“You have keen eyes. The upper part of this one broke because of rust. Only one boiler is broken, so it’s no problem. Still, I’d like to repair it as soon as possible.”

“Do you have the parts?”

“Yes. But we just noticed the problem, so we don’t have enough manpower. Besides, it’s been put off.”

I see. When dawn breaks, the passengers and crew become more active. It’s only natural that they’d need a lot of manpower for this. As such, nobody has any time to repair this boiler.

Avril repaired the boiler of the Duke of Lancester’s house by herself. Not only that, she had the structure of the engine room of a luxury cruise ship memorized. So, she enthusiastically raised her hand.

“I’ll help you.”

“What? The young lady? Repair this? What are you talking about?”

“No, I’ll be helping on the other side.”

“What?”

She pointed at the back of the room—or to be precise, at the engineer who looked completely confused. He tilted his head even more.

…And so, Avril was in another room, stoking coal into the boiler. With a heavy shovel, she scooped up coal and tossed it into the fire where it burned red and disappeared.

“Are you… on internship or something? But why are you here…?”

The stoker’s face twitched. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, yet Avril didn’t care.

“I’m pretty used to this sort of work. I heard they needed help repairing the boiler over there, so I’ll help out here in the meantime.”

“Well… I’d be grateful, but… you know…?”

The stoker just couldn’t accept the situation.

It was true that Avril wasn’t dressed in party dress, but her clothes were still pretty expensive. Even the way she spoke made it obvious that she was an upper-class passenger.

No wonder the stoker was confused, seeing a woman who looked like a lady happily stoking coals.

The boiler is the key to the ship’s power. It’s too dangerous for me, an amateur, to help repair it. It’s an important job that involves the lives of many. In that case, I’ll just help stock the coals.

Honestly, that was partially an excuse. Avril had always wanted to try burning coals ever since she read that book about the structure of a luxury cruise ship two days ago.

A little distance away, Lynn cheered her on, saying, “Do your best, Avril!” Avril responded by raising her hand to wipe her forehead. It was smeared black with sweat and coal.

Seeing that, the stoker looked even more put off.

“T-that’s enough. I’ll get someone to take over… I mean, the repairs over there should be finished soon.”

“Oh my. It’s over already? That’s a shame.”

“H-huh…?”

Hasn’t it only been about 10 minutes since I got here?

Just as she was thinking that, one of the engineers from before showed up.

“The repairs are done… but whoa! Did you really burn the coals?”

“Yes, it was a valuable experience.” Avril smiled.

The stoker and the engineer were shocked, then looked at each other, before laughing.

“What an amazing young lady.”

“I feel foolish for always sitting here burning coal while saying things like, ‘I bet they’re having splendid parties up there~ If only I could live a nice life where I don’t have to pick up dropped forks~’”

“I also have to pick up forks myself.”

Just as she was about to blurt out her real thoughts, Lynn whispered in her ear.

“Villains are so calculating! You tied everyone’s hair earlier, and now you helped them burn coals, all to win their hearts and make the plan go smoothly, right? Just like a real villain! How cool, I admire you!”

“Aah—?!”

Right! Avril came here to ask for the ship to stop! This wasn’t the time to enjoy an interesting experience?!

Besides, it was just a coincidence that tying everyone’s hair led to a good result. Also, I just wanted to try my hands at burning coal!

She swore to keep it a secret from Lynn as much as possible. Besides, it was time to move on to the main topic. Avril hurriedly started talking about the matter that she had just remembered.

“Uhm, I have a request for everyone.”

“What is it? The coal is ready to be burned at any time.”

“No, that’s not it—I’d like the ship to stop at the next port.”

“Huh?”

The men, who had been scratching their heads at Avril’s strange behavior until just a moment ago, didn’t seem to understand her at all.

---

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***T/N: pfft gah, Avril is so cute. Avril shoveling coals…

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