13-1 I Got Kidnapped By The Princesses

Hello, I’m Eri.

Today is Antonio-san and Margarita-san’s wedding.

I’m taking part as the pastry chef in charge of sweets.

Today’s main attraction is the large wedding cake, and though I’m the one who made it, it turned out so beautifully that I can’t help gazing at it in admiration.

I’d love to have a wonderful cake like this at my own wedding too.

Ah.

Wait, would that mean making the cake for my own wedding myself?

That would be absolutely impossible.

Maybe it’s because the wedding is being held at the royal palace, but Margarita-san, the bride, was being dragged all over the place with her eyes going wide in confusion.

But even for a commoner bride, weddings are hard work.

There’s no way I could be the bride and make the cake at the same time.

Ah, though if it were Erin-san, she’d probably still be calmly eating pudding at her own wedding.

I absolutely have to raise an apprentice who can properly make wedding cakes.

That was the resolve I made on my first big stage.

It was a difficult stage, but I’ve already done all kinds of things before now, so at this point it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t all that painful for me.

More than that, I was worried about how the cake turned out and how the guests would react.

Big Brother praised me a lot and said I did really well.

I’m still only eleven, but I’m unexpectedly thick-skinned.

I started going into the dungeon when I was nine, but if you didn’t push yourself forward and advertise yourself over others, you couldn’t get work.

If I didn’t work hard, I couldn’t survive.

I had a sick mother and younger brother and sister.

That day, when I was attacked by the slime in the dungeon, it hurt so much and was so awful I thought I’d go mad, but inside my heart I was crying for help.

If I died right then, who would take care of my family?

The debt collectors might take those children away and sell them to traffickers from the neighboring country.

Please, someone help me.

I couldn’t stop myself from wishing that.

And then I met Big Brother Al.

Big Brother Al was an amazing person.

Normally, slimes have to be burned off with fire to remove them, but I heard he casually peeled it off me and defeated it with magic.

Apparently I lost consciousness from that magic too, but thanks to that I stopped feeling any pain.

By the time I woke up, he had already healed my body with magic.

I felt like I was about to cry, but I held it in.

I decided that I would only cry when family died.

I made that decision at Father’s funeral, when he vanished into the dungeon and even his body never came back.

So I didn’t cry.

I could still keep going.

I could still earn money for my family.

That was what made me so truly happy.

My clothes had been ruined, so Big Brother took out something called a T-shirt and dressed me in it.

Since it was his, it was huge on me, but it was such a fine thing that it made me really happy.

The slime had bitten down on me from the head, so even if I had survived, there would have been terrible scars left behind and it would have been awful.

I’m sure I would have spent the rest of my life always covering my head with cloth.

I was so happy that he gave me back a face without a single scar.

After all, even a tomboy like me is still a girl.

Big Brother came with me all the way outside the dungeon, so I felt very safe.

Once we got outside, he let me eat something called shortcake for the first time in my life.

It was sweet and smelled wonderful.

It was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten in my life.

It was so delicious that I just stared blankly without thinking.

I even completely forgot about being attacked by the slime just a little while ago.

Well, it didn’t hurt at all anymore either.

Big Brother even gave me a second helping of cake.

This time I ate it more slowly than before.

But Erin-san’s gaze bothered me just a little.

Of course, it was directed at that one thing alone: the cake.

When I noticed, Edwin-san, the leader, gave Erin-san a light tap on the head and told her to eat slowly.

Now I understand Erin-san’s personality very well, but back then it really made me curious.

Later, Erin-san really helped me a great deal.

And that made me become intensely interested in this thing called cake that made people show that much obsession.

Before we parted, Big Brother gave me all kinds of food and money.

I was so happy.

No one had ever done something like that for me before.

Edwin-san said that even though Big Brother Al was still young, he was an incredibly successful merchant, and on top of that, a very kind person.

After I got home, I fed my hungry siblings stew full of vegetables and dried meat, along with fine bread.

I wonder how long it had been since we had eaten something so luxurious.

I’m sorry, everyone.

I wish I could have earned more, but in this town there was nowhere a child like me could earn enough.

Though things have changed now thanks to Big Brother.

And then we ate something called cream puffs for the first time.

Now I can make them easily by myself, but back then they felt like magical food with an amazing smell.

They came in a mysterious transparent container, and Big Brother told me to be careful not to cut my hand when opening it.

