Chapter 77 - Maid and Cake

Returning home with the package in his hands, Takei opened the front door and saw an extra pair of slippers at the entrance.

From the small footprint, Takei easily guessed that Akari was at his house at the current moment.

Silently closing the door behind him, Takei walked into the living room of his house.

There was a piece of paper on the coffee table that instructed him to sit down and wait patiently for his maid to arrive.

"Maid?"

He was confused as to what the note on the table meant.

Takei only remembered having one "servant," nonetheless a maid.

As a shadow of foreboding was taking root in his mind, Takei heard footsteps coming from another room.

"Ta-da! Your very own personal maid has arrived!"

Showing up in a maid outfit was none other than the goddess herself.

Akari Akazawa entered the living room with something very off about her.

"..."

Observing the oddity in front of him, Takei was speechless at how to respond.

Akari was dressed up in the same exact maid outfit that all the girls in Mai's class wore during the mini festival at Mitsukai High. It was probably the same outfit due to the fact that Akari had asked Mai to help her rent one from the same place beforehand.

Needless to say, it fit perfectly on her.

Cute, eye-pleasing, and a dignified air surrounding her. The goddess looked like a try and through maid.

"Well? How is it?"

Possibly due to Takei staring for too long, Akari began to get embarrassed about her appearance. She just wanted to get a reaction out of Takei, but it seemed to have shaken her up more than she had thought it would've.

Scratching his cheek, Takei tried his best to answer truthfully.

"It looks really good on you, I almost want you to be my actual maid..."

"!"

Unsurprisingly, Takei's praise ended up doing a tremendous amount of damage to Akari's psyche.

Akari averted her gaze, while a triumphant smile appeared across her lips.

It seemed that Takei's compliment had put her in an extremely good mood.

As the goddess was revelling in her victory, a stomach growl could be heard.

"..."

Takei immediately looked away as he realized that his stomach had betrayed him.

While Takei was looking sullen, Akari's grin grew even wider.

"I'll go serve you right away, my master~"

Akari happily hummed to herself as she skipped to the kitchen.

Reeling from the embarrassment and shame, Takei grabbed the bag and covertly headed to the kitchen.

He managed to discreetly place the cake box into the fridge, while Akari was working on cooking dinner.

Peeking over her shoulder, he found out that they were having fried rice for dinner tonight. The bright yellow golden color that was staining the rice, just so happened to remind him of Akari's beautiful hair.

Speaking of her hair, Akari had tied it into a ponytail to ensure a good balance between cuteness and practicality.

It was so enchantingly beautiful that it made Takei want to gently grab it and play with it.

In which, he actually did.

"Eek?!"

Not even noticing that Takei was behind her, Akari let out a cute little yelp.

She turned around and glared at the person happily playing with her hair.

"I'm sorry?"

A wry smile appeared on Takei's face, as he continued to peacefully stroke her hair.

Sighing to herself, Akari accepted the outcome and turned back to her cooking.

"Just tell me in advance next time..."

A cute little whisper tickled his ears as he heard Akari talking under her breath.

Since playing with Akari's hair forever wasn't good for his heart, Takei stopped and went to confront the person that had been spying on them this whole time.

Opening the door in the kitchen, Takei discovered a peeping tom that was hungrily staring at both him and Akari.

"Mom's not a burglar, you know? She's just here to spy on her adorable kids."

As he had suspected, Flora was up to no good again. It wouldn't have surprised him if she was the one that encouraged Akari to wear a maid outfit in the first place.

"For a mother, you're a real handful..."

Takei looked at Flora with a deadpan expression that seemed to express his sheer tiredness of her antics.

"Now now, mother just wanted to see how you would react to a cute maid showing up out of nowhere."

Without an ounce of regret, Flora admitted that she was the one who told Akari to wear a maid outfit.

"Why you..."

On the outside, Takei was acting mad and frustrated. While on the inside, he was very grateful for his mother's help. Seeing Akari in a maid outfit had uplifted him significantly.

Flora seemed to know that Takei was happy about this development on the inside, since she has an understanding smile on her face.

"Dinner's ready!"

As Takei was about to scold his mom, Akari notified him that the cooking was finished.

"Tch."

Takei left the giggling Flora there, while he went back to the kitchen to eat dinner with Akari.

After washing his hands and setting the table, the two peacefully ate their dinner.

Once dinner was over and Akari had changed her clothing back to normal casual wear, Takei told her to sit on the couch while he got everything ready.

Bringing out two plates of cake, Takei presented one of them to Akari.

"This is the reward for your hard work. I know for a fact that you're going to place first in the midterm results."

Relishing the sight of Akari's genuinely happy face, Takei could feel his facial muscles loosen up.

The goddess herself looked very thankful for what she was given.

"Thank you so much. You've given me so much happiness."

Professing her raw gratitude was enough to destroy Takei's psyche.

Even then, it was a gift that kept on giving.

"It's no problem, seeing you smile makes me really happy. That's why I'll do this for you right now."

Takei grabbed the spoon from his plate and cut a piece of the cake with it.

With that piece of cake on the spoon, he outstretched his hand to Akari's mouth.

Realizing what he was trying to do, Akari's face flashed suddenly with excitement before she opened her mouth.

As Takei fed Akari the piece of cake, a blissful expression appeared on her face.

It seemed that she had really liked the taste of the expensive cake that Takei had bought.

"What do you think?"

Wondering if the cake was as good as she made it out to be, Takei asked Akari for her opinion.

"It's definitely good, but it tastes really sweet. Could it be because you fed me that it became really sweet?"

"..."

How am I supposed to respond to that?

Unfortunately for Takei, he never did find a way on how to respond to that question.

---

Akari's Final Affection Meter: 43 -> 48%

Maid + Cake = Best possible romcom scenario.

Author-san: Grr, blow up normies!

Serious-san: I wholeheartedly agree.

Sugar-san: I'm all for the sugar, but even I'm getting overloaded...