Chapter 109 - Circulatory System (11)

A dark night with a full moon.

Three people sat gathered in front of a campfire and began eating silently.

Trisha, who had been mechanically chewing jerky with an expressionless face, lamented, "It's tasteless."

Just two days into the joint class and she was already tired of the food. Trisha had almost no tolerance for repetition and boredom.

Bertrand spoke to Trisha in a deliberately mature tone, "Sometimes you need to know how to endure to achieve grand goals."

Trisha responded seriously, "I hate enduring the most."

"..."

Just then, a Stitch flew to Martha who had been watching their conversation.

When it had a letter attached, everyone's attention turned to Martha.

She opened the letter, read through it, and said, "It's a letter from Cecil."

Trisha suddenly spoke with apparent interest.

"What's Sis doing?"

"She says she found people to help us. She's very comfortable, eating delicious meat with an incredibly strong group."

"Who are they?"

"Says it's Candy's group. We saw them once during the entrance exam. Remember?"

Suddenly Trisha raised her voice and asked, "Why is Sis in their group??"

Martha answered Trisha with puzzled eyes, "What's wrong? Do you have something against him?"

"No, it's not that..."

"Rumors say he's as strong as Sion. There's also talk that his grades were lowered as punishment for doing something perverted. But it seems he's quite close with Cecil. They met separately several times."

Trisha raised her voice even more, "Met several times????"

"...?"

Judging Trisha's reaction wasn't good, Bertrand subtly expressed disapproval of Candy.

"Seeing how they grilled meat, seems they're not planning to get good grades. I think most rumors about him are exaggerated, so I don't like it."

Bertrand nodded toward Trisha as if signaling, but she didn't even pretend to see.

"Then, we need to decide quickly. Intelligence says Sion plundered six groups and is coming our way."

"Who are the group members with this Candy or whatever? If it's mediocre, wouldn't it be better to request Elias' group? They're also passing through the dangerous zone. They have Victor and the Magic Department’s second seat."

"Says Candy has a two-person group."

"That won't work. Doesn't forming a small group mean they're not thinking about grades?"

"Hey, but one of those group members is Luna."

Martha waved Cecil's letter as if telling them to look at the back.

"...Wait, what? Cough!"

Bertrand nearly choked on what he was eating.

Luna was the most valuable person in this joint class and had the fiercest recruitment competition. She was in a position where she could essentially form a group with anyone she wanted. And that person had chosen this guy called Candy. As a two-person group at that.

"Yes. His ability must be good to have seduced Luna somehow. The two of them deliberately—“

Trisha cut off Martha's words and shouted, "We must group you with Sis!!"

"...?"

"...?"

"If not, I'll go alone!"

Then, she stuffed jerky into her mouth with angry eyes.

Watching Trisha's puffed cheeks, Martha blinked as if dumbfounded.

***

When I woke up, Cecil and Luna had already finished preparing to leave.

The cave wasn't very wide so I had slept while keeping my distance from the girls, but perhaps seeing me alone looked cold, a new campfire had been lit beside me.

Luna was brushing her hair in the soft morning sunlight entering the cave.

And as if she had used some magic, Luna's clothes had changed to a yellow dress with flower patterns. How she did it was truly mysterious.

When I raised my stiff body, Luna turned toward me.

"Did you... sleep well?"

"Yes. Let's eat breakfast first... then move."

"Yes."

I turned my attention to the meat we had wrapped in large leaves and stored yesterday.

Something unfamiliar was placed on top. It looked similar to Cecil's magic bombs, but its lid spun like a top, spraying localized pure white frost below.

Thanks to that, the meat was frozen in fresh condition. Seems Cecil had worked on it during the night.

And near the improvised barbecue rack made yesterday, blackened skewers were scattered.

Seeing steam still rising, it seems they had been on the fire until just recently.

"But... did you eat first?"

Luna suddenly turned her gaze away from me and said, "...No."

"...?"

I went outside to stretch and retrieved the sapling and Maladirut planted beside the entrance. Perhaps from getting plenty of rain, the leaves looked more vibrant than usual.

While returning, I ran into Cecil.

