Editing Horizon:GT2 Preface (section)

==Morning Kitchen==

Masazumi didn’t dislike cooking. She had often helped out back home when her mother was still around and she had taught herself how to cook through practice. So she could cook and she could get by as long as she had the ingredients. But one major problem got in her way.

“Don’t you hate how eating every single day doesn’t leave enough money for books?”

She tried that as a conversation starter while the girls were cooking one morning at the forest training camp. The others exchanged a glance in the morning sun and the gold and black winged ones began whispering to each other.

“Hey! Naruze! What are you whispering to Naito!?”

“Did you hear that, Margot? You insult her behind her back and she starts restricting your freedom of speech.”

“S-so you were insulting me! I knew it! Even if I didn’t actually hear it!”

“Calm down,” said Asama, holding out her palms and taking a breath. “Um, we have evolved beyond the days when a woman had to know how to cook and was considered a failure of a human being if she couldn’t, so you really don’t have anything to worry about, Masazumi.”

“Heh heh. But isn’t that part of the reason you moved in with us?”

“Asama-sama suffers a one-hit KO!” shouted Horizon. “Oh, and I appreciate everything you do for us.”

Asama froze in place after more or less self-destructing. As for Masazumi…

“Given Asama’s position, I feel like anything she cooks is automatically valuable to an extent.”

“Maybe, Vice President, but wouldn’t that be even more true of the Chancellor?” asked Balfette.

“Would it?” she replied and everyone nodded. Naito and Naruze explained.

“People will forgive most anything he does if he brings them some of his cooking.”

“That’s not how amnesty is supposed to work. …Mitotsudaira, do you have a specialty dish you make?”

“Eh? Yes, I am great at yakiniku. And during the summer, I like making cold shabu-shabu.”

''I’m not sure that counts as cooking,'' thought Masazumi, but she decided not to worry about it after seeing Futayo frying up some raw vegetables. Then the Tachibana Wife asked her a question while pouring some water.

“Could it be you are simply too busy to notice the everyday enjoyment around you?”

“My. Lady Gin, does that mean you find an everyday enjoyment in being around Master Muneshige?”

Mary’s comment made Gin freeze. ''This is a lot like a shogi configuration,'' thought Masazumi.

“Why not hire a secretary or something?” asked the Date Vice Chancellor.

“Remember how this started with me not having enough money?”

“C-could you get…someone from…one of the committees?” asked Mukai.

''I could think about it,'' thought Masazumi while Naruze opened a Magie Figur.

'''Art-Ga:''' “Hey, Representative Committee Head? After partying last night at our forest training camp, sleeping for 8 hours, and lazily bathing in the morning sun, Masazumi just said she’s so busy she wants a secretary.”

'''Nagaya-Stable:''' “Find a roundabout way to tell her to die.”

“I don’t think that’s happening,” said Naruze with a smile and a raised right hand. In other words…

“Well, if there are this many barriers in the way, I guess the world is telling me I don’t have to cook or even eat all that much. If only my jampacked schedule left me time to pack some jam to eat. …Hey, if you don’t laugh at that, what are you ever going to laugh at?”

Everyone exchanged a glance and began whispering to each other, but she wasn’t sure what about that would make them insult her behind her back.