The Villainess With A Heroine Harem

When she had been reborn as a princess in her second life, Emilia had spent most of her time before meeting Crystal honing various odd skills, such as painting, archery, horseriding, and so on.

Cooking, however, was not one of them.

Unlike in this world, where it was more or less an art form, cooking in her previous world was considered a job that nobility would never even consider partaking in.

After all, the environment in the kitchen would damage both their health and appearance, and the labor required to carry out some of the more intense tasks was nothing to scoff at.

Cooking for the nobility was a job reserved for the hardworking middle class, and mostly males, at that. Younger girls such as Maeve may help out their father with some menial tasks, but they would certainly be kept away for the most part.

Emilia hadn't really been interested in it before, but cooking in this world was really too different.

Not only were there all kinds of machines to make the most difficult parts of the job almost trivially easy, there were also many types of 'ready made' ingredients, and even the fire was clean!

Learning new things was something that Emilia always found joyful, and since she was going to be staying over with Crystal for a while anyways, she decided to take this chance to learn a few things from the heroine's mother.

The woman was, of course, overjoyed. And so, while her daughter was still blissfully catching up on many days of missed sleep, Emilia went through three batches of failed cakes before she finally had what she considered as an 'acceptable' result.

When Crystal finally woke up, she was a bit disappointed to see that Emilia was no longer in bed. It wouldn't be too long till it was time for school, so the heroine decided to get ready before looking for her friend.

Even after she got out of the bath and changed into her uniform, Emilia was nowhere to be seen, and the heroine couldn't help but feel a little strange. 'She didn't leave already, did she?'

When she finally left her room and entered the living area, however, Crystal couldn't help but stare dumbly towards the kitchen space.

Emilia, who was wearing one of her mother's cooking aprons, gave her a cheerful smile and a wave. "Oh, Crystal is up already? Good morning!"

Crystal nodded dumbly, wondering why the same mittens that she always saw her mom wear would look so cute when on this girl's hands. "W-What are you baking?"

Emilia pushed the tray containing the last batch of her 'experiments' towards the heroine. "Here. I loved your mother's strawberry cakes the most, so I decided to start learning those first. You can try these, though they're not as good as what you're used to, they should be edible, at least."

Mrs. Miller chuckled. "You're being too humble, dear, even the first batch wasn't that bad. These are more than just edible. I even feel it's a pity that you threw it away."

Emilia blushed as she lightly punched the older woman's shoulder. "Stop making fun of me, auntie. You know the first batch was burnt!"

Since her crush had baked her cake, how could Crystal not eat it? Not to mention being burnt, even if they had been poisoned, she might still give it a try.

When she actually took a bite, however, her expression couldn't help but change.

"H-How is it?"

Crystal swallowed loudly before giving Emilia a strange look. "I thought you said you were learning?"

Emilia tilted her head. "Yes?"

The blonde girl sighed, thinking it was a pity that she hadn't woken up sooner to take the first bite. "Have you really never baked a cake before? This is really good!"

Emilia wondered what her expression would be like if the girl knew that not to mention baking a cake, she hadn't even ever entered a kitchen before today. It would probably be unimaginable for someone from this world. "I'm glad you liked it. I'll make an even better one for you tomorrow."

For the duration of her stay at Crystal's place, Emilia had decided to take a break from the dojo, and thus had plenty of time to spare in the mornings. So she might as well take over preparing breakfast for the heroine.

Of course, since Emilia was focusing on learning cakes, Crystal might gain a few pounds if she wasn't careful.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

The atmosphere in the Imperial Academy had changed greatly after the first semester's results came out, especially for the freshmen.

Although they had heard about it and prepared for it, actually experiencing the 'competition' in this place was another thing entirely, especially for those who had been admitted into class A.

After all, most of these students had been at the top of their peers almost all their lives, and even when they came to the Imperial Academy of Excellence, they were taken straight into the best class.

The first results brought them a harsh awakening, as over half of the previous class A students in the freshmen year dropped to class B, with three directly entering class C.

This was not because these students had been slacking, as they still studied just as hard as they always had. However, that just wasn't enough, because the students in the lower grades, who were also similarly outstanding, had been trying a hundred times harder to move up.

With the constituents of the topmost class being shuffled so much, Crystal found herself feeling a little uncomfortable, especially with the venomous glare of Emilia's ex-fiancé aimed her way.

And to make matters worse, Emilia was sticking right next to her, not even an inch away. How was she supposed to concentrate on class like this?

But not to mention that bastard ex-fiancé of her crush, who would never listen to her, she couldn't even ask Emilia to move to another bench.

After all, the girl was probably separated from her trusty 'sidekicks' for the first time, and Crystal couldn't bear to leave her alone.