CH 101

“Is it over…?”

I turned away to examine the night sky where fireworks were going off out of nowhere.

I couldn’t tell what they were celebrating, but it was a nice sight.

A part of me wished I’d stayed with Zetto, but I’ve been in the Labyrinth all day, and I was exhausted so I threw my worn-out body onto the bed.

The fluffy bed gently embraced my body.

I hated the Labyrinth but most of all I hated the difficulty of finding my way around.

I didn’t feel like the monsters were stronger because I was frustrated with them and took it all out on them. However, after getting lost and running out of health, I was forced to leave the Labyrinth.

On my way out, I checked the Labyrinth’s exploration rankings, and the gap between me and Zetto was still staggering.

“I wonder when I’ll catch up…”

I muttered to myself while lying on my bed, reaching for the air.

Unsurprisingly, I caught nothing.

‘To protect Zetto, I need to be at least…’

I had to be stronger than Zetto.

In a way, it was obvious. But it wasn’t easy to keep up with a man who was so eager to improve, and who trained so hard that his mouth was bleeding.

There has to be a better way.

I tried my best, but I realized that I would never be able to keep up with him at this rate.

-Thump, thump, thump.

Someone knocked on the door.

‘At this late hour… Who is it?’

I opened my mouth, stepping to the door.

“Who is it?”

“I have a package for you.”

A package?

The voice behind the door reminded me of my father, Jeras Clementine.

I had just asked him if he had any extra elixirs in the house. Anyway, he was very…fond of Zetto, so I told him to give it to him.

A female Academy employee stood at the door. She was a familiar face in the dormitories.

Whenever a cadet received a letter or package, it was forwarded to the Academy and delivered by a staff member.

“You must be Miss Yuri Clementine, right?”

“Yes.”

“Here, this is the letter that came with your package.”

The seal sealing the letter was the Clementine family sigil. I wondered if my father had sent the elixir.

“…Thank you, but what about the parcel?”

I asked the clerk, who only handed me a letter, not a package.

“Oh, it’s a big one…I left it in the dorm yard for a while.”

“…Big?”

I asked, my eyebrows raised.

I didn’t think there were any elixirs so large that they couldn’t be carried inside the dormitory.

“It would be quicker if you checked it out yourself, so I’ll leave you to it. Oh, and if you need it ‘dismantled’, please let us know.”

“Yes…”

The staff member flashes me a warm smile after my shaky response, and then walks off down the hall.

‘Dismantling…?’

He wouldn’t send me a whole Salamander just for the tail.

Deciding to check the letter first, I enter the room and break the seal.

I read the letter slowly. It was from my father.

“…”

He hadn’t sent the elixir.

It was his opinion that it would be too much for him to give the elixir to Zetto, who was only a ‘close friend’ and hadn’t even become a ‘son-in-law’ yet.

Following that sentence, he suggested another option.

‘…There is nothing more implausible than the idea that Cadet Zetto is weak, but if he is indeed weak, there is something that would be good for him to have, and that is the Clementine family’s Nourishing Formula.’

Wait a minute, so you sent it by parcel…

‘Why don’t you cook our family famous meal for him? A woman’s heartfelt, warm meal is a man’s heart. I’ve included the recipe in case our dear daughter has forgotten it. Oh, and you’d better do the dismantling yourself, because I think it’s a nice touch.’

…I read the entire letter, and my jaw dropped.

I was all too familiar with the ‘famous’ Clementine family meal.

When I was younger, I ate all that stuff. Still, it was delicious, and in my experience, there’s nothing like it to rejuvenate the body.

In particular, the family’s head chef, Mr. Hutton, told me that it was very good for a “man’s body.”

‘Was it really that good…? I wonder…’

Anyway, if that’s true, it must be true because Zetto is a man.

The nourishing formula could revitalize his frail body but the only problem is……that I’m not very good at cooking.

I tucked the letter away and headed straight for the dormitory courtyard where the ‘package’ was supposed to be.

“What the…?”

“Isn’t this a magma bear?”

“Who left this here?”

There was already a crowd of female cadets in the yard.

For good reason, there was a huge, charred Magma Bear lying in the middle of the yard.

This is…one of the ingredients.

I pushed my way through the cadets and whispered, “It is for me.”

The onlookers, figuring out the answer, slowly disperse.

I crossed my arms in front of the Magma Bear and contemplated.

Cooking for Zetto seemed like a good idea. But just because it was made with love…Would it matter if the food was tasteless?

I wasn’t sure I could make it as good as Hutton’s.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Yuri! What are you doing there?!”

It was Lucia, who came running up to me, jumping up and down.

She spots the Magma Bear in front of me and is surprised.

“Magma Bear…!”

“Thank you for sending me home, but why are you up at this hour?”

I asked, curious to see Lucia, who always went to bed early, coming in from outside the dorm.

“Hehe, I came back from watching the fireworks… Did you see them too, Yuri?”

“Oh, yeah…I saw it from my room. It was pretty.”

“That’s right!”

Lucia said excitedly.

She didn’t know what the fireworks were for but she had woken up and rushed outside.

Maybe that’s why she was still in her pajamas.

The meaning of the fireworks was still a mystery to her and behind her, another familiar face walked into the dormitory.

‘Aizel…?’

There was something very different about her.

