The Gyaru And The Pastry Chef

In this short span of time, the base had shot up by three whole levels.

Looking up at his home wrapped in light, Leopin muttered.

“Could increasing the number of people really be the shortcut to leveling up the base…?”

At present, the only official residents in this base were me, Mark, and Tom.

When Leopin had been driven out to this place far from the residential district, he had resolved to live all alone.

He had resigned himself to the idea that his only contact with his classmates would be in class, but…

“If helping with base work counts too, then it looks like I might be able to increase the number of residents. In that case, maybe I should call out to Akemi too…”

Leopin turned his gaze toward the residential district, where Akemi was likely to be.

Then he caught a glimpse of a person half-hidden behind a tree near the forest entrance.

The moment he looked that way, the figure darted back out of sight.

But while the body was hidden, the tiny chef’s hat peeking out gave it away, though its owner did not seem to realize it.

The one hiding behind the tree was Kurumi, the Pastry Chef girl.

She usually held a precious sack of sugar in her arms, but today she had replaced it with a small shovel.

“I-I also came to h-help Chef Leopin…!”

But merely saying that was enough to turn the girl’s face as red as an apple.

“N-No… no, no way! I can’t! I can’t do it! A-After saying something like that, there’s no way I can stand in front of L-Leopin-kun!”

The “something like that” weighing on the girl’s mind was the remark she had once blurted out when Yesman pressured her to rename her RPG Candy.

“I… I refuse! These candies are a precious recipe Chef Leopin taught me! To me, Chef Leopin is far more amazing than even a top-class pastry chef…! Of course, even more than Vice Principal-sensei…! And to me, he’s more important than anyone else!”

For the girl, it had been the first once-in-a-lifetime confession of love she had ever made.

She had thought Leopin would not be there to hear it, but right after that Leopin had sent Yesman and the others flying with a log.

“I-If Chef Leopin heard that…! W-Wah… w-wawawawa… I-I’d be so embarrassed I’d diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

The girl crouched down in the shade of the tree, covering her face and shaking her head like a little child refusing something.

Because of that, she failed to notice someone approaching nearby.

A voice fell from above with a casual, “Yo,” and the girl toppled over with a “Pyaa!?”

“Good grief, you too? Today’s just full of people falling over.”

“C-C-Chef Leopin!?”

The girl covered the eyes hidden by her bangs even further with both hands, peeking at the boy through a tiny gap.

As if looking at him directly would damage her eyes, like staring at a celestial body.

Yes, by now the boy had become, to the girl, a dazzling existence that shone like the sun.

The boy, so bright he almost seemed haloed, crouched down and held out a hand.

“What are you doing in a place like this?”

As he helped her up, the girl answered in a strained voice, “Y-Yes, sir!”

She knew she had to say something, but—

“U-Um… um, um, um, well… w-well, well, uh…!”

No words came out.

The hand still clenched in the boy’s was suddenly tugged.

“If you’re holding a shovel, that means you came to help with the farm work too, right?”

The boy smiled and said, “That helps a lot.”

From the girl’s point of view, his face looked beautiful, as though veiled in gauze.

“C-Chef Leopin…”

That alone made the girl feel light and ungrounded, as if her feet were no longer touching the earth.

The boy did not know.

That there was not just one person in love with him.

Beyond the tree behind which Kurumi had hidden, there was another girl by a tree closer to the forest entrance.

The girl trembled in time with the pounding of her heart, as if unable to contain it.

“…O-Okay, I bought the best shovel they had at the school store… I didn’t forget anything, right?”

In the girl’s hands was not a simple farming tool at all, but a rugged iron shovel fit for military use.

It was the first time in her life she had held something heavier than a mage’s staff.

“Ah, is my hairstyle okay? I need to double-check my makeup too.”

Using the silver shovel like a mirror, the girl frantically adjusted her hair.

This was already the tenth time she had checked herself here.

She pulled some lip color from her uniform pocket, applied it to her lips, and braced herself.

“…Okay, perfect! Now I just need to make it look like I happened to be passing by the field and then talk to Leopin… No, no, not me talking to Leopin—Leopin’s supposed to talk to me!”

“Oh, isn’t that Cyaruru! You finally came! I’ve been waiting for you this whole time! Wow! That’s an impressive shovel! You’re totally different from those girls carrying those toy-like little scoops! Please, help me with my farm work! I’m begging you!”

“Hmph, if you’re begging that hard, then I guess I wouldn’t mind helping you.”

The simulation in Cyaruru’s mind was flawless.

Her female hangers-on were already running around in a panic, and her fantasy had already progressed all the way to being embraced by Leopin.

Suddenly, the girl’s heartbeat leaped even higher.

Because she saw the boy walking this way from the field.

“L-Leopin!? Leopin’s coming this way!? Did he know I was hiding here!?”

Normally she was known as a cool gyaru, someone sharp-tongued enough to make some people fear her.

But when it came to the boy, her heart was thrown into complete turmoil.

“T-This is bad, bad! This is an emergency! M-My hair, my makeup, my expression! A-Are they okay, are they okay!?”

Flustered, she fixed her appearance for the eleventh time and put on an aloof, composed expression.

“What, do you need something?” Even her tone was perfect.

“I-It’s perfect! Now I can make up with Leopin…!”

But the one she longed for stopped before reaching her.

“Huh…? What’s wrong, Leopin…?”

When she peered over suspiciously, she saw that another girl in a chef’s hat was hiding in the forest, and Leopin was crouching down in front of that girl.

A little while later, Leopin took the chef-hat girl by the hand and returned to the field with her.

The gyaru girl, left unnoticed, screamed in her heart as though she had been abandoned.

—L-Leopin! Leopiiiiiiin! I-I’m… I’m… Right heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!!