on the third, I looked at Liz.
“Liz, can I have the rest of your beer?”
“Yes, here you go.” Liz offered me her mug, with about a sip left, the amount she’d drunk for the poison test. Then, as if a thought had occurred to her, a mischievous smile played on her lips.
“The first sip was delicious, Master.”
“…So was mine.” I had been planning to drink it after the clam, but I’d changed my mind.
“Ah, beer drunk with an indirect kiss from my maid is delicious.”
I made a show of drinking slowly from the spot where Liz’s lips had been.
“Huh?! —What?!” Liz’s face, which had been a mask of confusion, turned bright red as she understood the meaning of my words.
“G-give it back! I can’t let someone who says such things have it!”
“That’s a little difficult.” Liz reached for it, but she clearly wasn’t serious. I playfully held the beer mug out of her reach.
“I’ll think about it if you feed me a clam.”
“…You’re serious?”
“I don’t lie to you, Liz.”
“…………” Liz pried open a clam and offered it to me on a spoon.
We made eye contact, and Liz gave in.
“…Ah.”
“Ah!” I took a bite of the clam. The clam was delicious, but the situation was even more so.
“Now, give it back.”
“There’s still the broth.” I sipped the condensed clam broth from the shell, then washed it down with the remaining beer.
Drinking alcohol with a cute maid as an appetizer was pure bliss.
“What?! You said you’d give it back after I ate the clam!”
“I thought about it, but I’ve decided it’s impossible.”
“…Villain! You really are a villain, Master!” Liz shouted, her face red, her voice low, as if she were conscious of our surroundings. I smiled.
“That’s more of a reward, really.”
“…Hey, are they always like this?”
“Yes. Our master cherishes her subordinates.” Samarkand nodded at Aithys’s question.
“And to be able to see her like this is a joy, an honor for us subordinates.”
Aithys opened and closed her mouth, as if trying to say something, but she couldn’t find the words and fell silent.
