Maria P.O.V
After Grim finished telling, Ace and Deuce gave Grim a look
"There is absolutely no way that was the caretaker" Ace said
"Thinking back now that I've calmed down, that guy was wearing a yellow vest, so he must be from that Banana Dorm" Grim said and I held back my laugh
"Banana... Does he mean Savanaclaw? It is just me or are there a lot of delinquents at Night Raven College...?" Deuce wondered
"Alrighty, our chestnut pile is pretty big. Let's get them back to Trey!" Ace said
Nyaha! This tart is gonna be awesome" Grim said excitedly
Kitchen~
When we got to the kitchen, we saw Trey-senpai getting some things ready
"Welcome back. I see you picked quite a bit" Trey-senpai said
"With this, we can make a huge tart!" Grim said with excitement
"Thanks to that, peeling all of this is going to be a bit of a challenge no doubt. Better get to work you four" Trey-senpai said and I started rolling up my sleeves
"All of this... There's no end in sight..." Deuce said
"Well, you will be fine Deuce, you and Trey-senpai can use magic" I said hoping to cheer him up a bit
"Maria is right. Let's all do our best" Trey-senpai said and we started peeling the chestnuts
We finally finished peeling all the chestnuts and we started pureeing the chestnuts as well. After all that hard work, we finally finished
"Phew. It was hard but we finally manage to finish" I said while Ace put his head on my shoulder
"God, we're finally done pureeing them all!" Ace exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around me
"My arms are aching..." Deuce said while rubbing his arms
"Haha. Good job, your hard work will make it tastier." Trey-senpai said
"I'm already full from the smell" Grim said and I noticed Grim drooling
"Calm yourself down Grim" I said
Next, we need to mix the butter and sugar into the chestnut paste, then add the secret ingredient: oyster sauce" Trey-senpai said but I know he's joking
"Oyster sauce!?" Ace and Deuce shouted
"Yep. The umami of the oyster adds deep richness to the cream. Specially, I use this Walrus Approved Young Oyster Sauce. Famous patisserie all used this in their tarts" Trey-senpai said
'There's no way that's true, it'll be too salty, guess he wants to joke around' I thought
"Seriously...? It tastes pretty salty" Deuce said
"Then again, people even put chocolate in curry... Maybe it'll taste all right" Ace said
"You guys... Trey-senpai is just messing with you guys" I said bluntly, and they looked at me dumbfounding
"Huh...?" Ace and Deuce said and Trey-senpai started laughing
"Pfft. Ahaha! Miss Maria is right, of course it wouldn't. Who would put oyster sauce in desserts?" Trey-senpai said and Ace got angry
"Screw you! I was actually starting to take you seriously there" Ace said angerly
"Haha! If you took a second to think about it, you'd realize something up. Don't just accept things without a healthy amount of skepticism. Consider this a lesson from me" Trey-senpai said
"This guy looks nice, but he really can tell lies like they're nothing" Grim said
"But it seems Miss Maria can't be fooled that easy" Trey-senpai said
"Of course, who wants to eat desserts if they're too salty" I said
"Now we take some cream and... Oh!"
