CHAPTER 60: IN THE CAFETERIA

I soon reached the cafeteria, and after waiting in line for a bit, it was my turn.

"What would you like, Miss?" the cook asks in an enthusiastic manner.

"...Hmm...I think I’ll just go with a simple meal." I don’t need anything too extravagant; in the end, it’s just regular food, and even if it were a fancy dish, it wouldn’t satisfy me.

She quickly hands me a plate of rice, with a fried steak on the side, accompanied by a salad, though the way the plate is presented makes it look like a work of art.

I look for an empty spot to sit and soon spot the perfect place, heading over to it. Riko places his order and follows me.

’I don’t understand why he ordered something so extravagant.’ His plate is full of things, but I doubt he’ll even eat half of it; it seems like a complete waste to me.

’I never waste anything...’ When I kill something, I usually eat the parts I like, and the rest I give to my sharks and wolves. Some of the sharks even react in a cute way when they eat, which is kind of entertaining to watch.

"Is-Is there a problem, Pandora?"

"Did you know that the dish you’re eating symbolizes death?" He freezes.

"The fish in particular has an incredible poison just a drop would kill a normal person. The translation of the name of this dish means ’Peaceful Death,’ since the fish’s poison kills you instantly."

"This name was given after a couple of dukes died in the past at a dinner where this dish was improperly prepared."

"I-I think I’ve lost my appetite." He sets the plate aside.

"Is that so? What a shame, it looks marvelous. It’s sad to see you refuse a dish you ordered yourself," I say in a slightly accusatory tone.

I start cutting the steak elegantly and eating with grace, a real chore, as I don’t even like this meat enough to savor it slowly.

The meat seems tough, rubbery, lacking the right amount of fat, without the tenderness I prefer, and the flavor doesn’t appeal to me.

’As I thought, it’s not as good as sweets or humans.’ A true tragedy that I can’t enjoy this, as I’ll have to eat a lot of this food during my stay at this academy.

"So, magic girl, could you tell me more about yourself?" I start a conversation with Riko, who is now trying to eat the dish after I said it was sad he refused something he ordered.

"W-Well, I’m a hero..."

I make a face like ’Oh, really? I didn’t know that’ it’s obvious that I know he’s a hero.

"I mean your life before being summoned and your life now, magic girl." I say, correcting what I want to hear from him.

"I had a relatively normal life in Japan."

’Is he making himself look stupid or is he really an idiot?’ He only states the obvious. How the hell am I supposed to know what Japan is like? He can’t give proper answers; theoretically, as a resident of this world, I shouldn’t know what Japan is like.

"Formulate your answers better, magic girl."

"Could you please not call me that? Well, Japan is modern; we don’t have magic, but our world is more technologically advanced."

It’s useless; the current technology can’t withstand the magic of this world. I don’t need to know about those things.

"Okay, then could you tell me about what you think of your current status?"

"In this world, it’s not so bad either, although my unique ability is humiliating."

"Really? And why would that be?"

"H-Huh?"

"I don’t see any problems with your ability to change your gender; at least your ability is useful, don’t you agree?" When I was summoned, I would have preferred to have an ability like that rather than nothing.

He’s lucky to at least have something useful.

"Remember that ’useless’ hero who was summoned? If you didn’t have an ability, you could have ended up like him." Yes, it’s a real irony to be summoned against your will and killed just because they judge you as useless.

"Y-You’re right, haha."

"You know, magic girl, I have a question..." I start using mana carefully, so that no one notices a neat trick I learned from Elena to use mana to seduce a target.

It’s not like an attack or brainwashing magic; it’s just mana mixed with a combination of different elements that causes a seductive effect on weaker targets and leaves stronger ones slightly distracted.

Since he’s currently in male form, naturally he’s no different from a common person, so he’ll be affected.

"Do you know what unique abilities your colleagues have? I’ve always found it amazing, like, wow, heroes, you know what I mean? It seems incredible to have a unique ability just by coming to this world."

"T-There is one... s-she is the girl I love..."

’It’s working, thanks, Elena, this is very useful.’

"B-But she asked for secrecy, so I can’t break her trust."

"I understand, you don’t have to talk about it now." All I have to do is keep him more comfortable with me and use that trick again, and I’m sure he’ll talk.

"So, does your friend know what other abilities the heroes have? It seems amazing, the trust you have for each other. I’d like to have friendships like that."

