No cheating, ever.


    “Oh, this is it!”


    “That is correct, Adry-sama.”


    I nodded my head in confirmation as Adry-sama showed me the herbs he had picked, and then raised his hands up.


    “I did it! I can finally tell them apart!”


    “Keep up the good work.”


    I determined that it was time for Adry-sama to be on his own, so I looked around to collect some additional herbs as well.


    As Ruby said, there seemed to be a lot of herbs growing around here, so I gathered enough not to disturb everyone.


    Oh, I found lemongrass. This is also a considered a medicinal plant, isn’t it?


    “Oh my, I found something good?”


    Ruby bounced excitedly to the base of a nearby tree, where he found a familiar mushroom.


    “Ruby… what are these mushrooms? The color is… quite poisonous-looking, no?”


    Mariel-chan, who was staring at Ruby with a suspicious look, was beckoned over a little bit, and when Ruby whispered something into her ear, Mariel-chan’s face turned bright red.


    Ah… I guess he told her that it’s an aphrodisiac mushroom.


    Ruby and Mariel-chan nodded at each other and started picking the mushrooms.


    “Mariel-san, Ruby. Those are not what we came here to look for.”


    Mariel-chan got startled when I called out to them, but Ruby continued on with his mushroom gathering.


    “Uuuuummmm, this mushroom can be used in various ways…”


    Mariel-chan, who was making up excuses as she went along, was quite suspicious.


    “You don’t need this, do you, Mariel-san?”


    “… Yes.”


    It’s just to advance your wild delusions, right? You don’t have a use for this, right?


    “Oh, geez~ don’t be so stiff, alright? You know what this is, don’t you?”


    Ruby, who was going at his own pace, told us to go back to gathering medicinal herbs, as he continued picking the mushrooms.


    I urged Mariel-chan, who seemed to be still unsatisfied, to resume herb gathering.


    “Sheesh that Ruby, what does he plan on using it for?”


    I can’t think of any good situation where Ruby would use aphrodisiac mushrooms.


    “W, who knows…? Rather than that, Cristea-san, what did he mean by u, u, using… err, using that mushroom in a tight spot?”


    “Ahh, that’s…”


    After casting a soundproofing spell around us so that the others couldn’t hear us, I recounted in a few words what had happened when I had caught Kaguya.


    “Eh…? T, then, when you met the black cat Kaguya for the first time, she was aiming to eat you?”


    “Yes, well… I was just in the middle of harvesting, so I fed her that mushroom, you see…”


    “Cristea-san… have you ever been told that you are too reckless?”


    How rude. Don’t call me reckless.


    … Although I won’t deny it, since I got reprimanded by Otousama and Oniisama.


    “W, well, isn’t it fine? Kaguya is currently living with our family peacefully as a cat. So everything turned out all right.”


    “This mushroom… I thought selling this mushroom to my Father for a high price, but… Cristea-san, shall I give it to you for self-defense?”


    “No, thanks.”


    There are no young noble ladies carrying around aphrodisiac mushrooms for protection, okay!?


    I politely declined and advised Mariel-chan to get rid of it or turn it in to her Company as soon as possible.