A Warm Everyday Life

"So why did you two get soaked when you had umbrellas?" Xiao Ling brewed a cup of hot tea for each of the two teachers, who had just finished bathing.

He had run because he had no other choice. Who could have known that the sky would be clear when they set out, only for rain to pour down on the way back?

He could understand Aemeath and the others getting wet, since that had been his own oversight. But he hadn't expected Roccia and Morning to stroll through the rain with umbrellas in hand without opening them. They had looked like a pair of idiots.

"Children should stay out of grown-ups' business," Roccia said lightly, taking a sip of hot tea. "Good tea. Refreshing on the palate, with a sweet aftertaste. I like it."

"Thank you, Senior. That was thoughtful of you." After thanking him, Morning cupped the tea in both hands and took a sip. Warmth immediately spread through her whole body.

They hadn't brought any sleepwear, so the students had prepared clothes for them.

Roccia wore Aemeath's pajamas. Perhaps because her bust was so large, she had only felt comfortable after undoing the top two buttons. The price, however, was that a broad expanse of her snow-white chest was exposed before Xiao Ling, along with a glimpse of her bottomless cleavage. Her long, firm, fleshy legs were bare, and paired with her distinctly seductive sitting posture, the sight had an indescribably erotic quality.

Morning, meanwhile, fit perfectly into Sigrika's pajamas, perhaps because the two had similar builds and figures. Her little starry-sky-like feet peeked out, a rather novel sight. It was the first time he had seen what Morning's prosthetic feet looked like outside a PV.

"I should go buy a few sets of clothes in your sizes to keep here sometime," Xiao Ling said, doing his best to avoid looking directly at Roccia. "Otherwise, it'll be a hassle if you stay over again and don't have anything that fits."

"Um... actually..." Morning was about to refuse.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Professor. I'm mainly thinking of myself. With Principal Roccia dressed like that, every extra glance I take is a sin." Xiao Ling quietly sipped his tea to cool the heat rising inside him.

Hearing such a dense comment, Morning puffed out her cheeks angrily where Xiao Ling couldn't see.

"I'm terribly sorry to have tarnished your image as a perfect gentleman," Roccia teased irritably.

"I'm just a healthy adult man," Xiao Ling countered calmly. "Excuse me, I need to check on my soup."

Xiao Ling drained his cup of tea and hurried off to the kitchen.

"Ha... this kid is a far cry from the composed Rover I remember," Roccia remarked, watching Xiao Ling dart into the kitchen as though fleeing for his life.

"I think Senior feels more human now... Hmm... though he's also more of a dense guy."

Although Roccia didn't know where Morning had learned the term "dense guy," she could at least tell that Morning was happy to see the change.

After finishing their baths, Aemeath and Lynae came out and sat directly on the floor in front of the two teachers. They picked up their controllers and resumed battling it out on the LCD screen.

Their arcade showdown that afternoon had been cut short by Roccia's intervention, but neither of them brought it up now.

"Are you planning to leave Xiao Ling to do everything himself?" Roccia asked, somewhat puzzled. "Can he manage to cook for eight people on his own?"

"Principal, neither of us can cook. If we rushed in to help, we'd probably just make things harder," Lynae said helplessly, her eyes still glued to the screen. "The most we can do is bring the dishes out one at a time after he finishes cooking them."

"And it's not as though we haven't helped before," Aemeath's sweet, clear voice chimed in right afterward. "But that time, A-Yu kicked us out before we were even halfway through. I've forgotten exactly what he said, but basically, he thought we were just making a mess in there and told us to go do whatever we wanted."

There was nothing to say to that. When those two troublemakers got together in the kitchen, they could turn it into a battlefield. Having to keep an eye on the two rambunctious girls while cooking gave Xiao Ling such a headache that he simply forbade them from setting foot in the kitchen.

That was why they could now play games with clear consciences while waiting for Xiao Ling to serve dinner.

"I think you should learn when you have time. At the very least, you should be able to help Xiao Ling," Roccia said, helpless but somewhat indulgent, to the two grown girls still battling it out in the game world.

Considering their practical needs and the long term, this household would only keep growing. No matter how good a cook Xiao Ling was, he couldn't take care of everything by himself.

And most importantly-

Roccia looked at Sigrika and Chisa, who had gone straight into the kitchen to help after their baths.

Some physical contact with Xiao Ling was unavoidable while they helped. Chisa had grown used to it from helping before, though a faint blush still lingered on her face.

Sigrika, however, was another story. Her cheeks stayed red, and the color seemed ready to spread to her ears. She looked like a ripe apple, making one want to take a bite.

These little everyday actions were not to be underestimated. At crucial moments, they would all give the feelings between the two sides a boost.

(Principal Roccia worrying herself sick over her students' love lives.jpg)

Dania was the one she worried about least. From the way Xiao Ling doted on her, it seemed likely they had already done everything a couple could do.

(In fact, they haven't even kissed yet ╮( •́ω•̀ )╭)

Morning's thoughts were more practical. She understood Xiao Ling's decision completely. If someone kept disturbing her while she was concentrating on work, she would throw the tactless person straight out too.

