Chapter 688: LWH Chapter 676: Find Something to Do

The warm yellow light fell on the raw wood dining table, and Shiina gently placed down the last bowl of miso soup—this stuff in essence didn’t have much of a difference from dajiang soup, except that miso wasn’t boiled in the soup, but rather dissolved into the soup only after turning off the heat; letting it sit for a short while would cause precipitation, which was why in home cooking the miso soup was always brought out last.

The girl prepared a rather lavish table of home-cooked meals, and saying it was merely ‘made too much on a whim’ would be a bit too much of a cover-up.

Golden crispy karaage chicken, salt-grilled saury drizzled with soy sauce, refreshing seasoned spinach and tamagoyaki, along with steaming hot rice and pickled side dishes.

Every dish was moderate in portion and warm in color, without extraneous decorations, yet exuded delicate care.

Asakura took a taste; the flavor was exceptionally good. If evaluated purely as home cooking, it wasn’t much worse than the craft of the house-elves.

“By the way, if Asakura-kun has anything you’d like to eat, just tell me directly, and I’ll cook it for you.”

At the dining table, the girl spoke thus to Asakura.

“Ah?” Asakura, who was still eating tamagoyaki (sweet style), raised his head and looked at her blankly.

“Although making casual comments about someone else’s culinary skill is slightly… well, as expected, it’s still better to leave things to someone good at this area, isn’t it?” Shiina spoke in a low voice, playing with her fingertips in embarrassment.

“What are you saying… Ah!”

Asakura, who was originally puzzled by the girl’s somewhat cryptic words, suddenly realized something.

As mentioned before, during this period he had been busy trying to brew newly obtained potion recipes.

At school, there were crucibles in the club cabin available for use, but at home, options were relatively limited: Asakura would generally choose to use an electric rice cooker or go directly with a regular soup pot.

The result was that before he went to school, the kitchen was still looking in a rather disastrous state.

Just how miserable was it—even if Yui were to cook, it would probably be about like that.

If Shiina saw that disastrous scene, it wouldn’t be surprising if she thought his cooking possessed great creative (destructive) nature…

“Listen to me,” Asakura thus explained limply, “It’s not what you think—”

“Mm, I understand.”

Shiina propped her cheek with her finger and nodded gently with a smile: “Boys, after all; I understand.”

Looking at the girl’s understanding expression of ‘boys just like to act tough for their masculinity’, Asakura instantly felt a sense of bitterness that could not be voiced.

He couldn’t possibly rush into the kitchen right now and make four dishes and a soup to prove he was very capable, right?

However, Asakura thought carefully about it and felt that even if Shiina misunderstood him as a kitchen destroyer, it didn’t seem like a big problem either.

In fact, he could more or less feel that the girl was being overly attentive toward him.

This wasn’t hard to understand.

After all, it was Asakura who had her go part-time at Rabbit House, giving the lonely and helpless girl a ray of hope to survive—not charity, but care delivered with respect.

In any case, with the girl’s looks—which could be considered quite outstanding even by Asakura’s standards—if she lacked self-respect entirely, becoming a shrine maiden or something to survive, or even live very well, wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Yet even when life fell into hardship and every step was difficult, the girl never had any intention of giving up her dignity.

Therefore, under circumstances where he had zero wicked thoughts or ulterior motives toward her, Asakura, who looked after her like this, naturally earned her favor and gratitude, as well as her bewilderment over not knowing how to repay him.

That was why she seized every opportunity to try her best to express her gratitude in various aspects.

Asakura was naturally happy to see this happen: after all, nobody wanted the person they helped to be an ungrateful wretch. For instance, if the girl who moved in next to him back then was named Liu Ruyan or something, no matter how destitute she was, Asakura would keep her at a respectful distance all the same…

However, letting Shiina continue being this grateful didn’t feel like a proper state of affairs to Asakura either. If she accidentally stumbled upon supernatural circumstances on his side, he couldn’t possibly burn her memory again, could he?

She was just an ordinary person; if possible, it was best not to let her get involved too deeply.

He had to find something for her to do.

“Shiina, did you go clean my room?” Asakura put down his chopsticks and asked.

“Thinking that Asakura-kun might not like others entering your room and would want to keep your private space, I didn’t clean it for now,” Shiina responded softly in an obedient and thoughtful tone, completely respecting his wishes, “If it needs cleaning, just tell me directly, and I’ll go right after finishing dinner.”

