You've Been Kidnapped (1)
Yeah, it’s not all that unusual, is it? Even considering the setting, the protagonist isn’t the sort of timid person who can’t make friends. With a pretty face and a good personality, it would be strange if she didn’t have any. But for that friend to be Aria of all people…
-You’ve had a stiff expression this whole time. Is it because of that Mir girl?
“It’s not that.” I whispered as quietly as I could, just in case Mir or Aria might overhear.
-Then why do you look so gloomy?
“Because of what’s coming up ahead?”
-What an obvious lie.
It wasn’t exactly a lie, though.
“Wow, there are so many people.”
“It must be because dinner is buffet-style, unlike lunch.”
“Let’s get in line quick!”
With my mind at ease, we stepped into the dining hall and let out small gasps of amazement at the crowd that nearly filled the entire space. Unlike lunch, where the menu was fixed and you couldn’t enjoy a variety of flavors, it made sense that a buffet-style dinner would draw this kind of crowd.
“Phew, thank goodness there are seats left.”
“Right? It’s nice we didn’t have to wait.”
“Then let’s eat right away.”
Even with so many people, we didn’t have to wait at all and could head straight in to eat. If we had arrived even a little later, we would have been stuck at the end of that long waiting line behind everyone else.
-The menu is certainly diverse. That’s nice.
Surrounded by the noisy chatter and the faint sound of music, we each filled our plates according to our own tastes.
“One plate really doesn’t feel like enough.”
I felt a pang of regret looking at my plate, which already had no space left. With so many different kinds of food, even taking just a little of each quickly filled it up. In the end there was no choice but to use two plates.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one thinking this, because I could already see several students eating with two full plates set before them at their tables.
…That one over there isn’t a student, though?
Looking more closely, even the professors were piling food onto two or more plates and eating heartily. Well, they were people too. Of course they’d want to enjoy a lot of delicious things.
Clatter.
In the end I carried my two plates to our assigned spot, but no one had returned yet. I was momentarily flustered by the empty seats.
I thought I’d be the last to arrive, but I ended up being the first.
If I started eating now, I wouldn’t know when the others would show up. And if they arrived right when I had finished and had to get up again to grab more food, it would make conversation pretty awkward.
Guess I’ll just eat slowly, then.
Deciding to take my time, I lightly picked up one glossy meatball along with some garnish.
Crunch.
“……!!”
Was this really a meatball? Supposedly made from ground meat? If so, it was strange how the moment I bit down, rich juices flooded my mouth and I could feel the distinct fibrous texture of real meat. It was so good that I wanted to shove a piece into the mouths of anyone who ever said meatballs were nothing special. This flavor could not be dismissed with the word “just.”
“I seriously regret not eating this yesterday.”
To think I had been late and missed something this delicious, settling for chicken skewers instead. Of course the skewers had been tasty too, but this was on another level. Yesterday’s me, reflect on your mistakes.
Clatter.
“……?”
At the sound beside me I turned my head, wondering what it was, and there sat Mir, who had already gotten her food. She had also used two plates… Huh?
“Hmm…?”
“Huh…”
It didn’t seem like my imagination. No matter how I looked at it, the dishes she had chosen felt somehow… familiar?
She stared at her own plate and then at mine with the same puzzled look. After a brief moment of eye contact, Cheonma identified the source of the strange atmosphere.
-It seems your tastes are similar. How did you both end up picking almost exactly the same things?
Just as she said, the food on Mir’s plates matched mine almost perfectly. The only real difference was that hers had a few extra sweet items scattered here and there. Aside from that, it was almost suspicious how much overlap there could be among so many different dishes.
“Hey? What’s up with you two? Why aren’t you eating?”
After we spent a moment exchanging those odd glances, the final member—Aria—arrived. Realizing she was the perfect topic to naturally move past the weird mood, we turned toward her, only to freeze at the sight of the food piled on her trays.
“Ari…a?”
“…Wow.”
Good grief, she had built an actual mountain of food. At that height it would be impossible to tell what anything was. The stack on her plate was so enormous that the number of trays she carried was no less than… three!
-Pu-eung!
-To use a spirit like that. Wait, is it really okay to show Undine so openly? She was definitely being careful not to let others see her at first.
Mir and I looked from Undine, who was proudly carrying the mountain of food, to her owner Aria.
“T-this is because Undine is going to eat some too!”
“We didn’t say anything, though?”
“Your eyes were totally saying ‘You’re going to eat all that by yourself?’”
