CHAPTER 26 - Approaching You

═──────────────═══════════════════✠═══════════════════──────────────═

Earl's Daughter (Recruit) (Studentin), Yuriko von Sora, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 4, Day 19, Imperial Officer School (Berilian), Deutsche Empery

“Second Lieutenant!” Yuriko said loudly as she stood up, saluting in the Empery’s style of holding a fist against your chest.

Reichel seemingly giggled at this, before telling her …

“Sit down, you know that ranks don’t matter in this place right?”

“Ah …” Yuriko remembered.

The Imperial Officer School was an establishment that promoted the equal standing of its students, who may be fresh greenies or experienced veterans who are on standby for a promotion, by making and then enforcing multiple rules and regulations in order to give everybody ‘an equal opportunity to grow’ as an asset of the Empery.

Meaning that in this place, everybody who had a patch on their officer uniforms that said “Studentin”, whether they may have the rank of General or the rank of Private was all the same in value as they are of the same standing as long as they were in the academy’s premises.

Anyone who was seen violating this rule and throwing their rank around would immediately be punished, nobody needed a soldier who couldn’t follow such a simple rule after all.

From the way that Yuriko conducted herself when Reichel came to her table, one with the most delusional eye may have seen that as Reichel demanding respect because of her superior experience, putting Reichel at the risk of being called for at the university’s counselling office, which wasn't really something all that desirable fir Reichel who was aiming to get a perfect track record.

"..."

But when Yuriko looks at Reichel she just couldn’t help but put in the extra respect out of instinct, derived from her outstanding charisma and reputation which was supposed to be classified from non-related personnel.

“Ah, h-how about Schwertspinne … san?”

“San?” Reichel asked while she tilted her head, which was both quite cute and moreover understandable since …

‘She must be confused as to what that means … of course she would be … Yuriko you have stop doing these kind of things!’

“It’s a sort of honorific from my homeland, though it may sound weird to you who is a native here.”

“Homeland … native?” Reichel repeated the words, prodding two fingers on her chin as if she was deep inside her thought, before reaching a conclusion.

“Now that I think about it, your accent does sound off, are you perhaps an immigrant from the far eastern Asea?”

“Ah yes! From the country of Kyuushu actually.” Yuriko said while holding her chest out, her expression filled with pride as she mentioned her home country.

Though she speaks proud of it, her memories from the place in the other side of the known human world have all but faded, but thankfully as her family that moved to the Empery brought their culture with them, she could vaguely feel the small but precious memories of her former homeland with her.

“Then I shall formerly address you as ‘Frau Sora’, unless that is unsatisfactory?”

Reichel asked, while tilting her head.

“N-No of course not! Please call me whatever you’d like!” Yuriko said as she put away her bento for obvious reasons, but it was okay though since she ate a lot for breakfast and didn’t even feel all that hungry.

However when Yuriko did so, she didn’t notice that Reichel looked a little sad … or annoyed to be more precise.

It would always be so hard to see through a façade like Reichel’s, but Yuriko didn’t need to know that.

“Okay then Frau Sora, let’s start up a conversation, what do you think of this academy?” Reichel hit her with a question to start up some conversation, and Yuriko felt thankful that it wasn’t a question that was so generic like ‘How’s the weather?’ or anything like that.

‘But still though, my thought’s about this place …’ Yuriko went silent as she processed all the things she had experienced this morning.

“Well it’s been quite a lot like what I’ve expected so far …” Though her dream about rapidly rising through the ranks even as an Earl’s daughter seemed far fetched in reality, it was only expected that she would at least need some education for at least a year since it was both the Empery’s pride and lives that were at stake.

“Uhuh …”

“Just from today I’ve been taught so many things, and it seems that there are just more things to an officer than just ordering people around ….” The classes taught her things that she didn’t know, and would probably be useful, which was actually the real point of school.

“Uhuh …”

“And from what I’ve experienced today, I think there would be much more things to learn until I am ready for my work as an officer!” But even then with all the pride she held herself in at having such talented family members, Yuriko humbled herself and strived to work hard so she could maybe one day catch up with their glory.

“Uhuh …”

“…”

‘Is she … actually listening?’ Yuriko felt a nerve being struck on her forehead for some reason.