The girl was currently wearing plain lounge wear, her honey-colored long hair falling smoothly over her shoulders, her expression gentle and her movements soft. Even though she wasn’t wearing that cute maid uniform from Rabbit House, her appearance at this moment inexplicably gave off the feeling of ‘This is what a real maid is like!’.

“No need.” Asakura pondered for a moment, his eyes shifting slightly as he made a decision in his heart.

Just as Shiina nodded, she saw Asakura opposite her suddenly freeze his movements and sit quietly for a few seconds. Then, like a starving ghost, he picked up his chopsticks and rapidly finished off the food and rice in his bowl like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds, moving so fast that one couldn’t react in time.

Before long, he put down his bowl and chopsticks, thanking calmly: “Thank you for the meal.”

“Ah, oh, excuse the poor hospitality…” The girl was startled by his sudden action and couldn’t recover her senses for a moment, able only to respond reflexively, her eyes filled with blank confusion.

“Shiina, wait at home for a bit. I’m going back to my place to grab a few things,” Asakura stood up and said in a hurried tone, turning to head outside as soon as the words left his mouth.

“Okay, um… Asakura-kun?”

The girl tilted her head in confusion, wanting to ask what he was going to grab, but before she could finish, Asakura had already rushed out like a whirlwind, his steps light, his figure disappearing at the door in an instant.

Shiina let out a soft sigh, shook her head helplessly, and began clearing the bowls and chopsticks off the dining table.

She deftly stacked the empty bowls and plates together. However, when she picked up the chopsticks Asakura had used, she couldn’t help but pause, staring blankly at the tips of the chopsticks, a faint blush quietly creeping onto her cheeks, her expression somewhat dazed.

“I’m back!”

Before the girl could recover her senses, Asakura’s loud voice suddenly rang out, startling her into a rigid freeze before she hurriedly snapped back and put the bowls and chopsticks into the sink.

“I’ll help wash the dishes in a bit; Shiina, come over and look at this first,” Asakura stood beside the kitchen counter, calling out mysteriously to her still somewhat stiff back.

“O-Okay…” Shiina calmed her mind a bit and walked over woodenly, her steps somewhat sluggish.

Coming up close, she finally saw clearly what Asakura was holding in his hands—a few strands of what looked like steel wire tangled together in a messy clump, revealing no discernible shape, nor enabling her to tell what object it actually was.

“What is this?” The girl raised her head and looked at Asakura with eyes full of confusion, her expression utterly perplexed.

“Shiina, how were your grades in crafts class?” Instead of rushing to answer her question, Asakura asked first instead.

“Crafts class… wasn’t that back in elementary school?” The girl first grumbled softly in helpless resignation, and only then answered offhandedly, “It was alright; for the most part, I never received an evaluation lower than ‘Excellent’.”

You call that ‘alright’?

Asakura complained in his mind.

However, considering that teachers’ ratings for kids in elementary school were usually somewhat inflated, he didn’t say anything, merely nodding and pulling out a blueprint filled with lines from the side, handing it to the girl: “Look at this.”

“This is…” Shiina leaned in closer, studying the drawing in her hands carefully, her delicate eyebrows raising slightly as a puzzled expression appeared on her face, muttering under her breath, “A… baseball with wings?”

“To be exact, it’s a golf ball; it’s only about this big.” Asakura extended his fingers and made a small circle, indicating the dimensions of the item on the blueprint.

“…Huh?” The girl let out a blank hum, still unable to understand, the confusion in her eyes deepening, “What on earth is this…”

“It’s called a Golden Snitch. No need to look too deeply into its purpose; just treat it as an exquisite craft item,” Asakura explained with a smile, his tone relaxed. “Can you make it according to the blueprint?”

“Is Asakura-san going to make this craft item?” Shiina asked curiously, her eyes sizing up back and forth between the blueprint and that pile of tangled wire.

“Mm.” Asakura nodded, paused for a moment, and added somewhat helplessly, “Though as for the finished product…”

“I can roughly understand.” Looking at that pile of metal wire tangled into a clump devoid of any shape to speak of, Shiina nodded knowingly, a faint smile flashing in the depths of her eyes.

Perhaps somewhat allergic to the girl’s ‘clumsy boys are pretty cute too’ gaze, Asakura pulled a stiff face and hurriedly spoke up to defend himself: “Actually, I can make it; it’s just that the finished product isn’t very usable…”

What he said wasn’t a lie either.