As she shuffled into the dormitory, Eisel Ludwig was…’all dressed up’.

Her hair was tied up with a ribbon.

What was that short dress that was off-the-shoulder, emphasizing her soft curves?

It was different from her usual look, but…Well, there was no denying she was pretty.

“Uh, Miss Aizel!”

Lucia waved as she turned around, feeling Aizel stir.

Aizel turned her head toward us. Her face was completely flushed, and it wasn’t her usual sullen expression.

…When she didn’t answer, she looked like a girl who was completely in love.

Was it possible for her to look like that?

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I locked eyes with Aizel.

“…”

With a flush on her cheeks, Aizel glanced at me and gave me a satisfied smile.

“…”

I couldn’t understand what she meant, but I frowned because I felt very bad about something.

Soon, Aizel disappears into the dormitory, and Lucia, who was next to me, sneaks up on me and whispers.

“By the look on her face, Ms. Aizel, you must have had a lot of fun!”

“Had fun?”

I ask Lucia, frowning even more.

Lucia puts a finger to her lips and looks up, trying to remember.

“Uh…I mean, it was…I saw Zetto and Aizel walking hand-in-hand during the day, and then when they grabbed the muster… and… I wonder if it’s the ‘date’ I’ve been hearing about…?”

“…A date?”

“Yes, everyone said they looked good together!”

My face hardened at Lucia’s cheerful response.

‘They went on a date, Zetto and Aizel…? And that satisfied smile…’

It was a triumphant smile.

As I come to this conclusion, the image of Aizel’s face that I just saw flashes across my mind and my teeth = clenched tightly.

“So… that’s what it was…”

I had one question, but it was quickly answered.

I didn’t immediately understand why she was wearing old makeup on her date with Zetto, but the smile on Aizel’s face explained it.

It’s not that she was trying to impress him, but that she was thinking about how she would look to others next to him.

Awww~!

“…”

Suddenly, a cool breeze blows in from the side.

When I turned my head, I saw that Lucia was blowing at me with a terrified face. It looks like she’s been splashed with embers.

“Yu, Ms. Yuri, the fire…! You’re doing it again…! If I’ve done something wrong, at least tell me…!”

Despite Lucia’s sobbing and struggling, the heat in my body didn’t seem to be cooling down so I turned my head and looked at the fallen Magma Bear.

A date.

I suppose cooking and spending time together could be considered a date.

It was just a matter of where.

“Lucia, I’d like to cook a meal for my friend, but I was wondering where we should go.”

“What? Cooking all of a sudden? Mmm…”

Lucia, who had been blown away by my question, pondered.

After a moment, her eyebrows rise and her mouth opens.

“…Isn’t it better to eat in your room? Unless you’re going to go to a picnic…?”

“Room? You mean my room…?”

“Yes, then we can eat what you cooked in the kitchen, and it’ll be warmer and more delicious!”

Lucia replied, smiling brightly.

Spending some time alone in my room……was a pretty good idea.

It would be enough to beat Aizel’s date.

The only problem would be how to get Zetto, a man, into my room…

I scratched my disheveled head.

…I’ll figure it out.

***

Having made it through my date with Zetto, I managed to stumble back to my dorm on legs that were beginning to give out.

Opening the door and entering my room, I flopped onto my bed.

Immediately, my body relaxed as I buried my burning face in the bed.

“…”

The words that Zetto had said while ‘looking’ at me on the hill were still echoing in my ears.

‘Yeah, you’re really pretty.’

Pretty. He had definitely said I was pretty.

Even though I knew he wasn’t saying it to me, he was just responding to my long-winded explanation.

I felt terribly embarrassed because I thought he was telling me I was pretty.

I was mistaken, but I wanted to be mistaken so I decided to be mistaken.

It felt so good and I barely held back the urge to lunge at Zetto and hug him.

“…Ugh.”

I felt someone poke me lightly in the stomach.

My whole body tingled, and I slapped the bed and stomped my feet.

So this is what dating is like.

Zetto had gifted me with another emotion.

Love. This was love.

My heart thumped in my chest just looking at his face, but it was different from the comfort I’d felt while talking to him before.

Should I be this happy?

I wanted to go somewhere and brag about it.

‘Maybe I should tell Blanc…’

I tried to imagine Blanc’s reaction, but quickly dismissed the idea.

She’d probably think I was stupid.

Maybe it’s best to keep that conversation between Zetto and me, just the two of us.

I should also thank Blanc from the bottom of my heart for letting me know about dates.

‘…I wonder if Blanc was responsible for the unannounced fireworks.’

Zetto couldn’t see it, but… Thanks to her, I made a good memory.

I jumped with joy, but then my mind drifted to Zetto’s curse. Even now, the curse was gnawing away at his heart, at his life force.

“Whoa…”

I roll over and stare at the ceiling, trying to calm my excitement.

This was just the beginning of making Zetto ‘my’ Zetto but I couldn’t wait to fill his head with me.

It was the only small greed I had left, an uncontrollable desire.

The redhead, Yuri Clementine, bumped into me as I entered the dormitory and I showed her a satisfied smile.

Zetto’s lips were mine.

“Hmph.”

I smiled weakly and rolled over on the bed like a child. Maybe sleeping wasn’t the best idea tonight.