"Something up?" Ace asked
"You all gathered so many chestnuts that I got ahead of myself and made too much marron paste. We don't have enough cream to mix into it" Trey-senpai said
"I can go out and buy some. Is it sold at the school store?" Deuce asked
"Should be. You can find practically anything there. Mind if I ask you to pick up a few other things while you're there? Two cartons of milk, a dozen eggs, some aluminum baking cups and about five cans of fruit..." Trey-senpai said as Deuce was writing down everything
"I don't think I can carry all that alone. Maria, would you mind coming with me?" Deuce asked me
"Of course, I'll be happy to help" I said
"I'm going too! I'm so tired of just endlessly mixing flour" Grim said as we started heading to the school store
Mr. S's Mystery Shop~
"Pardon us... Wow, this place is amazing. There's a crystal skull, grimoires... What kind of taxidermy is this?" Deuce said with amazement in his tone
"Woah. Do they really sell cream here?" Grim asked when we heard someone from behind
"Hey, my lost little imps! How goes it? Welcome to Mr. S's Mystery Shop. What can I do for you today? A charm from uncharted lands? Mummy of an ancient king? Or how about some cursed tarot cards?" The shop owner asked, his skin is dark colored, his clothes also reminds me of a witch doctor, he also has some paint on his body. With that, Grim got scared that he went on my shoulder
"Ffgna! You scared me!" Grim said as I pat his head to calm him down
"We'd like the things written here" Deuce said as he handed the list to the shop owner
"And some cans of tuna!" Grim said
"No Grim" I said and Grim pouted
"Don't listen to what Grim said! We don't need any tuna!" Deuce said
"Let's see what we have here. Some cream, eggs... What a tantalizingly sweet line up. OK! Coming right up." The shop owner said as he disappears in the back
"Wow. He really does have all of it..." Deuce said with amazement and I find his reactions cute
While we were waiting, I decided to look around the shop to see what's in stock
'I wonder if they have anything cute?' I thought
I was about to leave when I saw something my eye, something cute
'So Cute!' It's a bat plushie, it looks so cute with its chubby appearance, and I want it! I was about to grab it, then I heard Deuce calling me
"Maria! Come help me carry these please!" Deuce asked
"Coming!" I ran towards Deuce direction
'Maybe I'll come back for the plushie when I'm not busy' I thought as I started picking up the groceries and we started to leave
Main Street~
"That store was crazy" Deuce said
"Tch. Stingy Deuce" Grim said
"Who are you calling stingy?" Deuce asked angerly
"I liked it, it's interesting" I said
While walking I started to readjust my hold of the canned fruit and Deuce noticed
"Maria, do you need help? That bag of cans looks pretty heavy. Let me take it, there's a trick to carrying heavy bags" Deuce said as he took the bag of canned fruit
"Hey Deuce, did you used to go out on grocery shopping before?" I asked since I'm curious
"Yeah, my mom always buys more than we need during sales, so the bags always end up really heavy. Since I'm the only guy in our household, it's always down to me to do the heavy lifting 'round the place... Oh, my bad. I didn't mean to talk your ear off about this" Deuce said as he looked away embarrassed and I shook my head
"No, it's nice to know about yourself especially since I have no memories about myself" I smiled sadly "Besides based on what you're telling me, it sounds like you really care about your mom" I said, and Deuce gave me a hurt expression
"...That's not true at all, I always made mom..." Deuce was about to say more but someone bumped into him which resulted him dropping the bag of eggs "Ow!"
"Aaah! The eggs!" Grim yelled
"Oh no!" I shouted
"Shit, a whole back of eggs is completely destroyed! It's all over the bag!" Deuce said
"Hey! Watch where you're... Hang on... Aren't you the pieces of crap that wrecked the egg in my carbonara earlier?!" The Heartlabyul student from earlier yelled
"Again? Can't stay out of trouble for one day!" The second Heartslabyul student said
"I apologize for what happened earlier, but I gave you my lunch to make-up for it" I said
"Oh yeah. So, what are you gonna do make it up to me?"
"Huh? What do you mean? I already gave you my lunch to replace yours" I said and he smirked
"Isn't obvious? You're gonna be my plaything til I'm satisfied" The Heartslabyul student said as he grabbed my wrist
"Please, I don't want...!" I was about to say something. but I heard Deuce
"Let go... of her" Deuce balled his hands into a fist
"Huh?"
"I said let go of her! I won't you have your way with Maria and I'll punch based on how many eggs you broke!" Deuce shouted as he started to punch them which left me speechless
"Deuce..."
After Deuce beat up the third years
"T-this guy's insane!"
"We needta get the hell outta here! I beg all the chickens for their forgiveneeesssssss!" With that, they ran away
"You better be apologizin' a hundred times over the next time you eggs! Dumbasses!" Deuce yelle
"Deuce... You can calm down now" I tried to calm him down
"Eeeek!" Grim shrieked
"Huff... Huff... Oh no!" Deuce said after he calmed down a bit
"What now?!" Grim asked
"I-I screwed up... I vowed that I'd definitely, definitely be an honors student this time for sure...!" Deuce said
"Eeh?" Grim looked confused
"What do you mean Deuce?" I asked
To be continued~