Chapter 176 – Change for the Better

After everyone dropped off their stuff at their respective cabins, they split off into the pre-designated groups to complete their tasks.

Since Takei and Akari were in charge of cooking and no one was back yet, they just ended up lounging around until the group with the ingredients came back.

"Hey, that cloud kinda looks like you," Akari pointed towards the sky.

"How so?"

"It looks kinda gloomy."

"..."

Takei made a sour expression and glared at Akari for her unamusing joke.

"No hugs today because of that," Takei stated.

"Nooooo~ Anything but that!" Akari sadly wailed.

Of course, Takei was kidding about the no hugs punishment.

Even he couldn't survive the whole day with no hugs.

"We're back!"

Takei turned his head away from the depressed Akari to see three of his group mates return with a basket of ingredients.

Helena, Rikka, and Arisa had finally returned with the ingredients that the teacher had given them.

He had a feeling that they would only be provided with ingredients instead of actual meals, so he wasn't exactly too surprised by the basket of assorted vegetables and meats.

The question ended up being; what meal would they be able to make out of these ingredients?

"Good work," Akari praised them as she grabbed the basket from them. "The three of you can take a break while Takei and I work on the meal."

"Aye aye captain!" Helena joyfully accepted Akari's proposal and dragged the other two girls to a nearby bench.

Now it was just the two of them left again, Takei and Akari could finally start preparing the meal.

"What do you think we should make?" Takei asked the professional.

Akari briefly glanced over the ingredients and decided on a course of action. "I think a stew would be the best choice for these ingredients."

"How come?"

"With all of these vegetables and meats, it would be hard to prepare all of them in a timely manner. So if we do something like simmering a pot of water and making a broth, we would be able to make something simple and delicious in a relatively short amount of time," Akari explained.

Ah, that is a really logical and rational decision that she made. I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't think of this idea first since it's such a simplistic yet ideal plan.

"That sounds like a good idea," Takei nodded. "Where do we start?"

"I'll start prepping the meat to be cooked, can you cut up the vegetables?"

"Yeah, I got it handled."

Following Akari's instructions, Takei grabbed all the vegetables and laid them down on a cutting board that was provided to them.

With a chef's knife that was also provided, he began slicing the vegetables for the stew.

On Akari's side, she was planning to cook the meats on a portable hotplate while the water in the pot was heating up.

Everything was going well for both cooks, so it wouldn't be too long before a meal was ready for their group to eat.

***

"How much more wood are we going to get?"

"Hmm, probably a little bit more. We have a decent amount."

"Decent amount? Dude, we have enough to have a fire burn for the next decade."

Eiji was not the least bit entertained about Ryuto's sense of judgment, they definitely had way more wood than they were ever going to use.

Part of the reason why he decided to complain now rather than earlier was due to his growing exhaustion from carrying the lumber around.

"What if we run out of wood because there was a tornado that came by and blew all the wood away? What would we do then?" Ryuto explained the reasoning for his paranoia.

"Yeah, I highly doubt a tornado is going to come by and steal all of our wood. At that point, I would just run away and try to survive," Eiji facepalmed.

These two were an odd duo in the first place, so it wasn't any surprise that they weren't exactly the most compatible with each other.

Eiji had been a good friend of Takei's for a long time, while Ryuto had become Takei's friend not too long ago.

They met through Takei, but that was the true extent of their relationship.

"A friend of a friend" is something that best describes these two's relationship.

Eiji wanted to bridge the gap between friends and acquaintances, so he decided to ask Ryuto something that had been on his mind for a while. "Hey, Ryuto."

"What is it?"

"Do you still have feelings for Akari? Even after Takei confessed to her, do you still like her?"

Eiji knew from experience that romantic feelings didn't disappear that fast, so he believed that there was no way Ryuto felt nothing after those two got together.

"Is this something that you should really be asking me?" Ryuto muttered.

Eiji shook his head. "Not really, but I'm curious."

Ryuto seemed to ponder Eiji's question for a moment before ultimately deciding to answer it. "No, I only like her as a friend. At the time I confessed, my feelings were nothing but shallow. I was greedy and wanted to increase my reputation at school, what better way to do that than to date the goddess? I didn't like her, I just wanted to have her as a status symbol. I was... a disgusting person."

"..." Eiji didn't expect Ryuto to open up so much, but he was happy to hear Ryuto reflecting on his past self.

"You were a disgusting person, but not anymore. You've reflected and changed, am I right?" Eiji asked.

Ryuto stared at Eiji in silence after he made such a remark, and then softly smiled after thinking about the nuance of Eiji's words.

"Yeah, I reflected and changed for the better. I'm truly happy about that. Although, you could work on your compliments. How could you call me disgusting and then brush it off?" Ryuto laughed.

"Haha, sorry sorry. I was just trying to make you feel better," Eiji smiled back.

After grabbing a few more pieces of wood, the two decided to head back to camp.

"Let's go back now, is this enough wood for you?" Eiji asked.

"Yep, that should be good. Let's return now," Ryuto finally agreed. "And Eiji?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Eiji wasn't expecting gratitude for his behavior earlier, but he was happy to receive it nonetheless.

"No problem."

—

Go Explode! Idiot Couple Meter: 85 -> 86%

This discussion dates back to chapter 43 where Ryuto confessed to Akari.

Serious-san: Poor guy, she didn't even know who he was...

Sugar-chan: Don't underestimate the goddess!