Chapter 288: A Shared Dinner

LF?”

“Wait, are you saying you’ll just hand over the treasure? Without even fighting? And four of them at that?”

“Yeah. There’s a rule that you have to bet an equal number of treasures to fight, but there’s no rule that says you can’t just give them away.”

My bewilderment hadn’t faded.

As I stood there dumbly, blinking my eyes, Reysir let out a short laugh, “Puhut!” and approached me.

When he had closed the distance enough, he took four capsules from his bag, carefully placed them inside my already-open bag, and even zipped it shut.

“Hurry over there. It’d be bad if someone else took them, right?”

“Ah… uh… yeah…”

I was so stunned I let out a foolish reply without thinking.

Whether he found my reaction amusing, Reysir laughed cheerfully, “Ahahaha!” and lightly pushed my back.

So after I crossed past the sign that read, “※From here on is a no-combat zone※,” I finally thought to check the contents of the capsules I’d received.

“These… they’re all real…?”

“Yaong…!”

Yor, too, must have found Reysir’s words hard to believe; after unfolding the note along with me, he looked startled.

That meant I hadn’t misread.

I reflexively snapped my head around to throw a glance at Reysir, and saw him grinning when our eyes met.

It was the same annoying smile I often saw.

Yet at this moment, it didn’t feel so irritating. Instead, it felt like a friendly, affectionate smile.

But I couldn’t admit that I was moved by a few scraps of paper like this.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you to do this, but if you think I’ll be grateful, you’re mistaken. Because if you hadn’t deliberately taken my treasure notes this morning, I wouldn’t have been penalized. It’s like giving someone a disease and then the cure—what kind of nonsense is this…”

I deliberately frowned and grumbled, spewing complaints.

What Reysir did this morning—taking my treasure—was according to the training rules, and now he was giving me treasures out of goodwill.

He could have pointed that out and branded me an ungrateful person.

“But the medicine worked pretty well, right?”

Instead of getting upset and arguing, Reysir kept smiling and brushed it off humorously.

With him acting like this, it was hard to say anything more.

“Well… it was, um, okay…?”

“Glad to hear it.”

“…..Anyway. Why aren’t you coming over here? Why are you still standing there?”

“Because I only have one treasure left now. I don’t know if I can make it in the remaining time, but I’ll try my best until the end to fill up five again.”

“……!”

He had readily given away four treasures, so I naturally assumed he had plenty secured.

It was only now that I noticed Reysir’s bag had become flat.

‘If I hadn’t found any treasures at all, what would he have done? Would he have just accepted the penalty right away…?’

A moment later, Risi appeared.

She spotted Reysir standing at the mountain entrance, flinched, tried to back away, then stopped in an awkward pose.

She must have remembered the rule that you can’t refuse a combat request and run away.

“Senior Risi. How many treasures do you have right now?”

“Exactly five.”

“Then I’m sorry to take them… but it can’t be helped. Just go on through.”

Did his heart soften seeing Risi clutching her bag with both hands, tense and wary?

Reysir readily stepped aside for her.

The next person to appear was Liolikin, who had only three treasures.

Given his timid personality, he probably hadn’t thought to stay here and take someone else’s treasure; he must have given up after failing to find more.

Reysir must have noticed that too. He challenged Liolikin without hesitation, won, and gained an additional treasure.

The process went very quickly.

It seemed time was too tight, so Reysir finished the fight in an instant without holding back.

But during that brief moment, two people managed to reach the no-combat zone where I was.

They were Fjodra and Pret.

Fjodra used her [Space Leap] skill, and Pret just ran quickly and stealthily.

They succeeded in preserving their treasures without being caught by Reysir.

‘The remaining ones are Vigdis, Hailga, and Svein. Just these three?’

Though he missed Fjodra and Pret,

By winning against Liolikin, Reysir now had two treasures, and there were only three people left.

So if he took just one from each, he could avoid the penalty.

But then Hailga appeared—

“Dandy, how many treasures do you have?”

“Ugh… being called that by you feels weird.”

“Hahahaha! So, how many?”

“Three. Why do you keep asking?”

“Want to bet two treasures and fight me?”

“You mean you intend to lose to me on purpose and hand over your surplus?”

The conversation took an odd turn.

