So now my current situation involves me keeping an eye on two princesses. That sounds so absurd, don’t they have servants to handle that type of stuff? Not to mention, that the only people left behind here, aside from them and myself, are just a few soldiers. I haven’t seen any actual non fighters since I got here, which is a little surprising to me. Shouldn’t a king have the resources to afford that kind of stuff?

I was never a babysitter back when I was a teen, not that it would help here, I guess. Seeing as this is a completely different world from Earth, with completely different standards. Plus, even if I knew how to take care of children. That’s probably a lot different than taking care of princesses, where one of them is almost an adult. Or was? Now that I think about it, I don’t know how old Pepper is.

This is the first day of being mostly alone inside this castle. Getting out of bed, I’m already missing the warmth I feel with Saffron by my side. You would think that spending practically all my life sleeping by myself, that I’d be fine with it. But I guess being in an intimate relationship changes you.

“I wonder if they’re awake?” I say aloud to myself. It’s not really all that early, so surely they should be by now? Well, I get the answer for one of them as soon as I open my door.

Splash! A bucket of water fall right over me, soaking my clothes from head to toe. The sound of giggles from a little girl are all the proof I need to know who’s responsible for this.

“Saaaalt!” I yell out her name. The girl responds with pulling an eyelid down and blowing a raspberry at me. In a rather immature display, I chase after the girl, where she takes me on a run all around the castle. Admittedly, I lost my cool a bit here and I can’t imagine how this looks to anyone watching.

Well unfortunately for me, someone does see this. That someone being Pepper, as Salt runs to her to hide behind. The older girl was doing some practicing out in the courtyard area. Which I guess is dedicated to training, seeing all the dummies here.

“What are you doing?” She confronts me, all the while her annoying little sister makes a face at me. “Aren’t you suppose to make sure we aren’t in trouble? Not be the trouble?”

“I think you can take one good look at me.” My clothes covered in water is my proof for her. Still though, I doubt that’ll make me join her side. “Whatever, have either of you eaten breakfast?”

“I can cook for myself.” Pepper tells me, not what I was asking. “And for Salt.”

“What, you guys don’t have any cooks?” Apparently they don’t. Not only that, but they don’t actually have any servants beyond some old guy I haven’t seen yet. That man’s supposed to be the one that keeps the place clean. Wait, really? They only have one person to keep this entire place clean? I mean, sure, it’s not that big of a castle, but it’s still a castle.

“Anyway, I still need to finish my morning training. You know, the stuff I was doing before you rudely interrupted me.” Of course only I get blamed for that. No wonder Salt’s such a brat, there’s no one to either keep an eye on her, or to keep her accountable.

“If that’s what you’re going to do, then I’ll cook breakfast.” I say, hearing much of her profanity laden protests as I walk away. She might think I’m useless, but I’m not. At the very least, I know how to cook a decent meal for more than one person.

“I’ll come with you.” However, despite the older sister being against me. Having the younger one supposedly ‘supporting’ me is far from the best thing I want. But I can’t tell her no, mostly because I don’t really have a reason to keep her joining me. And honestly, even if I told her no, she’d probably sneak in to mess with me. So it’s probably better if I can keep an eye on her. Surely that’ll work…

The two of us walk into the kitchen. I wish they had cooks, because a place like this really deserves people skilled at the craft. There may not be the modern features of one in my world, but the craftsmanship of the counters and utensils are divine. It feels a bit wasted on someone of my talents, even if I don’t suck at cooking. It’s also in danger when someone like her is here.

“Ooh, can we make pancakes?” Salt asks me. That doesn’t sound too bad, I wonder if they have the supplies to do something like that. I open up the pantry to see what they got, and I really should’ve kept my guard up against this girl.

As soon as I open the door, down falls a bag of flour that she put up earlier. Great… Now I’m covered with flour, and more than just that. I was still wet from the water, so it’s giving me the weird feeling of water and flour mix. Let me tell you, that stuff in your hair isn’t very fun at all.

“Heheh.” I turn at her giggles, an angry scowl on my face. This girl really knows how to get on my nerves. “I guess I made you ‘batter’.” I can only sigh to that bad pun. Looks like you can’t avoid those jokes, even when you cross to another world.

“I’m going to get cleaned up.” I storm out of the kitchen. “Just wait until I get back, then we’ll make pancakes.” Or maybe because she got me upset, I’ll make eggs instead or something.

Rushing off to the bathroom, I was about to flush it all off with water. Then I realize how horrible of an idea that is, I guess being this upset makes me not think things through. Well, that means the end for these clothes. I swear, if that girl took all my clothes to get me naked and embarrassed. I’ll just lose it…

Oh good, she didn’t do that. I inspect my replacement pants and shirt to make sure she didn’t do anything to sabotage them. It looks fine, no hole, no cuts or anything. Putting them on seems safe no, I was worried she might try to put something to make me itchy. Okay, I guess that type of prank is off-limits then.

Quickly, I return back to the kitchen. I really shouldn’t have left a little girl like her alone in one. There’s plenty of things that can do her in, but I’m shocked when I get there.

“Huh?” I audibly make my entrance known. The arouma is amazing, it looks like she actually made eggs, along with bacon. Not to mention, there’s the sizzling of her making both waffles and pancakes filling my ears. How did she get all this up and running so quickly? I was only gone for maybe, 10, 15 minutes.

“I already got everything started.” She says that to me, as if this is completely normal. “Can you keep an eye on the bacon?”

“Yeah, sure.” Huh, I never realized that this girl could be that responsible, or capable. If anything, I thought she’d just make this place more of a mess for me to clean. Well, I guess it is a little messy, but not for nothing.

The crackles of the food on the pan is music to my ears. Now this is some real progress, and the first time since I woke up that I can properly relax to.

“I didn’t think we’d make so much food.” I tell her, as I take the bacon out of the pan. This is way more than I think two girls and a man should be eating.

“Of course we’re making all this. It’s also for the soldiers.” I see, so she wanted to cook for everyone here. That’s actually really kind of her to do. But for someone her age, that girl’s going to need a lot of help. If she’s going to act like this, then I certainly don’t mind lending aid. “Here, try this.” She hold up a spoon to me. Well, I don’t mind giving a taste test of this soup she’s also making. Big mistake.

Whatever she just gave me is so hot. And I don’t mean that I should’ve blown on it to make it cooler. I mean that she clearly gave it way too much spice. My tongue, it feels like I’m dying. In a panic, I rush over to the sink. It’s a nice thing that they have running water here. I place my head under the facet and let it rip.

“Hahaha!” When I’m finally finished, her laughter is all I can hear. “I can’t believe how easy it is to get you!”

“Oh ha ha.” I laugh sarcastically. “Real funny.” To her, it definitely is. I’m going to have to get this girl back somehow.

“What’s going on in here?” I guess that Pepper’s training is over. The sight she just walked into must be strange from her point-of-view.

“Nothing important...” I respond in the most deadpan voice of my life.