Chapter 80: 'Holy' Ellis's Day (1)[R-18]
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 80: 'Holy' Ellis's Day (1)[R-18]
May 4, 1026. Dawn.
Eve of ‘Saint Ellis’s Day.’
[Ah, fuck!! Ladder fishing; it’s a gore pic, what the hell is the Manager doing not deleting this??][4]
[Anyone mentioning Ellis’s Day from now on dies. For real.][12]
[Anyone not seen in the Gallery tomorrow, I’m assuming you’re all flexers.][3]
[The meaning of gifts for Saint Ellis’s Day.][56]
[Checking if the Manager is in the Gallery every 30 mins tomorrow.][5]
[Rate the chocolate I’m giving my guy friend.][43]
[Legal Wife, Dignity, Childhood Friend Pure Love, Constant Slander][3]
[Legal Wife, Dignity, Childhood Friend Pure Love, Constant Slander][0]
[Legal Wife, Dignity, Childhood Friend Pure Love, Constant Slander][0]
[Upvote if you’ve never received chocolate on Ellis’s Day in your life lol.][131]
[Current status of Imperial lodging reservations.jpg][45]
[Bratty Witch Ellis’s Day Special Edition][24]
[Sobbing... Poor Gallery user’s dinner on Ellis’s Day Eve...jpg][11]
[Special ladder until 11:59 PM tomorrow for Ellis’s Day.][54]
The Gallery was already buzzing with heat.
[Author: Anonymous(829.18)]
[Rate the chocolate I’m giving my guy friend.][43]
(A pic of someone naked with chocolate smeared all over their body.jpg)
The pic is from last year. I’m giving it like this again this year, is this enough for loyalty?
Pyeolkwaelkwael: Does this bitch not know what a friend is? Is she retarded?
ㄴAnonymous(829.18): We are friends, though? We’re FWBs.
ㄴPyeolkwaelkwael: Eh? So you’re just a total slut.
ㄴAnonymous(829.18): Ugh, so pathetic... Who cares about being a virgin these days? lol
ㄴVirginitySniffer: Definitely not a virgin.
ㄴAnonymous(829.18): Yeah, yeah~ I’m not a virgin, so what? lol
ㄴVirginitySniffer: Blocked.
ㄴAnonymous(829.18): Lmao! Pfft! You’re cute. Want me to give you a taste?
“Hmm...”
I wasn’t exactly a ‘unicorn’—I frequently used ‘Married Woman NTL’ as fapping material—but honestly, the concept of ‘FWB’ was hard for me to grasp.
Of course, Evelyn and I had drawn the line at being ‘FWBs’ too.
If we hadn’t drawn that line, the world might have been destroyed because Evelyn was just too beautiful...
But even through the mosaic, the girl in the picture wasn’t on that level.
[Author: Anonymous(211.209)]
[The meaning of gifts for Saint Ellis’s Day.][56]
Chocolate -> I ‘love’ you OR genuine loyalty
Candy -> I ‘like’ you
Marshmallow -> Don’t hit on me
Macaron -> You are ‘special’ to me
Cookie -> I want to be ‘friends’ with you for a long, long time
Baumkuchen -> I wish for your happiness
CatEatingDogFood: But why is chocolate both loyalty and love? Cookies are for friends, so doesn’t that overlap?
ㄴAnonymous(211.209): I dunno.
ㄴCatEatingDogFood: (Insert ‘If you don’t know, go find out!’ emote)
ㄴMemoriesOfMorak: ...Isn’t it so you can convey love while pretending it’s just loyalty?
ㄴCatEatingDogFood: Oh, damn. You’re smart.
ㄴAnonymous(124.804): Wow... This guy has definitely given out some chocolate before.
UseNiceWordsOnly: You guys are really doing the most lol. Putting all this useless meaning into scraps of snacks lol. It’s obviously a marketing ploy, don’t you feel like you’re wasting your lives?
ㄴAnonymous(74.817): (Currently wasting his life posting hate comments with a fixed handle in the early morning of Saint Ellis’s Day Eve)
ㄴAnonymous(159.178): Elf -> It means you’re a ‘Chicken Coop.’
ㄴILoveTenantFarmers: Lmao
ㄴUseNiceWordsOnly: Your mom.
Anonymous(211.209): By the way, guys, they say you shouldn’t give chocolate to demons at night.
ㄴAnonymous(137.38): Why??? I’m a demon and this is the first I’m hearing of this.
ㄴAnonymous(211.209): Because only their teeth are white, and if even those turn black, you won’t be able to see them at night.
ㄴAnonymous(137.38): ...Reported.
ㄴAcademyTPThief: Crazy bitch lol
“So that’s what macarons mean? ...Maybe I shouldn’t have asked for them.”
It felt a bit embarrassing, as if I had confessed to Estelle that I wanted to be someone special to her.
“...Well, Estelle probably doesn’t care about stuff like this.”
If she had cared in the first place, she wouldn’t have asked me what I wanted to receive.
And just as UseNiceWordsOnly said, seeing how the meanings got better the more expensive the item was on average, it did seem like a marketing gimmick.
[Author: MojitoDelivery] = [Poporing Spayria]
[Upvote if you’ve never received chocolate on Ellis’s Day in your life lol.][131]
Upvote if you haven’t even received a friendship cookie, let alone chocolate lol.
This was the top trending post of the day.
“....”
Tap, tap—
8WanksADay: Upvote if you have no plans to receive any this year either lol.
I had held back until now, but I couldn’t let this one slide.
ㄴUseNiceWordsOnly: Dumbass lol. I knew it. lol
ㄴ8WanksADay: Ah, seriously, I wish I could get just one, please...
