The Villain Who Got Pinned Down Until He Ran Out Of Stamina ~ This Time I Raised The Protagonist's Affection Too Much And Everyone Fell For Me~

“I suppose that’s enough.”

A dignified voice echoed through the living room.

Having finished folding the laundry and with no more work to do, Hibari returned to her room. The room was extremely sparse, giving the impression that it contained only the bare minimum necessary for living.

“…”

Seeming restless, Hibari wandered around the room… then eventually sat down on the bed.

“I wonder if Yuji-sama is enjoying the school camp right now.”

Such a murmur brought back the morning’s events.

“I’m going to enjoy the school camp in my own way, so Hibari, you should do whatever you want by yourself too.”

Though she had responded to Yuji-sama’s consideration with “There’s nothing in particular I want to do alone”…

“Without Yuji-sama here, the solitude that I’ve always taken for granted… now feels lonely…”

The smartphone beside her… was turned off.

◆

“Haaa, I’m exhausted~”

Yuito put his hands on his knees and let out a grand sigh. After reaching our destination at the waterfall, we had returned to the facility.

The hiking had involved quite a bit of walking. My calves were a bit tense too.

“I’m tired~ I can’t move another step~”

“Riina, aren’t you just out of shape? You get tired quickly because you’re always lounging on the sofa eating snacks.”

“Big sis, you’re only so energetic because you’re a sports monster who runs 5 kilometers every morning!”

“I was thinking of running tomorrow morning too. Want to join me, Riina?”

“No way!!”

Such friendly conversation. They were basically on good terms when Yuito wasn’t involved.

By the way, I had been a bit concerned about Riina after the morning incident… but she quickly returned to her usual self.

Even beautiful people had their struggles. Being judged by appearances was really troublesome.

After taking a break, it was lunchtime. Each group started preparing curry for lunch. Cooking in the middle of a lush forest felt nice somehow.

First, we decided on role assignments.

“Since Riina-chan is good at cooking, she can be in charge of cooking and giving instructions, right?”

“If Yui-kun wants me to, of course I will~”

“By the way, I can cook decently too.”

“Yuji-kun can cook! That’s so cool!”

Yuito praised me extravagantly. It was embarrassing, though Riina’s gaze was a bit intense.

“I’m not good at cooking, so I’ll take care of cooking the rice in the mess tin.”

“Then I’ll go support that side too.”

“Having you there makes me feel more secure, Mahiro-chan. I’ll do my best to cook it deliciously!”

“You don’t need to be so determined. If it fails, we can just boil some udon noodles and make curry udon instead.”

“Curry udon, huh? That’s a good idea, Kasajima-kun.”

“I might prefer curry udon anyway~”

“Then maybe we should go back to the facility and get some udon just in case…”

“Geez! I won’t fail~!”

A small laugh broke out among us. Somehow, being with this group was surprisingly fun.

With the roles decided, we split into two teams. Riina and I were in charge of cooking the curry. Yuito and Mahiro were responsible for building a block stove and cooking rice in the mess tin.

I started by washing the vegetables, beginning with peeling the carrots.

“Here, carrots and potatoes. I’m counting on you to cut them. I’ll cool the onions a bit more before handling them.”

“Hmm, you’re quite efficient. I thought you were just showing off in front of Yui-kun.”

“What would I gain by showing off to Yuito…?”

“…impure.”

“What does that mean?!”

I didn’t understand. Also, why did she suddenly put distance between us?!

While exchanging banter, Riina smoothly chopped the carrots and potatoes I handed her. She cut them in ways that would absorb the flavor well, showing her experience.

I knew Riina was good at cooking from what I’d seen in the game. And I also knew about Mahiro’s cooking abilities…

“Hey, Riina-san. Is Mahiro-san actually good at cooking?”

“The ingredients disappear.”

“Huh?”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what she meant.

“My sister becomes dangerous when it comes to cooking.”

“You mean she’s bad at cooking?”

“…”

Wait, why did she look like she hated remembering Mahiro’s cooking?

I knew from the game that Mahiro was bad at cooking… but I never saw a scene where her cooking was actually shown.

“…Let’s not talk about this anymore.”

“Ah… okay.”

Sensing an unusual pressure and danger, I returned to cooking.

While I was cutting the sliced pork belly for the curry, Yuito came over to us.

“Yuji-kun, you’re so skilled!”

“Well, yeah.”

In my original world, both my parents worked and came home late, so naturally I had no choice but to learn how to cook.

“Did you learn from Hibari-san?”

“From Hibari… yeah, I guess so.”

I went along with the conversation. Since coming to the game world, Hibari has done all the cooking, and I haven’t cooked once. Besides, Hibari’s cooking skills were many times better than mine, and much tastier.

“You get along well with Hibari-san, don’t you, Yuji-kun!”

“With Hibari, how should I put it… a good friendship where we can joke around feels right.”

“Oh~ I thought Hibari-san was the cool and quiet type, but she’s different with you, huh~”

At first, I’d thought she was a cool, serious-faced beautiful maid too… but actually, she was super easy-going and talked a lot. If she was opening up to me, that made me happy.

“Yui-kun, Yui-kun! Don’t just talk about Kasajima Yuji, pay attention to me too! Praise me too~”

“I’m so happy we get to eat Riina-chan’s delicious food even at the school camp!”

“Yui-kun~♪”

The dense protagonist was really good at handling heroines.

“How’s it going on your end, Yuito? Did you wash the rice? Did you manage to start the fire?”

“Yep! I started the fire and Mahiro-chan washed the rice. Right now, Mahiro-chan is watching over the mess tin on the fire~”

From what Yuito said, it sounded fine, but looking at Riina beside me… her smile had disappeared and she had a concerned expression.

I decided to ask directly.

“Hey, Riina-san. Earlier, you said something about Mahiro-san when it comes to cooking… but surely she can at least cook rice in a mess tin, right…?”

“It might be bad.”

“Seriously?”

“?”

It seemed like Yuito didn’t know how bad Mahiro was at cooking. That was pretty bad too.

I walked quickly to where Mahiro was.

“Hey, Kasajima-kun. Are you done with the cooking over there?”

“We just need to add the curry roux and let it simmer.”

“I see. As you can see, I’m already done with the cooking.”

The fire was blazing vigorously, almost enveloping the mess tin. And the smoke coming from the mess tin was… black.

“Mahiro-san… did you adjust the fire by pulling out some of the firewood…?”

“Doesn’t it adjust automatically? Our latest IH stove at home does.”

“This is fire, so it’s manual!”

I see… now I somewhat understood what Riina had meant by “the ingredients disappear” and “dangerous when it comes to cooking.” The problem lay in the basic knowledge before even starting to cook.

Though I already had a bad feeling, when I put on thick gloves and opened the mess tin… the rice was completely burnt black.

As a result, our group was the only one to burn the rice, so we ended up with curry udon.

“Curry udon is delicious too~!”

“Fufu. Yuito seems so happy, so curry udon might have been the better choice.”

“Should that be said by the person responsible for the failure?”

I smiled wryly while being careful not to splash the curry soup. But curry udon eaten together with everyone tasted better than any other dish… except maybe Hibari’s cooking.

“Yuito. You have some soup on your cheek. Fufu. Let me wipe it for you.”

“Big sis, you failed at cooking, so just stay quiet~!”

“Wait?! Mahiro-san, Riina-san, don’t get so rowdy! You’ll get curry on your clothes!”

Dealing with the beautiful sisters was still a bit scary, but… being lively like this with everyone was fun.