Onmyoji, a nobleman in Heian-kyo

Page 966

Kikyo Kushida: "I'm sorry, I'll do my best in this regard."

Honami Ichinose: "I will never lose!"

Sakayanagi Arisu: "Their aura is so amazing..."

Kagura: "I don't know why this is happening?"

Yotsuba: "It looks really good."

Komachi: "Go for it! Everyone, please do your best!"

In full swing.

Kagura felt that Chika would be a great fit.

Unfortunately, she was on a date with Kyosuke Kousaka, and Moeha was in a similar situation.

—The situation is becoming increasingly entrenched.

Sakayanagi Arisu is very strange.

She was clearly learning to cook, so how did she "provoke" Miku?

"Wouldn't it be too much like the Showa era to try and prove yourself by defeating me? It's more like the style of a samurai. Being passively drawn into trouble also has a bit of a detective novel feel to it."

What is Miku thinking?

As she said, she wanted to prove herself.

As it happened, Sakayanagi Arisu was a novice cook, making her a suitable opponent, so she wrote a formal "challenge letter" and sent it over.

Feeling that this was inappropriate, they simply added Kikyo Kushida and Honami Ichinose as well.

He thought to himself, wouldn't it be great to show off to Kyosuke Kousaka if he could take on three opponents by himself?

As for failure? How could that be?

Half an hour later, in a competition with the very common red bean cake as the topic, Ichinose Honami successfully won.

"Sister Honami, this was given to you by Lord Kyosuke. You can exchange it for cloth and meat."

"Eh?!"

Honami Ichinose took the paper from Komachi in astonishment and found that it specified the detailed quantities of cloth, meat, and grain, and there was also a deep red stamp on it.

"You can exchange it with Haruno-neechan," Komachi added.

Honami Ichinose was quite uneasy: "I see..."

Komachi shook her head seriously: "There's no need to refuse. It's just a small competition, and it doesn't happen often, so there won't be any problems."

What they gave was actually about the same as the daily salary of Komachi, Miku, and the others.

However, for those who are different from them, such as Kikyo Kushida, Honami Ichinose, and Arisu Sakayanagi, it should be a bit too much.

"Let's continue exploring the pros and cons of food," Yotsuba said.

While talking, he was also eating red bean cakes made by others.

She ate Miku's, Kikyo Kushida's, Honami Ichinose's, Arisu Sakayanagi's... one by one, in order, and found that Honami Ichinose's was indeed the best.

"If we're going to rank them, Honami should be first, Arisu second, Kikyo third, and Miku fourth," Kagura said.

Yotsuba exclaimed in surprise, "I think Kikyo and Miku taste pretty much the same!"

Kagura said, "It's very simple. As long as the two people taste their red bean cakes separately, they will be able to taste the subtle differences. It's like after eating Honami's red bean cake, when you eat other people's red bean cakes, you will find that the other people's red bean cakes have some shortcomings, even if you can't say in detail."

As Miku listened to what each person was saying, she felt utterly powerless.

How can this be?

She tried it, and it was delicious!

“…Um, Miku-san, I also studied cooking from a young age,” Kikyo Kushida said shyly. “If I can still be beaten by someone like you who has studied cooking for a while, then I’m such a failure.”

Upon hearing this, Miku immediately snapped out of her daze: "Yeah, I've only been learning for a short time and I'm already almost catching up with Kikyo!"

Kikyo Kushida looked helpless: "Miku-san's words were so hurtful."

"I apologize, that was my poor wording, but my goal remains to surpass everyone else in culinary skills..."

“It seems like as long as we surpass Nino, it will be fine,” Kagura said.

Miku solemnly declared, "That's right! I must at least make food as delicious as Nino's!"

Komachi finally couldn't help but complain, "Miku-neechan, you still have to beat me, my cooking skills are amazing too~"

"Don't worry, Komachi, Yukino, Eru, I won't forget any of them."

"Ew! It feels so strange to be valued by Miku-neechan..."

