The Demon Princess's Rice Ball Stand
The next morning, I dropped Marine off in front of the Knight Faculty building.
“If you wait in front of the Knight Faculty until five, I’ll come pick you up.”
“Okay.”
Marine could have simply infused her legs with mana and bounded through the air to reach the academy, but she had pestered me to ride the carriage to school together, so I gave her a lift. My modified carriage could comfortably fit quite a few people anyway.
“Phew…”
Cani, who hadn’t dared to breathe properly while Marine was riding with us, let out a sigh of relief the moment she stepped down.
“Is Marine really that scary to you?”
“Of course… You don’t know how much she scolded me ever since I was little.”
“She hasn’t been openly picking on you lately, though?”
“She pressures me with her eyes while watching your reaction, Young Master.”
“I see…”
No matter what anyone said, Cani had the best sociability among the tea-time members. Even Carden in her Leni form possessed considerable friendliness, but she wasn’t at the level where she could initiate conversation with Marine first. On top of that, her understanding was lower compared to Cani, who had watched Marine since childhood.
I gently placed a hand on Cani’s shoulder.
“Sorry, but you’ll have to lead the atmosphere of our gatherings.”
“I know. I’ve already drawn up a plan.”
“Good. Thank you.”
Cani sometimes ignored my words and caused accidents, but after all our years together, she was the most trustworthy person I had.
As a gesture of gratitude, I handed over my spare wallet entirely.
“Th-this is…?”
Cani was startled by the wallet’s hefty weight.
“There’s probably about two hundred gold in there. Consider it a token of my thanks, so take it.”
I had promised to raise her salary but kept forgetting, so I simply passed her the wallet as it was. Since Cani was practically family to me, I was willing to give her an even larger sum if she wanted.
“Young Master…”
“Yeah. Use that to buy yourself delicious things while I’m in class.”
“I love you!”
Cani threw herself into my arms, her generous chest leading the charge. Even though she was well past twenty, she still clung to me like this—what a maid who refused to act her age.
“Sigh. Looks like marriage is out of the question for you. Who would ever take you?”
When I stroked Cani’s red hair, she lifted her face from where it had been buried against my chest.
“You have to be the one to take me, Young Master.”
I flinched at Cani’s words and lightly smacked my own thigh.
“The maid is teasing her master now, huh?”
“Hehe…”
Of course Cani enjoyed it. She had often jokingly confessed to me since long ago, but lately it felt like more sincerity was mixed in. There didn’t seem to be much difference on the surface, but after watching Cani for so many years since we played together in my room as children, I could sense the subtle shift.
“I’m off.”
“Yessir! Have a safe trip!”
I waved to Cani with a strangely restless feeling and stepped down from the carriage.
Stopping in front of the Magic Faculty building, I couldn’t help but freeze at the sight of a very familiar face.
“Rice balls for sale… Buy rice balls made by the runner-up of the Academy Strongest Tournament…”
A girl was selling rice balls in front of the Magic Faculty building, and the face was all too familiar.
“Leni, I’ll take two tuna rice balls.”
“Yes, two tuna.”
Since the Magic Faculty was mostly commoners, the cheap rice balls were extremely popular. A short line had formed, though it wasn’t very long.
I waited until the line had shortened and the rice-ball girl had a free moment before casually approaching.
“Rice balls for sa— Oh, it’s Hendel.”
Her eyes showed clear disappointment. I decided to show off my financial power like a proper man.
“Hey, boss. Five beef rice balls.”
“Gasp, thank you, honored customer!”
The Demon King’s daughter instantly changed her attitude in front of a super VIP who had ordered five of the most expensive beef rice balls. Carden smiled brightly as she prepared them.
“Boss, where did you get the rice?”
It was surprising that Carden—who had been starving with nothing to eat—had managed to obtain enough rice to run a rice-ball business.
“I invested the gold you gave me.”
I rather liked hearing Carden speak politely to me, but apparently she thought she had me hooked, because she switched back to casual speech.
“How much?”
“All of it.”
“The entire amount?”
“Yep.”
“…”
Ten whole 10kg sacks of rice from our territory were packed inside the box. In Edgar territory the price was around fifty silver per 10kg, but factoring in transport costs and middleman margins, even the cheapest price in the capital would exceed one gold per sack.
She really invested her entire fortune.
Carden, who had been diligently making rice balls, held out the five beef ones. Steam rose gently from the Carden-brand rice balls, which were generously topped.
“Twenty silver.”
I absentmindedly placed a one-gold coin in Carden’s hand. She began counting the change.
“Keep the change.”
“Thank you!”
When I refused the change, she broke into a huge grin.
This is the Demon King’s daughter…?
Carden cheerfully cleaned up her stall after I left as her final customer. As a VVIP patron, I decided to ask the question that had been on my mind.
“Where did you learn how to run a rice-ball stand?”
“I heard my friends complaining that preparing breakfast every morning was too hard. So I decided to give it a try.”
She had more business sense than I expected. I headed to class together with Carden, who had finished packing up her stall in the blink of an eye.
Growl.
A thunderous rumble echoed. I traced the sound and looked at Carden. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.
