BXBX NOVEL Volume 5 5.2
In actuality, while Hiroshi certainly wouldn’t be regarded as handsome or a hunk by any women he first met, it was a lie to say he didn’t have any appeal whatsoever. At the very least, his appearance didn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable, and if he had a talented cameraman and stylist by his side, Hiroshi would have a decent, fresh, good-natured appearance without needing to use any makeup for compensation.
In other words, other than the weakness of looking weirdly lame with anything he wore, Hiroshi’s appearance didn’t have anything in particular for women to evade him. Surely if he had a set of clothing that fit his appearance a bit better, even if love at first sight wasn’t likely, there would have at least never been girls who attempted to steal his right to life. Hiroshi really did just look like a normal person.
「Those vigorous eyebrows, that sharp chin line, and that gentle expression on his face make an especially appealing contrast, but that stoic, toned body and that fickle fashion sense not matching the atmosphere he exudes is also fantastic.」
To directly translate what Sasha had just said, she really did like everything about his face, and how he looked lame in fancy clothing. That last point in particular seemed to have something in common with Haruna, Aearis, and Artiem with how they evaluated Hiroshi looking at home in his work clothes.
「……I really dunno if I’m bein’ praised or disparaged, mate……」
「Well, the older the age range with women, the more there are who say they hate men who look nice in flashy clothing, so it’s not like there aren’t women who prefer average-looking guys to hunks……」
Hiroshi and Tatsuya whispered to one another at Sasha’s difficult-to-evaluate interests. That being said, in Tatsuya’s case, he couldn’t say he fully didn’t understand Sasha’s tastes.
This was something both men and women shared, but with enough age and experience, the weight that your partner’s appearance holds decreases, with the men and women who are considered good catches having a tendency to place comparatively less value on appearance, regardless of age.
Then again, strangely enough, those same types of people who see value in their partner’s internal appeal begin to see his or her appearance as attractive once dating them for some time, or in fact like appearance from the very beginning.
When you considered that these were Sasha’s same tastes, who was either the same age as Haruna or slightly older, it was an unexpected line, but from Tatsuya’s viewpoint, who had experienced the hardships of society, women who could understand the appeal in Hiroshi even in his normal attire were pretty high value.
「Well, I’m sure that Sasha-san wants her time to appeal, but I think that’s best demonstrated in the line of work, so how about we get started?」
「Yup, good idea.」
「Right you are. I shall do my best to prove my worth as a capable woman.」
Sasha got rather into it when Tatsuya said that. While inwardly remarking how he would have preferred she act this way instead of toppling over her first impression, Tatsuya wisely chose to stay quiet.
「Come to think of it, I did hear that everyone would be starting the cafeteria job today.」
「Yup yup. I think Haruna-san’s prolly busy with instruction’ the workers with stockin’ up around this time?」
「Is that so? It is an incredibly joyous thing to hear that there will finally be a cafeteria in that area with reasonable prices. Thanks to a certain selfish fool, any decent shop, or even any convenient shop is nowhere to be seen.」
Hiroshi and Tatsuya looked at each other when Sasha said that.
「Sasha-san, wouldja happen to know the reason for there not bein’ hardly any cafeterias near the academy?」
「Yes. In fact, I’d say I have a grasp on the whole situation. However, someone in a position such as mine saying such a thing without being prompted would be problematic in many ways, so I’m sure you feel some type of way about this, but for now, the temple has decided to maintain silence.」
「That right.」
「And also, Hiroshi-dono. Please refer to me without honorifics.」
「Yer really fixated on that, huh……」
Hiroshi and Tatsuya now knew an unexpected truth regarding the cafeteria wars.
「Well, I’m sure there’s a lot to say about this, but for now let’s leave that aside and start searchin’ through some documents, mate.」
「Agreed.」
「Do your best to gather all the documents you want as quick as you can. I sure would love to go to the new cafeteria, especially if I’m on a date with a certain someone.」
「Ma’am, ya don’t gotta talk about dangerous things like dates. Besides, that place ain’t even geared toward couples in the first place.」
Their conversation veering slightly off-track, the three of them stepped into the special archives. And thus, the reading spree headed toward a new outcome.
「Haruna-san, we got a refusal for supply of goods!」
「Ah～、so it’s begun right away, huh……」
Azuma Workshop, Diner Division after work had begun. This shop, which had the trade name Azuma Diner on it, had begun the day first thing in the morning with a refusal to bring food ingredients right from the getgo, which was a pretty bad outlook for the day.
Of course, this supply of food not coming was a very common form of harassment. Haruna and the others had yet to realize it, but they had indeed thought of it as a possibility.
「Well, what we planned to use for today, we already supplied yesterday, and at worst, if we need to replace several vegetables, we can quickly get those from Ortem, so there really isn’t any need to get so flustered, kay?」
Haruna said, pulling out not just today’s portion from storage but what looked like more than a whole weeks’ worth of food ingredients. Azuma Diner’s food storage had Prevent Rot enchanting on it inside of a large container, expanded to the limit with capacity. With the exchange of 300 meals per day, there was enough space to last an entire year’s worth of food at full capacity.
Needless to say, regular restaurants didn’t have such absurd storage capacity. At most, the average shop would have three days’ worth in storage.
「So assuming we’ll think about tomorrow’s stocks when the time comes, first let’s stock up for today with all our might!」
「R-Right……」
Almost as if they had expected this (no, who am I kidding, they probably did expect this), the the employees below the head chef nodded once at Haruna while clearly put-off at her attitude.
Then again, despite mentioning beginning stocking up, Haruna wasn’t going to lay a finger on anything. This time around she was simply the person in charge of starting up the business and the personnel who dealt with trouble. As a result, while she did instruct, she would not be making anything whatsoever.
「Make sure to cut that chicken a bit smaller and make the size uniform all across.」
「Okay.」
「Hey, you have the seasonings in the opposite order.」
「Ah, sorry about that!」
Haruna politely instructed the trainees who the head chef had brought along with him from somewhere. She had pounded the general cooking procedure into their heads, but it still felt like they had a bit more to learn in the small areas.