"But in my opinion, this is Miku's confidence in her own abilities and her expression of love for Kyosuke. I felt it."

Kagura placed her hands on her heart and closed her eyes, as if she were experiencing something.

Miku unconsciously closed her eyes, a look of satisfaction on her face: "Yes, whether it's reading, writing, playing games, learning to cook... I'm gradually beginning to understand how to appreciate myself."

Yotsuba stared intently at Miku.

She still remembers that her older sister, Miku, would sometimes have uncontrollable fantasies and do some rather inappropriate things.

"Miku, don't do anything reckless."

"Ugh, I don't know why I'm so touched..."

Komachi took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped away the tears that had inexplicably flowed out.

Kikyo Kushida, Honami Ichinose, and Arisu Sakayanagi were utterly speechless...

A quarter of an hour later.

After saying goodbye to Kagura, Komachi, and the others, the three girls who had come to participate in the battle after accepting Miku's "challenge" gathered together in a room to rest and talk.

Because of their participation in the competition, Kikyo Kushida and Honami Ichinose did not have to do any of the necessary work as usual, and instead had a very relaxing holiday.

Needless to say, Arisu Sakayanagi was still recovering and didn't have any work.

"Today's events were quite interesting," Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled.

Kikyo Kushida: "Miku-san has a very unique personality. I was almost startled when I received such a formal challenge yesterday."

Honami Ichinose: "Me too... but actually she's a very nice person. She even gave my sister candy when she saw her."

"It's good that everyone is doing well."

Sakayanagi Arisu summarized it simply.

Kikyo Kushida and Honami Ichinose both nodded in unison, indicating their agreement.

After moving here, they discovered that the people here were even kinder than their neighbors in the modern world.

In particular, all of Kyosuke Kousaka's spouses were genuinely kind and gentle.

Even Miku's actions, which seemed a bit intimidating, upon closer inspection, were actually due to her meticulous attention to etiquette...

In short, the three of them developed a much higher regard for Komachi, Kagura, Miku, and others during the cooking competition, and even secretly raised their opinion of Kousaka Kyosuke, who had such good taste.

Kyosuke Kousaka, the person involved, continues to actively mingle with women.

So unhappy.

Day 347 of crossing

Kyosuke Kosaka realizes that he may not be destined for a leisurely life.

He was invited to drink by Fujiwara no Michitsuna, and he knew it couldn't be anything good, but he was right.

"Kyosuke, do you know? Since the battle in the Sea Kingdom, the flow of spiritual energy around Kyoto has suddenly accelerated, as if there is a bottomless pit drawing spiritual energy from it."

"If I knew, I would have told you already."

Kyosuke Kosaka gave Michitsuna Fujiwara a rather irritating hint that he should "stop talking nonsense."

Fujiwara no Michitsuna smiled, took a sip of his sake, and continued:

"Let me finish. Next, because of this bottomless pit-like relationship, it seems that in order to make up for the shortage of spiritual energy, the surrounding mountains and even the countries in the region have been affected."

Kyosuke Kosaka's eyes widened: "You want me to go to another province within the Kinai region?!"

The other states within the capital region are not far from the capital, possess strong spiritual energy, and have abundant resources in all aspects. They can be said to be the places most strictly controlled by the imperial court and the royal family.

So, what do they want him to do?!

"Don't think too much about it. Since we can't find out what happened in Kyoto, we can only temporarily establish a large barrier to prevent the spiritual energy of other provinces in the Kinai region from being absorbed."

"Then what should I be responsible for?"

"You and Kagura should go to Izumi Province. It's not far from your manor. As for the other provinces, someone will handle them."

Is anyone there?

“Boya went. As for Seimei, we didn’t bother him. He’s busy enough on his own. The main people in charge of building the Great Barrier are the Minamoto clan’s Onmyoji.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Kousaka Kyosuke said.

The resources and national strength of the various states within the capital region are several times that of other ordinary states, so it is definitely not acceptable to neglect them.