Annie soon ran into the dining room of the enormous manor house. Sure enough, Claire and the others had prepared a sumptuous dinner. Annie didn't waste time or bother with formalities. She rushed straight over, hastily splashed some water over herself in the basin brought by a Giant Sword warrior, then eagerly took the seat of honor and began wolfing down her food.
However...
It wasn't long before Annie realized that Elena and Miria, those sly women, really had sent someone to call her back for dinner—but they also really did intend to use the opportunity to hold a meeting and give her one of those boring work reports!
See?
Not long after she started eating, they put on a show of eating a few bites themselves, then all set their utensils down and began delivering their reports with solemn expressions.
It was true that these women, who had just upgraded from "Claymores" to "Giant Swords," hadn't gained much of an appetite. Maybe they still suffered from the aftereffects of the Organization's experiments, which had altered them with Yoma flesh and removed many of their organs and sections of their intestines. But either way, Annie could see that they hadn't come to eat. They'd used dinner as an excuse to trick her into coming back for a work report and meeting. There was no doubt about it!
"..."
"..."
Unfortunately, Elena and Miria didn't care what she thought. They simply went on listing the important developments of the past two days: which nobles and officials had visited that day, how the intelligence network Elena had established was beginning to take shape in the city, which inn they had bought to serve as its headquarters, and all sorts of other trivial matters.
"..."
(~)
"..."
()
But