After the master and servant of the Shinomiya family left, Asakura sat alone in the booth and contacted the house-elves in the Elven Kitchen through the Nameless Grimoire.
After all, the expression of that blonde maid when she ate the rabbit dango just now was clearly not right. At the very least, Asakura himself didn't remember the dango having such a strong effect, and considering that some house-elves occasionally do bad things with good intentions, he planned to clarify the situation.
[Because previously, Wizard-sama, you said you wanted to make desserts that would make all Muggles happy when they ate them,] that house-elf replied tremblingly. [But we tried for a long time and couldn't make a dessert that everyone could eat and be happy with, so we added something extra.]
"What did you add?"
[Cheering Charm, we added a little bit of Cheering Charm.]
"...This stuff won't be addictive, will it?"
[It won't, it's very safe and very delicious.]
I believe you, my foot.
However, Asakura had also seen part of the content about the Cheering Charm in Libatius Borage's potion notes. Although the effect of this thing is great for Muggles without magic, it is also because it involves magic, a power that is completely not on the same life level, so it is indeed not easy for addiction to occur.
And a witch with magic possesses spiritual resistance far stronger than a Muggle, so she wouldn't easily become addicted either.
[And the finished Cheering Charm is very expensive. Considering the profitability of the Elven Kitchen, the amount that can be used in the daily quota is really very, very small...]
The house-elf tentatively fed back: [It will definitely not have any adverse effects on Wizard-sama and your guests! Otherwise, I will hang my own head on the wall as a specimen!]
"I have no interest in collecting house-elf head specimens."
Asakura cut off the communication.
Speaking of which, the worse one's psychological state is, the better the effect of something like a Cheering Charm theoretically is. Judging from the situation just now, Shinomiya Kaguya's mood has been fairly good recently, but that blonde maid's mental state was a bit subtle...
Hopefully nothing goes wrong.
Asakura checked the contents of the envelope from Fujiwara Chika. Inside was a letter the girl had written to him and an invitation.
The letter explained that the girl's own phone had been confiscated, so she had no way to contact him via Line during this time, and asked Asakura to pass any words he wanted to say to her through Shinomiya Kaguya via letters.
However, Fujiwara Chika seemingly didn't expect that Asakura wouldn't open the letter the first moment he received it. Since Shinomiya Kaguya had already left, Asakura had no intention of calling her back, so it looked like Miss Fujiwara wouldn't be getting a reply anytime soon.
As for the invitation, it was just as Fujiwara Chika had said before, inviting the recipient to attend a banquet at a grand hotel in Ginza. The signature was an organization called the Happiness Peace of Mind Cult, and the time was this weekend, only a few days away.
Regarding the fact that Fujiwara Chika couldn't go to the banquet with him, Asakura didn't really mind.
After all, he had originally planned to surround all the cultists by himself. Having an invitation just meant it wouldn't be as easy to alert the enemy, and he could solve the problem with less commotion.
Ding-ling~
The wind chime hanging at the door was once again moved by the main door of Rabbit House, letting out a crisp sound.
Is Kita Ikuyo running in for her shift? After all, school has been out for a while.
Asakura subconsciously looked toward the sound, only to find that the newcomer was a young girl with long black hair wearing a Gothic-style long dress.
"Ruri?"
"As expected, you're here, Takuma-senpai." Gokou Ruri walked up to him gracefully.
Asakura looked at the time and asked: "Is everything okay on Hinata and Tamaki's end?"
"My parents don't have to work overtime today and will go pick them up..." Gokou Ruri apologized to Takuma-senpai instead, "Even though I said I'd explain my situation to you after the Sobu High School Festival, it's been delayed until now because of annoying reality."
Asakura was stunned for a moment, then immediately recalled it.
It seemed there really was such a thing!
However, at that time, he was constantly thinking about going to find Asagumo Chihiro, so he didn't really take it to heart and hadn't thought of it since...
So, with a warm and enthusiastic smile to hide his guilt, he said loudly: "It's okay, I'm not in a hurry."
"Then, let's get straight to the point..." Gokou Ruri sat elegantly in the seat where Shinomiya Kaguya had just sat. With a profound smile on her face, paired with the gorgeous wine-red eyes and that beauty mark shown by her colored contacts, she unexpectedly presented an enchanting feeling: "I am already invincible in the world."
Is this the reason why you stopped honestly calling yourself 'I' in front of me and changed to the chuunibyou-flavored 'Wagahai'? Asakura complained in his heart.
However, he didn't say anything to dampen the girl's spirits too much. Instead, he took a napkin from the side and folded it in front of himself, saying in a meaningful tone: "I'm all ears."
"My curse has changed... no, describing it as a 'change' seems a bit inaccurate. Specifically, it should have 'evolved'!"
The girl's tone carried a bit of intentional mystery.
Asakura didn't speak anymore, but just pushed the napkin folded into a small cat in front of the girl. He then shouted to Kawaragi Momoka, who was quietly watching from the bar: "The coffee beans at the bar are running low. Go to the storage room upstairs and bring some down, then put them in the back kitchen."
While muttering 'I don't even know if anyone is ordering coffee,' Kawaragi Momoka obediently put down the brightly polished glass and quickly walked upstairs.
Gokou Ruri glanced at the stairs, and after confirming the other party wasn't hiding at the corner to eavesdrop, she reached out and tapped the napkin folded into a cat.
"[Kura]. "
In the next instant, the cat folded from the napkin came to life and began to run around playfully on the table.
"Besides the incantation, it doesn't seem like much has changed?" Asakura picked up the small cat and looked it over carefully before asking.
Gokou Ruri didn't answer, but just mimicked Asakura's previous habit and gently snapped her fingers.
The appearance of the small cat originally held in Asakura's hand collapsed instantly. In Asakura's surprised eyes, like modeling clay, its body was stretched long, and in less than a second, it turned into a white ermine.
It jumped out of Asakura's hand at once, landed on the table, and ran around agilely.
If it weren't for the fact that the ermine still had the 'Rabbit House' logo printed on it like the napkin, Asakura would have even thought its existence itself had been transformed.
"Not just cats, now I can freely transform into all 'beast' types!" Only then did Gokou Ruri speak with a proud face.
Then the white ermine climbed onto the handle of a cup, drank a mouthful of the black tea that hadn't been cleared away yet, tilted its head in front of their eyes, and died on the table.