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“You really were thinking that?!”
That’s what she said, but in the end Undine demolished one mountain and Aria took care of the other two.
“……”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just wondering where all that food went.”
After the meal, we went for a walk to help with digestion. Then suddenly Mir’s gaze drifted toward a certain part of Aria that gave off an especially overwhelming presence—her ches…
-Disciple. Get a hold of yourself.
Smack.
“Ouch!”
“What is it?”
“What’s wrong?”
At Cheonma’s sudden hand chop I clutched my head. The pain made it obvious she had used Karma. To Aria and Mir, who couldn’t see her, it must have looked strange for me to suddenly grab my head and shout.
“I-it’s nothing. I just thought maybe I didn’t eat enough.”
“Didn’t you eat a ton earlier?” Mir looked at me with an utterly fed-up face. That expression looked suspiciously similar to the one she had worn while watching Aria demolish two entire mountains of food. But shouldn’t you refrain from looking at me like that? You ate about the same amount I did, yet you’re pretending otherwise.
“R-right? Actually I feel like it’s a little lacking for me too…”
“Haah?”
“Huh…?”
Both Mir’s and my heads turned toward Aria.
“You ate that much and you’re still not full?”
“Just a little…?”
-It’s true that spirit handlers tend to have larger appetites than average, but that’s a bit extreme.
Even Cheonma wore a fed-up expression at the amount Aria had eaten. Perhaps not expecting our reactions, Aria’s cheeks flushed bright red. She insisted that she didn’t usually eat that much, pleaded for a little while, and eventually fled to the dormitory.
“She ran off like that, but she’ll come out smiling again tomorrow, so don’t worry about it.”
“You know her well, huh?”
“We’re friends, after all.”
With Aria gone, only Mir and I remained. The atmosphere had been about to turn slightly awkward, but thanks to the topics of being in the same class and the upcoming spar with Garein, we managed to avoid it.
“Are you well-prepared for tomorrow’s spar with the professor?”
“Well…”
At Mir’s question I pretended to think seriously and glanced at Cheonma. She nodded and gave me a thumbs-up, so I nodded the same way at my master’s answer and replied.
“Enough to land at least one hit on the professor?”
“That’s seriously impressive.”
“What about you?”
“I haven’t even started yet.”
I was the one who ended up flustered by Mir’s confident shrug.
“Why? Isn’t it pretty important?”
“I’m nocturnal, you know.”
“Nocturnal?”
“It means it’s not time for me to move yet.”
Leaving behind those cryptic words, Mir returned to her dormitory as well.
-It seems there aren’t any normal kids around you.
“I completely agree.”
Whether it was Karne, who was kind but so fragile that a wrong hit might kill her, Aria, who seemed utterly serious about eating, or Mir, who had left behind only questionable words.
“Shall we head back too? It’s about time we went there.”
-Yes. Today you can look forward to it especially.
Come to think of it, Cheonma had mentioned there would be a special guest today. With her seemingly endless power, I had reached the point where I could accept just about anything without much surprise. I would have believed it even if she brought someone new to the soul training ground.
And it wasn’t long before I came to deeply regret having that thought.
Because I never imagined Cheonma would actually bring a new person here.
-Ughhh…
-Tsk. Learning only petty tricks has left your mental strength this weak. Can’t you get up already?
-Puuup! I-I’m up! I’m awake!
Here’s what happened…
As soon as we arrived at the soul training ground, Cheonma said she had somewhere to go and told me to wait a moment before crossing through space in an outrageous display. As a good disciple, I obediently entered the simulation-mode room and waited quietly. Before long, when she returned, she was holding a rope that definitely had not been there when she left.
“Master? What exactly is that rope for…?”
-Ah, this? …Hup.
When Cheonma gave the rope a strong tug, the sound effect rang out and a woman of mysterious age tied to it was dragged into view. The most striking features were the ears rising from her head and the tails. And the fact that she had not one but a full nine fluffy tails was utterly mystical.
-Krrgh… Ugh…
She must have resisted midway and been struck by Cheonma, because a small, flushed bump had risen on her forehead. On top of that, her luxurious clothes were covered in dirt, making her look far more pitiful than elegant.
-She is a special assistant who will help with your training from now on.
Wow, she really did kidnap her. No matter how I looked at the pitiful woman Cheonma had brought like a kidnapping victim, she was undoubtedly the nine-tailed fox who had left her mark on me back in the Ghost Lair. It was Hoya.