Better Than Expected
Violetta had been nodding off through the entire lecture, yet the moment break began she was awake, her head clear with an almost uncanny swiftness.
Ah. I dozed off again.
Indoor classes simply did not agree with her. Let a professor so much as open their mouth and she was gone, halfway to dreamland before the first sentence was finished.
This is bad. I can't afford to fail.
She scratched at her neck and scowled. That easygoing temperament of hers, hardly what anyone would expect from a noble's daughter, came from the open, unreserved culture of the east. Even so, Violetta had one truly fatal problem. Sitting at a desk to study suited her far less than taking her body outside and moving it.
Put a sword in her hand, or turn her loose across a field, and she brimmed with more energy than she knew what to do with. Seat her in front of a desk, though, and her eyelids grew heavy every single time.
Next lecture, I'm actually going to pay attention. She was patting her own cheeks, ordering herself to snap out of it and wake up, when her nose caught a scent she knew.
This is... shrimp?
She happened to be hungry, and the familiar smell of home set her mouth watering. At once she swept the room like a radar coming online, and what she found was a pink-haired girl clutching a red bag, fidgeting where she sat.
Who is that, again?
Violetta tipped her head. The small, animal-like girl was a stranger. The person sitting beside her, she recognized at a glance.
Ugh. Ekaterina.
Violetta had lived her whole life in the warm coastal lands, and she was a miserable match for Ekaterina, whose rare gift lowered the temperature of everything around her.
But—
I have to know what that is!
She was desperate to learn what the pink-haired girl was holding. So she clamped down hard on the shiver running through her and asked.
"What's that?"
"Eh...?"
Seria looked up at the cadet who had spoken. Wavy black hair, smooth deeply tanned skin, freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose—and those freckles, if anything, only made her more striking.
Violetta!
Just as Dante had said, she had succeeded in catching someone's interest.
This is actually working...!
Even as she marveled inwardly, Seria answered in a voice gone a little small.
"Th-they're called Shrimp Crunch. Snacks that taste like shrimp..."
She glanced around as she said it. Sure enough, the eyes of the watching cadets were bright with fascination.
Whoa. Violetta's actually going to say something.
If it's Violetta, she doesn't have to watch Ekaterina's mood.
I knew it. You're finished, commoner.
But the words that followed brought a sudden hush over the hall.
"Can I try one?"
"Ah. Sure."
Seria held the bag out without a fight.
"Oh, thanks!"
Violetta wasted no time fishing a snack from the bag. It was a striped stick, and the smell was no small thing.
"Mmm."
Brought close to her nose, the aroma came through even stronger. The cadets watching twisted their faces, but she popped the thing into her mouth as if their opinions were none of her concern.
Crunch!
The instant she bit down, Violetta froze where she stood. Not because the cold rolling off Ekaterina was too fierce. She had been struck speechless by a texture she had never tasted in her life.
What is this insane crunch?
And the flavor—where did one even begin? It was as sharp and concentrated as if a hundred shrimp had been ground down into a single bite, and the savory depth that belonged to seafood alone was nothing short of sublime.
In truth it wasn't pure shrimp at all, but shrimp-flavored oil and a handful of seasonings layered together. There was no way Violetta could have known that. The one thing that could be said for certain was that it tasted absolutely insane.
"Whoa! This is delicious!"
That the cadets were shocked by so honest a reaction was, in a sense, only natural.
She thinks that tastes good?
Seriously? When it smells that awful?
And yet, watching Violetta exclaim over and over about how good it was, they couldn't help the curiosity that stirred.
...Just how good does it have to taste?
A few of them genuinely wanted a bite, just to see whether it was really that delicious. A moment later they shook their heads and drove the thought away. But Violetta was a cadet famous for her honesty. Why would someone like her bother to lie?
They were left to suffer, straining to hold down a curiosity that kept surging back up.
"Hey, can I have more?"
"Ah, yeah. Eat them all."
"For real? All of these?"
Violetta's eyes went round, and Seria nodded.
In truth she was desperately hoping the girl would just take them. The sooner that bag left her hands, the better. The stares of the cadets fixed on her were burden enough, and honestly, the snacks weren't to Seria's taste either. If anything, she found herself watching in wonder as Violetta ate the smelly things and called them delicious.
"Thanks! You're seriously a good kid!"
None the wiser, Violetta was thoroughly pleased.
"Still, I'd feel bad eating all of them. Here, you have some too."
And she shoved a snack straight into Seria's mouth.
In it went.
It was over in an instant. There was no way Seria could track a movement that quick from someone who lived in her body the way Violetta did.