I would have disgust to have friends like these.

"S-She knows some, but she hasn’t told me yet because she said her friends wanted to keep it a secret. They have pajama parties sometimes and talk about that topic...sorry, but I think it’s better to change the subject."

’Seems like that’s the limit.’

"Okay, thanks for talking about that topic; the lives of heroes are very interesting."

More interesting than they could ever imagine.

"So, how about..."

"Hello, Pandora, it’s been a while." I hear a voice behind me, and soon six people sit at the table without being invited.

’Tsk, it’s those bastards.’ Yuki is the one who starts the conversation with me.

"Hello, yes, it has been some time." I respond more coldly than with Riko.

Now that I see them so close, I feel the urge to tear them to pieces, jump on them and torture them, rip out their organs while they’re still alive.

’Calm down...patience is a virtue.’ I quickly contain my bloodthirsty instinct. What would be the point in killing them so quickly? I need much more than just killing them.

"Hey, loser, could you go away?" Kaito speaks to Riko.

"A-Ah, it’s just that I was still talking to Pandora."

’I forgot to deactivate it.’ Normally, I doubt Riko would speak to them like that, but since he’s still under the influence of the seduction, he had the courage.

"Yes, that’s true. The magic girl was telling me a bit about herself, and your world seemed a bit interesting." I still wanted to talk more with Riko, but there’s not much to talk about with them here.

"Pffff, so ’magic girl’ seems you’ve become friends with Pandora." Kaito says in a mocking tone, using the nickname I gave.

’I guess this is going to take a while.’ Some of the girls are talking to each other, and the only one silent is Hana, so I decide to ignore them and finish my meal.

I noticed that none of them treat me as a Grand Duchess here, although it would be the right thing to do, and it’s almost an insult to hear them say my name.

"Pandora, so what were you doing during your time ’away’ after all, no one knew about you?" Sakura asks in a friendly manner.

’Her color disgusts me.’ A purely false girl, her speech, gestures, and way of acting are a mere facade for her arrogance. The color of all of them is disgusting, not as beautiful as Elena’s, and even the color of Zephyra’s manipulation is more beautiful.

"I was taking care of some matters of the Grand Duchy." It’s not entirely a lie, after all, I was really taking care of a territory, though not necessarily the Grand Duchy.

"Magic girl, could you..Cough, cough."

’Damn, the worst possible time.’ Everyone freezes as they see me cough up blood.

There’s no way to prevent this occurrence, as it comes out of nowhere, but it’s still annoying, and worse, it happened during my meal, ruining the dish.

"Pandora, are you okay?" The girls get up from the table and come to me. The falseness is so much that I feel irritated. It’s not like they really care.

’Great, now I’ve attracted the attention of the whole cafeteria.’ The entire cafeteria is looking at our table; if they hadn’t said anything, I could have easily cleaned everything with magic and hidden it.

But now everyone has seen it.

"Yes, I’m perfectly fine, thank you for the concern." I use magic to clean the blood. I get up and throw the plate in the trash; there’s no point in continuing to eat.

"Pandora, if you need help getting around, Kaito and I are here." Tsubasa speaks.

’I think I’ll use this to skip class.’ It’s the first day of school, and my will to study is already gone. The class is interesting, but I know most of the content already.

"No need, I’ll go to the infirmary..."

"I’ll take you." Kaori and Hana say at the same time.

"There’s no need, I’m used to it. I just want to be alone for a while."

’I can’t forget to take the medicine.’ I take a pill from the shadows directly from my hand and swallow it. At least coughing up blood was a good reminder that the effect was about to wear off, and I only had a few hours left.

Murmurs start here and there, but I don’t care. I start walking to the exit of the cafeteria while looking for the infirmary.

I soon find the infirmary after asking a guard, and I enter to see several beds aligned on one side.

"H-Hello, student, is there a problem?" I see a girl with black hair and blue eyes; she seems to have a shy personality.

"I just coughed up a bit of blood, so I came to the infirmary to rest in the bed for the next few hours. I don’t need any help, and you don’t need to call the nurse. I just need to rest." I ignore anything she might have to say and lie down on one of the beds, thinking about the "reunion" I just had with them.

My hatred hasn’t diminished at all, in fact, it’s gotten worse. My instincts scream to kill and torture them without stopping, but just like a good predator, it’s not too difficult to wait for the right moment.