Feeding the Beast in the VVIP Dining Hall
After morning classes, in the Imperial Academy's VVIP student cafeteria. Normally at lunchtime, Reina would slice into a thick steak and devour it with relish. But today, the way she dragged her chair right up next to mine felt off—ominously so.
Smoothly... Sliding across the marble table toward me came a plate of premium steak, brimming with juices. Reina shoved her own glistening portion in front of me, then firmly placed a heavy silver fork in my right hand.
"Cadel."
Reina looked up at me, her purple eyes sparkling. It was the gaze of a puppy swollen with anticipation, boldly demanding a reward from its master for some monumental feat.
"I held back a lot this morning."
...Held back? From what?
I stared down at her blankly, fork in hand. The aftereffects of two straight nights of overtime hadn't fully worn off, but my feeble reasoning circuits whirred desperately to rationalize her sudden demand.
Nothing particular comes to mind...
Don't tell me it's because I made her wait a few minutes for the infirmary committee's morning volunteer work?
I swallowed a short, incredulous laugh. But I had one hard-earned truth from ten years as a K-high school teacher: when kids get picky about food or throw tantrums, it's better for everyone's mental health to skip the power struggle and just stuff something in their mouths. Especially for an 18-year-old in the throes of a growth spurt—skipping meals was something no educator could stomach.
"Sigh... Fine. I don't know what you held back from, but good job enduring it."
"Your Ladyship, say ahh, ahh."
Resigned, I picked up the knife with practiced indifference and sliced the steak into bite-sized pieces. Then I speared a tender, bloody chunk and held it to the maw of the beast.
"Ahh."
Without a hint of hesitation, Reina snapped it up from my fork. The way she innocently worked her mouth like a baby bird accepting food from its mother was utterly adorable. And when brown sauce leaked from between her sharp canines as she chewed, I found myself pulling a napkin from my pocket and wiping the corners of her lips without thinking.
"Eat slowly. You'll get indigestion. I'll cut more."
"Yeah. This one too."
Just like always, she leaned her head on my shoulder like a contented giant dog wagging its tail, chin-pointing at the next piece.
Having to spoon-feed a fully grown girl. Am I a summoner or a daycare director?
I grumbled inwardly but sliced another piece and popped it into her mouth. It was a rare, peaceful lunchtime.
But the peace didn't last. Sticky, heavy stares pierced us from all sides, turning the spacious, comfortable VVIP cafeteria into a suffocating mire.
First to catch my eye was Elarra von Sterling, huddled in the far corner diagonally across from me, half-hidden behind an ornate pillar. The heiress to the empire's largest trading company, once the queen of academy gossip, was scribbling furiously in her notebook. I figured she was concocting more of her R-rated rumors or pointless chatter, but her demeanor wasn't that of a gossip hound. Her shoulders trembled like aspen leaves as she stole glances at me, her fingers white-knuckled around the quill.
Why's she shaking like that? Oh, right—the trauma from nearly getting diced by Reina hasn't faded.
I felt a twinge of pity for my quivering classmate, who kept eyeing me warily. She tracked my every fork movement with a mix of fear and awe. Each time I dabbed Reina's lips with the napkin, she'd gasp, muttering something like "Merciful master..."
Next to fill my vision was a flash of garish pink hair. Seraphina von Lumière, seated prominently in the center of the dining hall. She was glaring daggers at me, half her face buried in that tawdry book titled The Duke's Secret Chains. The odd part? She alternated her gaze between me and Reina with a tragic expression, on the verge of tears.
Why's she staring like that? It's rude—I'll get indigestion. Wait, did she get upset because I didn't thank her properly when I returned those papers yesterday?
"Ahh, what cruel torment this is...!"
Seraphina clutched her parchment to her chest, wailing inwardly.
"That arrogant attitude! Forcing my lord to cut meat like a servant and open wide like a child!"
"It's blatant humiliation! Yet he endures this indignity in silence."
Sob sob sob.
"To hide that 'fateful encounter' when he bumped into me in the hallway yesterday!"
Tears of affection welled in Seraphina's eyes as she spun her incomprehensible novel. Jealousy and pity twisted her face as she wrung her poor handkerchief.
And in the most secluded corner, Isabella von Aris poked at a modest salad of greens. The girl who'd cast a holy hot compress on me that morning to restore my fatigue was now clasping a silver cross between her hands, trembling instead of eating.
What's her deal? She volunteered all morning—did it drain her completely?
I clicked my tongue inwardly at her pale face and quivering lips. At an age when she should be bulking up on meat, munching grass would leave anyone looking like that.
She should eat meat like my Reina...
I sliced another steak and fed it to Reina.
"Oh, Lord...! Why do You heap such harsh trials upon him one after another?!"