“I don’t have any surplus. It’s just that I only have two treasures myself.”

“Huh? Why? You took one of my treasures and filled up five this morning. Don’t tell me… you lost them?! Who beat you?!”

“I didn’t lose them in a fight—I just gave them away. To Yeppeuni.”

“Then give some to Dandy too.”

“…Huh?”

“Are you discriminating against Dandy now?”

“No, that’s not it…”

“Then hurry up and give them.”

Hailga, without any battle, confiscated all of Reysir’s remaining treasures, then walked proudly past the sign into the no-combat zone.

Reysir, left with no treasures and having lost his chance for a comeback, followed behind.

Strangely enough, Reysir’s face didn’t even show any regret.

For reference, when Vigdis and Svein appeared later, they had six and five treasures respectively.

If Reysir had taken two treasures from Hailga instead of losing them, he could have gotten one from Vigdis and filled up five.

So I had to ask.

“Aren’t you disappointed?”

“Not really? I suddenly thought it might not be bad to experience a penalty once.”

“Are you in your right mind?”

“Ahahahaha!”

I had no idea why he was laughing.

As I felt puzzled, Bjorn came over and checked the number of treasures each student had.

After giving feedback on the battles, he said,

“Reysir and Liolikin will receive their penalty next week in the morning. And Karbaldr and Hailga may now take off their headbands.”

Finally using the possession body’s and Hailga’s names correctly, he allowed them to remove the headbands.

Hailga took hers off eagerly, as if waiting, and I did the same.

But unlike Hailga, who returned her headband and said she’d see us next week, I said the following:

“Professor, if it’s okay, I’d like to borrow the leftover ingredients and cooking utensils.”

“Huh? Well, they came from the dining hall kitchen anyway, so it’s fine, but why?”

“I can’t go to the dining hall looking like this—I need to go to my room to wash up and change first… But going back to the room after eating to change again seems inefficient and a waste of time, don’t you think?”

“So you’re planning to cook in your room?”

“Yes.”

Originally, I was going to make do with preserved rations, but things had changed.

Now I could get ingredients and utensils immediately, and cooking myself wouldn’t cause character collapse.

And most of all,

‘If it were just me, maybe, but I have to eat with Yor too, right?’

So I decided to make proper food, even if simple.

However, there was an unexpected situation.

“Yeppeuni—I mean, Karbaldr. Can I eat with you too?”

“Ah, Senior Karbaldr! Me too!”

“Me also, I would like to…!!”

This wasn’t right.

I had expected Reysir, Pret, and Liolikin to react like this to some extent.

What I really didn’t expect was that the others would have similar reactions.

“I’ve been walking around the mountain all day and I’m dead tired—I don’t want to go back and forth anymore either.”

“I feel the same, but the problem is I don’t have the confidence to cook alone in my room without help. And I can’t go to Kar’s room in the men’s dorm…”

Their hopes were obvious. Just like at lunch, they wanted to cook together here.

For now, only Hailga and Vigdis had spoken,

But Risi and Svein also looked interested.

Fjodra seemed conflicted—maybe because lunch didn’t suit her taste—but she didn’t leave.

Since helping others cook had been harder than expected,

I was about to say it would be better to go to the rooms and practice making the dishes we made at lunch again when—

“Why don’t you just cook dinner together here? I’ll clean up.”

Bjorn’s words moved me.

“Since my goal is to reduce wasted movement and time, I was thinking of making cream pasta—quick and simple. But if that’s fine, then stay.”

***

After glancing over those who had directly expressed wanting to cook dinner together, I said this.

“Great! Actually, lunch was so luxurious and took quite a while to prepare, so I was worried whether you could make something like that in the demonic realm!”

Bjorn seemed even more pleased.

If we wanted simple food,

It would have been better to allow basic ingredients like seasonings and spices and group students into teams of two or three.

But at lunch, we were given too many and too diverse ingredients, plus large teams, so we had no choice but to make labor-intensive dishes.

“I’m totally fine with that!”

Starting with the original protagonist’s shout, the others one by one expressed agreement.

Maybe they didn’t want to be the only one to slip away against the flow,

Or maybe after hearing Bjorn’s words they decided to try simple cooking themselves.

Fjodra also ended her conflict and decided to join us.