Shomin no Aji - Chapter 603.2 (Patreon)

A thank-you tea party.
My goodness, Kurogane still holds a grudge about being shut out of the girls-only tea party when I explained that boys can't participate in a girls-only gathering. He even tried to sneak in by saying, "Then it should be fine if I'm in my Sacred Beast form, right?" and made quite a fuss then...

Mashiro, on the other hand, asked, "Should I participate dressed as a girl?" which made Mariel-chan enthusiastically raise her hand and say, "Please let me make the outfit!" It was quite a struggle to stop her. Sigh...

So, this time the tea party leaned more towards having a male majority.
Hmm, I had an image of tea parties being a time for girls to chat happily together.
Well, let's just consider this a gathering to thank His Highness and Oniisama.

For this tea party, I prepared the requested sweets from both boys.
Oniisama requested sweets using anko, such as dorayaki.

He isn't really a fan of heavy cream-based sweets. Initially, he was hesitant about the appearance of anko, but after eating it with us, he completely became a fan of wagashi (Japanese sweets).
Since I also prefer wagashi, I'm happy that he likes them too.

Crown Prince Raymond, on the other hand, wanted to eat pumpkin-themed sweets like kabocha tea cakes, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin pudding, as well as apple pie.
These were the sweets I made as a souvenir for Her Majesty the Queen when His Highness came to investigate my so-called "repulsive-food eating young lady" reputation under the guise of inspecting the territory. How nostalgic.

At that time, he was only allowed to have a small taste, so he wanted to eat more of them again.
When he mentioned that, I felt I had to fulfill his request properly and ended up making a lot.
Ruby, who tasted the pumpkin sweets for the first time during the trial, also liked them.
He also requested carrot sweets again, so I might plan another sweets-making session with everyone soon.

As the requested sweets from the two of them were laid out in a row, Crown Prince Raymond and Oniisama arrived.
Led by Miria, they entered the room, and upon seeing the table filled with sweets, they looked delighted.

"Crown Prince Raymond, Oniisama, welcome. Thank you for coming to the tea party."

As I greeted them, followed by Alicia-sama and Mariel-chan, His Highness and Oniisama responded politely to each of us.
Alicia-sama and Mariel seemed quite taken by their manners, but having met the Prince under intense circumstances, it felt somewhat odd to me...

"M-miss Cristea, thank you for inviting me to the tea party today.”
"Thank you for helping me back then. I've prepared plenty of sweets today as a token of my gratitude. Please enjoy them.”
"Y-yes!"

Oh, is his face slightly red?
Maybe the room is a bit too warm.

"I'm so happy to be able to eat your sweets again, Tea. Thank you for inviting us today.”
"Ufufu, I made plenty of your favorite sweets, Oniisama."
"Everything you make is delicious, so I'm really looking forward to it."
"Oh you, Oniisama. Even if you flatter me, you'll only get the usual sweets.”
"Haha, that's a shame."

As I chatted with Oniisama, His Highness and Alicia-sama seemed to look at us with a mix of surprise and exasperation, as if they were thinking, "What on earth are these two doing?"
Eh, isn't this normal?

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