Isabella stared at Reina devouring the steak, red juices dripping.
"Even after receiving healing from me this morning, he bears the cross once more, filling Satan's gluttony with his own hands in place of us lowly students?"
"Behold the flesh slipping between that beast's sharp fangs. You carve at your very soul to appease this devil...!"
Tears of solemn fervor and sorrow streamed down Isabella's cheeks as she offered up a prayer.
"Sigh..."
Unable to bear the inexplicable prickling stares and heavy air, I finally set my knife down on the plate with a clink. A headache surged.
People are staring hard while I'm just eating. I'll really get indigestion.
Is a lowly baron's son cutting premium steak at the VVIP table enough to make these noble ladies glare so openly?
My thoughts didn't linger.
"Don't look anywhere else, Cadel!"
A sharp, petulant voice rang out, accompanied by the soft, chilling grip yanking my chin.
"...Huh?"
My head whipped around forcibly, filling my vision with Reina's face, now inches from mine. Not content with sitting beside me, she'd collapsed her upper body fully against me. Her lavender eyes, darker than usual, bored into me.
The innocent, baby-bird innocence from moments ago was gone. Clearly, the instant I'd glanced around at the noble ladies' stares and set down my knife, I'd thoroughly irked her.
"Why keep giving your eyes to those trash? I'm right here next to you."
Her breath tickled my skin at that intimate distance. A silky yet spine-chilling voice slipped from her lips. Her pale, slender fingers gripping my chin pulsed with dense mana, refusing even the slightest turn of my head.
"No, it's not that—I'm just worried about indigestion..."
As I stammered an excuse, Reina pressed closer still.
Swish. Her dazzling silver hair cascaded like a waterfall, draping over my uniform jacket and shoulders. At the same time, a fresh, cool lilac scent—like morning dew—overpowered Seraphina's cloying, cheap rose perfume.
"Cadel."
Her voice grew stickier, lower. Slowly, her hand slid from my chin, fiddling with my shirt collar before lightly grasping my tie knot and tugging me secretly toward her.
Our breaths mingled. Through the thin summer academy uniform, the dizzying curve of her ample, soft breasts brushed my arm.
"...!!"
Instantly, my mind's rationality blared beep-beep danger alarms like mad.
Crazy, crazy! Hold on! What's this all of a sudden?!
My ten years as a K-high teacher clashed violently with my current 17-year-old pubescent hormones. My brain screamed "Student, you can't do this to your teacher!" but against the empire's top beauty's overwhelming pheromones and thrilling body heat, I had no defense for my pounding heart. Heat rushed to my face.
"It pisses me off that those bugs are stealing your gaze."
Her fingers on my tie slithered upward like a snake, grazing my earlobe before barely skimming my cheek. Her purple eyes gleamed with a predator's ferocity and thick possessiveness, hungry to devour me whole.
"Should I clear out the bugs? Or... should I bind you so tight you can't look anywhere else?"
A seductive, provocative whisper. Her red lips hovered near my ear. Was it temptation or a threat to end me? The tightrope was thrillingly ambiguous.
In that moment, the vast VVIP dining hall froze solid.
I suppressed my raging hormones, racking my brain for how to soothe Reina. When a beast bares its fangs for your throat, survival's simple: stuff its open maw with another hunk of meat.
"...Ahem, ahem! I'm not looking anywhere else. I won't."
Hiding my burning cheeks, I snatched the silver fork from the table with my free hand. I stabbed the thickest remaining tenderloin chunk and mercilessly shoved it between Reina's provocative red lips, still whispering dangers in my ear.
"Here, the patient and praiseworthy lady who waited so well this morning. Open wide. Here's the king-sized one."
"Mmph...?!"
"Mmm... nom nom."
Her cheeks bulged hamster-like with meat, but she chewed with the same sultry, devouring gaze.
Sigh... where does she pick up these nasty threats?
I sighed deeply, gently prying her hand from my tie. As that dizzying softness left my arm, my stalled heart finally resumed beating.
"Chew thoroughly before swallowing. I'm not going anywhere—stuck right here."
Like soothing a kindergartener, I casually scratched under her chin. At that indifferent touch, the furrow in her brow melted; she squinted in pleasure, chewing away.
"Hehe, Cadel's cute."
The tense melodrama that had frozen the entire cafeteria flipped miraculously back to a peaceful lunchtime mukbang.
"So from now on, look only at me!"
Sigh, total yandere.
Feels like bringing a country girl to the academy turned her into a total delinquent... I miss the pure old Reina.
I ignored the erupting waves of misunderstanding and shock around us, gulping down cold water.
Catering to the beast's whims, minding the ladies' glares. My stomach's not gonna hold out.
Watching Reina evolve, Cadel's mind grew tangled with the realization that he was already prey ensnared in her grasp.