Initially, the cleaning progress was very slow. Asakura demonstrated with their physical efforts that without suitable cleaning agents, dealing with grease and sticky sugar stains was quite difficult; at least, it was impossible to speed up with ordinary cleaning tools.
This made Asakura inwardly lament how great it would be if house-elves could come to the clubroom. He was sure they would be happy to help him and his companions clean the room.
Unfortunately, due to contract restrictions, those house-elves seemed to have to stay in the kitchen as much as possible, and even the food preparation was done in the kitchen before being magically transported to the location Asakura specified.
However, once Asakura thought of something, the cleaning progress rapidly advanced.
The specific method was to first send away Yanami and the two other members of Kessoku Band besides Gotō Hitori—Amakusa Shino had also quickly left after a quick bite, as unlike Asakura and his group, the Founders' Festival was not over for her and required a complete wrap-up—thus, only the Magic Club members and related individuals remained in the clubroom. Then, Asakura and Gokou Ruri would use Magic on the items stained with grease and sugar, transforming them into snakes and cats, and then performing the counter-spell, making the original stains on the items disappear.
"Conservation of mass doesn't exist anymore..." Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't help but say during this time.
"But this is very Magic..." Asakura spread his hands, "otherwise you'd have to explain what kind of process the mass-energy change is during the transformation of an object into an animal, and where the energy driving this process comes from. This is not comparable to the force analysis in the last question of a physics exam."
So Yukinoshita Yukino quickly gave up, deciding not to think about these things for now: although she hadn't completely abandoned the quest to explore the mysteries of Magic, it was clear that the problems with this stuff were beyond her current ability to solve: after all, even Newton didn't immediately propose the law of universal gravitation after being hit by an apple, did he?
There was also a small interlude during the cleanup.
Asakura had prepared many drinks and placed them on a nearby table for everyone to quench their thirst after working, but Gokou Ruri unexpectedly drank the butterbeer that Asakura had prepared for himself and specifically placed on the other side.
The girl's face instantly flushed red, her wine-red eyes, enhanced by contact lenses, sparkled and looked at Asakura with a charming, somewhat silly smile.
"Ruri?" Asakura realized something was wrong and quickly called out, "If you're tired, you can rest..."
"I'm not tired yet~" The girl elongated her tone, let out a cute little hiccup, made a gesture of ears with her hands on her head, and cutely shouted, [Cat]!"
This directly caused a group of cow cats, conjured by Magic, to run wild in the clubroom like crazy, forcing everyone's work in the clubroom to temporarily switch from cleaning the floor to catching cats all over the room.
"Heh, I remember someone saying 'butterbeer is an non-alcoholic drink,' right?" Yukinoshita Yukino said to Asakura with a feigned smile, "Can you explain what's going on with Miss Gokou clearly being drunk right now?"
A cute paw print was imprinted on the side of her face. It appeared when the girl had just caught a fluffy kitten that had turned from a pencil case and, trying to secretly pet the cat, was hit in the face by a 'cat paw punch' from the kitten.
"Oh..." Asakura looked left and right, avoiding her gaze, acting as if he was very busy and could only spare a few words to answer: "Actually, butterbeer comes in two types, non-alcoholic and low-alcohol... just like Mojitos. A non-alcoholic Mojito is just Sprite with a mint leaf and a Lemon slice, the difference from Sprite is that such a cup costs 200 yen and up, the specific price depends on the bar's decor and grade..."
"So the cup Ruri drank had alcohol?" Yukino ignored his attempt to change the subject and went straight to the core of the problem.
"She just picked up the wrong one."
"So you were planning to secretly drink alcohol by yourself?"
"Don't look at me like this, I'm actually thirty years old."
"Physical age?"
"Mental age."
Asakura said to Yukino in a very natural manner, "If you don't mind, we can address each other differently. You can call me Dad, and I'll call you Yukino-san."
"My upbringing did not lack paternal love, nor do I intend to cheaply sell my chastity—" Yukino said, looking down at Asakura with icy eyes. "As I said before, making such jokes to women is quite rude."
"Then you want to keep your distance from me?" Asakura asked in surprise.
This way, at least he wouldn't be harassed by his sister-in-law, Yukinoshita Haruno.
"No, I will correct your behavior according to the moral standards commonly known as common sense—" Yukino said haughtily.
"The common sense of the world can no longer stop me!" Asakura said with a serious air, pointing casually. Several pens on the table, sticky with syrup, turned into slender blind snakes, but before he could change the snakes back into pens, several cats leaped onto the table and ate the slow-moving little snakes as if they were spicy strips.
"Don't do that, you'll get constipated!" Yuigahama Yui said worriedly, having fumbled and let the cats escape several times, making Asakura even suspect that her hands were covered in butter.
"Sh-should we be focusing on this…?" Gotō Hitori, looking dirty all over and covered in cat fur from head to toe, asked tremblingly. Her eyes were full of tears, but not because of a deep love for this land, but because she was the only human and witch among the cat-catching members present who was outsmarted and defeated by the cats.
At that time, with a cat swaggering on her head, it was Asakura who rescued her from the pile of cats.
"Those two cats seem to have turned from books. When they change back to their original form later, maybe you'll see two pens folder ed inside—" Asagumo Chihaya speculated, watching the cats that had escaped to the top of the cabinet and started licking their fur.
"It's also possible that two pens were embedded in the books—" Asakura also speculated from the side.
On the other side, Gokou Ruri, hiccuping from alcohol, seemed to have turned into the pope of some strange religion, raising her hands and saying loudly: "The Earth is a giant cat! So understand the cat! Feel the cat! Accept the cat! Those who do not know the cat will not know peace!"
"Alright, that's enough playing for now." Asakura gently tapped Gokou Ruri's head: "Undo the spell, don't trouble everyone anymore. Anna and the others should be back soon."
The girl puffed out her cheeks and muttered a few words as if sulking, but in the end, she obediently undid the spell, and the cats running around the house returned to their original forms, clattering to the floor.