“Didn’t you eat breakfast?”
“I drank one bottle of the cola you gave me.”
“Aish, why is the person running a food stall walking around starving?”
“It’s all money. It feels too wasteful.”
“Then why aren’t you selling cola?”
“Cola is the joy of my life. I’m not selling it—I’m going to drink every last drop myself.”
It seemed Carden had become thoroughly addicted to cola without me noticing.
“So you’re skipping dinner too?”
“Yeah.”
I patted Carden on the back.
“Starting today, you should come eat dinner at our house with us.”
“Eh… but I have to run my business?”
For someone who was supposed to be the first daughter of the Demon King, enrolling in the academy only to run a rice-ball stand was something else.
“The chef will make whatever food you want, so come eat. You should at least have free meals, right?”
“Grilled shrimp too?”
“Lobster is possible.”
“Foie gras?”
“I’ll even top it with caviar.”
“Are you rich?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll go!”
Unlike Serina, Carden accepted without hesitation. Yeah, I really liked this straightforward side of her.
We entered the classroom, and another tedious lecture began. Our great mage ghost master had declared the professors frauds and told me to let the lessons go in one ear and out the other, so I faithfully carried out his instructions.
Scribble scribble.
In contrast to me spacing out, Carden was taking notes with fierce concentration. I had no idea why she studied so hard yet still got worse grades than me. Teasing Carden—who would grind her teeth watching me get perfect scores on assignments while fooling around—had been fun for a while, but now it was just pitiful.
I made a mental note to ask the chef to pay extra attention to Carden’s meals.
By the time one of Carden’s notebooks was completely filled with writing…
“That concludes today’s lesson.”
The professor announced the end of class, and I grabbed Carden’s hand and pulled her along.
“Boss, let’s go eat.”
Carden’s eyes widened into perfect circles. The students around us giggled as they watched.
The flustered Carden hurriedly whispered in my ear.
‘Hey, you crazy bastard! You said you wouldn’t call me boss in front of other people!’
Students whispered among themselves as they watched us exchanging whispers. Carden’s friends wore warm smiles.
Carden might not realize it, but the fact that she was whispering to me had only deepened their misunderstandings. Since I had no friends in the Magic Faculty besides Carden anyway, I didn’t care what they thought. Teasing her was far more important.
I pretended not to notice and kept pulling her hand.
“Yes, yes, let’s just eat. Miss Leni.”
“Ugh…”
Carden pretended to retch in disgust. I ignored her exaggerated reaction and headed for the carriage.
“Young Maaaster~”
Cani threw herself into my arms. It was a greeting I had grown used to by now.
Carden averted her eyes in embarrassment at the sight of Cani hugging me.
“Can’t you do your lovey-dovey stuff somewhere else?”
Cani grinned at her and firmly took Carden’s hand.
“Nice to meet you too, Miss Leni!”
Cani’s signature bright energy flowed outward. It was impressive that she didn’t mind at all even after learning Carden was a demon.
“Uh… yeah.”
“What kind of food do you like, Miss Leni?”
Cani slipped out of my arms and stuck close to Carden, chattering away. She seemed to be putting in effort already, remembering my earlier request.
Carden, believing Cani didn’t know her true identity, stayed in full Leni mode. Unable to shake off the clinging Cani, she boarded the carriage.
As expected of Cani!
The ace maid who performed the exact role I wanted perfectly. I clapped for her internally as I climbed into the carriage.
The carriage headed toward the Knight Faculty to pick up the next passengers.
“So anyway, our Young Master developed cola, air conditioners, and…”
Cani shamelessly bragged about my accomplishments to Carden right beside me. She sounded exactly like a mother excitedly telling everyone that her child had gotten into a prestigious university.
Carden, unaware that Cani knew her true form, stayed in Leni mode and enthusiastically played along.
Watching the girls’ cute back-and-forth, we arrived at the Knight Faculty.
Two girls stood at a distance from each other.
Their identities were obviously Marine and Serina. Serina kept sneaking glances and inching closer to Marine, only for Marine to slide away by exactly the same distance each time.
Creak.
The carriage came to a stop.
“Hi, Hendel!”
“Hendel, let’s go quickly.”
Marine and Serina greeted me at the same time. Marine shot Serina a sharp glare.
I smiled awkwardly, got off the carriage, and first took Marine’s hand to help her aboard.
Both were from the Knight Faculty, so their physical abilities were outstanding—they could have jumped straight into the carriage on their own—but as a gentleman, I had to show at least this much courtesy.
After helping Marine up, I turned to get Serina when—
“I’ll do it.”
Marine stopped me and climbed down from the carriage again.
“…”
If that’s how it’s going to be, they could have just come together from the start…
“Hand.”
“Y-yes!”
Marine demanded her hand like an owner giving orders to a dog. Serina straightened up rigidly and held hers out.
Marine took Serina’s hand, wrapped mana around her legs, and leaped lightly.
Bang!
Marine and Serina landed precisely inside the carriage. I worried whether the expensive carriage I had commissioned might have been damaged.
With everyone now aboard, the carriage
“…”
“…”
headed for the residence in complete silence.