The Villainess Reika-sama

[117]

By Mao-chan's request, we were going to eat pancakes.
I'd wondered this before, but weren't pancakes more of a snack?

The menu was filled with pictures of whipped cream towers.

I couldn't understand how Hawaiians could eat pancakes as a staple. Wouldn't you get heartburn eating this for breakfast? Was it just a matter of getting used to it?

Still, I was pretty excited for it. I went with a chocolate, banana and whipped cream.

Mao-chan went with strawberry, while Ichinokura-san went with fruit pancakes with no cream.

"Wahh! It looks so yummy!"

Her eyes seemed to sparkle as our orders were carried to us. They were bigger than expected.

"Yours looks yummy too, Reika-oneesama!"

"Want to try some?"

"Can I!? Then please eat some of mine!"

And that's how we happily split our orders. The chocolate banana pancakes were delicious! I liked chocolate and bananas with my crepes too, incidentally. Still wasn't entirely sure how I felt about eating these sweet foods for dinner, but as a snack they were the best.

I wondered how on earth they cooked these so neatly though. In my old life the batter was always really thick, and I'd use a lot of it because I wanted my pancakes to turn out thick like in the pictures. The thickness worked of course, but they were always shaped more like weird pillows instead. And they were huge. And undercooked. On the inside at least, because the outside was always burned...
I doubted that anybody could really make such nice pancakes at home. It was probably impossible. Most likely those photos were faked.

Wah! Mao-chan's strawberry and powdered sugar pancakes were delicious too!

"Would you like some chocolate banana pancakes, Ichinokura-sama? They are delicious, you know?"

"Try some of my strawberry too, Haruto-niisama!"

"Mmmm~ I think I'm good."

Oh? He didn't seem as enthused about our pancakes as he was about my kamameshi.

"Are you perhaps not so fond of sweet foods, Ichinokura-sama?"

"No, no, I am. It's just that the cream looks a little overwhelming," he said with a difficult smile.

I could kind of understand.

"Haruto-niisama, did you not want pancakes?"

Mao-chan looked a little sad. Ichinokura-san flew into a bit of a panic to reassure her.

"No, I did, Mao. Maybe I will try some of yours."

"Really?"

"Really."

He cut off a bit of her pancakes.

"Mn, delicious. Thank you, Mao."

"You're welcome. You can have more, you know?"

"But then there'd be less for you. I've got my own. Actually, you should try some of mine. Want a little?"

"Yeah!"

Mao-chan stuffed her cheeks with the fruit-laden pancake.

"Yummy! Ah, but I took too much of your fruit. I'm sorry. You can have some of my cream instead!" she said, before piling a mountain of cream onto his food.

Mao-chan...

"I really love you and Reika-neesama so I'm really happy that we came here."

Mao-chan, what adorable things you say!