Apparently he had cut himself on it before.

I had already eaten cake, so I told everyone to eat two each, but they said, “No, Big Sister, you brought them home for us, so you should have some too.”

They’re all kind, such very good children.

I have to protect them.

I somehow got Mother to eat two, and then Paul and Marie split three between them.

Paul split one in half and gave the bigger half to Marie.

He’s always like that.

If I had died that day, this child would probably have ended up working desperately hard.

And he would have kept trying without a single complaint.

Such a tiny child.

Without thinking, I ended up hugging Paul tight.

Paul looked up at me with a puzzled expression.

Mother’s illness costs a lot of money.

The interest on the debt we took on for that grew to such ridiculous levels that it would have been better not to have borrowed the money in the first place.

But by then it was already too late.

If we didn’t keep paying, my younger brother and sister would be sold.

I wouldn’t be the one sold.

Because they intended to make me work and earn money.

It was a truly vicious way of doing things.

One day, the money Big Brother had given me ran out, and Mother’s illness got much worse.

After that… whenever I tried to enter the dungeon, my legs would start shaking and I couldn’t move.

I was told it was a kind of sickness of the heart.

The boss who ran the porters told me, “You’re no use anymore.”

Since I was still a child, even places like brothels wouldn’t take me.

The founding king of this country laid down strict rules against things like that.

I ran all over the place trying to borrow money, but no one would help me.

That’s just how things are in this town.

And then, at that time, I happened to run into Big Brother Al again.

Big Brother said he would examine Mother.

He gave us food and treated her with magic too, so Mother began to feel a little better.

But then the debt collector came again that day and said this:

“Well, don’t you look healthy. Have you been eating good food or something? If you’ve got money for that, then pay the interest.”

Mother’s complexion, which had finally begun to improve, rapidly got worse again.

I felt like I wanted to cry, but I absolutely didn’t.

If I cried, who would protect Mother and my little brother and sister?

At that moment, Big Brother came back, and the moment he saw what was happening, he grabbed the debt collector and dragged him out with incredible strength.

Then he came back almost immediately with the freshest smile imaginable and said that man probably wouldn’t be coming back for a while, and then he treated Mother again.

Big Brother was trying to become an A-rank, no, an S-rank adventurer.

Because if he got to that level, he said, it would stop mattering even if he crushed the villains in this town who were in league with nobles in the royal capital.

But from what I heard, amazing people like S-rank adventurers only number about three in the whole world right now.

“Big Brother is strong, but can you really become someone of such an amazing rank?”

I asked him anxiously, but Big Brother just laughed and said, “Who knows.”

Watching him like that, I felt like he really might become S-rank.

Now he’s gone beyond even that and become the one and only SS-rank in the whole world.

Big Brother assigned Edwin-san and the others to guard us, while he himself prepared for the A-rank exam.

And then he said this:

“You all have to pay back the debt with your own strength and learn to live properly too. It would be easy for me to save you, but if you get used to relying on someone, then that person won’t be able to walk through life on their own anymore, right?”

I thought he was absolutely right, so I worked as hard as I could.

Big Brother said that a food shop would be good, and he made all kinds of food for us.

Paul and Marie were overjoyed.

Ah, of course I was too.

And Mother’s condition got completely better.

I cried without meaning to.

Mother stroked my head and said this to me.

“When you’re truly happy, it’s all right to cry. Because those are good tears.”

After that, I worked hard in many ways and made all kinds of dishes and sweets.

Big Brother is a strange person.

He has incredible knowledge and amazing ingredients and tools, but his hands are actually pretty clumsy.

I felt bad, but when he completely ruined the soba, I ended up laughing.

Even though he’s so incredible with magic and making magic tools.

In the end, I ended up being put in charge of the cooking side.

And I also came to be the one giving guidance on commercial guild matters.

Thanks to that, I’m happy because I get paid a lot.

It seems Big Brother decided to devote himself to making tools for cooking instead.

And now I’m here.

In this royal palace.

Surrounded by princesses and noble young ladies.

My work ended, and then I got kidnapped by the princesses.

Because we got really close after playing together before.

How did it end up like this?

I was originally nothing more than a child from the slums of Adros, a forsaken city abandoned even by the gods despite bearing the name God’s Banquet.

Ever since I met Big Brother Al, it seems my fate has gradually started to change.