CH 446.2

Tasting the food!

“The residents of the slums wouldn’t give up the offal because they could eat them now… haah. What a failure, really…”

Teacher Neil dropped his shoulders in dejection… Oh, don’t shock me like that, okay!

While we were looking at Teacher Neil tiredly, Teacher Neil pulled himself together and lifted his face.

“Well, it’s too late to regret it now, though! Those people now have proper meals to eat, so I will deem it an acceptable result. Erm, can we start eating before it gets cold?”

Teacher Neil grinned and pointed at the food before him.

“Y, yes. Let’s eat.”

“Okay, I won’t hold back then… oh my? You guys don’t seem to have cutlery. Did you forget?”

Teacher Neil looked at the setting of the table. There would be normally knives and forks lined up, but there was not even a shadow after them.

“Ah, no. This is our cutlery. It’s called chopsticks and we will use it to eat instead.”

I picked up my chopsticks and moved it to show him.

“I thought it would be better for you to eat with what you are used to, so we prepared the usual cutlery for you.”

“Heeh~ You are eating with just that? That’s interesting.”

Ugh, it will be difficult to eat if you stare at me so seriously.

“Yumm! As expected, a meal with rice and miso soup is always good”

“Haah… the miso soup is warming me up…”

Byakko-sama and Suzaku-sama seemed to have started eating while I was hesitating and were gobbling up the food.

Teacher Neil’s gaze changed over to them and he observed their chopsticks moving.

“Hmm… you can hold and divide, so it looks like a reasonable cutlery. Can I give it a try, too?”

“Eh, ah… sure.”

I was about to get up to get a spare pair of chopsticks, but Miria stopped me with a look and quickly went to get them instead.

“Teacher, this is how you hold them.”

Sei quickly took Teacher’s hand and showed him how to hold the chopsticks.

“And then you move it like this…”

Sei smiled at Teacher Neil, who seemed to have gotten the hang of it right away and was moving the tips of his chopsticks around with pride.

“Alrighty, like this… oh geez, I can’t seem to pick it up properly…”

He tried to pick up the rice, but it spilled all over the place.

“You will need a bit more practice. Please use the usual cutlery if you find it too difficult to use.”

Sei went through Teacher Neil’s struggles, took a seat, and began to eat with a composed look on his face.

Oh, maybe I can eat calmly now, too?

I quickly picked up the bowl of miso soup and took a sip.

When we finished our meal and were about to go back to our rooms, Teacher Neil, who seemed to have finally gotten used to using chopsticks, stopped us.

“Tomorrow is the entrance ceremony, and I have to leave the special dormitory early in the morning to prepare. I will have a carriage pick you guys up, so wait in the lounge until then.”

“Yes, understood.”

A carriage will get us, huh… I don’t want to stand out so much, though.

I wanted to mix in the crowd of students if possible… even though I know that such actions would be meaningless since I have to get up on the stage.

So the entrance ceremony starts tomorrow at last, huh.

Please, please, please let me finish the entrance ceremony safely and allow me to lead a peaceful school life.

I went back to my room, praying for a peaceful and safe life.