"Are you asking why people eat sweet potatoes?" Sasha couldn't quite figure out what Shadis meant and began to panic a little. Her words stunned everyone present all over again.
Nothing's scarier than the air suddenly going quiet~ Chen Si hummed a song-well, in his head.
Sasha startled, as though she had suddenly realized something. She took out the sweet potato and broke it into "halves," one piece making up five-sixths and the other one-sixth...
"Here, you can have half. Please enjoy." Sasha reluctantly offered him the tiny piece of sweet potato. You just want some of my sweet potato, right? Fine, you can have it.
Shadis had no idea how to react. Even his pupils were trembling. He felt as though he were dreaming. Someone actually dared to show him this little respect-and a cadet, at that!
"Ha... lf..." Shadis took the tiny piece of sweet potato, sounding uncertain.
"Hahahahahahaha!" Chen Si finally lost it and burst out laughing. Beside him, Marco, who had been urging him to hold it in, instantly stared with round, blank eyes.
"How many now?" Chen Si finished another lap and asked the others as he jogged past.
"199 laps," Armin answered with a wave.
"That's amazing. He's been running this long and isn't even out of breath," Marco said admiringly.
"Yeah, Chen Si's always been strong, just like Mikasa. Sooner or later, I'll be that strong too," Eren said.
"You can do it, Eren," Marco encouraged him.
"That sweet potato girl's still running!" Connie said in surprise.
"Yeah, it's been five hours, hasn't it? But compared to how she looks now, the thought of her missing dinner is even more tragic." Eren gave Sasha a pitying glance.
"Tropa Village... I think that's a hunters' village," Connie said thoughtfully.
Hearing that he had run 199 laps brought Chen Si no joy whatsoever. Because he had laughed too loudly at the last moment, he had to run until he "died," just like Sasha.
"Sasha, are you nearly dead yet?" Chen Si asked, looking at her half-dead figure.
"Huh?" Sasha could barely catch her breath, but she still sounded confused.
"Didn't the instructor tell us to run until we died? I'm definitely not going to die from running, so we'll use you as the benchmark. Once you drop dead, I can rest." Chen Si spouted his utterly flawless reasoning.
"Ah, almost. I can't run anymore." With her face pressed against the ground, her back arched, and her butt sticking up, Sasha inched her feet forward.
Night fell, and Sasha finally collapsed. Chen Si pulled a chestnut from his trouser pocket. "Huh?" It seemed to be one he had put there last time because he couldn't finish it. Perfect. Even a perpetual motion machine like him needed to eat, and he was hungry now.
Chen Si gave it a slight pinch, and a current heated the chestnut straight through. Once it was cooked, its aroma drifted out. Just then, a pair of eyes seemed to light up in the darkness, shooting out two dazzling white beams. Chen Si was just about to pop it into his mouth.
A creature crawling on all fours suddenly sprang out of the darkness and lunged at Chen Si. Its speed was even more absurd than an Ackerman's. Chen Si failed to react in time. His eyes widened. What is it? A Titan? What kind of Titan runs on all fours?
While he was still thinking, the "Titan" had already stuffed the chestnut from his hand into her mouth. Holy shit, it's the Hunger Titan. Chen Si held his forehead. He had let his guard down.
"Heh, I've got another one." Chen Si pulled another chestnut from his other pocket, zapped it with his hand, and its aroma wafted out again.
Chen Si tossed it into the air and opened his mouth, waiting for it to fall. Suddenly, a ghostly blur swept past, even faster than before.
Holy shit! Does Sasha have the Ackerman bloodline? How can she be this fast? Chen Si thought in shock.
Game over. The chestnut was gone.
That terrifying Hunger Titan buff...
"Chen Si, your chestnuts are delicious. How come they're still warm?" Sasha stuffed it straight into her mouth as she finished speaking.
Chen Si felt around in one pocket and turned it inside out, then checked the other and did the same. He sighed. Nothing left.
Christa slowly emerged from the shadows nearby, carrying bread and a water flask against her chest. She glanced at Sasha, whose eyes were narrowed as she kept chewing, then approached Chen Si with small steps.
"Have this. I brought your dinner over." Christa broke off half and gave it to Chen Si, intending to save the other half for Sasha.
"Christa, this is your own dinner, isn't it? That panda-eyed guy withheld mine tonight." Chen Si spoke gently as he looked at the adorable Christa.
Christa didn't know what Chen Si meant by "panda-eyed," but she understood that he probably meant the instructor who had forbidden him from eating.
"I-it's fine. I'm not hungry. If I'm not hungry, eating would just waste food. You two can have it." With an angel's face, Christa spoke words worthy of an angel.
Chen Si stared at Christa in a daze. Holy shit, she's actually glowing, just like in the anime! A goddess.
"Christa, you're as kind as you are beautiful. How could I bear to let you go hungry?" Chen Si told her with a smile.
"But you've been running for so long. You'll wear yourselves out if you don't eat." Christa's face flushed bright red, but her voice remained gentle.
