The air was filled with a mouth-watering aroma, a delectable smell of simmering meat escaping from the Victorian-style ring-shaped marble gazebo and wafting through the rest of Haruko's Victorian-themed marble wall-encased, open-air cafe. A lone set table sat in the otherwise unoccupied cafe, hosting four of Zalroth and Nagami's classmates.
"Geez... I'm going to stare if I have to smell such good-smelling food any longer," Philip complained, feeling his stomach constrict and fold into knots as his hunger grew. Feeling his hunger reaching its limit, he began seeing the vapours from the simmering meat, Philip groaned in frustration and slammed his head into his thick ironwood suitcase, hitting the large potion bottle engraving dead on.
(Philip Algouse is a kid-sized, teenaged male human with the appearance of an eleven-year-old; he has light blue knee-low curly hair with pink tips, pink eyes, and tanned skin)
(Philip is wearing a comedically large white witch hat with a black and blue striped ribbon around the hatband, a blue short-sleeved shirt tucked into black fur trousers, a short black and blue striped cape with a white trim, and white solidified slime boots)
"I feel yah, but we'll be waiting for even longer if we eat our travel supplies before Zalroth even gets here," Nowa said snarkily, flicking the scrunched-up section of her scarf on her shoulder and knocking it behind her back with sass.
(Nowa is a tall, teenaged female human; she has neck-low spikey red hair with orange and yellow gradient ends, red to orange to yellow gradient eyes, a fairly busty chest, a slightly muscular frame, and brown skin)
(Nowa is wearing a black fur tanktop, a knee-low gold-looking plant fibre scarf covered in purple stitched runes, black plant fibre leggings, and black fur boots)
"So no food?" Metsu mumbled meekly. She lowered her head and tightly hugged a miniature swarmer constructed completely of shadows between her four limbs as the shadow's form began falling apart.
(Metsu Sakamoto is a super short, teenaged female human; she has super long dark silver hair with a glowing golden moon pattern all over her hair with the sides styled like horns in the shape of an upwards pointing crescent moon, dark silver eyes, and pale white skin)
(Metsu is wearing a plain dark silver tunic with no sleeves, an open oversized black fur jacket with long sleeves, a black fur skirt, and dark silver plant fibre leggings)
[Activated Ability: Copy Compression]
The shadow's body rapidly shook, vibrating like bars on a music synthesizer, before exploding into a small cloud of Hexa particles and swiftly flowing into Metsu.
[Metsu Acquired: Copy Points]
[Metsu gained: 3 Shadow Points]
Unlike the other free, Kaze managed to devise a solution, and keep himself from falling victim to the temptation of Haruko's cooking, by employing his most trusted trick of spontaneously induced sleeping.
(Kaze Ultokaza is a tall, teenaged human male; he has slicked-back dark green hair, dark green eyes with dark grey pupils, a slightly slender frame, and ghost-white skin)
(Kaze is wearing pitch-black solidified slime sunglasses, a pale green fedora with a black hatband, a pale green suit, a plain black shirt, pale green suit trousers, and pitch-black solidified slime tap dancing shoes)
At hearing the sudden snoring, the three conscious classmates turn to Kaze before collectively sighing in a shared sense of envy, wishing they could fall asleep on demand.
"Hi, guys!" Nagami said with a mix of shyness and slyness in her voice as Zalroth carried her by the back of her overalls, leaving her to dangle above the ground. Nowa cast a mentally exhausted side eye to Zalroth, whilst the other two were to focus on keeping their desire for food in check, before discarding her glare and smirking in amusement as she rested her chin on her fist.
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"Bout time, Guild Boss," Nowa said cheekily, kicking back in her chair and resting a foot on the table, waking Kaze in the process. Zalroth visibly cringed at the name Nowa called him, shivering like he had been dunked in frozen water, and inadvertently dropped Nagami on the floor. Nowa mildly giggled, struggling to stifle her growing ear-to-ear grin brought on by Zalroth's discomfort.
"Sorry-sorry couldn't help myself, Boss," Nowa added, feeling satisfied at getting back at Zalroth for making them wait even if she was doing it out of pettiness. Zalroth groaned, slightly shivering again as he picked the dazed Nagami off the floor. As he stood up straight, he felt a light tug on his arm and looked down to see Metsu pulling on Nagami's face in a feeble attempt to wake her up.
