房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"D-do you like the design?"

Patishi breathed out in relief and shyly raised their head – even distressed, they didn't want to miss the chance of getting the opinion of the person that would be the recipient of their work.

"I absolutely love it! They are so chubby and cute! What are those exactly?"

The very scary but actually super-good person tilted his head and asked.

"Those are apple bunny-buns and I'm making them for..."

"Apple bunny-buns!"

Patishi spoke up but was immediately interrupted by his enraptured benefactor's gasp of awe.

"Oh, apple bunny-bun, where are my apples?"

"Ah! Scary shadow sir! I was hungry and I have eaten them all!"

"How dare you, you glutton! Those were mine! Now I will eat you instead of them!"

"No, please – sto...! Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

"Ooomnomnomnom!"

"...eh...?"

Patishi benefactor did the whole play together with the bunny-bun - even making a funny high pitched voice for the apple bunny-bun and using a grumpy low voice for himself and it all ended in him eating the bun in front of the flabbergasted Patishi.

"Mmmm! It's so good! And you're saying that they are not finished?"

The black-haired attendant said and snatched another innocent bunny bun from the tray without asking.

"Oooom! Mmm! Incredible! Make them tomorrow for my master, too! Where did you lean to even make those?"

The scarred attendant gasped, continuing to pat the head of the brown-haired youth.

"Ah, sir, you see, sir, I just thought up the recipe myself and..."

"Thought up? By yourself!? Amazing! Patishi, from now one you can – no - you must work on new delicious confectionery and whatever else you come up with!"

The black-haired boy who wasn't nearly as scary as he looked like, declared showing down the patting – but did not remove his hand from Patishi's head.

"Ah! A-as you wish, sir!"

The youth declared, blushing with joy.

"And stop with the sir! My name is Zoemi, as you said yourself, there is not much age difference between us, but feel free me, big brother! I always wanted to have younger sis... sibling, anyway."

The scarred attendant declared with a soft smile and bit his tongue at the end because he was again looking above the youth's head.

"E-eh...!?"

Fearful Patishi was worried that the very-scary-but-actually-super-good person was actually just messing with them but no – the scarred attendant was not only serious – he was waiting for the confirmation about the proposal from Patishi themselves!

"B-big brother Zoemi...?"

Patishi whispered bashfully and covered expecting Zoemi to laugh at them for being foolish.

"!!!!!!"

But the opposite happened and Zomei puffed up his chest with such a big smile that the light returned to his eyes and he started patting Patishi's head with twice as vigor as before.

"Yes, big brother will help you! If someone bullies you, just tell me! I will mess them up!"

He declared proudly and his eyes lost their light but only for a moment before he smiled again.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few cooks that were actually planning to teach the washer a lesson after the working hours, started sweating bullets feeling the chill of the lifeless glare of the scarred attendant at their backs as if he knew about their bad intentions...

Orders from above are just orders from above - as long as no one from above will check on their implementation, everything can be messed with...

...but now the kid had the backing of someone who will actually come to the kitchen every day! And to make things worse – than someone was the terrifying darkness magician who terrorized everyone gathered in front of the dormitory the moment he entered the Academy!

Not to mention that on this very day he even stood up to the son of the duke Derizno and made the very well-known prankster and delinquent – young lord Moyena – apologize for his pranks!

Even with all that, by far the worst thing was that he was clearly liking that annoying kid – going as far as to make himself be called big-brother was an obvious statement and a threat to the entire staff!

Needless to say, the cooks with ill intentions decided to forgo their plans for the sake of their own lives!

---

Also -yes - the story about the Zoemi and company's grand entrance has already have got blown way out of proportion even though it happened just the day before.

---

Teo was carrying the empty dishes from the evening meal to the kitchen.

She was in a very grumpy mood at the moment - even though Zoemi promised her to pat her head as long as she wanted, he ran off as soon as the lunch break was over!

He might have lessons to attend – but just one quick pat would be enough!

Veo got praised and patted even though she barely did anything – as always - but she, Teo, the one who always did all the chores for the prince and actually helped with preparing food, got nothing!

It was so frustrating that she wanted to scream!

There, of course, was the prior night during which she got to sleep in the same bed as Zoemi, but for the short brown-haired girl it was more of a reason to be angry!

The time she spent with the black-haired boy should be exactly the reason why SHE was supposed to be the special one!

But then Veo got to be called a good girl by Zoemi!

|I'm so jealous! Veo always gets the pity points because of her arms!|

*clatter*

Teo frowned and clenched her hands on the tray she was holding, causing the empty plates to shake dangerously.

"Whoa...!

"...!"

Without hesitation, the short girl in the butler's uniform made a sharp, ninety-degree turn into the open kitchen door and almost crashed into someone.

"Apologies."

Teo bowed and responded mechanically.

She was the prince's attendant so she wouldn't be scolded unless she actually broke something, so she wasn't too worried about the identity of the other person.

"Oh! Teo! Hello again!"

"!!!"

But her reaction changed completely once she had heard the voice of the person she almost crashed into.