Notes from a Certain Chef

I mean, even preparing the meals was a task quickly finished, since I only had to make enough food for me and Genji-san.
And because the food didn't require much effort, cleaning up was equally simple. I used this rare opportunity to tidy up the whole kitchen even more diligently than usual, flashing a wide smile at the sparklingly clean sink.

It fell to Genji-san to do the nighttime rounds, so once I had finished I went to the servants' breakroom to take a leisurely shower and wash away the fatigue of the day. (Fatigue my foot, all I had done was have a drink in the rose garden...)

But then the telephone rang.
Getting a phone call this late was very surprising, so I thought it must have been something urgent.
Genji-san is the kind of person who thinks it's impolite to make a phone call in the middle of the night, so even if something urgent happened during the night he would rather go up to the other person's room to knock on their door than call them on the phone.

Since it must have been Genji-san who was calling, I picked up the receiver in a hurry while covering myself with a bathtowel, wondering what could possibly have been going on.
Yes, what is it? His reply was quite simple.

 "...Please come to the kitchen as soon as possible. Hurry."

Genji-san's voice sounded uncharacteristically nervous.
I remember realizing just from the tone of his voice that something strange must have happened.

...But what on earth could it have been?
The kitchen is the most important position in this job for me. If something had gone wrong there, the responsibility would no doubt be mine... But could I, of all people, really have caused some kind of a blunder in the kitchen? Anyway, I changed back into my clothes and rushed to the kitchen.

And what I saw there... I doubt I'll ever be able to forget.

 "I need you to help me. It's too much for me to manage alone."

As I was looking at that bizarre scene, I was all the more astonished that Genji-san's nervousness had only affected the tone of his voice...
At any rate... the kitchen, my pride and joy... that should have been tidied up and neatly organized... how could this have happened...?

The pots and bowls that I had polished to a silvery shine... were all piled up in a tall heap on the table... as if they were children's toy blocks.

And around that pile were ladles and other utensiles lined up in a radial pattern... How should I put it... At first impression it seemed like aboriginals had used the cookware to build a totem pole or something.

Needless to say, it sent shivers down my spine...

That's when that thorn came back to my mind.
...This is it. This is what Kanon-san saw inside the gardening storehouse... It's the same thing...

 "...Gohda. We mustn't let the other servants see this. Let's clean this mess up tonight."
 "Th-tha-that's right... Let's clean it up... Wh-who could have done this...!"

It was weird to even say that aloud.
There was nobody on Rokkenjima that day besides me and Genji-san, after all.

I would never do something this stupid, so that means... the culprit is automatically Genji-san...
No, but wait... Genji-san would be the last person to do something as absurd as this, wouldn't he...?!

What is up with this messed-up prank?! Is he harassing me?! But Genji-san himself is cleaning it up with me. Scattering things around and then cleaning them up himself... would he really do something that pointless just to scare me tonight...?! That's unimaginable!

I tried figuring out the culprit behind this grotesque magic circle prank... but the only one I could think of was the Golden Witch, Beatrice.

 "G-Genji-san, when did you notice this...?"
 "I was on my way to the servants' room after finishing my rounds when I noticed that the kitchen door had been left open... I took a peek inside and saw this mess."

 "Could it have been... a burglar...?!"
 "Everything was without question locked up. Besides, no burglar would take the trouble to come all the way to Rokkenjima."

 "Then... who could have done this...?!"
 "......There's no need to investigate it. Anyway, Gohda, you clean up the pots. I'll erase this thing. By no means can we let anyone else lay their eyes on this graffiti."

 "Ah, um... This is just what I heard from Kanon-san, but apparently something like this had happened before, in the gardening storehouse... D-does this kind of thing, uh... happen often...?"

That might have been something I shouldn't have asked.
Genji-san is the kind of person who won't stop moving his hands even when he needs to move his mouth, but this time he stopped in his tracks and lift his head with a stern look on his face...

 "...Damn that Kanon. I told him not to talk about it."
 "I-I'm sorry, please don't scold him! I was the one who insisted...! More importantly, please tell me...! Has this kind of, uh, stuff... happened before as well...?!"

 "...Sometimes. It's just a prank."
 "J-just a prank, you say, but who would...! I mean, there's nobody here but me and Genji-san, you know?! Who else could there be?! I certainly didn't do this! Genji-san, was it you?! That can't be right!! Then, what's going on here, who did this?!"

 "...You shouldn't pry into it. Just be silent and clean up... And never say a word about this to anyone. Not even to the Master, not to mention Master, Madam or Milady either... Kanon will be punished later."

 "I-I'll never ask again, so please...! Genji-san, would say this was done by Beatrice...?!"
 "Do not say that name in vain."

It almost sounded like a threat.
At the same time, he seemed to be half-acknowledging that Beatrice-sama' was behind this.

...Bizarre incidents like this... they're probably not limited to the gardening storehouse case either.
And each time they happen, they're dealt with and covered up before anyone from the family notices, no doubt...

 "I'll watch my tongue, so... please tell me. Did Beatrice...sama... do this...?"

 "......I think so. ...There have been even more incomprehensible incidents in the past. Things clearly impossible for a human being."
 "...Such as...?"

 "...A young servant on a night shift once saw a golden butterfly and started following after it. She chased it up to the back door entrance, which was locked, but she lost sight of it and gave up."
 "If I remember correctly... even if you see a golden butterfly, you're not supposed to follow after it, isn't that right...?"

 "What?! You, you mean... That young servant chased after the golden butterfly, gave up... and by the time she turned around, they had already been drawn there? During the few seconds when she had her back to the walls?!"

 "...She couldn't have overlooked the wall. She strongly asserted that there had been nothing drawn on the walls at first, and that it had all happened between the few seconds it took her to check that the back door was locked and to turn around and walk back."
 "N-no-no way, you're kidding me... Hadn't it been just a joke between the servants...?"

 "...She called for me and I went to help erase them... They were complex patterns. Certainly not something you could draw in just a few seconds or simply overlook. Soon afterwards that servant had a high fever. She was hospitalized and had to quit. I heard she moved back to her hometown after that. She hasn't contacted us since."

 "...That's ridiculous... No-no, that might have been an elaborate prank as well! Or rather, perhaps that young servant herself was the culprit behind that prank in order to make fun of everyone, or something like that..."
 "...I see, that's also a possibility... Let's stop this chitchat now... Although, I've also had first hand experience... with something that was definitely impossible for humans."
 "Oh. W-what was it...?"
 "......"

That's where Genji-san stopped talking... And after a long silence he decided to ignore me and resume cleaning...

For Genji-san, who is very strict regarding his work and, in that sense, a very pragmatic person, to keep his silence when it came to Beatrice...
His silence alone told me in a more eloquent way than a myriad of words ever could that witches do, in fact, exist...

Eventually, we finished cleaning everything up.
...Even if we said that there had been a weird totem pole and magic circle in the kitchen, I'm sure nobody would ever believe it.
Genji-san warned me again not to speak of it to anyone...

That night, I drank strong alcohol as I forced myself to forget what I saw.
After a while, I had convinced myself that it had all been just someone's ill-natured joke.

But even now I still sometimes feel frightened.
Such as when I enter the kitchen the first thing in the morning in order to make breakfast...
What if the cookware has been stacked into an eerie pile again? It scares me.

I shouldn't be thinking about this.
I'm hoping I'll be able to forget by writing this down.

...