"What does it matter? Let's just start with the tasty stuff. Alright, alright, don't worry about it!" Nagi said, continuously putting more meat into the pot with his chopsticks. He just wanted to eat meat now; what good were vegetables compared to meat?
"idiot... idiot, don't you know that every ingredient has a so-called cooking time difference? You should put vegetables in first, then meat!!" Eishun explained the hot pot eating method while pointing at the vegetables in his hand. (Hmm~ Why do I remember hot pot usually starts with meat? Did I remember wrong?)
"Wow~ It smells so good. Then I won't be polite either," smelling the aroma coming from the hot pot, Yoshino, thinking of the past scenes of her family eating together, raised her chopsticks, wanting to pick up some meat to eat.
"Will lizard meat also be delicious?" Seguto asked, tilting his head, his face full of confusion.
"It's all food anyway, don't worry so much about the order. We'll eat it all eventually," Nagi, intending to quickly end the topic, began frantically adding lizard meat, completely ignoring the fuming Konoe Eishun.
"Mhm, mhm, I know, Eishun, you're what they call the Hotpot General!" Al commented with a devious grin, gnawing on his chopsticks.
"Oh?" x2. Yoshino and Nagi both turned to look at Al. Does Neon have such a strange general? Why didn't she know? She'd attended schools in three different worlds and had never heard of this general existing in history.
"Hotpot General?? Sounds very impressive," Yoshino said, puzzled. "Yeah, yeah, a general!" Nagi echoed.
"I understand, Eishun, I lost today. From today on, you are the Hotpot General!"
"But I'm not happy at all!" Eishun, whose forehead was already covered in black lines, decided not to argue with Nagi. "Forget it, do whatever you want, as long as you like it!"
But just as they looked back at the pot, they discovered a serious truth, one that made them regret how wrong their previous decision had been.
What Konoe Eishun and the others saw were a total of 4 slices of meat and two slices of vegetables on the few remaining plates, and someone who was about to continue... Konoe Eishun and Yoshino simultaneously activated Shukuchi, grabbing Nagi's hands and disarming him of his weapon? Al, meanwhile, directly pressed a gravity sphere onto Nagi's body... Seguto? He was responsible for protecting the remaining food and did not act... In an instant, Nagi was subdued. Seeing Seguto, who already showed signs of darkening, he finally realized his mistake and began to sweat profusely!
"Yoshino! Hurry up and cook the rest of the ingredients, we'll suppress Seguto!" Konoe Eishun drew his katana, not forgetting to instruct Yoshino to cook the scarce remaining ingredients.
Time passed minute by minute, and just as Yoshino had finished cooking the ingredients... a sudden whooshing sound came from above, striking towards them... 229: Lacan joins Red Wings.
"Hm?" Seguto, Al, and Nagi saw the longsword flying towards them from the sky and instantly entered combat mode, taking a step back in unison to dodge the pot that had been knocked over by the surprise attack, and quickly used their chopsticks to send the flying ingredients into their mouths. Nagi, having just been disarmed, could only watch as they scrambled for the ingredients flying in the air.
Yoshino and Konoe Eishun, who were still handling the cooking, were a beat too slow. They watched helplessly as the overturned pot flew through the air, and then both of them were drenched in hotpot soup.
"I'm truly sorry for interrupting your meal. I am the wandering mercenary swordsman! Jack Lakan! Let's have a fight!" A very arrogant voice came from the cliff above... Then, he struck what he considered a very cool pose.
However, everyone just glanced up once and then ignored him. Instead, they looked regretfully at the spilled food, their wonderful dinner ruined just like that.
"Food... chopsticks... all gone." At this moment, Nagi was distressed because he had just been disarmed, preventing him from grabbing the food flying in the air. The pot was overturned, the food wasted, and before anyone had even eaten! (How strange, why couldn't you eat without chopsticks? Couldn't you use your hands?)
"Wasting food... hehe... those who waste food are shameful... hehe... spoiling food... those who spoil food are shameful... those who both waste and spoil food... hehe..." The now darkened Konoe Eishun retrieved his katana, intending to teach Jack Lakan a good lesson, but seeing Yoshino bowing her head silently next to him, he calmed down and looked at her with concern. Yoshino's clothes were soaked from being drenched in a large amount of soup.
"Yoshino, are you alright?" Konoe Eishun crouched down and asked worriedly. At the same time, Nagi and the others also noticed Yoshino's state, stopped their bickering, and turned to look at her.
"Ugh! Yoshino's clothes are dirty! So mean, so mean." Yoshino looked at Konoe Eishun with tear-filled eyes, the feeling of being covered in soup made her very uncomfortable. After getting wet, she remembered that the first time Jack Lakan met the Red Wings in the manga, it seemed to be this exact scene, and she hadn't expected to be caught in it herself. Yoshino felt so wronged; why was she receiving such treatment? Finally, in her distress, tears fell, and she began to sob.
"..." Seeing Yoshino cry, the faces of the four Red Wings members darkened. As the only female member of the Red Wings, the innocent and adorable Yoshino was everyone's treasure. Even Al, who usually enjoyed teasing Yoshino, loved her dearly, and now that their most precious Yoshino was crying, everyone lost their composure.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 70 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!