Mostly because Yuriko only now noticed that Reichel wasn’t even meeting her gaze, she was just staring at something to the downwards to her side …

‘Is she … looking at my lunch box?’

She was about to say something to grab her attention until something that just threw her off balance happened.

*drip*

‘Huh? Was that saliva I just saw dripping from her mouth?’ Yuriko thought, but then the next second traces of anything that detailed such as that were nowhere to be seen.

‘… that was probably my imagination … unless …’ Yuriko contemplated deeply on what she thought was or wasn’t reality.

‘Hmmm … maybe it wouldn’t hurt? There may be a chance that she would also actually like this type of food!’

“Schwertspinne-san, would you like some of my lunch, I think my ani’ue might have packed too much for me this morning, and I don’t really like throwing out food for no reason—”

“Well your food does look somewhat all new to me but if you are offering me then I guess I can’t refuse out of my obligatory goodwill.”

‘Instant reply!?’ Yuriko was about to say something but then decided against it in fear of upsetting the mood.

Yuriko took the nicest looking rice ball in her lunch box and then handed it to Reichel, who had twinkling stars in her eyes as if she was eyeing an new toy.

Actually, she didn’t even bother smelling it or closely observing it, she just took it out of Yuriko’s hand and just put it inside her mouth.

Whole.

‘This is getting weirder by the moment …’ Yuriko said as she looked at Reichel who was making all sorts of complicated expressions as she chewed on the ball of rice inside her mouth.

“How is it?”

Yuriko herself, was waiting for the end result as she closely observed Reichel’s every move.

However, just as the climax approached she found herself in a unique situation she’s never faced herself in before.

*drip*

Another drip fell to the table, but instead of saliva that Yuriko thought that she only imagined, this time it was a single streak of tear marked from Reichel’s left eye.

‘Eh? She’s shedding tears? She’s crying? What?’ Yuriko went haywire as she saw this kind of reaction coming from a Yuropean native for the first time

“I’m sorry, I just remembered I have to go do something else, until we meet again Frau Sora.” Reichel said abruptly as the creaking of the chair sounded simultaneously from her hasty steps as she retreated faster than a fleeing rabbit, not giving Yuriko the chance to say anything.

But even if she was already too far from Yuriko to actually hear what she was saying, Yuriko still couldn’t help but try and call out.

“Ah, wait! I still wanted to know …”

‘—what you thought about my food …’ but then when she realized it was already too late, she stopped her sentence halfway and just sat back down on her chair feeling melancholic.

Yuriko considered going after the esteemed military personnel, but then decided to just stay put.

”*sigh*, what was that all about?”

Yuriko thought about what just happened now, reflecting on both her and Reichel’s behavior.

‘Was it because of something I said that drove her away, or maybe she didn’t like the taste of the food from my country?’ Yuriko thought.

The first one was unlikely, since she asked nothing more than how the rice ball Yuriko gave to Reichel tasted, so it must have been the latter where the taste of her food must have made her … shed a tear?

Yuriko thought about all the times that she shared her food to other people … or rathertried to …

“*sigh* I don’t think it’s the bad is it? Everyone here says that it’s tasteless but I don’t think of it like that!” Yuriko said to herself as she slammed down her fist on the wooden cafeteria table.

*bang!*

In all actuality, the people of Yuropa didn’t exactly view rice in a positive light, because of how it’s grown in rice paddies people seemed to think it was some kind of dirty food. Some of them even went as far as calling it ‘degenerated white mush’, making people even unwilling to talk about it.

But even if it wasn’t viewed nicely, Yuriko was very thankful that her family literally started a rice farm from scratch despite the problems with Yuropa’s displeasing soil compatibility towards Asean crops.

‘Well … I guess the taste of Kyuushu isn’t for everyone!’ Yuriko thought lastly as she finally stopped her self-monologuing and decided to just go and finish her lunch at the sudden thought of the chance of being late for her next class.

Or rather she was going to, but something else came up …

“Huh?”

Her lunch box was missing.

═──────────────═══════════════════✠═══════════════════──────────────═

Studentin (Second Lieutenant), Reichel Schwertspinne, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 4, Day 8, Berilian Imperial Officer Academy, Deutsche Empery

*step*

*step*

*step*

“Hehe … hehe … hehe …” Reichel kept laughing like some sort of mind broken maniac, running through the corridors closely hugging the box in her hands.