"Why Nagami?" Metsu asked, continuing to pinch Nagami's face and slowly stirring her awake.
"I decided she'll be coming along," Zalroth replied.
"If yah say so," Philip grumbled as he placed his forehead against the table, clasping his head whilst trying to take his mind off Haruko's cooking. An abrupt ding cut through the aroma, catching the group's attention as they looked over to Haruko's kitchen hut.
"Do you need to use the bell when I'm right here?" Yuzora asked meekly as he sat on the outer side of Haruko's kitchen counter. Haruko gave his counter-sitting pal a deadpanned stare before lightly waving his fingers upwards dismissively, carrying a dread-inducing fear to Yuzora with each wave. Yuzora nervously giggled, the compounding dread making him sweat like a fountain, and hopped off the counter.
(Kaigorou Yuzora is a super short, young teenaged human male with the appearance of a twelve-year-old; he has elbow-low pale red hair tied into three braided ponytails, vibrant and seemingly glowing cyan eyes, tanned skin with obvious tanktop-shaped tanlines, and has an androgynous appearance)
(Yuzora is wearing no shirt over their chest but has a black plant fibre shirt wrapped around their hips like a skirt, a pale red neck scarf, black plant fibre fishnet armbands, baggy red fur trousers, red solidified slime boots, and oversized red fur ushanka with a white inside which covered the upper half of his head)
"Ok-ok, I'm off... see," Yuzora mumbled while waving his hands defensively at Haruko. Haruko mildly huffed, raising his hand to the counter before multiple wrapped-up rectangular food bags appeared on the counter from his Inventory.
(Haruko Nitoka is a slightly short, teenaged human male; he has spikey shoulder-low black-to-white gradient hair tied into a high ponytail, grey eyes, and tanned skin)
(Haruko is wearing a dark grey leather cooking apron, a black plant fibre shirt with long sleeves, dark grey plant fibre shorts, and black leather boots)
[Activated Skill: Perpetual Preservation x5(x5)]
A plentiful wave of dark pink Hexa particles emerged from Haruko before swirling around the rectangular food bags and coating each of them in multiple layers of Hexa particles. Haruko grabbed an opaque colourless solidified slime jar and placed it by the food, making Yuzora's eyes light up at the sight. Swiftly planting his hands together, Yuzora bowed with his hands over his head and profusely thanked Haruko for humouring his personal request. Haruko rolled his eyes apathetically before heading back into his kitchen without having uttered a word.
After placing the jar in his Inventory, Yuzora carefully stacked the food bags on top of each other before scooping them off the counter and swiftly teleporting away. A split second later, he reappeared sitting on the empty seat at the occupied table, startling Metsu so stupidly it made her violently squeeze Nagami's face and snap Nagami mostly back to reality.
"Did you really teleport instead of walking a few steps, Kaira?" Philip grumbled as he raised his head off the table. Kaira(Yuzora) leaned forward, a serious glint in his eyes as he crossed his arms.
"Look I ain't going to risk dropping it and incur Haruko's wrath, Al" Kaira quipped, reminding Al of the time in cooking class when Ardentus dropped his and Haruko's cooking project. With the memory of an enraged Haruto chasing a shocked Ardentus through the food tech room with a ruined pumpkin pie playing in her mind, Nowa couldn't help but snicker as she placed her feet back on the floor cheerfully.
"Food last till we get to a town?" Metsu mumbled as she poked her finger against the table near the food bag. Zalroth raised a hand to the food bags and sent one into his Inventory, goading the others, aside from Kaira, to do the same.
"If none of you has any more preparations to do, then let's head off," Zalroth stated boldly as he picked up the drowsy Nagami, placed her on his back, and walked off. Nowa and co nodded, jumping to their feet with renewed vigour as the prospect of new scenery was upon them. The group quickly tucked their chairs in and bidded Haruko a good day before hurrying after Zalroth. As she felt her head spin, Nagami's head swayed from side to side before resting her head on Zalroth's shoulder and closing her eyes to stave off her growing nausea.
"How can being hungry make a good aroma nausea-inducing?" Nagami whimpered, refusing to open her eyes in fear of vomiting which induced further fear in her from potentially vomiting on Zalroth.