If he used the spell [Snake], turned all these materials into snakes, and let them coil and shape themselves, he could barely manage to make the outer shell of a Golden Snitch.

The problem, however, was that the shell generated using the spell would retain a large amount of residual magic power, which would affect subsequent processing steps. As a result, the completed Golden Snitch wouldn’t fly at all; it would only flop around wildly on the ground, causing a huge racket, looking remarkably like the runaway flying car in the original work.

The defective piece he made last time ended up getting stomped flat by him in the end to recover the materials.

“Alright, alright, I know~ Asakura is the best~” The girl said in a gentle tone like coaxing a child, without exposing his defense.

She then lowered her head and studied the blueprint in her hands carefully. After looking at it for a long while, she nodded lightly, “I can give it a try. But handcrafted work is quite delicate; I can’t guarantee how long it will take.”

“It’s fine, I’m in no rush.” Asakura waved his hand nonchalantly. His original goal in coming here was to find something time-consuming for Shiina to do, so she wouldn’t always keep her focus on him and get dragged into those supernatural troubles.

Seizing the momentum, he shifted the topic and spoke casually: “After all, you’ve probably heard about it, right? The major event in Chiba’s school circles recently.”

“The Triwizard Tournament? Speaking of which, Sobu High indeed seems to be one of them.” Shiina realized with a flash of understanding and gently clapped her hands.

This matter had caused a huge uproar in Chiba and was known to almost everyone. Coupled with the fact that Usagiyama Shopping Street was very close to Sobu High, she had long heard about this rumor while listening to customers chat on ordinary days.

“Is Asakura-kun going to participate in that competition too?” The girl raised her head, a hint of surprise in her eyes as she looked at Asakura.

“Consider it passive participation.” Asakura straightened his back, a subtle trace of pride in his tone as he pointed a thumb at himself, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly, “Don’t judge me by my looks; I’m actually rank one in the second year at Sobu High, you know.”

“As expected of Asakura-kun.” The girl’s eyes lit up, and she obediently clapped her hands with soft applause, her gaze looking at Asakura becoming even gentler and softer, brimming with praise.

Yet Asakura inexplicably felt that the girl’s eyes looked remarkably like an old mother looking at her silly son achieving good grades, making him feel uncomfortable all over.

“So that’s how it is. Because of the Triwizard Tournament, I originally didn’t have much time.” Asakura spread his hands, acting helpless.

This was a lie.

Because he didn’t need to participate in the second round’s club matches, he had plenty of free time on ordinary days, and there was no such thing as being busy.

“I understand. In short, it’s about taking this…” The girl looked at that pile of strange silver metal wire on the table, wrinkled her nose, and spoke with some uncertainty, “Silver pirate? Make it properly, right?”

“It’s the Golden Snitch,” Asakura corrected helplessly, his mouth twitching.

“It’s clearly silver.” The girl pouted her lips and muttered in a low voice.

“Because the outside still needs to be wrapped in this.” Asakura pointed at another pile of glittering golden metal sheets beside it.

“I know. But I haven’t made crafts using iron wire before…” While continuing to study the blueprint, Shiina extended her slender fingertips and gently poked that pile of hard metal wire, her face full of curiosity.

“Ah, that’s not iron wire,” Asakura suddenly spoke up, his tone calm.

“…Ah?” The girl froze, stopping the movements in her hands to look at him blankly.

“It’s silver,” Asakura said: “Silver wire.”

“…Haii?” Shiina opened her eyes wide, her face full of shock, speechless for a long time.

She composed herself, looked over at the pile of golden metal sheets beside it, and asked tentatively: “Then these are copper sheets…”

“It’s gold. The 24k pure gold kind.” The silly son Asakura had already grown to the point where he would jump to answer.

Shiina’s large eyes were filled with doubt: “Is that real or fake…”

Are you saying that whole big pile of stuff over there is all pure gold?

“Oh, right, actually it’s not all silver wire either,” Asakura added a sentence as if remembering something.

Hearing this, the girl let out a slight sigh of relief, secretly feeling lucky in her heart—it seemed at least a portion was just ordinary material rather than some precious metal, so the pressure would be a bit smaller.

“Those few strands highlighted in key colors on the blueprint are platinum wires,” Asakura immediately followed up, his tone remaining flat.

Shiina: “…”

My pressure is even bigger now, okay!