ㄴUseNiceWordsOnly: You? lol. You think a guy who jerks his ass with a vibrator is gonna get anything? lol
ㄴChildhoodFriendRapist: ...For real, that’s so sad. Manager, should I give you one?
ㄴ8WanksADay: Oh? Really?
ㄴChildhoodFriendRapist: Psych, you bastard lol. Why would I give you anything lol
ㄴ8WanksADay: ...I feel like blocking everyone.
“Ha! Why would she give me one... when she’s obviously going to.”
A smirk escaped me at Evelyn’s comment.
15 years as childhood friends.
I had never once failed to receive a gift from Evelyn on ‘Saint Ellis’s Day.’
Of course, there were many times I didn’t get anything from anyone but Evelyn.
‘Still, a gift is a gift!’
Looking at the Gallery users who thought I was a Manager who had never received a single gift... how should I put it...
—I can dominate the emotions of the Gallery users!!—
I felt a slight sense of superiority.
“But I think I might actually get quite a few this year...”
First, Estelle definitely said she’d give me some, Yuris obviously would, and since I’d built ‘True Trust’ with Laplace, she’d probably give me some too.
‘That’s already four right there.’
If I got lucky and scored some loyalty chocolate or cookies from Anya and Kuoli, that would be six.
“Wait... isn’t that actually a lot?”
Thinking about receiving at least four and up to six gifts on Ellis’s Day made me wonder if I was actually quite handsome... but...
‘...No way.’
For nearly ten years, Evelyn’s official stance was that I had the looks of a ‘plain country youth whose only feature is having no features.’
It was sad, but if Evelyn, who loved me, evaluated my looks like that...
Then the times other people told me I was ‘handsome’ were 100% certainly just empty flattery.
“...The handsome bastards will probably get dozens of chocolates tomorrow.”
I’m jealous!
I was so jealous!!
How great would it have been if I were handsome too!!!
A surge of inferiority toward the top-tier handsome guys rose up for a moment, but...
“Sigh, it’s not like I’m going to be reborn, what’s the point of being jealous... Let’s just sleep.”
Click—
I closed the Gallery, thinking it was at least a relief that I wasn’t ugly.
Click! Click!
“Great! Young Lady! That’s perfect!”
“...Frederica. You’re being distracting.”
“Ah... I-I’m sorry...”
“...No, I’m not angry. ...I’m sorry. For making you help me until this hour. You must have a lot of work to do...”
“What are you saying! There could never be anything more important to me than you, Young Lady!”
The fact that Frederica managed the Black Dahlia Family so desperately was all just to keep the seat warm until the Young Lady returned one day.
Click! Click!
“...Thank you. ...But why do you keep taking photos?”
“It’s for the commemoration! Young Lady!”
“...So, what exactly are we commemorating?”
“This moment with you!”
“....”
Frederica was overjoyed that the Young Lady’s heart, which had been closed for so long, was beginning to open again.
‘Does that lucky man... even know?’
How hard the Young Lady was working.
The delicate Young Lady was still too afraid to even convey ‘Love,’ so she was masking it as ‘Specialness’...
But even so, she was cutting back on sleep to make macarons, hoping he would somehow notice!
‘Please...!! Please let him be a good man!! Please!!’
Only one thing mattered to Frederica.
Was he someone who could make the Young Lady happy?
Even if he was a penniless beggar, it didn’t matter; the Young Lady, the head of the Black Dahlia Family, could just support him.
But what if ‘that man’ was trash who would hurt her?
‘...Then the pest must be eliminated.’
Click! Click!
Frederica took photos with eyes that had turned cold and sharp.
She would never forgive anyone who caused even a single drop of anything other than tears of joy to fall from the Young Lady’s eyes.
“...Frederica. ...Can we stop commemorating now?”
“Ah! Ugh... Yes, I understand...”
“...Thank you.”
“No. I’m the one who should be thankful... But Young Lady? Don’t you think you’re not putting enough heart into it?”
“...Heart?”
The Young Lady was stirring the batter with an incredibly serious expression, but to Frederica, it just looked serious.
“Yes! Heart! If you just follow the recipe, how is it any different from the products sold in shops? The important thing in homemade cooking is putting your heart into it!!”
“...But Frederica. You can’t cook.”
Frederica held seventeen different positions, including Head Maid, but there was a reason she kept a separate chef.
“Urgh...!! T-That’s because I put too much heart into it... A-Anyway, you have to put your heart into it! I’m sure of it!!”
“...How do I put my heart into it?”
“It’s simple! Think of him in your head and keep calling his name in your heart while you stir the batter!”
“...Okay.”
Swish— Swish—
“....”
Then, the corners of the Young Lady’s mouth, which had been expressionless while stirring, began to lift slightly.
‘Ah...!’
Just looking at her, one could feel how deeply the Young Lady had fallen in love.
Frederica wanted to snap a photo of this scene right this instant...
But she held back, fearing she might break the Young Lady’s concentration.
‘Gaaah!! Please!! I hope he realizes the Young Lady’s feelings. No! I hope he accepts them!!’
Given the Young Lady’s personality, she wouldn’t even properly talk to someone she wasn’t interested in.
And yet, she was giving a gift on Saint Ellis’s Day?
...And handmade macarons at that?
Unless he was incredibly dense, he had to be feeling that the Young Lady loved him.
“...Ian.”
“....!!”
Did she slip up because she was so focused?
A man’s name, small but distinct, escaped the Young Lady’s lips.
‘...I-I’m sorry for eavesdropping, Young Lady!! ...But Ian!! ...I will definitely remember that name!!’
It was the moment the name Ian was added to the checklist in Frederica’s heart.