592: A Strange Girl Indeed

A Strange Girl Indeed

Right after Claire disappeared into the shower, I heard someone calling for my name from the living room. There was no one else living here except me and her, so I already knew what the occasion was.1

"Food's ready!" D.A. (dormitory assistant) hollered as a 'ding!' sound reverberated through the room. 

"Coming, coming," I said, slipping on my own academy uniform and standing before the mirror in my room to make sure it looked right (it didn't, but from my perspective, this was fine). The clothes had been tossed into the laundry machine along with Claire's last night, since said machine (and its counterpart, the drying machine) was conveniently placed right in the larger bathroom. Every dorm room had one, and I assume it was expected of the Elites to make use of this the night before since they'd already worn them for the aptitude tests. No one wanted to go to a new school wearing dirty clothes.

Of course, the Supports received their uniforms after the entrance ceremony so they were pretty much brand new, but Claire ended up washing anyway due to hygiene reasons. I doubted stuff provided directly by the IMF could have any health issues, but being a princess was a princess.

After putting on the uniform, I headed back into the living room to find that the food I requested was already placed on the dining table, where two chairs were placed across from one another. In front of each, a dish was placed—one was the chocolate pudding, while the other was some sort of steak meal with mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side.

"… How did this get here…"

As if to answer my question, D.A. popped out of the display on the wall once more.

"The food is transported here directly from the chefs via highly-advanced and complex Space Magic that can retain the properties of the food perfectly through the teleportation, such as aroma, heat, and of course—taste," she (or rather, it) explained. "From there, I took over and arranged the food in a way that you and Claire can both enjoy your respective orders from your seats, across from one another. You can think of me as the 'smart assistant' of your room—I can control everything from heating cycles to something as trivial as turning off the lights, turning them on again, or even dimming them or changing them to a different color. All you need to do is give the order."

"Huh… I see…"

Duly saving that information to the back of my head, I took a seat in my chair and waited patiently for Claire to finish her bath. It wasn't polite to start eating when the other party hasn't arrived yet, and it wasn't particularly hungry either. Although I did want her to hate me, doing so over something petty like this wasn't exactly the play. Although she did hate me right now, just from interacting with me in this short amount of time, she could tell I wasn't the type to do something as uneducated as this. If I were that kind of person by heart, I never would've accepted the deal in the first place, given how awfully suspicious it was.

Worst case scenario, she discovers what I'm trying to do and my true intentions, and further distances herself away from me. That would ruin my entire plan and a half.

As such, I composed myself and waited. After a few minutes—not too long—Claire came out of the bathroom in her uniform, and stopped in her tracks after seeing me at the table and what was on said piece of furniture.

"… Chocolate pudding," she murmured, and I sighed.

"Yes, it's the chocolate pudding you wanted. Now if you don't want to be late still, you should probably hurry up and eat. And since they said each tagteam of Elite and Support are supposed to do everything together with few exceptions, I can't exactly leave without you."

"…"

Silently, she moved to her room and hung up the towel to dry, then came back out and sat down on the table across from me. Lifting the metal spoon beside the bowl the pudding was contained in, she used it to scoop out a tiny bit, and bring it up to her mouth.

"Mm…"

She savored a taste a little, showing no change in her reaction, before suddenly lifting the bowl up to her mouth and devouring the entire pudding like someone who hasn't eaten in years. My eyes widened.

"W-Woah, hey! You're going to choke if you eat like tha-" I began, but she'd already finished swallowing. Wiping her mouth with a tissue from the table, she opened her eyes and looked at me.

"I'm finished. We can leave now."

"Uh… well, I'm not, so…"

Glancing down at my own meal that I haven't even touched it, I slowly began eating it. Naturally, it was delicious, but my heart wasn't in it. After all, how could it be, when Claire was staring at me with those dead-cold eyes of hers without even blinking?!

"Er… you want some of this? That pudding definitely wasn't enough to serve as breakfast, right? I can't eat this much anyway, so here."

I moved to cut the steak and give her a piece, but she shook her head and refused.

"The pudding was enough," she said. "I don't need anything more."

"I… see…"

Talk about weird eating habits. But then again, I used to be someone who got extra food during lunch in the school cafeteria so I could have something to eat for dinner and breakfast the next day. I was hardly one to talk.

Soon, I finished up my meal, and stood up from my seat to go to the kitchen, where some mouthwash was prepared. Both Claire and I rinsed our mouths with it, then confirmed we had everything we needed. After that, I checked the time—10 minutes before school starts at 8:30 AM. We were good, time-wise.

"Alright," I said, adjusting my uniform one last time. "Let's go."

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