"It's not that exaggerated, is it..." Kawaragi Momoka placed a plate of rabbit dango on the table, looking at the tragic scene before her with some helplessness, "Is the black tea I brewed really that hard to drink?"
Asakura gave her shoulder a comforting pat.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he said: "Hello, yes."
"Ugh..."
Kawaragi Momoka was hit hard.
Well, in truth, the black tea she brewed was simply at the 'hard to drink' stage. After all, many customers had ordered black tea at Rabbit House before without similar symptoms. It was just that Shinomiya Kaguya's tongue was clearly more pampered than most. To an average person, it was just ordinary, bad-tasting tea, but to her, it probably felt like it had reached an unbearable level.
"Excuse me."
On the surface, Shinomiya Kaguya looked as if nothing had happened, wiping the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief.
But Asakura caught a glimpse of the girl's bright red ears and felt that if he could peer into her heart, he would likely see a tiny Kaguya clutching her head while shouting 'Ahhh, how embarrassing, I'm dying!' while rolling around on the floor.
As a side note, that maid lady calling herself 'Haysaka' was currently taking a sample of the black tea Shinomiya Kaguya had just drunk for preservation. She likely found it hard to believe, from her perspective, that black tea could be brewed so poorly, and probably suspected it was poisoned...
This made Kawaragi Momoka look subtly uneasy.
"It's okay, your black tea is just bad, that's all..." Asakura comforted her again: "In school, I've even encountered those who, by their own strength, made the Humanities department start reflecting on whether 'a terrorist attack might occur'—a situation that led to the cancellation of Home Economics classes."
Right, Yuigahama?
"Thanks..." Kawaragi Momoka sighed: "Even though I don't feel comforted at all."
She swayed back to the bar, looking like she had taken quite a blow. She would probably take her guitar to a park or somewhere similar after closing to vent her stress with a street performance.
"Alright then." Asakura sat back in his seat: "Although the taste of the black tea is a bit subtle (Kaguya: 'Is it really just a bit?'), the desserts here are still great. I recommend this rabbit dango. Unlike those overly sweet cakes, it's delicious even without tea."
But obviously, Kawaragi's handmade black tea had already cast a psychological shadow over the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family. Even with Asakura's strong recommendation, she fell into silence as she looked at that exquisitely shaped plate of rabbit dango, her face written with an 'I don't want to eat this' expression.
However, she felt obliged to give this 'supernatural being' Asakura a bit of face, so she had to eat. Thus, the girl's movement of reaching for the rabbit dango looked full of a tragic 'the wind blows and the river is cold' solemnity.
"Let me try it first for the young lady... let's sample the taste."
The blonde maid suddenly took a step forward, picked up a rabbit dango, and spoke aloud.
Behind the distant bar, Kawaragi Momoka, who was still paying attention to this side, had a black line across her forehead: Are you trying to test it for poison?
Shinomiya Kaguya looked moved at her personal maid: "Hayasaka..."
"Young lady, if I perish, please tell my mother that I love her."
"Aren't you thinking a bit too much?!"
On the side, Asakura's eyebrows twitched imperceptibly: Hayasaka? Isn't this person called Smithee A. Herthaka?
After a moment's hesitation, the blonde maid gently took a bite of the rabbit dango.
In the next instant, a beautiful sensation exploded in her mouth, quickly filling her taste buds, causing the girl's thoughts to come to a standstill for a moment.
That feeling was as if her whole body was resting in cotton candy as soft as clouds. A gentle breeze brushed against her heartstrings. In this beautiful moment, everything in the world seemed no longer important. The secrets pressed in her heart that made it hard to breathe became irrelevant at this moment. Even the fatigue and pressure that left her hovering on the edge of sub-health seemed to be purified and cleared all at once, making her feel so relaxed she could almost fly.
Relaxed, pleasant, free... these words that were usually foreign to her daily life now turned into reality, making the girl feel sincere happiness and joy.
"Hey, are you okay? Why did you freeze after one bite? You couldn't have crashed because it's so bad, right?"
At this time, Shinomiya Kaguya's slightly anxious voice pulled the girl's thoughts back from that happy cloud layer to reality.
"It's nothing... this is very delicious." The blonde maid girl said with a complex expression.
She felt she would likely become a regular at this shop.
"Really?" Shinomiya Kaguya finally breathed a sigh of relief. With her maid's 'sacrifice' to test it, she could also reach out for a rabbit dango with a relatively relaxed mood: "I saw your brain-blank expression just now, I thought even this was bad."
"There's really no problem. It's so delicious it gives people a 'kirakira' hallucination," the blonde maid said.
"Isn't that very bad in another sense!" The eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family, who had just picked up a rabbit dango, was once again caught in a dilemma: "Is there really nothing strange added in here?"
"It's magic..." Asakura rested his chin on both hands, looking serious, "I added magic."
"Your expression makes it completely impossible to tell if you're joking or being serious..." Shinomiya Kaguya rubbed her forehead helplessly and said, "Asakura-sensei is quite mischievous."
"It's sugar, I added sugar." Then Asakura changed his story.
"Oh, that's truly surprising to me..." Shinomiya Kaguya said expressionlessly: "I never thought sweets would have sugar added."
"After all, sugar can make people feel happy." Asakura spoke with a straight face, as if he didn't hear her sarcasm.
"It can also make people fat." The girl followed up: "Fujiwara just likes eating sweets too much and that's why she gets fat."
The pink-haired girl, who was grounded at home and currently racking her brains for a way to sneak out, suddenly sneezed.
Despite saying this, Shinomiya Kaguya still cautiously tasted the rabbit dango. Although she didn't have the 'hallucination-inducing' reaction like the blonde maid, she was still shocked by the texture and deliciousness of the dango. She couldn't help but look at Kawaragi Momoka behind the bar with complicated eyes.
Why can someone who makes such delicious desserts brew tea that is so hard to drink?
Kawaragi Momoka had already been looked at with similar eyes by countless people during this period. At first, she would try her best to explain, but by now, she had given up the desire to explain to the other party. she just wanted to continue being a 'salted fish' and wait until today's stock was sold out so she could hurry to close and play her guitar to vent...