She was crouching about ten paces from the cave entrance, smoking tobacco with a tired face.

"Candy's up?"

Cecil threw away what she had in her mouth and lit a new tobacco.

When I stared blankly, she spoke casually, "...Want one?"

I shook my head.

"Looks nice."

"Yes, very refreshing. I secretly examined your wooden sword and it was interesting. Where's it from?"

"Stole it from the neighbor's flowerpot."

"Can I research it later?"

"No reason why not."

"Good. Make sure to lend it to me later."

"But, did you make those skewers in the fire?"

Then Cecil looked around and gestured for me to come closer.

When I approached her, she whispered quietly so Luna couldn't hear.

"Luna tried to prepare breakfast but burned everything."

"...”

Her thoughtfulness was appreciated, and we had plenty of meat anyway, so I should just pretend not to know.

"Ah, and we got contact this morning. Our group members say they'll join us. They've set a meeting point... we can arrive before noon even moving slowly."

That meant traveling with Trisha. It might get a bit awkward.

I just hope she demonstrated the results of her Drama Club training without regret.

We finished eating and headed straight for the meeting point.

Though the wind was cold with moisture, the sunlight was pleasantly warm. It felt like going on a light picnic.

Cecil and Luna didn't talk much with each other.

Cecil seemed bored and came to my side several times asking various questions.

"How did you become friends with Luna?"

"Where did you learn crafting skills?"

"Are you perhaps close with Sion?"

I couldn't satisfy Cecil's curiosity. Deflecting vaguely was my best option.

We reached the meeting point earlier than expected. Cecil checked the situation, exchanging Stitches several times.

After waiting a while, Trisha came running from afar waving her hand.

"Sis!"

"Trisha!"

And a couple of unfamiliar faces followed behind her.

One girl had a model student impression like someone often seen in bookstores, and the boy had a generous impression like a noble family's late-born son.

Trisha and Cecil seemed quite glad to see each other and hugged.

Luna and I stood watching from an appropriate distance. On the surface, “Candy” and Trisha had no connection.

However, seeing Trisha's face gave me an ominous feeling creeping up.

Luna whispered beside me, "Um... is that someone you know?"

There was a reason she had to ask that.

It was because Trisha's eyes were glaring at us murderously over Cecil's shoulder.

"She's a friend who knows my identity. But we need to keep that a secret from them."

"...Okay."

Luna's expression showed she didn't understand the reason for the murderous glare.

I couldn't explain that part. Because I didn't know either.

Cecil brought her group members over to us and introduced them one by one.

"This is Trisha. This is the leader, Bertrand, and this is Martha."

Trisha greeted me with a bright smile that belied her earlier murderous gaze.

"You're Candy, right? I've heard a lot about you."

"..."

"Won't you greet me?"

"Nice to meet you."

I threw out a short word and turned away sharply. We had no time to waste on emotional tug-of-war.

There was a reason the dangerous zone was called dangerous. Unpredictable weather, wild animals violent enough to rival magic creatures. And the circulatory system's apex predator also inhabited this place.

Better to send away those who might become burdens quickly. After sending them away, my goal was to explore the dangerous zone further and hunt the apex predator, the so-called “wingless dragon”.

Sion would be targeting the same prey as me. And if possible, I wanted to get ahead of her. I had no intention of giving up my prey.

When I gave the signal to move, Bertrand planted his feet and asked suspiciously, "Hey, do you know Sion is coming our way? I'm honestly still anxious. Do you have a way to protect us?"

"If Sion comes, I'll fight her, and you all escape during that time. That's the plan."

"You talk like Sion's interested in you rather than plundering?"

Cecil must have explained everything sufficiently, so why is he so persistent? 

Seems Trisha wasn't the only one who wanted to play emotional tug-of-war.

Cecil cut in and dismissed it, "Shut up, all you need to know is she’s interested in him."

Trisha chimed in, "Right, shut up!"

"..."

Bertrand's lips trembled as if shocked.

Even Luna beside me added quietly enough so that others couldn't hear.

"...Shut up."

I whispered to Luna, "Don't... copy things like that."

Luna's blue eyes wavered slightly before she looked at me and nodded.