"Eh...?"
Ambushed before she knew what was happening, Seria found a Shrimp Crunch between her teeth, eyes gone wide.
Ugh, the smell...
But something strange was happening.
It's better than I expected...?
The longer she smelled it, the less bad it seemed. She bit down out of curiosity, and the taste wasn't bad either. No—salty and savory, it was good.
That can't be right...
Startled by an outcome she never could have imagined, Seria whipped her head around toward Ekaterina. Good things, after all, were meant to be shared with friends. Wasn't that the rule?
"......?"
The moment those sparkling eyes met hers, Ekaterina understood exactly what was being asked. Her brow twitched.
"...I am absolutely not eating that."
At that astonishingly cold, unyielding voice, Seria's shoulders sank. Violetta, for her part, paid none of it any mind and went on crunching through the snacks with great dedication.
Hmm. I wonder if she's managing.
I leaned against the counter, chin propped on my hand, and let my thoughts drift. Unfortunately, the academy's main building was the one place outsiders were strictly forbidden to enter, which meant I couldn't go drum up business myself. So I'd settled on the next best thing: advertising the convenience store's goods indirectly, through Seria.
I hadn't been hoping for anything grand. If one person took an interest, and a second grew curious, and the thing found its way naturally onto the cadets' tongues, that would be plenty. A convenience store was, in the end, a place that sold things, and to sell things, people first had to start talking.
Seria was not what anyone would call reliable. Still, I'd walked her through the method more than once, so now all that was left was to pray she paid me back with results.
The bell chimed.
"Welco—"
I'd started the greeting brightly, wondering if the plan was already paying off, and the words died in my throat.
"Oooh? That's a rather disrespectful way to greet a customer, isn't it?"
A beauty with a short brown bob pointed a finger at me and delivered the scolding.
"...Let me say this up front. I won't be drinking with you today."
"Tch. You say that every day."
"Because you ask to drink every day. Anyway, what brings you in?"
"Come on, can't I drop by to see a friend's face?"
Delilah laughed under her breath and sat down at the table as if she had every right to be there.
"This is a shop that sells things. Not a rest stop."
"Are you going to stay this stiff the whole time? I happen to have brought good news."
"Good news?"
"Mhm. You're curious, right?"
Hmm. For some reason her face was packed with mischief, and I had serious doubts about whether I ought to play along.
"Hmm. Not even a little curious? And here it is, a chance to send your sales through the roof."
"...What is it?"
"You want to know?"
Delilah's mouth tipped up, the look of someone whose bait had just been taken.
"Hmm. Should I tell you, or shouldn't I."
"I could stop selling you alcohol."
"Wha—?!"
Tease me all you like. See where it gets you. By rights the customer held the advantage and the owner had to yield, but once I knew she was mad for drink, the advantage was always going to be mine. This was the only place she could lay hands on alcohol so easily, shuffling over in her slippers—figuratively speaking. Down in the village she could find cheap beer or wine, sure, but the quality was nothing like what I sold.
"That's mean!"
So what.
I shrugged and asked.
"...So. What's this good news?"
Delilah shot me one sharp, prim look, then spoke.
"Next month is the Evaluation Tournament, apparently."
"...The Evaluation Tournament?"
I tilted my head. I could catch the general shape of it. The details, I didn't have.
"Ah. Right. You said you don't know much about the academy."
Forgetting the squabble of a moment before, Delilah launched into an explanation with real enthusiasm.
"It's an annual event. Every cadet, first year through fourth, takes part, and they put their academic cultivation on public display."
Of course, the scholarship in question reached well beyond what the word usually suggested. It wasn't only what one had studied at a desk. Magic, combat, everything that used the body, every subject the academy taught—all of it was weighed together. And while the theme of the Evaluation Tournament changed from year to year for the sake of fairness, the principle beneath it never moved. Every element had to be scored in proper balance.
Put simply, for the children of noble houses it was a stage on which to raise their family's standing, and for commoners a chance to catch the eye of whatever future post might scout them. In any case, it was unquestionably a major event, not only for the cadets but for the professors as well.
None of which had anything to do with an outsider like me.
If that were really true, Delilah would never have brought it up.
I saw through her at once, and the calculator in my head started clicking. Even as it did, I asked.
"And am I allowed to sell things there?"
I didn't need to hear the answer. Delilah's mouth was already curving into a smile.
The bell rang, long and bright.
That was when a group of cadets came in. A girl I'd never seen stepped through the door, shivering from head to toe, and right on her heels came faces I knew.