Come to think of it, she had been working here for nearly half a month and had already received well over a hundred love letters. They came from students and fellow teachers alike, and they were a real headache for her.

Morning sighed helplessly and turned her attention to researching online. She still needed some references to determine the general direction for making Xiao Ling's dishwasher and the self-defense devices for Sigrika and the others.

As for Dania's whereabouts, everyone present had already reached a shared understanding.

If you didn't see Dania right away, she was definitely sleeping in somewhere.

In any case, by the time Dania had slept her fill and came yawning out of her room, dinner preparations were nearly finished.

"Yaya, you're awake!" Sigrika passed in front of her carrying a plate of steaming food. Seeing her hair sticking up like a hedgehog, she couldn't help smiling. "Pfft, how did your hair end up looking like a hedgehog?"

"...Hmm?" Dania had just woken up and was still a little dazed. Hearing her best friend say her hair was sticking up, she took out her phone and used it as a mirror. "Ah... maybe it's because I went straight to sleep after my bath without drying my hair. It's fine. It doesn't matter."

"Sister Yaya, your hair right now looks like what people in this world call... Oh, right, shamate!" Lynae slapped her forehead as a somewhat inappropriate comparison came to mind.

"First of all, my hair is naturally pink. Second, it's sticking up, not permed," Dania said, covering her face.

"All right, enough about shamate. Dinner's ready."

Xiao Ling wiped the water from his hands with a tissue and signaled for everyone to sit down and eat.

It was Roccia's first time seeing Xiao Ling cook in person. She walked over with graceful steps and began sampling the dishes he had prepared.

Hmm, eight dishes and a soup, with a mix of meat and vegetables. They looked and smelled wonderful-very appetizing home cooking.

She elegantly placed a chopstickful of meat in her mouth. After savoring it, she gave it high praise.

"It really is delicious. Much tastier than the food at Star Torch Academy. No wonder these girls all look quite a bit plumper than before."

At Roccia's teasing, the students' cheeks reddened. They immediately pinched their bellies to see whether they really had put on as much weight as she said.

"Guh~" Sigrika's face flushed red. "I think I really have put on weight..."

She could clearly feel a thin layer of extra fat on her once-firm belly.

The other four blushed after pinching themselves too. It seemed every one of the students had been affected, without exception.

What could they do about it~? There was no need for TTK in this world. Every day, they ate and played, played and slept, then slept and ate. It was only natural to put on weight.

If anything was to blame, it was Xiao Ling's cooking for being too delicious. It definitely wasn't because they were gluttons!

"Delicious~ But Senior, you never mentioned you were so skilled at cooking before?" After tasting the food, Morning gave it the same praise as Roccia, but she also wondered why she had never heard that Xiao Ling was such a good cook.

"If I put this whole table of food in front of those Deep Sky Collective researchers, the first thing they'd say wouldn't be that my cooking was delicious. They'd say I was abusing public resources," Xiao Ling joked in terms they could understand.

Roccia understood immediately. It was much the same as what she thought: if someone had presented this whole table of food to her back when she was principal of Star Torch Academy, she would only have thought that person had no respect for their colleagues and was using public resources to show off.

"But let's leave the heavy topics there. For now, it's time to eat."

Xiao Ling called everyone to the table. Dania was quick on her feet and promptly claimed the seat beside him, while Little Ai sat on his other side. The others found their own places as well.

"While we're at it, a little bit of dining-table trivia from this world," Xiao Ling said, cracking open a can of apple vinegar. "Before a meal of special significance, we generally clink glasses first. It's a sort of ritual that's survived to this day."

"Then..."

Cheers!

Roccia drank her juice as she watched everyone at the table with a gentle gaze.

Dania and Aemeath kept putting food in Xiao Ling's bowl while eating their own meals. Their attentiveness seemed a little excessive, leaving Xiao Ling quite troubled, his bowl full of food from the two of them. But judging by Xiao Ling's helpless yet indulgent gaze and the smiling faces of the two pretty girls beside him, perhaps one side was willing to dish it out and the other willing to take it?

Lynae and Sigrika, by contrast, had completely different eating styles. One wolfed down her food while the other chewed slowly and carefully, yet they ate at surprisingly similar speeds. And Sigrika had taken plenty of food and was clearly enjoying it. So she was a little foodie in hiding too? Roccia had learned another, little-known side of this top student, who had always held herself to such strict standards.

Roccia secretly took a photo on her phone of Sigrika happily eating. Hmm, it turned out pretty well.

Chisa and Morning belonged to the quiet camp. The former was simply enjoying the atmosphere of eating with everyone, while the latter, though still not entirely used to such a lively setting, wore a warmer smile than at any time before.

Come to think of it, how long had it been since she had sat around a table and eaten with everyone like this?

Roccia couldn't remember. All she knew was that if she didn't pick up her chopsticks soon, her greedy students would snatch up all the food.

She set down her half-finished juice, picked up a piece of sweet-and-sour pork with her chopsticks, and put it in her mouth.

"Mm~ So delicious." Roccia was perfectly content, so much so that she didn't even notice the sauce at the corner of her mouth.