Chen Si rubbed his chin and glanced at Sasha. "I have a way to keep all three of us from going hungry." With that, he flashed a wicked smile.
"What way?" Sasha asked indistinctly, her mouth stuffed with bread.
Christa blinked her large eyes and looked at Chen Si.
Outside the kitchen.
Clutching the hem of her clothes, Christa turned back and cast an uncertain look at Chen Si and Sasha, who were hiding. Both gave her an OK sign.
Christa bit her lip and called through the kitchen window, "Excuse me, I've forgotten where the girls' dormitory is. Could you take me there?"
The head cook opened the window and looked at the adorable Christa. Seeing how polite (and cute) she was, he opened the door and came outside.
"A new cadet who's lost, are you? Come with me. I'll take you back," the head cook told Christa with a smile.
Christa nodded and followed him. After a couple of steps, she glanced back, only to see two figures moving too fast to be normal humans dart into the kitchen one after the other.
Chen Si took three pieces of bread from a cupboard, then spotted a chicken drumstick cooking in a pot. Without another word, he grabbed it and left. Once outside, he found Sasha with potatoes and sweet potatoes crammed into her mouth, her cheeks stretched out like a flat-mouthed monkey's, and an armful of bread.
Chen Si stared at Sasha with wide eyes. "Good grief, did you clean out the whole kitchen?"
Sasha made muffled noises and shook her head.
Chen Si broke into a cold sweat. Stealing a little would have been hard to notice, but now that panda-eyed Shadis was guaranteed to find out. They might all end up being punished. I've never failed when carrying a girl. How can I carry one straight into punishment?
"Isn't this... a little wrong?" Christa came jogging over from a distance, out of breath. As she spoke, she looked at Sasha, who was covered in food from head to toe as though she had just returned from a robbery.
Christa's mouth fell open. She was already thinking about how to apologize to the instructor.
"No other choice. Sasha, do you want to eat this well again in the future?" Chen Si began dangling a reward.
Sasha nodded enthusiastically. As she did, a potato fell off...
"Awooo~" A creature running on all fours howled as she raced through the nearby woods.
A crowd of cooks followed behind her, wearing chefs' hats and carrying forks and cleavers.
Chen Si held his hand flat above his forehead. "Problem solved."
"Will Sasha be all right?" Christa asked, deeply worried.
"Don't worry. Sasha's an expert hunter. Having her pretend to be a wolf makes this twice as easy." As he spoke, Chen Si held the chicken drumstick up to Christa's mouth.
Christa froze for a moment, then shook her head repeatedly. "You eat it. I'm fine."
Without another word, Chen Si pressed the drumstick against Christa's lips. "Oh dear, looks like you'll have to eat it now. Otherwise, it'll go to waste." He shrugged.
Left with no choice, Christa took a bite. She ate very delicately and looked utterly adorable.
Chen Si took a huge bite right where Christa had bitten, smacking his lips in delight.
Damn it, ever since I came to this world, the days of eating meat with every meal have been long gone. Back at the refugee camp, I even had to eat black bread made from wheat mixed with sand. As Chen Si ate, he reminisced about the food he used to enjoy.
Chen Si could actually go without eating. When he first arrived in this world, he had found its food incredibly hard to stomach. He discovered that not eating constantly drained his electrical energy, and when it ran too low, he would fall asleep.
He woke with his electrical energy replenished, but if he didn't eat, he would have to go back to sleep. So he still needed food to stay active, though he didn't have to worry about starving to death.
Watching Chen Si eat where she had bitten without showing any disgust, Christa's eyes shimmered. She couldn't help asking, "You don't mind?"
Chen Si froze mid-chew. Only then did he remember that Christa was still a sensitive young girl with a touch of low self-esteem.
Chen Si reached out and patted Christa's head. "Christa, you're so gentle and understanding. Anyone who dislikes you must have had their brains eaten by a dog. Don't worry. I would never dislike you. I'll treasure you."
Sweet words poured from Chen Si's mouth as though they cost nothing, but he wasn't making empty promises. When he watched the anime, he had thought Historia was an absolute goddess, just like her name. Her ending had always bothered him. It was one of the things about the anime he had never been able to get over.
At his words, faint tears glimmered in the corners of Christa's eyes. She hurriedly lowered her head and wiped them away.
Chen Si noticed, but said nothing more. He knew Christa was an incredibly strong girl who longed to be needed, yet didn't want anyone to see her vulnerability.
Your Majesty, your ending shouldn't be having a child with a farmer. Historia's ending won't repeat itself, Chen Si thought to himself.
"Treasure me..." Christa murmured, repeating those words over and over in her heart as her little face flushed faintly.
Sasha, who had been hiding in a tree, jumped down and hurried back to camp, afraid Chen Si would eat all the food himself.
Huh, doesn't it feel like something's missing? Where's that lesbian? Chen Si wondered.
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
Aha, the freckled girl. So she's finally showing up? I knew it. I was wondering why someone was missing. Chen Si glanced over without giving it much thought.
But when Mikasa's figure appeared, Chen Si could no longer sit still. "Why is it you?" he asked in surprise.