The box was coloured black, with eastern ornaments such as abstract ocean waves, koi fish, and even patterns of Oni carved on the black wooden surface.

Decorations resembling the overly exotic looking patterns and art style could only be seen on places in the lands of the Far East, the continent of Asea, and because of this for an uninformed Yuropean such as the average Deutsche citizen the art style would seem horrid even.

But for Reichel, it was just an all-too familiar style.

It was the bento box of the person Reichel just spoke to earlier, Yuriko.

‘That damn girl, she was quite vigilant when talking to me, observing my every move when all I wanted was to just steal this little precious container!’

Reichel wouldn’t approach someone for their food, but the little something inside her amplified her desires to have a taste of the food she ate everyday back when she was on Earth.

Reichel tried her best not to eye the food just to make it seem like she was talking to her only to fulfill her carnal sin of gluttony, but it seemed that even when she tried to keep her Attitude no.2, which was the same joyous attitude she adopted when interacting with Anny Blohm, the hunger of the Essence of Gluttony just broke through her façade when it was at its most vulnerable.

‘This is dangerous, I didn’t know that my desires could be amplified like this, my actions were too rash …’

She lost control of her state of mind and almost devolved into some savage that lives just for food, something like that could never happen again if she were to actually go forth with her plans.

‘But still …’

But still in a way, Reichel was glad with what she did, she wasn’t guilty for committing theft because she got something very very nice in return …

If there was anything that she regretted, it was that she didn’t ask the girl where she got the exotic ingredients needed to make the food within the lunch box she was holding.

‘Speaking of which …’

Reichel’s lunch break at the moment had ended, and she had multiple class to attend to since she was officially a student now, but now that something that required her attention more popped up it would only make sense if she just can’t be bothered to in order for her to attend to that specific something that required her attention.

Namely …

She had to find a spot where she could savor the box full of exotic food on her hands uninterrupted, before sneaking out of the academy’s premises to devote her resources into finding out where a person could find rice in the Deutsche Empery at such short notice.

*step*

*step*

*step*

Or at least that’s what she had planned, until an unforeseen event interrupted her before she could run off to enjoy her hard-earned meal …

“Something unsightly has appeared.” Reichel said while readying herself inside one of the academy’s many corridors.

A man with disorderly wavy blonde hair wearing an officer uniform which had the familiar red armband with the mark of Studentin written on it, meaning he was a student, possibly even Reichel’s senior upperclassman.

His face looked young, just like a man in his early 20s, which was unbelievable considering the ridiculous height he had.

Almost easily one of the tallest people that Reichel had ever seen at 190 centimeters.

“…”

The man stopped just in front of Reichel, without her knowing why, which sort of bothered Reichel because she couldn’t make out what his intentions were.

He formed a gaze that seemed to investigate every part of her body, most notably her face as he just stood there unfidgeting while holding a long bag which was the perfect size to hold a longsword in.

‘A shinai bag?’ Reichel thought as she looked over at the long rectangular bag that the blonde man was carrying.

A shinai bag wouldn’t be exactly what they would be called here in Yuropa because that sounded more like an Asean term but if she were to just put it in English words then it would be a bag that people would use to store their wooden swords to carry them for sparring purposes, since it just looks ridiculous to have a sheath for a wooden sword, Reichel was guessing from the man’s sweat that he had been just training in somewhere in the academy’s purposes, but again she could be wrong …

As for the man in question he simply narrows his eyes looking down on Reichel, before pulling out a piece of paper from his chest pocket, looking at it as his eyes got narrower as he looked back and forth from Reichel and the piece of paper, as if he was comparing something.

Reichel was well aware of just how aesthetically pleasing her facial features were, but rather than that it seemed like the man in front of him wasn’t looking at Reichel as if he was eyeing him for her beaity, rather it looked more like he was trying really hard to identify her.

And finally, after a few moments of putting up a contemplating gaze, the large man finally smiled and then asked …

“Are you Reichel Schwertspinne?”

Who is this big new yellow-haired character? Will he be relevant to the plot or is he just some cannon fodder? Also really, approaching somebody just for their food? Genius!

═──────────────═══════════════════✠═══════════════════──────────────═

Illustration: